to bring his Father Jacob to him The good old man surprised with these glad tydings was overjoyed to think he should satisfie his eyes before he left this world with the sight of him whom he had often bewayled as dead he went then into Egypt and after he had lived there some years in great quiet and peace died in the arms of his Son Joseph Our Ancestors also died there and those that descended of them multiplied extreamly in a few years At last the time of the Divine promise made to Abraham drawing nigh there sate in the Throne of Egypt a Prince who had never heard the name of Joseph time having made him forgotten and seeing the daily increase of our Nation after an extraordinary manner he began to apprehend least those strangers should render themselves Masters of his country whereupon he imployed both craft and violence to work their extirpation To this end there is nothing horrid in Tyranny which he did not impose upon them But notwithstanding their labour and bad dyet they thrived so wel that it seemed rather to contribute to their increase then ruine Hence by an impious edict be commanded their Midwives to stifle all the Male Children of the Israelites and save onely the Female But this inhumane command was not obeyed and God abundantly recompenced the mercy shewed to those innocent creatures whom a barbarous Tyrant would have sacrificed to his jealousie Moses was born in this wonderful persecution His parents after they had concealed him three moneths in their house fearing least he might be discovered exposed him upon the River Pharao's Daughter coming thither to bath her self perceived the Cradle of Bull-rushes in which he floted upon the water she sent to take it up and by that means was the instrument of his preservation She was not satisfied in exhibiting an ordinary compassion towards him but tendered him with a Motherly care and of an Infant exposed she adopted him Son and Heir to a great Kingdom His Education was answerable to so high a fortune and by the progress he made in all the Sciences of the Egyptians by the excellency of his wit his solid judgement his generous courage his modest behavior and the greatness of his actions he shewed himself worthy of the Scepter ordained for him But God had other designs and would make use of him to destroy that Empire which he seemed to be chosen out to govern At the age of forty yeers God inspired him to visit those of his Nation in the places where they dwelt and there he found an Egyptian roughly treating an Israelite whence a just resentment transported him to revenge the Injury done unto his Brother by the death of him that abused him The next day seeing two Israelites quarrelling together he said to them you are Brethren why injure you one another But he that abused his Companion without cause askt him who hath made you our Prince and the Judge of our differences perhaps you will kill me as you did yesterday the Egyptian That discourse troubled Moses and by divine providence made him to fly into the Land of Madian where taking a Wife he begot two Sons He was fourscore years of age when in the Desarts of Mount Sina an Angel appeared to him in the middest of a flaming bush unconsumed This Prodigy astonished him and drawing neer to behold it at a less distance The Lord spake unto him in these words I am the God of thy Fore-fathers the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob put of thy shooes for the earth thou treadest upon is holy I have beheld the affliction of my captive people their complaints have reached my ears I am descended to deliver them from this cruel bondage and upon this occasion I will send you into Egypt Fathers and Brethren observe here that this Moses whom the two Israelites rejected with disdain saying who has established thee Judge and Prince over us was the Prince and Redeemer of the Jewish people with the assistance of that Angel which appeared to him in the burning bush Egypt wondered at the miraculous things of his Rod the Sea divided it self to make passage for the multitude he led in the Desart The rock yeilded him water for the space of forty years a celestial Manâ—◠〈◊〉 every morning from Heaven to 〈◊〉 our 〈◊〉 And a thousand other wonders â—â—â—…ered his govâ—rnment faâ—â—us May not we here behold an admirable figure of the Saviour which you have rejected notwithstanding that he came to deliver you from a more cruel captivity and more miserable then that of our Fore-fathers But this same Moses whose Doctrine you accuse me to condemn did not he promise to you him whose Gospel I now preach and whose name is so odious to you when he said God will raise from the middest of you a Prophet whom you shall hear as you hear me certainly you heard him as our Ancestors heard Moses and whilest Moses was conversing with our Lord upon the Mountain those ungratefull people inforced Aaron to make molten gods which should conduct them not knowing as they saiea what was become of Moses They adored the Golden Calf and gave that honour to the work of their hands which was due onely to their Creator This horrible Idolatry so incensed God that be exterminated this great multitude by divers punishments Two only of them that remained besides those who were born in the Desarts entered into the Land of Promise under the conduct of Joshua The assistance of our Lord ceased not with the death of this great Captain Our Ancestours alwayes found him favourable so long as they continued faithfull to his service The divers servitudes they were under so long as the government remained