arts and sciences. He was sent to Jerusalem to be instructed in
the knowledge of the laws; and for the better accomplishing him in
that study, was put under the tuition of Raban Gamaliel the son of
Simon, (the same probably that took up our Saviour in his arms.)
He was an eminent doctor of the law, one of the families of the
schools at Jerusalem, and a person of principal note and authority
in the Jewish Sanhedrim, in which that grave and prudent speech,
mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, which he made on behalf
of the apostles and their doctrine, took great effect. At the
feet of this great doctor St. Paul was brought up, as he himself
testifies; and by his instructions he soon advanced to that degree,
that he gained himself a reputation above all his fellow scholars.
Moreover he was a strict professor of the sect of the Pharisees,
which of all others amongst the Jews, was the severest and most
magisterial; and the professors thereof, generally great applauders
of themselves for their sanctity, despising and censuring all
others as reprobates, and unworthy of their society, and presuming
(as Josephus writes) to govern even princes themselves. With the
fiery genius of this sect, our apostle was too deeply infected,
which made him a most zealous persecutor of the Saints; so that
when the blood of the martyr Stephen was shed, I (saith he with
sorrow after his conversion) was standing by, consented to his
death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him. Nay, of all the
apparators, and inquisitors, employed by the Sanhedrim, to execute
their warrants; upon those upstart heretics, as they called them,
who preached against the law of Moses, and the tradition of the
fathers; he was the man that strove to be the forwardest. In this
zeal to execute his office, as he was on his way to Damascus, with
some other, of his fellow officers, breathing out vengeance and
destruction against the poor Christians, their was on a sudden a
most glorious light shot full upon him, and the rest that were with
him, so that they fell to the ground in great amazement, and at the
same time a voice from heaven was directed to him, saying, “Saul,
Saul, why persecutest thou me?” to which, amazed as he was, he
answered, Lord who art thou? the voice replying, that it was Jesus
whom he persecuted, and that it was hard for him to kick against
the pricks. He again desired further instructions; Lord, said he,
what wilt thou have me to do; upon which he was bid to rise, and
go to Damascus, and there expect what should be further revealed
to him; rising from the ground he found his sight gone. In this
plight being led to Damascus, he was there three days fasting,
and probably then he saw that celestial vision mentioned by him,
wherein he heard and saw things past utterance, and those divine
revelations, which gave him occasion to say, that the gospel he
preached, he was not taught by man, but had it revealed to him by
Jesus Christ. The three days being expired, Ananias, a devout man,
and one of the seventy disciples came to him, according to the
command he had received from our Lord, who appeared to him, to go
and enquire for one Saul of Tarsus, and having laid his hands on
him, told him his message, upon which his sight was restored to
him, and the gift of the Holy Ghost conferred on him; presently
after he was baptized, and made a member of the church, to the
great joy of the rest of the disciples, that he should become not
only a professor, but a preacher of that faith, which he so lately
was a bitter persecutor of. His stay at this time at Damascus was
not long, for being warned away by a vision from heaven, he took a
journey into Arabia, where he preached the gospel for three years,
and then returned to Damascus, where the unconverted Jews eagerly
sought his ruin, endeavouring to seize him, but he escaped through
the help of the disciples, and the rest of his friends who were
zealous for his safety.
Thus far we have made an entrance into the life and acts of this
great apostle, with which there is scarcely any thing equally
memorable in history, nor could the further prosecution thereof
have been omitted, but that all the travels of this apostle in the
pursuance of his ministry, from the time of his conversion to the
last of his being at Rome, with the most principal transactions,
and the severest accidents that happened to him therein, are
already related in the exposition of the map of the voyages of
the apostles, and more particularly those of St. Paul, in which,
for avoiding needless repetitions, the sequel of his life may not
unfitly be referred. We shall therefore make some enquiry into the
time and occasion of the several epistles wrote to the several
churches; as also unto the time and manner of his death.
