assertion of the Ebionites then rising, who say that Christ was not before MARIE. Whereupon also he was compelled to utter his Divine Nativitie.
Of his three Epistles, and of his Apocalypse, shal be said in their owne places.
It followeth in S. Hierome, that In the Second persecution under Domitian, fourteene yeres after the persecution of Nero he was exiled into the ile Patmos. But after that Domitian was slaine, and his actes for his passing crueltie repealed by the Senate; under Nerva the Emperour he returned to Ephesus, and there continuing unto the time of Trajane the Emperour, he founded and governed al the Churches of Asia: and worne with old age, he died the threescore and eight yeare after the Passion of our Lord, and was buried besides the same citie.
Whose excellencie the same holy Doctour thus briefly describeth. li. 1. Advers. Jovinianum.
JOHN the Apostle, one of our Lords Disciples, who was the yongest among the Apostles, and whom the faith of Christ found a virgin, remained a virgin, and therefore is a Jo. 13, 23. 24. & c. 21, 20.a more loved of our Lord, and a Jo. 13, 23. 24. & c. 21, 20.a lieth upon the breast of Jesus: and that which Peter durst not aske, a Jo. 13, 23. 24. & c. 21, 20.a he desireth him to aske. And after the resurrection, when Marie Magdalen had reported that our Lord was risen againe, both of them ranne to the Sepulchre, b Jo. 20, 4.b but he came thither first: and when they were in the ship and fished in the lake of Genesareth, Jesus stood on the shore, neither did the Apostles know whom they saw: c Jo. 21, 7.c onely the virgin, knoweth the virgin and saith to Peter: It is our Lord. This John was both an Apostle, and Evangelist, and Prophet. An Apostle, because he wrote to the Churches as a Maister: an Evangelist, because he compiled a booke of the Ghospel, which (except Matthew) none other of the Twelve Apostles did: a Prophet, for he saw in the ile Patmos, where he was bannished by Domitian the Emperour for the testimonie of our Lord, the Apocalypse, conteining infinite mysteries of things to come. Tertullian also reporteth, that at Rome being cast into a barrel of hote boiling oile, he came forth more pure and fresher or livelier, then he went in. Yea and his Ghospel it self much differeth from the rest. Matthew beginneth to write as of a man: Marke of the prophecie of Malachie and Esay. Luke of the Priesthod of Zacharie: The first hath the face of a man, because of the genealogie: the second the face of a lion, for the voice of one crying in the desert: the third the face of a calfe, because of the Priest-hood. But John as an Eagle flieth to the things on high, and mounteth to the Father him self, saying: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. Thus far S. Hierome.
Upon this Ghospel there are the famous commentaries of S. Augustine called Tractatus in Evang. Joan. to. 9. and twelve bookes of S. Cyrils commentaries.
