Works

§ Gaius the new God, little better than a Devil.

AFTER the sight of the goodly Godship of the Emperor shown in little a little before, let us take him now as he is indeed, little better than a Devil. A man, the shame and confusion of men, if he may be called a man, and so far beyond the vices of any that had gone before, that he seemed to live to no other purpose than to show, what the utmost extent of vitiousness could do in the utmost height of power and liberty. You would wonder, but that his defiance of the God's doth lessen that wonder, how scornfully and despitefully he used the memory and persons of his ancestors, sisters, kindred and best friends: He charged Augustus with incest, Livia with base birth, Tiberius but with what he deserved, his own mother with bastardize, and whosoever was most near and most honor to him, with some ignominy and reproach or other. But such words were curtesies in comparison of his actions. All his sisters he first deflowered, and then prostituted them to others being so deslowred. But his darling sister Drusilla, sped somewhat better, if that better were not as bad. To her he continued his affection, of love or lust whether you will, while she continued in life, and when she was dead, he made her the means of his profit as he had done before of his pleasure; she was the wife of M. Lepidus, but still the whore of her brother Cain's, and after her death he made her a Goddess, whom all her life long he had made his harlot. Altars, Statues, Vowes, Festivals were ordained for her, and Livius Geminius played the knight o'th post, and swore devoutly that he saw her ascend to heaven, and conversing with the God's. Such a Deity had the Romans never known before, but only her brother, and she troubled them as much in her heaven, as he did on the earth. For now was it impossible for any man so to behave himself, but he was entrapped on the one hand or the other, about this new found Goddess. To mourn for her death, it was criminal, because she was a Deity; and to rejoice for her Deity was capital, because she was dead, so that betwixt this Dilemma, of piety, tears and devotion, that man was very wary indeed that suffered not inhumanity and violence. For to laugh, feast, bath, sing or dance was mortal, because the Emperors sister and darling was dead, and yet to mourn, or sorrow for her death was as deadly, because she was immortal. This last stale did he make of this his deceased sister, when she would now serve him for no other use, that both sorrow for her mortality, and joy for her being immortal did alike bring in money to his treasures, (which were now almost drained of his many millions) either by bribes for the saving of the life of some, or by consiscation upon the death of others.

But how must he do now for another Paramor after his dear Drusilla? Why, that needeth not to breed any great difficulty, when his unbridled lust is not very curious of his choice, and his as unbridled power might choose as it list. He first married Lollia Paullina the wife of C. Memmius, sending for her from another country where her husband was General of the Army, and all the reason of this his choice was, because he was told that her grandmother was an exceeding great beauty; but he soon put her away again, and forbad that any should touch her forever after him. Next came Caesonia into his affections, and there contined; a mother of three children, and of more age than beauty, but of a lasciviousness and beastiality so well befitting his, that now he had met with his match, and it was pity they should have missed meeting: He would sometimes show her to the Soldiers, in armor, and sometimes to his friends stark naked, transforming her by these vicissitudes into two extremes equally unbefitting her sex, to a man and to a beast. By her he had a Daughter whom he named Julia Drusilla, and whom he brought to the shrines of all the Goddesses in Rome, and at last committed to the lap of Minerva for her tutorage and education. But this his behavior is nothing in comparison of that which followed. He slew divers of the Senate, and yet afterward cited them to appear as if they had been alive, and in the end pretended that they had died by their own hands, others came off with a scourging, and so they escaped with life, but he caused the Soldiers to tread on them as they lay, and as they whipped them that they might have them at the more command: And thus he used some of all ranks and degrees. Being disturbed at midnight one night by the noise of some that were getting places in the Circus against the next day, he fell upon them with Clubs and slew twenty Knights, as many matrons, and an infinite company of the common people. He threw a great multitude of old men and decrepit householders to the wild beasts, that he might rid such unserviceable men, as he thought them, out of the way, and he caused the granaries to be often shut up, that they that had escaped the wild beasts, might perish with famine: He used to fatten the beasts that he desired to have fed with the inhumane diet of human bodies yet alive, that thereby he might save other charges: Many men he first mangled and maimed, and then condemned to the mines, or to the wild beasts, or to little- • ase-prisons, and some he caused to be sawed in sunder. He forced parents to be present at the execution of their children: and for one that could not come to such a miserable spectacle he sent a letter; and another he invited to a feast, after he had caused him to be a spectator of the execution of his own Son. One of the masters of his games that had offended him, he kept in chains, and caused him to be beaten every day before his face, till the offensiveness and stench of his wounded brain obtained his death: A Roman Knight being cast by him to the wild beasts, and crying out of the injustice done to him, he caused to be taken out again, and his tongue to be cut out, and then he cast him to them again. He caused all the banished men that were in the Islands about Italy to be slain at once, because having asked one that was banished in the time of Tiberius, what he did all the time of his exile, and he answered, that he prayed continually for the death of Tiberius and the succession of Gaius, he thought that all the present exiles prayed for his death likewise. Every tenth day he caused an execution to be had of those that were condemned, boasting and vanting that he scoured the prisons: And ever as any one came to suffer, he commanded the executioners to end him with such deliberate tortures, as that he should be sure to feel himself to die: involving many deaths in one, and causing men that were to die, to live even in death, that they might die with more pain.

THE occasion of Peters travail at this time, may be well apprehended to be for the settling and confirming of those Churches that were now begun by the Ministry of the dispersed Preachers: One thing was most necessary for these new founded Churches, which the Preachers themselves could not provide for them, and that was Ministers or Pastors, unless they would have stayed there themselves, which in all places they could not do, and in many places they did not, if in any place at all they did longer than for a little space, the necessity of dispersing the Gospel calling them from place to place: Therefore it was needful that the Apostles themselves should go after them to ordain Ministers by the imposition of their hands, with which they did not only instal or institute into the office of the ministry, but also bestowed the Holy Ghost, for the enabling of those that they did ordain, for the performance of that office, which gift the other Disciples could not bestow; and this may be conceived one reason why ten of the twelve Apostles were absent from Jerusalem at Paul's coming there, as was observed before, namely because they were dispersed abroad over the new planted Churches for this purpose: And this was one cause why Peter travails thus at this time, the plantations of the Churches still increasing: and his comforting, confirming and settling the Churches was another.

This referreth to those places mentioned in the verse preceding, Judea, Galilee, and Samaria: only whereas that verse speaketh of the places themselves: this Verse in the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a word of the masculine gender, referreth to the people of the places, and this is all the difference: And therefore Baronius is besides the Cushion, who upon this very place and out of this very word would conclude that Peter in this his peregrination did found the Episcopacy at Antioch. His words are these.

Luke, saith he, being intent (as it appeareth) to commend to memory the more remarkable miracles wrought by Peter, hath omitted in silence the rest of his actions performed in this visitation of the province, and among other things, the institution of the Church of Antioch: which that it was erected by him in this very year, we shall easily show by the testimony of the ancients. Eusebius may be alleged as one of these ancients, and one for all, who speaketh much to the same purpose, and somewhat further, but only with this difference that he hath set down this matter a little before the death of Tiberius. Peter the Apostle, saith he, founded the Church of Antioch, and having there gotten his chair he sat five and twenty years. Thus Eusebius ad annum Christ. 38. Parisiis, 1511. Now to take up this position and story in its several particulars, almost every parcel will prove a stumbling block, and before belief can be given to it, it must pass thorough, and overcome these difficulties.

