that his very bones might be told and lots should be cast for his garment Is not this Jesus whose doctrine I preach unto you This is the Master whom David invites us to hear speaking in the person of God To day if you hear his voice harden not your hearts as your Fore-fathers have done in the desart where I was made angry against those who durst distrust my power and censure all my workes for the space of forty yeares Their infidelity shall not go unpunished I will make them know that I can revenge my self in my wrath I sweare they shall not enter into the place of rest which I had prepared for them Behold dreadfull words and you will doe well to be warned by their loss lest you be excluded also from that place of repose which is offered to you As it availed them little to give ear to the relation of those who returned from the land of Promise and informed them of the true state of it because they would not believe what was said so it is not enough to heare the Gospel preached it must be received humbly to the end you may obtaine by faith the fruition of that repose which is spoken of in the passage I alledged It cannot be that repose which God assumed after he had made the world that being no other thing then a cessation from work nor is it likewise the repose of the Sabbath whose institution was before the birth of David In summe it is not that repose which our Fathers tasted in the Land whereinto they were led by Ioshua for that long since is past therefore it must needs be that the Psalmist speaks of another repose more holy a Sabbath more excellent which appertains to the people of God and in which the Just do eternally repose from all their labours as formerly our Lord did repose the seventh day from all his works Moyses could not bring us into that place where this divine Sabbath is celebrated Jesus Christ entred there the first to open it to those who should receive his doctrine This is the Priest deserving adoration who to purifie heaven and earth and to reconcile man to God has not not made use of the bloud of goats and bulls but of his owne which he has shed to the last drop upon the Altar of the Cross The high Priest of the Law was obliged to offer Sacrifices for his own sins as well as those of the People Jesus Christ is the Sovereign high Priest pure holy unpolluted uncapable of any spot consequently needs not offer any victime for himself he hath not received his Priest-hood by way of a carnall birth and succession as the Priests according to Aaron did but hee has been established eternal Priest according to the order of Melchisedec as we learn by those words of the Psalmist which you confess are to be understood of the Messias Our Lord hath sworne thou art an eternal Priest according to the order of Melchisedec If the Levitical Priest-hood which the people received together with the Law guided to perfection that is to say gave true Justice what need was there that another Priest should come according to the order of Melchisedec and if the Priest-hood be transferred it then follows that the Law is also changed because these two things are inseparably linked together Now that there has been a translation of the Priest-hood 't is not to be doubted since he of whom that passage I alledged speaks was of the Tribe of Iuda and not of Levi out of which Moyses ordained that the Priests should be chosen Observe also that the Leviticall Priest-hood was not established by oath as is that which I treat and this circumstance shewes the sanctity and immutability of that thing unto which God has pleased to unite it There were to be many Priests according to the order of Aaron because they were mortal But the Priest-hood of Jesus Christ is eternall as well as himself he has alwaies power to guide those to eternall salvation who believe in him He is alwaies in the functions of his Priesthood that is to say in continual oblation of himself to God and in prayer without intermission for hee that sayes Eternal Priest sayes also Eternal Oblation The Levitical Priests stood during the exercise of their Functions Jesus Christ having once offered the Hoast of his body is seated at the right hand of God according to the words of the Psalmist The Lord said to my Lord Take thy place till I have put thy enemies under my feet Be not you of that number my deare Brethren you that are descended from Abraham the Father of the Faithfull you whose Ancestours have been so holy you to whom those promises were made and for whom Jesus Christ principally came doe not permit strangers to carry away the benediction due to lawful children and having hitherto born the heavy yoke of Moyses doe not fear now to submit your selvs to that of Jesus Christ which is so light and pleasing And in this you will even obey Moyses by whom as you know God promised That after many ages hee would raise a Prophet of your Nation to whom hee would have you attend as to himself The Apostle spake much after this manner his discourse raised great Disputes amongst his Auditours some blaming what