The apostles had now, with great zeal and efficiency, preached the
gospel of Jesus Christ to the worshipers of the true God, beginning at
Jerusalem, and spreading the triumphs of his name to the bounds of the
land of Israel. But in all their devotion to their Master’s work, they
had never had a thought of breaking over the bounds of the faith of
their fathers, or of making their doctrine anything else than a mere
completion or accompaniment to the law of Moses; nor did they imagine
that they were ever to extend the blessings of the gospel to any who
did not bow down to all the tedious rituals of the ancient covenant.
The true power of their Lord’s parting command, “Go and teach _all
nations_,” they had never felt; and even now, their great chief
supposed that the change of heart and remission of sins, which he was
commissioned to preach, were for none but the devout adherents of the
Jewish faith. A new and signal call was needed, to bring the apostles
to a full sense of their enlarged duties; and it is among the highest
honors vouchsafed to Peter, that he was the person chosen to receive
this new view of the boundless field now opened for the battles and
triumphs of the cross. To him, as the head and representative of
the whole band of the apostles, was now spread out, in all its moral
vastness and its physical immensity, the coming dominion of that faith,
whose little seed he was now cherishing, with but a humble hope; but
whose stately trunk and giant branches were, from that small and low
beginning, to stretch, in a mighty growth, over lands, and worlds, to
him unknown. Thus far he had labored with a high and holy zeal, in a
cause whose vastness he had never appreciated,――every moment building
up, unwittingly, a name for himself, which should outlast all the
glories of the ancient covenant; and securing for his Master a dominion
which the religion of Moses could never have reached. He had never had
an idea, that he with his companions was founding and spreading a new
religion;――to purify the religion of the law and the prophets, and to
rescue it from the confusion and pollutions of warring sectaries, was
all that they had thought of; yet with this end in view, they had been
securing the attainment of one so far above and beyond, that a full
and sudden view of the consequences of their humble deeds, would have
appalled them. But though the mighty plan had never been whispered nor
dreamed of, on earth,――though it was too immense for its simple agents
to endure its full revelation at once,――its certain accomplishment
had been ordained in heaven, and its endless details were to be fully
learned only in its triumphant progress through uncounted ages. But,
limited as was the view which the apostles then had of the high destiny
of the cause to which they had devoted themselves, it was yet greatly
extended from the low-born notions with which they had first followed
the steps of their Master. They now no longer entertained the vagary
of a worldly triumph and a worldly reward; they had left that on the
mount where their Lord parted from them, and they were now prayerfully
laboring for the establishment of a pure spiritual kingdom in the
hearts of the righteous. To give them a just idea of the exalted
freedom to which the gospel brought its sons, and to open their hearts
to a Christian fellowship, as wide as the whole human family, God now
gave the apostolic leader an unquestionable call to tell to the world
the glad tidings of salvation, for all men, through a new and living
way, by change of heart and remission of sins. The incidents which led
to this revelation are thus detailed.
