THE VISIT TO JOPPA.Hardly had this instance of divine favor occurred in Lydda, when a new occasion for a similar effort presented itself, in the neighboring seaport town of Joppa. A female disciple of the faith of Christ, in that city, by name Tabitha, or in the Greek, Dorcas,(both names meaning Gazelle,) had distinguished herself and honored her religious profession, by the generous and charitable deeds which constantly employed her hands. This lady, so respected by all, and so loved by the poor, who gave witness to her goodness,——such an honor to the religious community which she had joined,——seemed to have so nobly done her part in life, that the order of Providence had apparently called her to rest from these labors, in that sleep from which no piety nor usefulness can save or recall their possessor. After a few days of illness, she died, and was, after the usual funeral ablutions, laid in an upper chamber, to await the burial. In the midst of the universal grief for this sad loss, the members of the church at Joppa, knowing that Peter was in Lydda, within a few hours’ journey, sent two messengers to him, to beg his presence among them, as some consolation in their distress. Peter, on hearing of this occasion for his presence, with great readiness accompanied the messengers back, and on arriving at Joppa, went straight to the house of mourning. He was immediately led into the chamber, where he found a most affecting testimony to the nature of the loss which the afflicted community had suffered. Around the dead, stood the widows who, in their friendlessness, had been relieved by the sympathy of Dorcas, now pouring their tears and uttering their lamentations over her, and showing that even the garments which they wore were the work of her industrious hand,——that hand which, once so untiring in these labors of love, was now cold and motionless in death. From that resistless doom, what mortal voice could ever recall even one so amiable and useful? But, while they were sorrowing thus, Peter ordered them all to leave him alone with the dead; and when all witnesses were removed, he kneeled and prayed. The words of that prayer are not recorded; and it is only by its successful efficiency that we know it to have been that fervent effectual prayer of a righteous man, which availeth much. It was such a prayer as, of old, the son of Shaphat offered over the dead child of the Shunamite, when alone with him; and its effect was not less mighty. Rising at length, and turning towards the body, he said “Tabitha, arise!” Awaking from the unbreathing sleep of death, as from a light slumber of an hour, she opened her eyes, and when she saw the majestic man of God alone, and herself robed for the tomb, she sat up and gazed in amazement. Peter, then, giving her his hand, lifted her from the funeral couch, and calling in the brethren and the widows;he presented her to their astonished eyes, alive. Their overwhelming joy and wonder, we are left to imagine. The story, when made known through the city, brought many to acknowledge the truth of that religion whose minister could work such wonders; and many believed in Christ. The field of labor which now opened to Peter in this place, seemed so wide that he did not continue his journey any further at that time, but took up his abode, for several days, in Joppa, lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner, whose house stood by the sea, near the water.Joppa, now calledJaffa.——This was from very early times a place of great importance, from the circumstance of its being the nearest seaport to Jerusalem. It is mentioned in reference to this particular of its situation, in 2 Chroniclesii.17, where it is specified (in HebrewיפוJapho) as the port to which the cedar timber from Lebanon should be floated down in rafts, to be conveyed to Jerusalem for building the temple. It stood within the territories of the tribe of Dan, according to Joshuaxix.46, and lies about East-North-east from Jerusalem. Strabo, (xvi.) in describing it, refers to it as the scene of the ancient Grecian fable of Andromeda rescued from the sea-monster by Perseus. He describes its site as “quite elevated,——so much so, indeed, that it was a common saying that Jerusalem might be seen from the place; the inhabitants of which city use it as their seaport, in all their maritime intercourse.” Josephus mentions that it was added to the dominions of Herod the Great by Augustus. Its present appearance is thus described by travelers.“It is situated in latitude 32 degrees 2 minutes North, and longitude 34 degrees 53 minutes East, and is forty miles West of Jerusalem. Its situation, as the nearest port to the Holy City, has been the chief cause of its importance. As a station for vessels, according♦toDr.Clarke, its harbor is one of the worst in the Mediterranean. Ships generally anchor about a mile from the town, to avoid the shoals and rocks of the place. The badness of the harbor is mentioned, indeed, by Josephus. (Josephus, Antiquities, bookxv.chapter 9.) * * * The road is protected by a castle built on a rock, and there are some storehouses and magazines on the sea-side. The coast is low, but little elevated above the level of the sea; but the town occupies an eminence, in the form of a sugar-loaf, with a citadel on the summit. The bottom of the hill is surrounded with a wall twelve or fourteen feet high, and two or three feet thick. * * * There are no antiquities in Jaffa: the place would seem to be too old to have any——to have outlived all that once rendered it interesting. The inhabitants are estimated at between four and five thousand souls, of whom the greater part are Turks and Arabs; the Christians are stated to be about six hundred, consisting of Roman Catholics, Greeks, Maronites, and Armenians.” [Modern Traveler, Palestine,pp.41, 42.]♦“io” replaced with “to”Dorcas.——This is the Greek translation of the old Hebrewצבי(Tsebi,) in the Aramaic dialect of that age, changed intoתביתא(Tabitha,) in English, “gazelle,” a beautiful animal of the antelope kind, often mentioned in descriptions of the deserts of south-western Asia, in which it roams; and not unfrequently the subject of poetical allusion. The species to which it is commonly supposed to belong, is theAntilopa DorcasofProf.Pallas, who named it on the supposition that it was identical with this animal, called by the Greeks,Δορκας, (Dorkas,) fromΔερκο, (Derko,) “to look,” from the peculiar brightness of “its soft black eye.”THE CALL TO THE HEATHEN.The apostles had now, with great zeal and efficiency, preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to the worshipers of the true God, beginning at Jerusalem, and spreading the triumphs of his name to the bounds of the land of Israel. But in all their devotion to their Master’s work, they had never had a thought of breaking over the bounds of the faith of their fathers, or of making theirdoctrine anything else than a mere completion or accompaniment to the law of Moses; nor did they imagine that they were ever to extend the blessings of the gospel to any who did not bow down to all the tedious rituals of the ancient covenant. The true power of their Lord’s parting command, “Go and teachall nations,” they had never felt; and even now, their great chief supposed that the change of heart and remission of sins, which he was commissioned to preach, were for none but the devout adherents of the Jewish faith. A new and signal call was needed, to bring the apostles to a full sense of their enlarged duties; and it is among the highest honors vouchsafed to Peter, that he was the person chosen to receive this new view of the boundless field now opened for the battles and triumphs of the cross. To him, as the head and representative of the whole band of the apostles, was now spread out, in all its moral vastness and its physical immensity, the coming dominion of that faith, whose little seed he was now cherishing, with but a humble hope; but whose stately trunk and giant branches were, from that small and low beginning, to stretch, in a mighty growth, over lands, and worlds, to him unknown. Thus far he had labored with a high and holy zeal, in a cause whose vastness he had never appreciated,——every moment building up, unwittingly, a name for himself, which should outlast all the glories of the ancient covenant; and securing for his Master a dominion which the religion of Moses could never have reached. He had never had an idea, that he with his companions was founding and spreading a new religion;——to purify the religion of the law and the prophets, and to rescue it from the confusion and pollutions of warring sectaries, was all that they had thought of; yet with this end in view, they had been securing the attainment of one so far above and beyond, that a full and sudden view of the consequences of their humble deeds, would have appalled them. But though the mighty plan had never been whispered nor dreamed of, on earth,——though it was too immense for its simple agents to endure its full revelation at once,——its certain accomplishment had been ordained in heaven, and its endless details were to be fully learned only in its triumphant progress through uncounted ages. But, limited as was the view which the apostles then had of the high destiny of the cause to which they had devoted themselves, it was yet greatly extended from the low-born notions with which they had first followed the steps of their Master. They now no longer entertained thevagary of a worldly triumph and a worldly reward; they had left that on the mount where their Lord parted from them, and they were now prayerfully laboring for the establishment of a pure spiritual kingdom in the hearts of the righteous. To give them a just idea of the exalted freedom to which the gospel brought its sons, and to open their hearts to a Christian fellowship, as wide as the whole human family, God now gave the apostolic leader an unquestionable call to tell to the world the glad tidings of salvation, for all men, through a new and living way, by change of heart and remission of sins. The incidents which led to this revelation are thus detailed.The peace and good order of Palestine were now secured by several legions, whose different divisions, larger or smaller according to circumstances, were quartered in all the strong or important places in the country, to repress disorders, and enforce the authority of the civil power, when necessary. Besides this ordinary peace-establishment of the province, there was a cohort which took its name from the circumstance that it had been levied in Italy,——a distinction, now so rare, in consequence of the introduction of foreign mercenaries into the imperial hosts, as to become the occasion of an honorable eminence, which was signified by the title here given, showing that this division of the Roman armies was made up of the sons of that soil which had so long sent forth the conquerors of the world. Of all the variety of service required of the different detachments of the army, in the province which it guarded, by far the most honorable was that of being stationed next the person of the governor of the province, to maintain the military dignity of his vice-imperial court, and defend his representative majesty. Caesarea, on the sea-shore, was now the seat of the Roman government of Palestine; and here, in attendance on the person of the governor, was this aforesaid Italian cohort, at the head of a company in which, was a centurion named Cornelius. Though nothing is given respecting his birth and family but this single name, a very slight knowledge of Roman history and antiquities enables the historian to decide, that he was descended from a noble race of patricians, which had produced several of the most illustrious families of the imperial city. Eminent by this high birth and military rank, he must have been favored with an education worthy of his family and station. It is therefore allowable to conclude, that he was an intelligent and well-informed gentleman, whom years of foreign service, in thearmies of his country must have improved by the combined advantages of a traveler and a disciplined warrior. Of his moral and religious character such an account is given, as proves that his principles, probably implanted in early life, had been of such firmness as to withstand the numerous temptations of a soldier’s life, and to secure him in a course of most uncommon rectitude in his duties towards God and towards man. In the merciful exercise of his power over the people whose safety and quiet he came to maintain, and, moreover, in the generous use of his pecuniary advantages, he passed his blameless life; and the high motive of this noble conduct, is discovered in the steady, pure devotion, in which he employed many hours of daily retirement, and in which he caused his whole family publicly to join, on proper occasions. Thus is he briefly and strongly characterized by the sacred historian: “devout, and fearing God with all his house; giving much alms, and praying to God always.”Noble race of patricians.——Thegens Cornelia, or “Cornelian race,” was unequaled in Rome for the great number of noble families sprung from its stock. The Scipios, the Sullas, the Dolabellas, the Cinnas, the Lentuli, the Cethegi, the Cossi, and many other illustrious branches of this great race, are conspicuous in Roman history; and the Fasti Consulares, record more than sixty of the Cornelian race, who had borne the consular dignity previous to the apostolic era. This is always afamilyname, and Ainsworth very grossly errs in calling it “thepraenomenof several Romans.” Every Roman name of the middle and later ages of the commonwealth, had at least three parts, which were thepraenomen, marking the individual,——thenomenmarking thegens, (“race,” “stock,”) and thecognomen, marking the family or division of that great stock. Thus in the name “Publius Cornelius Scipio,” thelastword shows that the person belonged to the Scipio family, which by thesecondword is seen to be of the great Cornelian stock, while the first shows that this member of the family was distinguished from his relations, by the name of Publius. (See Adams’s Roman Antiquities, on Names.) Wherever this name, Cornelius, occurs, if the whole appellation of the man is given, this comes in the middle, as thenomen, marking the race; as is the case with every one of those quoted by Ainsworth, in his blundering account of the word. See also Sallust, (The Catilinarian Conspiracy,47, 55,) in defense of this peculiar limitation of the word to thegens. Not a single instance can be brought of its application to any person not of this noble patrician race, or of its use as a mere individual appellation. I am therefore authorized in concluding that this Cornelius mentioned in the Acts was related to this line of high nobility. It might, perhaps, be conjectured, that he had borrowed this name from that noble race, from having once been in the service of some one of its families, as was common in the case of freedmen, after they had received their liberty; but this supposition is not allowable; for he is expressly particularized as belonging to anItaliandivision of the army, which fact excludes the idea of that foreign origin which would belong to a slave. The Jews having but one name for each man, seldom gave all of a Roman’s name, unless of a very eminent man, as Pontius Pilate, Sergius Paulus, and other official characters; but selecting any one of the three parts which might be most convenient, they made that the sole appellative, whetherpraenomen,nomen, orcognomen. As in Lukeii.2: Actsxxiii.24:xxv.1:xxvii.1:xxviii.7,&c.JERUSALEM,from the Latin Convent.Lukexxi.24.The Italian cohort.——The wordΣπειρα(Speira) I translate “cohort,” rather than “legion,” as the older commentators did. Jerome translates it “cohortem,” and he must have known the exact technical force of the Greek word, and to what Latin military term it corresponded, from his living in the time when these terms must have been in frequent use. Those who prefer to translate it “legion,” are misled by the circumstance, that Tacitus and other writers on Roman affairs, mention a legionwhich had the distinctive appellation of “the Italian Legion;” while it has been supposed that these ancient authors make no mention of an Italiancohort. But the deeply learned Wetstein, with his usual vast classical research, has shown several such passages, in Arrian and others, in which mentionismade of an Italian cohort; and in Gruter’s inscriptions, quoted by Kuinoel, there is an account of “a volunteer cohort ofItaliansoldiers in Syria;” and Palestine was at this time included with Syria, under the presidency of Petronius. This inscription, too, justifies my remark as to the high character of those who served in this corps. “Cohors militum Italicorumvoluntaria” seems to imply a body of soldiers of a higher character than the ordinary mercenary mass of the army, being probably made up ofvolunteersfrom respectable families of Italy, who chose to enlarge their knowledge of the world by foreign military service, in this very honorable station of life-guard to the Roman governor, as Doddridge and others suppose this to have been. (See Doddridge on this passage; also C. G. Schwartz in Wolff, Cur. Philology in loc.) It is considered also as fairly proved that the “Italianlegion” was not formed till a much later period; so that it is rendered in the highest degree probable and unquestionable, that this was acohort, and, as Schwartz and Doddridge prove, not a mere ordinary cohort, making the tenth part of a common legion of 4200, but a distinct and independent corps, attached to no legion, and devoted to the exclusive honorable service above mentioned. (See Bloomfield, Kuinoel, Rosenmueller,&c.)Devout.——Some have tried hard to make out that Cornelius was what they call “a proselyte of the gate;” that is, one who, though not circumcised, nor conforming to the rituals generally, yet was an observer of themorallaw. But Lardner very fully shows that there were not two sorts of proselytes; all who bore that name fully conforming to the Jewish rituals, but still called “strangers,”&c.; because, though admitted to all the religious privileges of the covenant, they were excluded from the civil and political privileges of Jews, and could not be freeholders. Cornelius must then have been a mere Gentile. (See Lardner in his life of Peter; also Kuinoel and Bloomfield.)Caesarea.