When he went from Athens to Corinth, it is said he wrote his first
epistle to the Thessalonians, which he sent Silas and Timothy,
who returned during his stay, and before his departure he wrote
his second epistle to them, to excuse his not coming to them as
he promised in his first. Not long after at Ephesus, he is said
to have written his epistle to the Galatians; and before he left
Ephesus, he wrote his first epistle to the Corinthians. Moreover,
he sent from thence by Apollos and Silas to Titus, whom he left
in that island to propagate the faith, and had him made bishop
thereof, in which he gives him advice for the better execution of
his episcopal office. At Macedonia, whither he went from Ephesus,
having by Titus received an account of the church of Corinth’s
present state of affairs, he sent by him at his return, when he was
accompanied by St. Luke, his second epistle to the Corinthians; and
about the same time he wrote his first epistle to Timothy, whom he
had left at Ephesus. From Corinth he went to Macedon, whither he
sent his epistle to the Romans, by Phebe, a deaconess of the Church
of Cenchrea, not far from Corinth. Going thence to Rome, he sent
his epistle to the Phillipians by Epaphroditus, who had been sent
from them with relief, not knowing to what straits he might be
reduced by his imprisonment at Rome. In the next place, he sends
by Tychicus his epistle to the Ephesians. Not long after, (if not
about the same time) he wrote his epistle to the Colossians, and
sent it by Epaphras, his fellow-prisoner for some time at Rome.
As for his second epistle to Timothy, there is some dispute about
the time of his writing it; only it seems probable by authentic
authors, that it was written after the Philippians and Ephesians.
As for the epistle to the Hebrews, it is not known when, or from
whence written, and rather conjectured than certainly known to have
been St. Paul’s. Tertulliah judgeth it to be written by Barnabas;
but the most received opinion is, that it was St. Paul’s, but
written by him in Hebrew, and so sent to the Jews; but for the
better publishing it to the Gentiles, translated into Greek, some
say by St. Luke, and others by St. Clement, for the style of whose
epistles to the Corinthians and Ephesians is observed by St. Jerome
to come very near the style of this epistle, and to contain a purer
vein of Greek than is found in the rest of St. Paul’s epistles.
Our apostle having been now two years a prisoner at Rome, is at
length set free, and soon after departs to visit other parts of
the world, for the further divulging the gospel, but into what
particular parts is variously conjectured; some think into Greece,
and some parts of Asia, where he had not yet been; others will have
it that he went preaching, as well into the Eastern as Western
parts of the world; for in his epistle to the Corinthians it is
said, that Paul being a preacher both Eastward and Westward, taught
righteousness to the whole world, and went to the utmost bounds of
the West. That he went into Spain, may be gathered both from his
own words, as intimating so to do, and also from the testimony of
other authors, as Theodoret, who writes, that he not only went into
Spain to preach, but brought the gospel into the isles of the sea,
and particularly into our island of Britain; and more particularly
in another place, he reckons up the Gauls and the Britons amongst
those people to whom the apostles, and especially the tent-maker,
as he calls him, had divulged the Christian faith.
Farther mention of St. Paul we find none till his next and last
coming to Rome, which is said to be about the 8th and 9th years of
Nero’s reign; and he came in the fittest time to suffer martyrdom
he could have chosen; for whereas at other times, his privilege
of being a Roman citizen gained him those civilities which common
morality could not deny him, he had to do with a person with whom
the crime of being a Christian weighed down all apologies that
could be alledged; a person whom lewdness and debauchery had made
seven times more a Pagan than any custom or education could have
done. What his accusation was, cannot be certainly determined,
whether it was his being an associate with St. Peter in the fall
of Simon Magus, or his conversion of Poppæa Sabina, one of the
Emperor’s concubines, by which he was curbed in the career of his
insatiate appetite. Neither can it be resolved how long he remained
in prison, what the certain time of his suffering was, and whether
(according to the custom) he was first scourged; only Barentons
speaks of two pillars in the church of St. Mary, beyond the bridge
in Rome, to which both he and St. Peter were bound, when they were
scourged.
It is affirmed that St. Paul and St. Peter suffered upon the same
day, though different kinds of death. Others will have it that they
suffered on the same day of the year, but at a year’s distance; and
others affirm that St. Paul suffered several years after St. Peter;
but all agree that Paul, as a Roman, had the favour to be beheaded,
and not crucified. His execution was at the Aquæ Salviæ, 3 miles
from Rome; and he is said to have converted the three soldiers
that guarded him thither, who also suffered for the faith. Some of
the fathers add, that upon his death there flowed from his veins
a liquor more like milk than blood, the sight whereof (saith St.