• 1. Whereas his journey to Antioch is laid in this visitation: it is strained beyond the Letter, and beyond the Spirit and meaning of the Text. For that speaketh only of the Churches of Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and then how came in Antioch in another Country? And those words through all quarters run at a very uncertain random if they be uncircumscibed by the Verse before.
• 2. It is past all peradventure that as yet there was no Church at Antioch at all, much more that there was no Episcopal Chair and See there. For it is a year yet to come before there be any mention of a Church there, Act. 11. and that that story of the first beginning of that Church lieth in its proper place and without any transposition or Hysteron-proteron is so plain to him that will but view it that it needeth no proof.
• 3. How is it consistent with Peters imprisonment at Jerusalem, Chap. 12. to sit Bishop in another Country? Much more is it inconsistent, or rather to speak plainly, impossible that he should sit five and twenty years at Antioch and as many at Rome, and yet go thither in the second of Claudius as he is held to have done. Now Baronius hath espied these two stumbling blocks, and laboreth to remove them: but in his striving about the one, he throweth dirt into Eusebius his best Authors face, for he saith he is corrupted; and indeed he doth little less about the other: For whereas Eusebius saith in plain terms, ibi sedit, Peter there sat, this his Paraphrast glosseth, that it sufficed though he never came there; For with him Peter was as a Creator of Churches and Bishoprics; for if dixit factum est, if he but spake the word, be he where he would, there was a Metropolis or an Episcopacy created in any place whatsoever. But not to spend much labor where we are sure but of little profit, let it suffice the reader to have but a Catalogue and particular of his arguments, and let him censure them according to his own judgment.

• Argum. 1. It was Peters office to oversee and take care of the whole flock, and for this he visited all the Churches that lay round about Jerusalem, pag. 306. But that draweth on another question, which will be harder to prove than this, and it maketh Paul but an intruder, that took upon him such a care.
• Argum. 2. Peter taking opportunity of the Churches tranquility, pag. 306. visited all (the Christians which were in Syria) pag. 309. But here he is besides his warrant of the Text, and maketh a History of his own head.
• Argum. 3. Peter wheresoever he was might raise an Episcopal or Metropolitical See at any place distant where he pleased, by the Authority wherewith he was endowed, pag. 309. When this is proved, we may believe the other that he would prove.
• Argum. 4. The number of Eusebius, of his sitting 25. years at Antioch, is an error crept into the Text, but the number of his 25. years at Rome, in him is right, pag. 306. But if he be at liberty to suspect the one, sure we may have the like liberty to suspect the other.
• Argum. 5. The Hierachical order seemeth not to endure, that the prime Church that had been as yet instituted, should be governed by any but the prime Apostle, pag. 309, 330. It will be some work to prove any Hierarchical order at all, or Peter Prime Apostle, or Antioh, a chief Church above others more than by human preferring, or Antioch yet a Church; and were all these proved, which never will be, yet is the inference or argumentation thereupon but of small value and validity.
• 6. His last Argument is from Authorities, which at last he gathereth into the Center of a Council at Rome, pag. 332. But Amicus Plato, amicus Aristoteles, magis amica veritas.

As for his answers to Eusebius that calleth Evodius the first Bishop of Antioch, his answer to Ignatius that saith he was placed there by the Apostles, more than one, and to Onuphrius, that maketh Peter Bishop of Rome before he was Bishop of Antioch, be they referred to the perusal of his own Text, for the matter is not worth the labor of examining them.

This seemeth to be the same with Lod, 1 Chron. 8. 12. A City in the Tribe of Benjamin, mentioned, Ezra 2. 33.

Heb. Sharon: A fertile valley famous in Scriptures as 1 Chron. 27. 29. Esa. 33. 9. Cant. 2. 1, &c. where the Targum renders it, the garden of Eden, and the LXX 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a field or plain, the masculine Article showeth, it is not named of a City: And so do the LXX article it, Esa. 33. 9. There is mention of a Sharon beyond Jordan, 1 Chron. 5. 16. inhabited about by Gileadites: by which it seemeth it was a common name for plain champion grounds wheresoever.

Tabitha the Syriac, and Dorcas the Greek, do both signify a Hind, or Do, Capream, as Beza renders it. Now the reason why Luke doth thus render the one into the other, seemeth to be because Tabitha was a Grecizing Jewesse, and so was commonly called by these two names, by the Syrian among the Hebrews, and by the Greek among the Greeks.

Whether it were a common custom among the Jews to wash all their dead bodies before they buried them, as is concluded by many upon this place, we will not insist to question; nor whether it were in token of the resurrection, or no, as some apply it; only the other application that they make hereupon, I cannot pass over untouch •• which is, that Paul spake in reference to this custom, and to that intention is this custom, when he saith, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. 1 Cor. 15. 29. Else what shall they do, which are baptized for the dead, &c. as our English reads it: as if the Apostle produced this custom as an argument for the resurrection, as meaning to what purpose should dead bodies be washed, if not to betoken this: thus he is conceived to argue: whereas, by the juncture of the thirtieth verse to this, it seemeth that he intended a clean contrary or different thing, by being baptized 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , namely, being baptized so as baptism signifieth death by matyrdom, or suffering for the truth, as Matth. 20. 22, 23. Luke 12. 50. And his arguing is to this sense, if the dead rise not again, what will become of those that are baptized with a martyrial baptism, or that do suffer death for the profession of the truth? why are they then baptized for the dead? yea and why stand we in jeopardy every hour of such a baptism and matyrdom also? Why do they suffer, and why are we daily in danger to suffer for the truth, if there be no resurrection? And so the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to signify, not vice, or supra, but pro, that is, in such a sense; and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to mean, In such a sense as baptized, meaneth, dead or martyred: As 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is taken in this clause, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Fabius delivered the power, or Army to Minucius, under this intent and meaning, or condition, that he should not fight, Plut. in Fab.

Acts X.

Acts XI.

That part of this Chapter which falleth under this year that we have in hand, viz. to verse. 19. is but a rehersal of this Story in the tenth Chapter, and therefore it is not necessary to insist upon it.

§ 1. Gaius still cruel.

