Page:Life and voyages of the Apostle Paul.pdf/11

Rh they ordained elders and pastors to teach, and to watch over them; and then left them to the protection of the Almighty, to whose care they recommended them by prayer and fasting. After leaving Antioch they passed through Pisidia, and came to Pamphylia: and after preaching the gospel at Perga, they went down to Attalia. Having thus finished the circuit of their ministry, they returned back to Antioch, in Syria, from whence they at first departed. Here they summoned the church, and gave them an account of their ministry, the success it had met in different parts, and how great a door had thus been opened for the conversion of the Gentile world.

While St. Paul continued at Antioch, that famous controversy, with regard to the observation of the Jewish ceremonies in the Christian dispensation, was set on foot by certain Jewish converts to the great disturbance of the whole church: and it was determined to send Paul and Barnabas to consult with the apostles and church at Jerusalem, that this affair might be settled on the most solid foundation. On their arrival at Jerusalem, they first addressed themselves to Peter, James, and John, the pillars of that church, by whom they were kindly entertained, and admitted to the right hand of fellowship: and perceiving by the account given them by St. Paul, that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed to him, as that of the circumcision was to Peter, they agreed that Peter should preach to the Jews, and Paul to the Gentiles. This being determined, a council was summoned, wherein Peter declared his opinion, and Paul and Barnabas acquainted them with the great things God, by their ministry, had done among the Gentiles: a plain evidence that they were accepted by the Almighty, though uncircumcised, as well as the Jews with all their legal rights and privileges: accordingly it was unanimously determined, that the Gentiles were not under the obligation of the law of Moses, and therefore that some persons of their own church should be joined with Paul and Barnabas, to carry the decrees of the council at Antioch, for their farther satisfaction in this matter.

The controversy concerning the observation of Jewish ceremonies in the Christian church being decided in favour of St. Paul, he and his companions returned hack to Antioch; and soon after Peter himself came down. On reading the decretal epistle in the Church, the converts conversed freely and inoffensively with the Gentiles till some of the Jews coming thither from Jerusalem, Peter withdrew his conversation, as it had been a thing unwarrantable and unlawful. By such a strange method of proceeding the minds