CHAPTER IV.
THE CONVERSION OF CORNELIUS.
A.D. 41–43.
DURING the Apostle’s stay at Joppa an event occurred destined to have no small influence on the spread of the Church.
Cæsarea, as has been already stated, was the head-quarters of the Roman government in Judæa[816]. Among the troops quartered there was a cohort of Italians[817], possibly volunteers, and amongst its officers was a centurion named Cornelius, a devout man, who had learned to worship the one true God[818], and was well known for his almsgiving and uprightness of life (Acts x. 2). One day, about the ninth hour, the hour of prayer, he beheld in a vision an angel who informed him that his prayers and alms were not forgotten before God, and bade him send for the Apostle, now lodging at Joppa, who would tell him what he should do, and inform him concerning that faith which had already excited much attention in the neighbourhood[819] (Acts ix. 42).
Obedient to the heavenly vision the centurion summoned two of his servants, and a devout soldier attached to his own person, and sent them with the necessary instructions to Joppa. As the three drew near their destination, the Apostle Peter, who had retired for devotion to the flat[820] housetop of his lodging by the seaside[821] at the noontide hour of prayer (Acts x. 9), fell into a trance, and saw the heaven opened, and a great sheet-like vessel[822], let down by its four corners, till it rested upon the earth (Acts x. 11). As he observed it closely, he noticed that it contained all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air, and he heard a Voice saying, Rise, Peter, kill and eat. But this the Apostle, who from earliest childhood had observed the strict precepts of the Levitical Law[823], stedfastly declined to do: he had never eaten anything common or unclean. Then the Voice spoke again, saying, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common, and when the strange scene had been repeated three times, probably with the same command, the same remonstrance, and the same reply[824], the vessel was received up again into heaven (Acts x. 15, 16).
The Apostle was deeply moved, and while meditating on the possible meaning of what he had beheld and heard, the messengers of Cornelius had arrived, and were making enquiries for him, and at the same moment the Spirit bade him go down and accompany them whithersoever they went, doubting nothing (Acts x. 19, 20). Thereupon he descended from the housetop, and having learned from the men the purport of their errand, he brought them in and hospitably entertained them (Acts x. 21–23).
The next day he set out with them towards Cæsarea, attended by certain of the brethren from Joppa, and on entering the house of Cornelius found him in the midst of many of his relatives and intimate friends, whom he had assembled to listen to the Apostle’s words. As he crossed the threshold (Acts x. 25), the centurion went forth to meet him, and falling down at his feet would have worshipped him. But Peter raised him up, and reminded him that he also was a man, and then addressed himself to the assembled company. They all knew, he said, that he was a Jew, and how unlawful it was for one of that nation to associate with or enter the house of a foreigner: but God had shewed him that he was not to call any man common or unclean, and therefore he had come without delay, and now desired to know the reason for which he had been sent (Acts x. 28, 29).
Then Cornelius recounted the particulars of his vision (Acts x. 30–33), and requested the Apostle to announce to him and his assembled friends what he, as a messenger of God, had to say to them. Thus assured that all things had occurred under the Divine guidance, the Apostle opened his mouth, and having acknowledged that God was indeed no respecter of persons, but accepted out of every nation all that feared Him and worked righteousness, proceeded to proclaim the glad tidings of his risen Lord. He told them of His life of love; of His victories over disease and the spirit-world (Acts x. 38); of His death by the hands of men (Acts x. 39); of His resurrection, and His appearances afterwards, not to all the people but to chosen witnesses, even the Apostles, who had eaten and drunk with Him (Acts x. 40, 41); of His exaltation to heaven and His future coming to judge the world; of the commission he and the rest of the Twelve had received to proclaim to all that believed in Him the remission of sins (Acts x. 42, 43).
While he was still speaking, the events of the day of Pentecost were repeated in the house of the Roman soldier. To the astonishment of the Jewish Christians who had accompanied the Apostle from Joppa, the gift of the Holy Ghost was poured out upon the Gentiles, and they heard them speaking in various dialects and magnifying and praising God (Acts x. 46). Now fully awakened to the meaning of the vision on the housetop, the Apostle enquired whether any could forbid that these, who had already evidently received the gift of the Holy Ghost, should be admitted to the rite of baptism, and then ordered that it should be administered; and thus he who had first preached the resurrection to the Jews, baptized the first converts at Jerusalem, and confirmed the first-fruits of the church in Samaria, now, under direct communication from heaven, first threw down the barrier which separated proselytes of the gate from Israelites, and admitted them on an equal footing into the Christian Church[825].
The news of such an event was not long in reaching Jerusalem, and provoked not only enquiry and comment, but actual complaint, so that when the Apostle returned thither, he found himself warmly censured by not a few of the more exclusive section of the “circumcision,” who complained that he had consorted and eaten with men who were uncircumcised[826] (Acts xi. 1–3). Thereupon Peter recounted all the particulars of his visit to Cæsarea from the beginning; how he had seen a vision at Joppa, and how a Divine Voice had accompanied and interpreted it; how the messengers of Cornelius had arrived while he was pondering over the vision, and he had been bidden to accompany them nothing doubting[827]; how taking with him six impartial witnesses (Acts xi. 12), who were then present, he had proceeded to the house of Cornelius, and on his arrival was told of another vision which the good centurion had beheld, the “very counterpart and index of his own;” how when he had only begun to speak and to touch upon the Gospel History, the infallible sign of the Divine Presence had been manifested, and the Holy Ghost had fallen on his Gentile hearers as on the disciples in Jerusalem at the beginning; how this had recalled to his mind his Lord’s words, John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, and he had admitted them to baptism; for who was he, after this visible proof of the Divine Presence, that he could withstand God? (Acts xi. 4–17). The question contained its own answer, and the Christians at Jerusalem not only held their peace, and desisted from further reprehension of the Apostle, but glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life (Acts xi. 18).