retire so to preserve their lives very necessary for the good of the Church were of the most considerable persons in the City They had received the Doctrine of the Apostle with great fervour and would so firmly imprint it in their minde that every day they turned over the Books of the Holy Scripture which St. Paul had alledged not that they doubted of his sincerity but to confirm themselves by their owne knowledge in the beliefe of those verities which he had declared unto them The Apostles following the shoar of the Aegean Sea turning towards the South and leaving Pella a famous City in giving birth to Alexander they came to Beroe a City of Macedonia The newes flew as far as Thessalonica from whence the enemies of Saint Paul ran in great diligence and being arrived prefently stirred up the ignorant people against him who announced truth unto them This caused the faithful to conduct him to the Sea-shore some of them accompanied him as far as Athens where he was met by Silas and Timothy This City once famous for the Empire of Greece and Sciences after divers revolutions was fallen under the power of the Romans And although it was extreamly declined from its first splendor and particularly from that of Philosophy and other Disciplines for which Saint Greogory of Nazianzen calls it the seat and abode of Philosophy yet there was still conserved in it enough to make the Apostle judge that it was very important for the glory of God there to make known the verities of the Gospel Besides Learning which there flourished the Councel of the Areopagits Sovereign Judges of Important Affaires rendered it very famous but Idolatry dishonoured it For it seemed to glory in gathering together all the Idols of the World as if it feared onely not to be superstitious enough After they had erected Altars to the known Gods adored by other Nations they raised others to the unknown Gods of Europe Asia and Africa as some Authors write and according to others to the unknown God as it is set down in the Acts of the Apostles to the end they might forget no Divinity believing that a great plague had happened to them for their neglect to some unknown God Saint Paul beholding this City so miserably plunged in the impiety of false Gods found his heart warmed with a new zeale and touched with a most sensible griefe for the loss of so many soules He disputed in the Synagogues with the Iewes and the Proselytes and in publique places to those he met he spake of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ The Epicurean Philosophers and the Stoicks disputed often with him Saint Luke makes no mention of Professors of other Sects These cared not to embrace a Religion that spake of nothing but how to mortifie their senses and renounce the voluptuous pleasures of body and minde to follow Jesus crucified for they place their sovereign good in pleasure denying Divine Providence and the immortality of the soule which is the Basis of Religion They also were more alienated by the vanity of their Opinions for they acknowledging no corruption in humane nature by original sin in which they agreed with the other Philosophers went yet further making a God of their Wise man or rather a Devil of Pride He onely according to their imagination was knowing happy powerful exempt from errour unsensible of irregular passions King of all things and of himselfe and without need of any thing but from himself These principles were very contrary to the Doctrine preached by the Apostles which hath for foundation mans ignorance in his understanding and infirmity in his will whence it comes that of himselfe sin having put him into this condition he knowes not what is fit for him to doe and Iess able to performe when he comes to know it This double wound presupposed and experience having taught the Iewes that their Law could not cure them and likewise the Gentiles that neither the light of nature nor that of Sciences had the power to give them a real remedy it was not hard to dispose men to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ which brought with it perfect health for every one desires to be freed from errour and weakness when he comes to know that he is plunged into it And on the other side we slight Physitians when we think we have no need of them Even so did these two Sects of Philosophers of whom we speak who finding as they thought great absurdities in the Doctrine of the Apostle some of them called him a Talker that proposed things which he could not prove others said that he discoursed of new Spirits not being able to comprehend that which he preached of the resurrection of our Lord and of his Divinity This Contestation which dayly grew into more heat in the publique place of meeting was cause that they conducted Saint Paul before the Areopagites to the end he might more clearly explicate the doctrin which he taught the novelty whereof had stirred up the curiosity of the Athenians who had no other employment all the day then either to learn or debate newes The Apostle appeared in this place where all others used to tremble with a bold modesty There they asked him if they might hear this new Doctrine which he taught and when silence was made he spake in this manner Athenians I observe that in your religious worship you forget nothing nay therein you are exact even to excess