practice of Christianity, and to fortify them against those poisonous and pernicious principles and practices, which even then began to break in upon the Christian church.

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thy to suffer in the same posture wherein his Lord had suffered before him. Happy man (as Chrysostom glosses) to be set in the readiest posture of travelling from earth to heaven. His body be6. Nero returning from Achaia, and entering ing taken from the cross, is said to have been emRome with a great deal of pomp and triumph, balmed by Marcellinus the presbyter, after the resolved now the apostle should fall as a victim Jewish manner, and was then buried in the Vatiand sacrifice to his cruelty and revenge. While can, near the triumphal way. Over his grave a the fatal stroke was daily expected, the Christians small church was soon after erected; which being in Rome did, by daily prayers and importunities, destroyed by Heliogabalus, his body was removed solicit St. Peter to make an escape, and to re- to the cemetry in the Appian-way, two miles from serve himself to the uses and services of the Rome; where it remained till the time of pope church. This at first he rejected, as what would Cornelius, who reconveyed it to the Vatican, ill reflect upon his courage and constancy, and where it rested somewhat obscurely till the reign argue him to be afraid of those sufferings for of Constantine; who, out of the mighty reverence Christ to which he himself had so often persuaded which he had for the Christian religion, caused others; but the prayers and tears of the people many churches to be built at Rome, but especially overcame him, and made him yield. Accordingly rebuilt and enlarged the Vatican to the honor of the next night, having prayed with, and taken his St. Peter. In the doing whereof himself is said farewell of the brethren, he got over the prison to have been the first that began to dig the founwall; and coming to the city gate, he is there dation, and to have carried thence twelve baskets said to have met with our Lord, who was just en- of rubbish with his own hands; in honor, as it tering into the city. Peter asked him, Lord, should seem, of the twelve apostles. He infinitewhither art thou going?" From whom he pre-ly enriched the church with gifts and ornaments, sently received this answer: "I am come to which in every age increased in splendor and Rome, to be crucified a second time." By which riches, till it is become one of the wonders of the answer Peter apprehended himself to be reproved, world at this day; of whose glories, stateliness, and that our Lord meant it of his death, that he and beauty, and those many venerable monuwas to be crucified in his servant. Whereupon ments of antiquity that are in it, they who desire he went back to the prison, and delivered himself to know more, may be plentifully satisfied by into the hands of his keepers, showing himself Onuphrius. Only one amongst the rest must not most ready and cheerful to acquiesce in the will be forgotten; there being kept that very wooden of God. And we are told, that in the stone chair wherein St. Peter sat when he was at Rome, whereon our Lord stood while he talked with Pe- by the only touching whereof many miracles are ter, he left the impression of his feet; which stone said to be performed. But surely Baronius's wishas been ever since preserved as a very sacred dom and gravity were from home, when speaking relic, and after several translations was at length of this chair; and fearing that heretics would imfixed in the church of St. Sebastian the martyr, agine that it might be rotten in so long a time, he where it is kept and visited with great expressions tells us, that it is no wonder that this chair should of reverence and devotion at this day. Before his be preserved so long, when Eusebius affirms, that suffering he was, no question, scourged; accord- the wooden chair of St. James, bishop of Jerusaing to the manner of the Romans, who were wont lem, was extant in the time of Constantine.* But first to whip those malefactors who were adjudged the cardinal, it seems, forgot to consider, that to the most severe and capital punishments. Hav- there is some difference between three and sixing saluted his brethren, and especially having teen hundred years. But of this enough. St. taken his last farewell of St. Paul, he was brought Peter was crucified, according to the common out of the prison, and led to the top of the Vati-computation, in the year of Christ 69,† and the can Mount, near to Tiber, the place designed for thirteenth (or, as Eusebius, the fourteenth) of his execution. The death he was adjudged to Nero; how truly may be inquired afterwards. was crucifixion; as of all others accounted the most shameful, so the most severe and terrible. But he entreated the favor of the officers, that he might not be crucified in the ordinary way,* but might suffer with his head downwards, and his feet up to heaven; affirming that he was unwor- The character of his Person and Temper; and an

Orig. lib. iii. in Genes. apud Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. iii. c. 1. p. 71. Hieron de Script. Eccl. in Petr. p. 262. Heges. p. 279.

Prima Petrum rapuit sententia legibus Neronis,
Pendere jussum præminente ligno.

Ille tamen veritus celsæ decus æmulando mortis
Ambire tanti gloriam Magistri:
Exigit ut pedibus mersum caput imprimant supinis,
Quo spectet imum stipitem cerebro.
Figitur ergo manus subter, sola versus in cacumen
Hoc mente major, quo minor figura.
Noverat ex humili cœlum citius solere adiri,
Dejecit ora, spiritum daturus.

Prudent. Peristeph. Hymn. xi. in pass. Pet. et Paul.