The peace and good order of Palestine were now secured by several
legions, whose different divisions, larger or smaller according to
circumstances, were quartered in all the strong or important places
in the country, to repress disorders, and enforce the authority of the
civil power, when necessary. Besides this ordinary peace-establishment
of the province, there was a cohort which took its name from the
circumstance that it had been levied in Italy,――a distinction, now so
rare, in consequence of the introduction of foreign mercenaries into
the imperial hosts, as to become the occasion of an honorable eminence,
which was signified by the title here given, showing that this division
of the Roman armies was made up of the sons of that soil which had
so long sent forth the conquerors of the world. Of all the variety
of service required of the different detachments of the army, in the
province which it guarded, by far the most honorable was that of being
stationed next the person of the governor of the province, to maintain
the military dignity of his vice-imperial court, and defend his
representative majesty. Caesarea, on the sea-shore, was now the seat
of the Roman government of Palestine; and here, in attendance on the
person of the governor, was this aforesaid Italian cohort, at the head
of a company in which, was a centurion named Cornelius. Though nothing
is given respecting his birth and family but this single name, a very
slight knowledge of Roman history and antiquities enables the historian
to decide, that he was descended from a noble race of patricians, which
had produced several of the most illustrious families of the imperial
city. Eminent by this high birth and military rank, he must have
been favored with an education worthy of his family and station. It
is therefore allowable to conclude, that he was an intelligent and
well-informed gentleman, whom years of foreign service, in the armies
of his country must have improved by the combined advantages of
a traveler and a disciplined warrior. Of his moral and religious
character such an account is given, as proves that his principles,
probably implanted in early life, had been of such firmness as to
withstand the numerous temptations of a soldier’s life, and to secure
him in a course of most uncommon rectitude in his duties towards God
and towards man. In the merciful exercise of his power over the people
whose safety and quiet he came to maintain, and, moreover, in the
generous use of his pecuniary advantages, he passed his blameless life;
and the high motive of this noble conduct, is discovered in the steady,
pure devotion, in which he employed many hours of daily retirement,
and in which he caused his whole family publicly to join, on proper
occasions. Thus is he briefly and strongly characterized by the sacred
historian: “devout, and fearing God with all his house; giving much
alms, and praying to God always.”
_Noble race of patricians._――The _gens Cornelia_, or “Cornelian
race,” was unequaled in Rome for the great number of noble
families sprung from its stock. The Scipios, the Sullas, the
Dolabellas, the Cinnas, the Lentuli, the Cethegi, the Cossi,
and many other illustrious branches of this great race, are
conspicuous in Roman history; and the Fasti Consulares, record
more than sixty of the Cornelian race, who had borne the
consular dignity previous to the apostolic era. This is always
a _family_ name, and Ainsworth very grossly errs in calling it
“the _praenomen_ of several Romans.” Every Roman name of the
middle and later ages of the commonwealth, had at least three
parts, which were the _praenomen_, marking the individual,――the
_nomen_ marking the _gens_, (“race,” “stock,”) and the
_cognomen_, marking the family or division of that great stock.
Thus in the name “Publius Cornelius Scipio,” the _last_ word
shows that the person belonged to the Scipio family, which by
the _second_ word is seen to be of the great Cornelian stock,
while the first shows that this member of the family was
distinguished from his relations, by the name of Publius.
(See Adams’s Roman Antiquities, on Names.) Wherever this name,
Cornelius, occurs, if the whole appellation of the man is given,
this comes in the middle, as the _nomen_, marking the race;
as is the case with every one of those quoted by Ainsworth,
in his blundering account of the word. See also Sallust, (The
Catilinarian Conspiracy, 47, 55,) in defense of this peculiar
limitation of the word to the _gens_. Not a single instance can
be brought of its application to any person not of this noble
patrician race, or of its use as a mere individual appellation.
I am therefore authorized in concluding that this Cornelius
mentioned in the Acts was related to this line of high nobility.
It might, perhaps, be conjectured, that he had borrowed this
name from that noble race, from having once been in the service
of some one of its families, as was common in the case of
freedmen, after they had received their liberty; but this
supposition is not allowable; for he is expressly particularized
as belonging to an _Italian_ division of the army, which fact
excludes the idea of that foreign origin which would belong
to a slave. The Jews having but one name for each man, seldom
gave all of a Roman’s name, unless of a very eminent man, as
Pontius Pilate, Sergius Paulus, and other official characters;
but selecting any one of the three parts which might be most
convenient, they made that the sole appellative, whether
_praenomen_, _nomen_, or _cognomen_. As in Luke ii. 2: Acts
xxiii. 24: xxv. 1: xxvii. 1: xxviii. 7, &c.
Illustration: JERUSALEM, FROM THE LATIN CONVENT.
Luke xxi. 24.