THE beginning of this year Gaius was Consul, but held that place only for a month or thereabouts, and then resigned for six months more to his partner Apronius, and after those six months Sabinius Maximus took the place. A policy above his reach, howsoever he came to it, to shake the chief Magistracy by so often changes, that his own power might stand the surer. Both in his Consulship, and after it, he behaved himself after his wonted manner of barbarousness and cruelty, but that now he began to add one vice more to his cruelty in bloodiness, namely intolerable covetousness and oppression. Now, saith Dion, was nothing but slaughter: For many of the Nobles were condemned, many perished by the Sword-plays, and many imprisoned by the late Emperor Tiberius, were drawn to execution. Now did he bend himself to cross the people, and the people being thoroughly incensed began to cross him. The main causes of this his displeasure (guess how weighty) were such as these: Because they came not to the Plays and Shows so constantly, and at such constant times as he had appointed: because sometimes when they came, they liked such sports as he liked not, & contra: And because they once extolling him, called him by the title of young Augustus. For such occasions as these (behold the madness of a man self-willed) he brake out into all cruelty, slaying many at the Theater for the one fault, and many as they went home for the other, and many at their own homes, or otherwhere for a third. And now was his rage grown so high, that he wished that all the City had but one head, that he might strike it off at one blow; and bewailed his times, for that they had not been enfamoused with some notable misery of the Roman State, as was the reign of Augustus with the overthrow of Varus and his Army in Germany; and the reign of Tiberius with the slaughter of above twenty thousand men by the fall of an Amphitheater at Fidenae. And that we may take a full view of his cruel words and actions here together, (the Reader I hope will not be punctual in expecting an exact order of time in this disorder of conditions) his common resolution against the people always was, Let them hate me and spare not, so that they fear me. But what was his anger think you, when his very feasts and embraces of his minions were mixed with cruelty? he used to have men tortured in his presence as he sat at meat, mingling his sauce as it were with innocents blood. At a great feast to which he had invited the two Consuls, he suddenly fell out into an extreme laughter, and upon demand of his reason, his answer was, Because he had power to take away their two heads whensoever he pleased. And whensoever he was kissing the neck of his wife or paramour, he would constantly add these words, but cruelly amorous, This neck, as fair as it is, when I command shall be cut off. Such was his jesting; and as for his eranest, I suppose you will easily believe, that it was proportionable. Whereas hitherto, he had been very free and lavish of his tongue in dispraising Tiberius, and not only had not checked, but also countenanced, and taken delight in those that spake ill of him, as well as he; he now turneth his tune, and breaketh out as fluently into his commendations: pleading that he himself had liberty to say what he list, but accusing those that had assumed the like liberty, when as no such thing belonged to them. Then did he cause a list or catalogue to be read of those that had been executed and put to death under Tiberius; laying withal the death of the most of them to the charge of the Senate, and accused some for accusing them, others for witnessing against them, and all, for condemning them. These things he alleged out of those books which in the beginning of his reign and in the time of his seeming goodness, he professed that he had burnt: and after a most bitter and terrible speech now made among them in the Senate, and reviving an act of treason for speaking against the Prince, he suddenly departed out of the Senate and the City. In what case the Senate and the people were, that were guilty of either words or actions, that he had charged them with all, it is readily guessed, but how they shall come off, and what they shall do to escape, is not easily to be resolved. Their presentest help is to fawn and speak fair, and that course they take, praising him infinitely at their next meeting, for his justice and piousness, and giving him as infinite thanks that he suffered them to live, and decreeing that sacrifices should be offered annually to his clemency on that very day that those charges were published against so many, seeking to appease his senseless and foolish anger by as senseless and foolish a pacification. But how little they could sacrifice, or pray or praise him into any better mind than he hath been in hitherto, you shall see by the sequel.

§ 2. An inhuman Cruelty.

Among the many cruelties of this monster, the murder of Esius Proculus may bear some bell, because he slew him for nothing but only for this, for that he was such an one as God had made him. This man was the goodliest man of person and shape in all the City, insomuch that he was commonly called Colosseros, for his extraordinary properness and stature: One day as he sat a spectator upon the scaffolds, of the bloody sports below, Gaius commanded him suddenly to be put down among the combatants, and there to fight for his life. When he had had a trial with two several men and came off victorious, the inhuman Tyrant caused him speedily to be bound, and arrayed in tatters and rags to be led about the City, shown to the women, and then slain. So much of beast had this monster in him that he could not endure the goodliness of a man.

§ 3. Gaius his Luxury, Lavishness and prodigality.

Thus bestial was he towards men, and no less was he in another kind towards women. This appeared in the deflowering of his own sisters, and adulterating the most of the noble Ladies of the City. He was his own Pimp, and purveyer for his lust, with this open and hideous way of brothelry. He would invite the great men and their Ladies to supper, and as the women passed by him in way of salutation he would earnestly and leisurely view them, mercantium more, saith my Author, as they do that are to buy anything, and if any matron for modesty held down her head, he would lift it up, that he might have his full survey: she that pleased him, he took into a retiring room and adulterated: and presently would he bring her forth again, and tell openly whether she had given him content or no. Nor was he content with this choice and variety of women neither, but that he might be beastly in every kind, he abstained not from the abomination of Sodomy with men. But let us stay no longer upon him in this his filthiness, but trace him a little in his more tolerable vices of fantastickness and prodigality. He seemed to affect a singularity in these three things, singing, working and spending, according to the uncontroledness of his will, the vastness of his command, and the hugeness of his revenue. He invented new manner of bathings, and prodigious kinds of meats and feasts; he would disolve most rich and precious Jewels in Vinegar, and then drink them off. And because he doubted, as it seemeth, that he could not wast his treasure fast enough with such tricks as these, he would stand upon a Tower divers days together, and fling great sums of money among the people. To all which ways of lavishing and expensiveness, he joined monstrous works and machinations, which shown at once, his folly in their undertaking, and the vastness of his power in their performance: As levelling mountains to even the plain, and in other places filling up the plain to equal mountains; sometimes causing rocks of flint to be cut through, to make a passage: and sometimes foundations of houses or walls to be laid in the bottom of the Sea, bringing soil and rubbish to fill up the place and to make it firm ground: ambitious to bring to pass seeming impossibilities, and cruelly hasty in the accomplishing of what he undertook, punishing the slacking of the work with certain death.

§ 4. His strange Bridge and Ships.

In the list of these his vanities, and ungodly ways of spending, let his bridge between Puteoli and Bauli, come in the first place, or else you do it some injury. These two places were about three miles and a half distant, an arm of the Sea of that breath, severing them, and lying between. The ambition of the vain Emperor was to ride on horseback and in his chariot between these two places: What his fancy or Frenzy rather, was, that stirred up such a humor in him, is diversely related, and it is no great matter to inquire after it. Some say it was, that he might terrify Germany and Britain against whom he intended hostility, with the very rumor of so great a work: others, that he might intimate, or rather excel Xerxes, who made a bridge of Ships over the Hellespont. But the rumor of it at Court, where his mind was likeliest to be best known, was, that he did it in confutation of a prediction of Thrasillus, who had told Tiberius, that Gaius should no more rule then ride over the bay of Baiae on hoseback. Dion guesseth this to have been his reason, that whereas the Senate upon their fear and fawning mentioned before, had decreed an Ovation for him, or a kind of triumphant riding on horseback, he thought it too poor a thing to ride so by land, and therefore invented this trick of his own vain head, to ride so by Sea. For this purpose, all the ships that could be got were sent for in, and when they were not enough, others were made and so they all were set two and two linked together till they made a bridge of that three miles and an half long: Then caused he an infinite number of workmen to carry on earth, and make a causey like the Apion road over all those ships from the continent to the Island. (If this were not a Pontifex Romanus with a witness, let all men judge.) When his dear bought way was thus prepared, he prepares for it and for his Phantastick journey over it: His garb in which he would ride was this: He put a breast plate on, which he said had been Alexanders, and over that a rich purple robe, then his sword and buckler, and an oaken garland about his head: and having sacrificed to Neptune and to the other God's, and even to the Deity Envy, lest the bridge should miscarry, he sets forth on horseback with a great troop of armed men attending him, and takes his strange and idle voyage. When he had ridden thus one day on horseback, he returns the next day in his Chariot, with an infinite train of his friends in Coaches, of Soldiers in arms, and of the common people lookers on, and among others of state Darius an hostage of Parthia attended his Chariot; when he had done this great exploit, of walking, riding and coaching so many miles upon the Sea, he getteth up into a Desk, which was made upon this new-found bridge on purpose, and there maketh a solemn speech in commendation of this his great attempt, and of the soldiers and workmens pains and care about it; And when he had done he bestowed a large munificence among them. And the rest of that day and the night that followed, he spent in feasting and banqueting in banqueting houses that he had made purposely upon his bridge, because he would make the Sea a perfect road. Into these houses he had brought fresh water in Pipes from the shore to serve the occasions of this nights feast, if he will suffer one to call it night: For he that had turned the Sea into a Coach-way, was ambitious also to turn night into day; that in him might be shown at once both how foolish he may prove that hath once let go the reins of reason, and how boundless that folly is when it is backed with power. The ships that made the bridge were set in manner of a crescent, and so went the rode: upon it he caused a great number of fires to be made, and so upon the mountains all about, that what had been his Coach-way by day was now at night become his Amphitheater. But it is strange that we hear of no murder of all this while among all this madness, for if Gaius be not cruel he is not Caligula. After this his entertainment of his friends and of the company, he suddenly • ast a great multitude of them into the Sea, and when they laid hold of rudders or anything that might succor and save their lives, he caused them to be thrust away and so they perished.

