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
Angel descended from Heaven into the prison where he was and found him betwixt two Souldiers of his guard oppressed with sleep The Dungeon was instantly filled with a great light and awaking him by a touch on the side at his command to follow him the chains fell from his hands He obeyed and passing the first and second watch came to the iron gate that led to the street which of it self also opened After he had gone some few steps this Messenger of Heaven vanished and the prisoner who till then thought he was in a dream found indeed that he was delivered out of the hands of Herod and from the fury of the Jewes He came and knockt at the door of Mary the Mother of John sirnamed Mark where many faithfull were gathered together praying for his delivery A young Maid named Rhodes knew him by his voice and presently went up to tell the Assembly some told her she was mad but she affirming that it was certainly he they replyed t is his Angel meaning him whom we call our Angel Guardian and who is given to every one of us When the door was opened and that they saw him they could yet scarce beleive their own eyes He recounted to them what had happened in the prison And giving order to make known this good newes to James the Brother of our Lord who was Bishop of Hierusalem and to the rest of the Faithfull he departed towards the Coast of Palestine there to preach the Gospel From thence he went to Rome where he began to make war against Idolatry and to establish the Seat of his Successors which might be through all Ages of the Church the Center of Ecclesiastical Unity Herod advertised of his delivery grew inraged astainst the Souldiers to whose custody he was committed He caused diligent search to be made after him but in vain and the Divine Vengeance not long after failed not to punish Herod himself For he being at Cesarea the Inhabitants of Tyre and Sydon with whom he was angry the cause is not mentioned in the History of the Acts sent Deputies to him to make their peace He gave them publick audience and to render this action more solemn would appear adorn'd in all the Royal ornaments of Majesty At his Entry the flattering people clapt their hands and when he spake they cryed T is a God that speakes and not a man This unfortunate Prince took pleasure in this Sacrilegious Adulation and with joy received the honour which is onely due to the King of Kings But at the same time the Angel of our Lord strook him with a horrible disease that from his Throne he was carried to his Bed where the worms eating his flesh made it appear that it was the flesh of a mortall man and that God is more elevated above Sovereigns then Sovereigns are above their subjects that by the least of creatures he knowes how to abate the pride of the most formidable Tyrants and that piety and justice are the most solid Bases of an Empire The persecution of this wicked man gave occasion to the Apostles to leave Judaea and divide themselves into all parts of the world for till then they had resided in Jerusalem Before they separated themselves they composed a Summary of Christian Doctrine which is called the Apostles Creed whether it were that every one made an Article or because it was the mark or as it were the watch-word whereby Christians might know one another as being souldiers of one Band. Saint Matthew wrote also before this separation the Gospel which bears his name and of which St. Hierome sayes he saw the Original in Hebrew in the Library of Pamphilius the Martyr Saint Bartholomew going into the Indies transcribed it with his own hand and it was found in the time of Zeno the Emperor with the body of Saint Barnaby In the mean time the Apostle returned to Antioch with Barnaby and another companion called John sirnamed Mark. Their return caused great joy to that Church but she enjoyed not long their presence for the Prophets and Doctors of which that Church was composed amongst whom was Simon sirnamed the Black Lucius the Cyrenian and Manahem Foster-Brother to Herod the Greek word signifies brought up with him Whilest they fasted and were busied in the Ministery of our Lord they received command from the Holy Ghost to separate from amongst all the rest Saul and Barnabas Saint Luke places them in the rank of Doctors for the work unto which he had designed them They presently obeying imposed hands upon them after fasting and prayer There is a great diversity of opinions amongst Interpreters in Explicating what the Imposition of hands signifies in this passage of the Acts and what was the Ministery in which those here named were imployed The word of the Liturgy according to some signifies the celebrating of the Sacrifice of the Mass Saint Chrysostom Explicates it of Preaching Others of any kinde of Ecclesiastical Function By imposition of hands divers modern Interpreters understand Ordination to Episcopacy Their ground is upon this circumstance of the Liturgy because the Church of Antioch did always accompany this action with fasting and prayer But although the Church doe at this day celebrate Ordinations with these Ceremonies it is not therefore to be said they were practised from the beginning nor that every time they were practised it was for Ordination They add also that there is no other passage in the New Testament which shewes St. Paul and St. Barnabas