For you are not content to adore those Gods you know and to whom all the Earth does render homage but passing by the publique place of meetings I saw an Altar with this Inscription To the unknown God You have not raised this Altar but with designe to honour this unknown God and this day my designe is to make him known unto you Wherefore since I am to speak to you of a thing so important and since I desire to instruct you in that which you so solemnly desire to know I cannot but in reason promise to my self a favourable aud quiet Audience And this gives me also great confidence that I speak not to ignorant vulgar people prepossessed with common errours so as to be incapable of understanding any truth contrary to what they fancy Those who hear me are equally honorable by their Learning and by their Administration of justice the one of these cannot have a more noble Object then Divinity nor the other a more considerable employment then the setling of a true worship due to that Divinity God who has not onely created the matter of the world but all things in the world and has placed them in that order which we cannot behold without admiration dwells not in Temples made by the hands of men He cannot be inclosed because there is no other place that containes him but the incomprehensible immensity of his being He has no need of Victimes nor of Sacrifices nor of the homage of men finding in himselfe his glory his
not set forth the innocency of his hands the purity of his heart his zeale for the house of God his justice and his benignity Now if any one ever had cause to imitate these great patterns in this holy liberty it was without doubt Saint Paul in the Epistle we speak of for in defending the Minister and the sincerity of his intentions he defended the authority of his Ministery and the verity of those things which he had preached to the Corinthians Amongst new Converts 't is necessary to prevent the contemning of their Master lest it should pass to the contemning of his Doctrine and false Apostes may corrupt their faith by a vaine opinion of their Eloquence and Sanctity The honour of Jesus Christ was interessed in him whom he had chosen to preach his Gospel to them and upon whom he had heaped so many extraordinary favours The consequence also was of great danger to the Churches which he had founded and was to found for upon false rumors the sincerity of his intentions might be brought in doubt and other Preachers of the Gospel might seem more considerable Though these reasons might justifie the manner of his speaking of himself yet he does it with many precautions as sometimes in that same Chapter he names himself a senceless man and often desires pardon excuse and to be supported if he speak not like a discreet man so that one may easily judge and discerne that his Charity violenced his Modesty and that if he had followed the motions of his heart he had given leave to his enemies and those that envyed him to triumph leaving to them the glory of Eloquence and opinion of Sanctity the rule of Consciences and other worldly Preferments to which they aspired reserving onely to himselfe contempt poverty and an obscure life You must also observe that after he had spoken of his advantagious qualities recounting his Visions and Extasies he acquaints us with the temptation which continually hung upon him nor did the shame in confessing his weakness hinder him from taking notice of its violence which made him so ardently desire to be delivered from it and lest the sublimity of his revelations might raise him too high God as he himselfe sayes sent him this Angel of Satan who did buffet him without intermission and lest the discourses which he had made of his Extraordinary Graces should puff him up with vanity or might scandalize others he would describe unto us the torments which he suffered and such shameful ones to the end that in the same page both himself and the readers might have a wholsome Antidote to preserve the one from vanity and the others from scandal I know very well Saint Chrysostome interprets the buffeting of the Angel of Satan whereof he complaines to be the afflictions which he had suffered and dayly did endure for the Gospel The tender love which this excellent Father bore to the Apostle would not suffer him to believe that in an Age so far advanced in years and in so setled a vertue there was any place left for carnal temptations which he thought were needful onely to keep common souls in humility feare Other Interpreters have explicated these words of his to be meant of some great paine of his head or some other infirmity But although I commend their intention I cannot approve their reasons nor follow their opinions but on the contrary I gather by this counterpoise the eminency of his grace and I admire the infinite wisedome of God in the conduct of him who on the one side lifted him up to Heaven by raptures and on the other plunged him into myre by those stings of concupiscence to the end there might appear in him the force of grace continued which he had experimented in the beginning of his Conversion It was also in his person to instruct all Ministers of the Gospel and likewise the rest of the Faithful not to be astonished if they feel the like temptations when they think themselves absolutely freed either through Age or by