The Acts of the Apostles contain recitals of many interesting incidents which befell him whilst engaged in those efforts. Of these, the chief are his imprisonment and trial before the Sanhedrim for preaching Christ, and his bold avowal of his determination to persist in that work (Acts iv: 1-22) ; his miraculously inflicting the punishment of death on the infatuated couple who had dared to try an experiment upon the omniscience of the Holy Ghost (v:1-11) ; his visit to Samaria, and rebuke of Simon Magus, who deemed that the miracles of the apostle were the result of some deep magic spell of which he had not yet become possessed, and which, consequently, he was de sirous of purchasing from Peter (viii t4-24) ; the vision by which he was taught that the an cient ritual distinctions between clean and un clean had been abolished, and thereby prepared to attend on the summons of Cornelius, to whom he preached the Gospel (x :1-48) ; his apprehen sion by Herod Agrippa, and his deliverance by the interposition of an angel, who opened for him the doors of his prison, and set him free (xii :3-19) ; and his address to the council at Jerusalem, on the occasion of a request for advice and direction being scnt to the church there by the church in Antioch, in which he advocated the exemption of Gentile converts from the ceremonial institutes of the law of Moses (xv In ali these incidents we trace the evidences of his mind having undergone an entire change, both as to its views of truth and impressions of duty, from what is displayed by the earlier events of his history.
On one occasion only do we detect something of his former weakness,and that,strangely enough in regard to a matter in which he had been the first of the apostles to perceive, and the first to recommend and follow, a correct course of pro cedure. The occasion referred to was bis with drawing, through dread of thc censures of his Jewish brethren, from the Gentiles at Antioch, after having lived in free and friendly intercourse with them, and his timidly dissembling his con victions as to the religious equality of Jew and Gentile. For this Paul withstood him to the face, and rebuked him sharply, because of the injury which his conduct was calculated to produce to the causc of Christianity. With this single ex ception, however, his conduct seems to have been in full accordance with the name which his Mas ter had prophetically bestowed on him when he called him Simon the Rock, and with the position which Paul himself assigns to him, at the very time that he recounts his temporary dereliction, as one of 'the Pillars of the Church' (Gal. ii:9, 14)• Thus far we are enabled, from the inspired documents, to tracc the history of this apostle; but for what remains we must be indebted to evi dence of a less explicit and certain character.
(5) Traditions. Ecclesiastical tradition asserts that he performed an extensive missionary tour throughout those districts in which the converts to whom his epistles are addressed abode. 'Peter,'
says Origen, 'appears to have preached to thc Jews in the dispersion, in Pontus, Galatia, Bithynia, Cappadocia, and Asia' (in Gencsim, tom. iii; Eu.seb. Hist. Eccles. iii, 1, 4). This tradition, however, though deriving some countcnance from I Pet. v:13, is very uncertain. The fact that no allusion appears in his epistles to any personal ac quaintance on the part of the apostle with those to whom they are addressed, militates strongly against its authenticity. Another tradition re ports the apostle as having towards the close of his life visited Rome, become bishop of thc church in that city, and suffered martyrdom in the persecution raised against the Christians by Nero. The itnportance of these points in con nection with the claims urged by the Catholics on behalf of the supremacy of the pope has led to a careful and sifting examination thc accuracy of this tradition; the result of which seems to be that, while it is admitted as certain that Peter suffered martyrdom, in all probability by cruci fixion (Tertullian, De Pra'script., 38; Lactantius, De Mortibus Pcrsecutorium, c. ii), and as prob able that this took place at Rome. it has, never theless, been made pretty clear that he never was for any length of time resident in that city. and mora:ly certain that he never was bishop of the church there. (See PETER IN ROME.) (Barrow, On the Pope's Supremacy, Works, vii, 207, sq., Lond. 1831: Cave's Life of St. Peter, sec. 11; Campbell, Eccles. Hist. lect. xii; Ncandcr.) 3. Character. He seems to have been a man of undoubted piety, of ardcnt attachment to his Mas ter, and of great zeal for what he deemed his Mas ter's honor; but, at the saine time, with a mind rather quick than accurate in its apprehensions, and with feelings rather hasty in their inipulse than determined and continuous in their. exercise. Hence his readiness in avowing his opinons, and his rashness in formi.ig them; and hence also the tendency which beset his honest openness. to de generate into bravado, and his determinations. of valor to evaporate into cowardice at appalling forms of danger. His fall, however, and his st!b sequent restoration, connected as these were with the mysterious events of his 'Master's crucifixion and resurrection, and with the new light which had by them been cast around his character and work, produced a powerful change for the better upon the apostle's mind. From this tune for ward he comes before us under a ncw aspcct. A sober dignity and firmness of purpose have dis placed his former hasty zeal ; sagacity and pru dcncc characterize his conduct ; and whilst his love to his Master shows no symptom of abate ment, it displays itcelf rather in active labor and much-enduring patience in hic service, than in loud protestations or extravagant exhibitions of attachment.