to be consecrated either Priests or Bishops One might answer that the Apostleship containes these two Orders by that power which is called per Excellentiam for the Apostles were to found particular Churches which composed the Universal Now those could not be founded without Bishops the Church being defined to be a people joyned to their Bishop They ought therefore to have that Character which is necessary for the Ordination of Bishops Certainly it connot be shewed in the Gospel that the other Apostles sent by Jesus Christ were first made Bishops and afterwards Apostles nor is there any likelyhood that the Apostleship of Saint Paul who as St. Ambrose and St. Austin say was not called by Jesus Christ mortal but by Jesus Christ totally God that is to say living by a divine life after his Resurrection did not comprise the excellency which the others had and was less extraordinary Saint Chrysostom whose authority is of great weight in what concernes the Doctor of Nations sayes that he was ordained Apostle in the time we speak of This opinion may be grounded upon this that Saint Luke in this passage ranks him amongst the other Doctors of the Church of Antioch Whence 't is probable if he had been considered as an Apostle and an Apostle of the Gentiles by eminency or if he had exercised that Function he would not have given him a Title much inferiour to the Apostleship For Saint Paul speaking of the Orders of Ministers of the Church
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
which she shakes off the Old Man to cloath her selfe with the New that all those who received it were thereby interred with Christ and as they had part in his death they should also share in his Resurrection if as Christ being once dead dies no more they shall likewise being once delivered from the yoak of sin and there dead in baptisme commit sin no more This discourse prepared them with holy dispositions to enter into that celestial bath They received holy baptisme and the holy Ghost descended upon them rendered them Prophets and made them speak unknown tongues the Apostle desirous to gain all the other Inhabitants and principally the Jewes went to their Synagogues every Sabbath for the space of three moneths proving unto them by invinsible reasons and with an undanted courage the truth of the Doctrine he preached But though he convinced them all yet he gained few of them many remaining obdurate and perverse even to the blaspheming of Jesus Christ which obliged this faithful servant of his to separate himself from amongst them together with those Disciples who believed and were converted by his discourse He chose for the place of his preaching the School of a Sophister called Tyrannus either because he was converted to the faith or perhaps God had disposed him to afford this civility to his Apostle For the space of three years he omitted not a day to teach the Gospell in so much as all Asia received these delightfull tydings God confirming his words by divers miracles the very touch alone of his Handcharchieffs and Girdles healed the sick and drove the Divels out of bodies tormented by them A man named Sceva in the Acts he is called Prince of the Priests had seven Sons who made profession of being Exorcists and passed up and down for such perswading simple people to get money from them that they knew the secret of casting forth Divels When they beheld the command which Saint Paul exercised over Divels and that the Divels could not resist him whether out of Emulation or Covetousness they would needs exercise a possest person in the name of Jesus whom Paul preached The Divel who was a very cruel one answered them that he knew Jesus Christ and Paul but for them he scorned their Exorcismes and flew upon them with that violence as they were forced to save themselves by flight out of the house naked and much wounded This accident comming to the knowledge of the Iewes and Gentils that dwelt at Ephesus much astonished them and made them highly to honour the name of Jesus Christ Many amongst the faithfull were seized with a holy feare which made them confess publickly their misdeeds It is observed in Saint Matthew that those who went to present themselves to the Baptisme of Saint Iohn confessed their sinnes and in my opinion one passage explicates the other Saint Luke seemes also to distinguish the first from those others whereupon he sayes that they acknowledging the errour and abomination of Magick to the which they were much addicted burnt all their wicked Books and there were so many of them and those so rare as they were valued at a vast sum of money It is not to be wondred at for Ephesus at all times was much addicted to Magick Characters were there sold to obtaine victory in their publick games Suidas relates how an Ephesian at the Olympick Games overcame 30. Champions at wrestling that a Milesian trying with him and no odds being betwixt them the Judges doubted that he had characters about him as indeed they found and taking them away he was easily overcome Plutarch sayes that by the name Ephesian Devils were cast out of bodies which they possest Eustathius observes that there were writings about the feet middle and crown of the Statue of Diana Apollonius Thianeus accomplished the corruption of this great City for he taught Magick publiquely and was so honoured there that they erected him a Statue