Mother of Love but it was truly famous amongst the Christians for the birth of St. Barnaby and many other great men which she gave unto the Church In Salamina since called Constantia they preached to the Jewes and continuing their Voyage came to Paphos where God prepared for the Apostle a most important Victory Sergius Paulus the Proconsul a man stiled in the Acts with the Title of prudent desired to hear him whose reputation was so great in the Country There was a Jew called Elimas who counterfeited himself to be a Prophet but was an abominable Magician This man opposed the doctrine of St. Paul whereat he justly offended and in a tone full of authority spake in this manner O thou childe of the Devil thou man full of malice and deceit wilt thou never leave to oppose the designes of God and pervert his wayes Thou doest endeavour to hinder the Proconsul from receiving the light of the Gospel but for a just punishment thou shalt lose the light of the Sun and for a time remaine blinde The effect presently followed his words and thick scales covered the eyes of this wicked man who having feigned himself to be a God stood in need of a guide to conduct him Yet this punishment altered him not for he continued in his impiety and afterwards composed a book against the Christians However his blindness gave light to the Proconsul and finished his conversion He received with joy and admiration that verity which he saw so miraculously confirmed and afterwards became a zealous preacher of it The Church of Narbone glories to have had him for her first Bishop and the Roman Martyrologe celebrates his memory on the 22. of March but that is a dispute which I leave to Chronologers In this place Saint Luke begins to give the name of Paul to the Apostle and from thence some have drawne an argument in their opinion very strong that till then he was called Saul and that after this great conversion he took the name of his Cathecumen as the Ancient Romans did of those people they subdued by their Arms. But this is repugnant to the humility of a man who sayes of himself that he was not worthy to be called an Apostle It is more likely that the Proconsul in acknowledgement of the good which he had received from him desired him to take his name which was one of the noblest of Ancient Rome and that he accepted of it not out of vanity but because it might gaine him a better admittance amongst the Gentils to whom he was particularly to preach Some say that perhaps he received both those names at his circumcision that the one was better known before his own conversion and the other more used after this which we now relate I should be of opinion he had both those names that amongst the Jews he was called Saul and at Tharsis which was a Roman Colony he took the name of Paul it being a Roman name This dispute is of no great importance and we speak of it onely by the way After the Proconsul's Conversion his Family being also converted and many others the Apostle departed to sow the Seed of the Gospel which had so happily prospered in Cyprus in other places He did but pass by Pergen of Pamphilia judging that there was a greater harvest to be made in Antioch of Pisidia On a Sabbath-day he went into the Synagogue and mingled himself with the Assistants to hear the Lecture which was made there out of the Holy Scriptures When that was done the chief of the Assembly being willing to honour him according to the custome of the Jews sent to him and to Barnaby to know if either of them would speak Then Paul rose up and making a signe with his hand inviting silence began in this manner The Discourse I have to make unto you Men Israelites and all you who have the fear of our Lord is of so great importance as I must beg an extraordinary attention You know that God who owns to be his all the Nations of the World chose through an admirable effect of his goodness the Posterity of Abraham and Jacob to be unto him a particular people and a beloved Nation Whilest our Ancestors were captives in Egypt he took pity of their afflictions and delivered them by miracles worthy the strength of his Arme. He opened to them the bosome of the Sea and for the space of forty years fed them in the desart and with incredible patience suffered their revolts and murmurs He brought their Children into the Land of promise the which he distributed amongst them after he had extirpated seven Nations for their sakes He governed them by Judges till the time of Samuel This government not pleasing them he accommodated himselfe to their Ingratitude and chose for their King Saul the Son of Cis of the Tribe of Benjamin But he not answering to the favours received from God by his disobedience to Samuels command by his attempt to offer sacrifice to the Lord and by his other wicked actions occasion was given to reprove him and elect David of whom God himself has vouchsafed to give this testimony I have found David the Son of Jesse a man according to my own heart who will doe all my commands From his Posterity that Jesus Christ the Saviour of Israel is descended according to the promise made to our Fore-fathers John the Baptist announced his comming preaching to all people the Baptisme of pennance His Sanctity and Doctrin made men doubt if he were not the Messias But instead of attributing that honour to himself he told all his Auditors