5 
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and John, however, refoIut'eTy anfwered, that, as it was 
their duty to obey God in preference to man, they could 
not refrain from fpeaking the things which they had feen 
and heard, and which they were commanded to make 
known to the whole world. Some time after this, the 
caufe of Chrift receiving- continually a vaft accefiion of 
converts at Jerufalem, John was apprehended, together 
with the reft of the apoftles, and put in the common pri- 
fon. And, though they were releafed by an angel on the 
fame night, yet, upon their preaching to the people in 
the temple on the following morning, according to the 
direction of that heavenly melTenger, they were again 
ar-refted and brought before the fanhedrim, who con- 
fulted how they might put them to death. By the ad¬ 
vice of Gamaliel, however, they relinquifned that defign ; 
and, after they had ordered the apoftles to be fcourged, 
they repeated their command that they lhould no longer 
preach in the name of Jefus, and then let them go. The 
apoftles departed from the council, rejoicing that they 
were accounted worthy to fuffe-r fuch an inlult for the 
fake of Chrift; and, inltead of being difcouraged, perfifted 
with increafmg zeal and aflivity in preaching, the Gofpel 
at Jerufalem. Their firmnefs, and the fuccefs which at¬ 
tended their miniftry, foon turned the hatred of the fan¬ 
hedrim to the name of Chrift into fury; and they com¬ 
menced a violent perfecution againft his followers at Je¬ 
rufalem, of which Stephen was the firft martyr. By this 
perfecution many Chriftians were driven from that city, 
and fcattered over Judea and the neighbouring countries; 
among whom was Philip the deacon, who went to Sa¬ 
maria, where by his preaching he made a number of con¬ 
verts to the caufe of Chrift. When the apoftles who 
continued at Jerufalem were informed of his fuccefs, they 
deputed Peter and John to go to Samaria, and to com¬ 
municate miraculous powers to the Samaritan believers, 
by the impofition of their hands; and, when they had 
performed that fervice, they returned to Jerufalem, preach¬ 
ing the Gofpel, as they went along, in many other towns 
and villages of the Samaritans. From what St. Paul fays 
in the fecond chapter of the Epiftle to the Galatians, we" 
find that John was prefent at the council of Jerufalem, 
held about the year 49 or 50, of which an account is 
given in ACts xv. and he is there affociated with James 
and Peter as one of the pillars of the Chriftian church, 
who were firft apprifed of Paul’s defign to preach the 
Gofpel to the Gentiles, and were the earlieft to acknow¬ 
ledge him and Barnabas as their brother-apoftles. 
The preceding particulars contain a fummary of the 
whole of the hiltory of St. John, as it is to be collected 
from tne-New Teftament, excepting what is mentioned 
in the firft chapter of the book of the Revelation, that 
he was fent to the ifland of Patmos, on account of his 
adherence to the caufe of Chrift, and zeal in propagating 
it; and that he was there favoured with vifions and re¬ 
velations. From the united teftimony of the moft cre¬ 
ditable ecclefiaitical hiftorians we learn, that St. John re¬ 
sided during the latter part of his life in Afia, and chiefly ‘ 
at Ephefus. Authors differ in their accounts of the time 
When he left Judea; hut the moft probable relations 
affign the date of that event to the year 66, or a ftiort 
time before, when the war had broken out in that coun¬ 
try, and St. Peter and St. Paul had been crowned with 
martyrdom. In Afia, John acquitted himfelf as a faithful 
and aCtive apoftle of Jefus Chrift, confirming the faith of 
thofe who had been converted by his preceding fellow- 
labourers in the fame glorious caufe, and planting nu¬ 
merous' new churches, till the perfecution broke out 
under the reign of the emperor Domitian, in the year 95, 
when he was banifhed to the ifland of Patmos. Here it 
is probable that he continued till the death of that tyrant, 
in the year 96, when he returned to Ephefus, where he 
died about the year 100. We are not informed what his- 
age was, when called to the apoftlefhip. Some imagine 
that he was then about twenty-two ; others about twenty- 
five or twenty-fix; and others that he was about the 
H N. 
fame age with our Saviour. If, as Lardner and other jo- 
dicious critics are of opinion, none of Chrift’s apoftles, 
when called to attend upon him, were much under the 
age of thirty, John mu ft have been near a hundred years 
old at the time of his death. 