as unto a God The happy progress of the Gospel there was stopped by great persecutions raised by the rage of the Iewes against the Apostle Writing to the Corinthians he sayes The toyle he there underwent was such as life became wearysome to him and that he had fought against wilde beasts But I conceive this ought to be understood Allegorically and not literally wicked and cruel men being ordinarily in the Holy Scriptures termed wild and furious beasts Demetrius well deserves this name This man was a Goldsmith by profession and had great trading in workes of silver which the Gentiles offered to Diana Some say they were Images and others little Temples of the false Goddess in the form of the great one He seeing that by the preaching of St. Paul his gain with Idolatry dayly decayed assembles all the workmen that wrought under him who were many and told them They were now in danger to be reduced unto great misery for Paul declared in his Sermons that Idols made by the hands of men had no understanding much less any Divinity in them and this Doctrin once received they should not be able to get their living They must leave their trade and that Temple of Diana which Asia and other Provinces of the world adored ran a great hazard suddenly to be deprived of Reputation and Sacrifices These reasons in which they were concerned put them into fury They running about the streets like mad men cryed Great is Diana of Ephesus to see if they could excite the people to sedition and unluckily meeting with Gaius and Aristarchus both Macedonians and presently remembring them to be companions of Saint Paul whom they sought they dragged them to the Theatre to expose them to the fury of the people The Apostle hearing of the danger they were in would have gone unto them but his disciples and some others of quality of Asia that loved him hindered it and represented to him the danger he would run to be ill treated by such a multitude in commotion The Jewes were no lesse afraid then the Christians because in this occasion there was no difference made betwixt them they being no lesse enemies to Idolatry then the others So to prevent the danger which threatned them they sent to the Theatre one of theirs called Alexander to see if he could appease the people and stop the mischiefe which might arise from that sedition He a long time made signe with his hand that he had something to speak unto them But when the seditious called to minde he was a Jew they made a greater noise then before and for two hours space ceased not to cry out Great is Diana of the Ephesians At last a Magistrate being there behaved himselfe so well as he appeased the people and spake in this manner to them O Ephesians who is ignorant that knowes not how faithfully your City adores the great Diana daughter of Jupiter together with her Image sent downe from Heaven and in this worship we surpass all the people of the Earth nor is
the Spring head he has been so wicked as to violate the sanctity of the Temple by introducing persons who by our Law are excluded the place We took him in these crimes and we seized upon him and if Lysias the Tribune had not forced him by violence out of our hands we had judged him according to our customes But we trust in your justice that you will not violate our Priviledges to let an impostor and seditious person be protected by you I do not desire you should give credit to my discourse these men venerable by their age and quality who have chosen me their speaker will confirm by oath all these things which I have delivered So Tertullus ended his speech and the Jewes swore all that he said was true The Proconsul making signe to the Apostle to defend himself he spake after this manner I am very glad I am to defend my innocency before a Judge who by the long abode he has made in this Province may have come to the perfect knowledge of the humors and interests of men It is easie for you to know that it is not above twelve dayes since I came to Hierusalem there to adore God in the Temple and there is none can testifie that he heard me dispute of Religion either in the Temple Synagogue or in any particular house or that I have been seen to do any thing that might stirre up the people to sedition Certainly if it be enough to gain belief impudently to accuse there is no innocency can be secure They endeavour to make me be thought a blasphemer of the Law of Moyses but I am far from being guilty of that crime 'T is true I make profession of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ I do not deny to be of that Sect which our Adversaries call Herese with as great ignorance as impiety I adore the same God which our Fore-Fathers adored I believe all the holy Scriptures all the Oracles of the Prophets and all the ordinances of Moyses I believe as they do the Resurrection of the dead the reward of good works after this life and the punishment of evil For besides that I am a Jew by Nation and Religion I have from my youth been of the Sect of the Pharisees the which amongst us are reputed more strict in the observation of the Law In a word I have hitherto endeavoured so to live as neither to offend God nor men Some years being past since my Conversion to the Faith of Jesus Christ I came now to Hierusalem to render my vowes in the Temple and to bring to the poor Citizens those Alms which I had gathered out of