_The Italian cohort._――The word Σπειρα (_Speira_) I translate
“_cohort_,” rather than “_legion_,” as the older commentators
did. Jerome translates it “_cohortem_,” and he must have known
the exact technical force of the Greek word, and to what Latin
military term it corresponded, from his living in the time when
these terms must have been in frequent use. Those who prefer
to translate it “legion,” are misled by the circumstance, that
Tacitus and other writers on Roman affairs, mention a legion
which had the distinctive appellation of “_the Italian Legion_;”
while it has been supposed that these ancient authors make no
mention of an Italian _cohort_. But the deeply learned Wetstein,
with his usual vast classical research, has shown several such
passages, in Arrian and others, in which mention _is_ made
of an Italian cohort; and in Gruter’s inscriptions, quoted by
Kuinoel, there is an account of “a volunteer cohort of _Italian_
soldiers in Syria;” and Palestine was at this time included
with Syria, under the presidency of Petronius. This inscription,
too, justifies my remark as to the high character of those who
served in this corps. “Cohors militum Italicorum _voluntaria_”
seems to imply a body of soldiers of a higher character than the
ordinary mercenary mass of the army, being probably made up of
_volunteers_ from respectable families of Italy, who chose to
enlarge their knowledge of the world by foreign military service,
in this very honorable station of life-guard to the Roman
governor, as Doddridge and others suppose this to have been.
(See Doddridge on this passage; also C. G. Schwartz in Wolff,
Cur. Philology in loc.) It is considered also as fairly proved
that the “Italian _legion_” was not formed till a much later
period; so that it is rendered in the highest degree probable
and unquestionable, that this was a _cohort_, and, as Schwartz
and Doddridge prove, not a mere ordinary cohort, making the
tenth part of a common legion of 4200, but a distinct and
independent corps, attached to no legion, and devoted to the
exclusive honorable service above mentioned. (See Bloomfield,
Kuinoel, Rosenmueller, &c.)
_Devout._――Some have tried hard to make out that Cornelius was
what they call “a proselyte of the gate;” that is, one who,
though not circumcised, nor conforming to the rituals generally,
yet was an observer of the _moral_ law. But Lardner very fully
shows that there were not two sorts of proselytes; all who bore
that name fully conforming to the Jewish rituals, but still
called “strangers,” &c.; because, though admitted to all the
religious privileges of the covenant, they were excluded from
the civil and political privileges of Jews, and could not be
freeholders. Cornelius must then have been a mere Gentile. (See
Lardner in his life of Peter; also Kuinoel and Bloomfield.)
_Caesarea._――This is another of those cities enlarged or rebuilt
by the princes of the Herodian line, and honored with the
names of the imperial family. This city stood on the sea-shore,
about 30 miles north of Joppa; and (Modern Traveler) 62
north-north-west from Jerusalem. (600 stadia Josephus.) It has
been idly conjectured by the Rabbinical writers, that this was
the same with Ekron, of the Old Testament, Zephaniah ii. 4;
while the Arabic version gives it as Hazor, Joshua xi. 1,――both
with about equal probability. The earliest name by which it
can be certainly recognized, is Apollonia, which it bore when
it passed from the Syro-Grecians to the Maccabean princes.
Its common name, in the time of Herod the Great, was πυργος
Στρατωνος, _turris Stratonis_, “Straton’s castle,” from the name
of a Greek pirate who had built a strong hold here. Herod the
Great made it the most splendid city in his dominions, and even
in all the eastern part of the Roman empire; and in honor of
Augustus Caesar, called it Caesarea Augusta. It was sometimes
called Caesarea _Palestinae_, to distinguish it from Caesarea
_Philippi_; for Palestine was then a name limited to the
southern part of the coast of the Holy Land, and was bounded on
the north by Phoenicia. This city was the capital of the whole
Holy Land throughout the period of the later Herodian and Roman
sway.
To this man was sent the first heavenly call, which ended in bringing
in the Gentiles to the knowledge of the truth revealed by Jesus. After
having fasted all day, he was employed in his regular devotions, at
the usual hour of prayer, (three o’clock in the afternoon,) when his
senses were overwhelmed by a vision, in which he had a distinct view
of a messenger of God, in shining garments, coming to him; and heard
him call him by his name, “Cornelius!” Looking at him as steadily as
he was able in his great alarm, Cornelius asked, “What is it, Lord?”
