from him; and, if it be true P, happened in the fourteenth year of Domitian, i. e. about the year of Christ 96. So we read expressly in Eusebius's Chronicon and Jerome 9. After this, the apostle was by the same emperor banished to a desolate island in the south-east part of the Egean sea, called Patmos1. So we are informed by Tertullians, Eusebius t, Jerome ", Severus Sulpitius, &c. though Dorotheus Tyrius seems to have believed that this banishment was by Trajan, and not Domitiany, which is certainly a mistake. In this exile state, it is said St. John was suitably comforted and supported with the visions and revelations from God, which he afterwards published; see Irenæus 2, Eusebius a, Jerome b, Severus Sulpitius, and Austin d. The second general persecution ended with Domitian; and times more favourable to Christianity succeeding, St. John had an opportunity to return to his former friends at Ephesus, which, as it was the place of his former abode in Asia, so became now his settlement for life. Here he acted the part of a Christian bishop or minister, and together with seven other bishops presided over that diocese, if we may credit the author of the book entitled Maprúριov Tiμoléov; i. e. The Martyrdom of Timothy e.

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 reason I shall but just name them, in the order in which the several authors lived, who have mentioned them.

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IRENEUS f informs us, there were some in his time who had the following account from Polycarp, who was one of John's disciples, viz. "That St. John going to a certain bath at Epheand perceiving that Cerinthus, that noted arch-heretic, "was in the bath, immediately leaped out without bathing "himself, and said, Let us go hence, lest the bath should fall "down upon us, having in it such an heretic as Cerinthus, "that enemy of truth." What the heresy of Cerinthus was, may be largely seen in Irenæus 8, Epiphanius h, and many of the ancients. Some account of his principles is given above, Vol. I. Part II. Ch. XII.

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CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS concludes his treatise, entitled, Quis Dives Salvetur i? with a remarkable history, which most of our ecclesiastical writers have taken notice of. I shall recite it therefore briefly, viz. "That when St. John was returned "from his exile in Patmos to Ephesus, he visited the neigh"bouring churches, and observing in one of the cities a young 66 man of an uncommon genius and handsome body, he com"mended him in the presence of the church to the care of the bishop of the place, who, taking the charge of him, in“structed and baptized him; at length giving him his liberty, " he fell into the worst of company, and entered into a strict "alliance with some persons, who were not only in other respects 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 occa“sions calling him to this city, he inquired 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 seized by "their sentinels, he desired to be brought to their captain, "who, when he saw him, fled through shame; but St. John

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f Advers. Hæres. lib. 3. c. 3. et in Euseb. lib. 4. c. 14.

8 Lib. 3. passim.

h Hæres. 28.

i It was published 1683, at Oxford, by bishop Fell.

I cannot but observe here, that when Clemens delivers the young man

to his charge, he calls him ἐπίσκοπος, and a few lines after, when he speaks of the care which he took of him, he calls him πρεσβύτερος an undeniable demonstration, that presbyter and bishop were two names of one person in the time of Clemens Alexandrinus.

"pursued him, desiring him not to fly, and promising him par"don from Christ, by whom he said he was sent; upon this "he stayed, and in the greatest distress threw down his arms, “and embracing the apostle, he groaned, and floods of tears "poured down from his eyes. Upon which St. John, assuring ❝ him of pardon, prayed for him, and brought him back to the "church."

APOLLONIUS, a writer in the second century against the Montanists, tells us, that "he raised a dead person to life." This I find no where else related, unless that should be thought to be the same, which I observe in Isidore Hispalensis m, concerning his raising a widow from the dead by the command of the people, or his restoring and bringing a young man's soul into his body again, related in the same place.

POLYCRATES, a writer of the same time, makes St. John to be a priest, and as such to have worn a ñétaλov, or plateo. Jerome, citing this of Polycrates, paraphrases it thus°; Pontifex ejus (scil. Christi) fuit, auream laminam in fronte portans; i. e. "He was high priest of Christ, and wore a golden plate on "his forehead." This is said also of James, bishop of Jerusalem, by Epiphanius P, who cites Clemens and Eusebius for the truth of it; and, if it be true, is well accounted for by Valesius 9, who supposes those first Christians to have done it in imitation of the Jewish high priests.