SECTION X.

of his head and beard curled and thick, but withal | was in a manner forced to threaten him into obeshort: though St. Jerome tells, out of Clemens's dience. When Cornelius, heightened in his apperiods, that he was bald; which probably might be in his declining age. His eyes black, but specked with red; which Baronius will have to proceed from his frequent weeping: his eyebrows thin, or none at all; his nose long, but rather broad and flat than sharp. Such was the case and outside. Let us next look inwards, and view the jewel that was within. Take him as a man, and there seems to have been a natural eagerness predominant in his temper, which as a whetstone sharpened his soul for all bold and generous undertakings. It was this, in a great measure, that made him so forward to speak, and to return answers, sometimes before he had well considered them. It was this made him expose his person to the most imminent dangers, promise those great things in behalf of his master, and resolutely draw his sword in his quarrel against a whole band of soldiers, and wound the high-priest's servant: and possibly he had attempted greater matters, had not our Lord restrained and taken him off by that seasonable check that he gave him.

prehensions of him by an immediate command from God concerning him, would have entertained him with expressions of more than ordinary honor and veneration, so far was he from complying with it, that he plainly told him, he was no other than such a man as himself. With how much candor and modesty does he treat the inferior rulers and ministers of the church! He, upon whom antiquity heaps so many honorable titles, styling himself no other than their fellow-presbyter. Admirable his love to, and zeal for his master, which he thought he could never express at too high a rate: for his sake venturing on the greatest dangers, and exposing himself to the most imminent hazards of life. It was in his quarrel that he drew his sword against a band of soldiers, and an armed multitude; and it was love to his master that drew him into that imprudent advice, that he should seek to save himself, and avoid those sufferings that were coming upon him; that made him promise and engage so deep to suffer and die with him. Great was his forwardness in owning Christ to be the Messiah and Son of God; which drew from our Lord that honorable encomium, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah." But greater his courage and constancy in confessing Christ before his most inveterate enemies, especially after he had recovered himself of his fall. With how much plainness did he tell the Jews, at every turn, to their very faces, that they were the murderers and crucifiers of the Lord of glory! Nay, with what an undaunted courage, with what an heroic greatness of mind did he tell that very Sanhedrim that had sentenced and condemned him, that they were guilty of his murder; and that they could never be saved any other way than by this very Jesus whom they had crucified and put to death.

2. This temper he owed in a great measure to the genius and nature of his country, of which Josephus gives this true character: That it naturally bred in men a certain fierceness and animosity, whereby they were fearlessly carried out upon any action, and in all things showed a great strength and courage both of mind and body. The Galileans (says he) being fighters from their childhood; the men being as seldom overtaken with cowardice as their country with want of men. And yet, notwithstanding this, his fervor and fierceness had its intervals; there being some times when the paroxysms of his heat and courage did intermit, and the man was surprised and betrayed by his own fears. Witness his passionate crying out when he was upon the sea, in danger of his life, and his fearful deserting 4. Lastly, let us reflect upon him as an apostle, his master in the garden; but especially his car- as a pastor and guide of souls. And so we find riage in the high-priest's hall, when the confi- him faithful and diligent in his office; with an indent charge of a sorry maid made him sink so far finite zeal endeavoring to instruct the ignorant, beneath himself; and, notwithstanding his great reduce the erroneous, to strengthen the weak, and and resolute promises, so shamefully deny his confirm the strong, to reclaim the vicious, and master, and that with curses and imprecations."turn souls to righteousness." We find him But he was in danger, and passion prevailed over his understanding, and fear betrayed the succors which reason offered; and being intent upon nothing but the present safety of his life, he heeded not what he did, when he disowned his master to save himself. So dangerous is it to be left to ourselves, and to have our natural passions let loose upon us.

3. Consider him as a disciple and a Christian, and we shall find him exemplary in the great instances of religion, singular in his humility and lowliness of mind. With what a passionate earnestness, upon the conviction of a miracle, did he beg of our Saviour to depart from him; accounting himself not worthy that the Son of God should come near so vile a sinner? When our Lord, by that wonderful condescension, stooped to wash his apostles' feet, he could by no means be persuaded to admit it; not thinking it fit that so great a person should submit himself to so servile an office towards so mean a person as himself; nor could he be induced to accept it, till our Lord 88

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taking all opportunities of preaching to the people, converting many thousands at once. How many voyages and travels did he undergo? With how unconquerable a patience did he endure all conflicts and trials, and surmount all difficulties and oppositions, that he might plant and propagate the Christian faith; not thinking much to lay down his own life to promote and further it! Nor did he only do his duty himself, but as one of the prime superintendents of the church, and as one that was sensible of the value and worth of souls, he was careful to put others in mind of theirs; earnestly pressing and persuading the pastors and governors of it, "to feed the flock of God;* to take upon them the rule and inspection of it," "freely and willingly;" not out of a sinister end, merely, of gaining advantages to themselves, but out of a sincere design of doing good to souls; that they would treat them mildly and gently, and be themselves examples of piety and religion to

* 1 Pet. v. 3, 4.

them, as the best way to make their ministry successful and effectual. And because he could not be always present to teach and warn men, he ceased not by letters "to stir up their minds" to the remembrance and practice of what they had been taught. A course, he tells them, which he was resolved to hold as long as he lived; as "thinking it meet while he was in this tabernacle to stir them up, by putting them in mind of these things;" that so they might be able after his decease to have them always in remembrance. And this may lead us to the consideration of those writings which he left behind him for the benefit of the church.