Answerable to the vanities of this his bridge, had he also Ships and Frigots to sail in for his own recreation, in which were baths, vineyards and orchards that sailed with him, that is upon his bridge he went over the Sea by land, so in his ships when he went by Sea, the land went with him.

§ 5. His Covetousness.

It is not so much wonder that these courses wasted the Emperors treasures, as it is how they have held out so long: And now that all his wealth is emptied, and gone, he can find as strange and unheard of means to fetch in more as he had found out to consume the old. He now began to accuse, condemn and execute apace, that he might be dealing with their goods in confiscation. So died Clavisius, Sabinus, Titius Rusus, and Junius Priscus, for no other real fault but only for being rich. But why should I reckon them by one and one, when at one clap he condemned forty men together, and when he came into his Chamber he bragged to Caesonia his darling Lemman, Behold how much I have done in the time that thou art taking a nap at noon! but this feat of condemning would not bring in money fast enough, therefore as there were more ways of spending than one, so must there also be of getting. He inventeth new taxes and payments, strange exactions and imposts, suffering nothing to pass in common use, but it must bring some tribute unto his treasures. He sat a rate to be paid him out of all meat that was eaten, a rate out of every suit or action for debt, a rate out of the porters gains, nay a rate out the whores hire. He made men that were already free of the City to buy their freedom again, and many that had named him for their heir when they should die, he poisoned, that he might inherit their estate sooner: And these his exploits he used not only in Rome, but when money was scarce there, he went into France and Spain and set up the same trade of polling there: He sold the Jewels, the goods, and the very servants of his condemned sisters; nay the very Jewels of the Crown, as the royal robes and ornaments of Antony, Augustus, Julia, Antonia, and others of the princely bloody. And to conclude all in one, he set up a stews in his own Palace, and had women there of all sorts and sizes, and his panders went about to fetch in whoremaster customers: and all this was done, because it was for the Emperors profit. He also made the Palace a common dicing house, and himself was the master gaimster; cogging, cheating, lying, forswearing, and doing anything to make himself a gainer. Having once left another to play his game, and being gone down into the court of the place, he saw two rich Knights passing by, and caused them suddenly to be apprehended, and their goods to be confiscated, and returned to his game again, bragging that he had had an exceeding good throw. Another time at play, wanting money to maintain his stake, he went down and caused divers rich Nobles to be slain, and returned presently again▪ saying, You sit here playing for a few pence, and I since I went, have gotten six hundred thousand sesterces.

As he thus cruelly murdered many, only for their goods, so also did he many others upon other spleens: as Lentulus Getulicus, because he was beloved of the Soldiers: Lepidus because he had adulterated his sisters, when he had done with them himself, and he caused Agrippina one of them to carry his bones in an urn in her bosom to Rome. A poor serving man for filching a silver plate off the cubboard, he caused to have his hands cut off, and hung about his neck, and to be led up and down with a Crier before him proclaiming his offense. Seneca was condemned by him for being too eloquent, or more eloquent than himself, (for that he could not endure in any) but he escaped through the entreaty of one of Gaius his Lemmans. But Domitius Afer deserved to scape indeed who overcame him with silence, and mastered the Tyrant by being mastered. For being a man of renowned and incomparable eloquence, and now under accusation, Gaius had strained the utmost of his own Rhetoric to frame a speech to confound him, both in his cause and in his Oratory. Domitius (when the Emperor looked that he would have answered him with the same height of Rhetoric again, and had he done so, it had cost him his life) sat mute, and took upon him to be amazed at so admirable and infinite fluency, and instead of pleading his own cause, he rehearsed his Oration word by word, seeming to be so ravished with that eloquence that he forgot and neglected his own life. And then cast he himself at the Tyrants feet, and begged for mercy, avowing that he dreaded him more as an Orator than as Caesar. The Lion grows mild upon this fawning, and turns his malice and spleen into pride and vain glory, rejoicing that he had so overcome Domitius in eloquence, whereas Domitius had more cause to rejoice that he had so overcome him by silence.

§ 1. Herod and Herodias before the Emperor.

WE are now to present to Gaius as bloody a woman as he was a man: Herodias, that hath committed as much murder in taking away but one man's life, John the Baptist, as he hath done in all his: And when these two are met together, two Princes of the greatest cruelty and bloodiness that either sex could then afford, are met together. You may remember that not long since we left Her and her Herod (for husband I may not call him) shipped for Rome to purchase, if possible, the Emperors good respect, and with that, an augmentation of their dignity and dominion. Agrippa, knowing of this their journey, and suspecting that as it began in envy and emulation to him, so would it terminate, if they could compass it, to his disadvantage, he sendeth his servant Fortunatus after them with letters to the Emperor, either because himself was not yet at leisure to come, or in policy trying how his letters would speed and be entertained before he ventured his own person. At Baiae they all met before Caesar, and Agrippa 's complaint by writing meeteth theirs by word of mouth. He layeth to Herod's charge, confederacy with Sejanus at Rome and with Artabanus in Parthia, and an armory and magazine at his own home, sufficient to furnish seven thousand men, all which laid together could not but breed a just suspicion of his revolting. Herod not being able upon questioning, to deny the last thing that he was charged withal about his arms, gave Gaius presumption to conclude the truth of all the other: whereupon he adjudgeth him to perpetual banishment to Lions in France: and thus (thank Herodias ) by his looking for a greater dignity and honor, he lost that which he had already.

Caesar would have spared Herodias for Agrippa 's sake as being his sister, but she refused the courtesy, and chose to suffer the same fortune with her husband; and but very justly neither, for she had brought him to it. And she could not in civility refuse to take part with him in his misery, as he had done with her in her folly, that had caused it; both their estates, dignities and dominions Gaius bestoweth upon Agrippa to their greater vexation; and so we leave them going to Lions, there to think, and repent too late, how wholesome the counsel was that was given them by the Baptist and that they took it not.

§ 2. The Alexandrian Jews still perplexed.

And now let us return from Rome to Alexandria, where the last year we left the Jews in so extreme misery and distress, and now it is to be suspected we shall find them in the same still. Being so oppressed, plundered and massacred by Flaccus as we have heard, their utmost refuge is to petition to the Emperor, but a miserable refuge you must needs think it will prove when they cannot do it but by Flaccus his permission and assistance. When they made this motion and request to him (foolish men to expect such courtesy from their greatest enemy) he taketh on him to approve of their intention, promiseth to speed their petition the best he could, but when he had it, pretending to have sent it away, he keepeth and suppresseth it, and answered neither his promise nor their expectation, either in hast or in assisting. Thus do the poor Jews lie waiting in uncertain hopes but in certain misery, looking for some comfortable answer from Rome to their petition, which is still at Alexandria. But at last comes their old friend and countreyman Agrippa to Rome with the old grudge in his bosom against Flaccus for his base usage of him at his last being there, and he promotes their cause to Caesar with the best excuses he can make for them, and with some bitter accusing of their enemy the Govenour.

§ 3. Flaccus his downfall.

