b

by the only touching whereof many miracles are said to be performed. But, surely, Baronius's wisdom and gravity were from home, when, speaking of this chair, and fearing that heretics would imagine that it might be rotten in so long a time, he tells us, that it is no wonder that this chair should be preserved so long, when Eusebius affirms, that the wooden chair of St. James, bishop of Jerusalem, was extant in the time of Constantine. But the cardinal, it seems, forgot to consider, that there is some difference between three and sixteen hundred years. But of this enough. St. Peter was crucified, according to the common computation, in the year of Christ sixty-nine, and the thirteenth (or, as Eusebius, the fourteenth) of Nero; how truly may be inquired afterwards.

SECTION X.

THE CHARACTER OF HIS PERSON AND TEMPER, AND AN ACCOUNT OF HIS WRITINGS.

The description of St. Peter's person. An account of his temper. A natural fervour and eagerness predominant in him. Fierceness and animosity peculiarly remarkable in the Galileans. The abatements of his zeal and courage. His humility and lowliness of mind. His great love to, and zeal for Christ. His constancy and resolution in confessing of Christ. His faithfulness and diligence in his office. His writings, genuine and supposititious. His first epistle, what the design of it. What meant by Babylon, whence it was dated. His second epistle a long time questioned, and why. Difference in the style, no considerable objection. Grotius's conceit of its being written by Symeon, bishop of Jerusalem, exploded. A concurrence of circumstances to entitle St. Peter to it. Some things in it referred to, which he had preached at Rome, particularly the destruction of Jerusalem, written but a little before his death. The spurious writings attributed to him, mentioned by the ancients. His Acts. Gospel. Petri Prædicatio. His Apocalypse. Judicium Petri. Peter's married relation. His wife the companion of his travels. Her martyrdom. His daughter Petronilla.

HAVING run through the current history of St. Peter's life, it may not be amiss in the next place to survey a little his person and temper. His body (if we may believe the description given of him by Nicephorus) was somewhat slender, of a middle size, but rather inclining to tallness; his complexion very pale, and almost white: the hair of his head and beard curled and thick, Ad Ann. 45. num. 11.

e Hist. Eccl. 1. ii. c. 37.

e

but withal short; though St. Jerome tells us, out of Clemens's Periods, 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 eye-brows 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 eminent 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.

II. 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 shewed 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 fervour and fierceness had its intervals; there being some times when the paroxisms 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 his Master in the garden; but especially his carriage in the highpriest's hall, when the confident charge of a sorry maid made him sink so far beneath himself, and, notwithstanding his great and resolute promises, so shamefully deny his Master, and that with curses and imprecations. But he was in danger, and passion prevailed over his understanding, and "fear betrayed the

d Com. in Gal. ii. p. 164. vol. ix. ex lib. dicto, Пpágeis, seu Пeрíodoι Пéтρov. e Ad Ann. 69. n. 31.

8 De Bello Jud. 1. iii. c. 4.

f Chrysost. Hom. xxxii. in Joan. p. 170.

succours 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.

III. Consider him as a disciple and a Christian, and we shall find him exemplary in the great instances of religion. Singular 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 was in a manner forced to threaten him into obedience. When Cornelius, heightened in his apprehensions of him by an immediate command from God concerning him, would have entertained him with expressions of more than ordinary honour 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 candour and modesty does he treat the inferior rulers and ministers of the church? He, upon whom antiquity heaps so many honourable titles, styling himself no other than their fellowpresbyter. 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 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 honourable 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

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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?

IV. Lastly, let us reflect upon him as an apostle, as a pastor and guide of souls. And so we find him faithful and diligent in his office, with an infinite zeal endeavouring to instruct the ignorant, reduce the erroneous, to strengthen the weak, and confirm the strong, to reclaim the vicious, and "turn souls to righteousness." We find him 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 the 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 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.

V. Now the writings that entitle themselves to this apostle, i 2 Pet. i. 12, 13, 15.

h 1 Pet. v. 3, 4.

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 forty-four: 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 endeavours 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.

k

k L. Capell. Append. ad Hist. Apost. p. 42. 1 Cyril. Alex. et Procop. Gaz. in Esa. liii.

m

Chap. xviii. 2, 10, 21.