a long progress in vertue And also hereby we are taught that during this life the soule cannot become so perfect but that there will remain always something of the Old Man which cannot be destroyed but by little and little and that without the omnipotent hand of God there is no sanctity so solidly built which may not in an instant be overthrown and contrary wise by the protection of the same hand the most violent assaults of the flesh are easily overcome It is that which makes all things turne to the good of those who are predestinate It cures them by that which might be thought would cause sickness It enlightens them by darkness and purifies them by impurity I have a little enlarged my self upon these two points which I thought of importance both in defence of him whose life I write and for the instruction of those who shall read it And now let us returne to our Narration From Cenchrea a Harbour of Corinth Saint Paul directs his Epistle to the Romans which so much troubles Interpreters It contains the grounds of Christian Religions as the corruption of nature by original sin the absolute necessity of the grace of Jesus Christ and that ineffable Mystery of the Predestination of some and the reprobation of others by the pure will of God to shew the treasures of his mercy and the dreadful effects of his justice in the different lots of those who are wrapped up in the same mass of corruption by the first sinne and subject to one and the same condemnation There is need of great light but more humility to conceive the profound discourses of the Apostle in this Epistle knowing proud men will finde there continuall Rocks and the simple profitable Doctrine which teaches them by distrusting themselves to have recourse to the protection of the grace of God The Apostle does there rather mention then explicate the verities of Predestination and regards not whether humane reason be satisfied so Jesus Christ be honoured It is a strange error me thinks to reject an opinion because it is not easily explicated or comprehended as if its facility to be understood were a mark of its truth and that we ought to satisfie the proud reason of man in mysteries of Faith If they be mysteries they are obscure they are sealed up and it belongs to the Lamb not to the rash hands of men to unseale them If Faith propose them to us our understanding is there to be captivated there are depths which are not to be sounded and where are the Abysses and depths of Gods judgment where the treasures of his wisdome if Divine Verities may be explicated in a humane way and so that the weakest understanding may comprehend them and the vanity of our heart become perfectly satisfied in the power we have both over our selves and over the grace of God as if we were absolute Masters of them And he who has made all that he
pleased both in Heaven and Earth could doe nothing he desired in our will without wounding the liberty of it he I say who has created it free and who knowes best how it must be moved It is just we should be careful of our will but it is more reasonable we should be careful of the honour and power of him that hath bestowed it upon us and who healing its infirmity contracted by sin communicates this liberality unto us for the glory of his grace and not for the satisfaction of our vanity we must not stop at verity because it is harsh and humbles our humane understanding it is sufficient that it is an Evangelical verity which will have us to captivate our reaâ—on to the yoak of Faith and will not suffer that man should believe himselfe to have the greatest part in the work of his salvation The portion properly due to him is falshood and sinne and when God crownes his good works with the Crown of justice 't is after he has given him those good works as the Father of mercies We hold of him both our will and our acting as he begins in us 't is fit he should prosecute and bring to an end the designs of grace and love which he sets on foot for our eternal salvation The Apostle was resolved to take the way of Syria but the Jewes way-laying him enforced him to lengthen his journey and to turn back to pass by Macedonia Sosipater of the City of Beroe Aristarchus Secundus Caius and Timothy all of them Thessalonians Tichycus and Trophymus went before to expect him at Troad Thither he came with Saint Luke the Historian of his life After the Feast of Easter he abode there seven dayes during which time without intermission he announced unto them the Mysteries of God Upon a Sunday towards Evening the faithful being assembled together to receive the Eucharist he made them a long discourse the which if we consider his divine instructions we may suppose was much after this manner This action we have now in hand fills me with joy beyond expression for certainly our Master could not leave us a better testimony of his extream love then in giving this Bread which we break and this Cup which we bless For in eating the one doe we not participate of his body and in drinking the other doe we not participate of his bloud And could he close up his life better then in the institution of this adorable Mystery by which he continues amongst men to the end of the world 'T is he himselfe who has vouchsafed to reveale unto me that in that night when Judas delivered him into the hands of his enemies he