The heavenly visitant replied, in words of consolation and high praise,
“Thy prayers and thy alms have come up in remembrance before God. And
now send men to Joppa, and call for a man named Simon Peter, lodging
with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea-side. He, when he comes,
shall tell thee what it is right that thou shouldst do.” When the
surprising messenger had given this charge, he departed; and Cornelius,
without delay, went to fulfil the minute directions he had received.
He called two of his domestics, and a devout soldier of the detachment
then on duty near him, and having related to them all that he had just
seen and heard, he sent them to Joppa, to invite Peter according to the
order. The distance between the two places is about thirty-five miles,
and being too great to be easily traveled in one day, they journeyed
thither during a part of two days, starting immediately when they
received the command, though late in the afternoon. While they were
continuing their journey, the next day, and were now near to the city
of Joppa, Peter, without any idea of the important task to which he
was soon to be summoned, went up, as usual, to the Alijah, or place of
prayer, upon the house-top, at about twelve o’clock, mid-day. Having,
according to the usual custom of the Jews, fasted for many hours, for
the sake of keeping the mind clear from the effects of gross food on
the body, and at length becoming sensible that he had pushed himself to
the utmost limits of safe abstinence, he wished for food, and ordered
his dinner. While the servants were preparing it, he continued above,
in the place of prayer, where, enfeebled by fasting, and over-wrought
by mental effort, he fell into a state of spiritual excitement, in
which the mind is most susceptible of strong impressions of things
beyond the reach of sense. In this condition, there appeared to him
a singular vision, which subsequent events soon enabled him fully to
interpret. It seemed to him that a great sheet was let down from the
sky, to which it was fastened by the four corners, containing on its
vast surface all sorts of animals that were forbidden as food by the
Mosaic law. While the apostle gazed upon this vast variety of animals,
which education had taught him to consider unclean, there came a voice
to him, calling him by name, and commanding him to arise, kill, and
eat. All his prejudices and early religious impressions were roused
by such a proposal; and, resisting the invisible speaker as the agent
of temptation to him in his bodily exhaustion, he replied, in all the
pride of a scrupulous and unpolluted Jew, “By no means, Lord, because
I have never eaten anything improper or unclean.” The mysterious voice
again said, “What God hath cleansed, do not thou consider improper.”
This impressive scene having been twice repeated, the whole was
withdrawn back into heaven. This remarkable vision immediately called
out all the energies of Peter’s mind, in its explanation. But before
he had time to decide for himself what was meant by it, the messengers
of Caesarea had inquired out the house of Simon, and, coming to the
outside door, they called to learn whether Simon, who was surnamed
Peter, lodged there. And while the mind of Peter was still intently
occupied with the vision, he received an intimation from the unerring
spirit, that his presence was required elsewhere. “Behold! three men
are seeking thee, but rise up and go with them, without hesitation;
for I have sent them.” Thus urged and encouraged, Peter went directly
down to the men sent by Cornelius, and said, “Behold! I am he whom ye
seek. What is your object in coming here?” They at once unfolded their
errand. “Cornelius, a centurion, a just man, fearing God, and of good
repute among all the Jews, was instructed by a holy messenger, to send
for thee to his house, that he may hear something from thee.” Peter,
already instructed as to the proper reception of the invitation, asked
them in, and hospitably entertained them till the next day, improving
the delay, no doubt, by learning as many of the circumstances of the
case as they could give him. The news of this remarkable call was also
made known to the brethren of the church in Joppa, some of whom were so
highly interested in what they heard that evening, that they resolved
to accompany Peter the next day, with the messengers, to see and hear
for themselves the details of a business which promised to result so
fairly in the glory of Christ’s name, and the wide enlargement of his
kingdom. On the next day, the whole party set out together, and reached
Caesarea, the second day of their journey; and going straight to the
house of Cornelius, they found quite a large company there, awaiting
their arrival. For Cornelius, expecting them, had invited his relations
and his intimate friends, to hear the extraordinary communications
which had been promised him, from his visitor. The kindred here alluded
to were, perhaps, those of his wife, whom, according to a very common
usage, he may have married in the place where he was stationed; for it
is hardly probable that a Roman captain from Italy could have had any
of his own blood relations about him, unless, perhaps, some of them
might have enlisted with him, and now been serving with him on this
honorable post. His near friends, who completed the assembly, were
probably such of his brother officers as he knew to possess kindred
tastes with himself, and to take an interest in religious matters. Such
was the meeting that Peter found sitting in expectation of his coming;
and so high were the ideas which Cornelius had formed of the character
of his visitor, that, as soon as he met him on his entrance into the
house, he fell down at his feet, and paid him reverence as a superior
being;――an act of abasement towards the inhabitant of a conquered
country, most rare and remarkable in a Roman officer, and one to which
nothing but a notion of supernatural excellence could ever have brought
him, since this was a position assumed not even by those who approached
the emperor himself. Peter, however, had no desire to be made the
object of a reverence so nearly resembling idolatry. Raising up the
prostrate Roman, he said, “Stand up: for I myself am also a man.”
