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 ...

TO THE READER.

IT will not, I suppose, seem improbable to the Reader, when I tell him, with how much reluctancy and unwillingness I set upon this undertaking. Besides the disadvantage of having this piece annex∣ed to the Elaborate Book of that excellent Prelate, so great a Master both of Learning and Lan∣guage, I was intimately conscious to my own unfitness for such a Work at any time, much more when clogg'd with many habitual Infirmities and Distempers. I considered the dif∣ficulty of the thing it self, perhaps not capable of being well managed by a much better Pen than mine; few of the Anci∣ent Monuments of the Church being extant, and little of this nature in those few that are. Indeed I could not but think it reasonable, that all possible honour should be done to those, that first Preached the Gospel of peace, and brought glad tidings of good things, that it was fit men should be taught how much they were obliged to those excel∣lent Persons, who were willing at so dear a rate to plant Christianity in the World, who they were, and what was that Piety and that Patience, that Charity and that Zeal,

which made them to be reverenc'd while they liv'd, and their Memories ever since to be honourably celebrated through the World, infinitely beyond the glories of Alexander, and the triumphs of a Pompey or a Caesar. But then how this should be done out of those few imperfect Memoires, that have escaped the general shipwrack of Church-Antiqui∣ties, and much more by so rude and unskilful a hand as mine, appear'd, I confess, a very difficult task, and next door to impossible. These, with some other considerations, made me a long time obstinately resolve against it, till being overcome by importunity, I yielded to do it, as I was able, and as the nature of the thing would bear.

THAT which I primarily designed to my self, was to draw down the History of the New Testament especially from our Lord's death, to enquire into the first Originals and Plantations of the Christian Church by the Ministry of the Apostles, the success of their Doctrine, the power and conviction of their Miracles, their infinite Labours and hardships, and the dreadful Sufferings which they under∣went; to consider in what instances of Piety and Virtue they ministred to our imitation, and served the purposes of Reli∣gion and an Holy Life. Indeed the accounts that are left us of these things are very short and inconsiderable, suffici∣ent possibly to excite the appetite, not to allay the hunger of an importunate Enquirer into these matters. A considerati∣on that might give us just occasion to lament the irreparable loss of those Primitive Records, which the injury of time hath deprived us of, the substance being gone, and little left us but the shell and carcass. Had we the Writings of Papi∣as Bishop of Hierapolis, and Scholar, says Irenaeus, to S. John,* 1.1 (wherein, as himself tells us, he set down what he had learnt from those who had familiarly conversed with the Apostles, the sayings and discourses of Andrew and Peter, of Philip and Thomas, &c.) Had we the Anci∣ent

Commentaries of Hegesippus, Clemens Alexan∣drinus his Institutions, Africanus his Chronography, and some others, the Reader might expect more intire and particular relations, But alas! these are long since pe∣rish'd, and little besides the names of them transmitted to us. Nor should we have had most of that little that is left us, had not the commendable care and industry of Eusebius pre∣serv'd it to us.* 1.2 And if he complain'd in his time (when those Writings were extant) that towards the composing of his History he had only some few particular accounts here and there left by the Ancients of their times; what cause have we to complain, when even those little portions have been ravish'd from us? So that he that would build a work of this nature, must look upon himself as condemn'd to a kind of Egyptian Task, to make Brick without Straw, at least to pick it up where he can find it, though after all it amounts to a very slender parcel. Which as it greatly hinders the beauty and completeness of the structure, so does it exceed∣ingly multiply the labour and difficulty. For by this means I have been forc'd to gather up those little fragments of An∣tiquity, that lie dispers'd in the Writings of the Ancients, thrown some into this corner, and others into that: which I have at length put together, like the pieces of a broken Sta∣tue, that it might have at least some kind of resemblance of the person, whom it designs to represent.

HAD I thought good to have traded in idle and frivo∣lous Authors, Abdias Babylonius, the Passions of Pe∣ter and Paul, Joachim Perionius, Peter de Natalibus, and such like, I might have presented the Reader with a larger, not a better account. But besides the averseness of my nature to falshoods and trifles, especially in matters wherein the honour of the Christian Religion is concern'd, I knew the World to be wiser at this time of day, than to be imposed upon by Pious frauds, and cheated with Ecclesia∣stical

Romances, and Legendary Reports. For this rea∣son I have more fully and particularly insisted upon the Lives of the two first Apostles, so great a part of them being se∣cur'd by an unquestionable Authority, and have presented the larger portions of the Sacred History, many times to ve∣ry minute circumstances of action. And I presume the wise and judicious Reader will not blame me, for chusing rather to enlarge upon a story, which I knew to be infallibly true, than to treat him with those, which there was cause enough to conclude to be certainly false.

THE Reader will easily discern, that the Authors I make use of are not all of the same rank and size. Some of them are Divinely inspir'd, whose Authority is Sacred, and their reports rendred not only credible, but unquestionable, by that infallible and unerring Spirit that presided over them. Others such, of whose faith and testimony, especially in mat∣ters of fact, there is no just cause to doubt, I mean the ge∣nuine Writings of the Ancient Fathers, or those, which though unduly assign'd to this or that particular Father, are yet generally allowed to be Ancient, and their credit not to be despis'd, because their proper Parent is not certainly known. Next these come the Writers of the middle and later Ages of the Church, who though below the former in point of cre∣dit, have yet some particular advantages that recommend them to us. Such I account Symeon Metaphrastes, Nicephorus Callistus, the Menaea and Menologies of the Greek Church, &c. wherein though we meet with ma∣ny vain and improbable stories, yet may we also rationally expect some real and substantial accounts of things, especi∣ally seeing they had the advantage of many Ancient and Ec∣clesiastick Writings, extant in their times, which to us are utterly lost. Though even these too I have never called in, but in the want of more Ancient and Authentick Writers. As for others, if any passages occur either in themselves

of doubtful and suspected credit, or borrowed from spuri∣ous and uncertain Authors, they are always introduced or dismissed with some kind of censure or remark, that the most easie and credulous Reader may know what to trust to, and not fear being secretly surpriz'd into a belief of doubtful and fabulous reports. And now after all I am sufficiently sen∣sible, how lank and thin this Account is, nor can the Reader be less satisfied with it, than I am my self; and I have only this piece of justice and charity to beg of him, that he would suspend his censure, till he has taken a little pains to enquire into the state of the Times and Things I Write of: And then however he may challenge my prudence in undertaking it, he will not, I hope, see reason to charge me with want of care and faithfulness in the pursuance of it.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Apud Euseb. H. Eccl. lib. 3. c. 39. p. 111.
• * 1.2

  H. Eccl. lib. 1. c. 2. p. 4.