——This is another of those cities enlarged or rebuilt by the princes of the Herodian line, and honored with the names of the imperial family. This city stood on the sea-shore, about 30 miles north of Joppa; and (Modern Traveler) 62 north-north-west from Jerusalem. (600 stadia Josephus.) It has been idly conjectured by the Rabbinical writers, that this was the same with Ekron, of the Old Testament, Zephaniahii.4; while the Arabic version gives it as Hazor, Joshuaxi.1,——both with about equal probability. The earliest name by which it can be certainly recognized, is Apollonia, which it bore when it passed from the Syro-Grecians to the Maccabean princes. Its common name, in the time of Herod the Great, wasπυργος Στρατωνος,turris Stratonis, “Straton’s castle,” from the name of a Greek pirate who had built a strong hold here. Herod the Great made it the most splendid city in his dominions, and even in all the eastern part of the Roman empire; and in honor of Augustus Caesar, called it Caesarea Augusta. It was sometimes called CaesareaPalestinae, to distinguish it from CaesareaPhilippi; for Palestine was then a name limited to the southern part of the coast of the Holy Land, and was bounded on the north by Phoenicia. This city was the capital of the whole Holy Land throughout the period of the later Herodian and Roman sway.To this man was sent the first heavenly call, which ended in bringing in the Gentiles to the knowledge of the truth revealed by Jesus. After having fasted all day, he was employed in his regular devotions, at the usual hour of prayer, (three o’clock in the afternoon,) when his senses were overwhelmed by a vision, in which he had a distinct view of a messenger of God, in shining garments, coming to him; and heard him call him by his name, “Cornelius!” Looking at him as steadily as he was able in his great alarm, Cornelius asked, “What is it, Lord?” The heavenly visitant replied, in words of consolation and high praise, “Thy prayers and thy alms have come up in remembrance before God.And now send men to Joppa, and call for a man named Simon Peter, lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea-side. He, when he comes, shall tell thee what it is right that thou shouldst do.” When the surprising messenger had given this charge, he departed; and Cornelius, without delay, went to fulfil the minute directions he had received. He called two of his domestics, and a devout soldier of the detachment then on duty near him, and having related to them all that he had just seen and heard, he sent them to Joppa, to invite Peter according to the order. The distance between the two places is about thirty-five miles, and being too great to be easily traveled in one day, they journeyed thither during a part of two days, starting immediately when they received the command, though late in the afternoon. While they were continuing their journey, the next day, and were now near to the city of Joppa, Peter, without any idea of the important task to which he was soon to be summoned, went up, as usual, to the Alijah, or place of prayer, upon the house-top, at about twelve o’clock, mid-day. Having, according to the usual custom of the Jews, fasted for many hours, for the sake of keeping the mind clear from the effects of gross food on the body, and at length becoming sensible that he had pushed himself to the utmost limits of safe abstinence, he wished for food, and ordered his dinner. While the servants were preparing it, he continued above, in the place of prayer, where, enfeebled by fasting, and over-wrought by mental effort, he fell into a state of spiritual excitement, in which the mind is most susceptible of strong impressions of things beyond the reach of sense. In this condition, there appeared to him a singular vision, which subsequent events soon enabled him fully to interpret. It seemed to him that a great sheet was let down from the sky, to which it was fastened by the four corners, containing on its vast surface all sorts of animals that were forbidden as food by the Mosaic law. While the apostle gazed upon this vast variety of animals, which education had taught him to consider unclean, there came a voice to him, calling him by name, and commanding him to arise, kill, and eat. All his prejudices and early religious impressions were roused by such a proposal; and, resisting the invisible speaker as the agent of temptation to him in his bodily exhaustion, he replied, in all the pride of a scrupulous and unpolluted Jew, “By no means, Lord, because I have never eaten anything improper or unclean.” The mysterious voice again said, “What God hath cleansed, donot thou consider improper.” This impressive scene having been twice repeated, the whole was withdrawn back into heaven. This remarkable vision immediately called out all the energies of Peter’s mind, in its explanation. But before he had time to decide for himself what was meant by it, the messengers of Caesarea had inquired out the house of Simon, and, coming to the outside door, they called to learn whether Simon, who was surnamed Peter, lodged there. And while the mind of Peter was still intently occupied with the vision, he received an intimation from the unerring spirit, that his presence was required elsewhere. “Behold! three men are seeking thee, but rise up and go with them, without hesitation; for I have sent them.” Thus urged and encouraged, Peter went directly down to the men sent by Cornelius, and said, “Behold! I am he whom ye seek. What is your object in coming here?” They at once unfolded their errand. “Cornelius, a centurion, a just man, fearing God, and of good repute among all the Jews, was instructed by a holy messenger, to send for thee to his house, that he may hear something from thee.” Peter, already instructed as to the proper reception of the invitation, asked them in, and hospitably entertained them till the next day, improving the delay, no doubt, by learning as many of the circumstances of the case as they could give him. The news of this remarkable call was also made known to the brethren of the church in Joppa, some of whom were so highly interested in what they heard that evening, that they resolved to accompany Peter the next day, with the messengers, to see and hear for themselves the details of a business which promised to result so fairly in the glory of Christ’s name, and the wide enlargement of his kingdom. On the next day, the whole party set out together, and reached Caesarea, the second day of their journey; and going straight to the house of Cornelius, they found quite a large company there, awaiting their arrival. For Cornelius, expecting them, had invited his relations and his intimate friends, to hear the extraordinary communications which had been promised him, from his visitor. The kindred here alluded to were, perhaps, those of his wife, whom, according to a very common usage, he may have married in the place where he was stationed; for it is hardly probable that a Roman captain from Italy could have had any of his own blood relations about him, unless, perhaps, some of them might have enlisted with him, and now been serving with him on this honorable post. His near friends, who completed the assembly, were probablysuch of his brother officers as he knew to possess kindred tastes with himself, and to take an interest in religious matters. Such was the meeting that Peter found sitting in expectation of his coming; and so high were the ideas which Cornelius had formed of the character of his visitor, that, as soon as he met him on his entrance into the house, he fell down at his feet, and paid him reverence as a superior being;——an act of abasement towards the inhabitant of a conquered country, most rare and remarkable in a Roman officer, and one to which nothing but a notion of supernatural excellence could ever have brought him, since this was a position assumed not even by those who approached the emperor himself. Peter, however, had no desire to be made the object of a reverence so nearly resembling idolatry. Raising up the prostrate Roman, he said, “Stand up: for I myself am also a man.” Entering into familiar discourse with him, he now advanced into the house, and going with him to the great room, he there found a numerous company. He addressed them in these words: “You know how unlawful it is for a Jew to be familiar, or even to visit, with one of another nation; but God has taught me to call no man vulgar or unclean. Wherefore, I came at your summons, without hesitation. Now, then, I ask with what design have you sent for me?” And Cornelius said, “Four days ago, I was fasting till this hour; and at the ninth hour I was praying in my house;” and so having gone on to narrate all the circumstances of his vision, as given above, concluded in these words, “For this reason I sent for thee, and thou hast done well in coming, for we are all here, before God, to hear what has been imparted to thee, from God.” And Peter began solemnly to speak, and said, “Of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but that in every nation, he that fears him and does what is right, is approved by him.” With this solemn profession of a new view of this important principle of universal religion, as a beginning, he went on to satisfy their high expectations, by setting forth to them the sum and substance of the gospel doctrine, of whose rise and progress they had already, by report, heard a vague and partial account. The great and solemn truth which the Spirit had summoned him to proclaim, was that Jesus Christ the crucified was ordained by God the judge of both living and dead, and that through him, as all the prophets testified, every one that believed should have remission of sins. Of his resurrection from the dead, Peter declared himself the witness, as well as of his labors of good willtowards man, when, anointed with the Spirit of God, he went about doing good. Thus did Peter discourse, excited by the novel and divinely appointed occasion, till the same divine influence that moved his heart and tongue was poured out on his charmed hearers, and they forthwith manifested the signs of change of heart and devout faith in Christ, as the Son of God and the judge of the world; and made known the delight of their new sensations, in words of miraculous power. At this display of the equal and impartial grace of God, the Jewish church-members from Joppa, who had accompanied Peter to Caesarea, were greatly amazed, having never before imagined it possible for the influences of the divine spirit to be imparted to any who had not devoutly conformed to all the rituals of the holy law of old given by God to Moses, whose high authority was attested amid the smoke and flame and thunder of Sinai. And what change was this? In the face of this awful sanction, these believing followers of Moses and Christ saw the outward signs of the inward action of that Spirit which they had been accustomed to acknowledge as divine, now moving with the same holy energy the souls and voices of those born and bred among the heathen, without the consecrating aid of one of those forms of purification, by which Moses had ordained their preparation for the enjoyment of the blessings of God’s holy covenant with his own peculiar people. Moved by that same mysterious and holy influence, the Gentile warriors of Rome now lifted up their voices in praise of the God of Israel and of Abraham,——doubtless too,theirGod and Father, though Abraham were ignorant of them, and Israel acknowledged them not; since through his son Jesus a new covenant had been sealed in blood, opening and securing the blessings of that merciful and faithful promise to all nations. On Jehovah they now called as their Father and Redeemer, whose name was from everlasting,——known and worshiped long ere Abraham lived. Never before had the great partition-wall between Jews and Gentiles been thus broken down, nor had the noble and equal freedom of the new covenant ever yet been so truly and fully made known. And who was he that had thus boldly trampled on the legal usages of the ancient Mosaic covenant, as consecrated by the reverence of ages, and had imparted the holy signs of the Christian faith to men shut out from the mysteries of the inner courts of the house of God? It was not a presumptuous or unauthorized man, nor one thoughtless of the vastly important consequences of the act.It was the constituted leader of the apostolic band, who now, in direct execution of his solemn commission received from his Master, and in the literal fulfilment of the prophetic charge given therewith at the base of distant Hermon, opened the gates of the kingdom of heaven to all nations. Bearing the keys of the kingdom of God on earth, he now, in the set time of divine appointment, at the call of his Master in heaven, so signally given to him both directly and indirectly, unlocked the long-closed door, and with a voice of heavenly charity, bade the waiting Gentiles enter. This was the mighty commission with which Jesus had so prophetically honored this chief disciple atCaesareaPhilippi, and here, atCaesareaAugusta, was achieved the glorious fulfilment of this before mysterious announcement;——Simon Peter now, in the accomplishment of that divinely appointed task, became theRock, on which the church of Christ was, through the course of ages, reared; and in this act, the first stone of its broad Gentile foundation was laid.On duty about him.——This phrase is the just translation of the technical termπροσκαρτερουντων, (proskarterounton,) according to Price, Kuinoel, Bloomfield,&c.Of all the honors with which his apostolic career was marked, there is none which equals this,——the revolutionizing of the whole gospel plan as before understood and advanced by its devotees,——the enlargement of its scope beyond the widest range of any merely Jewish charity,——and the disenthralment of its subjects from the antique formality and cumbrous ritual of the Jewish worship. And of all the events which the apostolic history records, there is none which, in its far-reaching and long-lasting effects, can match the opening of Christ’s kingdom to the Gentiles. What would have been the rate of its advancement under the management of those, who, like the apostles hitherto, looked on it as a mere improvement and spiritualization of the old Mosaic form, to which it was, in their view, only an appendage, and not a substitute? Think of what chances there were of its extension under such views to those far western lands where, ages ago, it reached with its benign influences the old Teutonic hordes from whom we draw our race;——or of what possibility there was of ever bringing under the intolerable yoke of Jewish forms, the hundreds of millions who now, out of so many lands and kindreds and tongues, bear the light yoke, and own the simpler faith of Jesus, confessing him Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Yet hitherto, so far from seeing these things in their true light,all the followers of Christ had, notwithstanding his broad and open commission to them, steadily persisted in the notion, that the observance of the regulations laid down by Moses for proselytes to his faith, was equally essential for a full conversion to the faith of Christ. And now too, it required a new and distinctly repeated summons from above, to bring even the great chief of the apostles to the just sense of the freedom of the gospel, and to the practical belief that God was no respecter of persons. But the whole progress of the event, with all its miraculous attestations, left so little doubt of the nature of the change, that Peter, after the manifestation of a holy spirit in the hearts and voices of the Gentile converts, triumphantly appealed to the Jewish brethren who had accompanied him from Joppa, and asked them, “Can any one forbid the water for the baptizing of these, who have received the Holy Spirit as well as we?” Taking the unanimous suffrage of their silence to his challenge, as a full consent, he gave directions that the believing Romans should be baptized in the name of the Lord, as Jesus in his parting charge had constituted that ordinance for the seal of redemption to every creature, in all the nations to whom the gospel should be preached. Having thus formally enrolled the first Gentile converts, as the free and complete partakers of the blessings of the new covenant, he stayed among them several days, at their request, strengthening their faith, and enlarging their knowledge by his pastoral instruction; which he deemed a task of sufficient importance to detain him, for a while, from his circuit among the new converts, scattered about in other places throughout Palestine, and from any immediate return to his friends and converts at Joppa, where this call had found him.Meanwhile, this mighty innovation on the established order of sacred things could not be long unknown beyond the cities of Caesarea and Joppa, but was soon announced by the varied voice of rumor to the amazed apostles and brethren at Jerusalem. The impression made on them by this vague report of their great leader’s proceedings, was most decidedly unfavorable; and there seem to have been not a few who regarded this unprecedented act of Peter as a downright abuse of the dignity and authority with which the special commission of his Master had invested him. Doubtless, in that little religious community, as in every other association of men ever gathered, there were already many human jealousies springing up like roots of bitterness, whichneeded but such an occasion as this, to manifest themselves in decided censure of the man, whose remarkable exaltation over them might seem like a stigma on the capacities or merits of those to whom he was preferred. Those in whose hearts such feelings had been rankling, now found a great occasion for the display of their religious zeal, in this bold movement of their constituted leader, who herein seemed to have presumed on his distinction and priority, to act in a matter of the very highest importance, without the slightest reference to the feelings and opinions of those, who had been with him chosen for the great work of spreading the gospel to all nations. And so much of free opinion and expression was there among them, that this act of the chief apostle called forth complaints both deep and loud, from his brethren, against this open and unexplained violation of the holy ordinances of that ancient law, which was still to them and him the seal and sign of salvation. Peter, at length, after completing his apostolic circuit among the churches, of which no farther account is given to us, returned to Jerusalem to meet these murmurs with the bold and clear declaration of the truth. As soon as he arrived, the grumblers burst out on him with open complaints of his offensive violations of the strict religious exclusiveness of demeanor, which became a son of Israel professing the pure reformed faith of Jesus. The unhesitating boldness with which this charge of a breach of order was made against Peter by the sticklers for circumcision, is a valuable and interesting proof, that all his authority and dignity among them, did not amount to anything like asupremacy; and that whatever he might bind or loose on earth for the high sanction of heaven, he could neither bind the tongues and opinions, nor loose the consciences of these sturdy and free-spoken brethren. Nor does Peter seem to have had the least idea of claiming any exemption from their critical review of his actions; but straightway addressed himself respectfully to them, in a faithful detail of his conduct, and the reasons of it. He distinctly recounted to them the clear and decided call which he considered himself to have received from heaven, by which he was summoned as the spiritual guide of the inquiring Gentiles. And after the honest recital of the whole series of incidents, and of the crowning act of the whole, the imparting to them the outward sign of inward washing from their sins, he boldly appealed to the judgments of his accusers, to say whether, in the face of such a sanction, they would have had him do otherwise.