that he was not the Messias but onely his humble Precursor and that he held himselfe not worthy to unty his shooes My dear Brethren holy Posterity of Abraham t is for you that he is come T is unto those who amongst you have the fear of God that these tidings of Salvation are directed The Lawe given to Moses upon the Mountaine is holy no doubt since the Author of it is holy But that onely exhorts men to Sanctity and cannot give it by any peculiar efficacy of its owne nature It forbids our consent to the motions of concupiscence but does not furnish us with force to withstand those furious assaults Concupiscence is a Monster too strong for it a poyson which surpasses all its remedies a yoak of death which the Law alone cannot break Our Fathers have groned under the weight and have found it as difficult as shameful Notwithstanding it was good and even necessary that our Nation should remaine long under this captivity to the end men acknowledging their incapacity of observing the precepts of the Lawe and the weaknesse of the Law in it selfe might have recourse to that Physitian and Redeemer who is able to cure all their evils and free them from their servitude This Physitian this Redeemer is Iesus Christ which I announce unto you it is he who offers unto you the perfect liberty of
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
this unknown voyage he spent eight yeares during which time the Church lost many of her Masters and Children or rather sent them to heaven by a glorious martyrdom The death of S. James who was called the brother of our Lord according to the testimony of Jesephus himselfe drew upon the city of Hierusalem the horrid calamities of that famous siege which ruined it intirely Hee had governed that Church twenty nine yeares with so great a reputation of sanctity that the people when hee walked in the streets thought themselves very happy if they could but touch the hemm of his garment Eusebius and before him Hegesippus sayes that he was sanctified in his mothers womb that he ever abstained from all sort of liquours which might cause drunkenness and from flesh that a rasor never toucht his head that hee was never in the bathes and that by his long continuance in prayer there was a scale like to the skin of a Camel grown over his knees The Scribes Pharisees alwaies the same could not support the credit reputation of this man who converted sinners by his example as well as words Wherefore in a great assembly of the people they endeavoured to perswade him publickly to profess Judaism which hee refusing was forthwith precipitated from the top of the Temple where at the foot a dyer with a Lever killed him out-right We have a Canonical Epistle of his in which hee labours principally to prove the necessity of good works to refute the error of Simon the Magician who said faith alone was sufficient to salvation After him Simon the son of Cleophas also called the brother of Jesus Christ because he was his cozen was chosen Bishop of Hierusalem S. Barnaby the faithfull companion of the Apostle in his peregrinations at the same time time received also the crown of martyrdom in the Isle of Cyprus On the other side Mark the disciple of S. Peter and one of the Evangelists after he had governed the Church of Alexandria with great sanctity was taken on a Sunday by the Gentiles who put a rope about his neck and so dragged him for two dayes together about the streets and in rough and uneven places where in the end he finished his life The Christians that were under his conduct led a marvelous holy life Philo the Jew composed a book expresly in their praise called The Contemplative Life wherein hee gives them the name of Essens taking them for Jewes because in that time they retained many legal Ceremonies I know there are great disputes among learned men upon this passage but since I write not for them it were to little purpose to go about to cleare tha difficulty more curious then profitable wee shall doe better to return to Rome where the Church was agitated with a horrible persecution Nero in the tenth of his Empire increasing in wickedness as he grew up in years gave fire himself to the Citie of Rome The streets were too narrow for him and he had a mind to rebuild it that it might bear his name The fire began in that part of the Cirque which joyned to the Mounts Palatine and Caelius and from thence meeting with Magazines filled with combustible matter and being carried with the winde which began to rise it spread it selfe with such violence that remedies were too late to resist its fury The air ecchoed with the lamentable cryes of Women and children who in that apprehension of fear knew not whither to go for safety and hindered those that would have helpt them for whilest some either expected or would secure others they so troubled one another that they found themselves encompassed with flames In the narrow streets where there were many turnings the throng was so great there was no passing When men were gotten so far as they thought the fire could not reach them then they were suddenly surprised by it as it seemed rather to flie then to creep along Many to save their wives perisht themselves and others would not out-live them although they might easily have been saved Fathers lost their lives staying by their children in fine never was seen