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
announce unto us the name of Jesus Christ is he not the very same who not long since in Hierusalem shewed himself to be so cruel an enemy to it and persecuted to death all those who invoked it and the same that came hither with express Commission to apprehend all those who made profession of that impiety Whence comes this so sudden a change By what sleight has he been so quickly gained How has he so soon forgotten what he own to his Religion his Country and his own honour From thence they passed to injuries and calumnies which the Apostle generously disdained and these Storms made him take deeper root in the love of Jesus Christ Every day the fire of his zeal increased his discourse was accompanied with so forcible reasons he did so admirably expound the Holy Scriptures he unvailed with so much clearness the ancient Figures which foretold our Saviour he so plainly shewed them that he whom he preached to them was the true Messias as the Jewes not being able to answer his Arguments remained shamefully confounded After he had stayed some time with those in Damascus the Holy Ghost who conducted him put him upon the Voyage of Arabia We know nothing of what he did there but we may well believe that so ardent a zeal as his and so eminent a knowledge of divine verities could not but produce effects worthy the Doctor of Nations He returned to Damascus where he remained two years and during that time he preached the Gospel with such success that the Jewes resolved to seize upon him and to make him away The Governour whom they had gained permitted them to keep the gates of the Town guarded that he might not escape But his disciples let him down from the top of the wall in a basket He was reserved for other Combats and for other Victories and that which he had hitherto done was but a little Essay of what he was to doe in establishing the Law of him who had called him to the Apostleship of the Gentiles though he might well expect to finde more cruel and powerful enemies in Hierusalem yet he forbore not to goe thither to see Saint Peter and to doe him the honour due to the first Apostle and this not out of any vain curiosity or to receive from him the Apostolick Mission having already received it from Jesus Christ himself When he appeared amongst the faithfull every one was fearful and shunned him as a common Enemy Barnabas with whom he had studied under Gamaliel and who was converted before him presented him to the Apostles that is to Peter and James which two he onely saw in that Voyage He told them of his miraculous Conversion and what he had already done at Damascus for defence of the Gospel From that time every one looked upon him as a main workman in the Vineyard of our Lord. He stayed there but fifteen dayes in which space he disputed so efficaciously against the Jews of Greece and the Gentils that they were resolved to kill him which was the cause that obliged the faithful to conduct him to Caesarea from whence he went to Tharsis the place of his Birth He fled not from thence out of fear or to avoid danger but humbly followed the conduct of providence St. Luke makes no mention of what he did at Tharsis and we chuse rather to imitate his silence then to attribute actions to him of which we have no proof during the five yeers he abode there In the mean time those were not idle who had left Hierusalem by reason of the Persecution which happened after the death of Saint Stephen obeying herein the precept of our Saviour who wills us if persecuted in one City to fly unto another For they had preached the Faith in Phoenicia and in the Isle of Cyprus and in Antioch of Syria This Divine Seed abundantly increased in this last City both amongst the Jews and Gentils We are taught by a Tradition received in the Church that Saint Peter established there his first Seat which he held almost seven yeers and then left it to lay at Rome the Foundation of that of his Successors The newes of the good Success of the Gospel in a place so famous and so important for the East was brought to the Church of Hierusalem whereupon Barnabas a man of eminent vertue was dispatched thither to cultivate so spacious a Field At his Arrival he rejoyced to see so fair a Harvest He augmented it by his Preaching by his Example and by his Miracles but judging it was needfull to have the help of an Excellent Labourer he went to find out the Apostle at Tharsis and brought him to Antioch as to a place proportioned to his strength and zeal The Success answered his hopes There they stayed a whole yeere and during that time the number of those which were converted was found very great It was there also that the name of Christian began first to be given to the Disciples of Jesus Christ At the same time certaine Prophets arrived there and amongst them one named Agabus foretold a great famine which should happen in the time of Claudius the Emperor who Succeeded Caligula The Christians being moved with charity resolved to prevent the necessity of their Brethren in Judea and having gotten what Alms they could delivered it into the hands of our Apostle and Barnabas to carry safe unto those for whom it was gathered This occasioned them to make a Voyage to Hierusalem where Herod endeavoured to make famous his entry by the death of St. Peter But to understand this better t is necessary we take the course of this Story a little higher The Emperor Tiberius succeeding Augustus made his Reign notorious by all the cruelties which may enter into the Soules of the greatest Tyrants No condition was secure from his jealousies a Rome lost her most noble and vertuous Citizens by the impudency of Accusers who permitted innocency to be no where safe The Noble Germanicus was his Victime in the East Agrippina his wife survived him but to end her days by as cruel a death Their Sons Drusus and Nero were treated in the same manner by that Barbarian with whom reason of State which opens a passage to all the crimes of Tyrants had more power then all the Lawes of nature In fine he was the Executioner of all his Friends The obscurest corner in the Isle of Caprea could not so conceal his bruitish impurities but that the memory of them has reached even our Age and their recital would be too horrid to find any place in this History Whilest fear silenced all the World the divine vengeance which had for the space of two and twenty years made use of him to punish the sins of Rome hurryed him out of this World to a punishment due to his crimes and by his death the Universe was delivered from a most dreadful Monster Six moneths before Agrippa Grand-child to Herod the Elder was cast into prison for
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