“When the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning, then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said,” (when parting from us, on the top of Olivet, to rise to the bosom of his father, prophetically announcing a new and holy consecration and endowment for our work,) “John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.” This peculiar gift thus solemnly announced, we had indeed received at the pentecost, and its outward signs we had thereby learned infallibly by our own experience; and even so, at Caesarea, I recognized in those Gentiles the same tokens by which I knew the workings of divine grace in myself and you. “Forasmuch, then, as God gave them the like gift as to us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, what was I, that I should withstand God?”——This clear and unanswerable appeal silenced the clamors of the bold assertors of the inviolability of Mosaic forms; and when they heard these things, they held their peace, and, softened from their harsh spirit of rebuke, they, in a noble feeling of truly Christian triumph, forgot all their late exclusiveness, in a pure joy for the new and vast extension of the dominion of Christ, secured by this act, whose important consequences they were not slow in perceiving. They praised God for such a beginning of mighty results, and laying aside, in this moment of exultation, every feeling of narrow Jewish bigotry, they acknowledged that “to the Gentiles also, God had granted repentance unto life.”HEROD AGRIPPA.At this time, the monarch of the Roman world was Caius Caesar, commonly known by his surname, Caligula. Among the first acts of a reign, whose outset was deservedly popular for its numerous manifestations of prudence and benevolence, forming a strange contrast with subsequent tyranny and folly, was the advancement of a tried and faithful friend, to the regal honors and power which his birth entitled him to claim, and from which the neglectful indifference at first, and afterwards the revengeful spite of the preceding Caesar, Tiberius, had long excluded him. This was Herod Agrippa, grandson of that great Herod, who, by the force of his own exalted genius, and by the favor of the imperial Augustus, rose from the place of a friendless foreign adventurer, to the kingly sway of all Palestine. This extensive power he exercised in a manner which was, on the whole, ultimately advantageous to his subjects; but his whole reign, and the later years of it more particularly, were marked by cruelties the mostinfamous, to which he was led by almost insane fits of the most causeless jealousy. On none of the subjects of his power, did this tyrannical fury fall with such frequent and dreadful visitations, as on his own family; and it was there, that, in his alternate fits of fury and remorse, he was made the avenger of his own victims. Among these numerous domestic cruelties, one of the earliest, and the most distressing, was the murder of the amiable Mariamne, the daughter of the last remnants of the Asmonaean line,——“Herself the solitary scion leftOf a time-honored race,”which Herod’s remorseless policy had exterminated. Her he made his wife, and after a few years sacrificed her to some wild freak of jealousy, only to reap long years of agonizing remorse for the hasty act, when a cooler search had shown, too late, her stainless innocence. But a passionate despot never yet learned wisdom by being made to feel the recoil of his own folly; and in the course of later years this cruelty was equalled, and almost outdone, by a similar act, committed by him on those whom her memory should have saved, if anything could. The innocent and unfortunate Mariamne left him two sons, then mere children, whom the miserable, repentant tyrant, cherished and reared with an affectionate care, which might almost have seemed a partial atonement for the injuries of their murdered mother. After some years passed in obtaining a foreign education at the imperial court of Rome, these two sons, Alexander and Aristobulus, returned at their father’s summons, to his court, where their noble qualities, their eloquence and manly accomplishments, as well as the interest excited by their mother’s fate, drew on them the favorable and admiring regard of the whole people. But all that made them admirable and amiable to others, was as powerless as the memory of their mother, to save them from the fury of the suspicious tyrant. Those whose interests could be benefited by such a course, soon found means to make them objects of jealousy and terror to him, and ere long involved them in a groundless accusation of conspiring against his dominion and life. The uneasiness excited in Herod by their great popularity and their commanding talents, led him to believe this charge; and the miserable old tyrant, driven from fear to jealousy, and from jealousy to fury, at last crowned his own wretchedness and their wrongs, by strangling them both, after an imprisonment of so great alength as to take away from his crime even the shadowy excuse of hastiness. This was one of the last acts of a bloody life; but ere he died, returning tenderness towards the unfortunate race of Mariamne, led him to spare and cherish the infant children of Aristobulus, the younger of the two, who left three sons and two daughters to the tender mercies of his cruel father. One of these was the person who is concerned in the next event of Peter’s life, and whose situation and conduct in reference to that affair, was such as to justify this prolonged episode. He received in infancy the name of Agrippa, out of compliment to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, the favorite and minister of Augustus Caesar, and the steady friend of the great Herod. This name was exclusively borne by this son of Aristobulus in childhood, nor was it ever displaced by any other, except by some of the Jews, who, out of compliment to the restoration of the Herodian line of kings, in place of the Roman sub-governors, gave him the name of his royal grandfather, so that he is mentioned only by the name of Herod in the story of the Acts of the Apostles; but the Romans and Greeks seem to have known him only by his proper name of Agrippa. The tardy repentance of his grandfather did not extend to any important permanent provision for the children of Aristobulus; but on his death a few years after, they were left with the great majority of the numerous progeny of Herod, to the precarious fortunes of dependent princes. The young Agrippa having married his own cousin, Cypros, the daughter of a daughter of Herod and Mariamne, sailed to Rome, where he remained for several years, a sort of beggar about the court of Tiberius Caesar, through whose favor he hoped for an advancement to some one of the thrones in Palestine, which seemed to be prizes for any of Herod’s numerous descendents who could best secure the imperial favor, and depress the possessors in the Caesar’s opinion. Passing at Rome and elsewhere through a romantic variety of fortune, this adventurer was at last lucky in securing to himself the most friendly regard of Caius Caesar, then the expected successor of the reigning emperor. This afterwards proved the basis of his fortunes, which for a while, however, were darkened by the consequences of an imprudent remark made to Caius, expressive of a wish for the death of Tiberias, which was reported to the jealous tyrant by a listening slave, and finally caused the speaker’s close imprisonment during the rest of the emperor’s life. The death of Tiberius, followed by the accession of CaiusCaesar to the throne, raised Agrippa from his chains to freedom, and to the most intimate favor of the new monarch. The tetrarchy of Iturea and Trachonitis, then vacant by the death of Philip, was immediately conferred on him; and soon after, Herod Antipas having been exiled, his territories, Galilee and Peraea, were added to the former dominions of Herod Agrippa, and with them was granted to him the title ofking, which had never yet been given to any of the descendents of Herod the Great. In this state were the governments of these countries at the time of the events last narrated; but Herod Agrippa, often visiting Rome, left all Palestine in the hands of Publius Petronius, the just and benevolent Roman president of Syria. In this state, affairs remained during all the short reign of Caius Caligula Caesar, who, after four years mostly characterized by folly, vice and cruelty, ended his days by the daggers of assassins. But this great event proved no check to the flourishing fortunes of his favorite, king Herod Agrippa; who, in the course of the events which ended in placing Claudius on the throne, so distinguished himself in the preliminary negociations between the new emperor and the senate, sharing as he did the confidence and regard of both parties, that he was justly considered by all, as the most active means of effecting the comfortable settlement of their difficulties; and he was therefore deemed well deserving of the highest rewards. Accordingly, the first act of Claudius’s government, like the first of Caligula’s, was the presentation of a new kingdom to this favorite of fortune,——Judea being now added to the other countries in his possession, and thus bringing all Palestine into one noble kingdom, beneath his extensive sway. With a dominion comprising all that the policy of his grandfather had been able to attain during a long and active life, he now found himself, at the age of fifty-one, one of the most extraordinary instances of romantic fortune that had ever occurred; and anxious to enjoy something of the solid pleasure of visiting and governing his great and flourishing kingdom, he set sail from Rome, which had been so long to him the scene of such varied fortune, such calamitous poverty and tedious imprisonment,——and now proceeded as the proud king of Palestine, going home in triumph to the throne of his ancestor, supported by the most boundless pledges of imperial favor. The emperor Claudius, though regretting exceedingly the departure of the tried friend whom he had so much reason to love and cherish, yet would not detainhim from a happiness so noble and desirable, as that of arranging and ruling his consolidated dominion. Even his departure, however, was made the occasion of new marks of imperial favor; for Claudius gave him letters by which all Roman governors were bound to acknowledge and support him as the rightful sovereign of Palestine. He arrived in Palestine shortly after, and just before the passover, made his appearance in Jerusalem, where he was received with joy and hope by the expecting people, who hailed with open hearts a king whose interests would be identified with theirs, and with the glory of the Jewish name. His high and royal race,——his own personal misfortunes and the unhappy fate of his early-murdered father, as well as his descent from the lamented Mariamne,——his well-known amiability of character, and his regard for the holy Jewish faith, which he had shown by exerting and even risking all his favor with Caligula to prevent, in co-operation with the amiable Petronius, the profanation of the temple as proposed by the erection of the emperor’s statue within it,——all served to throw a most attractive interest around him, and to excite brilliant hopes, which his first acts immediately more than justified. The temple, though now so resplendent with the highest♦achievements of art, and though so vast in its foundations and dimensions, was still considered as having some deficiencies, so great, that nothing but royal munificence could supply them. The Jews therefore seized the fortunate occasion of the accession of their new and amiable monarch to his throne, to obtain the perfection of a work on which the hearts of the people were so much set, and the completion of which would so highly advance the monarch in the popular favor. The king at once benignantly heard their request, and gladly availing himself of this opportunity to gratify his subjects, and secure a regard from them which might some day be an advantage to him, immediately ordered the great work to proceed at his expense. The satisfaction of the people and the Sanhedrim was now at the highest pitch; and,♠emboldened by these displays of royal favor, some of the sage plotters among them hoped to obtain from him a favorable hearing on a matter which they deemed of still deeper importance to their religion, and in which his support was equally indispensable. This matter brings back the forsaken narrative to consideration.
THE VISIT TO JOPPA.Hardly had this instance of divine favor occurred in Lydda, when a new occasion for a similar effort presented itself, in the neighboring seaport town of Joppa. A female disciple of the faith of Christ, in that city, by name Tabitha, or in the Greek, Dorcas,(both names meaning Gazelle,) had distinguished herself and honored her religious profession, by the generous and charitable deeds which constantly employed her hands. This lady, so respected by all, and so loved by the poor, who gave witness to her goodness,——such an honor to the religious community which she had joined,——seemed to have so nobly done her part in life, that the order of Providence had apparently called her to rest from these labors, in that sleep from which no piety nor usefulness can save or recall their possessor. After a few days of illness, she died, and was, after the usual funeral ablutions, laid in an upper chamber, to await the burial. In the midst of the universal grief for this sad loss, the members of the church at Joppa, knowing that Peter was in Lydda, within a few hours’ journey, sent two messengers to him, to beg his presence among them, as some consolation in their distress. Peter, on hearing of this occasion for his presence, with great readiness accompanied the messengers back, and on arriving at Joppa, went straight to the house of mourning. He was immediately led into the chamber, where he found a most affecting testimony to the nature of the loss which the afflicted community had suffered. Around the dead, stood the widows who, in their friendlessness, had been relieved by the sympathy of Dorcas, now pouring their tears and uttering their lamentations over her, and showing that even the garments which they wore were the work of her industrious hand,——that hand which, once so untiring in these labors of love, was now cold and motionless in death. From that resistless doom, what mortal voice could ever recall even one so amiable and useful? But, while they were sorrowing thus, Peter ordered them all to leave him alone with the dead; and when all witnesses were removed, he kneeled and prayed. The words of that prayer are not recorded; and it is only by its successful efficiency that we know it to have been that fervent effectual prayer of a righteous man, which availeth much. It was such a prayer as, of old, the son of Shaphat offered over the dead child of the Shunamite, when alone with him; and its effect was not less mighty. Rising at length, and turning towards the body, he said “Tabitha, arise!” Awaking from the unbreathing sleep of death, as from a light slumber of an hour, she opened her eyes, and when she saw the majestic man of God alone, and herself robed for the tomb, she sat up and gazed in amazement. Peter, then, giving her his hand, lifted her from the funeral couch, and calling in the brethren and the widows;he presented her to their astonished eyes, alive. Their overwhelming joy and wonder, we are left to imagine. The story, when made known through the city, brought many to acknowledge the truth of that religion whose minister could work such wonders; and many believed in Christ. The field of labor which now opened to Peter in this place, seemed so wide that he did not continue his journey any further at that time, but took up his abode, for several days, in Joppa, lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner, whose house stood by the sea, near the water.
