which she shakes off the Old Man to cloath her selfe with the New that all those who received it were thereby interred with Christ and as they had part in his death they should also share in his Resurrection if as Christ being once dead dies no more they shall likewise being once delivered from the yoak of sin and there dead in baptisme commit sin no more This discourse prepared them with holy dispositions to enter into that celestial bath They received holy baptisme and the holy Ghost descended upon them rendered them Prophets and made them speak unknown tongues the Apostle desirous to gain all the other Inhabitants and principally the Jewes went to their Synagogues every Sabbath for the space of three moneths proving unto them by invinsible reasons and with an undanted courage the truth of the Doctrine he preached But though he convinced them all yet he gained few of them many remaining obdurate and perverse even to the blaspheming of Jesus Christ which obliged this faithful servant of his to separate himself from amongst them together with those Disciples who believed and were converted by his discourse He chose for the place of his preaching the School of a Sophister called Tyrannus either because he was converted to the faith or perhaps God had disposed him to afford this civility to his Apostle For the space of three years he omitted not a day to teach the Gospell in so much as all Asia received these delightfull tydings God confirming his words by divers miracles the very touch alone of his Handcharchieffs and Girdles healed the sick and drove the Divels out of bodies tormented by them A man named Sceva in the Acts he is called Prince of the Priests had seven Sons who made profession of being Exorcists and passed up and down for such perswading simple people to get money from them that they knew the secret of casting forth Divels When they beheld the command which Saint Paul exercised over Divels and that the Divels could not resist him whether out of Emulation or Covetousness they would needs exercise a possest person in the name of Jesus whom Paul preached The Divel who was a very cruel one answered them that he knew Jesus Christ and Paul but for them he scorned their Exorcismes and flew upon them with that violence as they were forced to save themselves by flight out of the house naked and much wounded This accident comming to the knowledge of the Iewes and Gentils that dwelt at Ephesus much astonished them and made them highly to honour the name of Jesus Christ Many amongst the faithfull were seized with a holy feare which made them confess publickly their misdeeds It is observed in Saint Matthew that those who went to present themselves to the Baptisme of Saint Iohn confessed their sinnes and in my opinion one passage explicates the other Saint Luke seemes also to distinguish the first from those others whereupon he sayes that they acknowledging the errour and abomination of Magick to the which they were much addicted burnt all their wicked Books and there were so many of them and those so rare as they were valued at a vast sum of money It is not to be wondred at for Ephesus at all times was much addicted to Magick Characters were there sold to obtaine victory in their publick games Suidas relates how an Ephesian at the Olympick Games overcame 30. Champions at wrestling that a Milesian trying with him and no odds being betwixt them the Judges doubted that he had characters about him as indeed they found and taking them away he was easily overcome Plutarch sayes that by the name Ephesian Devils were cast out of bodies which they possest Eustathius observes that there were writings about the feet middle and crown of the Statue of Diana Apollonius Thianeus accomplished the corruption of this great City for he taught Magick publiquely and was so honoured there that they erected him a Statue as unto a God The happy progress of the Gospel there was stopped by great persecutions raised by the rage of the Iewes against the Apostle Writing to the Corinthians he sayes The toyle he there underwent was such as life became wearysome to him and that he had fought against wilde beasts But I conceive this ought to be understood Allegorically and not literally wicked and cruel men being ordinarily in the Holy Scriptures termed wild and furious beasts Demetrius well deserves this name This man was a Goldsmith by profession and had great trading in workes of silver which the Gentiles offered to Diana Some say they were Images and others little Temples of the false Goddess in the form of the great one He seeing that by the preaching of St. Paul his gain with Idolatry dayly decayed assembles all the workmen that wrought under him who were many and told them They were now in danger to be reduced unto great misery for Paul declared in his Sermons that Idols made by the hands of men had no understanding much less any Divinity in them and this Doctrin once received they should not be able to get their living They must leave their trade and that Temple of Diana which Asia and other Provinces of the world adored ran a great hazard suddenly to be deprived of Reputation and Sacrifices These reasons in which they were concerned put them into fury They running about the streets like mad men cryed Great is Diana of Ephesus