divers Provinces In that holy place where I thought of nothing but to purifie my selfe according to the Ordinance of Moyses I was seized upon as a lewd person and without any further inquiry cryed out by a common voice That some one should kill me as an enemy of Religion The Jews of Asia who raised that sedition against me in which I ran the hazzard of my life ought to be present because they are my first accusers Let those who are here say if they could accuse me of any crime when I appeared in their Council to answer that which was objected against me And if this discourse be seditious I refer it to the judgement of any that is not blinded with passion In fine since the accusations I am charged with are onely generall and have no other proof then the testimony of adversaries I think it is a sufficient answer that I deny them and the hatred of mine enemies is so known that it may justifie my innocence This plain discourse without art made Felix see the truth nevertheless he would neither condemn nor acquit him on the one side he was affraid to discontent the Jews on the other having observ'd in S. Pauls discourse that he spake of great Alms which he had brought with him he imagined some part of the money might fall into his hands wherefore he deferred the decision of the cause to the arrival of Lysâ—as and till he had a more ample information In the mean time he committed the Apostle unto the custody of a Captain with free liberty to all of his acquaintance both to visit and assist him Some dayes after by the perswasion of Felix's wife who was a Jew he would hear the Apostle speak of the Evangelical do-doctrine and wee may suppose it was after this manner I cannot refuse most prudent Felix to satisfie the desire you have to understand the doctrine which I preach and I heartily wish your desâ—re proceeded not from curiosity but from a ture sense and care of your salvation You must not expect from me fine language as from an excellent Orator I confess I know not how to speak with the ornaments and acuteness of humane wisedom and were I capable I should hold it unworthy to be imployed in declaring to you a God crucified I know at first this word will seem strange to you and you will believe that I go about to perswade you to a folly rather then to a paradox But beare me if you please with patience and you shall see if God so please that I declare unto you the height of wisedome God being a pure Spirit compleat in himself living by his own proper life immortal happy wise omnipotent infinite cannot be seen as hee is by the feeble eies of men nor comprehended by their understandings But to lead them to the knowledge of his invisible perfections he would produce creatures in whom his Divinity might be seen He has even engraved in the depth of mans heart a secret impression by which he is drawn to know him so that if he faile in his knowledge or adores him not as he ought he is wholly inexcusable Nevertheless we have been alwaies wanting herein from the beginning of the world People have with passion framed Idols and changed the glory of God which is incorruptible into the resemblance of a man subject to corruption that which is more execrable into the formes of Birds Four-footed beasts Serpents They have made of every creature an object of abominable worship and presented to the Devils so infamous sacrifices as modesty forbids me to name You O Felix are come from a city where you have seen with your eyes that which I tell you for Rome is as well the seat of Idolairy as of the Empire The Creator thus offended has punished this sin committed against him by permitting the most part of men to fall into other execrable sâ—ns in all parts of the world He has abandoned them to the desires of their heart he has left them to follow their ignominious and brutish passions so to pollute their bodies by strange impurities that in dishonouring them they have unawares revenged the honour they robbed from God by their impiety Men and Women have violated their honours by detestable loves Amongst nearest allies has been seen nothing but enmities
envy jealousie and quarrels Children have been disobedient to their parents Fathers have lost the love which they owe to their children 〈◊〉 in summe the earth has beheld nothing but iniquity malice covetousness deceit slanders false accusations strifes warres murders Parricides Robberies and sacriledges During this profound darkness the Jewes have been a little enlightned Moyses by the appointment of God instructed them what they owe to him as their Sovereign and to men as their Brethren He has given them a holy law to draw them to good by reward and to divert them from evil by the threats of punishment But many are content to heare this law yet care not to observe it others that have kept it are become proud and have attributed to themselves the glory of their good works instead of referring it to God Thus all men were found to be slaves to sin and worthy of death which is the price of sin Concupiscence raigned absolutely over them and at every moment soyled them after some new manner In this unhappy condition God had pity on humane nature seeing that Philosophy could not cure the Gentiles nor the Law those who made profession of it All being intangled in infidelity as in nets he sent down his only son to the end that by his bloud he shouldleffect that