St. John did not till a long time after Chrift's afcenfion enter upon his charge; becaufe, as Dr. Cave a well obferves, had he been in Afia early, we must needs have heard of him in the accounts which St. Luke gives of St. Paul's feveral journies into, and refidence in, those parts; it is therefore most likely he ftaid for a long time after our Saviour's afcent at Jerufalem. The next thing we read of St. John, is his being a sufferer in the fecond general perfecution under Domitian at Rome, where he was caft into a caldron of boiling oil, but miraculously preferved, and the fire had no influence upon him. This is related by Tertullian, and by no one else except Jerome, who fays he transcribed it from him; and, if it be true 1, happened in the fourteenth year of Domitian, i. e. about the year of Chrift 96. So we read expressly in Eufebius's Chronicon and Jerome. After this the Apostle was by the fame Emperor banished to a defolate island in the south-east part of the Egean Sea, called Patmos f. So we are informed by Tertullian, Eufebius, Jerome i, Severus Sulpitius *, &c. though Dorotheus Tyrius seems to have believed that this banishment was by Trajan, and not Domitian', which is certainly a miftake. In this exile-ftate, it is faid St. John was fuitably comforted and supported with the visions and revelations from God, which he afterwards published; see Irenæus ", Eufebius ", Jerome, Severus Sulpitius ", and Austin 2. The fecond gene ral perfecution ended with Domitian; and times more favourable to Chriftianity fucceeding, St. John had an opportunity to return to his former friends at Ephefus, which, as it was the place of his former abode in Afia, fo became now his fettlement for life. Here he acted the part of a Chriftian Bishop or Minister, and together with seven other Bishops prefided over that diocefe, if we may credit the author of the book intitled Magrúpa Tipotés; i. e. The Martyrdom of Timothy 2. The other accounts which I have met with concerning St. John, cannot be reduced to any certain order of time: Dr. Cave and Du Pin have collected them already; for which reafon I fhall but just name them, in the order in which the several authors lived, who have mentioned them. IRENEUS informs us, there were fome in his time who had the following account from Polycarp, who was one of John's difciples, viz. "That St. John going to a certain "bath at Ephefus, and perceiving that Cerinthus, that noted "arch-heretick, was in the bath, immediately leaped out "without bathing himself, and faid, Let us go hence, left the "bath fhould fall down upon us, having in it fuch an heretick "as Cerinthus, that enemy of truth." What the heresy of Cerinthus was, may be largely feen in Irenæus, Epiphanius, and many of the antients. Some account of his principles is given above, Vol. I. Part II. Ch. XII. CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS Concludes his treatise, intitled, Quis Dives falvetur? with a remarkable history, which most of our Ecclefiaftical writers have taken notice of. I fhall recite it therefore briefly, viz. "That when St. John was re"turned from his exile in Patmos to Ephefus, he visited the "neighbouring churches, and obferving in one of the cities a a young man of an uncommon genius and handsome body, he "commended him in the prefence of the Church to the care "of the Bishop of the place, who, taking the charge of him, "inftructed and baptized him; at length giving him his li"berty, he fell into the worst of company, and entered into a "ftrict alliance with fome perfons, who were not only in "other refpects debauched in their morals, but notorious "robbers, of whom he became the captain, and led them in "all their acts of murder, robbery, &c. Some time after St. "John's occafions calling him to this city, he enquired after "the young man. The Bishop with concern replied, he was “dead, meaning he was dead to God, and joined to a band of " villains and robbers. Upon which St. John took a horse ❝ and guide, came to the place where the robbers were, and "being feized by their centinels, he defired to be brought to "their captain, who, when he saw him, fled through shame; "but St. John purfued him, defiring him not to fly, and pro"mifing him pardon from Chrift, by whom he said he was "fent; upon this he ftaid, and in the greateft diftress threw "down his arms, and embracing the Apoftle, he groaned, " and floods of tears poured down from his eyes. Upon "which St. John, afsuring him of pardon, prayed for him, "and brought him back to the Church." APOLLONIUS, a writer in the fecond century against the Montanists, tells