Si autem hoc propter tumultus populares non finitur, plebes tamen admoneantur, ne illa loca frequentent, ut qui recte sapiunt, nulla ibi superstitione devincti teneantur. Et omnino nulla memoria Martyrum probabiliter acceptetur, nisi aut ibi corpus aut aliquae certae reliquiae sint, aut ubi origo alicujus habitationis, vel possessionis, vel passionis fidelissima origine traditur. Nam quae per somnia, & per inanes quasi revelationes quorumlibet hominum ubique constituuntur altaria, omnimode reprobentur. These altars were for invoking the Saints or Martyrs buried or pretended to be buried under them. First they filled the Churches in all places with the relics or pretended relics of the Martyrs, for invoking them in the Churches; and then they filled the fields and high- ways with altars, for invoking them every where: and this new religion was set up by the Monks in all the Greek Empire before the expedition of the Emperor Theodosius against Eugenius, and I think before his above- mentioned Edict, A.C. 386.
The same religion of worshiping Mahuzzims quickly spread into the Western Empire also: but Daniel in this Prophecy describes chiefly the things done among the nations comprehended in the body of his third Beast.
THE END OF THE FIRST PART.
PART 2.
OBSERVATIONS UPON THE APOCALYPSE OF ST. JOHN.
CHAPTER 1.
INTRODUCTION, CONCERNING THE TIME WHEN THE APOCALYPSE WAS WRITTEN.
IRENAEUS introduced an opinion that the Apocalypse was written in the time of Domitian; but then he also postponed the writing of some others of the sacred books, and was to place the Apocalypse after them: he might perhaps have heard from his master Polycarp that he had received this book from John about the time of Domitian’s death; or indeed John might himself at that time have made a new publication of it, from whence Irenaeus might imagine it was then but newly written. Eusebius in his Chronicle and Ecclesiastical History follows Irenaeus; but afterwards in his Evangelical Demonstrations, he conjoins the banishment of John into Patmos, with the deaths of Peter and Paul: and so do Tertullian and Pseudo-Prochorus, as well as the first author, whoever he was, of that very ancient fable, that John was put by Nero into a vessel of hot oil, and coming out unhurt, was banished by him into Patmos. Though this story be no more than a fiction, yet it was founded on a tradition of the first Churches, that John was banished into Patmos in the days of Nero.
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