Exposition of the Festival Epistles and Gospels, Explication of epistles and gospels 2 · Part 5
The Epistle
ACTS. 10.34.
Peter opened his mouth, and said, of a truth I perceiue that there is no respect of persons with God, &c.
THe zAretius.summarie pith in this accurate speech of saint Peter vntounto Cornelius is, that all men indifferently, whether they be Iewes or Gentiles, hauehave remission of their sinnes by faith in Christ, which is Lord ouer all things, and ordained of God to bee the iudge of all men quicke and dead. The whole sermon is diuided into three parts. A
Proeme, vers. 34.35. wherein obserue
what is said for the matter, there is no respect of persons with God, &c.
how it is said for the manner, Peter opened his mouth, and said, of a truth I perceiue.
Narration, ye know the preaching, &c. Wherein S. Peter aTertul. de Corona militis cap. 11.catechizeth his auditour Cornelius in the chiefe points of holy beleefe concerning the
doctrine, verse, 36.37. of Iesus Christ.
miracles, vers. 38. of Iesus Christ.
life, vers. 39. of Iesus Christ.
death, ibid. of Iesus Christ.
resurrection, vers. 40.41. of Iesus Christ.
comming to iudgement, v. 42. of Iesus Christ.
Confirmation, by production of witnesses,
new, the blessed Apostles, v. 39. Wee are witnesses of all things which he did, &c. and such witnesses as were chosen before of God. vers. 41.
old, the holy Prophets, v. 43. to him giuegive al the Prophets witnes.
Peter opened his mouth … This phrase doth intimate a bCaluin in loc.weighty seriousnesse in the speech, and a cVide Lo…it. in act. cap. 8. vers. 35.free liberty in the speaker. In the speech, a weight and grauity; so Christ (in whom are hid all the treasures of wisedome and knowledge) when he made that excellent sermon vponupon the mount, is said to hauehave dMat. 5.2.opened his mouth. And ePsal. 78.2.Dauid in the person of Christ, I will open my mouth in parables, I will declare hard sentences of old. In the speaker, a liberty to deliuer his mind freely; so the Lord promised Ezechiel, fEzech. 29.21.I will giuegive thee an open mouth in the middest of them. And g2. Cor. 6.11.Paul saith, O Corinthians, our mouth is open vntounto you. So that to speake ore rotundo, with an open mouth, is nothing else but after silence to speake out of mature deliberation and freedome of spirit ponderously, fully, cheerefully. So S. Peter hauing scene a vision, and heard a voice from heauen instructing and assuring him in the truth of the doctrine he was now to preach: opened his mouth, and said of a truth I perceiue. That eueryevery successour of Peter may doe the like, he must often pray with h… 51.15. … 6.19.Dauid, O Lord open thou my lips: and entreate his people likewise to pray for him, as … Paul did his Ephesians, that …tterance may bee giuen vntounto him, and that he may open his mouth boldly to publish the secret of the Gospell.
Of a truth I perceiue Peter assuredly knew before that there is no respect of persons with God; but by this experiment he did vnderstand it better, k…Id nunc sciri dicitur quod scitur magis. As Almighty God knew that Abraham was a good man before hee would hauehave sacrificed his sonne, yet vponupon that occasion he did expresse it more, saying, l….now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy sonne, thine onelyonly sonne from me. Truth is more cleerely perceiued in a particular experience, then in a generall notion, in which respect the new testament is called truth, in comparison of the old, Iohn 1.17. The Law was giuen by Moses, but grace and truth came by Iesus Christ. The law prefiguring Christ was a truth conceiued, but the Gospell exhibiting Christ, a truth perceiued. The law was truth in the theorie, but the Gospell a truth in experience, veritas facta saith the beloued Disciple, because Christ only shadowed in the law, was actually shewed in the Gospell. And so Peters (of a truth I perceiue that there is no respect of persons with God) is like to that of mGalath. 3.28. & 5.6.Paul, In Christ Iesu there is neither Iew nor Grecian, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, neither circumcision auaileth any thing, neither vncircumcision, but faith which worketh by louelove. Or wee may take the clause (of a truth I perceiue) for an earnest asseueration, answerable to that of nIob. 16.7.Christ, I tell you the truth, and to that of o1. Tim. 2.7.Paul, I speake the truth in Christ, and lie not. As if S. Peter should hauehave said, I deliuer nothing vntounto you but that which I certainly know to bee true, by manifold reasons, and infallible signes, as hauing read it in the Prophets, vers. 43. and seene it in a vision, vers. 11.12. and heard by voice from heauen, vers. 13.15. By this example Preachers of the word are taught, first exactly to know the truth, and then earnestly to deliuer it vntounto Gods people. The sermons of the Prophet Nahum are tearmed pNahum. 1.1.the booke of the vision of Nahum, because saith qProaem. in Nahum.Hierome, hee well vnderstood and saw whatsoeuer he said. A Pastour in like sort must see with Nahum, and say with Peter, of a truth I perceiue. For it is a shame that any should bee doctors of the law (but a greater offence that any should bee Preachers of the Gospell) and vnderstand not what they speake, neither whereof they affirme. 1. Tim. 1.7. Imitate this patterne of Peter, and eschew rTit. 1.10.vaine talkers, teaching otherwise for filthie lucres sake. It may be said better of a Minister then of a Monke: sLaurent. Pisan. in Euang. paradox.Versus ecclesiastes non videt nisi aliena bona, & sua mala: illa amuletur, haec v…emendet.