THE VISIT TO JOPPA.
Hardly had this instance of divine favor occurred in Lydda, when a new occasion for a similar effort presented itself, in the neighboring seaport town of Joppa. A female disciple of the faith of Christ, in that city, by name Tabitha, or in the Greek, Dorcas,(both names meaning Gazelle,) had distinguished herself and honored her religious profession, by the generous and charitable deeds which constantly employed her hands. This lady, so respected by all, and so loved by the poor, who gave witness to her goodness,——such an honor to the religious community which she had joined,——seemed to have so nobly done her part in life, that the order of Providence had apparently called her to rest from these labors, in that sleep from which no piety nor usefulness can save or recall their possessor. After a few days of illness, she died, and was, after the usual funeral ablutions, laid in an upper chamber, to await the burial. In the midst of the universal grief for this sad loss, the members of the church at Joppa, knowing that Peter was in Lydda, within a few hours’ journey, sent two messengers to him, to beg his presence among them, as some consolation in their distress. Peter, on hearing of this occasion for his presence, with great readiness accompanied the messengers back, and on arriving at Joppa, went straight to the house of mourning. He was immediately led into the chamber, where he found a most affecting testimony to the nature of the loss which the afflicted community had suffered. Around the dead, stood the widows who, in their friendlessness, had been relieved by the sympathy of Dorcas, now pouring their tears and uttering their lamentations over her, and showing that even the garments which they wore were the work of her industrious hand,——that hand which, once so untiring in these labors of love, was now cold and motionless in death. From that resistless doom, what mortal voice could ever recall even one so amiable and useful? But, while they were sorrowing thus, Peter ordered them all to leave him alone with the dead; and when all witnesses were removed, he kneeled and prayed. The words of that prayer are not recorded; and it is only by its successful efficiency that we know it to have been that fervent effectual prayer of a righteous man, which availeth much. It was such a prayer as, of old, the son of Shaphat offered over the dead child of the Shunamite, when alone with him; and its effect was not less mighty. Rising at length, and turning towards the body, he said “Tabitha, arise!” Awaking from the unbreathing sleep of death, as from a light slumber of an hour, she opened her eyes, and when she saw the majestic man of God alone, and herself robed for the tomb, she sat up and gazed in amazement. Peter, then, giving her his hand, lifted her from the funeral couch, and calling in the brethren and the widows;he presented her to their astonished eyes, alive. Their overwhelming joy and wonder, we are left to imagine. The story, when made known through the city, brought many to acknowledge the truth of that religion whose minister could work such wonders; and many believed in Christ. The field of labor which now opened to Peter in this place, seemed so wide that he did not continue his journey any further at that time, but took up his abode, for several days, in Joppa, lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner, whose house stood by the sea, near the water.
Joppa, now calledJaffa.——This was from very early times a place of great importance, from the circumstance of its being the nearest seaport to Jerusalem. It is mentioned in reference to this particular of its situation, in 2 Chroniclesii.17, where it is specified (in HebrewיפוJapho) as the port to which the cedar timber from Lebanon should be floated down in rafts, to be conveyed to Jerusalem for building the temple. It stood within the territories of the tribe of Dan, according to Joshuaxix.46, and lies about East-North-east from Jerusalem. Strabo, (xvi.) in describing it, refers to it as the scene of the ancient Grecian fable of Andromeda rescued from the sea-monster by Perseus. He describes its site as “quite elevated,——so much so, indeed, that it was a common saying that Jerusalem might be seen from the place; the inhabitants of which city use it as their seaport, in all their maritime intercourse.” Josephus mentions that it was added to the dominions of Herod the Great by Augustus. Its present appearance is thus described by travelers.
“It is situated in latitude 32 degrees 2 minutes North, and longitude 34 degrees 53 minutes East, and is forty miles West of Jerusalem. Its situation, as the nearest port to the Holy City, has been the chief cause of its importance. As a station for vessels, according♦toDr.Clarke, its harbor is one of the worst in the Mediterranean. Ships generally anchor about a mile from the town, to avoid the shoals and rocks of the place. The badness of the harbor is mentioned, indeed, by Josephus. (Josephus, Antiquities, bookxv.chapter 9.) * * * The road is protected by a castle built on a rock, and there are some storehouses and magazines on the sea-side. The coast is low, but little elevated above the level of the sea; but the town occupies an eminence, in the form of a sugar-loaf, with a citadel on the summit. The bottom of the hill is surrounded with a wall twelve or fourteen feet high, and two or three feet thick. * * * There are no antiquities in Jaffa: the place would seem to be too old to have any——to have outlived all that once rendered it interesting. The inhabitants are estimated at between four and five thousand souls, of whom the greater part are Turks and Arabs; the Christians are stated to be about six hundred, consisting of Roman Catholics, Greeks, Maronites, and Armenians.” [Modern Traveler, Palestine,pp.41, 42.]
♦“io” replaced with “to”
♦“io” replaced with “to”
♦“io” replaced with “to”
Dorcas.——This is the Greek translation of the old Hebrewצבי(Tsebi,) in the Aramaic dialect of that age, changed intoתביתא(Tabitha,) in English, “gazelle,” a beautiful animal of the antelope kind, often mentioned in descriptions of the deserts of south-western Asia, in which it roams; and not unfrequently the subject of poetical allusion. The species to which it is commonly supposed to belong, is theAntilopa DorcasofProf.Pallas, who named it on the supposition that it was identical with this animal, called by the Greeks,Δορκας, (Dorkas,) fromΔερκο, (Derko,) “to look,” from the peculiar brightness of “its soft black eye.”
THE CALL TO THE HEATHEN.The apostles had now, with great zeal and efficiency, preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to the worshipers of the true God, beginning at Jerusalem, and spreading the triumphs of his name to the bounds of the land of Israel. But in all their devotion to their Master’s work, they had never had a thought of breaking over the bounds of the faith of their fathers, or of making theirdoctrine anything else than a mere completion or accompaniment to the law of Moses; nor did they imagine that they were ever to extend the blessings of the gospel to any who did not bow down to all the tedious rituals of the ancient covenant. The true power of their Lord’s parting command, “Go and teachall nations,” they had never felt; and even now, their great chief supposed that the change of heart and remission of sins, which he was commissioned to preach, were for none but the devout adherents of the Jewish faith. A new and signal call was needed, to bring the apostles to a full sense of their enlarged duties; and it is among the highest honors vouchsafed to Peter, that he was the person chosen to receive this new view of the boundless field now opened for the battles and triumphs of the cross. To him, as the head and representative of the whole band of the apostles, was now spread out, in all its moral vastness and its physical immensity, the coming dominion of that faith, whose little seed he was now cherishing, with but a humble hope; but whose stately trunk and giant branches were, from that small and low beginning, to stretch, in a mighty growth, over lands, and worlds, to him unknown. Thus far he had labored with a high and holy zeal, in a cause whose vastness he had never appreciated,——every moment building up, unwittingly, a name for himself, which should outlast all the glories of the ancient covenant; and securing for his Master a dominion which the religion of Moses could never have reached. He had never had an idea, that he with his companions was founding and spreading a new religion;——to purify the religion of the law and the prophets, and to rescue it from the confusion and pollutions of warring sectaries, was all that they had thought of; yet with this end in view, they had been securing the attainment of one so far above and beyond, that a full and sudden view of the consequences of their humble deeds, would have appalled them. But though the mighty plan had never been whispered nor dreamed of, on earth,——though it was too immense for its simple agents to endure its full revelation at once,——its certain accomplishment had been ordained in heaven, and its endless details were to be fully learned only in its triumphant progress through uncounted ages. But, limited as was the view which the apostles then had of the high destiny of the cause to which they had devoted themselves, it was yet greatly extended from the low-born notions with which they had first followed the steps of their Master. They now no longer entertained thevagary of a worldly triumph and a worldly reward; they had left that on the mount where their Lord parted from them, and they were now prayerfully laboring for the establishment of a pure spiritual kingdom in the hearts of the righteous. To give them a just idea of the exalted freedom to which the gospel brought its sons, and to open their hearts to a Christian fellowship, as wide as the whole human family, God now gave the apostolic leader an unquestionable call to tell to the world the glad tidings of salvation, for all men, through a new and living way, by change of heart and remission of sins. The incidents which led to this revelation are thus detailed.The peace and good order of Palestine were now secured by several legions, whose different divisions, larger or smaller according to circumstances, were quartered in all the strong or important places in the country, to repress disorders, and enforce the authority of the civil power, when necessary. Besides this ordinary peace-establishment of the province, there was a cohort which took its name from the circumstance that it had been levied in Italy,——a distinction, now so rare, in consequence of the introduction of foreign mercenaries into the imperial hosts, as to become the occasion of an honorable eminence, which was signified by the title here given, showing that this division of the Roman armies was made up of the sons of that soil which had so long sent forth the conquerors of the world. Of all the variety of service required of the different detachments of the army, in the province which it guarded, by far the most honorable was that of being stationed next the person of the governor of the province, to maintain the military dignity of his vice-imperial court, and defend his representative majesty. Caesarea, on the sea-shore, was now the seat of the Roman government of Palestine; and here, in attendance on the person of the governor, was this aforesaid Italian cohort, at the head of a company in which, was a centurion named Cornelius. Though nothing is given respecting his birth and family but this single name, a very slight knowledge of Roman history and antiquities enables the historian to decide, that he was descended from a noble race of patricians, which had produced several of the most illustrious families of the imperial city. Eminent by this high birth and military rank, he must have been favored with an education worthy of his family and station. It is therefore allowable to conclude, that he was an intelligent and well-informed gentleman, whom years of foreign service, in thearmies of his country must have improved by the combined advantages of a traveler and a disciplined warrior. Of his moral and religious character such an account is given, as proves that his principles, probably implanted in early life, had been of such firmness as to withstand the numerous temptations of a soldier’s life, and to secure him in a course of most uncommon rectitude in his duties towards God and towards man. In the merciful exercise of his power over the people whose safety and quiet he came to maintain, and, moreover, in the generous use of his pecuniary advantages, he passed his blameless life; and the high motive of this noble conduct, is discovered in the steady, pure devotion, in which he employed many hours of daily retirement, and in which he caused his whole family publicly to join, on proper occasions. Thus is he briefly and strongly characterized by the sacred historian: “devout, and fearing God with all his house; giving much alms, and praying to God always.”
THE CALL TO THE HEATHEN.
The apostles had now, with great zeal and efficiency, preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to the worshipers of the true God, beginning at Jerusalem, and spreading the triumphs of his name to the bounds of the land of Israel. But in all their devotion to their Master’s work, they had never had a thought of breaking over the bounds of the faith of their fathers, or of making theirdoctrine anything else than a mere completion or accompaniment to the law of Moses; nor did they imagine that they were ever to extend the blessings of the gospel to any who did not bow down to all the tedious rituals of the ancient covenant. The true power of their Lord’s parting command, “Go and teachall nations,” they had never felt; and even now, their great chief supposed that the change of heart and remission of sins, which he was commissioned to preach, were for none but the devout adherents of the Jewish faith. A new and signal call was needed, to bring the apostles to a full sense of their enlarged duties; and it is among the highest honors vouchsafed to Peter, that he was the person chosen to receive this new view of the boundless field now opened for the battles and triumphs of the cross. To him, as the head and representative of the whole band of the apostles, was now spread out, in all its moral vastness and its physical immensity, the coming dominion of that faith, whose little seed he was now cherishing, with but a humble hope; but whose stately trunk and giant branches were, from that small and low beginning, to stretch, in a mighty growth, over lands, and worlds, to him unknown. Thus far he had labored with a high and holy zeal, in a cause whose vastness he had never appreciated,——every moment building up, unwittingly, a name for himself, which should outlast all the glories of the ancient covenant; and securing for his Master a dominion which the religion of Moses could never have reached. He had never had an idea, that he with his companions was founding and spreading a new religion;——to purify the religion of the law and the prophets, and to rescue it from the confusion and pollutions of warring sectaries, was all that they had thought of; yet with this end in view, they had been securing the attainment of one so far above and beyond, that a full and sudden view of the consequences of their humble deeds, would have appalled them. But though the mighty plan had never been whispered nor dreamed of, on earth,——though it was too immense for its simple agents to endure its full revelation at once,——its certain accomplishment had been ordained in heaven, and its endless details were to be fully learned only in its triumphant progress through uncounted ages. But, limited as was the view which the apostles then had of the high destiny of the cause to which they had devoted themselves, it was yet greatly extended from the low-born notions with which they had first followed the steps of their Master. They now no longer entertained thevagary of a worldly triumph and a worldly reward; they had left that on the mount where their Lord parted from them, and they were now prayerfully laboring for the establishment of a pure spiritual kingdom in the hearts of the righteous. To give them a just idea of the exalted freedom to which the gospel brought its sons, and to open their hearts to a Christian fellowship, as wide as the whole human family, God now gave the apostolic leader an unquestionable call to tell to the world the glad tidings of salvation, for all men, through a new and living way, by change of heart and remission of sins. The incidents which led to this revelation are thus detailed.