Crysostom) converted the executioner.
He was buried about two miles from Rome, in the way called Via
Ostiensis, where Lucina, a noble Roman matron, not long after
settled a farm for the maintenance of the church. Here he lay
but indifferently entombed for several ages, till the reign of
Constantine the Great, who in the year of our Lord, 318, at the
request of Sylvester, bishop of Rome, built a very sumptuous
church, supported with a hundred stately pillars, and beautified
with a most rare and exquisite workmanship, and after all richly
gifted and endowed by the emperor himself. Yet was all this
thought too mean an honour for so great an apostle by the emperor
Valentinian, who sent an order to his Præfect Salustinus, to
take that church down, and to erect in its room one more large
and stately, which, at the instance of the Pope Leo, was richly
adorned, and endowed by the Empress Placidia, and doubtless, hath
received great additions ever since, from age to age.
Thus was brought up, became converted, and a preacher of the
gospel, and thus was put to death and buried, this great apostle
of the Gentiles, superior in learning and natural parts, and not
inferior in zeal to any of the rest of the apostles.
THE
LIFE AND DEATH
OF
JUDAS ISCARIOT,
OR THE
LOST AND UNDONE
SON OF PERDITION.
[Illustration]
GLASGOW:
PRINTED FOR THE BOOKSELLERS.
THE LOST
AND
UNDONE SON OF PERDITION.
It is to be observed, that the Scripture makes mention of three
Judases; the first is Judas Maccabeus; the second Judas the son of
Joseph, the reputed father of our Lord; and third, Judas Iscariot,
the son of a Tanner, living in repute at Joppa, or Japho, a
beautiful sea-port on the west of Canaan, about thirty-four miles
North west of Jerusalem, from which it was seen, as it stood on
a hill amidst a delightful plain. Here Peter restored Dorcas to
life, and received the messages of Cornelius. In the time of the
Antichristian war of the Croisades, or Crusades, Lewis of France,
and Godfrey of Boulogne, and others, repaired and adorned it; but
in these unhappy times, what was one year a beautiful city, was
oft in the next a heap of ruins. At present, and for ages past, it
hath but a bad harbour, and is remarkable for nothing but ruinous
remains of antiquity. This Judas who betrayed our Lord, was his
mother’s first child, who dreamed that the child in her womb
would prove both a thief and a murderer, and bring her and her
generation to shame and disgrace: which so terrified her, that she
was like to go distracted; but her husband strove to pacify her,
bidding her leave it to God the wise disposer of all things, who
may take it away in its infancy or endue it with more grace than
ever to be guilty of such dishonourable actions.--This somewhat
quieted her, and she was soon after delivered of a lovely male
child; but under his left breast was the following curious marks
viz. a cross, a gallows, two daggers, and several pieces of money:
this likewise terrified his mother, who concealed it from her
husband, determining, as soon as she was able, to go to a magician
and know the signification of these surprising marks. The child
being circumcised, and she purified, according to the old Jewish
custom, she dressed herself in disguise, put a veil on her face,
and taking with her a kinswoman, went to the magician’s, and being
introduced to him, she related her dream, her fears and the marks
upon her son, desiring the interpretation of the dream, and the
signification of the marks.
