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
they understood the wonderfull things which God had wrought by them and the great Harvest they had made amongst the Gentiles to whom God had opened the gate of the Gospel for which they rendered thanks to Jesus Christ and every one took occasion thereby to be more inflamed with the love of him who rejects no person but desires that all should come to the knowledge of his name without distinction either of Sex Nation or Quality At this same time the Emperor by an Edict banished all the Jewes from Rome amongst whom the Christians found themselves comprised because there was noe distinction then made betwixt the one and the other The cause of this banishment it may be was that Saint Peter preaching the Gospel in the Synagogue many were obstinate in opposition to it and many also embraced it which gave occasion of so many disputes and troubles amongst them that Claudius to prevent the evill which might happen upon these differences and withall making little esteem of that Nation commanded them all out of the Town The words of Suetonius give me ground to attribute the banishment I spake of to this cause For he expresly saies that the Emperor drove them out of the City by reason of the continual tumults about Christ Now it is no wonder this Historian being not well versed in the affairs of Christian Religion if he explicate himself so imperfectly upon this occasion besides the Jewes were hated and contemned by the Romans Hence Saint Peter obeying the command of the Emperor left Italy and came to Hierusalem where he hapned to be by a particular conduct of the Divine Providence to assist and preside in the first Councell of the Church Certain persons coming from Judea to Antioch began both to publish that Circumcision was necessary to Salvation and that it ought to be received by those Gentiles who were converted to the faith of Jesus Christ Many of the Pharisean Sect who made profession of the Gospel maintained this Doctrine and Cerinthus afterwards a notorious Heresiarch was the chief of this faction that sprung up amongst the faithful which raised no small sedition against Paul and Barnabas To hinder what might happen upon so dangerous a division it was agreed upon by common consent that the two last and some other persons of the contrary opinion should go up to Hierusalem to consult with the Apostles and Priests of that Church about this question which had so much troubled the Church of Antioch In passing by Phenicia and the Region of Samaria Paul and Barnabas recounted to the faithful how great a number of Gentiles were converted which caused an extraordinary and very sensible joy in them Arriving at Hierusalem the Apostles Priests and the rest of the Brethren received them with testimonies of extraordinary love and respect and were much comforted to understand the great things which God had wrought by them for the establishment of the Gospel The Pharisees that were converted gave them little rest for presently upon the conversion of the Gentiles they made a great noise maintaining that they ought to be Circumcised and were obliged to the other Cerimonies of the Law of Moses This occasioned the journey of Paul and Barnabas as we have already said and thereupon the Apostles and Priests assembled themselves at Hierusalem to debate this difficulty which they did with great care Their opinions were different and every one upheld his own sense with strong reasons so that the question began to be more and more intricate the more they endeavored to cleere it Saint Peter seeing this made a signe that he would speak which he did in this manner Brethren you know long since God was pleased to make use of me to declare his Gospel to the Gentiles and conduct them to his faith I had difficulty in it at the beginning and he with drew me from that error as I have formerly told you by a vision which I had in Joppa a sheet filled with all sort of creatures by the Law uncleane A voice commanded me to kill and eat I answered that I never used to touch any meat uncleane as those were I then beheld and it was replied to me that nothing which God had purified was uncleane In the mean time I received a message from Cornelius the Centurion who by birth was a Gentile but conversing with the Jewes had learnt to live religiously and fear the true God Then suddainly I understood what was meant by the vision I came to Cesarea where I found him with a great number of his friends assembled to hear the word of life He told me that an Angell had appeared and assured him that his almes deeds and prayers were mounted up to Heaven before God and that by his command he had sent to seek me Vpon this relation I preached the Doctrine of Salvation to the company and I was happily interrupted by the descent of the Holy Ghost upon them by which they praised God in Languages unknown to them before So that I was no longer in doubt whether it was needfull to give them the Baptisme of Water having received that of the Holy Ghost which sanctified them At that time I was blamed for preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles but when I had reported to the same Church that which had happened in Cesarea every one was satisfied with my proceeding and all that heard me praised the goodness of God in that he had withdrawen the Gentiles from the darknesse of infidelity Now since he is pleased to shew them this mercy that he makes no difference between them and us and that he purifies the hearts of the one and the other by faith in his Son why then would you impose upon the faithful that which neither our Fathers nor we have been able to bear since we believe that they and we shall be saved alike by the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ The Assembly were all attentive to this discourse which Paul and Barnabas observing took the opportunity of their silence and recounted the miracles which God had wrought by their hands for the conversion of the Gentiles and having ended this relation which gave much comfort to all there present Saint James who was Bishop of Hierusalem demanded Audience and sayed Brethren I desire you to hear me Simon has related unto you how that by his Ministry God has visited the Gentiles and how those whom we thought to be wholly abandoned are now made his faithfull people and obedient to his truth The testimonies of the Prophets do accord with this his Conduct Amos saies after this I will returne and I will rebuild the Tabernacle of David which is fallen and I will repaire its ruins and I will reedifie it to the end the rest of men may seek after the Lord and all Nations by whom his name is invocated saies the Lord that does these things The work of the Lord is known unto him before the beginning of all times Let us not then