The peace and good order of Palestine were now secured by several legions, whose different divisions, larger or smaller according to circumstances, were quartered in all the strong or important places in the country, to repress disorders, and enforce the authority of the civil power, when necessary. Besides this ordinary peace-establishment of the province, there was a cohort which took its name from the circumstance that it had been levied in Italy,——a distinction, now so rare, in consequence of the introduction of foreign mercenaries into the imperial hosts, as to become the occasion of an honorable eminence, which was signified by the title here given, showing that this division of the Roman armies was made up of the sons of that soil which had so long sent forth the conquerors of the world. Of all the variety of service required of the different detachments of the army, in the province which it guarded, by far the most honorable was that of being stationed next the person of the governor of the province, to maintain the military dignity of his vice-imperial court, and defend his representative majesty. Caesarea, on the sea-shore, was now the seat of the Roman government of Palestine; and here, in attendance on the person of the governor, was this aforesaid Italian cohort, at the head of a company in which, was a centurion named Cornelius. Though nothing is given respecting his birth and family but this single name, a very slight knowledge of Roman history and antiquities enables the historian to decide, that he was descended from a noble race of patricians, which had produced several of the most illustrious families of the imperial city. Eminent by this high birth and military rank, he must have been favored with an education worthy of his family and station. It is therefore allowable to conclude, that he was an intelligent and well-informed gentleman, whom years of foreign service, in thearmies of his country must have improved by the combined advantages of a traveler and a disciplined warrior. Of his moral and religious character such an account is given, as proves that his principles, probably implanted in early life, had been of such firmness as to withstand the numerous temptations of a soldier’s life, and to secure him in a course of most uncommon rectitude in his duties towards God and towards man. In the merciful exercise of his power over the people whose safety and quiet he came to maintain, and, moreover, in the generous use of his pecuniary advantages, he passed his blameless life; and the high motive of this noble conduct, is discovered in the steady, pure devotion, in which he employed many hours of daily retirement, and in which he caused his whole family publicly to join, on proper occasions. Thus is he briefly and strongly characterized by the sacred historian: “devout, and fearing God with all his house; giving much alms, and praying to God always.”
Noble race of patricians.——Thegens Cornelia, or “Cornelian race,” was unequaled in Rome for the great number of noble families sprung from its stock. The Scipios, the Sullas, the Dolabellas, the Cinnas, the Lentuli, the Cethegi, the Cossi, and many other illustrious branches of this great race, are conspicuous in Roman history; and the Fasti Consulares, record more than sixty of the Cornelian race, who had borne the consular dignity previous to the apostolic era. This is always afamilyname, and Ainsworth very grossly errs in calling it “thepraenomenof several Romans.” Every Roman name of the middle and later ages of the commonwealth, had at least three parts, which were thepraenomen, marking the individual,——thenomenmarking thegens, (“race,” “stock,”) and thecognomen, marking the family or division of that great stock. Thus in the name “Publius Cornelius Scipio,” thelastword shows that the person belonged to the Scipio family, which by thesecondword is seen to be of the great Cornelian stock, while the first shows that this member of the family was distinguished from his relations, by the name of Publius. (See Adams’s Roman Antiquities, on Names.) Wherever this name, Cornelius, occurs, if the whole appellation of the man is given, this comes in the middle, as thenomen, marking the race; as is the case with every one of those quoted by Ainsworth, in his blundering account of the word. See also Sallust, (The Catilinarian Conspiracy,47, 55,) in defense of this peculiar limitation of the word to thegens. Not a single instance can be brought of its application to any person not of this noble patrician race, or of its use as a mere individual appellation. I am therefore authorized in concluding that this Cornelius mentioned in the Acts was related to this line of high nobility. It might, perhaps, be conjectured, that he had borrowed this name from that noble race, from having once been in the service of some one of its families, as was common in the case of freedmen, after they had received their liberty; but this supposition is not allowable; for he is expressly particularized as belonging to anItaliandivision of the army, which fact excludes the idea of that foreign origin which would belong to a slave. The Jews having but one name for each man, seldom gave all of a Roman’s name, unless of a very eminent man, as Pontius Pilate, Sergius Paulus, and other official characters; but selecting any one of the three parts which might be most convenient, they made that the sole appellative, whetherpraenomen,nomen, orcognomen. As in Lukeii.2: Actsxxiii.24:xxv.1:xxvii.1:xxviii.7,&c.
JERUSALEM,from the Latin Convent.Lukexxi.24.
JERUSALEM,from the Latin Convent.Lukexxi.24.
JERUSALEM,from the Latin Convent.Lukexxi.24.
The Italian cohort.——The wordΣπειρα(Speira) I translate “cohort,” rather than “legion,” as the older commentators did. Jerome translates it “cohortem,” and he must have known the exact technical force of the Greek word, and to what Latin military term it corresponded, from his living in the time when these terms must have been in frequent use. Those who prefer to translate it “legion,” are misled by the circumstance, that Tacitus and other writers on Roman affairs, mention a legionwhich had the distinctive appellation of “the Italian Legion;” while it has been supposed that these ancient authors make no mention of an Italiancohort. But the deeply learned Wetstein, with his usual vast classical research, has shown several such passages, in Arrian and others, in which mentionismade of an Italian cohort; and in Gruter’s inscriptions, quoted by Kuinoel, there is an account of “a volunteer cohort ofItaliansoldiers in Syria;” and Palestine was at this time included with Syria, under the presidency of Petronius. This inscription, too, justifies my remark as to the high character of those who served in this corps. “Cohors militum Italicorumvoluntaria” seems to imply a body of soldiers of a higher character than the ordinary mercenary mass of the army, being probably made up ofvolunteersfrom respectable families of Italy, who chose to enlarge their knowledge of the world by foreign military service, in this very honorable station of life-guard to the Roman governor, as Doddridge and others suppose this to have been. (See Doddridge on this passage; also C. G. Schwartz in Wolff, Cur. Philology in loc.) It is considered also as fairly proved that the “Italianlegion” was not formed till a much later period; so that it is rendered in the highest degree probable and unquestionable, that this was acohort, and, as Schwartz and Doddridge prove, not a mere ordinary cohort, making the tenth part of a common legion of 4200, but a distinct and independent corps, attached to no legion, and devoted to the exclusive honorable service above mentioned. (See Bloomfield, Kuinoel, Rosenmueller,&c.)
Devout.——Some have tried hard to make out that Cornelius was what they call “a proselyte of the gate;” that is, one who, though not circumcised, nor conforming to the rituals generally, yet was an observer of themorallaw. But Lardner very fully shows that there were not two sorts of proselytes; all who bore that name fully conforming to the Jewish rituals, but still called “strangers,”&c.; because, though admitted to all the religious privileges of the covenant, they were excluded from the civil and political privileges of Jews, and could not be freeholders. Cornelius must then have been a mere Gentile. (See Lardner in his life of Peter; also Kuinoel and Bloomfield.)
Caesarea.——This is another of those cities enlarged or rebuilt by the princes of the Herodian line, and honored with the names of the imperial family. This city stood on the sea-shore, about 30 miles north of Joppa; and (Modern Traveler) 62 north-north-west from Jerusalem. (600 stadia Josephus.) It has been idly conjectured by the Rabbinical writers, that this was the same with Ekron, of the Old Testament, Zephaniahii.4; while the Arabic version gives it as Hazor, Joshuaxi.1,——both with about equal probability. The earliest name by which it can be certainly recognized, is Apollonia, which it bore when it passed from the Syro-Grecians to the Maccabean princes. Its common name, in the time of Herod the Great, wasπυργος Στρατωνος,turris Stratonis, “Straton’s castle,” from the name of a Greek pirate who had built a strong hold here. Herod the Great made it the most splendid city in his dominions, and even in all the eastern part of the Roman empire; and in honor of Augustus Caesar, called it Caesarea Augusta. It was sometimes called CaesareaPalestinae, to distinguish it from CaesareaPhilippi; for Palestine was then a name limited to the southern part of the coast of the Holy Land, and was bounded on the north by Phoenicia. This city was the capital of the whole Holy Land throughout the period of the later Herodian and Roman sway.
To this man was sent the first heavenly call, which ended in bringing in the Gentiles to the knowledge of the truth revealed by Jesus. After having fasted all day, he was employed in his regular devotions, at the usual hour of prayer, (three o’clock in the afternoon,) when his senses were overwhelmed by a vision, in which he had a distinct view of a messenger of God, in shining garments, coming to him; and heard him call him by his name, “Cornelius!” Looking at him as steadily as he was able in his great alarm, Cornelius asked, “What is it, Lord?” The heavenly visitant replied, in words of consolation and high praise, “Thy prayers and thy alms have come up in remembrance before God.And now send men to Joppa, and call for a man named Simon Peter, lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea-side. He, when he comes, shall tell thee what it is right that thou shouldst do.” When the surprising messenger had given this charge, he departed; and Cornelius, without delay, went to fulfil the minute directions he had received. He called two of his domestics, and a devout soldier of the detachment then on duty near him, and having related to them all that he had just seen and heard, he sent them to Joppa, to invite Peter according to the order. The distance between the two places is about thirty-five miles, and being too great to be easily traveled in one day, they journeyed thither during a part of two days, starting immediately when they received the command, though late in the afternoon. While they were continuing their journey, the next day, and were now near to the city of Joppa, Peter, without any idea of the important task to which he was soon to be summoned, went up, as usual, to the Alijah, or place of prayer, upon the house-top, at about twelve o’clock, mid-day. Having, according to the usual custom of the Jews, fasted for many hours, for the sake of keeping the mind clear from the effects of gross food on the body, and at length becoming sensible that he had pushed himself to the utmost limits of safe abstinence, he wished for food, and ordered his dinner. While the servants were preparing it, he continued above, in the place of prayer, where, enfeebled by fasting, and over-wrought by mental effort, he fell into a state of spiritual excitement, in which the mind is most susceptible of strong impressions of things beyond the reach of sense. In this condition, there appeared to him a singular vision, which subsequent events soon enabled him fully to interpret. It seemed to him that a great sheet was let down from the sky, to which it was fastened by the four corners, containing on its vast surface all sorts of animals that were forbidden as food by the Mosaic law. While the apostle gazed upon this vast variety of animals, which education had taught him to consider unclean, there came a voice to him, calling him by name, and commanding him to arise, kill, and eat. All his prejudices and early religious impressions were roused by such a proposal; and, resisting the invisible speaker as the agent of temptation to him in his bodily exhaustion, he replied, in all the pride of a scrupulous and unpolluted Jew, “By no means, Lord, because I have never eaten anything improper or unclean.” The mysterious voice again said, “What God hath cleansed, donot thou consider improper.” This impressive scene having been twice repeated, the whole was withdrawn back into heaven. This remarkable vision immediately called out all the energies of Peter’s mind, in its explanation. But before he had time to decide for himself what was meant by it, the messengers of Caesarea had inquired out the house of Simon, and, coming to the outside door, they called to learn whether Simon, who was surnamed Peter, lodged there. And while the mind of Peter was still intently occupied with the vision, he received an intimation from the unerring spirit, that his presence was required elsewhere. “Behold! three men are seeking thee, but rise up and go with them, without hesitation; for I have sent them.” Thus urged and encouraged, Peter went directly down to the men sent by Cornelius, and said, “Behold! I am he whom ye seek. What is your object in coming here?” They at once unfolded their errand. “Cornelius, a centurion, a just man, fearing God, and of good repute among all the Jews, was instructed by a holy messenger, to send for thee to his house, that he may hear something from thee.” Peter, already instructed as to the proper reception of the invitation, asked them in, and hospitably entertained them till the next day, improving the delay, no doubt, by learning as many of the circumstances of the case as they could give him. The news of this remarkable call was also made known to the brethren of the church in Joppa, some of whom were so highly interested in what they heard that evening, that they resolved to accompany Peter the next day, with the messengers, to see and hear for themselves the details of a business which promised to result so fairly in the glory of Christ’s name, and the wide enlargement of his kingdom. On the next day, the whole party set out together, and reached Caesarea, the second day of their journey; and going straight to the house of Cornelius, they found quite a large company there, awaiting their arrival. For Cornelius, expecting them, had invited his relations and his intimate friends, to hear the extraordinary communications which had been promised him, from his visitor. The kindred here alluded to were, perhaps, those of his wife, whom, according to a very common usage, he may have married in the place where he was stationed; for it is hardly probable that a Roman captain from Italy could have had any of his own blood relations about him, unless, perhaps, some of them might have enlisted with him, and now been serving with him on this honorable post. His near friends, who completed the assembly, were probablysuch of his brother officers as he knew to possess kindred tastes with himself, and to take an interest in religious matters. Such was the meeting that Peter found sitting in expectation of his coming; and so high were the ideas which Cornelius had formed of the character of his visitor, that, as soon as he met him on his entrance into the house, he fell down at his feet, and paid him reverence as a superior being;——an act of abasement towards the inhabitant of a conquered country, most rare and remarkable in a Roman officer, and one to which nothing but a notion of supernatural excellence could ever have brought him, since this was a position assumed not even by those who approached the emperor himself. Peter, however, had no desire to be made the object of a reverence so nearly resembling idolatry. Raising up the prostrate Roman, he said, “Stand up: for I myself am also a man.” Entering into familiar discourse with him, he now advanced into the house, and going with him to the great room, he there found a numerous company. He addressed them in these words: “You know how unlawful it is for a Jew to be familiar, or even to visit, with one of another nation; but God has taught me to call no man vulgar or unclean. Wherefore, I came at your summons, without hesitation. Now, then, I ask with what design have you sent for me?” And Cornelius said, “Four days ago, I was fasting till this hour; and at the ninth hour I was praying in my house;” and so having gone on to narrate all the circumstances of his vision, as given above, concluded in these words, “For this reason I sent for thee, and thou hast done well in coming, for we are all here, before God, to hear what has been imparted to thee, from God.” And Peter began solemnly to speak, and said, “Of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but that in every nation, he that fears him and does what is right, is approved by him.” With this solemn profession of a new view of this important principle of universal religion, as a beginning, he went on to satisfy their high expectations, by setting forth to them the sum and substance of the gospel doctrine, of whose rise and progress they had already, by report, heard a vague and partial account. The great and solemn truth which the Spirit had summoned him to proclaim, was that Jesus Christ the crucified was ordained by God the judge of both living and dead, and that through him, as all the prophets testified, every one that believed should have remission of sins. Of his resurrection from the dead, Peter declared himself the witness, as well as of his labors of good willtowards man, when, anointed with the Spirit of God, he went about doing good. Thus did Peter discourse, excited by the novel and divinely appointed occasion, till the same divine influence that moved his heart and tongue was poured out on his charmed hearers, and they forthwith manifested the signs of change of heart and devout faith in Christ, as the Son of God and the judge of the world; and made known the delight of their new sensations, in words of miraculous power. At this display of the equal and impartial grace of God, the Jewish church-members from Joppa, who had accompanied Peter to Caesarea, were greatly amazed, having never before imagined it possible for the influences of the divine spirit to be imparted to any who had not devoutly conformed to all the rituals of the holy law of old given by God to Moses, whose high authority was attested amid the smoke and flame and thunder of Sinai. And what change was this? In the face of this awful sanction, these believing followers of Moses and Christ saw the outward signs of the inward action of that Spirit which they had been accustomed to acknowledge as divine, now moving with the same holy energy the souls and voices of those born and bred among the heathen, without the consecrating aid of one of those forms of purification, by which Moses had ordained their preparation for the enjoyment of the blessings of God’s holy covenant with his own peculiar people. Moved by that same mysterious and holy influence, the Gentile warriors of Rome now lifted up their voices in praise of the God of Israel and of Abraham,——doubtless too,theirGod and Father, though Abraham were ignorant of them, and Israel acknowledged them not; since through his son Jesus a new covenant had been sealed in blood, opening and securing the blessings of that merciful and faithful promise to all nations. On Jehovah they now called as their Father and Redeemer, whose name was from everlasting,——known and worshiped long ere Abraham lived. Never before had the great partition-wall between Jews and Gentiles been thus broken down, nor had the noble and equal freedom of the new covenant ever yet been so truly and fully made known. And who was he that had thus boldly trampled on the legal usages of the ancient Mosaic covenant, as consecrated by the reverence of ages, and had imparted the holy signs of the Christian faith to men shut out from the mysteries of the inner courts of the house of God? It was not a presumptuous or unauthorized man, nor one thoughtless of the vastly important consequences of the act.It was the constituted leader of the apostolic band, who now, in direct execution of his solemn commission received from his Master, and in the literal fulfilment of the prophetic charge given therewith at the base of distant Hermon, opened the gates of the kingdom of heaven to all nations. Bearing the keys of the kingdom of God on earth, he now, in the set time of divine appointment, at the call of his Master in heaven, so signally given to him both directly and indirectly, unlocked the long-closed door, and with a voice of heavenly charity, bade the waiting Gentiles enter. This was the mighty commission with which Jesus had so prophetically honored this chief disciple atCaesareaPhilippi, and here, atCaesareaAugusta, was achieved the glorious fulfilment of this before mysterious announcement;——Simon Peter now, in the accomplishment of that divinely appointed task, became theRock, on which the church of Christ was, through the course of ages, reared; and in this act, the first stone of its broad Gentile foundation was laid.