took bread and giving thankes to his Father brake it and gave it to his Apostles saying to them Take and eat this is my Body which shall be delivered up for you Doe this in remembrance of me Likewise he took the Chalice after he had supped and said This Chalice is the new Testament in my bloud Doe this in commemoration of me every time you drink of it So that as often as you eat of this Bread and drink of this Chalice you declare the death of our Lord until his comming again But what doe you think Commemoration is and unto what in your opinions does it oblige you I will tell you in few words You must not onely call to minde the death of Jesus Christ but you must make it shine in your affections in your desires in your words to be brief in every passage of your life You must become Preachers of the Cross without speaking and by the Sanctity of your examples you must make that to be honoured and loved which to the Gentiles is a folly and to the Jewes a scandal If you be animated with this Spirit like persons grafted on the Cross of Jesus Christ you will produce fruits answerable to the root from which you sprung up If you hate the world which the Cross condemnes and which the Cross shall one day judge If you have shame ignominy reproaches poverty hunger thirst torments persecution of strangers displeasure of Parents deceits of Servants treason of false Brothers All which are fruits of the Cross of Jesus Christ I say if you be thus disposed and in the practise of these things then believe you are well prepared to eat the bread of which I speak and to thrive by its nourishment But if contrarywise you love the world and are wedded to Honours Riches Reputation Pleasures and other things of the Earth either by enjoying them or by an inordinate affection to them In a word if you eat this bread unworthily know that you are guilty of high Treason against the Body and Bloud of our Lord. God will not have the Kings of the Earth to be touched and declares that he will revenge their injuries because they are his anointed though onely by an exteriour and material Unction How severely then may ye think he will punish those who shall pollute the Body and Bloud of his Sonne whom he has established King upon Mount Sion to command over all the Kings of the Earth and who is his anointed by the ineffable Unction of his Divinity which inhabites corporally in him You abhor those Executioners who fastned him to the Cross pierced his feet and hands spit in his face and crowned his head with thornes But if you approach unworthily to his Table to eat his flesh and drink his bloud you are the greater offenders for they were Infidels and took him for a Criminal But you profess to believe in him and know that he is the Holy of God and the Source of the Sanctity of men Therefore try your selves diligently without flattering your selves in your evil customes Make a strict scrutiny against your selves enter into the bottome of your soule to discerne there the difference betwixt a lively and dead Faith betwixt a firme and a faint languishing hope betwixt a true and a feined Charity betwixt your love of Jesus Christ your love of creatures and your selves Notwithstanding this examine doe not think your selves so saintly disposed as is requisite to be altogether worthy of this heavenly bread for so long as we live in this world we cannot our selves be free from many defects and frailties But there is a great deal of difference betwixt faults which spring against our will from the corruption of our natures and the love of those defaults or our obstinacy to continue in wickedness For I speak not here of dogs that live in filth and often turn to their vomit biting their neighbors with their slandering tongues I have often told you that netiher Fornicators nor those who commit other villanies which I will not so much as name to you nor Theeves nor covetous persons nor envious nor slanderous nor proud shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Now all those who are excluded from a Heavenly Kingdome must be also banished from that which God has upon Earth
Gods permission who would have him thereby known a viper issuing forth fastned upon his hand there hung the Islanders according to their feeble understanding judged him to be some wicked man whom the divine Justice had saved from the fury of the sea to punish more exemplarly rigorously at land But when they beheld him to shake the viper into the fire and that he had no harm by the biting of it As the mindes of the Vulgar in the same moment are capable of different impressions they presently took him for a God hidden under a humane form The marvelous cure of Publius his Father Prince of that Island oppressed by a strong Fever and Disentery increased their respect and esteem of his sanctity and caused them to bring to him from all parts diseased persons whom he restored to health by invocating the name of Jesus Christ He converted there many to the faith and at this day it is the Bulwark against the fury of the Turks who finde it a stubborn rock to resist their power by the visible protection of God He stayed there three moneths and at the end departed thence in a vessel of Alexandria which had wintred there The winde was favourable to them till they came to Syracusa where they tarried three dayes from thence coasting