Entering into familiar discourse with him, he now advanced into the
house, and going with him to the great room, he there found a numerous
company. He addressed them in these words: “You know how unlawful it is
for a Jew to be familiar, or even to visit, with one of another nation;
but God has taught me to call no man vulgar or unclean. Wherefore, I
came at your summons, without hesitation. Now, then, I ask with what
design have you sent for me?” And Cornelius said, “Four days ago, I
was fasting till this hour; and at the ninth hour I was praying in my
house;” and so having gone on to narrate all the circumstances of his
vision, as given above, concluded in these words, “For this reason I
sent for thee, and thou hast done well in coming, for we are all here,
before God, to hear what has been imparted to thee, from God.” And
Peter began solemnly to speak, and said, “Of a truth, I perceive that
God is no respecter of persons; but that in every nation, he that
fears him and does what is right, is approved by him.” With this solemn
profession of a new view of this important principle of universal
religion, as a beginning, he went on to satisfy their high expectations,
by setting forth to them the sum and substance of the gospel doctrine,
of whose rise and progress they had already, by report, heard a vague
and partial account. The great and solemn truth which the Spirit had
summoned him to proclaim, was that Jesus Christ the crucified was
ordained by God the judge of both living and dead, and that through
him, as all the prophets testified, every one that believed should have
remission of sins. Of his resurrection from the dead, Peter declared
himself the witness, as well as of his labors of good will towards
man, when, anointed with the Spirit of God, he went about doing good.
Thus did Peter discourse, excited by the novel and divinely appointed
occasion, till the same divine influence that moved his heart and
tongue was poured out on his charmed hearers, and they forthwith
manifested the signs of change of heart and devout faith in Christ, as
the Son of God and the judge of the world; and made known the delight
of their new sensations, in words of miraculous power. At this display
of the equal and impartial grace of God, the Jewish church-members
from Joppa, who had accompanied Peter to Caesarea, were greatly amazed,
having never before imagined it possible for the influences of the
divine spirit to be imparted to any who had not devoutly conformed to
all the rituals of the holy law of old given by God to Moses, whose
high authority was attested amid the smoke and flame and thunder of
Sinai. And what change was this? In the face of this awful sanction,
these believing followers of Moses and Christ saw the outward signs
of the inward action of that Spirit which they had been accustomed
to acknowledge as divine, now moving with the same holy energy the
souls and voices of those born and bred among the heathen, without the
consecrating aid of one of those forms of purification, by which Moses
had ordained their preparation for the enjoyment of the blessings
of God’s holy covenant with his own peculiar people. Moved by that
same mysterious and holy influence, the Gentile warriors of Rome now
lifted up their voices in praise of the God of Israel and of Abraham,
――doubtless too, _their_ God and Father, though Abraham were ignorant
of them, and Israel acknowledged them not; since through his son Jesus
a new covenant had been sealed in blood, opening and securing the
blessings of that merciful and faithful promise to all nations. On
Jehovah they now called as their Father and Redeemer, whose name was
from everlasting,――known and worshiped long ere Abraham lived. Never
before had the great partition-wall between Jews and Gentiles been thus
broken down, nor had the noble and equal freedom of the new covenant
ever yet been so truly and fully made known. And who was he that had
thus boldly trampled on the legal usages of the ancient Mosaic covenant,
as consecrated by the reverence of ages, and had imparted the holy
signs of the Christian faith to men shut out from the mysteries
of the inner courts of the house of God? It was not a presumptuous
or unauthorized man, nor one thoughtless of the vastly important
consequences of the act. It was the constituted leader of the apostolic
