Antiquitates apoitolicæ, or, The history of the lives, acts and martyrdoms of the holy apostles of our Saviour and the two evangelists SS. Mark and Lvke to which is added an introductory discourse concerning the three great dispensations of the church, patriarchal, Mosiacal and evangelical : being a continuation of Antiquitates christianæ or the life and death of the holy Jesus / by William Cave ...

THE LIFE OF S. MATTHIAS.

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S. MATHIAS.

He preached the Gospell in Ethiopia, suffered Martyrdome and was buried there. S. Hierom.

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S^t. Matthias his Martyrdom.

Hebr. 11.37.

They were stoned, they were sawn asunder they were tempted, were slain with the sword.

S. Matthias one of the Seventy. Judas Iscariot, whence. A bad Minister nulls not the ends of his Ministration. His worldly and covetous temper. His monstrous ingratitude. His betraying his Master, and the agravations of the sin. The distraction and horror of his mind. The miserable state of an evil and guilty Conscience. His violent death. The election of a new Apostle: The Candidates, who. The Lot cast upon Matthias. His preaching the Gospel, and in what parts of the World. His Martyrdom when, where, and how. His Body whither translated. The Gospel and Traditions vented under his name.

1. SAINT Matthias not being an Apostle of the first Election, im∣mediately called and chosen by our Saviour, particular remarks concerning him are not to be expected in the History of the Gospel. He was one of our Lord's Disciples (and probably one of the Seventy) that had attended on him the whole time of his publick Ministry, and after his death was elected into the Apostleship upon this occasion. Judas Iscariot (so called, probably, from the place of his nativity, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a man of Ke∣rioth, a City anciently situate in the Tribe of Judah) had been one of the Twelve, immediately called by Christ to be one of his intimate Disciples, equally impowered and commissioned with the rest to Preach and work Mi∣racles, was numbred with them, and had obtained part of their Ministry. And yet all this while was a man of vile and corrupt designs, branded with no meaner a character, than Thief and Murderer. To let us see that there may be bad servants in Christ's own family, and that the wickedness of a Minister does not evacuate his Commission, nor render his Office useless and ineffe∣ctual. The unworthiness of the instrument hinders not the ends of the mi∣nistration: Seeing the efficacy of an ordinance depends not upon the quality of the person, but the Divine institution, and the blessing which God has entailed upon it. Judas preached Christ no doubt with zeal and servency, and for any thing we know, with as much success as the rest of the Apostles; and yet he was a bad man, a man acted by sordid and mean designs, one that had prostituted Religion and the honour of his place to covetousness and evil arts. The love of money had so intirely possessed his thoughts, that his resolutions were bound for nothing but interest and advantage. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare. This covetous temper be∣trayed him, as in the issue to the most fatal end, so to the most desperate at∣tempt, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,* 1.1 as Origen calls the putting Christ to death, the most prodigious impiety that the Sun ever shone on, the betray∣ing his innocent Lord into the hands of those, who he knew would treat him with all the circumstances of insolent scorn and cruelty. How little does kindness work upon a disingenuous mind! It was not the honour of the place, to which when thousands of other were passed by, our Lord had called him, the admitting him into a free and intimate fellowship with his person, the taking him to be one of his peculiar domesticks and attendants, that could divert the wretch from his wicked purpose. He knew how desi∣rous the great men of the Nation were to get Christ into their hands, especi∣ally at the time of the Passeover, that he might with the more publick dis∣grace be sacrificed before all the people, and therefore bargains with them, and for no greater a summ than under four pounds, to betray the Lamb of God into the paws of these Wolves and Lions: In short, he heads the party, conducts the Officers, and sees him delivered into their hands.

2. BUT there's an active principle in man's breast; that seldom suffers daring sinners to pass in quiet to their Graves: Awakened with the horror of the fact, conscience began to rouze and follow close, and the man was unable to bear up under the furious revenges of his own mind: As indeed all wilfull and deliberate sins, and especially the guilt of bloud, are wont more sensibly to alarm the natural notions of our minds, and to excite in us the fears of some present vengeance that will seize upon us. And how in∣tolerable are those scourges that lash us in this vital and tender part? The spirit of the man sinks under him, and all supports snap asunder: As what ease or comfort can he enjoy, that carries a Vultur in his bosom, always