Whether it were the prevalency of Agrippa 's letters with the Emperor, or the divine vengeance upon this unjust and murderous Governor, or both, or some other conjoined, Gaius ere long sent Bassus a Centurion, with his band into Alexandria, to apprehend Flaccus: He stole in by night into the City, lest his approach (had it been detected) should have bred commotion, and meeting with a Soldier in the dark, and inquiring for the chief Captain, that he might acquaint him with the cause of his coming, and obtain his assistance with his Soldiers if there should be any resistance, he was informed that Flaccus and he were both at supper with Stephanio one of the Freemen of Tiberius. Thither he getteth with all secrecy, and scouting before the house, he sendeth in one of his Soldiers habited in the garb of a Servingman, that he might the more safely thrust in among the Servitors to see what store of company was there, and when he heard by him that it was but small, he bursteth in with his men and apprehendeth him. I leave to the Reader to imagine the contrary operation that this sudden action had with Flaccus and with the Jews. It was now the time of the feast of Tabernacles with them, but the feast was intermitted because of their common misery, but now somewhat solaced by the event of this feast of Flaccus. He is hurried away to Rome in the beginning of winter, and there tried, and condemned to perpetual banishmen • 〈…〉 Isle of Andros, where what became of him you shall hear the next year.

§ 4. The Jews of Alexandria still distressed.

Flaccus the Jews enemies at Alexandria, they are thus happily rid of, but a worse, if worse may be, springeth, as it were out of his corruption at Rome. Helicon a Servant of Tiberius whilst he lived, and now of Gaius, a fit man for such a master, the more to ingratiate himself into the Princes favor (yet had he it already in no ordinary measure) bendeth himself with the utmost of his Rhetoric and Eloquence, skill and flattery to traduce the people and Religion of the Jews, and to make them odious, and himself the more acceptable to the Emperor. The envious Alexandrians having by their Ambassadors espied this advantage, do spur him forward who needed no incitation: with great presents and greater promises they urge him on to prosecute that malicious accusation that he had begun: which he performed accordingly, with a renewed impetuousness, added to his present spleen by his future expectation, and present fee. The miserable Jews thus betrayed, lie under distress and under the Emperors displeasure for a season, and could not learn from whence it proceeded: But at last they address a number of petitioners to Rome to make their peace with Helicon, if possible, and to make an humble remonstrance to the Emperor of their state and grievances, and a petition for some remedy and redress. Their Legation and Ambassy they indeed presented not to the Prince till the next year, yet since Philo saith that they took their voyage in the very depth and middle of winter, it was not unproper to mention their preparation and setting forth, this year, and you shall hear of their business, and the success of it, when the next year comes in.

THE occasion of Peters travail at this time, may be well apprehended to be for the settling and confirming of those Churches that were now begun by the Ministry of the dispersed Preachers: One thing was most necessary for these new founded Churches, which the Preachers themselves could not provide for them, and that was Ministers or Pastors, unless they would have stayed there themselves, which in all places they could not do, and in many places they did not, if in any place at all they did longer than for a little space, the necessity of dispersing the Gospel calling them from place to place: Therefore it was needful that the Apostles themselves should go after them to ordain Ministers by the imposition of their hands, with which they did not only instal or institute into the office of the ministry, but also bestowed the Holy Ghost, for the enabling of those that they did ordain, for the performance of that office, which gift the other Disciples could not bestow; and this may be conceived one reason why ten of the twelve Apostles were absent from Jerusalem at Paul's coming there, as was observed before, namely because they were dispersed abroad over the new planted Churches for this purpose: And this was one cause why Peter travails thus at this time, the plantations of the Churches still increasing: and his comforting, confirming and settling the Churches was another.

This referreth to those places mentioned in the verse preceding, Judea, Galilee, and Samaria: only whereas that verse speaketh of the places themselves: this Verse in the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a word of the masculine gender, referreth to the people of the places, and this is all the difference: And therefore Baronius is besides the Cushion, who upon this very place and out of this very word would conclude that Peter in this his peregrination did found the Episcopacy at Antioch. His words are these.

Luke, saith he, being intent (as it appeareth) to commend to memory the more remarkable miracles wrought by Peter, hath omitted in silence the rest of his actions performed in this visitation of the province, and among other things, the institution of the Church of Antioch: which that it was erected by him in this very year, we shall easily show by the testimony of the ancients. Eusebius may be alleged as one of these ancients, and one for all, who speaketh much to the same purpose, and somewhat further, but only with this difference that he hath set down this matter a little before the death of Tiberius. Peter the Apostle, saith he, founded the Church of Antioch, and having there gotten his chair he sat five and twenty years. Thus Eusebius ad annum Christ. 38. Parisiis, 1511. Now to take up this position and story in its several particulars, almost every parcel will prove a stumbling block, and before belief can be given to it, it must pass thorough, and overcome these difficulties.

• 1. Whereas his journey to Antioch is laid in this visitation: it is strained beyond the Letter, and beyond the Spirit and meaning of the Text. For that speaketh only of the Churches of Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and then how came in Antioch in another Country? And those words through all quarters run at a very uncertain random if they be uncircumscibed by the Verse before.
• 2. It is past all peradventure that as yet there was no Church at Antioch at all, much more that there was no Episcopal Chair and See there. For it is a year yet to come before there be any mention of a Church there, Act. 11. and that that story of the first beginning of that Church lieth in its proper place and without any transposition or Hysteron-proteron is so plain to him that will but view it that it needeth no proof.
• 3. How is it consistent with Peters imprisonment at Jerusalem, Chap. 12. to sit Bishop in another Country? Much more is it inconsistent, or rather to speak plainly, impossible that he should sit five and twenty years at Antioch and as many at Rome, and yet go thither in the second of Claudius as he is held to have done. Now Baronius hath espied these two stumbling blocks, and laboreth to remove them: but in his striving about the one, he throweth dirt into Eusebius his best Authors face, for he saith he is corrupted; and indeed he doth little less about the other: For whereas Eusebius saith in plain terms, ibi sedit, Peter there sat, this his Paraphrast glosseth, that it sufficed though he never came there; For with him Peter was as a Creator of Churches and Bishoprics; for if dixit factum est, if he but spake the word, be he where he would, there was a Metropolis or an Episcopacy created in any place whatsoever. But not to spend much labor where we are sure but of little profit, let it suffice the reader to have but a Catalogue and particular of his arguments, and let him censure them according to his own judgment.

• Argum. 1. It was Peters office to oversee and take care of the whole flock, and for this he visited all the Churches that lay round about Jerusalem, pag. 306. But that draweth on another question, which will be harder to prove than this, and it maketh Paul but an intruder, that took upon him such a care.
• Argum. 2. Peter taking opportunity of the Churches tranquility, pag. 306. visited all (the Christians which were in Syria) pag. 309. But here he is besides his warrant of the Text, and maketh a History of his own head.
• Argum. 3. Peter wheresoever he was might raise an Episcopal or Metropolitical See at any place distant where he pleased, by the Authority wherewith he was endowed, pag. 309. When this is proved, we may believe the other that he would prove.
• Argum. 4. The number of Eusebius, of his sitting 25. years at Antioch, is an error crept into the Text, but the number of his 25. years at Rome, in him is right, pag. 306. But if he be at liberty to suspect the one, sure we may have the like liberty to suspect the other.
• Argum. 5. The Hierachical order seemeth not to endure, that the prime Church that had been as yet instituted, should be governed by any but the prime Apostle, pag. 309, 330. It will be some work to prove any Hierarchical order at all, or Peter Prime Apostle, or Antioh, a chief Church above others more than by human preferring, or Antioch yet a Church; and were all these proved, which never will be, yet is the inference or argumentation thereupon but of small value and validity.
• 6. His last Argument is from Authorities, which at last he gathereth into the Center of a Council at Rome, pag. 332. But Amicus Plato, amicus Aristoteles, magis amica veritas.