To this man was sent the first heavenly call, which ended in bringing in the Gentiles to the knowledge of the truth revealed by Jesus. After having fasted all day, he was employed in his regular devotions, at the usual hour of prayer, (three o’clock in the afternoon,) when his senses were overwhelmed by a vision, in which he had a distinct view of a messenger of God, in shining garments, coming to him; and heard him call him by his name, “Cornelius!” Looking at him as steadily as he was able in his great alarm, Cornelius asked, “What is it, Lord?” The heavenly visitant replied, in words of consolation and high praise, “Thy prayers and thy alms have come up in remembrance before God.And now send men to Joppa, and call for a man named Simon Peter, lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea-side. He, when he comes, shall tell thee what it is right that thou shouldst do.” When the surprising messenger had given this charge, he departed; and Cornelius, without delay, went to fulfil the minute directions he had received. He called two of his domestics, and a devout soldier of the detachment then on duty near him, and having related to them all that he had just seen and heard, he sent them to Joppa, to invite Peter according to the order. The distance between the two places is about thirty-five miles, and being too great to be easily traveled in one day, they journeyed thither during a part of two days, starting immediately when they received the command, though late in the afternoon. While they were continuing their journey, the next day, and were now near to the city of Joppa, Peter, without any idea of the important task to which he was soon to be summoned, went up, as usual, to the Alijah, or place of prayer, upon the house-top, at about twelve o’clock, mid-day. Having, according to the usual custom of the Jews, fasted for many hours, for the sake of keeping the mind clear from the effects of gross food on the body, and at length becoming sensible that he had pushed himself to the utmost limits of safe abstinence, he wished for food, and ordered his dinner. While the servants were preparing it, he continued above, in the place of prayer, where, enfeebled by fasting, and over-wrought by mental effort, he fell into a state of spiritual excitement, in which the mind is most susceptible of strong impressions of things beyond the reach of sense. In this condition, there appeared to him a singular vision, which subsequent events soon enabled him fully to interpret. It seemed to him that a great sheet was let down from the sky, to which it was fastened by the four corners, containing on its vast surface all sorts of animals that were forbidden as food by the Mosaic law. While the apostle gazed upon this vast variety of animals, which education had taught him to consider unclean, there came a voice to him, calling him by name, and commanding him to arise, kill, and eat. All his prejudices and early religious impressions were roused by such a proposal; and, resisting the invisible speaker as the agent of temptation to him in his bodily exhaustion, he replied, in all the pride of a scrupulous and unpolluted Jew, “By no means, Lord, because I have never eaten anything improper or unclean.” The mysterious voice again said, “What God hath cleansed, donot thou consider improper.” This impressive scene having been twice repeated, the whole was withdrawn back into heaven. This remarkable vision immediately called out all the energies of Peter’s mind, in its explanation. But before he had time to decide for himself what was meant by it, the messengers of Caesarea had inquired out the house of Simon, and, coming to the outside door, they called to learn whether Simon, who was surnamed Peter, lodged there. And while the mind of Peter was still intently occupied with the vision, he received an intimation from the unerring spirit, that his presence was required elsewhere. “Behold! three men are seeking thee, but rise up and go with them, without hesitation; for I have sent them.” Thus urged and encouraged, Peter went directly down to the men sent by Cornelius, and said, “Behold! I am he whom ye seek. What is your object in coming here?” They at once unfolded their errand. “Cornelius, a centurion, a just man, fearing God, and of good repute among all the Jews, was instructed by a holy messenger, to send for thee to his house, that he may hear something from thee.” Peter, already instructed as to the proper reception of the invitation, asked them in, and hospitably entertained them till the next day, improving the delay, no doubt, by learning as many of the circumstances of the case as they could give him. The news of this remarkable call was also made known to the brethren of the church in Joppa, some of whom were so highly interested in what they heard that evening, that they resolved to accompany Peter the next day, with the messengers, to see and hear for themselves the details of a business which promised to result so fairly in the glory of Christ’s name, and the wide enlargement of his kingdom. On the next day, the whole party set out together, and reached Caesarea, the second day of their journey; and going straight to the house of Cornelius, they found quite a large company there, awaiting their arrival. For Cornelius, expecting them, had invited his relations and his intimate friends, to hear the extraordinary communications which had been promised him, from his visitor. The kindred here alluded to were, perhaps, those of his wife, whom, according to a very common usage, he may have married in the place where he was stationed; for it is hardly probable that a Roman captain from Italy could have had any of his own blood relations about him, unless, perhaps, some of them might have enlisted with him, and now been serving with him on this honorable post. His near friends, who completed the assembly, were probablysuch of his brother officers as he knew to possess kindred tastes with himself, and to take an interest in religious matters. Such was the meeting that Peter found sitting in expectation of his coming; and so high were the ideas which Cornelius had formed of the character of his visitor, that, as soon as he met him on his entrance into the house, he fell down at his feet, and paid him reverence as a superior being;——an act of abasement towards the inhabitant of a conquered country, most rare and remarkable in a Roman officer, and one to which nothing but a notion of supernatural excellence could ever have brought him, since this was a position assumed not even by those who approached the emperor himself. Peter, however, had no desire to be made the object of a reverence so nearly resembling idolatry. Raising up the prostrate Roman, he said, “Stand up: for I myself am also a man.” Entering into familiar discourse with him, he now advanced into the house, and going with him to the great room, he there found a numerous company. He addressed them in these words: “You know how unlawful it is for a Jew to be familiar, or even to visit, with one of another nation; but God has taught me to call no man vulgar or unclean. Wherefore, I came at your summons, without hesitation. Now, then, I ask with what design have you sent for me?” And Cornelius said, “Four days ago, I was fasting till this hour; and at the ninth hour I was praying in my house;” and so having gone on to narrate all the circumstances of his vision, as given above, concluded in these words, “For this reason I sent for thee, and thou hast done well in coming, for we are all here, before God, to hear what has been imparted to thee, from God.” And Peter began solemnly to speak, and said, “Of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but that in every nation, he that fears him and does what is right, is approved by him.” With this solemn profession of a new view of this important principle of universal religion, as a beginning, he went on to satisfy their high expectations, by setting forth to them the sum and substance of the gospel doctrine, of whose rise and progress they had already, by report, heard a vague and partial account. The great and solemn truth which the Spirit had summoned him to proclaim, was that Jesus Christ the crucified was ordained by God the judge of both living and dead, and that through him, as all the prophets testified, every one that believed should have remission of sins. Of his resurrection from the dead, Peter declared himself the witness, as well as of his labors of good willtowards man, when, anointed with the Spirit of God, he went about doing good. Thus did Peter discourse, excited by the novel and divinely appointed occasion, till the same divine influence that moved his heart and tongue was poured out on his charmed hearers, and they forthwith manifested the signs of change of heart and devout faith in Christ, as the Son of God and the judge of the world; and made known the delight of their new sensations, in words of miraculous power. At this display of the equal and impartial grace of God, the Jewish church-members from Joppa, who had accompanied Peter to Caesarea, were greatly amazed, having never before imagined it possible for the influences of the divine spirit to be imparted to any who had not devoutly conformed to all the rituals of the holy law of old given by God to Moses, whose high authority was attested amid the smoke and flame and thunder of Sinai. And what change was this? In the face of this awful sanction, these believing followers of Moses and Christ saw the outward signs of the inward action of that Spirit which they had been accustomed to acknowledge as divine, now moving with the same holy energy the souls and voices of those born and bred among the heathen, without the consecrating aid of one of those forms of purification, by which Moses had ordained their preparation for the enjoyment of the blessings of God’s holy covenant with his own peculiar people. Moved by that same mysterious and holy influence, the Gentile warriors of Rome now lifted up their voices in praise of the God of Israel and of Abraham,——doubtless too,theirGod and Father, though Abraham were ignorant of them, and Israel acknowledged them not; since through his son Jesus a new covenant had been sealed in blood, opening and securing the blessings of that merciful and faithful promise to all nations. On Jehovah they now called as their Father and Redeemer, whose name was from everlasting,——known and worshiped long ere Abraham lived. Never before had the great partition-wall between Jews and Gentiles been thus broken down, nor had the noble and equal freedom of the new covenant ever yet been so truly and fully made known. And who was he that had thus boldly trampled on the legal usages of the ancient Mosaic covenant, as consecrated by the reverence of ages, and had imparted the holy signs of the Christian faith to men shut out from the mysteries of the inner courts of the house of God? It was not a presumptuous or unauthorized man, nor one thoughtless of the vastly important consequences of the act.It was the constituted leader of the apostolic band, who now, in direct execution of his solemn commission received from his Master, and in the literal fulfilment of the prophetic charge given therewith at the base of distant Hermon, opened the gates of the kingdom of heaven to all nations. Bearing the keys of the kingdom of God on earth, he now, in the set time of divine appointment, at the call of his Master in heaven, so signally given to him both directly and indirectly, unlocked the long-closed door, and with a voice of heavenly charity, bade the waiting Gentiles enter. This was the mighty commission with which Jesus had so prophetically honored this chief disciple atCaesareaPhilippi, and here, atCaesareaAugusta, was achieved the glorious fulfilment of this before mysterious announcement;——Simon Peter now, in the accomplishment of that divinely appointed task, became theRock, on which the church of Christ was, through the course of ages, reared; and in this act, the first stone of its broad Gentile foundation was laid.
On duty about him.——This phrase is the just translation of the technical termπροσκαρτερουντων, (proskarterounton,) according to Price, Kuinoel, Bloomfield,&c.
