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A. As to his Country, he was a Galilean, Mat.4.21. the Son of Zebedee and Salome, younger Brother to St. James, with whom he was brought up in the Trade of Fishing, and with whom he was called to be a Difciple and an Apostle of our Saviour. He is thought by the Antients to be far the youngest of all the Apoftles, being under thirty Years old when he was firft called to that Dignity. And his great Age feems to prove as much; for dying about an hundred Years old in the third of Trajan, he must have lived above feventy Years after our Saviour's Sufferings.

Q. What new Name did St. John receive from bis Mafter?

A. He with his Brother James were filed Mar. 3,17. Boanerges, that is, the Sons of Thunder. This Surname is thought more efpecially to be attributed to St. John, because he fo clearly taught the Divinity of Jefus Chrift in fublime Words, and delivered the Mysteries of the Gospel in a profounder Strain than the reft of the Evangelifts; upon which Account he is affirmed by the Antients not fo much to speak as to thunder.

Q. What particular Marks had St. John of our Saviour's Efteem?

A. He was not only one of the three Difciples which our Saviour admitted to the more private Paffages of his Life, but was the DisciJohn. 13 ple whom Jefus loved, who lay in our Saviour's

23.

Ver. 24.

Bofom at the Pafchal Supper, the most honourable Place of being next him, who was made Ufe of by St. Peter, as the Difciple most familiar with our Saviour, to enquire whom he meant, when he faid, one of them fhould betray him; and to whom our Lord committed the Care of

his Mother the blessed Virgin, when he was John 19. leaving the World. 26, 27.

Q. What may we learn from this?

A. Our Saviour hath by his Example and Authority fanctified the Relation of Friendship, and those closer Bonds of Amity, which natural Affection or fpecial Inclination may form between particular Perfons, without any Prejudice to a general Charity.

Q. How did St. John fhew his Sense of this particular. Kindness of our Saviour towards bim?

A. By Returns of Kindness and Conftancy; ftaying with him when the rest of his Difciples deferted him. To this Caufe may be attributd his Zeal to punish the Samaritans that affronted his Lord; and perhaps alfo his Defire to fit on our Saviour's right Hand in his Kingdom, that he might have a nearer Enjoyment of him in his Glory. And hence likewife, though upon the Surprife of our Saviour's Apprehenfion he fled with the rest of the Apoftles, yet he quickly recovered himself, and confidently entered into the High Priest's Hall, and followed our Saviour through the feveral Stages of his Trial, and at laft attended upon him at his Crucifixion, owning him, as well as being owned by him, in the thickest Croud of his moft invetrate Enemies; and having received the blessed Virgin into his House, according to our Saviour's Recommendation, he treated her with Duty and honourable Regard, and made her a principal Part of his Charge and Care.

Q. With which of the Apoftles did St. John feem to have the greateft Intimacy?

A. With St. Peter. Upon the News of our
Saviour's

Joh.20.3. Saviour's Refurre&tion, they two hafted together to the Sepulchre. It was to Peter that -21. 7. St. John gave the Notice of Chrift's Appearing at

the Sea of Tiberias in the Habit of a Stranger: Ver. 21. And it was for St. John that St. Peter was folicitous what fhould become of him. After the

Afcenfion of our Lord, we find them both together going up to the Temple at the Hour of Acts 3. 1. Prayer; both preaching to the People, and both apprehended and thrown into Prifon, and the next Day brought forth to plead their Caufe before the Sanhedrim. And both fent down by the Apostles to Samaria, to fettle the Plantations Acts8.14. Philip had made in thofe Parts, where they baffled Simon Magus.

Ch. 4.

Eufeb.lib.

1.

Q. What other Particulars do the Scriptures mention concerning St. John?

A. Nothing more than what is recorded of him in Conjunction with his Brother James; upon whofe Festival they are taken Notice of.

Q. Where did St. John exercife bis Apoftolical Office ?

A. The Province that fell to his Share was 3. c. Afia: Though it is probable he continued in Judæa till after the blessed Virgin's Death; which is reckoned to have happened about fifteen Years ofter our Lord's Afcenfion; otherwise we must have heard of him in the Account St. Luke gives of St. Paul's Journies in those Parts. He founded the Churches of Smyrna, Pergamus, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea; but his chief Place of Refidence was Ephefus; where St. Paul had many Years before fettled a Church. Neither is it thought he confined his Miniftry merely to Afia Minor; but that he preached in other Parts of the Eaft; probably

Parthia,

Parthia, his first Epiftle being antiently entitled to the Parthians.

Q. How was St. John perfecuted by the Emperor Domitian?

A. He was reprefented to the Emperor as an eminent Afferter of Atheism and Impiety, and a publick Subverter of the Religion of the Empire. By the Emperor's Command the Proconful of Afia fent him bound to Rome, where he received a very barbarous Treatment; he was caft into a Cauldron of boiling Oil, or rather Oil Tertul. de fet on Fire; but the divine Providence, which Præf. Hær.c.36, fecured the three Hebrew Captives in the Flames of a burning Furnace, brought this holy Man fafe out of what one would have thought an inevitable Ruin.

Q. How was he farther treated by the Emperor?

A. Domitian being difappointed, confidered not the Miracle; but prefently orders him to be banished into the Island of Patmos, in the Archipelago, where he remained feveral Years, inftructing the Inhabitants in the Faith of Christ. This banishing into lands was the worst and fevereft Kind of Exile, whereby the Criminal forfeited his Eftate; being transported into fome certain land, which only the Emperor had the Power of naming, there to be confined to perpetual Banifhment.

Q. Did St. John die in Banifhment?

A. No, the Emperor Nerva revoked the fevere Edials of his Predeceffor, and St. John took the Advantage of that Indulgence, and returned to Epbefus; where finding Timothy their Bishop martyred, he governed that Church until the Time of Trajan; about the Beginning

of

of whofe Reign he departed this Life, being about an hundred Years old, and never married. As to the Reports of his being translated without dying, or that he only lay fleeping in his Grave, they are Errors built upon that Difcourfe John 21. that paffed between our Lord and St. Peter, concerning this Apostle.

21.

Eufeb. Hift.lib.4. c. 14.

Q. What was remarkable in St. John's Condult towards the Heretick Cerinthus ?

A. Going with fome of his Friends to the Bath at Ephefus, and understanding that Cerinthus was at the fame Time bathing, he immediately retired, exhorting his Friends to avoid a Place where was fo great an Enemy to the Iren. adv. Truth, left the Bath fhould fall upon their Heads. Hær. lib. This Account is given by Ireneus, as a Tradition 3. C. 3. from Polycarp, St. John's Scholar and Difciple.

John 21.

Q. What Writings did this Apoftle leave be

bind him?

A. His Gospel, three Epiftles, and his Book of Revelations.

Q. How doth it appear that St. John wrote the Gospel that goeth under his Name?

A. The Gospel itself defcribes the Author of 20.21,22, it by fuch Marks as peculiarly belong to St. 23, 24. John, as that he was a Difciple of our Lord, and that Difciple whom Jefus loved; and of whom

21. 7.

the Fame went abroad among the Brethren, that he should not die. That St. John was' the John 13. beloved Difciple, appears by feveral Places in this 23.19.26. Gospel, and the whole Chriftian Church hath diftinguished him by that Character; and his not dying was fo conftantly applied to St. John, that fome of the Antients declared he died not at all, but was tranflated: and others, that he only lay fleeping in his Grave: And he alone,

of

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