As for his answers to Eusebius that calleth Evodius the first Bishop of Antioch, his answer to Ignatius that saith he was placed there by the Apostles, more than one, and to Onuphrius, that maketh Peter Bishop of Rome before he was Bishop of Antioch, be they referred to the perusal of his own Text, for the matter is not worth the labor of examining them.

This seemeth to be the same with Lod, 1 Chron. 8. 12. A City in the Tribe of Benjamin, mentioned, Ezra 2. 33.

Heb. Sharon: A fertile valley famous in Scriptures as 1 Chron. 27. 29. Esa. 33. 9. Cant. 2. 1, &c. where the Targum renders it, the garden of Eden, and the LXX 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a field or plain, the masculine Article showeth, it is not named of a City: And so do the LXX article it, Esa. 33. 9. There is mention of a Sharon beyond Jordan, 1 Chron. 5. 16. inhabited about by Gileadites: by which it seemeth it was a common name for plain champion grounds wheresoever.

Tabitha the Syriac, and Dorcas the Greek, do both signify a Hind, or Do, Capream, as Beza renders it. Now the reason why Luke doth thus render the one into the other, seemeth to be because Tabitha was a Grecizing Jewesse, and so was commonly called by these two names, by the Syrian among the Hebrews, and by the Greek among the Greeks.

Whether it were a common custom among the Jews to wash all their dead bodies before they buried them, as is concluded by many upon this place, we will not insist to question; nor whether it were in token of the resurrection, or no, as some apply it; only the other application that they make hereupon, I cannot pass over untouch •• which is, that Paul spake in reference to this custom, and to that intention is this custom, when he saith, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. 1 Cor. 15. 29. Else what shall they do, which are baptized for the dead, &c. as our English reads it: as if the Apostle produced this custom as an argument for the resurrection, as meaning to what purpose should dead bodies be washed, if not to betoken this: thus he is conceived to argue: whereas, by the juncture of the thirtieth verse to this, it seemeth that he intended a clean contrary or different thing, by being baptized 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , namely, being baptized so as baptism signifieth death by matyrdom, or suffering for the truth, as Matth. 20. 22, 23. Luke 12. 50. And his arguing is to this sense, if the dead rise not again, what will become of those that are baptized with a martyrial baptism, or that do suffer death for the profession of the truth? why are they then baptized for the dead? yea and why stand we in jeopardy every hour of such a baptism and matyrdom also? Why do they suffer, and why are we daily in danger to suffer for the truth, if there be no resurrection? And so the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to signify, not vice, or supra, but pro, that is, in such a sense; and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to mean, In such a sense as baptized, meaneth, dead or martyred: As 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is taken in this clause, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Fabius delivered the power, or Army to Minucius, under this intent and meaning, or condition, that he should not fight, Plut. in Fab.

Acts X.

Acts XI.

That part of this Chapter which falleth under this year that we have in hand, viz. to verse. 19. is but a rehersal of this Story in the tenth Chapter, and therefore it is not necessary to insist upon it.

§ They laid her in an upper chamber.

This probably was the public meeting room for the believers of that Town; Dorcas being a woman of some good rank, as may be conjectured by her plenteousness of good works and alms-deeds. Now they purposely disposing of the dead corps, that Peter if he would come, might exercise a miracle upon it, they lay it in that public room, that the company might be spectators of the wonder; but Peter would not suffer them so to be for some singular reason, verse. 40.

§ Some things remarkable about the calling in of Cornelius.

First, the Gospel had now dilated itself to the very utmost bounds of the Jews territories in Canaan, Judea, Samaria, and Galilee, had been preached to, and through, and now is it got to the very walls of their dominions round about: And there wanteth nothing but laying the partition wall flat, that the Gospel may get out unto the Gentiles: and that is done in this Chapter; where the great partition and distance that was betwixt Jew and Gentile is utterly removed and taken away by God himself, who had first pitched and set it betwixt them.

Secondly, the two first and mainest stones of interposition that were laid in this wall, were circumcision and diet: the one in the time of Abraham, Gen. 17. the other in the time of Jacob, Gen. 32. 32. And in reference to these two it is, that they of the Circumcision contend with Peter, upon his return to Jerusalem, for they are grieved that he went in to men uncircumcised, and ate with them, Chap. 11. 3. These were the proper distinguishers betwixt Israel and other Nations; for all their other Ceremonies were not so much to distinguish them from other people, as to compose them among themselves and towards God, they being first distinguished from others by these.

Of these two, singularity of Dyet, or Prohibition of certain meats, was the more proper difference, and the more strict distinctive: For all the seed of Abraham was circumcised, and so in regard of that Ceremony, there was no difference betwixt an Ismaelite and a Jew: But abstaining from such and such meats, was a proprium quarto modo, a singularity that differenced an Israelite from all the world besides.

Thirdly, therefore it was most proper, and of most divine reason, that the liberty of eating any meats, did denote and show a liberty of conversing with any nation, and that the enlarging of the one, is the enlarging of the other.

Fourthly, the first-fruits of this enlargement, and entertainment beyond the partition wall is Cornelius, a Convert, but not a Proselyte: a man that was already come in to God, but not come in to the Church of Israel: a man as far contrarily qualified for such a business, in all human appearance, as what could be most contrary, as being a Roman, a Soldier, a Centurion; and yet he of all men chosen to be the first-fruits of the Gentiles, that God herein might be the more plainly shown to be no respecter of persons.

Fifthly, it had been now 2210 years since the Heathen were cast of at the confusion of Babel, and had lain so long in darkness, sin, superstition and Idolatry, strangers to God, and aliens from the congregation of Israel; bondslaves of Satan, and under his dominion, and even all the world ( Israel only execepted) become the Kingdom of Hell and the Devil.

Sixthly, Satan had by this very time brought his Kingdom among these Heathens to the very Apex and perfection, when he had gotten one into the throne of the Roman Empire, (which was now over all the world) who by the very sword and power will force the people to adore him for a God, and had the sword and power in his own hand to force them to adore him: as we saw by Gaius even now. And here I cannot but look back from Gaius as he sat in his throne as an ungodly Deity when the Gentiles began to be called in, to the first Idol that they proposed and set up for themselves to adore at Babel, as he is described by the Jerusalem Targum at their first casting off: For thus doth it Paraphrase those Rebels plot and conspiracy, for the building of that Idolatrous City, Gen. 11. 3. And they said, Come let us build a City and a Tower, whose top may reach to heaven, and in the midst of it, let us build a Chapel, and an Idol in the head of it with a sword in his hand to fight for us that we be not scattered.

Nor can I but look forward also from the same Gaius Deifying himself, and that in the Temple of God as we shall see ere long, to the succeeding times of the Gentile Church, which is now beginning: wherein a man of sin, the successor of Gaius Caligula a thousand fold more likely, than the successor of Simon Peter, hath set up himself to be adored, and exalts himself above everything that is called God.

Seventhly, the instrument of the first introducing of the Gentiles, by the bringing in of Cornelius, was Peter: not for any Primacy or universal Bishopship that he was invested withal, but rather because he was the most singular minister of the Circumcision: for his bringing in of the Gentiles would stop the mouth of the Judaizing believers the more.

Eighthly, and for this thing he had a special engagement and deputation from our Savior a good while ago as he himself speaketh, Acts 15. 7. And that was when Christ giveth him the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, Matth. 16. 19. that is putteth into his hand, the peculiar privilege to open the door of Faith and the Gospel to the Gentiles, and giveth him power withal to bind and to loose, the use of Moses Law among the Heathens when he brought the Gospel among them, some of it to fall and some to stand, according as the Spirit should direct him, and accordingly it should he ratified in Heaven. And that this is the genuine, proper and only meaning of that so much disputed place, will be undeniable to him that shall consider what is the proper meaning of the Kingdom of Heaven in Scripture, and of binding and loosing in Jewish authors from whom that Phrase is taken.