along the land they got to Regium and the next day arrived at Putzeoli They found Christians there who conjured him to stay seven dayes with them to which he easily condescended in acknowledgment of their charity and of the honour which they had done him The report of his arrival being spread through Rome most of the faithfull that dwelt there came to meet him some as farre as the market place of Appius and others to a structure called the Three Taverns the sight of them afforded him great consolation He with them entered into this great City which one may call the seat of Idolatry as well as of the Empire in whose conversion that of the whole world was included So great a worke required a zeale no less ardent and a minde no less cleare then that of the Apostle whom God had ordained together with S. Peter by their preaching to found the principal Church upon earth to cultivate it by their cares and as we shall see a little after to consecrate it with their bloud The Captain who conducted him remitted him with the rest of his prisoners into the hands of the Prefect of the Pretorium who was named Burrus this man was content to allow the Apostle a souldier for his guard so that though he was not intirely free yet he might go whither he pleased with his guard who was fastned to him with the same chain as the custom was but so as it hindered him not from walking he by that meanes with facility declared the Gospel to the Jewes Gentiles that lived in Rome He began first with the Jewes and the third day after his arrival assembled the principal of them together and told them That he was made Prisoner at Hierusalem and put into the hands of the Romanes by those of his own nation although he was not guilty of any crime either in word or deed against any particular person or against the Law That the hatred and fury of his accusers constrained him to appeale to Caesar that he came thither to present himself not to accuse his Country-men but onely to defend his owne innocency That he found his chain very pleasing since he bore it for declaring the coming of him who was the hope of Israel and that he might give them an account of all things hee defired them they would come unto him They answered him they had received no letters from Judea nor seen any body that had made the least complaint against him and for the rest they desired him hee would freely tell them what this new Sect was which he preached and which they understood was generally opposed with great contradiction The Apostle unable then to satisfie their desires appointed them another day when he should have more time to explicate so highly important verities They failed not to come to this conference and when every one had taken his place S. Paul spake much after this manner Brethren in the subject you desire to be instructed it is a great advantage to me and likewise a great consolation that I am not obliged to prove the principles to you from which I am to draw my Consequences You receive Moses for the Law giver and with reason esteem his words as Oracles Certainly it is most reasonable we should hearken to him whom God treated with so much familiarity upon the Mountain and by whom he hath wrought so many wonders in favour of our fore-fathers We must onely be careful that we go not contrary to the intentions of this great man He hath been faithful in the house of God but it has been in quality of a Servant He hath declared to the people the will of the eternal Father but as Interpreter He has established Purifications and sacrifices but it was onely for that time according as providence had ordained which was to preceed the birth of the new Law giver whom I preach and who is no other then Jesus Christ It is he Brethren by whom God hath vouchsafed to speake to us in these last ages having spoken in the former by the Prophets after divers manners This is the Son to the Father of that Family whereof Moses is a member This is the truth of all our figures the end of the whole body of the Law the object of all the Prophesies His death was figured in that of Abell whose innocent blood Cain spilt througy a raging jealousie Moses in delivering our Ancestors from the bondage of Egypt represents the exemption from the tyranny of sin and death wrought by him whom I preach unto you The brazen Serpent erected in the Desart which was a Cure for the biting of real Serpents teacheth us that the Son of man was to be lifted up from the Earth and placed upon the Cross and that he should prove a saving Physitian to the Mortal desease of humane nature The immolation of the Paschal Lamb the sacrifice of the Goat emissary on whom were charged all the sins of the people were the images of his bloody oblation which hath opened us the way to eternal life and which has expiated all the sins of the world The Prophet Esay seems to have beheld it with his eyes and unless you will blind your selves you must acknowledge that which he spake of a Virgin that should conceive and bring forth a Son who should be the light the hope the leader the Master and King of Nations in whom the Spirit of Wisedome Counsel and Force should reside whose feet and hands should be pierced who should be made a man of dolours a man chastised by God for the sins of his people and in whom neither beauty nor comlinesse should appear insomuch