conjecture from the place where it is first mentioned, (Acts iv. 36, 37.) was given him by the Apostles as an honourable acknowledgment of his charity, in selling his whole estate for the relief of the poor Christians; and upon the account of that consolation which they received thereby. 5. His first education,() Metaphrastes tells us was at the feet of Gamaliel; by whom he was instructed, together with St. Paul: which perhaps moved that great Apostle upon his conversion to apply himself to him, as the properest person to introduce him into the acquaintance of the other Apostles, and afterwards to embrace him as his chief friend and fellow labourer in the work of the Gospel. For they are both mentioned, Acts xi. 26, to have taught much people at Antioch; and that for a whole year together: and in the 13th chapter are numbered among the prophets and teachers of the Christian Church there, ver. 7, where we read that they did loveyeîv tự xvgiw, which some in a special manner interpret of the cele bration of the holy Eucharist. Here then we find them both by teaching and administering that blessed sacrament, discharging the work of a priest or presbyter, as we now understand that word. But they still wanted the Apostolical or Episcopal character. By virtue of which they might do that ordinarily, which as prophets, they could only do in extraordinary cases, and by an express direction of the Holy Spirit; namely, found Churches, and ordain Elders or Bishops in every place. This dignity therefore we are told they now received, by the laying on of the hands of the other three prophets there mentioned; namely Simeon Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, Acts xiii. 3. And from thenceforth not only their title was changed, (they being afterwards called Apostles, Acts xiv. 4, and 14) but they exercised another sort of power; ordaining Elders in every Church, ver. 23. (Apud Baron. Annal. ad an. 34, num. 262. Comp. Dr. Cave in his life, num. 2. Thus was Barnabas, together with St. Paul, first a teacher and a prophet, then consecrated to be a Bishop or an Apostle; according to the order which our Lord himself had appointed, that there should be in his Church, first, Apostles; secondly, Prophets; thirdly, teachers, 1 Cor. xii. 29. Which those therefore would do well to consider who thrust themselves at once into the highest station, and full power of the Church; not allowing distinct degrees of the same, nor by consequence successive ordinations, or consecrations to it. Whereas St. Paul, though he were called to be an Apostle, not by man, but by Jesus Christ himself, Galat. i. was yet consecrated to be an Apostle by the ordinary form of imposition of hands; after he had preached in the Church for some time before. 6. How these two Apostles travelled together, and what they did in the discharge of their ministry, is at large set down both by St. Luke in Acts (xiii, xiv, xv.) of the Apostles, and by St. Paul himself in his Epistle to the Galatians (c. ii.) in which we have the history of men truly concerned for the propagation of the Gospel; and despising not only their ease, but their very lives themselves in comparison of it. Many a weary journey did they take, and danger did they run: they preached in the day, and when they had so done, they wrought with their own hands in the night for their subsistence; that so they might not be burthensome to any, nor seem to seek their own advantage, but the profit of those to whom they tendered the Gospel. 7. Among other countries to which they went, we are told that one of the first was Cyprus, the native island of St. Barnabas: and that not of their own motion, but by the express order and appointment of the Holy Ghost. How they prevailed there, and by what miracles they made way for the conversion of it, first at Salamis, then at Paphos, we are at large informed by St. Luke, Acts xiii. From thence they fetched a pretty large compass through the Lesser Asia; and having with various success preached to several cities of it, after about three years travel(o) they again returned to Antioch in Syria, the place from which they first set out. 8. Here they tarried a considerable space, in a sedulous discharge of their ministry: till some controversies arising between the Jewish and the Gentile converts, they were obliged for the better composing of them, to go up to Jerusalem; where a final end was put to them, by a Synodical decree(p) of the Apostles and Elders assembled together for that purpose. 