others approved some believing others continuing obstinate S. Paul finding hee could gaine little upon them hee told them freely I know well that ye will fulfill the prophesie of Esay to whom God spake in these tearms Goe to the Children of Israel and tell them You shall hear with your ears but shall not understand with your mindes you shall see with the eyes of the body but not with those of the soule for the heart of this people is suffocated with fat they have heard with their ears against their wills being incensed have shut their eyes for feare they should see by their eyes take in by their eares consent by their hearts and wills and so work their conversion and their cure The incredulous Jewes were extreamly offended at these words and more which he added viz. That the news of salvation should be carried to the Gentiles who would imbrace it This discourse gave occasion of much dispute to the Audience who not being able to come to an agreement every one returned home possessed with different thoughts and opinions Hitherto we have proceeded securely following the steps of Saint Luke who ends here his story and leaves the Apostle in the Confusion of Rome where he saies he remained two years and during that time preached the Doctrine of Jesus Christ without any let Receiving with freedome all those who came to see him Hence what concerns the rest of his life we know little yet I will endeavour to ground what I shall adde more of this Subject either upon certaine traditions or from his owne Epistles In the second Epistle which he writes to Tymothy his dear
THE LIFE Of the Apostle S T PAUL Written In French by the famous Bishop of Grasse and now Englished by a Person of Honour LONDON Printed by James Young for Henry Twyford and are to be sold at his shop in Vine Court Middle Temple 1653. To the Right Honorable EDWARD Lord VAVX Baron of Harroden c. My Lord HAving obteined by meanes of Your most noble Lady a view of this choise piece which through Your hands presents in our idiome Saint Pauls Life in whom wee Gentiles are so highly concerned My Reverence to the blessed Apostle and my Duty to my Countrey emboldened me to publish this elaborate transposition of Your Lordships out of French into English to a common perusal of all our Countrey-men who with S. Chrysostom ought to delight more in him and in his simple yet grave stile then all the swelling Criticismes or vaine Philosophy of posteriour Writers That I acquainted not Your Lordship with the publishing I finde examples of great Saints to have paralleld my adventure as of Saint Amand to S. Paulin who having published his Epistles sent him a fardle of them which he would have forgotten to have been his own if the veracity and authority of the Publisher had not forced his acknowledgment That Your Illustrious Consort gave me your Book to read and if upon dicussion I should esteem it able to bear the rubbs of rigid Censurers to print it was her commendable tenderness in order to Your Lordship and Christian providence in order to the Publique warranted by Great Saint Augustine in his 7th Epistle to Marcelline who desires severe Judges as Over-visours of his learned Workes and S. Ambrose to S. Sabinus Epist 63. gives the reason Because a mans own writings deceive him errours easily escape him as Children though deformed delight their Parents so ill digested conceits flatter the Contriver This Work for the subject commandeth Devotion and Reverence in the Reader for the accurate delineation of his Life and learned intermixtion of other contemporary Occurrences deserve so ingenuous and pious a Translator as Your Lordship In lieu of Translator I might beg leave to say Interpreter for You have not onely given us in English the things signified in the French which is the duty of a Translator but you have rendered the very mentall Conception of the Author which in Aristotles stile is the office of an Interpreter and in this much obliged all especially him who had the priviledge to suck the first morning sap which by all duteous expressions I must confess who am Your Honours Most obliged and faithfull Servant F. D. THE LIFE of the Apostle S. PAUL I Undertake to write the life of Saint Paul which containes the History of the Church in her Infancy Affection I confesse interesses me in this Subject yet I fear not to be suspected of any because I dive only into pure Sources and scarce say any thing that is not warranted by the authority of the Holy Ghost In this work you may behold both the power and wisdom of God in the Establishment of the Evangelical Doctrine and all those vertues which belong to a perfect Minister of the Gospel I need not go about to colour or disguise any matter herein or seek excuses For discretion marches here with zeal simplicity with prudence meekness with power and command The Synagogue is here demolished Idolatry overturned Philosophy confounded and the Cross triumphant Nor is this done without great opposition of the Infernal Spirits for they arm against one poor man the covetousness