Cæsarea, as has been already stated, was the head-quarters of the Roman government in Judæa[816]. Among the troops quartered there was a cohort of Italians[817], possibly volunteers, and amongst its officers was a centurion named Cornelius, a devout man, who had learned to worship the one true God[818], and was well known for his almsgiving and uprightness of life (Acts x. 2). One day, about the ninth hour, the hour of prayer, he beheld in a vision an angel who informed him that his prayers and alms were not forgotten before God, and bade him send for the Apostle, now lodging at Joppa, who would tell him what he should do, and inform him concerning that faith which had already excited much attention in the neighbourhood[819] (Acts ix. 42). Obedient to the heavenly vision the centurion summoned two of his servants, and a devout soldier attached to his own person, and sent them with the necessary instructions to Joppa. As the three drew near their destination, the Apostle Peter, who had retired for devotion to the flat[820] housetop of his lodging by the seaside[821] at the noontide hour of prayer (Acts x. 9), fell into a trance, and saw the heaven opened, and a great sheet-like vessel[822], let down by its four corners, till it rested upon the earth (Acts x. 11). As he observed it closely, he noticed that it contained _all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air_, and he heard a Voice saying, _Rise, Peter, kill and eat_. But this the Apostle, who from earliest childhood had observed the strict precepts of the Levitical Law[823], stedfastly declined to do: he had _never eaten anything common or unclean_. Then the Voice spoke again, saying, _What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common_, and when the strange scene had been repeated three times, probably with the same command, the same remonstrance, and the same reply[824], the vessel _was received up again into heaven_ (Acts x. 15, 16). The Apostle was deeply moved, and while meditating on the possible meaning of what he had beheld and heard, the messengers of Cornelius had arrived, and were making enquiries for him, and at the same moment the Spirit bade him go down and accompany them whithersoever they went, _doubting nothing_ (Acts x. 19, 20). Thereupon he descended from the housetop, and having learned from the men the purport of their errand, he brought them in and hospitably entertained them (Acts x. 21–23).