ministry: in contradiction to whom, Irenæus roundly affirms, that our Saviour actually lived to an old age, and was fifty years old at least at the time of his death: for which he alleges the unanimous testimony of all the old men who had lived with St. John in Asia, and received this account from him; some of whom, he says, had seen the other Apostles also, and heard the same from them all, and bore witness accordingly to the truth of it. Now it is not possible that any tradition can be more authentically delivered than this, by one of the most venerable bishops of the primitive church, who lived within a few years after the apostles themselves; - yet it is certain, as the warmest admirers of antiquity in general, and of Irenæus in particular, must own, that neither St. John, nor any other of the apostles, could ever declare such a story to any one; and that the whole therefore must be a mere fiction, either of those ancient men who had conversed with the apostles, or of Irenæus himself, who pretended to have heard it from them, as being utterly inconsistent with the history of the gospel.

But the gospel was then only in a few hands; and apostolic tradition the shortest way of silencing those Heretics, being an argument of the greatest weight with those who believed it, and what could not easily be confuted by those who did not. The pious editor of Irenæus's works makes the following remark upon the place: "Irenæus," says he, "affirms in express words, that Christ continued to teach beyond the fortieth, or even the fiftieth year of his age; which he endeavours to confirm by texts of Scripture, and by reasons also, though weak ones, which the common judgment of the church has rejected. We ought, however, to judge candidly of the blessed martyr, who, by an impetus of confuting the Heretics, was carried into the contrary extreme: a case which, as it is manifest, has frequently happened to the most holy and learned men." But since Irenæus's whole life and writings were peculiarly devoted to the confutation of heresy, what is it that the most candid can possibly judge on this occasion, but that the same impetus of confuting them, which carried him beyond the truth in one case, would carry him the same length in another, and prompt him to use every argument which could promote so good a cause?

This suspicion will be confirmed, not only by the conduct of Irenæus in other similar cases, but by the matter of the story itself, which on many accounts seems to imply

a behaviour unworthy of the character of an Apostle; to whose dignity it would have been more agreeable, instead of running out of the bath himself, to have driven Cerinthus out before him. Resist the Devil and he will fee, is an injunction given to every private Christian: and it is much more the part of an apostle, to resist and disarm an Heretic; whereas so precipitate a flight betrays fear and diffidence, and gives an occasion of triumph to the adver

sary.

The reason also, said to be given by him for his flight, is childish and superstitious: lest the bath should fall, because Cerinthus was in it. As if it had been usual with God, to exert his judgments in that manner on notorious sinners, by burying them under the ruins of walls and houses: a notion which seems to be expressly discouraged and exploded by Christ himself. Or, if there was any cause to apprehend that God would take so extraordinary a method of punishing the heretic, there was a greater still to be assured, that he would provide at the same time, in some way as extraordinary, for the safety of the apostle : it being weak to imagine, that when he had spared the life of so profligate an enemy to that day, he should be in such haste at last to destroy him, as to involve his old and faithful servant in the same ruin.

The conduct of the other apostles towards the professed adversaries of the gospel was quite contrary to this of St. John, as we find it described in the History of their Acts; where we read how Peter rebuked and confounded the prince and leader of all Heretics, Simon Magus, who had bewitched the people of Samaria, by his sorceries, and was revered by them as a Deity. And if any credit be due to ecclesiastical history, we are there told, that when the same Simon, was playing his magical tricks again in Rome, in defiance and opposition to the gospel, and, by the help of his familiar dæmons, was flying briskly in the air, St. Peter, by the force of his prayers, brought him down from the sky, with so precipitate a tumble, that he was dashed to pieces by the fall, in the sight of all the people. Thus, when St. Paul likewise was opposed and obstructed in preaching the gospel, by another sorcerer and false prophet, called Elymas, he first reproached him sharply for his diabolical practices, and then, in the name of the Lord, struck him instantly blind. And this is the conduct which one would have expected from an apostle, upon an encounter

with Cerinthus, the chief Heretic and adversary of the gospel then living, that he would either have confuted and put him to shame by the force of his reasoning, or confounded him by some act of that extraordinary power with which he was endued from above.

But St. John, as Dr. Waterland, declares, was all love, meekness, and charity: and this indeed is said to have been his peculiar character, above that of the other apostles. And we are told of him by St. Jerom, " that in his extreme age, when he used to be carried to the church by his disciples, it was his custom to do nothing more than repeat this single exhortation-My little children, love one another: and when the people grew tired with hearing nothing else from him but that one precept, and asked, why he continued always to repeat the same thing, he answered, It is a saying worthy of John, and a precept of our Lord, and if you practise this alone, it is sufficient.' The same doctrine, of love, charity, and mutual benevolence, was eminently propagated also by his two principal scholars, Ignatius, and Polycarp: What thanks are due to you, says Ignatius, if you love only the good disciples? You must subdue rather the more pestilent sort, by your mildness and gentleness. And Polycarp, speaking of one who had fallen away from the faith, says, Be moderate on this occasion, and look not on such as enemies, but call them back, as suffering and erring members.