band, who now, in direct execution of his solemn commission received
from his Master, and in the literal fulfilment of the prophetic charge
given therewith at the base of distant Hermon, opened the gates of the
kingdom of heaven to all nations. Bearing the keys of the kingdom of
God on earth, he now, in the set time of divine appointment, at the
call of his Master in heaven, so signally given to him both directly
and indirectly, unlocked the long-closed door, and with a voice of
heavenly charity, bade the waiting Gentiles enter. This was the mighty
commission with which Jesus had so prophetically honored this chief
disciple at CAESAREA _Philippi_, and here, at CAESAREA _Augusta_, was
achieved the glorious fulfilment of this before mysterious announcement;
――Simon Peter now, in the accomplishment of that divinely appointed
task, became the ROCK, on which the church of Christ was, through the
course of ages, reared; and in this act, the first stone of its broad
Gentile foundation was laid.
_On duty about him._――This phrase is the just translation of the
technical term προσκαρτερουντων, (_proskarterounton_,) according
to Price, Kuinoel, Bloomfield, &c.
Of all the honors with which his apostolic career was marked, there is
none which equals this,――the revolutionizing of the whole gospel plan
as before understood and advanced by its devotees,――the enlargement of
its scope beyond the widest range of any merely Jewish charity,――and
the disenthralment of its subjects from the antique formality and
cumbrous ritual of the Jewish worship. And of all the events which the
apostolic history records, there is none which, in its far-reaching and
long-lasting effects, can match the opening of Christ’s kingdom to the
Gentiles. What would have been the rate of its advancement under the
management of those, who, like the apostles hitherto, looked on it
as a mere improvement and spiritualization of the old Mosaic form, to
which it was, in their view, only an appendage, and not a substitute?
Think of what chances there were of its extension under such views to
those far western lands where, ages ago, it reached with its benign
influences the old Teutonic hordes from whom we draw our race;――or of
what possibility there was of ever bringing under the intolerable yoke
of Jewish forms, the hundreds of millions who now, out of so many lands
and kindreds and tongues, bear the light yoke, and own the simpler
faith of Jesus, confessing him Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Yet hitherto, so far from seeing these things in their true light,
all the followers of Christ had, notwithstanding his broad and
open commission to them, steadily persisted in the notion, that the
observance of the regulations laid down by Moses for proselytes to
his faith, was equally essential for a full conversion to the faith of
Christ. And now too, it required a new and distinctly repeated summons
from above, to bring even the great chief of the apostles to the just
sense of the freedom of the gospel, and to the practical belief that
God was no respecter of persons. But the whole progress of the event,
with all its miraculous attestations, left so little doubt of the
nature of the change, that Peter, after the manifestation of a holy
spirit in the hearts and voices of the Gentile converts, triumphantly
appealed to the Jewish brethren who had accompanied him from Joppa, and
asked them, “Can any one forbid the water for the baptizing of these,
who have received the Holy Spirit as well as we?” Taking the unanimous
suffrage of their silence to his challenge, as a full consent, he gave
directions that the believing Romans should be baptized in the name of
the Lord, as Jesus in his parting charge had constituted that ordinance
for the seal of redemption to every creature, in all the nations to
whom the gospel should be preached. Having thus formally enrolled
the first Gentile converts, as the free and complete partakers of the
blessings of the new covenant, he stayed among them several days, at
their request, strengthening their faith, and enlarging their knowledge
by his pastoral instruction; which he deemed a task of sufficient
importance to detain him, for a while, from his circuit among the new
converts, scattered about in other places throughout Palestine, and
from any immediate return to his friends and converts at Joppa, where
this call had found him.