to see if they could excite the people to sedition and unluckily meeting with Gaius and Aristarchus both Macedonians and presently remembring them to be companions of Saint Paul whom they sought they dragged them to the Theatre to expose them to the fury of the people The Apostle hearing of the danger they were in would have gone unto them but his disciples and some others of quality of Asia that loved him hindered it and represented to him the danger he would run to be ill treated by such a multitude in commotion The Jewes were no lesse afraid then the Christians because in this occasion there was no difference made betwixt them they being no lesse enemies to Idolatry then the others So to prevent the danger which threatned them they sent to the Theatre one of theirs called Alexander to see if he could appease the people and stop the mischiefe which might arise from that sedition He a long time made signe with his hand that he had something to speak unto them But when the seditious called to minde he was a Jew they made a greater noise then before and for two hours space ceased not to cry out Great is Diana of the Ephesians At last a Magistrate being there behaved himselfe so well as he appeased the people and spake in this manner to them O Ephesians who is ignorant that knowes not how faithfully your City adores the great Diana daughter of Jupiter together with her Image sent downe from Heaven and in this worship we surpass all the people of the Earth nor is
envy jealousie and quarrels Children have been disobedient to their parents Fathers have lost the love which they owe to their children 〈◊〉 in summe the earth has beheld nothing but iniquity malice covetousness deceit slanders false accusations strifes warres murders Parricides Robberies and sacriledges During this profound darkness the Jewes have been a little enlightned Moyses by the appointment of God instructed them what they owe to him as their Sovereign and to men as their Brethren He has given them a holy law to draw them to good by reward and to divert them from evil by the threats of punishment But many are content to heare this law yet care not to observe it others that have kept it are become proud and have attributed to themselves the glory of their good works instead of referring it to God Thus all men were found to be slaves to sin and worthy of death which is the price of sin Concupiscence raigned absolutely over them and at every moment soyled them after some new manner In this unhappy condition God had pity on humane nature seeing that Philosophy could not cure the Gentiles nor the Law those who made profession of it All being intangled in infidelity as in nets he sent down his only son to the end that by his bloud he shouldleffect that which was impossible for the law to do that be himself should be given up for the redemption of all as a holy and acceptable victime to God This he has wrought by dying upon the Cross whereunto he was fastned by the envy of the Priests suborning the people so that by how much it has been heretofore infamous by so much the more is it now glorious and adorable This is the Tree on which we must necessarily be ingraffed if we will have true life Jesus Christ is dead to the end we should die with him and if this death be real and compleat we are assured to live eternally in his society for he now is living at the right hand of his Father who raised him the third day There are many now alive witnesses of this and their deposition cannot well be suspected for they are not weak persons easily to be deceived not interessed in it to deceive others These who publish this verity can hope for nothing at present but chaines persecutions prisons and all sorts of infamy It distastes all that hear it and passes for a kinde of madness Those then certainly who defend it with so much constancy and who are otherwise irreprovable in their manner of life ought to be believed as faithfull Ministers of God and not reputed as absurd impostors For my selfe I speak as an eye witness Jesus of Nazareth hath vouchsafed to appear unto me although I be but as an abortive and not worthy the name of an Apostle having so much persecuted his Church I am so much the more to be credited because I was farre from believing in him and my former actions clearly shewed the zeal I had for the Law of my Fore-fathers Open your eyes O Felix and you Drusilla who is letter insâ—ructed then he in that which I am about to say acknowledge the divine Redcemer figured in Abel killed by his brother in Isaac under the knife of Abraham in the Serpent lifted up in the desart against the biting of Serpents in Josuah when he brought the people into the land of Promise and in so many other things of our Law as were too tedious to relate He excludes no person from salvation nor chooses out one Nation more then another but by faith he will justifie all sorts of persons great little Kings Subjects rich poore so that all may come to eternall life I do require of you a thing that is not very hard believe and you shall receive innocency Believe and you shall live for faith is the life of the just mans soul Hee that lives this lise is not troubled to submit to what the Law prescribes for he knowes that he is a member consecrated to God and so not to be soyled in