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immortal and incorruptible. Let me never sink under the burthen of my present infirmities and miseries; since thou hast graciously promised to reward my patience and submission with a glorious body, no more liable to pains, or diseases, or dissolution. Let me not immoderately grieve for those friends and relations that sleep in the Lord, because they shall awake at the last day in greater perfection and glory. Let not the thoughts of death be any longer uneasy to me, for that it reduces my body to dust. I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand upon the earth at the last day; and though after my skin, worms destroy my body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. Oh, let these great and precious promises so influence my life and conversation, that I may escape the corruption that is in this world through lust, and by purifying myself as thou art pure, may partake of the divine nature in thy heavenly kingdom, through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Saviour. Amen.

CHAP. XVIII.

ST. MARK THE EVANGELIST.

APRIL 25.

Q. What Festival does the church celebrate this

day?

A. That of the Evangelist St. Mark.

Q. What mean you by an Evangelist?

A. The name was at first given to all those that preached the gospel. But afterwards it came to be confined to those four that wrote the history of the life and preaching of our Saviour Jesus Christ: whose four gospels make part of the sacred canon of Scripture.

Q. What do you mean by the word gospel?

A. It is of Saxon original, in which language it

signifies good news, or good tidings. In the sacred use of the word, there seems to be a figure very common and ordinary, whereby what signifies good news is set to denote the history of that good news, as the history of the birth, life, actions, precepts, promises, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, is that gospel, which of all other relations, we Christians ought to look upon as good tidings of great joy.

Q. Of what authority are the four gospels that make part of the sacred canon of Scripture?

A. The whole church of Christ has received them from the beginning, as the genuine writings of those Apostles and Evangelists whose names they bear; and has testified that they were delivered to them by the Apostles as the foundation and pillar of their faith. They were owned as writings divinely inspired; whereupon copies of these gospels were carried by the disciples of the Apostles, or Apostolic men to all the churches they converted or established; they were read from the beginning in all Christian assemblies on the Lord's day, and cited in the second century for the confirmation of the faith, and the conviction of heretics, which is a sufficient proof, that they are the genuine works of those Apostles and Evangelists, whose names they bear, and worthy to be received as the records of our faith.

Q. What account have we of St. Mark? A. He was doubtless born of Jewish parents originally descended of the tribe of Levi. And this is very much confirmed by his style, wherein he uses the Hebrew manner of expressing himself; neither does his Roman name suggest any evidence to the contrary, because it was customary with the Jews, when they travelled into foreign parts, especially into the European provinces of

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the Roman empire, to adapt to themselves an appellation of that kind. He was converted by some of the Apostles, probably by St. Peter, to whom he was a constant companion in all his travels; supplying the place of an amanuensis and interpreter.

Q. What need was there of an interpreter?

A. Though the Apostles were divinely inspired, and had the gift of languages conferred upon them; yet was the interpretation of tongues a gift more peculiar to some than others." For Christian assemblies in those days being frequently made up of men of different nations, who could not understand what the Apostles and others had spoken to the congregation, some were enabled to interpret what others did not understand; and to speak it to them in their own native language. And it is probable it might be St. Mark's talent to expound St. Peter's discourses after this manner.

Q. Where was St. Mark sent to plant Christianity? A. He was by St. Peter sent into Egypt, fixing his main residence at Alexandria, and the places thereabout; where so great was the success of his ministry, that according to Eusebius, he converted multitudes both of men and women, not only to the embracing the Christian religion, but to a more than ordinary strict profession of it.

Q. Did this Evangelist confine his preaching to Alexandria, and those parts?

A. He afterwards removed westward to the parts of Lybia, going through the countries of Marmorica, Pentapolis, and others thereabouts: where notwithstanding the barbarity and idolatry of the inhabitants, yet by his preaching and miracles he planted the gospel, and con

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firmed them in the profession of it. And upon his return to Alexandria, he wisely ordered the affairs of the church, and provided for succession by constituting bishops, and other officers and pastors.

Q How did St. Mark suffer martyrdom?

A. About Easter, at the time the solemnities of Serapis happened to be celebrated, the people being excited to a vindication of the honour of their idol, broke in upon St. Mark, while he was employed in divine worship, and binding his feet with cords, dragged him through the streets, and thrust him into prison, where in the night he had the comfort of a divine vision. Next day the enraged people renewed the tragedy, and used him in the same manner, till his flesh being raked off, and his blood run out, his spirit failed, and he expired. Some add that they burnt his body, and that the Christians decently entombed his bones and ashes near the place where he used to preach. But all this account is given by authors whose credit we cannot depend upon; and therefore must be received with grains of allowance.

Q. Were his remains afterwards removed?

A. They were with great pomp translated from Alexandria to Venice, as is asserted by some writers; and though there is great reason to doubt the truth of this relation, yet however, he is adopted the tutelar saint and patron of that republic, and has a very rich and stately church erected to his memory.

Q. What writings did this Evangelist leave behind him?

A. Only his gospel, which was written at the entreaty of the converts at Rome, who not content to have heard St. Peter preach, pressed St. Mark his disciple, that he would commit to writing an historical account of what

he had delivered to them; which he performed with no less faithfulness than brevity; and being perused by St. Peter was ratified by his authority, and commanded to be read publicly in their religious assemblies. It may very well be looked upon as a supplement to St. Matthew's gospel; for by the light this gives, that becomes more clear and perspicuous.

Q. Why is this gospel frequently styled St. Peter's? A. Not so much because dictated by him to St. Mark, as because he principally composed it out of that account which St. Peter usually delivered in his discourses to the people, and because it received the stamp of St. Peter's approbation.

Q. What particular proof is there of his impartiality? A. In that he is so far from concealing the shameful fall and denial of St. Peter, who was his dear tutor and master, that he relates it with some particular circumstances and aggravations, which the other Evangelists take no notice of.

Q. What may we learn from the observation of this Festival?

A. That a good Christian ought to instruct by his example, as well as by his discourse. That when God tries his servants with extraordinary sufferings, he supplies them with a proportionable assistance for their support. That the light of the gospel, though admirably fitted to conduct us into the paths of happiness, yet will certainly increase our condemnation, if we do not govern our lives by the maxims of it. That we ought to be very thankful to God, for having instructed his church with the heavenly doctrine of this Evangelist, and to shew our grateful sense of this valuable treasure, by

Mark xiv. 66, &c.

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