Meanwhile, this mighty innovation on the established order of sacred
things could not be long unknown beyond the cities of Caesarea and
Joppa, but was soon announced by the varied voice of rumor to the
amazed apostles and brethren at Jerusalem. The impression made on
them by this vague report of their great leader’s proceedings, was
most decidedly unfavorable; and there seem to have been not a few who
regarded this unprecedented act of Peter as a downright abuse of the
dignity and authority with which the special commission of his Master
had invested him. Doubtless, in that little religious community, as in
every other association of men ever gathered, there were already many
human jealousies springing up like roots of bitterness, which needed
but such an occasion as this, to manifest themselves in decided censure
of the man, whose remarkable exaltation over them might seem like a
stigma on the capacities or merits of those to whom he was preferred.
Those in whose hearts such feelings had been rankling, now found
a great occasion for the display of their religious zeal, in this
bold movement of their constituted leader, who herein seemed to
have presumed on his distinction and priority, to act in a matter of
the very highest importance, without the slightest reference to the
feelings and opinions of those, who had been with him chosen for the
great work of spreading the gospel to all nations. And so much of free
opinion and expression was there among them, that this act of the chief
apostle called forth complaints both deep and loud, from his brethren,
against this open and unexplained violation of the holy ordinances
of that ancient law, which was still to them and him the seal and
sign of salvation. Peter, at length, after completing his apostolic
circuit among the churches, of which no farther account is given to
us, returned to Jerusalem to meet these murmurs with the bold and clear
declaration of the truth. As soon as he arrived, the grumblers burst
out on him with open complaints of his offensive violations of the
strict religious exclusiveness of demeanor, which became a son of
Israel professing the pure reformed faith of Jesus. The unhesitating
boldness with which this charge of a breach of order was made against
Peter by the sticklers for circumcision, is a valuable and interesting
proof, that all his authority and dignity among them, did not amount to
anything like a _supremacy_; and that whatever he might bind or loose
on earth for the high sanction of heaven, he could neither bind the
tongues and opinions, nor loose the consciences of these sturdy and
free-spoken brethren. Nor does Peter seem to have had the least idea
of claiming any exemption from their critical review of his actions;
but straightway addressed himself respectfully to them, in a faithful
detail of his conduct, and the reasons of it. He distinctly recounted
to them the clear and decided call which he considered himself to
have received from heaven, by which he was summoned as the spiritual
guide of the inquiring Gentiles. And after the honest recital of the
whole series of incidents, and of the crowning act of the whole, the
imparting to them the outward sign of inward washing from their sins,
he boldly appealed to the judgments of his accusers, to say whether,
in the face of such a sanction, they would have had him do otherwise.
“When the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning, then
remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said,” (when parting
from us, on the top of Olivet, to rise to the bosom of his father,
prophetically announcing a new and holy consecration and endowment for
our work,) “John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized
with the Holy Ghost.” This peculiar gift thus solemnly announced, we
had indeed received at the pentecost, and its outward signs we had
thereby learned infallibly by our own experience; and even so, at
Caesarea, I recognized in those Gentiles the same tokens by which I
knew the workings of divine grace in myself and you. “Forasmuch, then,
as God gave them the like gift as to us, who believed on the Lord
Jesus Christ, what was I, that I should withstand God?”――This clear and
unanswerable appeal silenced the clamors of the bold assertors of the
inviolability of Mosaic forms; and when they heard these things, they
held their peace, and, softened from their harsh spirit of rebuke, they,
in a noble feeling of truly Christian triumph, forgot all their late
exclusiveness, in a pure joy for the new and vast extension of the
dominion of Christ, secured by this act, whose important consequences
they were not slow in perceiving. They praised God for such a beginning
of mighty results, and laying aside, in this moment of exultation,
every feeling of narrow Jewish bigotry, they acknowledged that “to the
Gentiles also, God had granted repentance unto life.”