be surprised to see that happen which has been foretold so long since But rather let us bless God in that his goodness has accomplished his promises in favour of the Gentils and not through an indiscreet rigour contrary to the liberty of the Gospel distaste them in the Faith which they have embraced In this occasion to observe some moderation and neither offend the Jewes in abrogating all the Legal Ceremonies nor yet discourage the Gentils with obliging them unto observances too rigorous my advice is it will suffice to write unto them that they abstain from meats offered to Idols from strangled meats from the bloud of beasts and fornication For the Jewes who are converted they are sufficiently instructed in abstaining from those things by the Law of Moses whose Books are read every Sabbath in our Assemblies as well as in the Synagogue By this we take away all occasion of complaint that we despise his Ordinances This opinion being universally received it was thought good by the Apostles by the Priests and by the rest of the Faithful to send to Antioch Paul and Barnaby together with Judas sirnamed Barsabas and Silas men most esteemed amongst them for their piety who should carry the resolution of the Councel which they committed to writing as it is in this following Epistle The Apostles Bishops and Priests assembled at Jerusalem doe wish to the faithful of Antioch Syria and Cilicia who amongst the Gentiles have received the Faith health having understood that certain persons comming from this City have troubled you with discourses which we never gave them in charge to make unto you we thought good to assemble our selves as well to examine those difficulties controverted as to apply a remedy to the evill already spread too far And at last we have resolved to send you two Deputies our dear Brothers Paul and Barnaby together with Barsabas and Silas men who have a thousand times exposed their lives in defence of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ They are witnesses of what has passed here and we desire you will give credit to them It has seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us not to impose upon you any other yoak then that of abstaining from meats offered to Idols from strangled meats from bloud and fornication which things you shall doe well to observe So fare ye well In these decrees we may behold the Evangelical prudence of those that made them for all those things which they forbad except Fornication were indifferent in their own nature and the liberty of the Gospel permitted the use of them to the Faithful freeing them in that point from the yoak of Moses Law which forbad them to the Jewes But the Church being composed of Jewes and Gentiles newly converted it was necessary to finde some way to unite two sorts of people that were so different in their humours customes and inclinations The Jewes were bent even upon a scrupulous observation of all their Ceremonies and could not endure that any should violate them so that it was absolutely necessary to accommodate things to their weakness and on the other side they were to find out such an accommodation that might not disgust the Gentiles whose number was much more considerable and who principally were to form the Church Behold wherefore the Apostles in the Councel made choice of two or three Legal observations unto which they oblige all Christians without distinction forbidding the use of meats strangled offered to Idols and bloud For as in the ancient Law those who participated of the flesh of Sacrifices which were offered by that action entred in some sort into a society with God to whom that Sacrifice was presened and made a publique profession of the Religion where that worship was practised So the Iewes were of opinion that those who did eat of the meats offered to Idols although they were Christians did acknowledge their Divinity and did enter into a certain communion with those false Gods of which they had a strange horrour it appearing unto them an impiety altogether insupportable We see in the first Epistle to the Corinthians which was writ a long time after this Councel that the Apostle treating of this Subject gives it for a rule to the faithful in no sort to use those meats lest their Brethren should be scandalized in that every one was to follow the judgement of his own conscience it being a sin to act contrary to our own secret perswasion and belief In the Apocalips the Angel reprehended the Bishop of Thyatira that he would endure a false Prophettess to corrupt his servants by teaching them to eat of meats offered to Idols which in a word derived from the Greek are called Idolothites The Apostles therefore to hinder this division forbad the use of these meats which continued a long time in the Church as well as that prohibition of the bloud of beasts in the time of Noah a little after the deluge Some Ecclesiastical Authors and the most ancient were of opinion that by the word bloud the Apostles meant to forbid homicide but nature and civil Laws rigorously forbid that both to Iewes and Gentiles Therefore this prohibition we now mention is to be understood of the bloud of beasts and we see it renewed in the Councels of Gangren Orleans and Wormes The Pagans reproached the Christians that in their Night-Assemblies they used to kill an Infant and eat the flesh of it all bloudy But Tertullian answers them excellently That the Christians are so far from doing such an execrable homicide that t is not permitted to them to eat the bloud of beasts and therefore Executioners were wont to present it to them so to try their fidelity in the observation of the precepts of their Religion The Emperour Leo renewed this Decree with penalties against those who should violate it But a little after when the Church feared no more division and scandal being almost wholly composed of Pagans converted this Apostolical Decree against suffocated flesh was no longer observed and there are certain Fathers who alledging this passage of the Acts make no mention at all of it Nevertheless t is certain the Apostles expressed it to content the Iewes who were not permitted to eat of any suffocated creature nor of any other before they had drawn out the bloud Concerning Fornication which is the last thing contained in the Decree of the Councel the Apostles made no new precept as if till then it were not forbidden and had been an indifferent action For there is no doubt but that it is against the law of nature which in the conjunction of man and woman tends to generation of children and their education and civil societies Now Fornication is contrary to this end for those who defile themselves in that manner think of nothing but voluptuousness and those women ordinarily render themselves uncapable of conceiving by their intemperance and if they doe conceive having no certain Father their education is neglected and