A Key to the Knowledge of Church History Part 4

[Sidenote: A.D. 38]

During St. Peter's journey, the course of G.o.d's good Providence led him to the sea-port town of Joppa, on the borders of Samaria and Judaea, and there we read that "he tarried many days," a measure of time which is supposed to be equivalent to three years. At the expiration of this time an event occurred which had a deep and lasting influence on the life of the Church of Christ. [Sidenote: Further fulfilment of the promise to St. Peter.] Hitherto no Gentiles had been admitted into her fold; but now it was to be given to St. Peter first to unlock to them the door of union with Christ through His Human Nature; for to him had first been committed the Power of the Keys, as a reward for his adoring confession of Christ's Divinity[1].

Section 1. _The Conversion of Cornelius._

A Roman soldier quartered at the great stronghold of Caesarea was honoured by being the occasion of the {26} gathering in of the first heathen converts. [Sidenote: A.D. 41. Conversion of the gentile Cornelius.] This centurion was not a proselyte, but a Gentile, one however who feared and served G.o.d according to the light given him through reason and natural religion. He was commanded by an angel from G.o.d to send to Joppa for St. Peter to show him the way of salvation, whilst another express revelation prepared the holy Apostle for a step so contrary to all his most cherished habits and prejudices.

[Sidenote: Descent of the Holy Ghost on gentile converts.] Taught by G.o.d Himself no longer to consider or treat the Gentiles as "common or unclean," St. Peter obeyed the summons of Cornelius; and, even whilst he was preaching to him and the many gentile friends he had gathered, the Holy Ghost descended visibly upon them as upon the Apostles on the Day of Pentecost. The Gift of Tongues accompanied what we may almost call a second Foundation of the Church; and we may readily believe that those Christianized Jews who had accompanied the Apostle from Joppa were "astonished" at this indication of what was in store for the Gentiles in the Kingdom of G.o.d.

[Sidenote: Holy Baptism not superseded.]

It is worthy of remark, that notwithstanding this direct and extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Ghost--but once before, and never since, vouchsafed to any child of Adam--yet it was not considered by St. Peter to do away with the necessity for Holy Baptism. "He commanded them to be baptized[2]."

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Section 2. _The Apostolic church in Jerusalem._

[Sidenote: A.D. 41. Jerusalem still the centre of the Church.]

Up to this time, and for long afterwards, Jerusalem continued to be the centre of the Church of Christ. Within her walls was the home of the Apostles during the intervals between their missions to the Christian converts in the neighbouring towns; and, as a natural consequence, it was here that the first Councils or Synods of the Church were held.

[Sidenote: The Hebrews wish to impose circ.u.mcision.] Here, too, were the head-quarters of those disciples who not only clung to the Mosaic law themselves, but wished to impose circ.u.mcision and the other precepts of the Old Dispensation on gentile converts. They yielded indeed to St. Peter's plea of special and Divine direction, when summoned to Jerusalem to answer for having eaten with men uncirc.u.mcised; nay, they even rejoiced in the prospect of the gathering in of the Gentiles; but they had yet to learn the temporary nature of the Ceremonial Law, and to realize that in Christ circ.u.mcision and uncirc.u.mcision were equally valueless.

[Sidenote: St. James the Less, Bishop of Jerusalem.]

The government of the Church in Jerusalem was conferred on St. James the Less, perhaps on account of his being "the Lord's brother;" and he remained in the Holy City as its Bishop, when, about twelve years after the Day of Pentecost, the other Apostles were for the first time dispersed beyond the borders of Palestine, over the face of the known world. The immediate occasion of this dispersion was the persecution by Herod Agrippa, which resulted in the martyrdom of St. James {28} the Great[3] and the temporary imprisonment and miraculous deliverance of St. Peter (A.D. 44), a deliverance granted to the earnest prayers of the Church.