Formcation much less in Adultery Other sinnes which we commit are without us but when wee are given to impurity we sinne against our selves against our owne bodies ' which we dishonour and which is not made for that use but to be a Temple of the holy Ghost From the beginning of the world God instituted marriage for the propagation of mankinde hee blest man and woman and said They were two in one flesh but they must be carefull to possess their bodies in sanctity and not suffer them to follow the disorders of Concupiscence and those Brutalities which are common amongst Gentiles Their bed is holy and their conjunction not onely lawfull but honorable Death onely can dissolve them for that which God hath united who can or dare separate From thence therefore judge what a horrible crime Adultery is which makes this disunion and at the same time offends both God and the Husband Man sometimes is constrained by force to endure so great an injury and God bears a long time with those who commit it But when the measure of their iniquity is filled when they have without reflection provoked his utmost anger at last by the greatness of the punishment he satiâ—fies for his long forbearance He shewes a sinner that be was neither asleep nor blinde but expected onely his repentance He revenges himself at one blâ—w for his insolency in despising the riches of his goodness and his long patience by an adominable obstinacy O it is a dreadfull thing Felix to fall into the hands of the living God He is a Judge not to be deceived for hee reads in the depth of hearts and makes the conscience of a sinner serve against himself he has power to revenge and will do it eternally by the fire of hell which is never extinguished and by inward remorses which exceed in heat eveâ— this fire Felâ—x being touched with these last words interrupted the Apostle whom otherwise the heat of zeal would have transported to a higher pitch He had after this frequent conferences with him but they produced neither the reformation of the one nor liberty of the other Felix would have had money and the prisoner had not wherewith to content his avarice In the mean time Pallas who was his brother lost the favour of Nero the successour of Claudius and upon that Felix was recalled and Portius Festus appointed by the Emperor to succeed him No sooner came this new Governor to Hierusalem but the Princes of the Priests and the chiefest amongst the Jewes whose malice time could not sweeten addrest themselves unto him and prest him extreamly to send for the Apostle whom Felix to content them had left prisoner at Cesarea their designe was to murther him in the way which Feseus perhaps understanding told them He meant to stay onely a few daies at Hierusalem that therefore they should meet him at Cesarea where he would hear their accusations and
stand upon thy feet I have appeared to thee to the end I may ordain thee a preacher of those things thou hast seen make thee boldly to render publike testimony in all places of the world both of these and other verities which I will in due time reveale unto thee Be not affraid I will deliver thee from the ambushes and violence of the people unto whom I send thee that thou mayest open their eyes and reduce them from that deplorable siate of darkness in which they are unto the light of my Gospel that thou mayest free them from the power of the devil and place them under the protection of God to the end they may from his goodness receive remission of their sinnes and share in the inheritance of Saints by a firm faith in my name I rejected not by a misbelief O King Agrippa this heavenly vision for presently I began to preach to the Jewes of Damasco and afterwards at Hierusalem and in Judea and then to the Gentiles exhorting them to return to God by a true conversion of heart and to do workes worthy of pennance not to obtain the possession of a land flowing with milk and honey such other recompences as are promised by a carnall Law but to obtain the fruition of heaven which is infallible to those who live according to the Maxims of Jesus Christ This Doctrine is not new I have deduced it from the writings of Moyses and those of the Prophets who all speak clearly of the sufferings of the Messias of his ignominious death and of the glory of his resurrection in which order he with great reason holds the first place since hee is the first-born of God before all creatures He is begotten in light and he is come into the world to enlighten the Jewes and Gentiles to make of them but one people or rather one body of which he is the head diffusing admirable influences of a new life amongst his members for he is the new man who destroyes the old in us and who brings us all sorts of benedictions as the other had brought us all manner of miseries it is he after whom all our Fore-fathers have fighted it is he who has taken upon him that curse to which the Jews and Gentiles were subject it is he who upon the tree of the Cross has abolished the fatal sentence of death in which all men were engaged The Law of Mâ—yses had truly Sacrifices to expiate sin but that expiation was but exteriour the bloud of Goats and Bulls could not purifie the hearts of those that offered it only the bloud of Jesus Christ has this divine vertue and indeed it is onely hee that has