of the Priests of the Law the pride of the Pharises the envy of their Doctors the superstition of the people the authority of Magistrates the Insolency of Princes and the malice of false Brothers In the end they seem as it were victorious having brought Saint Paul to dye in the Capital City of the world But they are deceived in their malice The blood which the Apostle shed is the seed of Christians and by his death the Church takes possession of Rome The Ancient Philosophers were careful to write the lives of some particular persons illustrious either for their vertues or remarkable for some accidents of their lives to serve for a model or patterne of imitation by which they might arrive to the same glory much more ought Christians to endeavor to make known those Heroes of the Church whose whole actions have been examples of sanctity and in whom God would shew the power of his grace and the great wonders of his mercy For my part I have resolved hence-forward to labour in such glorious subjects I confess I ought not to begin my Apprentiship with the life of Saint Paul Yet the particular devotion I have for that great Apostle has prevailed over the knowledge of my weakness and makes me hope those Readers who are reasonable will excuse the zeal of a Disciple for his Master The Holy Ghost according to the promise of our Saviour was descended upon the Apostles in the form of fiery tongues and had fitted them with so Divine a light and Heavenly vigour that Saint Peter who trembled at the voice of a Woman in the house of the High-Priest did not then fear the fury of the Princes Doctors Pharises nor of the people but in the middest of Jerusalem he preached there aloud that Jesus Christ whom they had crucified was the Son of God and the Messias promised to their fore-fathers At his first Sermon there were three thousand persons converted and at his second which he made after that famous miracle of the lame man at the Gate of the Temple where he went up to prayer with Saint John he gained five thousand souls Every day the number of the faithful increased And the Sanctity of their lives served not a little to confirm the Doctrine which they professed The faith of Jesus Christ united them in so strict a bond that laying aside all difference in respect of body minde and fortune they had but one heart and one soul They heard the instructions of the Apostles with great respect and they practised them with so much fidelity that no earthly consideration could change them they imployed almost the whole day in prayer in the Temple where they met together and where they praysed God with one mouth and with one heart They assembled together sometimes in one house sometimes in another where they received the holy Eucharist and their repast was ever seasoned with an Evangelical frugality Their simplicity was without art their meekness without affectation and all their actions so full of great examples of vertue that the people of Jerusalem loved them and bare them great respect Wealth the origin and cause of quarrels and divisions amongst men was the Chain which united that new association for Charity made all things common amongst them The rich were ashamed to be so because they believed in him that was born and died as the poorest of men They sold their Inheritances and thought
there in the world any thing comparable to the glory of her Temple All Nations acknowledge this and these things being without dispute you need not fear any can attempt against the honour of that Divinity which you serve therefore take heed you undertake nothing rashly It is certaine these men whom you have brought hither to destroy are not guilty of any blasphemy against your Goddess Wherefore if Demetrius and those of his trade which follow him have any dispute with them why should you for their particular interest make this a generall cause Are there not persons ordained to decide causes and Magistrates who have power and ought to determine such differences But if there be question of any other thing you must remit the clearing of it to a lawfull Assemby and not treat of it in this which seemes to be altogether seditious Consider therefore well that we are responsable for the evill which may happen upon this and we run the hazard to be accused of sedition since we can give no good account of this dayes tumult This discourse appeased the people and happily saved the disciples of the Apostle who took resolution to leave this City that he might execute his former design of visiting the Churches of Achaia Macedonia and goe to Hierusalem from whence he proposed to himselfe to goe to Rome but without doubt in another manner then we shall see him conducted thither He left his dearly beloved Timothy to governe the Church of Ephesus whom Eusebius will have to be the first Bishop of that place He remained with them near three years and during that time Apollo of whom we have spoken came to Corinth to preach the Gospel the which he performed with so much eloquence as many taken therewith and