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
THE LIFE Of the Apostle S T PAUL Written In French by the famous Bishop of Grasse and now Englished by a Person of Honour LONDON Printed by James Young for Henry Twyford and are to be sold at his shop in Vine Court Middle Temple 1653. To the Right Honorable EDWARD Lord VAVX Baron of Harroden c. My Lord HAving obteined by meanes of Your most noble Lady a view of this choise piece which through Your hands presents in our idiome Saint Pauls Life in whom wee Gentiles are so highly concerned My Reverence to the blessed Apostle and my Duty to my Countrey emboldened me to publish this elaborate transposition of Your Lordships out of French into English to a common perusal of all our Countrey-men who with S. Chrysostom ought to delight more in him and in his simple yet grave stile then all the swelling Criticismes or vaine Philosophy of posteriour Writers That I acquainted not Your Lordship with the publishing I finde examples of great Saints to have paralleld my adventure as of Saint Amand to S. Paulin who having published his Epistles sent him a fardle of them which he would have forgotten to have been his own if the veracity and authority of the Publisher had not forced his acknowledgment That Your Illustrious Consort gave me your Book to read and if upon dicussion I should esteem it able to bear the rubbs of rigid Censurers to print it was her commendable tenderness in order to Your Lordship and Christian providence in order to the Publique warranted by Great Saint Augustine in his 7th Epistle to Marcelline who desires severe Judges as Over-visours of his learned Workes and S. Ambrose to S. Sabinus Epist 63. gives the reason Because a mans own writings deceive him errours easily escape him as Children though deformed delight their Parents so ill digested conceits flatter the Contriver This Work for the subject commandeth Devotion and Reverence in the Reader for the accurate delineation of his Life and learned intermixtion of other contemporary Occurrences deserve so ingenuous and pious a Translator as Your Lordship In lieu of Translator I might beg leave to say Interpreter for You have not onely given us in English the things signified in the French which is the duty of a Translator but you have rendered the very mentall Conception of the Author which in Aristotles stile is the office of an Interpreter and in this much obliged all especially him who had the priviledge to suck the first morning sap which by all duteous expressions I must confess who am Your Honours Most obliged and faithfull Servant F. D. THE LIFE of the Apostle S. PAUL I Undertake to write the life of Saint Paul which containes the History of the Church in her Infancy Affection I confesse interesses me in this Subject yet I fear not to be suspected of any because I dive only into pure Sources and scarce say any thing that is not warranted by the authority of the Holy Ghost In this work you may behold both the power and wisdom of God in the Establishment of the Evangelical Doctrine and all those vertues which belong to a perfect Minister of the Gospel I need not go about to colour or disguise any matter herein or seek excuses For discretion marches here with zeal simplicity with prudence meekness with power and command The Synagogue is here demolished Idolatry overturned Philosophy confounded and the Cross triumphant Nor is this done without great opposition of the Infernal Spirits for they arm against one poor man the covetousness of the Priests of the Law the pride of the Pharises the envy of their Doctors the superstition of the people the authority of Magistrates the Insolency of Princes and the malice of false Brothers In the end they seem as it were victorious having brought Saint Paul to dye in the Capital City of the world But they are deceived in their malice The blood which the Apostle shed is the seed of Christians and by his death the Church takes possession of Rome The Ancient Philosophers were careful to write the lives of some particular persons illustrious either for their vertues or remarkable for some accidents of their lives to serve for a model or patterne of imitation by which they might arrive to the same glory much more ought Christians to endeavor to make known those Heroes of the Church whose whole actions have been examples of sanctity and in whom God would shew the power of his grace and the great wonders of his mercy For my part I have resolved hence-forward to labour in such glorious subjects I confess I ought not to begin my Apprentiship with the life of Saint Paul Yet the particular devotion I have for that great Apostle has prevailed over the knowledge of my weakness and makes me hope those Readers who are reasonable will excuse the zeal of a Disciple for his Master The Holy Ghost according to the promise of our Saviour was descended upon the Apostles in the form of fiery tongues and had fitted them with so Divine a light and Heavenly vigour that Saint Peter who trembled at the voice of a Woman in the house of the High-Priest did not then fear the fury of the Princes Doctors Pharises nor of the people but in the middest of Jerusalem he preached there aloud that Jesus Christ whom they had crucified was the Son of God and the Messias promised to their fore-fathers At his first Sermon there were three thousand persons converted and at his second which he made after that famous miracle of the lame man at the Gate of the Temple where he went up to prayer with Saint John he gained five thousand souls Every day the number of the faithful increased And the Sanctity of their lives served not a little to confirm the Doctrine which they professed The faith of Jesus Christ united them in so strict a bond that laying aside all difference in respect of body minde and fortune they had but one heart and one soul They heard the instructions of the Apostles with great respect and they practised them with so much fidelity that no earthly consideration could change them they imployed almost the whole day in prayer in the Temple where they met together and where they praysed God with one mouth and with one heart They assembled together sometimes in one house sometimes in another where they received the holy Eucharist and their repast was ever seasoned with an Evangelical frugality Their simplicity was without art their meekness without affectation and all their actions so full of great examples of vertue that the people of Jerusalem loved them and bare them great respect Wealth the origin and cause of quarrels and divisions amongst men was the Chain which united that new association for Charity made all things common amongst them The rich were ashamed to be so because they believed in him that was born and died as the poorest of men They sold their Inheritances and thought