Called of old Turris Stratonis, Stratons Tower; but new built by Herod the great, and named Cesarea in honor of Augustus. It lay upon the Sea shore betwixt Joppa and Dorae saith Josephus, Antiq. lib. 15. cap. 13. where he describeth at large.

§ The Italian Band.

Not to spend time in inquiring what Italian band this was, whether Ferrata, or Dives, or Voluntariorum, or the like, it seemeth to me that the consideration of the place itself where Cornelius was, will help to understand what Luke intendeth by it. For Cesarea was the place where the Roman Governor or Proconsul resided: as appeareth, Acts 23. 23, 24. and 24. 6. and that partly for the bravery of the City, and chiefly for the commodiousness of the haven: Now this Italian band may very properly be understood of that band that attended the Governors person, or were his life-guard, and which had come out of Italy for this purpose to be his defense and the defense of the City where he lay.

Gr. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , A man that worshipped the true God, and followed not Idolatry: And a man that feared God indeed, as well as he worshipped him in profession.

§ Which gave much alms to the people.

To the Jews, to whom alms was not unclean though given by a heathen; to which thing our Savior seemeth to allude in that speech, Luke 11. 41. But rather give alms of such things as ye have, and behold all things are clean unto you. And upon this respect it is like that alms are called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Righteousness, so commonly among the Jewish authors, and used by the Syriac and Arabic here, because they lost not their nature or quality of cleaness or purity and righteousness, though they came even from an unclean, yea a heathen person.

§ And prayed to God always.

Beza hath made this clause the beginning of the next verse, and that, as he saith, with the warrant of one copy. The Arabic doth the like: They think they mend the sense with it, in which they mistake because they mind not the scope: For it is the intent of the Holy Ghost to show the constant carriage of Cornelius in his devoutness, as verse. 4. and not his devoutness as occasion of his vision.

The word evidently, or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , is added to show that he saw it waking, and with his bodily eyes, for there were visions in dreams, as Gen. 20. 3. and 28. 12. Job 4. 13.

§ About the ninth hour.

The hour of the evening sacrifice, three a clock after noon: compare Dan. 5. 21. Cornelius though he were not yet proselyted by circumcision to the Jewish Church, yet followed he their manner and form of worship.

About twelve a clock or high noon, and this was the time of the Minchah gedolah as the Jews called it, or the very beginning of it: And so do they expound, Dan. 6. 10. and Psal. 55. 17. accordingly. Daniel prayed three times a day, that is, say R. Saadias and R. Solomon, Morning, Evening, and at the Minchah. And Evening and Morning, and at noon will I pray, R. Sol. Evening, Morning and at Minchah, the three times of prayer: Now this Minchah time is described by their Doctors thus, Minchah gedolah, is the beginning of the time of the daily sacrifice between the two Evenings, when the Sun begins to decline: which is from the sixth hour and forward until night, some say, from the sixth hour and an half, which was according to our Phrase in hand about the sixth hour: Now this their accounting was not for that they always began to fall about their evening sacrifice at twelve a clock, or half an hour after, but because that it was lawful then to begin to fall about it; for when there were additional sacrifices besides the daily, as the Passover, or the like, then it was necessary for them to begin to prepare the sacrifices from that time, that it was lawful to begin about them; which from that time of the day it was, all the time from thence forward till night being 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 between the Evenings, according to the letter of the Law, Exod. 12. 6. Numb. 28. 4. And to this sense speaketh the Text, 1 King. 18. 19. When noontide was passed, and they had now prophesied till the offering of the Minchah: not till the very time of the very firing of the sacrifice, for that the verses following deny: but to the time of the Minchah in that sense that we have in hand: and to this purpose the difference of the words 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 here and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Vers. 36. is very remarkable.

So that Peter in this practice of praying about the sixth hour intimated the custom of the Jews, and though he had so long been a Convert to the Gospel, yet doth he not forsake their manner of worship: no more did the other Disciples, as hath been shown elsewhere.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . An ecstacy fell upon him, and so Chap. 22. 17. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , I was in an ecstacy: This was the highest and excellentest way of all other, of revelations; when a man was wrapped even from himself into heaven: for so Paul calls it, 2 Cor. 12. 2. and was wholly in the spirit, for so John calls it, Rev, 1. 10. being for the time as it were out of the body, and in the very next degree to souls departed, enjoying God. Seven manner of extraordinary ways did God use to reveal himself and his will to his people in ancient times. 1. By Dreams. 2. By Apparitions when they were awake. 3. By Visions when they were asleep. 4. By Voice from heaven. 5. By Urim. 6. By Inspiration, or Revealing of the ear. 7. By Rapture or Extasie: and this last the excellentest, as to him that did enjoy it. And of this should I understand that deep sleep that fell upon Adam, Gen. 2. 21.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Beasts tame and wild, for so doth the Scripture most frequently distinguish them.

Gr. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : Do not thou pollute, that is, do not thou call or account polluted, Vers. 28. For so is the use of Scripture very frequently, to speak as in an effective or active sense, and to intend only a declarative, as Gen. 41. 13. Me he restored to my office, but him he hanged, Ezek. 43. 3. When I came to destroy the City: The Priest did make clean, or make unclean the Leper, Lev. 13. 6. 8. &c. which was only pronouncing clean or unclean, as our English hath well rendered it: or teaching what was clean and what unclean, as Chap. 14. 57. And in the very same sense is the binding and loosing to be understood, Matth. 16. 19. and 18 18. for teaching what is bound and what loose, what 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and what 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 as the Jews speak, or what lawful, what unlawful.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . By which words is not to be understood as if a Jew might have no dealing at all with a Gentile, for they might walk, and talk, and traffick with them, and it was within a little of impossible to do otherwise, they living exceeding many of them in heathen Cities: And Gentiles came continually in way of trade to Jerusalem, Neh. 13. 16. But the unlawfulness of their conversing with the Gentiles, was conversing in near and more close society, as the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifieth, and that especially in these two things, not to eat with them, and not to go into their houses: And this is that for which they of the Circumcision excepted at Peter upon his return. Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them, Chap. 11. 3.

§ But God hath shown me, that I should not call any man common, or unclean.

This vision that Peter had, when this satisfaction was given him, to learn to call nothing common, was only of beasts and fowls and creeping things, yet might he learn that the lesson was also to be understood of men, because the distinction between men and men in regard of common and unclean was first made and most strictly made by the difference betwixt meats and meats. For the very first distinguisher that ever began to inclose Israel for a peculiar from other people, was the not eating of the sinew that shrank, Gen. 32. Circumcision distinguished the seed of Abraham from other people, but this began to distinguish Israel from the other seed of Abraham. And it is observable, that that ceremony or distinctive rite was first taken up, when Jacob first received the name of Israel.

Now it is true indeed that their forbearing to eat the sinew that shrank, was not as if they accounted it common or unclean, but it was in regard of the honorable memorial •• at they read upon it, yet was that ceremony the first and proper distinguisher of an Israelite from all other people under heaven some hundreds of years, till more distinctive rites came in, and more things were prohibited to be eaten, for the surer distinction.

There was distinction of clean and unclean beasts before the flood, as appeareth, Gen. 7. 8. but this was in reference to sacrifice only, and not in reference to diet at all: for till the flood they ate nothing but the fruits of the ground, till God gave Noah liberty to eat flesh, and to eat anything that was wholesome for diet. And in this liberty did the world continue till the Law given at Sinai, save only an Israelites not eating the sinew that shrank: And this liberty some Jews themselves confess shall be in the days of Messias, which now first taketh place at this vision of Peter and forward. And here doth Peter begin to put in use and ure that power of binding and loosing which Christ had put into his hands, when he put into his hands the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven: And this very place doth so clearly expound and interpet that speech of our Savior to him, that it is a wonder that ever there should be such scruple and controversy about it.