5. Now the writings that entitle themselves to this apostle, were either genuine or supposititious. The genuine writings are his two epistles, which make up part of the sacred canon. For the first of them, no certain account can be had when it was written though Baronius and most writers commonly assign it to the year of Christ 44. But this cannot be, Peter not being at Rome, (from whence it is supposed to have been written) at that time, as we shall see anon. He wrote it to the Jewish converts dispersed through Pontus, Galatia, and the countries thereabouts, chiefly upon the occasion of that persecution which had been raised at Jerusalem. And, accordingly, the main design of it is, to confirm and comfort them under their present sufferings and persecutions, and to direct and instruct them how to carry themselves in the several states and relations, both of the civil and the Christian life. For the place whence it was written, it is expressly dated from Babylon: but what or where this Babylon is, is not so easy to determine. Some think it was Babylon in Egypt, and probably Alexandria; and that there Peter preached the gospel. Others will have it to have been Babylon the ancient metropolis of Assyria, and where great numbers of Jews dwelt ever since the times of their captivities. But we need not send Peter on so long an errand, if we embrace the notion of a learned man, who by Babylon will figuratively understand Jerusalem; no longer now the holy city, but a kind of spiritual Babylon, in which the church of God did at this time groan under great servitude and captivity. And this notion of the word he endeavors to make good, by calling in to his assistance two of the ancient fathers, who so understand that of the prophet, "We have healed Babylon, but she was not healed." Where the prophet, say they, by Babylon means Jerusalem, as differing nothing from the wickedness of the nations, nor conforming itself to the law of God. But generally the writers of the Romish church, and the more moderate of the reformed party, acquiescing herein in the judgment of antiquity, by Babylon understand Rome. And so it is plain St. John calls it in his "Revelation," either from its conformity in power and greatness

to that ancient city, or from that great idolatry
which at this time reigned in Rome.
And so we
may suppose St. Peter to have written it from
Rome, not long after his coming thither, though
the precise time be not exactly known.
6. As for the second epistle, it was not ac-
counted of old of equal value and authority with
the first; and, therefore, for some ages, not taken
into the sacred canon, as is expressly affirmed by
Eusebius, and many of the ancients before him.
The ancient Syriac church did not receive it; and
accordingly it is not to be found in their ancient
copies of the New Testament. Yea, those of
that church at this day do not own it as canoni
cal, but only read it privately, as we do the apo
cryphal books. The greatest exception that I
can find against it, is the difference of its style
from the other epistle; whence it was presumed,
that they were not both written by the same
hand. But St. Jerome, who tells us the objec
tion, does elsewhere himself return the answer,
that the difference in the style and manner of
writing might very well arise from hence, that
St. Peter, according to his different circumstances,
and the necessity of affairs, was forced to use se-
veral emanuenses and interpreters; sometimes
St. Mark, and after his departure some other per-
son, which might justly occasion a difference in
the style and character of these epistles. Not to
say, that the same person may vastly alter and
vary his style, according to the times when, or
the persons to whom, or the subjects about which
he writes, or the temper and disposition he is in
at the time of writing, or the care that is used in
doing it. Who sees not the vast difference of
Jeremiah's writing in his prophecy, and in his
book of Lamentations? between St. John's, in
his Gospel, his Epistles, and Apocalypse? How
oft does St. Paul alter his style in several of his
epistles; in some more lofty and elegant; in
others more rough and harsh? Besides hundreds
of instances that might be given, both in ecclesi-
astical and foreign writers, too obvious to need in-
sisting on in this place. The learned Grotius
will have this epistle to have been written by
Symeon, St. James's immediate successor in the
bishopric of Jerusalem, and that the word (Peter)
was inserted into the title by another hand. But,
as a judicious person of our own observes, these
were but his posthume annotations, published by
others, and no doubt never intended as the deli-
berate result of that great man's judgment; es-
pecially since he himself tacitly acknowledges, that
all copies extant at this day read the title and in-
scription as it is in our books. And, indeed, there
is a concurrence of circumstances to prove St.
Peter to be the author of it. It bears his name
in the front and title, yea, somewhat more ex-
pressly than the former, which has only one; this
both his names. There is a passage in it which
cannot well relate to any but him: when he tells
us he was present with Christ in the holy mount;
when he received from God the Father honor
and glory:" where he "heard the voice which
came from heaven, from the excellent glory, This
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
This evidently refers to Christ's transfiguration,

* 2 Pet. i. 16, 17, 18.