so horrible a spectacle such as would have brought water or pulled down houses before the fire were hindered with Officers who at the corners of streets throwing about fiery balls cryed out that what they did was by order meaning by the command of the Emperour who as is commonly reported during this sad calamity was singing on the stage the Burning of Troy Notwithstanding he sought to suppress this opinion causing many hutts to be built in his gardens for those who had lost their houses by the fire Of fourteen quarters which composed the city there were but four left intire The houses of three of them were intirely levelled with the ground and in the other seven there remained onely the tops of buildings half burnt and ruined Thus all the riches heaped together since the foundation of the Common-wealth of so many Statues so many Pictures and other other rarities transported from all the Nations of the world of so many Temples built with such magnificence and by the Superstition of the people rendered so famous and renowned there remained onely a little heap of Ashes a sad example of the vanity of all humane things But to see that great City all in flames was not so dreadfull as afterwards to behold a great number of Christians tormented by Nero as authors of the fire without distinction either of age or quality and adding derision to his cruelty hee commanded some to be covered with the skins of wilde beasts to the end they might be worried to death by fierce dogs Others he nailed upon Crosses and caused their bodies to be rubbed over with pitch and other things apt to take fire that in the night time they served for torches to light those who passed by whilest they consumed like living holocausts for the defence of the name of J. Christ His gardens were the theatre of this abominable execution Although the Christians were odious to the Romanes who distinguished them not from the Jewes Hereticks of that time whose abominations indeed by right deserved their publick hatred yet they had compassion of these for every one saw they perished not for their own crimes but to satisfie the unsatiable cruelty of the Emperor who would justifie himself at their costs This was the first persecution in which God would try his Church amongst the Gentiles It was a while interrupted by a conspiracy discovered against this Tyrant in which Seneca being accused to have a hand was forced to make satisfaction with his life let out by his veins a greater resolution could not be desired then what he shewed in his death but me thinks 't is yet to be deplored since this constancy was only Philosophical not Christian Plautus Lateranus whose Palace was afterwards changed into a Church which yet bears the name of Lateran many other persons of quality perished for
knowne hee had been Prince of the Priests I had born him more respect knowing that it is written Thou shalt use no malediction or injurious word to the Prince of the people This answer did not appease those spirits so that he was fain to have recourse to a pious and prudent artifice to escape out of their hands He knew in that Assembly there was a mixture of Pharisees Sadduces who were much averse one to the other by reason of their difference in opinions and manner of living Now to break that union wherein he saw them combined to ruine and to oppose the Gospel he spake in a loud voice That he saw in his cause they would change a particular interest into an affaire of Religion that he was of the sect of the Pharisees and son of a Pharisee and that in hatred because he believed and taught the resurrection of the dead which the Sadduces denyed as well as the immorality of the soul they brought him there unto Judgement Presently the effect followed as he foresaw The Pharisees and Sadduces began to rise up one against another the Pharisees in opposition to the Sadduces rather then out of love to the Apostle said We find not this man guilty of any crime How do we know that the Spirit of God or some Angel hath not spoke unto him Being thus uncertain let not us oppose him So the Assembly brake up but with so much heat of contestation that Lysias fearing lest the Apostle might be torn in pieces conducted him into the Cittadell The night following our Lord appeared unto him and said Be thou constant as thou hast born testimony of me in Hierusalem thou shalt also do the same in Rome This vision replenished his joy and wonderfully fortified his courage against the obstacles which hee found afterwards in his preaching Certain Jewes whom zeal had made more furious then the rest laid an ambush for him the next day whereinto he must needs have fallen if divine Providence had not discovered it A nephew of the Apostle coming to the knowledge of it went to advertise him that for certain there were forty men who had vowed neither to eat not drink till they had killed him and to execute their designe it was agreed that the Priests and Antients of the the Synagogue should demand a second Assembly to examine better his crime or his innocency and upon the way as he should come to it they would kill him S. Paul was not negligent in sending his Nephew unto Lyâ—…as to give him notice of this who found it so probable as he gave full credit to it and immediately ordered that two Captains should take two hundred foot and as many Lanceers with