There is no respect of persons with God] That we may well vnderstand and learn this lesson once, the spirit repeats it often. As Deut. 10.17. 2. Chro. 19.7. Iob 34.19 Rom. 2.11. Ephes. 6.9. Coloss. 3.25. 1. Pet. 1.17. tAcetius C…l…in. … Iex as in l….By person is meant not the substance but the quality, to wit, whatsoeuer is about or without a man: as his birth, education, honour, wealth and the like; God respects not any because they be Iewes or gentiles, high or low, rich or poore: but in eueryevery nation he whosoeuer hee be, that feareth him and worketh righteousnesse, is accepted with him. He that is the uIeremy 17.10.searcher of the heart, iudgeth not after outward appearance: Whereas Pelagius obiected that God is a respecter of persons in giuing grace to some, and in denying it vntounto other; answere is made, that this comes to passe, non ex dignitate humana, sed ex dignatione diuina, it is a t….donation of bounty, not a dotation according to the rules of iustice. Now God saith in the y…. 10 ….Gospell, is it not lawfull for me to doe as I … with mine owne? mans merite workes not this mercy, ….by grace ye are saued thorough saith, and that not …f your selue…, it is the gift of God. And so God in giuing sauours, and forgiuing faults vntounto this man and not vntounto that, is not an accepter of persons: for herein he a…. 34 19.regardeth not the rich more then the poore, nor the Iew more then the Gentile, nor a man of peace more then a man of warre; as here you see Cornelius a captaine, Cornelius a man of Caesarea, Cornelius an alien from the common-wealth of Israel, is accepted with him as well as Peter borne among Gods own people, and brought vp… Christs owne schoole: See S. Augustine contra duas epitolas pelagianorum lib. 2. cap. 7. Thom. vbi sup. in margin. & part. 1. qu est. 23…. art. 5. ad. 3. Pet. Martyr. & Pareus … Rom. 2.11. Zanchius in Ephes. 6.9. Caluin. & Loria in loc.
Princes and Magistrates are stiled bPsal. … 2.6.Gods, as being the deputie liueftenants of God on earth, and (as it were) the fingers of that hand which rules all the world: and therefore they must be cEphes. ….….followers of God as deare children, d….mercifull as our father in heauen is mercifull, e…. 11.44.holy for that he is holy, no respecter of persons, as there is no respect of persons with him: as they stand in Gods place, so they should walke in Gods path: ye shall heare the sin all as well as the great, Deut. 1.17. wrest not the law, nor respect any person, neither take reward, Deut. 16 9. Thou shalt not fauour the person of the poore, nor honour the person of the mightie, but thou shalt iudge thy neighbour vprightly, Leuit. 19.15. for it is not good to hauehave respect of any person in iudgement, Prouerbs 24.23. The fReusner. in symbol.Thebans hereupon vsually pourtraied their Prince blinde, with eares, and the Iudges assisting him in Iustice without hands. Blinde, l…st he should hauehave respect of persons: with eares, that hee might heare both parties indifferently: the Iudges without hands, lest otherwise they might be corrupted with bribes, gExod. 23.8.for the gift blindeth the wise, and peruerteth the words of the righteous: and for this end our forefathers ordayned wisely that eueryevery Iudge should ride his circuit in a Countie farre distant from his owne home, whereby he might administer iustice freely without any fauour or feare. It was an olde complaint of hLaertius in vitae Diog. cynic.Diogenes, that the greater theeues of the state did ordinarily punish the lesser: and another after him, that secret pillers of the Common-weale sit on the bench to condemne open robbers standing at the barre. Magistrates in our dayes hauehave their houses seated so neare to Saint Bribes, as that few can say with iIob. 29.14.Iob, I put on iustice, and it couered me, my iudgement was a robe and a crowne, I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame: feuer with k1. Sam. 12.3.Samuel, whose oxe hauehave I taken? or whose asse hauehave I taken? or to whom hauehave I done wrong? or whom hauehave I hurt? or of whose hand hauehave I receiued any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it you. None I feare with lXi…hilinus in vita Nerua.Nerua, who was so good a Prince that hee did auow boldly▪ se nihil fecisse, quo minus possit imperio depostio priuatus iuto viuere. Some Magistrates vse the lawes as cobwebs, only to catch little flies: other as fox-nets, only to take great ones in a trap: and so the statutes of our kingdome (as a m…reuerend father of our Church once said) hauehave a good, prologue, but bad epilogue: their inuention is wise, their intention honourable, but we saile in execution; and a n…law without execution is as a bell without a clapper. A Iudge must hauehave two kindes of salt in him as o…Baldus truely, the salt of science to know the law, and the salt of conscience to determine according to the same; neither respecting the person, nor expecting the gifts of any.