in the hands of Judges were onely caused by their Idolatry and prostitution to all sorts of wickedness Ease and plenty corrupted those whom the perils of Warre and feare of Enemies had kept within the bounds of fidelity They contracted unfortunate marriages with the daughters of their neighbours and that conjugall union occasioned their separation from God for by little and little they followed the manners of their Wives and to make themselves good husbands they were not afraid to become wicked men They left the God of Heaven for the stars which he had fixed there and the purity of his sacrifices for the abominations of Moloch Their ingratitude was not left unpunished for our Lord at severall times raysed Infidel Kings against them who made them know their sin by the rigour they used towards them The yoke of the Philistins was the longest and David delivered them entirely from it He was the man according to Gods heart It was he whom God placed in the Throne with a solemn promise that his Posterity should reign for ever This Prince who was as godly as valiant desired to build a house to our Lord that might be stable and firm for since they left Egypt they had adored him in a
Tabernacle which was portable God accepted his good will but reserved to his Son Solomon the glory of building a Temple that testified no less his piety than his magnificence This place could not contain him who not onely fills all things but is immense who has the Heaven for his Throne and the Earth for his Footstool Princes who are men may busie and delight themselves in Palaces built by the hands of men Our God is a Spirit which resides not in the inclosure of walls and the most magnificent works of Architecture are not worthy of his greatness It is in the hearts of men be delights to dwell but those hearts must then be innocent They must be circumcised with a spiritual circumcision of which that of the body is but the mark You have not these innocent hearts but contrarywise I may without injury call them uncircumcised because they are tyed to earthly things wherewith they are replenish'd and possess'd with a horrid envy and execrable rage against our true Redeemer You are stiff-necked and continually resist the Holy Ghost In this you shew your selves true children of your Fathers for which of the Prophets have not they persecuted Those heavenly men have all of them announced unto you the coming of him whom by a black and ungrateful Treason you have murthered you who received the Law by the ministery of Angels observe it not but most impudently break it every day Jesus of Nazareth hath been required with so much the more ingratitude as his graces were extraordinary It is in him that God hath fulfilld the promise whereof a little before I spake to you that the Scepter should alwayes remaine in the house of David For he is descended from him according to flesh although you esteemed him the Son of a poor Carpenter It is he alone that sets at liberty not onely Israel but all men that are captive under the yoke of hell and sin It is he that is descended from Heaven to establish a Coelestiall Kingdome who apprehends not the vicissitude of humane things nor is subject to the violence of Tyrants and the inconstancy of the people It is he that has proved his Doctrine by miracles and such as Israel had never found in the Scriptures nor seen in the extent of their Provinces and yet his voyce could not soften the hardness of your hearts his Miracles seemed to you to be illusions You have injuriously sullyed the innocency of his life His humility made you become insolent His sufferings made you more bitter against him his patience made you furious and you have as little respect to those who speak to you in his name since his Resurrection But you deceave your selves in your designes That party which you think to root up shall be victorious Innocency shall triumph over Calumny The Church of him that is crucified which we announce unto you shall not destroy the Law but the Law shall serve for a foundation to the Church The true disciples of Moses will acknowledge him in their legal observations and they will hear him as their Master according to that Oracle of Moses which I alledged to you Certainly no man can reprove me to have spoken a word that savours of contempt against him and the testimony of my accusers destroys it self neither their condition nor their vertue render them so credible that I need take much pains to clear my self of their calumny They say I have spoken against the Law I deny it and by my precedent discourse you may understand my opinion of it but it is rather you that one may more justly accuse for the non-observance of it The Judges and others there present hearing so bold and free a discourse and such sharp reproaches from Saint Stephen were filled with despite and fury and began to grinde their teeth against this generous Deacon unto whom God designed a more particular favour in this encounter For as he lifted up his eyes to Heaven and that his heart filled with the Holy Ghost elevated it self by sublime acts of a most pure love he saw the glory of God which so transported him as he he cryed out I see the Heavens open and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God All those who heard these last words made a great out-cry and seized upon him The Judges stopt their eares as if they had heard blasphemy and the multitude presently hurried him away out of the City to stone him There was no alteration in his countenance and if any did appear it was