seventy horse which were to be in readiness to depart the third hour of the night to conduct the Apostle unto Cesarea and to deliver him there into the hands of Felix the Proconsul doubting that he should not be able to defend him from the violence of his enemies might afterwards be accused to have delivered him up to their fury for a summe of money This Felix was brother to Pallas favorite of the Emperour Claudius and by his recommendation had obtained the Government of Iudea of which his birth but more the infamy of his manners rendred him most unworthy He had debauched Drusilla sister to the young Agrippa who for love of him left her religion and Azisis her first husband King of the Emesâ—eus Tacitus speaking of him sayes that to the baseness of a servile minde all the insolencies and cruelties of a Tyrant were joyned After the death of Jesus Christ God began to make the Jewes to feel the just punishment of their abominable parricide by the evil usage of those Governours whom the Emperours sent unto them Hierusalem heretofore the School of Piety was now become the receptacle of Magicians Murtherers and Impostors In the Temple upon solemn Feasts horrible murthers were committed and they were sure to escape punishment if they could content the avarice of Felix in this point a worthy successour of Cumane under whose government the Iewes had suffered all sorts of outrages The Souldiers who had charge of the Apostle arrived safe at Cesâ—rea and gave unto Felix a letter from Lysias in which he wrote That finding the man whom he sent ready to be slain by the Jews in a sedition stirred up against him he forced him out of their hands and the rather because he understood be was a Citizen of Rome and searching into the matter of his accusation found it was about some questions of the Law and for the rest hee was not guilty of any crime deserving either death or imprisonment besides he had notice that ambushes were laid to kill him hence he was necessitated to send him thither advertising his accusers to repair unto him there to produce their depositions Felix having considered this letter caused S. Paul to be committed to the Pretorium that is to say the Palace built by old Herod there to be kept till his accusers appeared at the time assigned them The fifth day Annanias and divers old men that were of the Council called by the Iewes Sanhedrin who understood the affaires of religion arrived at Cesarea They brought with them an Orator called Tertullus to plead their cause and when Felix gave them audience he spake in this manner Since the divine Providence and the goodness of Emperours most prudent and excellent Felix have constituted you Governour of Judea we have seen Justice flourish again Discord which had made desolate this poor Province has been bâ—nished and the disturbers of publick quiet have met with punishments due to their crimes whilest honest people are seen to live in security You are not content to apply remedies unto things present and past but your prudence extends even to things to come and dissipates tempests before they arise This conduct of yours gives us a great respect to your person and if we should not adde to it an extreme love for the continuall acts of grace we receive we were the most ungrateful of men We are in hope you doubt not of it and we easily perswade that in our affairs but principally our selves in publick affairs we may assuredly have recourse to your protection There will never be presented an occasion of more importance then this which has brought us hither before you since the interest of State and of Religion are both in agitation at this time We will not longer abuse the honour you do us in hearing this cause and in one word we will tell you the subject of our complaints which we doubt not but you will judge to be reasonable This lewd man you behold here before you teaches the world that pestilent doctrine of the Nazarean Sect in which the revolt against a lawfull Prince is joyned with impietie against God After he had spread his poison over all the earth he came to Hierusalem if he could to corrupt Religion at
do them justice They obeyed this his order coming to the appointed place repeated with much heat those accusations which before they had deposed without any more proofe this second time then they had done at the first The Apostle answered likewise in his defence the same as before and Festus being desirous to gratifie the Jews though at the cost of the Apostles innocency and life asked him if he were not willing to go to Hierusalem to be judged there by him He answered No and that he appealed to the Tribunal of Caesar for if I have offended him as I am accused or done harm to any 't is there I will suffer death But if I be innocent of these crimes wherewith I am charged as I maintain I am and as you your selves well know no man can oblige me to suffer my self to be judged by my Adversaries And I appeal to the supream Authority of Caesar Festus surprised with this discourse and having maturely considered what he were best to do in this occasion was enforced to tell him Thou hast appealed to Caesar before him thou shalt go At that time young Agrippa came to Cesarea to salute Portius Festus together with his Sister Berenice who had espoused in her first nuptials Herod her Unckle King of Chalcides and in