"Thy

God might be purchased with money. money perish with thee," said he; "thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of God."

We now find him very actively engaged in the duties of his apostleship, "passing throughout all quarters," performing miracles, preaching the word, and feeding the sheep of the great Shepherd. At Lydda he healed a certain man, named Eneas, who had been sick with the palsy eight years; and at the neighboring town of Joppa he raised to life a pious female disciple by the name of Tabitha, or Dorcas.*

At Joppa he abode many days with one Simon, a tanner. It was while he was living here that he was called to instruct and baptize Cornelius, the centurion, who dwelt in Cæsarea; to prepare him for which duty, he was taught in a remarkable vision, not to call any creature of God common or unclean, and that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him. With these convictions on his mind, he obeys the call of Cornelius to come to him, and, while he is addressing him, witnesses the descent of the Spirit on him and his family, and orders them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Thus he fulfilled

* Tabitha being the Syriac name, and Dorcas its translation into Greek. The words mean a doe or kid.

to the utmost the prediction with which his name of Peter was conferred on him, and founded the Christian Church in both the Jewish and the Gentile world. It was an event of which we at this period can hardly estimate the importance. Devoid of Jewish prejudices and antipathies, we can hardly conceive with what consternation the Jewish converts, who, as Jews, had always cherished the belief that religion and truth and God's peculiar favor always had been, and always were to be, confined to them, must have listened to the intelligence that the chief of the apostles had been breaking down the wall and drawing up the veil which were interposed between the faithful people and the rest of the world, and that henceforth there was to be no spiritual distinction between Hebrew and Greek, Jew and Gentile. Some conception of this indignant surprise of theirs may be formed from the recorded circumstance, that when Peter had returned to Jerusalem, "they that were of the circumcision," including his fellow-apostles, and indeed the whole Christian Church, "contended with him, saying, thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them." It was enough to provoke their amazement, that he simply eat with them. But Peter had the steadfastness to defend himself, and expound the whole matter to them from the beginning; and so much were they impressed by the

force and reason of his words, that they acquiesced in peace, "and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life."

Not long after this, Peter was put into prison by Herod, but was set free by an angel, who came to him while he "was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains." That he was sleep. ing in such a situation is an incidental and beau tiful proof of his tranquillity in extreme danger. He then went down from Judæa to Cæsarea, and there abode; very probably in the house or under the protection of Cornelius, his distinguished convert.

The next time that we hear of him is at the meeting of apostles and elders, which is generally called the Council of Jerusalem, and which was convened to settle the long and vehemently agitated question, again brought up by some of the believing Pharisees, whether it was needful to circumcise all converts, and command them to keep the law of Moses. When there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and gave his decided opinion against the necessity of circumcising the Gentiles, or bringing them under the ceremonial law. And with this opinion the Council at last coincided.

With the history of this Council, the notices of Peter's life in the Acts of the Apostles come to an

E

end. He is named a few times in the epistles of Paul, and once with reprehension. That apostle tells us in his Epistle to the Galatians, that, when Peter was come to Antioch,* he withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed; for that although he had already eaten with Gentiles, according to his own new principles so openly professed, yet when some of the circumcision came to Antioch, he withdrew from the Gentiles, from fear of the circumcised. This was an inconsistency, certainly, and shows that some remains of weakness still lingered about the character of Peter; but it is the only inconsistency which is laid to his charge from the time of his Master's resurrection; and he can easily be forgiven, when we consider how much he had done and suffered, ever since that event, in his Master's name and for his Master's cause.

All that remains to be said of this remarkable man is to be gathered, not from the Scriptures, but from other early accounts, the authority of

* Ecclesiastical historians say that Peter founded the Church at Antioch, and some add, that he was its first bishop. Chrysostom writes: "This is one prerogative of our city (Antioch), that we had at the beginning the chief of the apostles for our master. For it was fit that the place which was first honored with the name of Christians should have the chief of the apostles for its pastor. But though we had him for a master awhile, we did not detain him, but resigned him to the royal city, Rome. Or, rather, we have him still. For though we have not his body, we have his faith."-- Chrysostom, as adduced by Lardner.

which, though not to be compared with that of the Scriptures, should be held in a due degree of respect. We are informed by Eusebius, that Ori gen wrote of him, that "he was supposed to have preached to the Jews of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Bithynia, Cappadocia, and Asia. And at length coming to Rome, was crucified with his head downwards." This kind of death he was said to have requested, out of a feeling of humble respect to his Master. If so, it is an affecting conclusion of his eventful life, and another striking exhibition of the ardent character which adhered to him to the last. He conceived it too great an honor that such an one as he should meet his death erect, and looking upwards, like his beloved and venerated Lord; and so, with his head. in the dust, he closed his labors, his failings, his victories, his sufferings, and his life.

There are Roman Catholic writers who maintain that Peter was bishop of Rome during a period of twenty-five years before his martyrdom there. But this assertion, though supported by such high authority as that of Jerome, has been shown by Cave and others to be wholly unfounded. The most authentic account is, that Peter, after having been in Antioch for a season, came to Rome about the year 63 or 64, and suffered martyrdom in the manner above stated, a year or two after, during the persecution of the Christians