gnawing and preying upon his heart? Which made * 1.2 Plutarch compare an evil Conscience to a Cancer in the breast, that perpetually gripes and stings the Soul with the pains of an intolerable re∣pentance. Guilt is naturally troublesome and un∣easie, it disturbs the peace and serenity of the mind, and fills the Soul with storms and thunder. ‖ 1.3 Did ever any harden himself against God, and pro∣sper? And indeed how should he, when God has such a powerful and invisible executioner in his own bosom? Whoever rebels against the Laws of his duty, and plainly affronts the dictates of his Conscience, does that moment bid adieu to all true repose and quiet, and expose himself to the severe resentments of a self-tormenting mind. And though by secret arts of wickedness he may be able possibly to drown and stifle the voice of it for a while, yet every little affliction or petty accident will be apt to awaken it into horror, and to let in terror like an armed man upon him. A torment infinitely beyond what the most ingenious Tyrants could ever contrive. Nothing so effectually invades our ease, as the reproaches of our own minds. The wrath of man may be endured, but the irruptions of Conscience are irresistible; it is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (as Chrysostom very elegantly stiles it) to be choaked or strangled with an evil Conscience, which oft reduces the man to such distresses, as to make him chuse death rather than life. A sad instance of all which we have in this unhappy man: who being wearied with furious and melancholy re∣flexions upon what was past, threw back the wages of iniquity in open Court, and dispatched himself by a violent death: Vainly hoping to take sanctuary in the Grave, and that he should meet with that ease in another World which he could not find in this. He departed, and went and hanged himself, and falling down burst asunder, and his bowels gushed out: Leaving a memorable warning to all treacherous and ingrateful, to all greedy and co∣vetous persons, not to let the World insinuate it self too far into them; and indeed to all to watch and pray that they enter not into temptation. Our pre∣sent state is slippery and insecure; Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. What priviledges can be a sufficient fence, a foundation firm enough to rely upon, when the Miracles, Sermons, favours, and fami∣liar converses of Christ himself could not secure one of the Apostles from so fa∣tal an Apostasie?

3. A VACANCY being thus made in the Colledge of Apostles, the first thing they did after their return from Mount Olivet, where our Lord took his leave of them, to S. John's house in Mount Sion (the place, if we may believe * 1.4 Nicephorus, where the Church met together) was to fill up their number with a fit proper person. To which purpose Peter acquainted them, that Judas, according to the prophetical prediction, being fallen from his ministry, it was necessary that another should be substituted in his room, one that had been a constant companion and disciple of the holy Jesus, and consequently capable of bearing witness to his life, death, and resur∣rection. Two were propounded in order to the choice, Joseph called Bar∣sabas, and Justus (whom some make the same with Joses one of the brothers of our Lord) and Matthias, both duly qualified for the place. The way of election was by Lots, a way frequently used both among Jews and Gentiles

for the determination of doubtful and difficult cases, and especially the chu∣sing Judges and Magistrates: And this course the Apostles the rather took, because the Holy Ghost was not yet given, by whose immediate dictates and inspirations they were chiefly guided afterwards. And that the business might proceed with the greater regularity and success, they first solemnly make their address to Heaven, that the Omniscient Being that governed the World, and perfectly understood the tempers and dispositions of men, would immediately guide and direct the choice, and shew which of these two he would appoint to take that part of the Apostolick charge, from which Judas was so lately fallen. The Lots being put into the Urn, Mat∣thias his name was drawn out, and thereby the Apostolate devolved upon him.