The magician replied, I am no interpreter of dreams, neither do I
justly know the signification of marks; and the whole of your story
appears as strange to me, as it can be amazing to you; but if you
can tell me when the child was born, I will calculate its nativity,
and see what it pretends. He then called for pen, ink, and paper,
and sitting down, calculated his nativity; and when he had finished
it, he shook his head, and his countenance waxed pale; which being
perceived by Judas’s mother, she said unto him, do not deceive
me, but tell me true, hide nothing from me, whether it be good or
evil.--Then, said the magician, to your sorrow, I have seen the
rules of the planet that reigned predominant at your son’s birth,
that he would prove a thief and a murderer, and what is worse, he
will, for lucre, betray the Lord of Life; for which act he will
afterwards despair of mercy, lay violent hands on himself and
come to a shameful end.--These words pierced the mother’s heart,
who wringing her hands, wished she had never been born, rather
than to have been the mother of such an unhappy child; and asked
the magician what she could do to prevent the bringing of shame or
disgrace on her family? He told her he knew no way of prevention,
but by laying violent hands on it, which might be now easily done
in its infancy and in a manner so as not to be discovered. To this
she replied, that she would not for ten thousand worlds commit such
an act of violence on her son; for if her husband had the least
suspicion of it, he was so fond of Judas, that he would never be
reconciled to her any more; yet for the sake of her family, she
would by some means or other prevent it without destroying it; and
then told the magician, that if she had a small boat made like a
shell, with a cover to go down close that no water might get in,
and a little vent to let in air at the top, and room in it to lie
soft and easy, she might without danger send him down the river
Jordan, and so commit him wholly to the protection of providence,
which might conduct him to some distant shore, into the hands
of some tender persons, and thereby preserve his life; and if
he afterwards commits those base actions the shame will fall on
his own head, as no one will know from whom he is descended. The
magician highly commended her for her invention, and said he would
procure such a boat for her; and she promising him a good reward
for his assistance, returned home. After she was gone, the magician
sent for one Rot, a very cunning Artist, a Joiner by trade, who
undertook to make the boat, drawing out with his pencil, the form
of it, carried it home with him, wrought upon it in private, and
having soon finished it, brought it to the magician’s house, who
paid him largely for it, and sent a servant to the house of Simon,
who told Judas’s mother, that the matter which his master and she
spoke of was now finished. She understanding him, went next morning
to the magician’s house, viewed the boat, and liked it well, saying
it was very convenient for the end intended, but seemed perplexed
how she should do it privately, and keep it from discovery, as
death was the consequence thereof. Her kinswoman begged her to
leave that to her, and all should be safe enough; for we will feign
the child sick for a day or two, in the meantime we will make some
inquiry in the city for the dead body of some poor male child which
we will buy of its parents, and have it privately brought to our
house to be buried; in the meantime we will dispatch your son to
sea, and make him believe the other child to be his, and that he
died during his absence; so having it buried, the matter can never
be brought to light.
The mother liked the contrivance, and going home with a promise Of
a great reward, and her friendship for life, she swore her servants
to secrecy, and then said she, we must act in this manner. When
your master comes home at night, I shall put on very dejected
looks, and When he asks the cause, I shall tell him that Judas
is not well, and that I am apprehensive of his death, which you
must all testify and confirm. She accordingly put this scheme into
practice at night, when her husband did all he could to comfort
her, telling her that they were young, they might, be parents of
many children: and going up stairs to see the child, the maid then
pinched its neck till it was black in the face, and thinking it
in convulsions, gave it over to death. As soon as he was gone out
in the morning, the mother and kinswoman took the child and went
to the magician’s house, in order to put the child to sea. They
put on him many warm and rich garments, with an upper coat of oil,
that no water might penetrate it; and the magician, on a piece of
parchment, wrote the following words:
MY NAME IS JUDAS.
which his mother sewed round his neck and put him into the boat,
and shut down the cover. At parting with the child the mother was
almost distracted, wringing her hands and weeping bitterly, but
being comforted by the magician and her kinswoman she was at last
pacified, and desired to go home, as she could not bear to see the
child put into the water, so she and her kinswoman departed home.
The magician then took the boat and carried it down to his own
garden, at the foot of which ran the river Jordan, and putting it
in where a strong stream ran, it was soon carried out of sight.
The mother when she got home fainted away, but was revived by being
informed by her maid servant, that during her absence they had
almost brought the matter to a close, having found a neighbour’s
male child, who had died the day before, and was just of the same
age as Judas, for whose body they had given the parents a small
sum of money, and paid the expense of burying a coffin full of
bones, by way of a blind: and the only thing that remained was to
deceive her husband, and get this child buried under the sanction
of Judas’s body.
The father coming home at night, and finding his wife in tears,
soon guessed the dismal cause; and inquiring of the servants, they
with dissembled grief informed him, that the child died in the
morning soon after his departure. The man was much affected with
the loss of his child, and thinking to prevent his wife’s grief by
the sight of the body he had it removed to a kinsman’s house, and
in a day or two interred it from thence, supposing it to be his son
Judas.