us, that he raised a dead perfon to life. This I find no where elfe related, unless that should be thought to be the fame, which I obferve in Ifidore Hifpalenfis, concerning his raifing a widow from the dead by the command of the people, or his reftoring and bringing a young man's foul into his body again, related in the same place. I cannot but obferve here, that when Clemens delivers the young man to his charge, he calls him 'Eixon, and a few lines after, when he speaks of the care which he took of him, he calls him IIgEσGreg an undeniable demonftra tion, that Prefbyter and Bishop were two names of one perfon in the time of Clemens Alexandrinus. Lib. contr. Cataphryg. apud Eufeb. Hift. Ecclef. lib. 5. c. 18. Loc. fupr. cit. POLYCRATES, POLYCRATES, a writer of the fame time, makes St. John to be a priest, and as fuch to have worn a létaλov, or plate. Jerome, citing this of Polycrates, paraphrases it thus b; Pontifex ejus (fcil. Chrifti) fuit, auream laminam in fronte portans; i. e. (6 He was High-prieft of Christ, and wore a golden plate "on his forehead." This is faid alfo of James, Bishop of Jerufalem, by Epiphanius, who cites Clemens and Eufebius for the truth of it; and, if it be true, is well accounted for by Valefius, who supposes those first Christians to have done it in imitation of the Jewish High-priests. TERTULLIAN informs us, that St. John convicted an Afiatick presbyter of forging and publishing the Acts of Paul and Thecla, under the name of Paul. See the place at large above, Part III. Ch. XXXIV. p. 387. The time, place, and manner of St. John's death, are very differently related by the antients. Irenæus affirms', that he continued till the reign of the Emperor Trajan; and elsewhere, that he prefided over the Church of Ephefus till that time. Irenæus was followed in this opinion by moft of the antients. Eufebius makes St. John's exit to have been in the third year of Trajan"; and agreeably thereto, Jerome places it in the fixty-eighth year after Chrift's death, which coincides with the third year of Trajan, and the hundred and firft, or hundred and fecond year after our Saviour's nativity. That St. John did live till this reign, I find also afferted in the antient book, of which we have an abftract in Photius k, which is intitled, The Martyrdom of Timothy, in Ifidore Hifpalenfis's Treatise of the Lives and Deaths of the Prophets and Apoftles', and in the Synopfis of Dorotheus", though he make St. John to have lived to the age of an hundred and twenty; which, if it were certain, would prove that he died not in the beginning, but in the end of Trajan's reign, if not rather in the reign of Adrian. He that would read more of the time of St. John's death, may confult Mr. Dodwell. It is impoffible to fay any thing certain concerning the manner of St. John's death. Polycrates fays, he died a martyr at Ephefus, as do some other of the antients, viz. Chryfoftom, and Theophylact, his conftant follower. Whether the later writers, who have afferted St. John's martyrdom, were induced to that opinion, only by fuppofing that those words of Chrift, Matt. xx. 23. to John and James, implied their violent death, viz. Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with, &c. I shall not determine. To me the fact feems probable, not only from the teftimony of Polycrates, but because all the rest of the Apostles did fuffer martyrdom, and the text seems not obfcurely to imply it. The mistaken judgment of the Apostles, that John should never die, founded upon those words of our Saviour, John xxi. 21, &c. If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? led many of the antients alfo into a perfuafion, that St. John did never die. St. Auftin has largely difcuffed the question, and tells us of an opinion of fome, founded upon fome Apocryphal Scriptures, viz. That St. John in perfect health ordered his grave to be made, and then laid himself down in it, as in a bed, and died. Others fay, he did not then die, but only lay down afleep like a person dead; and in this ftate of fleep, not death, he will continue till Christ come: that he is not dead, fays he, they prove by the motion of the grave duft, which is continually occafioned to boil and bubble by the motion of his breaft. This opinion, fays St. Austin, I a It being reasonable to fuppofe John, when he was called to the work of the miniftry, was not under the age of Chrift, i. e. not under his thirtieth year, none undertaking that office earlier. Addit. ad Pearfon. Differt. 2. de Succeff. Rom. Epifc. c. 5. Epift. ad Victor. apud Eufeb. Hilt. Eccl. 1. 5. c. 24. e 4 Homil. 66. in Matth. |