Peter and St. John, as well as St. James, the
Bishop of that Church[12].

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[Sidenote: The First Council.]

The Apostles and Elders, under the presidency of St. James[13], met
together in the First Council of the Church, a large body of the laity
being also present, not indeed to take part in the discussion, but to
hear it, and to receive and acknowledge the decision arrived at[14].

St. Peter, who had first been commissioned to carry the tidings of the
Gospel to the Gentiles, boldly proclaimed the sufficiency of "the Grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ" for their salvation[15], and St. James, who was
probably himself a very strict observer of the Jewish law, yet did not
hesitate to declare that it had no binding force on those who were not
Jews by birth. [Sidenote: St. James presides as Bishop of Jerusalem.
Decree of the Council.] He, as President of the Council, proposed the
decree to which the rest agreed, and which was in substance, that the
Gentile Christians should be commanded so far to respect Jewish
prejudices as to "abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood,
and from things strangled," whilst they were also enjoined to keep
themselves from the sin of "fornication," into which the Gentile world
was so deeply sunk.

The decrees of the Council did not enter into or provide any solution of
the minor difficulties connected with the intercourse between Jews and
Gentiles in the Church of Christ. Doubtless "it seemed good to the Holy
Ghost" that these questions should be left to be solved by time and
experience and the general exercise of His Gift of Wisdom.

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[Sidenote: Claim for Divine Authority. Guidance of the Holy Spirit
vouchsafed to General Councils.]

We can hardly fail to be struck by the confident language in which the
First Council of the Church claims for its decisions the full weight of
Divine Authority; and though it differed from later Catholic Councils in
that it was presided over by inspired men, yet we may well believe that
to those General Councils which really deserved the name, the Holy Spirit
vouchsafed such a special measure of His guiding Power, as might suffice
to preserve their decisions from error, and enable them to hand down
unblemished the deposit of Truth which Christ left with His Church.

Section 4. _St. Paul's Second Apostolic Journey._

[Sidenote: A.D. 53. St. Peter's probable visit to Antioch.]

St. Paul and St. Barnabas bore back to the Church in A