He that feareth him and worketh righteousnes is accepted with him … To feare God and to keepe his commandements is the whole duty of man, Ecclesiast. 12.13. and therefore these two the fearing of God, and working …f righteousnes ….comprehend our whole duty. The first all religious offices of piety toward God, the second all righteous offices of charity toward our neighbour. Cornelius feare was not seruile, but filial: he feared God as an obedient child feareth a kind father, and God is not our father after this sort but in Christ, in whom he is qMat. 3.17.well pleased, and in whom he doth r… 1 5.adopt vsus his children, giuing vsus his spirit s…. 8.15.whereby we cry Abba father: in a word, Cornelius feare was t……aith, and by this faith he was accepted with God, and this faith openly shewed it selfe in working righteousnesse toward men. And therefore such a… build vponupon this exam, …e free will and iustification by workes are u…deceiued exceedingly, x….for Cornelius is said here first to feare God, and then afterward to worke righteousnes. Hee had heard among the Iewes of Gods holy promise concerning the sending of his sonne our Sauiour, the which hee beleeued as the Patriarkes and the Prophets, and other of Gods people who liued before Christs comming into the world; and this faith (as Paul speakes) wrought by louelove. Galat. 5.6.
It is worth obseruing that this commendation of Cornelius is remembred often in holy Scriptures as a speciall infallible marke of Gods children▪ Iob. 1 1.Iob a iust man and one that feared God, zLuke 2.25.Simeon was a iust man and feared God, but euermore the fearing of God as being the aProuerb. 1 7.beginning of wisedome is mentioned as the chiefe note. Father Abraham a man who feared God, Gen. 22.12. Ioseph a man who feared God, Gen. 42.18. The Midwiues in Egypt feared God, Exod. 1.17. If the fearing of God once goe before, working of righteousnesse will instantly follow after, according to that of the wiseman, bEcclesiasti…us 15 1.hee that feareth the Lord will doe good. If thou seest a man in a desperate course selling himselfe (as it is said of c1. Kings 2….25.Ahab) to worke wickednes, dEsay 5.11.18rising vp early to follow drunkennes and continuing at the …auerne till it bee night, drawing iniquitie with cordes of va…ity, and sin as it were with cartropes▪ it is a sure signe that the true feare of God is not rooted in his soule, for whosoeuer hath a ca… to liue religiously toward God, will also (so farre as humane frailtie will suffer) liue soberly toward himselfe, and righteously toward his neighbour.
Yee know the preaching] The narration and confirmation ensuing are a little creed containing the chiefe articles of holy beliefe, but the point vrged by the blessed Apostle most, is the resurrection of Christ expresly setting downe. 1. The author of his resurrection, him God raised vp. 2. The time when, the third day. 3. Before what witnesses, openly shewing him vntounto vsus witnesses chosen before of God. 4. What he did after he rose frō death, he did eate and drinke with as. 5. What he said, he commanded vsus to preach vntounto the people, & to testifie that it is he which was ordained of God to be the iudge of the quicke and the dead. In this argument of Christs resurrection the Gospell and Epistle meet, and both are full and fit for the present feast of Easter. In that S. Peter maketh Apostles and Prophets ioynt witnesses of all these things, he doth insinuate that Christ is the beginning and end of the whole Scripture, ePaulinus epist. lib. 4. Epist: 1.qui in lege velatur & in euang… …. See Gospell 1. Sun. in aduent.