rather that of joy He considered the stones in the hands of those Executioners as precious stones prepared for the making up of his Crown And those that were most cruel seemed to him most merciful He sustained this impetuosity standing like a Rock that mocks at tempests or rather as a Priest who sacrificeth himself In all the time of his suffering he did not once complain and when he felt death approaching he said Lord Jesu receive my soule But when he prayed for those that stoned him he kneeled downe knowing their offence was so great as to obtain their pardon it was necessary to joyn the humility of his countenance to the humility of his heart and to use violence if it may be so said to the goodness of God He cryed out O Lord let not this sin be imputed to them It was to this so ardent and admirable prayer that God according to the opinion of divers Fathers granted the conversion of him whose life we write and whom we will call Soul for a time as Saint Luke does in the Acts. He was not of the number of those who stoned Saint Stephen yet in looking to their garments he stoned him by their hands and made himself partaker of their impiety He was Cousin to the Martyr and they were both brought up by Gamaliel in the study of the Law notwithstanding the false zeal of Religion carried him beyond the Sentiment of nature and their fellowship in studies And having once with pleasure seen the bloud of this holy Deacon spilt he became thirsty after the bloud of those who professed the same Doctrine and made himself remarkable in that bloudy persecution which was enkindled against them He brake into houses and those he took prisoners were by himself conducted into Dungeons after which he sollicited their condemnation In a word he was a wild Boar in the Vineyard of the Son of God After he had filled Hierusalem with executions he would extend his cruelty farther and to that effect demanded of the Princes Priests Commissions and Letters in his favour that he might take all those persons in the City of Damascus who beleeved in him that was crucified His rage afforded him not one moment of rest He breathed nothing but the slaughter and bloud of the poor disciples of Jesus Christ and pleased himself onely with the thought of their punishment which was at hand He contrived in his imagination how he
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
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
obedience and without murmuring or replies glorifie the doctrine of Jesus Christ and let Infidels see it belongs onely to the Gospel to produce such servants Masters do not abuse the patience of your slaves nor continually torment them let not their ears be alwaies filled with threats and reproachfull language and much less use the staffe or whip Know you have all one Master who is in heaven who from thence sees in what manner you treat them and who makes no distinction of persons in his justice give unto them those things which are necessary have a due regard of them in their health and sickness and remember that he who neglects them is worse then an Infidel for even then he renounces his faith In baptism they are made your brothers they are called to the same inheritance and that little distinction betwixt you and them in the world will quickly vanish Virgins be carefull that you be as chast in your mindes as in your bodies Study onely to please our Lord who is your Spouse and who ought to be all things to you Shun all occasions that may withdraw you never so little from him Nourish your selves with praier and consider your bodies as an enemy of whom you must be alwaies in distrust Widdows if you have children let your care be employed in governing yonr families You are deprived of a great support in the loss of your husbands but God is called the husband of Widdows and if you put your trust in him you will not be forsaken prayer ought to be your daily and nightly entertainment and let the modesty of your attire be such as by it one may judge of the inclinations of your heart and the purity of your Widdowhood All that savours either of curiosity affectation or vanity is very ill beseeming your condition You ought to be retired and to love solitude In fine if you plunge your selves in delights what exteriour profession soever you make of piety devotion seeming to lead the life of the new man yet 't is certain you are dead in the eies of God Whilest the Apostle thus discoursed the night advanced nor were his auditors at all weary to heare so admirable instructions A young man called Euthicus heard him from a window a great while but at last surprised with sleep hee fell down dead from the third story This fearfull accident interrupted the Apostle but it was an occasion to conclude his Sermon with a miracle For he went down from the room and layed himselfe upon the dead body and by that sovereigne imbrace restored him to life Then presently he went up again and after he had eaten distributed the holy bread he spake to the faithfull untill the break of day and then took his leave His Companions went to a town called Asson near to Troad and thither he came to them by land as he had agreed There they re-imbarqued together and the first town they put into was Mytilen The next day they cast anchor before the Island of Chyo the third day before Samos the fourth in the harbor of Milletum He would not go to Ephesus fearing he might there be stayed and so hindred from keeping the feast of Pentecost at Hierusalem as he had designed notwithstanding he could not pass so near