Section 3. _The Apostolic Church in Antioch._

[Sidenote: A.D. 42. St. Barnabas at Antioch.]

We have no account in the Book of Acts of the Foundation (in the strict sense of the word) of the Church in Antioch. We read of St. Barnabas being sent thither from Jerusalem to visit and teach the converts amongst the Greek-speaking Jews, he being all the more fitted for this office by his connexion with Cyprus, whence came some of those who had first spread the knowledge of the Gospel in Antioch. But St. Barnabas was not yet of the number of the Apostles, the Foundations of the Church (as neither was St. Paul, whom he lovingly sought out and brought from Tarsus to aid in his work); and consequently we do not read that the "laying on of hands" formed any part of their ministrations. [Sidenote: St. Peter believed to be the founder of the Church in Antioch.] There is, however, a very ancient tradition which tells us that St. Peter visited Antioch and founded the Church in that distant city whilst on his way to the still more distant Rome, after his miraculous escape from Herod's prison (A.D. 44); and in the ancient Church of England Feb. 22 was observed in commemoration of "St. Peter's Throne at Antioch," that is, of his episcopal rule there.

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[Sidenote: Obstacles to the conversion of the gentiles.]

It was some years before the conversion of Cornelius and his gentile household was followed by any extended proclamation of the good tidings of the Gospel to the heathen world. It was not G.o.d's Will that all obstacles should be at once cleared away from the onward path of the Church; and the question of the relation in which the heathen were to stand to the Law of Moses after their conversion to Christianity, presented many difficulties. St. Peter and the other Apostles seem to have waited patiently until G.o.d should vouchsafe to show them how these difficulties might best be overcome; and on the Church in the large gentile city of Antioch it first devolved to send forth missionaries to the heathen.

[1] St. Matt. xvi. 16-19.

[2] Acts x. 48. It does not seem to have been the usual custom of the Apostles to administer Holy Baptism themselves. See 1 Cor. i. 14-17.

[3] In reference to the martyrdom of St. James, we may remember the prophecy of his Divine Master (St. Matt. xx. 23). "James tasted the _first_ draught of Christ's cup of suffering; and his brother John had the _longest_ draught of it."--Wordsworth on Acts xii. 2.

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CHAPTER III

The Extension of the Church throughout the World

A.D. 45-70

Section 1. _The First Mission to the Gentiles._

[Sidenote: A.D. 45.]

[Sidenote: St. Paul and St. Barnabas sent to preach to the heathen.]

It would seem that in the special Eucharistic offerings and Lenten discipline mentioned by St. Luke[1], the Church in Antioch was seeking guidance of her Divine Head as to her duties with respect to the gentile world in the midst of which she was placed; and that the command of the Holy Ghost to consecrate St. Paul and St. Barnabas as Apostles to the heathen was an answer to her cry.

We are not told whose "hands" were "laid" on the two newly-made Apostles in the solemn Consecration Service which followed, but it is likely that St. Peter was at that time at Antioch, and also that the Church in that city was already governed by a Bishop of its own. [Sidenote: They complete the Apostolic number.] It may here be remarked that the number of the Apostles was now completed. Those whom they ordained to be {31} Bishops or Overseers in the Church of G.o.d, as St. Timothy at Ephesus, and St. t.i.tus at Crete, though they received in the "laying on of hands"

power to execute such of the highest offices of the Apostolic function as were to be perpetually continued to the Church, yet were not fully Apostles. [Sidenote: Difference between Bishops and Apostles.] They had grace given to them to confirm, to ordain, and to communicate the power of ordaining to others, but they were not endowed with the extraordinary and supernatural gifts bestowed by the Holy Ghost for the Foundation of the Church; nor did they receive the same direct and outward call as was vouchsafed to the Twelve by our Lord Himself, and to St. Paul and St.

Barnabas by the special appointment of the Holy Spirit. They were not to _found_ the Church, but to _build up_ on its Apostolic foundations.