Disciple he saies that God will deliver him from the Jawes of the Lyon by which probably he meanes Nero to whom he was presented for the defence of his appeal This Prince began then the third year of his Empire and whether his wicked inclinations were yet asleep or whether the continual exhortations of Seneca his Tutor withheld him or that he dissembled till his authority was better setled he gave the people of Rome some hope that under his raigne they should see a resemblance of their ancient liberty Burrus Captain of his guard presenting a sentence of death to be figned by him he cryed out I wish it pleased the gods I could not write This speech begot a beliefe in men that he was merciful but it was not long ere he gave the lye to that opinion The Iews to embitter his spirit against Saint Paul and to make the worst impressions they could in order to his ruine under colour of Justice and Piety made use of one Alliturus of their Nation who had gained great credit with the Emperor by his Comoedian Art But the Divine Providence frustrated their wicked design and made the Apostle obtain there a glorious pardon where in humane probability he might have expected his condemnation to an opprobrious death The feare of this his danger was so great as most of those who before was his followers especially those of Asia abandoned him Amongst these cowardly and trayterous disciples he names particularly Phigellus and Hermogenes the last of these Tertullian reckons amongst the Iewish Hereticks who denyed the Resurrection But at the same time God sent him Onosiphorus an Ephesian who assisted him with so much charity as he left the memory of it to the whole Church in his fore-mentioned Epistle The Greek Menologue saies he was Bishop of Colophones and the Romans celebrates the memory of him on the sixth day of September Besides this faithful companion he had also Titus and Tichius But those he speedily dispatched to preach the Gospel in divers places so that his care as well as authority was extended to all the Provinces of the world he preferred the interest of souls before the comfort which he might receive by the company of his Disciples nor did Jesus Christ leave this uninteressed zeal without recompence For at that same time when every one had abandoned him he dained to appear unto him that he might fortifie his courage and resolution he acquired much of glory by his persecutions the fury of his enemies which appeared at all the Tribunals of Rome made way to the preaching of the Gospel in those places where perhaps no occasion of laying it open had ever been given Many even of Nero's houshold were converted and the Apostle salutes the Philippians from them Amongst whom the Martirologue mentions one Torpetes who died couragiously at Pisa in Tuscany in defence of that Faith Tacitus speakes of one Pomponia Graecina who was accused for having imbraced a forraine Superstition and being turned over to her Husband he taking cognizance of the crime according to ancient customes declared her innocent Now that which this Author calls forraine Superstition is very likely to be Christianity I finde also great probability that Seneca and the Apostle were acquainted although the letters which are set forth under their names be counterfeit and very unworthy of either of them This great Philosopher had too nere a relation to Nero to be ignorant of the Audience he had given to a criminal whose cause the Iewes by their extraordinary Solicitation had made famous And if he were present when he pleaded there is no doubt but the force of his discourse and his subline arguments might make him desirous of a particular acquaintance with one that preached so new a Doctrine Some Authors have said it was by his meanes that Nero condemned him not to death but that is not founded upon any solid proofe nor ought we to attribute this marvelous deliveance but to the secret power of God over the hearts of Princes to incline them as he please Whilest Saint Paul laboured to found the Church at Rome he understood that the Ephesian Church was pestered with many false Doctors who corrupted that pure Doctrine which he had there preached hence he wrote unto them an excellent Epistle in the which he principally instructs them in the profound mystery of predestination and vocation of men to faith and Union with Jesus Christ so to forme an admirable body of which he is the Head and then he treats of the duty of every faithful man according to his condition A little after some Authors say before or at the same time he was not satisfied with instructing the flock himselfe but would also give unto Tymothy their Pastor wholesome rules whereby to acquit himselfe worthily of his charge I know many would have this Epistle to be almost the last that was written but in my opinion their objections are not considerable that the date we assign is more certain This difficulty appertains not to the subject we have in hand besides we have already explicated it in the paraphrase wee made of it Towards the end he desires him to come unto him which he performs leaving Tichius in his place The Philppians hearing of the Apostles necessity deputed Epaphroditus with considerable alms for his assistance The change of air with the toiles of his journey made him fall sick at Rome But S. Paul by his prayers obteined his recovery sent him back to his Church with an Epistle full of wholesome instructions against the errors of Cerinthus Simon the Magician and of other Impostors whom he calls enemies of the Cross of Christ because they taught that our Lord was not really crucified but some fantome in his place S. Ignatius Martyr forty years after wrote unto them upon the same subject and so did likewise S. Polycarpus T is true there is doubt made whether the Epistle of the former be really his The Apostle had not preached in the city of Câ—lossus which is in the Province of Phrygia yet knowing the state of that Church assembled by Epaphras hee wrote unto them that they should beware of the Jewes of the Hereticks and of the Gentiles which sowed erroneous doctrine amongst them touching Legal Observations and the worship of Angels or Genienses Philemon after his conversion very much assisted the faithful making his house the place of their assemblies giving great alms to the poor One of his slaves called Onesimus ran away from his hous in quality of a thief this slave coming to Rome fell luckily into the hands of the Apostle who converted him which obliged him particularly to write in his behalf to his master for his pardon that he would receive him again not as a fugitive but as a deare childe which hee had begotten in his chains Theodoret saies that Philemon sent him back to serve and assist S. Paul and S. Hierome reports that he was first made