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The Jews themselves, in their Talmudical Books, confessed the power of miracles in Jesus and His followers. They imputed it to a magical correspondence with some demon, or to the efficacy of the Name JEHOVAH (the ineffable Name), the true pronunciation of which they pretended that Jesus stole out of the Temple, and thus was enabled to perform works of the most wonderful kind'.

Persons, who were driven to attempts so despicable to account for the Christian miracles, would have been ready and glad to call them false, or doubtful, if there had been a shadow of excuse for the application of either of these epithets 2.

a reason which is obvious. In proportion to the success of their preaching, Apostles were objects of his rancour.

1 The Talmudists asserted also, that Jesus had brought magic arts out of Egypt by cuttings which he had made in His flesh, and that He had adopted this contrivance to evade the vigilance of the Egyptian magicians, who strictly examined all who went out of the land, fearful lest their arts should be transported into other countries. See Lightfoot's Heb. and Talmud. Exercitations. Matt. xii. 24; and Macknight's Truth of the Gospel History, book ii. chap. 4; and Bishop Chandler's Defence of Christianity, chap. vi.

Arnobius refers to these childish and ridiculous notions: Occursurus forsan rursus est cum multis aliis calumniosis illis et puerilibus vocibus, Magus fuit, clandestinis artibus omnia illa perfecit ; Ægyptiorum ex adytis angelorum potentium nomina, et remotas furatus est disciplinas. Lib. i. Adv. Gentes.

2 Let modern sceptics consider the force of these testimonies. Shall conceited, half-informed objectors of the present day be listened to, when they presume to dispute facts, the occurrence

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of which was not contested by the earliest adversaries of the Gospel, and those, some of the most able and malicious that ever were opposed to it?

"Whoever believes that Christianity could make so swift and so great a progress, as it is certain by all history it did, only by the preaching of the Apostles, without any miraculous gifts, or supernatural assistance, wants not faith enough to be a Christian, if he had but a will to it, for he believes already a much greater miracle than any that is recorded in the evangelic story." Bishop Blackall. Boyle Lecture. Chrysostom made an observation to the same purpose, and said, that it must be considered the most prodigious of miracles, if mankind, without miracles, were in the beginning, in such numbers, persuaded by the Apostles to embrace the Christian faith-εί σημείων χωρὶς ἔπεισαν, πολλῷ μεῖζον τὸ θαῦμα φαίνεται. Hom. in 1 Cor. In like manner wrote Augustin: Quisquis adhuc prodigia, ut credat, inquirit, magnum est ipse prodigium, qui, mundo credente, non credit. De Civit. Dei.

CHAPTER X.

ON THE COMMISSION OF ST. PETER TO THE HOUSE OF CORNELIUS.

THE dispensation of Gospel grace was to be gradually opened to the world. "Ye shall be witnesses unto me (said our Saviour to His Apostles,) both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth 1." In the order of this prophetic direction the tidings of salvation, through the blood of the cross, were proclaimed. Jerusalem was the first scene of the Apostles' ministry. When the disciples were scattered abroad by persecution, after the death of Stephen, Judea and Samaria were blessed with the preaching of the word. About A.D. 412, "the door of faith" was opened to devout Gentiles, and, after the lapse of

1 Acts i. 8.

2 The conversion of Cornelius is usually placed in this year, about eight years after the Ascension. Tillemont assigns to this

event a much earlier date.

three or four years more, Gentile idolaters were "turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God." It appears to have been a decree of the Divine wisdom, that Gentiles, who had renounced the abominations in which they had been educated, and embraced the worship of the God of the Jews, should receive the offer of admission to Christianity before the call of their idolatrous brethren ', as better prepared for the "unspeakable gift," and as persons, to whom it might be conveyed with less offence to the prejudices of Jewish believers, than an invitation, in the first instance, to the whole heathen world would have occasioned.

The season had now arrived, when it was God's merciful purpose that the first-fruits of the Gentiles should be gathered into the Church 2.

Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian band in the Roman garrison at Cæsarea, "a devout man," and

1

Sergius Paulus, Proconsul of Cyprus, was the first idolatrous Gentile, converted to the Gospel, whose name is handed down to Acts xiii. 12.

us.

2 Acts x. xi.

* This might have been the Roman Procurator's favourite band, or cohort, (σTeiρa) his life-guard, sent from Italy to attend upon his person.

4 Cæsarea in Palestine, over which Eusebius, the ecclesiastical historian, presided as Bishop in the fourth century, was a city on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, between Dora and Joppa, distant about seventy miles from Jerusalem. It was anciently called Straton's Tower, but Herod the Great enlarged and ornamented the place in a very sumptuous manner, and, having raised within

one, who having forsaken the Pagan idolatry, "feared God with all his house, who gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway," but a stranger to the dispensation of the Gospel, and not of the house of Israel 1, saw in a vision evi

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it a colossal statue of Augustus, not inferior, it is said, to that of Jupiter at Olympia, named the city Caesarea. He constructed an immense harbour, and did all that money and ingenuity could accomplish, to give the city consequence. Joseph. Ant. xv. 13. In the splendid amphitheatre, which Herod erected at Cæsarea, his grandson, Herod Agrippa, was struck with a mortal disease, because he permitted his flatterers to give him that honour which belongs to God alone. Acts xii. 23. This was the usual place of residence of the Roman governors of Judea. "Perhaps there has not been in the history of the world (says Clarke,) an example of any city that in so short a space of time rose to such an extraordinary height of splendour, as did this of Cæsarea, or that exhibits a more awful contrast to its former magnificence by the present desolate appearance of its ruins. Its theatres, once resounding with the shouts of multitudes, echo no other sound than the nightly cries of animals roaming for their prey. Of its gor geous palaces and temples, enriched with the choicest works of art, and decorated with the most precious marbles, scarcely a trace is to be discerned. The remains of the city, still considerable, have long been resorted to, as a quarry, whenever building materials have been required at Acre." Travels in the Holy Land.

3. xv. 7. He was He is denominated

1 Cornelius is called a Gentile, Acts xi. 1. a Gentile, εὐσεβὴς καὶ φοβούμενος τὸν Θεόν. a proselyte of the Gate by Lord Barrington, Benson, and others, who are of opinion that there were two sorts of proselytes to the Jewish religion; that, in addition to the proselytes of righteousness, or proselytes of the Covenant, who, having been circumcised, and become obedient to the whole law, were received into the part of the Temple designated the Court of Israel, and into

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