this great City where he had gained such glorious Conquests without informing himself of the condition of that Church since his departure For which cause hee sent unto the Priests who governed there to come and speak with him St. Irenaeus sayes that hee convocated the Bishops and Priests of the next adjacent places The text of St. Luke speaks nothing of it but if we will consider the forme of Ecclesiasticall Government in that time there is no doubt but by that word Elders or Priests the Bishop of Ephesus who was the chief of them was comprised This news was very welcome to them and after he had imbraced them all he spake in this manner Deare Brethren being so neare I could not pass by without giving my self the comfort of seeing you and withall to assure you the holy affection I bear you is alwayes residing firme in my heart You may remember in what manner I lived since the first day I came into Asia I had nothing in my thoughts but the service of my Master and the health of your Souls I have humbly delivered a Gospel of humility The persecutions which the Jews raised against me I have opposed onely with my praiers and tears nor did they at all abate my courage At all hours on all occasions in all places both in publique and private I have preached to them as well as to the Gentiles the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ and the necessity of pennance In summe my conscience does not accuse me to have omitted any thing that might tend to your salvation At this time leaving my self to the conduct of the holy Ghost I am going to Hierusalem not knowing what in particular might befall me although in generall the Spirit of God assures me by prophetick revelations thorow all the Cities where I am to pass that I shall suffer many afflictions But I fear neither chains nor prisons nor other punishments which attend mee For I think I can endure all by the assistance of him that strengthens me and I do not regard the preservation of my life in comparison with the performance of my duty My sole ayme is faithfully to end my cariere and perform the charge which I have received of our Lord Jesus Christ to declare unto men the happy tidings of his grace I know you will see me no more and this being the last time I shall speak to you makes me beg with the more instance that you will imprint in your memories those things which I am now about to impart unto you God has raised you to the dignity of Bishops and Priests and do not think he has done it for the love of you It is for the good of his Church which you are to governe with diligence full of fidelity I will not lay before you many considerations to let you see the importance of this your duty and the horror of your punishments which will follow your negligence It is enough that I tell you this Church whereof the holy Ghost has made you Pastors to the end you govern it is the Spouse of Jesus Christ and he has shed his bloud for her You must know it is not enough to speak to the faâ—thfull you must cry out you must urge them you must conjure them you must reprove them and be not affraid to be thought imporâ—une There are soules which are presently gained and others that are not purchased but by violence and must be healed by sharp remedies have great attention therefore zeal in your conduct that you may gain every one to God Regard neither condition wit riches nor the like which may make you desist or condescend to any thing that is base
or unworthy But be you irreprehensible Labourers faithfull Stewards sincere Embassadors of our Lord for it is by you that he declares his will to men and it is at your hands hee will demand their soules Think of feeding your Flock and not how to cloath your selves with their wooll and drink of their milk There is nothing more shamefull to a Bishop or Priest then covetousness and the desire of sordid gain that justly takes away all credit from them and much weakens the force of their preaching We brought nothing with us into the world and must go out of it naked Therefore â—â—udy not to hoord up any thing but be content with moderate food and clothing seeking only to get riches of piety which is a great treasure and sufficient to satisfie a heart that is truely Christian They who desire to be rich do easily fall into the snares of the Divel and open a gap in their soules to temptation and to all sorts of bad desires and disquiets For covetousness of money is the root of all evils Yet for this we must not condemn rich men but put them often in minde that they be not proud nor put their trust too much in riches which many accidents may ravish from â—hem but rather to confide in the living God whose enjoyment can only render us truly happy You must also avoid another extremity which is the neglect of your own families for how shall he that cannot govern his own house govern well the Church Your family must be like a Church by the exemplar life of all those that are in it and your children born before your ordination must preach in silence to all the faithfull under your charge by their modesty and by the sanctity of their lives After you have been heard speak men will cast their eies upon the manner of your life and if your actions do not correspond with your words your preaching will be unprofitable Be you your selves sober to persuade sobriety chast to teach others continency patient when you suffer injuries to learn others how to bear them and modest to invite others to modesty Let your humility confound the proud and the contempt you have of riches reprove the