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this last is the last notice of St. John which we have in holy Scripture, except what is contained. in the book of the Revelation.

As you very well know, St. John was an evangelist as well as an apostle, i. e. was the writer of the gospel which bears his name: which, (as it was written many years later than the other gospels, and after that grievous heresies had sprung up to trouble the Church,) so is it, in an especial sense, full of divine doctrines, so much so that it was called in the early Church the Spiritual Gospel. Whereas the other evangelists had spoken chiefly of the human nature of Jesus Christ, St. John spake chiefly of His divine nature: whereas they had spoken of His birth as the Son of man, St. John spake of His eternal generation, as the Onlybegotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds. Whereas the other evangelists had written chiefly of His miracles, St. John writes chiefly of His discourses and so of other things, whereas they had written chiefly of the words of the ordinance of the outward and visible sign of the sacraments, St. John writes solely of the inward and spiritual grace; the being born again of water and of the Spirit in holy Baptism; the eating the

Flesh and drinking the Blood of Jesus Christ in holy Communion.

Beside the gospel, St. John was the writer also of three general epistles, and of the most awful and mysterious book of the Revelation, with which the volume and canon of holy Scripture closes.

The notices of St. John in early Christian writers are not few, and are full of the deepest interest; they set before us the same character, as we gather it from the notices in the gospels, and from his own epistles: the same mixture of love and sternness; love for God and love for man, such as became the disciple whom Jesus loved; and with it a severe and stern and holy jealousy for God's truth; so much indeed is this the case in his epistles, that they, (the epistles of him who said, “God is love,") have in them, one may almost say, the most severe and awful rebukes of the sin of heresy and false doctrine which are to be found in holy Scripture.

After our Lord's ascension St. John is said to have continued some years in Jerusalem; he is then said to have preached the gospel in Parthia; but the chief sphere of his apostleship was the Lesser Asia, and especially Ephesus, and the

countries round about.. In the second general persecution of the Christians, under Domitian the Roman emperor, St. John was sent as prisoner to Rome, where he was cast into a caldron of boiling oil, but was, by special miracle, preserved alive. It is with reference to this especially that St. John is called a martyr, i. e. a martyr in will, although not in deed; Almighty God being pleased to prolong his life to extreme old age, as the last of the glorious company of the Apostles. St. John was upon this banished to the Isle of Patmos, where he saw the visions of which we read in the book of the Revelation. He afterwards returned to Ephesus, where he wrote his gospel against the blasphemous heresies which had grown up; and probably also, his epistles.

St. Polycarp (who was a disciple of St. John, and ordained by him bishop of Smyrna, and who was also a martyr) relates that, on one occasion, when St. John was about to enter into a bath, seeing Cerinthus there, (who was the chief teacher of the heretical and blasphemous doctrine which denied the Godhead of Jesus Christ,) St. John started back, and said, "Let us, my brethren, make haste and depart, lest the bath, wherein is Cerinthus the enemy of

the truth, should fall upon our heads;" which quite agrees with what we read in St. John's epistles : "Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ ?" "He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son." "Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God; he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: for he that biddeth him God speed, is partaker of his evil deeds." And as this sets forth the zeal of St. John for the truth, so do the other notices of him set forth his fervent love. An early Christian writer says, "that when St. John was returned from his exile in Patmos to Ephesus, he visited the neighbouring Churches, and observing in one of the cities a certain young man, he commended him, in the presence of the Church, to the care of the bishop of the place; who, taking the charge of him, instructed him and baptized him; at length the bishop giving the young man his liberty, he fell into evil company, and joined himself to men, not only otherwise of evil and corrupt lives, but who were robbers; and became their

captain, and led them in all their acts of murder and robbery. Some time after, St. John came to the city, and enquired for the young man. The bishop with concern replied, that he was dead, (meaning that he was dead to God,) and was joined to a band of robbers. Upon which, St. John took a horse and guides, came to the place where the robbers were, and being seized by their sentinels, he desired to be brought to their captain, who, when he saw him, fled through shame: but St. John pursued him, desiring him not to fly, and promising him pardon from Christ, by whom he said he was sent; upon this he stayed, and in the greatest distress threw down his arms, and embracing the apostle, he groaned, and shed many tears. Upon which St. John, assuring him of pardon, prayed for him, and brought him back to the Church." Another early Christian writer says, "That when age and weakness grew upon St. John at Ephesus, so that he was no longer able to preach, or to make long discourses to the people, he used always to be carried to the assemblies of the faithful by his disciples, with great difficulty; and every time said to his flock only these words: 'My dear children, love one another.' When his hearers, wearied with hearing always

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