4. NOT long after the promised powers of the Holy Ghost were confer∣red upon the Apostles, to fit them for that great and difficult employment, upon which they were sent: And among the rest S. Matthias betook himself to his Charge and Province. The first-fruits of his Ministry he spent in Ju∣daea, where having reaped a considerable harvest, he betook himself to other Provinces. An * 1.5 Author, I confess, of no great credit in these matters, tells us, that he preached the Gospel in Macedonia, where the Gentiles to make an experiment of his Faith and Integrity, gave him a poisonous and intoxica∣ting potion, which he chearfully drunk off, in the name of Christ, without the least prejudice to himself; and that when the same potion had deprived above two hundred and fifty of their sight, he laying his hands upon them, restored them to their sight: with a great deal more of the same stamp, which I have neither faith enough to believe, nor leisure enough to relate. The Greeks with more probability report him to have travelled Eastward, he came (says ‖ 1.6 Nicephorus) into the first, (says * 1.7 Sophronius) into the se∣cond Aethiopia, and in both, I believe, it is a mistake, either of the Au∣thors or Transcribers, for Cappadocia, his residence being principally near the irruption of the River Apsarus, and the Haven Hyssus, both places in Cappadocia. Nor is there any Aethiopia nearer those places than that conter∣minous to Chaldaea, whereof before. And as for those that tell us, that he might well enough preach both in the Asian and African Aethiopia, and that both might be comprehended under that general name, as the Eastern and Western parts of the World were heretofore contained under the general title of the India's, it's a fancy without any other ground to stand on, than their own bare conjecture. The place whither he came was very barbarous, and his usage was accordingly. For here meeting with a people of a fierce and intractable temper, he was treated by them with great rudeness and inhu∣manity, from whom after all his labours and sufferings, and a numerous conversion of men to Christianity, he obtained at last the crown of Martyr∣dom, Ann. Chr. LXI. or as others, LXIV. Little certainty can be retrie∣ved concerning the manner of his death. * 1.8 Dorotheus will have him to die at Sebastople, and to be buried there near the Temple of the Sun. An anci∣ent ‖ 1.9 Martyrologie reports him to have been seized by the Jews, and as a blasphemer to have been first stoned, and then be∣headed. But the * 1.10 Greek Offices, seconded here∣in by several ancient Breviaries, tell us that he was crucified, and that as Judas was hanged upon a Tree, so Matthias suffered upon a Cross. His Body is said to have been kept a long time at Je∣rusalem, thence thought, by Helen the Mother of the Great Constantine, to have been translated to Rome, where some parts of it are shewed with great

veneration at this day. Though * 1.11 others with as great eagerness, and probably as much truth, contend that his Reliques were brought to, and are still preserved at Triers in Germany, a controversie wherein I shall not concern my self. His memory is celebrated in the Greek Church August the IX, as appears not only from their Menologies, but from a Novel ‖ 1.12 constitu∣tion of Manuel Comnenus, appointing what holy days should be kept in the Church, while the Western Churches keep February XXIV sacred to his me∣mory. Among many other Apocryphal writings attributed to the Apostles, there was a Gospel published under his name, mentioned by * 1.13 Eusebius and the Ancients, and condemned with the rest by ‖ 1.14 Gelasius Bishop of Rome, as it had been rejected by others before him: Under his name also there were extant Traditions, cited by a 1.15 Clemens of Alexandria, from whence no que∣stion it was that the Nicolaitans borrowed that saying of his, which they abused to so vile and beastly purposes, as under the pretended patronage of his name and doctrines the Marcionites and b 1.16 Valentinians defended some of their most absurd and impious opinions.

The End of S. Matthias's Life.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Contr. Cels. lib. 4. p. 175.
• * 1.2

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Plut. de Anim. tranquil. p. 476. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Pythag. in aur. carm. in quem locum haec inter alia Hierocles, optima prorsus & huic loco satis apposita. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Hicrocl. in Aur. Carm. p. 165.
• ‖ 1.3

  Job 9.4.
• * 1.4

  H. Eccl. l. 2. c. 1. p. 131.
• * 1.5

  Petr. de Na∣tal. Histor. Sanct. lib. 3. c. 149.
• ‖ 1.6

  H. Eccl. l. 2. c. 40. p. 203.
• * 1.7

  Ap. Hieron. de Script. Eccl. in Matthia.
• * 1.8

  Synops. de vit. App. in Bibl. Pp. Tom. 3. p. 148.
• ‖ 1.9

  Colon. Impress. 1490. ad Febr. 24.
• * 1.10

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

  Menaea Graecor. ad diem IX. August. apud Bolland. de vit. SS. ad Febr. XXIV. Tom. 3. p. 433.
• * 1.11

  Vid. Chr. Brower. An∣nal. Treverens. lib. 2. p. 658. & scriptores ex utraque parte contendentes ap. Boll. loc. cit. p. 435.
• ‖ 1.12

  Extat in Jur. Gr. Rom. lib. 2. p. 161.
• * 1.13

  H. Eccl. l. 3. c. 25. p. 97. Orig. in Luc. Homil. 10. Ambr. praef. in Luc. Tom. 5. p. 7.
• ‖ 1.14

  Decr. Part. 1. Dist. 15. cap. Sanct. Rom. Sect. Caeterum.
• a 1.15

  Strom. lib. 2. p. 380. ibid. lib. 3. p. 436.
• b 1.16

  Ibid. lib. 7. p. 765.