taken away all the sins of the world It was needfull to re-iterate the Sacrifices of the Temple but this divine Priest of whom I speak being once offered hath drawn dry the very source of sinne has for ever taken away that which hindered sanctification has appeased the divine Justice opened to himself to his members a heavenly Sanctuary which till then was shut up This was figured by the high Priests entering once a year into the material Sanctuary with the bloud of a Goat offered for his own and the peoples sins for all that which our Fore-fathers beheld was in figure God would dispose them by carnall things unto spiritual by shaddowes conduct them to the light which his Son was to bring to the world in the fulness of time where he has contracted an alliance incomparably more holy and more glorious then was the first Hear what a Prophet speaks a long time before his coming Behold sayes hee the dayes approach in which I will make a new alliance with the house of Israel and Juda far different from that which I contracted with their fathers when I withdrew them from the bondage of Egypt They were not faithfull in the observation of my Law they mocked at it and I treating them as they treated me have scorned them The testament which I promise to the Children of Israel is that I will grave my ordinances in their hearts I wil be their God they shal be my people they shall not need any laborious study or serious consultations with learned Masters to be instructed in my Truthes because I will be their Tutour and by an interiour unction will teach them all I would have them to know so that one neighbour shall not teach another with trouble and one shall not say to another Doest thou know the Lord because from the least to the greatest all shall perfectly know me I will remit their offences with so full a pardon that I will not so much as remember them Behold in this passage hee speakes of a new testament the old then is to be abolished and consequently another is to succeed and to the end there should be some resemblance betwixt them it was necessary this should be confirmed by the bloud of the Testatour as that was given with a ceremony of bloud when Moyses sprinkled the people saying This is the bloud with the which the Lord confirms his alliance which he hath this day contracted with you Behold great Prince that which I preach Behold how I destroy the Law Behold how I am an enemy to God Festus unable to comprehend the sublime discourse of the Apostle interrupted him and called out O Paul thy great learning doth make thee mad thou doest utter extravagant things The Apostle humbly answered I speak nothing that is extravagant what I propose is truth and the King who has daigned me his attention perfectly knowes those things which I have said For what concerns Jesus Christ his life was so publick and so famous and the wonders he hath wrought so lately done that there is not any amongst the Jewes who can be ignorant of them Having spoken thus to Festus he addressed himself to the King and said Agrippa Doe you believe the Prophets I know you believe them Agrippa touched in his conscience and with the force of his reasons could not but answer Paul thou hast almost convinced me to be a Christian S. Paul replied I would to God great Prince that you and all here present had embraced the Doctrine which I preach and that you were like me in all but my Captivâ—ty I do not wish you the chaines I bear but on the contrary I would willingly give not onely my liberty but even my life for you At this word the King the Governour Berenice and all the rest rose up and Agrippa said to Festus That if he had not made his appeale he might be returned back absolved But the providence of God had ordained this meanes to bring him to the Capital City of the world where the Gospel which Judea would not receive should gain noble victories over Idolatry Festus willing to be rid of his prisoner imbarked him in an Affrican vessel of the city of Adrumetum and gave the charge of conducting him and others
Gods permission who would have him thereby known a viper issuing forth fastned upon his hand there hung the Islanders according to their feeble understanding judged him to be some wicked man whom the divine Justice had saved from the fury of the sea to punish more exemplarly rigorously at land But when they beheld him to shake the viper into the fire and that he had no harm by the biting of it As the mindes of the Vulgar in the same moment are capable of different impressions they presently took him for a God hidden under a humane form The marvelous cure of Publius his Father Prince of that Island oppressed by a strong Fever and Disentery increased their respect and esteem of his sanctity and caused them to bring to him from all parts diseased persons whom he restored to health by invocating the name of Jesus Christ He converted there many to the faith and at this day it is the Bulwark against the fury of the Turks who finde it a stubborn rock to resist their power by the visible protection of God He stayed there three moneths and at the end departed thence in a vessel of Alexandria which had wintred there The winde was favourable to them till they came to Syracusa where they tarried three dayes from thence coasting along the land they got to