Of all the honors with which his apostolic career was marked, there is none which equals this,——the revolutionizing of the whole gospel plan as before understood and advanced by its devotees,——the enlargement of its scope beyond the widest range of any merely Jewish charity,——and the disenthralment of its subjects from the antique formality and cumbrous ritual of the Jewish worship. And of all the events which the apostolic history records, there is none which, in its far-reaching and long-lasting effects, can match the opening of Christ’s kingdom to the Gentiles. What would have been the rate of its advancement under the management of those, who, like the apostles hitherto, looked on it as a mere improvement and spiritualization of the old Mosaic form, to which it was, in their view, only an appendage, and not a substitute? Think of what chances there were of its extension under such views to those far western lands where, ages ago, it reached with its benign influences the old Teutonic hordes from whom we draw our race;——or of what possibility there was of ever bringing under the intolerable yoke of Jewish forms, the hundreds of millions who now, out of so many lands and kindreds and tongues, bear the light yoke, and own the simpler faith of Jesus, confessing him Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Yet hitherto, so far from seeing these things in their true light,all the followers of Christ had, notwithstanding his broad and open commission to them, steadily persisted in the notion, that the observance of the regulations laid down by Moses for proselytes to his faith, was equally essential for a full conversion to the faith of Christ. And now too, it required a new and distinctly repeated summons from above, to bring even the great chief of the apostles to the just sense of the freedom of the gospel, and to the practical belief that God was no respecter of persons. But the whole progress of the event, with all its miraculous attestations, left so little doubt of the nature of the change, that Peter, after the manifestation of a holy spirit in the hearts and voices of the Gentile converts, triumphantly appealed to the Jewish brethren who had accompanied him from Joppa, and asked them, “Can any one forbid the water for the baptizing of these, who have received the Holy Spirit as well as we?” Taking the unanimous suffrage of their silence to his challenge, as a full consent, he gave directions that the believing Romans should be baptized in the name of the Lord, as Jesus in his parting charge had constituted that ordinance for the seal of redemption to every creature, in all the nations to whom the gospel should be preached. Having thus formally enrolled the first Gentile converts, as the free and complete partakers of the blessings of the new covenant, he stayed among them several days, at their request, strengthening their faith, and enlarging their knowledge by his pastoral instruction; which he deemed a task of sufficient importance to detain him, for a while, from his circuit among the new converts, scattered about in other places throughout Palestine, and from any immediate return to his friends and converts at Joppa, where this call had found him.Meanwhile, this mighty innovation on the established order of sacred things could not be long unknown beyond the cities of Caesarea and Joppa, but was soon announced by the varied voice of rumor to the amazed apostles and brethren at Jerusalem. The impression made on them by this vague report of their great leader’s proceedings, was most decidedly unfavorable; and there seem to have been not a few who regarded this unprecedented act of Peter as a downright abuse of the dignity and authority with which the special commission of his Master had invested him. Doubtless, in that little religious community, as in every other association of men ever gathered, there were already many human jealousies springing up like roots of bitterness, whichneeded but such an occasion as this, to manifest themselves in decided censure of the man, whose remarkable exaltation over them might seem like a stigma on the capacities or merits of those to whom he was preferred. Those in whose hearts such feelings had been rankling, now found a great occasion for the display of their religious zeal, in this bold movement of their constituted leader, who herein seemed to have presumed on his distinction and priority, to act in a matter of the very highest importance, without the slightest reference to the feelings and opinions of those, who had been with him chosen for the great work of spreading the gospel to all nations. And so much of free opinion and expression was there among them, that this act of the chief apostle called forth complaints both deep and loud, from his brethren, against this open and unexplained violation of the holy ordinances of that ancient law, which was still to them and him the seal and sign of salvation. Peter, at length, after completing his apostolic circuit among the churches, of which no farther account is given to us, returned to Jerusalem to meet these murmurs with the bold and clear declaration of the truth. As soon as he arrived, the grumblers burst out on him with open complaints of his offensive violations of the strict religious exclusiveness of demeanor, which became a son of Israel professing the pure reformed faith of Jesus. The unhesitating boldness with which this charge of a breach of order was made against Peter by the sticklers for circumcision, is a valuable and interesting proof, that all his authority and dignity among them, did not amount to anything like asupremacy; and that whatever he might bind or loose on earth for the high sanction of heaven, he could neither bind the tongues and opinions, nor loose the consciences of these sturdy and free-spoken brethren. Nor does Peter seem to have had the least idea of claiming any exemption from their critical review of his actions; but straightway addressed himself respectfully to them, in a faithful detail of his conduct, and the reasons of it. He distinctly recounted to them the clear and decided call which he considered himself to have received from heaven, by which he was summoned as the spiritual guide of the inquiring Gentiles. And after the honest recital of the whole series of incidents, and of the crowning act of the whole, the imparting to them the outward sign of inward washing from their sins, he boldly appealed to the judgments of his accusers, to say whether, in the face of such a sanction, they would have had him do otherwise.“When the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning, then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said,” (when parting from us, on the top of Olivet, to rise to the bosom of his father, prophetically announcing a new and holy consecration and endowment for our work,) “John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.” This peculiar gift thus solemnly announced, we had indeed received at the pentecost, and its outward signs we had thereby learned infallibly by our own experience; and even so, at Caesarea, I recognized in those Gentiles the same tokens by which I knew the workings of divine grace in myself and you. “Forasmuch, then, as God gave them the like gift as to us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, what was I, that I should withstand God?”——This clear and unanswerable appeal silenced the clamors of the bold assertors of the inviolability of Mosaic forms; and when they heard these things, they held their peace, and, softened from their harsh spirit of rebuke, they, in a noble feeling of truly Christian triumph, forgot all their late exclusiveness, in a pure joy for the new and vast extension of the dominion of Christ, secured by this act, whose important consequences they were not slow in perceiving. They praised God for such a beginning of mighty results, and laying aside, in this moment of exultation, every feeling of narrow Jewish bigotry, they acknowledged that “to the Gentiles also, God had granted repentance unto life.”HEROD AGRIPPA.At this time, the monarch of the Roman world was Caius Caesar, commonly known by his surname, Caligula. Among the first acts of a reign, whose outset was deservedly popular for its numerous manifestations of prudence and benevolence, forming a strange contrast with subsequent tyranny and folly, was the advancement of a tried and faithful friend, to the regal honors and power which his birth entitled him to claim, and from which the neglectful indifference at first, and afterwards the revengeful spite of the preceding Caesar, Tiberius, had long excluded him. This was Herod Agrippa, grandson of that great Herod, who, by the force of his own exalted genius, and by the favor of the imperial Augustus, rose from the place of a friendless foreign adventurer, to the kingly sway of all Palestine. This extensive power he exercised in a manner which was, on the whole, ultimately advantageous to his subjects; but his whole reign, and the later years of it more particularly, were marked by cruelties the mostinfamous, to which he was led by almost insane fits of the most causeless jealousy. On none of the subjects of his power, did this tyrannical fury fall with such frequent and dreadful visitations, as on his own family; and it was there, that, in his alternate fits of fury and remorse, he was made the avenger of his own victims. Among these numerous domestic cruelties, one of the earliest, and the most distressing, was the murder of the amiable Mariamne, the daughter of the last remnants of the Asmonaean line,——“Herself the solitary scion leftOf a time-honored race,”which Herod’s remorseless policy had exterminated. Her he made his wife, and after a few years sacrificed her to some wild freak of jealousy, only to reap long years of agonizing remorse for the hasty act, when a cooler search had shown, too late, her stainless innocence. But a passionate despot never yet learned wisdom by being made to feel the recoil of his own folly; and in the course of later years this cruelty was equalled, and almost outdone, by a similar act, committed by him on those whom her memory should have saved, if anything could. The innocent and unfortunate Mariamne left him two sons, then mere children, whom the miserable, repentant tyrant, cherished and reared with an affectionate care, which might almost have seemed a partial atonement for the injuries of their murdered mother. After some years passed in obtaining a foreign education at the imperial court of Rome, these two sons, Alexander and Aristobulus, returned at their father’s summons, to his court, where their noble qualities, their eloquence and manly accomplishments, as well as the interest excited by their mother’s fate, drew on them the favorable and admiring regard of the whole people. But all that made them admirable and amiable to others, was as powerless as the memory of their mother, to save them from the fury of the suspicious tyrant. Those whose interests could be benefited by such a course, soon found means to make them objects of jealousy and terror to him, and ere long involved them in a groundless accusation of conspiring against his dominion and life. The uneasiness excited in Herod by their great popularity and their commanding talents, led him to believe this charge; and the miserable old tyrant, driven from fear to jealousy, and from jealousy to fury, at last crowned his own wretchedness and their wrongs, by strangling them both, after an imprisonment of so great alength as to take away from his crime even the shadowy excuse of hastiness. This was one of the last acts of a bloody life; but ere he died, returning tenderness towards the unfortunate race of Mariamne, led him to spare and cherish the infant children of Aristobulus, the younger of the two, who left three sons and two daughters to the tender mercies of his cruel father. One of these was the person who is concerned in the next event of Peter’s life, and whose situation and conduct in reference to that affair, was such as to justify this prolonged episode. He received in infancy the name of Agrippa, out of compliment to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, the favorite and minister of Augustus Caesar, and the steady friend of the great Herod. This name was exclusively borne by this son of Aristobulus in childhood, nor was it ever displaced by any other, except by some of the Jews, who, out of compliment to the restoration of the Herodian line of kings, in place of the Roman sub-governors, gave him the name of his royal grandfather, so that he is mentioned only by the name of Herod in the story of the Acts of the Apostles; but the Romans and Greeks seem to have known him only by his proper name of Agrippa. The tardy repentance of his grandfather did not extend to any important permanent provision for the children of Aristobulus; but on his death a few years after, they were left with the great majority of the numerous progeny of Herod, to the precarious fortunes of dependent princes. The young Agrippa having married his own cousin, Cypros, the daughter of a daughter of Herod and Mariamne, sailed to Rome, where he remained for several years, a sort of beggar about the court of Tiberius Caesar, through whose favor he hoped for an advancement to some one of the thrones in Palestine, which seemed to be prizes for any of Herod’s numerous descendents who could best secure the imperial favor, and depress the possessors in the Caesar’s opinion. Passing at Rome and elsewhere through a romantic variety of fortune, this adventurer was at last lucky in securing to himself the most friendly regard of Caius Caesar, then the expected successor of the reigning emperor. This afterwards proved the basis of his fortunes, which for a while, however, were darkened by the consequences of an imprudent remark made to Caius, expressive of a wish for the death of Tiberias, which was reported to the jealous tyrant by a listening slave, and finally caused the speaker’s close imprisonment during the rest of the emperor’s life. The death of Tiberius, followed by the accession of CaiusCaesar to the throne, raised Agrippa from his chains to freedom, and to the most intimate favor of the new monarch. The tetrarchy of Iturea and Trachonitis, then vacant by the death of Philip, was immediately conferred on him; and soon after, Herod Antipas having been exiled, his territories, Galilee and Peraea, were added to the former dominions of Herod Agrippa, and with them was granted to him the title ofking, which had never yet been given to any of the descendents of Herod the Great. In this state were the governments of these countries at the time of the events last narrated; but Herod Agrippa, often visiting Rome, left all Palestine in the hands of Publius Petronius, the just and benevolent Roman president of Syria. In this state, affairs remained during all the short reign of Caius Caligula Caesar, who, after four years mostly characterized by folly, vice and cruelty, ended his days by the daggers of assassins. But this great event proved no check to the flourishing fortunes of his favorite, king Herod Agrippa; who, in the course of the events which ended in placing Claudius on the throne, so distinguished himself in the preliminary negociations between the new emperor and the senate, sharing as he did the confidence and regard of both parties, that he was justly considered by all, as the most active means of effecting the comfortable settlement of their difficulties; and he was therefore deemed well deserving of the highest rewards. Accordingly, the first act of Claudius’s government, like the first of Caligula’s, was the presentation of a new kingdom to this favorite of fortune,——Judea being now added to the other countries in his possession, and thus bringing all Palestine into one noble kingdom, beneath his extensive sway. With a dominion comprising all that the policy of his grandfather had been able to attain during a long and active life, he now found himself, at the age of fifty-one, one of the most extraordinary instances of romantic fortune that had ever occurred; and anxious to enjoy something of the solid pleasure of visiting and governing his great and flourishing kingdom, he set sail from Rome, which had been so long to him the scene of such varied fortune, such calamitous poverty and tedious imprisonment,——and now proceeded as the proud king of Palestine, going home in triumph to the throne of his ancestor, supported by the most boundless pledges of imperial favor. The emperor Claudius, though regretting exceedingly the departure of the tried friend whom he had so much reason to love and cherish, yet would not detainhim from a happiness so noble and desirable, as that of arranging and ruling his consolidated dominion. Even his departure, however, was made the occasion of new marks of imperial favor; for Claudius gave him letters by which all Roman governors were bound to acknowledge and support him as the rightful sovereign of Palestine. He arrived in Palestine shortly after, and just before the passover, made his appearance in Jerusalem, where he was received with joy and hope by the expecting people, who hailed with open hearts a king whose interests would be identified with theirs, and with the glory of the Jewish name. His high and royal race,——his own personal misfortunes and the unhappy fate of his early-murdered father, as well as his descent from the lamented Mariamne,——his well-known amiability of character, and his regard for the holy Jewish faith, which he had shown by exerting and even risking all his favor with Caligula to prevent, in co-operation with the amiable Petronius, the profanation of the temple as proposed by the erection of the emperor’s statue within it,——all served to throw a most attractive interest around him, and to excite brilliant hopes, which his first acts immediately more than justified. The temple, though now so resplendent with the highest♦achievements of art, and though so vast in its foundations and dimensions, was still considered as having some deficiencies, so great, that nothing but royal munificence could supply them. The Jews therefore seized the fortunate occasion of the accession of their new and amiable monarch to his throne, to obtain the perfection of a work on which the hearts of the people were so much set, and the completion of which would so highly advance the monarch in the popular favor. The king at once benignantly heard their request, and gladly availing himself of this opportunity to gratify his subjects, and secure a regard from them which might some day be an advantage to him, immediately ordered the great work to proceed at his expense. The satisfaction of the people and the Sanhedrim was now at the highest pitch; and,♠emboldened by these displays of royal favor, some of the sage plotters among them hoped to obtain from him a favorable hearing on a matter which they deemed of still deeper importance to their religion, and in which his support was equally indispensable. This matter brings back the forsaken narrative to consideration.