9., With joy they returned to their disciples at Antioch, and brought the determination of that divine Synod unto them. But it was not long ere St. Peter coming down after them, a little abated their satisfaction, whilst to please the Jewish converts he dissembled his Christian liberty, (Galat. ii. 11, 14,) and, as St. Paul complains, led Barnabas also into the same dissimulation with him. 10. And here St. Paul had occasion, first of all, to reprove St. Barnabas; which he did with great freedom, for his unseasonable compliance. But it was not very long before he had another occasion offered for a yet worse contention with him. For the next year these two holy men(r) having agreed to take a new progress together, and to visit the Churches which they had planted in Asia some years before; Barnabas was for taking his cousin Mark again with them, but St. Paul would not consent to it, because that in their former travels he had too much consulted his own ease and safety, and left them at Pamphylia, in the midst of their journey, Acts xiii. 13. 11. Being both resolute in their opinions, the one (0) Usher. Chronol. ann. 45, 46. Pearson. Annal. Paulin, ad ann. 48. (h) Acts xv. Comp. Galat. ii. (r) Acts xv. 36. Ann. Christi. L. Pearson. liii, Usserius. to take Mark, his kinsman, with him, the other not to yield to it; they not only came to some sharp words with one another about it, but went their several ways, Barnabas with Mark to Cyprus, and Paul with Silas into Syria and Cilicia, Acts xv. 36, 41. Thus after a joint labour in their ministry for almost fourteen years, were these two excellent men, by a small punctilio, separated from one another: the Holy Spirit of God intending hereby to shew us, that the best Christians are still subject to the same infirmities with other men; and therefore ought not to be either too much exalted in the conceit of their own piety, or to despise others whom they suppose to be less perfect than themselves. 12. Nor was it a small benefit which from hence accrued not only to the Church, which thereby enjoyed the benefit of these two great men much more in their separate labours, than if they had continued still together, but particularly to St. Mark; who being by the severity of St. Paul brought to a deep sense of his former indifference in the work of the Gospel, and yet not left by St. Barnabas to give. way to any desparate resolutions thereupon; became afterwards a most useful minister of Christ, and deserved not only to be made again the companion of St. Paul, Coloss. iv. 10, but to receive a very high testimony of his zeal from him, 2 Tim. iv. 11. So well does the wisdom of God know how to turn the infirmities of men to his own glory, and to the good of those who serve him with an honest and upright heart! 1. What became of St. Barnabas after this, and .whither he went, is very uncertain. Some tell us, that from Cyprus he went on to Rome, and preached the Gospel there, even before St. Peter came thither.(y) But though Baronius can by no means allow of this, yet is he content that Barnabas should be thought to have come thither after him. At least this he pre (y) Recognit. Clem. apud. Baron. Annal. ad ann. 51. num. 52, 54. Et not. ad Mart. Rom. Jun. xi. tends to be without dispute,(≈) that St. Barnabas came into Italy, and preached the Gospel in Liguria, where he founded the famous Church of Milan, as from many antient monuments and writers, says he, might be made appear; though at the same time he produ ces not one testimony in proof of it. I shall therefore conclude, until I am better informed, that St. Barnabas spent the remains of his life in converting his own countrymen the Jews; of which, as I have before observed, there were such vast numbers in that Island, and for whom we cannot but think he must have had a very tender regard. Or if we shall suppose him to have gone any farther, I presume it was only into the neighbouring parts of the Lesser Asia and Judea, where he had before preached; or at farthest into Egypt, (a) where some tell us he went, and consecrated his nephew St. Mark, the first Bishop of the Christian Church at Alexandria. 14. And in this opinion I-am the rather confirmed from the consideration of his Epistle which I have here subjoined: which seems manifestly to have been designed for the benefit of the Jews; and to shew how all the parts of their law had a farther spiritual meaning than what at first sight appeared, and were designed to lead them to the faith and piety of the Gospel. 15. In this exercise therefore he most likely spent his life; and if we may credit the relation of the Monk(b) in Surius, who writes the Acts of this holy Evangelist, at last suffered martyrdom in the psosecution of it; being at the instigation of certain Jews that came from Syria to Salamis, shut up in a synagogue where he was disputing with them, and at night stoned by them. What truth there is in this story I cannot tell; but this I must observe, which even Baronius(c) himself is forced to acknowledge, that there is (z) Ibid. Annal. num. 54. (a) Vid. n Vit. ejus. Edit. Oxon. Epist. p. 132. |