And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples: but they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple. But Barnabas There was a certain man in Cæsarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway. He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an Angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that rose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, concerning all things which Jesus began both to do and to teach, until the day on which, having given charge to the Apostles, whom He had chosen, by the Holy Spirit, He was taken up. To many persons this Book is so little known, both it and its author, that they are not even aware that there is such a book in existence. For this reason especially I have taken These Sermons were preached at Constantinople, in the second or third year of S. Chrysostom's archiepiscopate: see Hom. xliv. p. 335. "Lo, by the grace of God, we also have been by the space of three years, not indeed night and day exhorting you, but often every third, or at least every seventh, day doing this." It appears from Hom. i. that the course began during the weeks of Easter: at which season the Book of Acts was by long established practice read in other Churches, B (as at Antioch and in Africa) if not at Constantinople. See S. Chrys. Hom. "Cur in Pentecoste Acta legantur," and S. August. Tr. in Joann. vi. 18. b S. Chrys. had made the same complaint at Antioch in the Homilies (A. D. 387.) "in Principium Actorum, &c." t. iii. p. 54. "We are about to set before you a strange and new dish ....strange, I say, and not strange. Not strange; for it belongs to the order of Holy Scripture: and yet strange; because peradventure your 12. 18. I. HOMIL. this narrative for my subject, that I may draw to it such as do not know it, and not let such a treasure as this remain hidden out of sight. For indeed it may profit us no less than even the Gospels; so replete is it with Christian wisdom and sound doctrine, especially in what is said concerning the Holy Ghost. Then let us not hastily pass by it, but examine it closely. Thus, the predictions which in the Gospels Christ utters, here we may see these actually come to pass; and note in the very facts the bright evidence of Truth which shines in them, and the mighty change which is taking place in the disciples now that the Spirit has come John 14, upon them. For example, they heard Christ say, Whoso believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do: and again, when He Mat. 10, foretold to the disciples, that they should be brought before rulers and kings, and in their synagogues they should scourge them, and that they should suffer grievous things, and overId. 24, come all: and that the Gospel should be preached in all the world: now all this, how it came to pass exactly as it was said, may be seen in this Book, and more besides, which He told them while yet with them. Here again you will see the Apostles themselves, speeding their way as on wings over land and sea; and those same men, once so timorous and void of understanding, on the sudden become quite other than they were; men despising wealth, and raised above glory and passion and concupiscence, and in short all such affections: moreover, what unanimity there is among them now: no where any envying as there was before, nor any of the old hankering after the preeminence, but all virtue brought in them to its last finish, and shining through all, with surpassing lustre, that charity, concerning which John13, the Lord had given so many charges, saying, In this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye love one another. And then, besides, there are doctrines to be found here, 14. 35. ears are not accustomed to such a sub- neglect...... We are to enquire then who wrote it, and when, and on what subject: and why it is ordered (vevoμοθέτηται) to be read at this festival. For peradventure you do not hear this Book read [at other times] from year's end to year's end." |