[Sidenote: Mission to Cyprus.]

The first missionary journey of St. Paul and St. Barnabas was to Cyprus, the native country of the latter. Here the preaching of the Gospel, begun in the Jewish synagogue[2], was continued before the heathen proconsul Sergius Paulus; and through it and the judicial blindness inflicted by St. Paul on the false prophet Elymas, the gentile ruler was won to Christ. [Sidenote: St. Paul, the chief Apostle of the Gentiles.]

St. Paul had now begun to take the lead as the chief Apostle of the Gentiles; it was he who, at Antioch in Pisidia, preached that sermon to the Jews which they would not heed, but which found acceptance with the heathen whom they despised. [Sidenote: Missionary journey through Asia Minor.] The Jews persecuted and blasphemed, but the Gentiles believed; and, in the account given {32} us of the labours of the Apostles here and at Iconium, we are reminded of the mult.i.tude of conversions and of the gladness of heart of the converted in the first days after the great Day of Pentecost[3].

[Sidenote: A.D. 46.]

At Lystra the Apostles found themselves for the first time in the midst of a thoroughly heathen population, without any admixture of Jews; but here also they did not hesitate to preach the first Christian "Apology against Heathenism," and to display the miraculous powers with which the Holy Ghost had gifted them. [Sidenote: The Apostles confirm and ordain.]

Their Jewish persecutors followed them and drove them to Derbe, the farthest limit of their journey; and from thence they retraced their steps, visiting each place where they had preached the Gospel, "confirming" their numerous converts, and "ordaining" Elders or Presbyters to have the care of those who were thus admitted to the full communion of the Church.

Section 2. _The Ministry of the Apostolic Church._

[Sidenote: A.D. 46. Ordination of priests.]

This[4] is the first mention we have of the ordination of Elders, or Presbyters (or Priests[5], as we are most in the habit of calling them), though the fact of the existence of such officers has already been hinted at[6] as well-known and recognized. Thus we see that, as when at first "the number of the disciples was multiplied," the Apostles delegated part of their work to the Order of Deacons, so {33} afterwards, when the Church continued to grow and increase, they provided for her needs by inst.i.tuting the Order of the Priesthood, conferring on others, in G.o.d's Name and by His Authority, a larger portion of the ministerial grace they had themselves received from Him. [Sidenote: Functions of the Priesthood.] The distinguis.h.i.+ng Grace given to those who were called to the Office of Elder or Presbyter by the "laying on of hands," was, as it still is, the power of consecrating and offering the Holy Eucharist, that so, according to St. Paul's words to the Elders of Ephesus, they may "feed the Church of G.o.d[7]," not as in the case of the Deacons, with "the meat that perisheth," but with "the Bread of G.o.d, which cometh down from Heaven."

[Sidenote: Consecration of Bishops]

Of the Ordination of Bishops[8], apart from the Apostolate, we have no mention in the Book of the Acts; but that the Apostles did ordain successors to themselves, so far as their office was to be perpetual in the Church, we have ample proofs in the Epistles of St. Paul to St.

Timothy and St. t.i.tus. [Sidenote: Their functions.] To both these holy men, Bishops or Overseers of the Church in Ephesus and Crete respectively, St. Paul gives injunctions as to their duties, particularly in ordaining Elders or Priests, the distinguis.h.i.+ng work of a Bishop[9].

Section 3. _The First Council of the Church._

[Sidenote: A.D. 46-51.]

For a "long time" after the return of St. Paul and St. Barnabas to Antioch, with the news that G.o.d had, through their {34} instrumentality, "opened the Door of Faith to the Gentiles," the Church in that city seems to have continued to flourish in peace and prosperity. [Sidenote: Difficulties as to the observance of Jewish rites.] But difficulties with regard to the observance or non-observance by the Gentile converts of the rite of circ.u.mcision and other precepts of the Mosaic law, arose to disturb this quiet.