covetous and make them ashamed use hospitality to the end you may encourage your Brethren that are able to practise it Love the poore and be ye first in their assistance that by your example others may respect help them Keep a watchfull guard upon your anger that your hands which are consecrated to bless the people never strike any body Above all avoid temporall affairs for you are Souldiers of a militia that requires you intirely and you serve a Master whom only you must study to please The sanctification and conduct of souls which he has redeemed the establishment of his kingdome by preaching his word are so glorious imployments that you ought to contemne all others though presented to you by the greatest Prince of the earth When either the glory of our Lord or charity requires you to undertake any affair be not negligent but presently quit your own repose and quiet Without such like occasions attend to cultivate the field which is appointed for you For Christians are the fields of God planted and watered by him and to him it belongs to give the encrease It suffices for your part that you omit nothing to make the Gospel flourish Be watchfull for after my departure ravenous wolves will fall upon your flocke and devoure them without pity and many false doctours shall rise amongst you who will seduce a great number of the faithfull by their false doctrine They will come with the name of our Lord in their mouthes their lookes will be modest their words Saint-like their actions wary their lives severe and they will teach nothing that is not delightfull But indeed they will be wolves in the skinnes of sheep They will be men that are lovers of themselves fraught with inordinate desires puffed up with pride obstinate in what they hold jealous of their opinions and unsatiable in praise honor and respect They will be called Masters give rules to all and concerning all things have the first place and be considered as men that had nothing of earth in them These blinde guides will lead many others so all fall into the ditch you shall see them come into houses and inquire into the greatest secrets of families not to reform the disorders but to soment them so to make benefit of their indulgence They will abuse men by their false Maxims they will make use of the simplicity of women whom they will lead by flocks aud make them believe they will free them from the burthen of their sinnes they will entertain them with a thousand vain superfluous things which shall render them alwaies more curious but never more learned in the doctrine of piety which they ought chiefly to know In fine they will oppose truth which is never favourable to them and will rise up against you without any respect to the power which Jesus Christ has given you as Jannes and Mambres did against Moyses You are not the work of men but the work of Jesus Christ that Sovereign Priest who has made you Priests to the end you continue the functions of his royall Priesthood He who is the head of Men and Angels will have you receive from him the influences of his graces to communicate them to his members you are the head of his mystical body which cannot subsist without you you are the eye to enlighten it the tongue to instruct it and the bosome to harbor it untill our Lord J. Christ be there formed Labor faithfully in a work that is so admirable be not weary to behold after a long time you have not much advanced resolve to sustain in your selves continual throws that you may beget soules to our Lord. Whilest a woman feels the pains of her childe-bearing she cries out aloud but no sooner is she delivered when she forgets all her dolours rejoices because she has brought a man into the world What then will be your joy when you shall have given children to God and how can all those agonies those disquiets those persecutions which you are to suffer before seem troublesom to you For my self I do neither glory that I am an Israelite or that I am skilful in the law nor that I have been elevated up to heaven nor that I am an Apostle nor in any other quality of my person But all my glory is that I have suffered incredible persecutions for Jesus Christ The most glorious badges of my Apostleship is to see me in nakedness to see me in want of food of drink in misery in prisons in chaines in affronts and scorns for the salvation of those to whom God has destinated the light of his Gospel It is now time that I leave you yet awake a while and call to minde the verities which I have declared unto you
during the space of three years I leave you to the protection of God who by his goodness having promised a heavenly kingdom to his servants is both faithfull and powerfull to fulfill his word For my own part I do not think any one can reproach me I have not taken gold nor silver of any one I have furnished my self and those that were with me with things necessary for our subsistance by the labour of my hands I have lived after this manner to give you example how Charity ought to be dis-interessed with the which you are to provide for the necessities of the poor and also to put you in remembrance of that excellent Maxim of our Lord Jesus Christ It is a more noble thing to give then to receive The Apostle ended this his discourse and kneeling down prayed with those who were present That expression of his when he said It was the last time they should see him caused a great resentment in them they all imbraced him with signes of great love and with teares in their eies bid him farewell They stayed all upon the shore untill