By this time Providence had conducted Judas, alive and well, unto
the coast of Iscariot, a kingdom in Palestine, where Pheophilus the
king often used to recreate himself, in beholding the ships pass
and repass at sea. It happened that the very day that Judas was
cast on the coast, the king and his nobles came on that diversion,
and as they were standing on the top of the rock, looking into
the sea, the king espied a little boat floating upon the water,
and thinking it to be a chest of some wrecked ship, he ordered
a servant to put out a boat and fetch it; which being done, and
brought to the king, he ordered it to be broken open; when to their
great surprise, they found a lovely babe, who look’d up, and smiled
in the king’s face. Then said the king to the child, _welcome as
my own child_; and expressed much joy in being providentially sent
to preserve the babe’s life, and taking it up in his arms, said if
thou wert a child begat by me, I could not esteem or value thee
more. Then he espied about its neck the aforementioned parchment,
viz:
MY NAME IS JUDAS.
Well, said the king, as thy name is Judas, I will now double name
thee, and then called him _Judas Iscariot_, because he found him
near the coast of that name. He was then brought to court, treated
as the king’s own child, and at a proper age educated well, and at
last became a man of learning and genius and behaved himself so
wisely, that the king made him his principal steward.
Judas being arrived at this rank, still coveted greater, and
remembering the queen one day said, that if the prince, her son
died, Judas should be her heir, he therefore set about contriving
to kill him, accordingly he professed great love and friendship
for him; and one day being walking together, Judas took occasion
to quarrel with the prince, and maliciously slew him, thinking all
would go well with him if he was dead.
Behold the serpent, which the king
Long nourished in his breast,
Grown warm, strikes forth his baneful sting,
And robb’d him of his rest.
Though none accused him of the murder, yet his conscience so stung
him, that he soon quitted the kingdom, leaving all his pomp and
finery behind him, and changing his name, took upon him the mean
employ of a servant, wandering about from place to place, until
at length he arrived at Joppa, the place of his nativity; here he
soon got a place in a nobleman’s family, where he behaved so well
as to gain the esteem of his lord and lady, and all that knew him.
One day it happened that as his lady was walking abroad big with
child, she longed for some fruit, which she saw in Judas’s father’s
garden, bidding him go and buy her some. He took the money, but
was resolved to steal the fruit; and going to the garden, broke
down the fences, which as he was doing his father came out, and
seized him for the robbery; and Judas to extricate himself from the
hand of justice murdered his father upon the spot, and immediately
escaped to Theba, a city about seventy-six leagues distance. Here
he continued four years, in which time the noise of the murder
being blown over, he returned back again, and got another place in
a nobleman’s family, where he lived sometime, till his own mother
accidentally seeing him fell in love with and married him.
About five years after they had been married, one morning in bed
Judas’s shirt bosom lay open, when she saw under his left breast
the marks he was born with; upon which she waked him in an agony,
and told him the whole story of his birth, and the part she had
acted therein. Judas heard this with wonder and astonishment, and
on his part confessed to her the many crimes he had been guilty
of; after which she desired him to depart from her, and seek mercy
of God in another country; protesting she would never be carnally
known to him any more.
Judas full of grief and remorse of conscience, left Joppa, and
wandered about like a pilgrim, till he heard of a mighty prophet,
called _Jesus of Nazareth_, in the land of Judea, who wrought
many miracles, and wonderful works; to him he went, and liking
his doctrine and seeing his miracles, he begged of our Lord to
be admitted one of his followers: Our Saviour chose him to be
one of his disciples, and gave him the charge of what money or
provision he carried about with him. There is no evidence that his
religious instructions, or his preaching the word, or miracles,
were inferior to those of his brethren: but covetousness still
reigned in his heart. Notwithstanding all this Judas could not
forget his covetousness, for when Mary Magdalene brought a box of
costly ointment, to anoint our dear Lord’s feet, at the house of
Simon the Leper, Judas was highly offended thereat, because the
value thereof was not put into his bag. But our Lord knowing his
covetous and wicked heart, sharply rebuked him; at which he was so
enraged, that he in revenge premeditated, and put into execution,
the worst action of all his life, and going to the chief priests
and elders, he said unto them, what will you give me, and I will
betray him they call Jesus into your hands? And they agreed with
him for thirty pieces of silver; or £3, 8s. 5d. English money.
The love of money is a rock
Which causes care and trouble,
And he that hasteth to be rich,
He makes his sorrows double.
Money’s a most alluring bait,
Conducive unto evil,
For this base Judas sold his God,
Himself unto the devil.