her second marriage Polemon little King of Cilicia This young Prince was not above seventeen yeares of age when his Father of whose death we have spoken in the first Book left him the Scepter The Emperour Claudius at whose Court he then was conserved to him all the estates of his Father except Iudea which he durst not trust in his hands by reason of his youth and the turbulent humor of the Iewes But Nero added to them many little Provinces Some dayes after his arrival Festus spake to him of the Apostle told him all that had passed concerning that business and that it was now suspended because of his appeal to Cesar Agrippa was very glad of the newes for the reputation of S. Paul had made him a long time desirous to see him At the day appointed he came to the place ordained for publick audience in the company of his Sister Berenice with whom the common rumor famed him to have greater familiarity then honesty permitted The Apostle was brought thither and Festus shewing him to Agrippa said This is the man of whom I spake to you and against whom the Iewes were so fiercely bent as they sought his ruine by all maner of means although for my part I finde him not guilty of any crime In fine I intended to send him to Caesar to whom he hath appealed but being ignorant what to write in this affaire it concerning some point of Religion about a certain man named Jesus of Nazareth whom the accused affirmes to be risen againe after his death and whom the Iewes on the other side condemned as an Impostor I am very willing to have him speak before so noble an Assembly and before a Prince well versed in all those questions Hereupon Agrippa made sign to the Apostle that he should defend himself which he did in this manner It is no small consolation to me King Agrippa that I am to speak this day before you in answer to the accusations of my enemies because you are perfectly instructed in all the questions of the Law whereof I am accused to be a publick enemy Hence also I assure my self that you by your piety being interessed in this cause will afford me a favorable hearing Me thinks I ought to be the least suspected of any person to be guilty of this crime wherewith I am charged For if my accusers would but acknowledge the truth they will know in what manner I have lived in Hierusalem all the time of my youth amongst those of my Nation I was brought up under the discipline of the Pharisees which is the sect the most pure of greatest authority in our Religion I do not believe to have done any thing contrary to the rules of my Profession which might give the least occasion to feare the judgement of men if there were question of my behaviour But all my pretended crime hath relatition to my beliefe and I finde my self reduced to a necessity of defending my self in publique because I place my hope in him who was promised to our foreFathers and from whom I expect my salvation as they have done serving God day and night and carefully observing all the precepts which he gave unto them for that end Now this hope does not terminate in this life it is accomplished in the other by the resurrection of the body which places man in a glorious State where he is to receive the recompence of his good deeds and the accomplishment of that salvation which has been here the subject of hope Behold a second crime raised against me by some who following the principles of their Sect deny what I believe and what I teach concerning this point of the resurrection What is there in it that seems to you incredible who dares say God cannot restore life to the dead who had the power to give life when he placed them in the world For the first point of my accusation I confess I have had opinions far different from that of which they would now make me guilty For sometime I believed as others did that I ought to do all things to the dishonour of Jesus of Nazareth and the more I shewed my rage against his name the more notice was taken of my piety The city of Hierusalem is witness of the violences I used I made search in all places after those who professed that doctrin I have cast many of them into prison by authority from the Princes of the Priests to that effect and when they have been condemned to death I have not only by my vote approved the sentence to be just but have been the bearer of it I went to all the Synagogues endeavouring sometimes by force and sometimes by Stratagems to make those who had imbraced the belief of the Gospel to renounce it and I esteemed it a great victory when I could corrupt any disciple of J. Christ I deserved to have continued in my blindeness and to have found in the end the just punishment of my cruelty which extended it self even to forrain and remote Cities But he whom I persecuted had compassion of my ignorance would in shewing mercy to me shew to all sinners the excess of his goodness and long patience I went to Damasco to imprison all those who believed in him and in the way about noon a great light environed me and those who were in my company we all fell to the ground and I heard a voice that spake to mee in the Hebrew tongue Saul Saul Why doest thou persecute me It is in vaine to kicke against the prickes I answered Who are you Lord The Lord replied I am Jesus of Nazareth whom thou doest persecute but arise 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