Of all the honors with which his apostolic career was marked, there is none which equals this,——the revolutionizing of the whole gospel plan as before understood and advanced by its devotees,——the enlargement of its scope beyond the widest range of any merely Jewish charity,——and the disenthralment of its subjects from the antique formality and cumbrous ritual of the Jewish worship. And of all the events which the apostolic history records, there is none which, in its far-reaching and long-lasting effects, can match the opening of Christ’s kingdom to the Gentiles. What would have been the rate of its advancement under the management of those, who, like the apostles hitherto, looked on it as a mere improvement and spiritualization of the old Mosaic form, to which it was, in their view, only an appendage, and not a substitute? Think of what chances there were of its extension under such views to those far western lands where, ages ago, it reached with its benign influences the old Teutonic hordes from whom we draw our race;——or of what possibility there was of ever bringing under the intolerable yoke of Jewish forms, the hundreds of millions who now, out of so many lands and kindreds and tongues, bear the light yoke, and own the simpler faith of Jesus, confessing him Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Yet hitherto, so far from seeing these things in their true light,all the followers of Christ had, notwithstanding his broad and open commission to them, steadily persisted in the notion, that the observance of the regulations laid down by Moses for proselytes to his faith, was equally essential for a full conversion to the faith of Christ. And now too, it required a new and distinctly repeated summons from above, to bring even the great chief of the apostles to the just sense of the freedom of the gospel, and to the practical belief that God was no respecter of persons. But the whole progress of the event, with all its miraculous attestations, left so little doubt of the nature of the change, that Peter, after the manifestation of a holy spirit in the hearts and voices of the Gentile converts, triumphantly appealed to the Jewish brethren who had accompanied him from Joppa, and asked them, “Can any one forbid the water for the baptizing of these, who have received the Holy Spirit as well as we?” Taking the unanimous suffrage of their silence to his challenge, as a full consent, he gave directions that the believing Romans should be baptized in the name of the Lord, as Jesus in his parting charge had constituted that ordinance for the seal of redemption to every creature, in all the nations to whom the gospel should be preached. Having thus formally enrolled the first Gentile converts, as the free and complete partakers of the blessings of the new covenant, he stayed among them several days, at their request, strengthening their faith, and enlarging their knowledge by his pastoral instruction; which he deemed a task of sufficient importance to detain him, for a while, from his circuit among the new converts, scattered about in other places throughout Palestine, and from any immediate return to his friends and converts at Joppa, where this call had found him.
Meanwhile, this mighty innovation on the established order of sacred things could not be long unknown beyond the cities of Caesarea and Joppa, but was soon announced by the varied voice of rumor to the amazed apostles and brethren at Jerusalem. The impression made on them by this vague report of their great leader’s proceedings, was most decidedly unfavorable; and there seem to have been not a few who regarded this unprecedented act of Peter as a downright abuse of the dignity and authority with which the special commission of his Master had invested him. Doubtless, in that little religious community, as in every other association of men ever gathered, there were already many human jealousies springing up like roots of bitterness, whichneeded but such an occasion as this, to manifest themselves in decided censure of the man, whose remarkable exaltation over them might seem like a stigma on the capacities or merits of those to whom he was preferred. Those in whose hearts such feelings had been rankling, now found a great occasion for the display of their religious zeal, in this bold movement of their constituted leader, who herein seemed to have presumed on his distinction and priority, to act in a matter of the very highest importance, without the slightest reference to the feelings and opinions of those, who had been with him chosen for the great work of spreading the gospel to all nations. And so much of free opinion and expression was there among them, that this act of the chief apostle called forth complaints both deep and loud, from his brethren, against this open and unexplained violation of the holy ordinances of that ancient law, which was still to them and him the seal and sign of salvation. Peter, at length, after completing his apostolic circuit among the churches, of which no farther account is given to us, returned to Jerusalem to meet these murmurs with the bold and clear declaration of the truth. As soon as he arrived, the grumblers burst out on him with open complaints of his offensive violations of the strict religious exclusiveness of demeanor, which became a son of Israel professing the pure reformed faith of Jesus. The unhesitating boldness with which this charge of a breach of order was made against Peter by the sticklers for circumcision, is a valuable and interesting proof, that all his authority and dignity among them, did not amount to anything like asupremacy; and that whatever he might bind or loose on earth for the high sanction of heaven, he could neither bind the tongues and opinions, nor loose the consciences of these sturdy and free-spoken brethren. Nor does Peter seem to have had the least idea of claiming any exemption from their critical review of his actions; but straightway addressed himself respectfully to them, in a faithful detail of his conduct, and the reasons of it. He distinctly recounted to them the clear and decided call which he considered himself to have received from heaven, by which he was summoned as the spiritual guide of the inquiring Gentiles. And after the honest recital of the whole series of incidents, and of the crowning act of the whole, the imparting to them the outward sign of inward washing from their sins, he boldly appealed to the judgments of his accusers, to say whether, in the face of such a sanction, they would have had him do otherwise.“When the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning, then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said,” (when parting from us, on the top of Olivet, to rise to the bosom of his father, prophetically announcing a new and holy consecration and endowment for our work,) “John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.” This peculiar gift thus solemnly announced, we had indeed received at the pentecost, and its outward signs we had thereby learned infallibly by our own experience; and even so, at Caesarea, I recognized in those Gentiles the same tokens by which I knew the workings of divine grace in myself and you. “Forasmuch, then, as God gave them the like gift as to us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, what was I, that I should withstand God?”——This clear and unanswerable appeal silenced the clamors of the bold assertors of the inviolability of Mosaic forms; and when they heard these things, they held their peace, and, softened from their harsh spirit of rebuke, they, in a noble feeling of truly Christian triumph, forgot all their late exclusiveness, in a pure joy for the new and vast extension of the dominion of Christ, secured by this act, whose important consequences they were not slow in perceiving. They praised God for such a beginning of mighty results, and laying aside, in this moment of exultation, every feeling of narrow Jewish bigotry, they acknowledged that “to the Gentiles also, God had granted repentance unto life.”
HEROD AGRIPPA.
At this time, the monarch of the Roman world was Caius Caesar, commonly known by his surname, Caligula. Among the first acts of a reign, whose outset was deservedly popular for its numerous manifestations of prudence and benevolence, forming a strange contrast with subsequent tyranny and folly, was the advancement of a tried and faithful friend, to the regal honors and power which his birth entitled him to claim, and from which the neglectful indifference at first, and afterwards the revengeful spite of the preceding Caesar, Tiberius, had long excluded him. This was Herod Agrippa, grandson of that great Herod, who, by the force of his own exalted genius, and by the favor of the imperial Augustus, rose from the place of a friendless foreign adventurer, to the kingly sway of all Palestine. This extensive power he exercised in a manner which was, on the whole, ultimately advantageous to his subjects; but his whole reign, and the later years of it more particularly, were marked by cruelties the mostinfamous, to which he was led by almost insane fits of the most causeless jealousy. On none of the subjects of his power, did this tyrannical fury fall with such frequent and dreadful visitations, as on his own family; and it was there, that, in his alternate fits of fury and remorse, he was made the avenger of his own victims. Among these numerous domestic cruelties, one of the earliest, and the most distressing, was the murder of the amiable Mariamne, the daughter of the last remnants of the Asmonaean line,——
“Herself the solitary scion leftOf a time-honored race,”
“Herself the solitary scion leftOf a time-honored race,”
“Herself the solitary scion left
Of a time-honored race,”
which Herod’s remorseless policy had exterminated. Her he made his wife, and after a few years sacrificed her to some wild freak of jealousy, only to reap long years of agonizing remorse for the hasty act, when a cooler search had shown, too late, her stainless innocence. But a passionate despot never yet learned wisdom by being made to feel the recoil of his own folly; and in the course of later years this cruelty was equalled, and almost outdone, by a similar act, committed by him on those whom her memory should have saved, if anything could. The innocent and unfortunate Mariamne left him two sons, then mere children, whom the miserable, repentant tyrant, cherished and reared with an affectionate care, which might almost have seemed a partial atonement for the injuries of their murdered mother. After some years passed in obtaining a foreign education at the imperial court of Rome, these two sons, Alexander and Aristobulus, returned at their father’s summons, to his court, where their noble qualities, their eloquence and manly accomplishments, as well as the interest excited by their mother’s fate, drew on them the favorable and admiring regard of the whole people. But all that made them admirable and amiable to others, was as powerless as the memory of their mother, to save them from the fury of the suspicious tyrant. Those whose interests could be benefited by such a course, soon found means to make them objects of jealousy and terror to him, and ere long involved them in a groundless accusation of conspiring against his dominion and life. The uneasiness excited in Herod by their great popularity and their commanding talents, led him to believe this charge; and the miserable old tyrant, driven from fear to jealousy, and from jealousy to fury, at last crowned his own wretchedness and their wrongs, by strangling them both, after an imprisonment of so great alength as to take away from his crime even the shadowy excuse of hastiness. This was one of the last acts of a bloody life; but ere he died, returning tenderness towards the unfortunate race of Mariamne, led him to spare and cherish the infant children of Aristobulus, the younger of the two, who left three sons and two daughters to the tender mercies of his cruel father. One of these was the person who is concerned in the next event of Peter’s life, and whose situation and conduct in reference to that affair, was such as to justify this prolonged episode. He received in infancy the name of Agrippa, out of compliment to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, the favorite and minister of Augustus Caesar, and the steady friend of the great Herod. This name was exclusively borne by this son of Aristobulus in childhood, nor was it ever displaced by any other, except by some of the Jews, who, out of compliment to the restoration of the Herodian line of kings, in place of the Roman sub-governors, gave him the name of his royal grandfather, so that he is mentioned only by the name of Herod in the story of the Acts of the Apostles; but the Romans and Greeks seem to have known him only by his proper name of Agrippa. The tardy repentance of his grandfather did not extend to any important permanent provision for the children of Aristobulus; but on his death a few years after, they were left with the great majority of the numerous progeny of Herod, to the precarious fortunes of dependent princes. The young Agrippa having married his own cousin, Cypros, the daughter of a daughter of Herod and Mariamne, sailed to Rome, where he remained for several years, a sort of beggar about the court of Tiberius Caesar, through whose favor he hoped for an advancement to some one of the thrones in Palestine, which seemed to be prizes for any of Herod’s numerous descendents who could best secure the imperial favor, and depress the possessors in the Caesar’s opinion. Passing at Rome and elsewhere through a romantic variety of fortune, this adventurer was at last lucky in securing to himself the most friendly regard of Caius Caesar, then the expected successor of the reigning emperor. This afterwards proved the basis of his fortunes, which for a while, however, were darkened by the consequences of an imprudent remark made to Caius, expressive of a wish for the death of Tiberias, which was reported to the jealous tyrant by a listening slave, and finally caused the speaker’s close imprisonment during the rest of the emperor’s life. The death of Tiberius, followed by the accession of CaiusCaesar to the throne, raised Agrippa from his chains to freedom, and to the most intimate favor of the new monarch. The tetrarchy of Iturea and Trachonitis, then vacant by the death of Philip, was immediately conferred on him; and soon after, Herod Antipas having been exiled, his territories, Galilee and Peraea, were added to the former dominions of Herod Agrippa, and with them was granted to him the title ofking, which had never yet been given to any of the descendents of Herod the Great. In this state were the governments of these countries at the time of the events last narrated; but Herod Agrippa, often visiting Rome, left all Palestine in the hands of Publius Petronius, the just and benevolent Roman president of Syria. In this state, affairs remained during all the short reign of Caius Caligula Caesar, who, after four years mostly characterized by folly, vice and cruelty, ended his days by the daggers of assassins. But this great event proved no check to the flourishing fortunes of his favorite, king Herod Agrippa; who, in the course of the events which ended in placing Claudius on the throne, so distinguished himself in the preliminary negociations between the new emperor and the senate, sharing as he did the confidence and regard of both parties, that he was justly considered by all, as the most active means of effecting the comfortable settlement of their difficulties; and he was therefore deemed well deserving of the highest rewards. Accordingly, the first act of Claudius’s government, like the first of Caligula’s, was the presentation of a new kingdom to this favorite of fortune,——Judea being now added to the other countries in his possession, and thus bringing all Palestine into one noble kingdom, beneath his extensive sway. With a dominion comprising all that the policy of his grandfather had been able to attain during a long and active life, he now found himself, at the age of fifty-one, one of the most extraordinary instances of romantic fortune that had ever occurred; and anxious to enjoy something of the solid pleasure of visiting and governing his great and flourishing kingdom, he set sail from Rome, which had been so long to him the scene of such varied fortune, such calamitous poverty and tedious imprisonment,——and now proceeded as the proud king of Palestine, going home in triumph to the throne of his ancestor, supported by the most boundless pledges of imperial favor. The emperor Claudius, though regretting exceedingly the departure of the tried friend whom he had so much reason to love and cherish, yet would not detainhim from a happiness so noble and desirable, as that of arranging and ruling his consolidated dominion. Even his departure, however, was made the occasion of new marks of imperial favor; for Claudius gave him letters by which all Roman governors were bound to acknowledge and support him as the rightful sovereign of Palestine. He arrived in Palestine shortly after, and just before the passover, made his appearance in Jerusalem, where he was received with joy and hope by the expecting people, who hailed with open hearts a king whose interests would be identified with theirs, and with the glory of the Jewish name. His high and royal race,——his own personal misfortunes and the unhappy fate of his early-murdered father, as well as his descent from the lamented Mariamne,——his well-known amiability of character, and his regard for the holy Jewish faith, which he had shown by exerting and even risking all his favor with Caligula to prevent, in co-operation with the amiable Petronius, the profanation of the temple as proposed by the erection of the emperor’s statue within it,——all served to throw a most attractive interest around him, and to excite brilliant hopes, which his first acts immediately more than justified. The temple, though now so resplendent with the highest♦achievements of art, and though so vast in its foundations and dimensions, was still considered as having some deficiencies, so great, that nothing but royal munificence could supply them. The Jews therefore seized the fortunate occasion of the accession of their new and amiable monarch to his throne, to obtain the perfection of a work on which the hearts of the people were so much set, and the completion of which would so highly advance the monarch in the popular favor. The king at once benignantly heard their request, and gladly availing himself of this opportunity to gratify his subjects, and secure a regard from them which might some day be an advantage to him, immediately ordered the great work to proceed at his expense. The satisfaction of the people and the Sanhedrim was now at the highest pitch; and,♠emboldened by these displays of royal favor, some of the sage plotters among them hoped to obtain from him a favorable hearing on a matter which they deemed of still deeper importance to their religion, and in which his support was equally indispensable. This matter brings back the forsaken narrative to consideration.