For, 1. Here beginneth the Kingdom of Heaven: when the Gentiles are received to favor and to the Gospel, who had been so long cast off, and lain in ignorance and idolatry, and when no difference is made betwixt them and the Jews any longer, but of every nation, they that fear God and work righteousness are accepted of him as well as Israel. This is the very first beginning or dawning to the Kingdom of Heaven; and so it grew on more and more, till Jerusalem was destroyed, and then was the perfect day, when the Gentiles only were become the Church of Christ, and no Church or Commonwealth of Israel to be had at all, but they destroyed and ruined.

Secondly, here Peter hath the keys of the Kingdom, and unlocked the door for the Gentiles to come in to the Faith and Gospel, which till now had been shut and they kept out. And Peter only had the keys, and none of the Apostles or Disciples but he: for though they from hence forward brought in Gentiles daily into the Kingdom of Heaven, by converting them to the Gospel; yet it was he that first and only opened the door, and the door being once opened, was never shut, nor never shall be to the end of the world. And this was all the priority that Peter had before the other Apostles, if it were any priority; and how little this concerneth Rome, or the Papacy, as to be any foundation of it, a child may observe.

3. Peter here looseth the greatest strictness, and what was the straitest bound up of anything that was in all the policy of Moses and customs of the Jews, and that was, the difference of clean and unclean in the legal sense. And this he looseth on earth, and it is loosed in heaven, for from heaven had he an immediate warrant to dissolve it: And this he doth, first declaratively, showing that nothing henceforward is to be called common or unclean, and showing his authority for this doctrine, and then practically conforming himself to this doctrine that he taught, by going in unto the uncircumcised, and eating with them: Binding and loosing in our Savior's sense, and in the Jews sense from whose use he taketh the phrase, is of things and not of persons, for Christ saith to Peter 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 whatsoever thou bindest and not whomsoever, and to the other Apostles 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Matth. 18. 18. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , whatsoever things, and not whatsoever persons, so that though it be true indeed that Jews and Gentiles are loosed henceforward one to the communion of another, yet the proper object of this loosing that is loosed by Peter, was that Law or doctrine that tied them up: and so concerning the eating of those things that had been prohibited, it is true indeed that the Jews were let loose henceforward to the use of them in diet and to eat what they thought good, but this loosing was not so properly of the men, as the loosing of that prohibition that had bound them before. And this could be no way but doctrinally by teaching that Christian liberty that was given by the Gospel.

Now though Peter only, and none but he had the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, yet had all the Apostles the power of binding and loosing as well as he: and so have all the Ministers of the Gospel as well as they, and all in the same sense, namely, doctrinally to teach what is bound and loose, or lawful and unlawful, but not in the same kind: for the Apostles having the constant and unerring assistance of the Holy Ghost, did nullify by their doctrine, some part of Moses Law, as to the use of it, as Circumcision, Sacrifices, Purifyings, and other legal Rites, which could not have been done by men that had not had such a spirit, for there must be the same spirit of Prophecy to abrogate a Law, which had set it in force.

This matter therefore of Cornelius his calling in, as the first-fruits of the Gentiles is a thing that deserves very high regard and consideration; as in which are includ •• and involved so many things of note as have been mentioned, and divers others that might be added thereunto; and in the consideration of the matter, the time of it is not to be neglected, which to the serious and considerate Reader and weigher of things in the balance of Judgment, will appear to be in this year in which we have laid it; especially that being concluded upon, which before we proved undeniable, that the Famine was in the second year of Claudius. And this time is the rather to be looked upon, because that some do foolishly misconstrue a clause in Daniel 9. 27. by missing of the right time of this occurence of Cornelius. For looking no further into the text than in our English translation, which there hath not spoken the mind of the Original, they conceive that Christ died in the midst of the last seven years of the seventy sevens, namely, when three years and an half of the seven were gone, and that at the end of the other three and an half Cornelius was converted: and so they will make those seventies to end in that his conversion, and not in Christ's death: which were scarcely worth answering, though we had time and season to do it: seeing it riseth from a mistake in the Text, and sets in a mistake of the time.

The Greek hath it, From the fourth day until this hour I was or have been fasting: by which it seemeth that Cornelius had now been fasting four days together, as Paul was three days at his conversion, Chap. 9. 9. But it is not much material whether we understand it so, or as it is commonly understood of his fasting four days since, till such an hour of that day, as it was now of this day when he is speaking to Peter, unless we will make anything of it, that the Jews espcially upon their solemn days used to taste nothing till noon, and Cornelius herein follows there custom: and that it was about noon when Peter comes to Cornelius, as it was about noon when Cornelius messengers came to Peter: And so the distance betwixt Cesarea & Joppa to be a days journey and an half.

Beza supposeth that this verse ought to be referred and joined to the verse that went before, and they two together, to be construed to this sense, Now I know that God is no respecter of Persons: but in every Nation, he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted of him; which is the very doctrine which God sent among the children of Israel by Moses and the Prophets, preaching peace by them by Jesus Christ. And one main induction that he hath to this construction is, because otherwise it would be improper for Peter to say, Cornelius and his friends knew this word, when it was Peters very errand to instruct them in it, and teach it to them. But the words are to be read and taken in the sense that our English hath well made of them; namely, as following the word ye know: For all the Country knew that Jesus preached, and preached peace and the like; and thousands though they knew that he preached, and what he preached, yet did they not believe that he was the Messias, nor that he was risen from the dead: and these two last things it was that Peter came to teach Cornelius, and not to tell him that Jesus of Nazareth had preached, for that he and all his friends knew.

This was a second confirmation of the entertainment of the Gentiles to the Gospel, or a miracle added by God, to the doctrine preached by Peter, that nothing now was to be accounted common or unclean: for when God had poured the Holy Ghost upon the uncircumcision as well as upon the circumcised, it was evidence sufficient that now God made no difference betwixt them: How these extraodinary gifts of the Spirit had been confined hitherto only to the Nation of the Jews, it is not only clear by Scripture, but it is upon that clearness thought by the Jews that it must be confined thither ever, and that neither any Gentile at all, nor hardly any Jew out of the Land of Canaan could be capable of them; and therefore when they here see the same measure and fullness and freeness of the Spirit upon the Gentiles, as had been upon Jews; they cannot but conclude the difference was in vanishing, and that God was setting up a Church among them, when he bestowed the Spirit of Prophecy upon them.

Peters thoughts in these words, look back to those words of our Savior, Go teach all Nations, and baptize them, Mat. 28. 19. where he meaneth not, that none should be baptized but those that are capable of teaching, but his meaning is this, that whereas his Disciples had hitherto been limited and confined only to preach to the Jews, to go to none but to the lost Sheep of Israel; now had the Jews by the murdering of Christ shown themselves unworthy, and had forfeited the benefit of the Gospel; and therefore Christ now enlargeth his Apostles and Disciples, to go now and to teach all Nations, and to baptize them to preach to the Heathens, and to bring them in by baptism, since the Jews had despised the Gospel, and crucified the Lord of life that preached it: To this it is that Peter here looketh, at this first conversion of the Gentiles; and when he seeth the very same gifts bestowed on them from Heaven, that were upon the Jews, he concluded that none could object against their being baptized: and accordingly he commands that they should be baptized: either by some of those that came with him from Joppa, they being more than probably Ministers; or he commanded that provision should be made for their baptizing by himself.