to commit prisoners to military custody. This custom was continued in the time of Trajan. Pliny, governor of Pontus and Bithynia, writes to the emperor: "I beg your determination, sir, on a point whereon I am doubtful: it is, whether I should place the public slaves as sentinels round the prisons of the several cities of this province, as has hitherto been the practice, or employ a party of soldiers for that purpose"."

Peter was placed between his two guards, "bound with two chains." The Roman method was to fasten one end of a chain of a certain length to the right wrist of the prisoner, and the other to the left wrist of the keeper. Seneca says: "Hope and fear, however unlike these affections may seem, march linked together, as the same chain holds both the prisoner and his guard." Herod Agrippa himself had been im

2

"When we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard; but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him.” Acts xxviii. 16. Epist. lib. x. ep. 30. See also lib. x. ep. 65. Ulpian speaks of the consignment of prisoners to soldiers. Proconsul æstimare solet utrum in carcerem recipienda sit persona, an militi tradenda, vel fidejussoribus committenda, vel etiam sibi. De Custod. et Exhibit. Reorum, lib. i.

3 Quemadmodum eadem catena et custodiam et militem copulat. Epist. v. Seneca in another passage, describes the chain as fastened to the left hand of the soldier. Observing, that no condition of life exempts a man from misfortune, he thus illustrates the remark: Aliorum aurea catena est, et laxa-sed quid

prisoned by order of Tiberius, and Antonia' contrived that the centurion, who presided over the guard, and the soldier, to whom he was to be bound, should be men of a mild and gentle temper 2.

St. Peter was bound to two soldiers for the greater security. He was a prisoner of note, who had be

refert? Eadem custodia universos circumdedit, alligatique sunt etiam qui alligaverunt; nisi tu forte leviorem in sinistra catenam putas. De Tranquill. lib. i. c. 10.

Suetonius says, in his life of Domitian: Nec, nisi secreto atque solus, plerasque custodias, receptis quoque in manum catenis, audiebat. C. xiv. The chain which united the prisoner to his guard, was sometimes of considerable length. Augustin writes, in his comment on Psalm cxxviii. Ligantur duo, et mittuntur ad judicem, latro, et colligatus ; ille sceleratus, iste innocens; una catena ligantur, et longe sunt a sese. Vide Lipsi Excursus ad Annal. Tacit. lib. iii.

Bishop Pearce points out a probable allusion to this custom of guarding prisoners in an expression in St. Peter's address to Simon Magus: "I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity"—eis oúvdeoμov adıíaç. Acts viii. 23. Simon Magus, "tied and bound with the chain of his sins," was a prisoner, like a man fastened to the arm of his keeper. The same expression is in the LXX. Isaiah lviii. 6.

1 Herod Agrippa had been thrown into prison at Rome for taking part with Caius, in opposition to Tiberius, and Antonia, widow of Drusus, the brother of Tiberius, who had been intimate with Herod Agrippa's mother, Bernice, and shown great favour to her son, still persisted in her kindness to him by exerting her influence to mitigate the severity of his confinement.

2 Joseph. Ant. xviii. c. 7.

The chief captain "commanded St. Paul to be bound with two chains." Acts xxi. 33. Frequent intimations are given of When he made his defence before

St. Paul's bonds at Rome.

the second Agrippa, he concluded with an affecting allusion to

fore been liberated from confinement'; and some of the Jews might have persuaded themselves that he had been set free by human contrivance.

the indignity which he was then suffering: "I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds." Acts xxvi. 29. The Apostle might have been, at this time, chained to a soldier; or if the chain was, during the speech, detached from the keeper's arm, it was plainly left upon St. Paul's. In the Second Epistle to Timothy, Onesiphorus is affectionately mentioned as one, who with exemplary fidelity had ministered to his Master in prison: "The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of chain but when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me." i. 16, 17. See Phil. 10. 13.

my

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1 Acts v. 18, 19.

CHAPTER XII.

ST. PAUL'S REPROOF OF ST. PETER AT ANTIOCH CONSIDERed.

"WHEN Peter was come to Antioch (writes St. Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians) I withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed '.

This is a passage of Scripture, from which Porphyry and other unbelievers have attempted to draw an objection to our religion; and some of the ancient apologists contended, in answer to the cavils of opposers, that Kŋpãs, and not Пérpos, is the right reading in the 11th and 14th verses of this chapter, and that the Cephas, referred to, was not the Apostle, but one of the seventy disciples. Euseb. H. E. lib. i. c. 12. In some MSS. of the best note, and in the most ancient versions, the reading in these places is Cephas; but it is not to be doubted that it is the Apostle Peter, of whom St. Paul here speaks. "We know but of one Cephas, (says Jerom) who in the Gospels, and in St. Paul's Epistles, is sometimes called Cephas, and sometimes Peter; both which names, the one Greek, and the other Hebrew, or Syriac, are of the same import and if, on account of Porphyry's blasphemy, and lest Peter should be thought to have erred, we must presently feign another Cephas, innumerable passages must be struck out of the Holy Scriptures, which he finds fault with, because he does not understand them." In Epist. ad Galat.

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"For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles; but, when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. But when I saw that they walked not uprightly, according to the truth of the Gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of the Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews 1?"

1 Gal. ii. 11-14. It is now unnecessary to combat an opinion, which once had favourers, that the reproof given by St. Paul was not serious, but an oikovoμía, an act of prudent management, concerted between the apostles, that the Jewish believers, on hearing St. Peter blamed for a behaviour which he made no attempt to justify, might be led to set the less value on compliance with the ceremonies of the law, and that the Gentile proselytes, from the same observation, might be the more decided and resolute in the rejection of them. St. Augustin replied to this notion: "If St. Paul knew St. Peter to be free from blame, when he declared him to be reprehensible, St. Paul was, in fact, guilty of a falsehood, which it would be impious to charge upon an Apostle." And he further showed the pernicious consequence of such an interpretationthat it would destroy the authority of the Scripture itself, by making it impossible to distinguish between its real and dissembled meaning. Epist. ad Hieron. Chrysostom and Jerom had construed, karà πрóσwлоν, secundum speciem, in appearance or seemingly; and Karεyvwoμévos v-he deserved to be condemned -not in St. Paul's judgment, but according to the judgment of the Gentile Christians.