they lost sight of the vessell which took its course straight to the Isle of Coo famous by the birth of Hippocrates the Prince of Physitians as also of Apelles so highly celebrated amongst Painters The next day they rode before the Isle of Rhodes renowned for her Colossus of an hundred and five foot high with an hundred of a lesser sort about it From thence they came to Patara the Metropolis of Lycia where finding a vessel bound for Phoenicia they put themselves into it He passed in sight of the Isle of Cyprus which he left on the right hand and landed at Tyre where he stayed seven dayes The faithfull there received him with extraordinary respect with expressions of much tender affection The holy Ghost had revealed to them that he was to suffer much persecution at Hierusalem and therefore they used their utmost endeavours to hinder him from going thither But the same reason invited him to make that voyage He parted thence against their wills and was brought to the shore by men women and children After they had prayed on their knees together he imbarked in another vessel and advancing with full sails landed in the Port of Ptolemais where he stayed but one day The next day he came near to Cesâ—rea the new called the Tower of Straton where the old Herod had made sumptuous works to gain the favour of Augustus Caesar from whom hee gave it the name Philip one of the first seven Deacons lodged him and his stay there was a very great consolation to the faithfull of that Church His host had four daughters who being endued with the gift of Prophesie declared unto him the evils which were prepared for him But Agabus of whom we have already spoken following the custome of antient Prophets joyned the sign to his words For taking the girdle of the Apostle and tying his own feet and hands with it sayed to those that were present Hear the Oracle of the holy Ghost The man to whom this girdle belongs shall be tyed as I am by the Jews who shall deliver him up to the Gentiles This discourse much afflicted all those who heard it and caused every one with teares in their eies to conjure S. Paul not to go to Hierusalem But his great courage could not be mollified neither by the certainty of the danger nor by their intreaties nor the tears of his Disciples He sayed to them Why will you by afflicting your selves give me affliction hinder me from giving testimony to my Master how much I love him I am not onely ready to be bound and imprisoned at Hierusalem but if I be to loose my life I shall esteem my self happy to sacrifice it for the truth of the Gospell This answer stopt the mouthes of the faithful who replied no other thing then Gods will bâ— done Some daies after he departed thence with many Christians amongst whom there was a Cyprian named Mnason with whom he was to lodg at Hierusalem THE LIFE of the Apostle S. PAUL The second Book THe Apostle S. Paul arriving at Hierusalem made it his first care to visit James called the Brother of our Lord who was Bishop thereof and in his house hee found all the Priests of the Church assembled there to receive him After he had saluted them he made an exact relation of the things which God had wrought by him amongst the Gentiles for the glory of the Gospel every one giving thanks for it to our Lord who would so deliver the world by little and little from the dark clouds of Infidelity But as the salvation of the Iews also was very considerable very important for the glory of God the progress of the Gospel to unite by little and little these two people and to make them one S. James and the Priests told him You see dear Brother the great number of Jewes who make profession of believing in Christ but notwithstanding their faith they are very zealous observers of their antient Law for the honor of which they continue a most ardent zeal Now some have made them believe that you are a declared enemy of it and teach That those Jews who are spread amongst the Gentiles ought not to circumcise their children nor practise any legal observance In fine they are perswaded you endeavour to make them revolt openly against their Law This report has scandalized and animated them against you so as we fear some troublesom tumult when they shall understand you are here and shall see you in the Assembly which cannot be hindred from being summoned upon your arrival But if you will follow our advice you may appease these spirits and purge your self of the calumny cast upon you We have here amongst us four men who are to perform a vow they have made to offer their haire to God in the Temple according to the Ceremony ordained to Nazaraeans Do you joyn your self with them in this action contribute also to the charge of the necessary Sacrifices and ohserve all that is practised in this occasion that it may be known those reports which go of you are false and that you observe the Law Nor can this give to the Gentiles any subject of murmuration or fear that the same yoke shall be imposed on them for we have determined long since as you know that it suffices for them to abstain from meats offered to Idols from bloud from strangled flesh and from fornication The Apostle was too charitable not to condescend to the infirmity of his Brethren and would not refuse to be a Jew with Jewes he that made himself all things to all men that he might gaine all to Jesus Christ The next day therefore he began the Ceremony of Purification as had been counselled him the which lasted seven dayes as we have before observed But as he was in the Temple offering the Sacrifice ordained