judging of things only by apparance beâ—an to despise the Apostle who had taught them the same verities but in a more plain way accommâ—dated to their weakness Those who loved the memory of their first Master and remembred his holy waâ—… of struction defended him with a little too much heat insomuch as their Church began to be in some danger of Schisme the sequel whereof might have proved very dangerous Besides this disorder there was a man amongst them who had abused the wife of his Father They differed also much in opinions about the use of meates offered to Idols and there was some abuse in the banquets which they call Agapes that is to say Charitable where they took irreverently the Holy Eucharist There was moreover a great division amongst them by reason of Sutes of Law pleaded before Judges that were Gentiles these brought a scandal upon the Doctrine of the Gospel which recommends to the Professors nothing more then charity and the contempt of worldly goods These disorders obliged Saint Paul to write his first Epistle to the Corinthians There he fulminates excommunication against incestuous persons even to the terrour of the most confident and to let them know what they were to expect for it was neither out of the heat of zeale nor interest or compliance but to vindicate the honour of the Church and to save him whom for a time it was necessary to put into the hands of the Devil to the end he might not for ever remain so He rebukes the Corinthians who by their bitterness in Law-Sutes dishonoured the name of Jesus Christ And told them It was very ill done to plead one against another but much worse and more considerrable to doe it before Judges who were Idolaters That they ought rather to choose the meanest persons of the Church to accord their differences who would be capable enough to judge of such temporall things the Faithfull being onely to judge the World and the Devils He put them in minde that before Baptisme they were soyled with abominable ordures but by their spiritual regeneration they were become the Temples of God and the members of Jesus Christ therefore this glorious quality obliged them to be pure and that their bodies were not given to serve fornication it being not their part to dispose of them but our Lord and that God would raise them again He instructs married people also to use marriage as a holy thing and permits them to separate themselves that they may be vacant in prayer which he means should be done but for a term of time and then to return to their conjugall society as an innocent remedy against incontinence Notwithstanding he protests that he permits it them by indulgence because the severity of Christian Lawes in marriage allow the use of it onely for the generation of children but mans infirmity requires it that he might resist temptations so that as Saint Augustine hath since said the sanctity of Nuptials render pardonable that which properly appertains not to marriages From this Subject he passes to treat of Virginity which he councels by his example and by reason in that it does perfectly withdraw one from the tye of creatures and cares of the World Those who are of opinion that S. Paul was married should doe well to blot out the words he sets down in this Epistle if they will defend so new and ill grounded an opinion Notwithstanding he leaves this Angelical rather then humane forme of life under the bare terms of Counsel and protests there is no precept of our Lord for it that he onely counsels it as believing it better and of more advantage to the Corinthians He exhorts Widows to continue in their widowhood and if they cannot keep the purity of that state to espouse themselves to our Lord that is to say with a Christian intention and with such as believe in Jesus Christ and not for sensuality Concerning meats offered to Idols he teaches them that the use is indifferent in it self but yet they ought to abstain from them lest the simple people who conceive them forbidden should be scandalized to see them eaten and they themselves may thereby take occasion to eat them after a superstitious manner To confirme this Document he represents unto them That in delivering them the Gespel he would not suffer them to furnish him with necessaries for his subsistence although he had right to receive nay indeed to require it That he seemed to be a Jew amongst the Jewes and not to observe the Law amongst those that knew not the Law In fine that he made himselfe all things to all to gaine all men to God But there is nothing he reproves with so much fervour as the irreverence which they committed before their approach to the Holy Table He shewes the institution of the Eucharist and sayes That as often as we eat it we announce the death of our Lord untill his comming again that is to say this Sacrament is the lively commemoration of the death of Jesus Christ and so a participation of his body and blood offered upon the Cross He concludes That he who drinks and eats this unworthily is guilty of the body and bloud of our Lord