which was impossible for the law to do that be himself should be given up for the redemption of all as a holy and acceptable victime to God This he has wrought by dying upon the Cross whereunto he was fastned by the envy of the Priests suborning the people so that by how much it has been heretofore infamous by so much the more is it now glorious and adorable This is the Tree on which we must necessarily be ingraffed if we will have true life Jesus Christ is dead to the end we should die with him and if this death be real and compleat we are assured to live eternally in his society for he now is living at the right hand of his Father who raised him the third day There are many now alive witnesses of this and their deposition cannot well be suspected for they are not weak persons easily to be deceived not interessed in it to deceive others These who publish this verity can hope for nothing at present but chaines persecutions prisons and all sorts of infamy It distastes all that hear it and passes for a kinde of madness Those then certainly who defend it with so much constancy and who are otherwise irreprovable in their manner of life ought to be believed as faithfull Ministers of God and not reputed as absurd impostors For my selfe I speak as an eye witness Jesus of Nazareth hath vouchsafed to appear unto me although I be but as an abortive and not worthy the name of an Apostle having so much persecuted his Church I am so much the more to be credited because I was farre from believing in him and my former actions clearly shewed the zeal I had for the Law of my Fore-fathers Open your eyes O Felix and you Drusilla who is letter insâ—ructed then he in that which I am about to say acknowledge the divine Redcemer figured in Abel killed by his brother in Isaac under the knife of Abraham in the Serpent lifted up in the desart against the biting of Serpents in Josuah when he brought the people into the land of Promise and in so many other things of our Law as were too tedious to relate He excludes no person from salvation nor chooses out one Nation more then another but by faith he will justifie all sorts of persons great little Kings Subjects rich poore so that all may come to eternall life I do require of you a thing that is not very hard believe and you shall receive innocency Believe and you shall live for faith is the life of the just mans soul Hee that lives this lise is not troubled to submit to what the Law prescribes for he knowes that he is a member consecrated to God and so not to be soyled in Formcation much less in Adultery Other sinnes which we commit are without us but when wee are given to impurity we sinne against our selves against our owne bodies ' which we dishonour and which is not made for that use but to be a Temple of the holy Ghost From the beginning of the world God instituted marriage for the propagation of mankinde hee blest man and woman and said They were two in one flesh but they must be carefull to possess their bodies in sanctity and not suffer them to follow the disorders of Concupiscence and those Brutalities which are common amongst Gentiles Their bed is holy and their conjunction not onely lawfull but honorable Death onely can dissolve them for that which God hath united who can or dare separate From thence therefore judge what a horrible crime Adultery is which makes this disunion and at the same time offends both God and the Husband Man sometimes is constrained by force to endure so great an injury and God bears a long time with those who commit it But when the measure of their iniquity is filled when they have without reflection provoked his utmost anger at last by the greatness of the punishment he satiâ—fies for his long forbearance He shewes a sinner that be was neither asleep nor blinde but expected onely his repentance He revenges himself at one blâ—w for his insolency in despising the riches of his goodness and his long patience by an adominable obstinacy O it is a dreadfull thing Felix to fall into the hands of the living God He is a Judge not to be deceived for hee reads in the depth of hearts and makes the conscience of a sinner serve against himself he has power to revenge and will do it eternally by the fire of hell which is never extinguished and by inward remorses which exceed in heat eveâ— this fire Felâ—x being touched with these last words interrupted the Apostle whom otherwise the heat of zeal would have transported to a higher pitch He had after this frequent conferences with him but they produced neither the reformation of the one nor liberty of the other Felix would have had money and the prisoner had not wherewith to content his avarice In the mean time Pallas who was his brother lost the favour of Nero the successour of Claudius and upon that Felix was recalled and Portius Festus appointed by the Emperor to succeed him No sooner came this new Governor to Hierusalem but the Princes of the Priests and the chiefest amongst the Jewes whose malice time could not sweeten addrest themselves unto him and prest him extreamly to send for the Apostle whom Felix to content them had left prisoner at Cesarea their designe was to murther him in the way which Feseus perhaps understanding told them He meant to stay onely a few daies at Hierusalem that therefore they should meet him at Cesarea where he would hear their accusations and