How much more amiable then, and agreeably to his proper character, is this same apostle represented in another story, delivered also by the ancients, concerning his painful and affectionate pursuit of the captain of a band of robbers; whom he followed into the mountains, and, by his affectionate and paternal remonstrances, brought back from the head of his crew, and restored to the church! yet from this charitable and benevolent act, Dr. Waterland has contrived to draw a most perverse and pernicious inference, that by flying from the Heretic and running after the Robber, he shewed, how much more he detested heresies, than common immoralities.

It is observable likewise, that this story is related with no small variation by the ancients themselves. Epiphanius tells it more than once, not of Cerinthus, but of another Heretic, called Ebion: and why might not both of them, says the editor of Irenæus, be found together in the bath at the same time? Baronius makes the same supposition, to

reconcile the two fathers; while others suppose, that Cerinthus and Ebion are but different names of the same person. Yet Tertullian expressly distinguishes them, and calls Ebion the successor of Cerinthus. But Mr. Tillemont solves the matter more judiciously by remarking, that there is no need of such conjectures, because it is common with Epiphanius to make blunders in history; who has added, he says, several other particulars, both trifling and improbable, to this very story. One of the particulars which he has added, is this-That St. John had never before made use of the public baths, till he was sent thither on this occasion by a divine inspiration, to give this open testimony of his detestation of heresy. Some of the other fathers as well as Epiphanius, declare Cerinthus to have been the disciple of Carpocrates, who was not in being, as the chronologers tell us, till after the death of St. John; and if so, this whole story must of course fall to the ground.

The moderns also, in their turn, have added some embellishments to the same story. Fevardentius, in his notes on this passage of Irenæus, says, that St. Jerom, in his treatise against the Luciferians affirms, that immediately after the retreat of St. John, the bath actually fell down and crushed Cerinthus to death. Yet there is not the least intimation of any such fact, as Dr. Grabe observes, either in that, or any other part of St. Jerom's works. Another writer with as little truth, asserts the same thing, on the authority of venerable Bede; and some also appeal to Polycarp, as the voucher of it; and all of them take occasion to moralize upon it with great gravity, as an instance of God's judgment upon Heretics.*

* Monsieur Bayle, who mentions this story with all these particulars, makes the following remark upon it: “Observe,” says he, “ the progress of it. Irenæus was probably the first who published it, and contented himself with relating, barely, what he had heard. But those who came after him, finding his narrative too simple and naked, added some embroidery to it. They fancied it dishonourable to the memory of the apostle to have it believed that he had ever made use of the public baths: they affirmed, therefore, that he‍ had never done it before, and was sent thither on this occasion by the express command of Heaven. It was necessary, in the next place, to find out a good reason for so particular an inspiration: and a reason was presently found; viz. the importance of letting the faithful know what a horror they all ought to conceive against the enemies of the truth; and how the divine justice was always ready to exert itself by some exemplary severity against an arch-heretic. Lastly, as it might

A Hymn.

[From the United States' Literary Gazette.]

THE groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave,

.

And spread the roof above them,-ere he framed
The lofty vault, to gather and roll back

The sound of anthems: in the darkling wood,
Amidst the cool and silence, he knelt down
And offered to the Mightiest, solemn thanks
And supplication. For his simple heart
Might not resist the sacred influences

That, from the stilly twilight of the place
And from the gray old trunks that high in heaven
Mingled their mossy boughs, and from the sound
Of the invisible breath that swayed at once
All their green tops, stole o'er him, and bowed
His spirit with the thought of boundless power
And inaccessible majesty. Ah, why

Should we, in the world's riper years, neglect
God's ancient sanctuaries, and adore
Only among the crowd and under roofs

That our frail hands have raised? Let me at least,
Here, in the shadow of this aged wood,

Offer one hymn-thrice happy, if it find

Acceptance in His ear.

Father, thy hand

Hath reared these venerable columns, thou

Didst weave this verdant roof. Thou didst look down
Upon the naked earth, and forthwith rose

All these fair ranks of trees. They, in thy sun,
Budded, and shook their green leaves in thy breeze,
And shot towards heaven.

The century-living crow

Whose birth was in their tops, grew old and died
Among their branches, till, at last, they stood,
As now they stand, massy and tall and dark,
Fit shrine for humble worshiper to hold
Communion with his Maker. Here are seen
No traces of man's pomp or pride ;-
-no silks

seem indecent for St. John to be thought liable to any vain and unnecessary fear, so it was found convenient to suppose, that the heretic, with whom he refused to bathe himself, was crushed to pieces by the fall of the house." Vide Artic. CERINTHUS, Note D. in Dictionaire.