The writings which are generally afcribed to St. John, 
are a Gofpel, three Epiftles, and the book of Revelation, 
With refpedt to the Gofpel which goes under his name, 
it has been univerfally received as genuine, and confi- 
dered to be fupplementary to the Gofpels of the other 
evangelifts, containing an ample confirmation of all that 
they have faid, and valuable additions; particularly re¬ 
lating to what took place from the baptifm of our Lord 
to the imprifonment of John the Baptift, the cure of the 
man who was born blind, the refurreCtion of Lazarus, 
our Lord’s difcourfe with his difciples a little before his 
laft fufferibg, his prayer on that occafion, See. Both the 
ancients and moderns have differed greatly in opinion- 
concerning the time when it was written. The greater- 
number of the ancients, whofe teftimonies have been col¬ 
lected by Lardner, were of opinion that it was written 
after the deftruction of Jerufalem. Mi!J, Fabricius, and 
Le Clerc, maintain, that it was written at Ephefus, in the 
year 97; and Mr. Jones argues that it was written about 
the year 98, and not before 97. Wetftein thought, that 
it might be written about the year thirty-two after our 
Lord’s afeenfion; and diflikes the fuppofition that the 
apoftle drew it up in decrepit old age. Bafnage and 
Lampe were of opinion, that it was written before the 
deftruftion of Jerufalem; and this opinion is adopted by 
Lardner, who thinks that it might be written and pub- 
lilhed in the year 68. This hypothefis that author fup- 
ports by able arguments, which contain a refutation of 
the notion entertained by feveral of the ancients, as well 
as moderns, that John wrote this Gofpel with the defign 0? 
oppofing the errors of the Cerinthians, Ebionites,and other- 
heretics. He fhows its fuitablenefs to the circumftances 
of things before the overthrow of the Jews, or about that" 
time; whence we may conclude it to have been the 
apoftle’s great defign, to point out the inexcufablenefs of 
their not receiving Jefus as the Chrift, and to vindicate- 
the providence of God in the calamities which had al¬ 
ready befallen, or were coming upon, them. 
Of the Epiftles attributed to this evangelift, the genu- 
inenefs of the firft does not appear to have been at any¬ 
time difputed; and that of the fecond and third, though' 
queftioned by fome of the ancients, and afcribed by fome 
moderns, particularly Grotius, to John the elder, a dif- 
tinft perfon from the apoftle, is now very generally-ad¬ 
mitted. With refpefl to the times in which they were 
written, and the perfons to whom they were addreffed,' 
confiderable diverfity of opinion has obtained in the- 
learned world. In Lardner the reader may find thole 
opinions coliefied together, and his own conclufions de¬ 
duced with his accuftomed judgment and modefty. Ac¬ 
cording to him, the firft Epiftle was not written till fome 
time after the downfall of the Jewilh ltate, probably about 
the year 80, or later; and it was intended for the ufe of 
the churches in Afia under St. John’s infpeftion, and for 
all other Chriftians into whole hands it fliouid come. 
The fecond and third Epiftles were probably written be¬ 
tween the years 80 and 90, and we’re addreffed, the former 
to fome woman of diftinftion, ftyled the eleB lady , and 
her children ; and the latter to the beloved Gaius, who feems 
to have been a perfon in a. private ftation, of good fub- 
ftance, and a liberal difpofition. A coincidence of fen- 
timent and expreffion pervades the three Epiftles, of 
which the leading defign is, to demonftrate the vanity of 
faith feparate from morality; to promote among Chriftians 
that charity and love for which the author was himlelf 
fo eminent and illuftrious; and to guard and arm them 
againft any approaches towards an antichriftian fpirit. 
Concerning the book of Revelation, various are the 
fentiments entertained by Chriftians: many receiving it 
as the genuine production of John the apoftle and evan- 
j gelift: 