Regium and the next day arrived at Putzeoli They found Christians there who conjured him to stay seven dayes with them to which he easily condescended in acknowledgment of their charity and of the honour which they had done him The report of his arrival being spread through Rome most of the faithfull that dwelt there came to meet him some as farre as the market place of Appius and others to a structure called the Three Taverns the sight of them afforded him great consolation He with them entered into this great City which one may call the seat of Idolatry as well as of the Empire in whose conversion that of the whole world was included So great a worke required a zeale no less ardent and a minde no less cleare then that of the Apostle whom God had ordained together with S. Peter by their preaching to found the principal Church upon earth to cultivate it by their cares and as we shall see a little after to consecrate it with their bloud The Captain who conducted him remitted him with the rest of his prisoners into the hands of the Prefect of the Pretorium who was named Burrus this man was content to allow the Apostle a souldier for his guard so that though he was not intirely free yet he might go whither he pleased with his guard who was fastned to him with the same chain as the custom was but so as it hindered him not from walking he by that meanes with facility declared the Gospel to the Jewes Gentiles that lived in Rome He began first with the Jewes and the third day after his arrival assembled the principal of them together and told them That he was made Prisoner at Hierusalem and put into the hands of the Romanes by those of his own nation although he was not guilty of any crime either in word or deed against any particular person or against the Law That the hatred and fury of his accusers constrained him to appeale to Caesar that he came thither to present himself not to accuse his Country-men but onely to defend his owne innocency That he found his chain very pleasing since he bore it for declaring the coming of him who was the hope of Israel and that he might give them an account of all things hee defired them they would come unto him They answered him they had received no letters from Judea nor seen any body that had made the least complaint against him and for the rest they desired him hee would freely tell them what this new Sect was which he preached and which they understood was generally opposed with great contradiction The Apostle unable then to satisfie their desires appointed them another day when he should have more time to explicate so highly important verities They failed not to come to this conference and when every one had taken his place S. Paul spake much after this manner Brethren in the subject you desire to be instructed it is a great advantage to me and likewise a great consolation that I am not obliged to prove the principles to you from which I am to draw my Consequences You receive Moses for the Law giver and with reason esteem his words as Oracles Certainly it is most reasonable we should hearken to him whom God treated with so much familiarity upon the Mountain and by whom he hath wrought so many wonders in favour of our fore-fathers We must onely be careful that we go not contrary to the intentions of this great man He hath been faithful in the house of God but it has been in quality of a Servant He hath declared to the people the will of the eternal Father but as Interpreter He has established Purifications and sacrifices but it was onely for that time according as providence had ordained which was to preceed the birth of the new Law giver whom I preach and who is no other then Jesus Christ It is he Brethren by whom God hath vouchsafed to speake to us in these last ages having spoken in the former by the Prophets after divers manners This is the Son to the Father of that Family whereof Moses is a member This is the truth of all our figures the end of the whole body of the Law the object of all the Prophesies His death was figured in that of Abell whose innocent blood Cain spilt througy a raging jealousie Moses in delivering our Ancestors from the bondage of Egypt represents the exemption from the tyranny of sin and death wrought by him whom I preach unto you The brazen Serpent erected in the Desart which was a Cure for the biting of real Serpents teacheth us that the Son of man was to be lifted up from the Earth and placed upon the Cross and that he should prove a saving Physitian to the Mortal desease of humane nature The immolation of the Paschal Lamb the sacrifice of the Goat emissary on whom were charged all the sins of the people were the images of his bloody oblation which hath opened us the way to eternal life and which has expiated all the sins of the world The Prophet Esay seems to have beheld it with his eyes and unless you will blind your selves you must acknowledge that which he spake of a Virgin that should conceive and bring forth a Son who should be the light the hope the leader the Master and King of Nations in whom the Spirit of Wisedome Counsel and Force should reside whose feet and hands should be pierced who should be made a man of dolours a man chastised by God for the sins of his people and in whom neither beauty nor comlinesse should appear insomuch