Wright - BT300 W8 1788

418 The NEW and COMPLETE LI FE OAF our BLESSED LORD but could not be a martyr under Maximi- nus, as fome report him. He fat three or four, though others align him but two years ; and was buried in the cemetery of Callißus. XXXIII. Silvefler, a Roman : he was elefred into the place, A. D. three hundred and fourteen, fetched from the mountain Soratte, whither he had fled for fear of perfecution. He was highly in favour with Conflantine the Great. He fat twenty- three, Nicephorus fays, twenty-eight years. The CHURCH at JERUSALEM, IT may with fome degree of truth be af- firmed, that the church of Jerufalem was founded by our Lord himfelf, as it was for fome time cultivated and improved by theminiflry of the whole college ofapoflles. The hilltops of it fucceeded in the follow- ing order : I. St. James the Lefs, the brother of our Lord, by him, fayfome, immediately con- flituted biíhop ; but as others, more pro- bably, by the apoflles : he was thrown off the temple, and his brains beat out with a fuller's club. IL Simeon, the fonof Cleophas, brother to Jofeph, our Lord's reputed father : he fat in this chair twenty-three years, and fuffered martyrdom in the reign ofTrajan, in the one hundred and twentieth year of his age. III. Julius fucceeded in his.room, and fat fix years. IV. Zacheus, or, as Nicephorus the pa- triarch calls him, Zacharias, four. V. Tobias : to him, after four years, fucceeded VI. Benjamin, who fat two years. VII. John, who continued the fame fpace. VIII. Matthias, or Matthteus, two years. IX. Philippus, one year : next came X. Seneca, who fat four years. XI. Julius, four., XII. Levi, or Lebes, two. XIII. Ephrem, or Ephres, or, as Epi- phanius Ryles him, Vaphres, two. XIV. Jofeph, two XV. Judas, two. We may obferve, that moll of thefe bifhops governed the church but a fhort time, following one another 3 In JUDEA. with a very quick fucceffion ; which, doubt- lefs, was in á great meafure owing to the turbulent and unquiet humour ofthe Jewifh nation, frequently rebelling againfl the Ro- man powers, whereby they provoked them to fall heavy upon them, and cut off all that came in their way, making no diflinc- don between Jews and Chriflians; as in- deed they were all Jews, though differing in the rites of their religion : for hitherto the hilltops of Jerufalem had fucceflìvely been of the circumeifion, the church there having been entirely made up of Jewifh converts : but Jerufalem being nowutterly laid wafte, and the Jews difperfed into all other countries, the Gentiles were admitted not only into the body of that church, but even into the epifcopal chair. They are ranged in the following order : XVI. Marcus, who fat eight years.. XVII. Caflianus, eight. XVIII. Publius, fivé." XIX. Maximus, four. XX. Julianus, two. XXI. Caianus, three. XXII. Symmachus, two. XXIII. Caius, three. XXIV. Julianus, four. XXV. Elias, two. We do not find this bifhop mentioned by Eufebius ; but he is recorded by Nicephorus ofConflantinople. XXVI. Capito, four. XXVII. Maximus, four. XXVIII. Antoninus, five. XXIX. Valens, three. XXX. Dulichianus, two. XXXI. Narciffus, four. He was a man of eminent piety, famous, for the great miracles

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=