TERTULLIAN informs us, that St. John convicted an Asiatic presbyter of forging and publishing the Acts of Paul and Thecla, under the name of Paul'. See the place at large above, Vol. II. Part III. Ch. XXXIV. p. 326..

The time, place, and manner of St. John's death, are very differently related by the ancients. Irenæus affirms, that "he ❝ continued till the reign of the emperor Trajan ;" and elsewhere t, that "he presided over the church of Ephesus till that "time." Irenæus was followed in this opinion by most of the ancients. Eusebius makes St. John's exit to have been in the

third year of Trajan "; and agreeably thereto, Jerome * places it in the sixty-eighth year after Christ's death, which coincides with the third year of Trajan, and the hundred and first, or hundred and second year after our Saviour's nativity. That St. John did live till this reign, I find also asserted in the ancient book, of which we have an abstract in Photius y, which is entitled, the Martyrdom of Timothy, in Isidore Hispalensis's Treatise of the Lives and Deaths of the Prophets and Apostles 2, and in the Synopsis of Dorotheus a, 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 b. He that would read more of the time of St. John's death may consult Mr. Dodwell c.

It is impossible to say any thing certain concerning the manner of St. John's death. Polycrates d says, he "died a martyr “at Ephesus,” as do some other of the ancients, viz. Chrysostome and Theophylact f, his constant follower. Whether the later writers, who have asserted St. John's martyrdom, were induced to that opinion, only by supposing that those words of Christ, 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 seems probable, not only from the testimony of Polycrates, but because all the rest of the apostles did suffer martyrdom, and the text seems not obscurely 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 ancients also into a persuasion, that St. John did never die. St. Austin & has largely discussed the question,

u In Chronic. ad ann. 103.

x Catal. Vir. Illustr. in Joanne.

y Cod. 254.

z Inter Orthodoxogr. vol. 1. p. 598. a Edit. Latin.

b It being reasonable to suppose John, when he was called to the work of the ministry, was not under the age of Christ, i. e. not under his thirtieth

year, none undertaking that office earlier.

Addit. ad Pearson. Dissert. 2. de Success. Rom. Episc. c. 5.

d Epist. ad Victor. apud Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 1. 5. c. 24.

e Homil. 66. in Matth.
f In Matth. xx. 23.
8 Tract. 124. in Joann.

and tells us of an opinion of some, founded upon some 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 say, he did not then die, but only lay down asleep like a person dead; and in this state of sleep, not death, he will continue till Christ come: that he is not dead, says he, they prove by the motion of the grave dust, which is continually occasioned to boil and bubble by the motion of his breast. This opinion, says St. Austin, I will not oppose; for I have been informed of the fact from grave and credible witnesses. Isidore Hispalensis h relates the same story, with several other particular circumstances, too trifling to be mentioned. Ephraim Theopolitanus, bishop of Antioch, about the year of Christ 510i, endeavours to prove, that St. John never died, but was translated, as Enoch and Elijah. I will add no more, but that the same opinion seems to have been received in the several succeeding ages of Christianity. Georgius Trapezuntius, a learned writer, though late, has wrote five whole treatises, which he dedicates to the pope, with design to prove that St. John never did die. I shall think it sufficient to refer the reader to the ingenious tract k. Hence it came to pass, that several impostors have professed themselves to be this apostle; one particularly in the time of Martinus, about the year 400, and another in queen Elizabeth's time, who was afterwards burnt at Thoulouse in France, as we are told by Beza TM.

CHAP. XIV.

St. John's Gospel wrote against the heretics, viz. the Cerinthians and Ebionites, who denied our Saviour's divinity; as also to enlarge the Gospel history. It was wrote after the year of Christ 97. An objection to this answered. Other miscellaneous remarks.

CONCERNING St. John's Gospel, whatever appears to me considerable, I shall lay down in the following observations.

h De Vit. et Obit. Prophet. et Sanctor. inter Orthodox. vol. 1. p. 598. i Respons. ad Anatol. Scholast. Quæst. apud Phot. cod. 229.

* Inter Orthodoxogr. vol. 2. p. 1231. 1 Vid. Sever. Sulpit. de Vita Martin. inter Orthodoxogr. vol. 1. p. 556. in Annot. in Joann. xxi. 21.