The wells of salvation opened, or, Words whereby we may be saved

First he telleth them of his Trance at Joppa, and the Vision which himself had of the Vessel descending ⟨p. 2⟩from Heaven with unclean Beasts in it; and the command from Heaven to eat, not calling that common and unclean which God had cleansed; the Lord hereby giving him to understand, That like as under the Law, though there were divers kinds of meats forbidden, and therefore unclean, and unlawful to be eaten; yet under the Gospel, that prohibition being taken off, and the meats sanctified by the word of Gods command or allowance, believers might freely eat of them without sin: So also, though under the Law, before the coming of Christ, the people of God in the Nation of the Jews, where only the Church of God was to be found, were to separate themselves from all heathen Nations as unclean, and it was unlawful for them to go in and eat with Heathen or Gentile persons, lest they should be defiled and enticed by such familiar converse with them, unto their Superstitions and Idolatries▪ yet God having before foretold and promised the accession of the Gentiles unto the Church; and under the Gospel having sent his Son, who brake down the middle wall of partition between the Jews and the Gentiles; and having sanctified the Gentiles by his Spirit and Faith; they were no longer to be accounted unclean, and therefore it was as lawful for the believing Jews to eat and converse with them as one with another. Moreover he he telleth them of the Circumcision of the Vision which Cornelius a Gentile had of an Angel, and the command, which he had from the Lord by the Angel to send for him, to preach the Gospel of salvation unto him; together with the effect of his preaching namely the falling of the Holy Ghost upon the Gentiles, as upon themselves at the beginning; and ⟨p. 3⟩therefore that it would have been no less than a withstanding of God himself for him still to have kept at a distance from the Gentiles. Which answer of Peter gave such satisfaction, that it did not only put to silence them which contended with him, but also caused them to glorify God in behalf of the Gentiles.

First he telleth them of his Trance at Ioppa, and the Vision which himself had of the Vessel descending ⟨p. 2⟩