with his own, he scrupled no longer; but lodging the strangers that night, he accompanied them the next day, taking with him five of the brethren from Joppa, to be witnesses of what the Lord intended to do. Cornelius, who earnestly expected his arrival, had assembled his friends and dependants against his coming: he received Peter before them all with the greatest respect and cordiality, and gave him a particular account of what had past, professing that both he and his friends were ready to receive and obey his instructions. Peter now perceived, and acknowledged, the great truth the Lord had pointed out by so many harmonizing circumstances; that the blessings of the Gospel were no longer confined to the Jews; but that Jesus was appointed to be a light to enlighten the 'Gentiles" also. In his

Acts, x. 34. Few passages of Scripture seem to have been more misunderstood and misrepresented than this and the following verse. As some have presumed, that St. Paul's doctrine of justification is corrected, if not confuted, by St. James; so the apostle Pcter has been supposed to contradict both St. Paul and himself (see 1 Peter, i. 1, 2.) in another important truth of the Gospel. This mistake is more excusable in those who do not understand the original; but those who do, ought not to avail themselves of an ambiguous word. The Greek προσωπος, from whence προσωπωληπίης is derived, does not convey the same idea that an English reader receives from the word person; it does not properly signify a personal identity, but the outward appearance and circumstance of a person or thing. Thus it is sometimes rendered face, as Matth. vi. 16. and many other places, and is applied to the sky or air, Matth. xvi. 3.; countenance, Luke, ix. 29.; presence, 2 Cor. x. 1.; fashion, James, i. 11. The meaning here is the same as in Coloss. iii. 25. The Lord is not moved by the outward distinctions and differences amongst men, to which we often pay regard, (Compare 1 Sam. xvi. 7.) He neither receives nor rejects any for being Jew or Gentile, rich or poor, bond or free, male or female, but is rich in mercy to all who call upon him.

discourse to them, he declared the person, character, and offices of Jesus, who had been lately crucified; affirming himself to have been an eye-witness of what he related; he asserted his honour and authority, as the Lord of all, the sovereign Judge of the living and the dead; that he was the Divine Saviour spoken of by the prophets, and that all who believed in his name should re-` ceive the remission of sin. Here we see the apostle's doctrine to the Gentiles was the same that he had preached at Jerusalem upon and after the day of Pentecost; and the same with what our Lord had declared concerning himself, a free and complete salvation by faith. He did not, in the least, attempt to accommodate his subject to any supposed prejudices of his new hearers; but faithfully acquitted himself of his message, and left the event to God. The mystery of Christ crucified, which was a stumbling-block to the Jews, was, by many of the Gentiles, accounted foolishness and absurdity; but the apostles proposed it simply and indifferently to all. In the present case, the success was (what has, perhaps, seldom happened) universal; the whole company believet, and received the Holy Ghost immediately, previous to baptism, and without the usual imposition of the apostle's hands. This signal attestation with which the Lord honoured their faith, unanswerably removing every doubt concerning their fitness, Peter immediately directed them to be baptized, in the name of the Lord Jesus, through whom they had already received that inward and spiritual grace, of which baptism was the outward and visible sign.

When this affair was reported in Judea, it was not at first agreeable to those who knew not the warrant and grounds on which Peter had proceeded; so that, when

с

he returned to Jerusalem, he found himself under a necessity of vindicating his conduct to the Jewish converts: a full proof that they did not think him infallible, or possessed of that superiority over the whole church which designing men, for promoting their own ends, have since ascribed to him. But though he was an apostle, and had acted by the express command of God, and though their expostulation seems to have been hasty and rough, yet he did not think it beneath him to give an orderly and circumstantial account of the whole business; they, on the other hand, were open to conviction, and, when they had heard his relation, they instantly acquiesced, and glorified God for his grace given to the Gentiles. This mutual condescension and ingenuousness preserved the first Christians in peace, though they were not always exempted from mistakes and wrong impressions.

By this time the believers, who had been dispersed by persecution, had spread the Gospel beyond the bounds of Judea and Galilee into Cyprus and Syria, and, probably, to more distant parts, particularly to Rome, which, being the centre and conflux of the empire, would hardly be long unvisited; however, in all places, the preaching of the word was confined to the Jews, till Peter's mission to Cornelius afforded an authorized precedent for imparting it to the Heathens.

A. D. 40.] It was soon after publicly preached in Antioch, the capital of Syria, and no less eminent for luxury and depravity of manners; yet amongst these dissolute and enslaved people, the Gospel of Christ, accompanied with a divine power, was suddenly and remarkably prevalent, to turn a great multitude from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God.

Acts, xi.

The means of this happy change are expressly mentioned. What the philosophers had long attempted, in vain, by cold encomiums on the beauty of virtue, was speedily effected by those who simply preached the Lord Jesus, as the author, finisher, and fountain of salvation. When the news of this good beginning was brought to Jerusalem, the apostles sent Barnabas to Antioch, who, being a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost himself, was greatly rejoiced, when he saw the numbers and sincerity of the converts, and animated them, by his exhortations, to cleave to the Lord with steady resolution; for he was sensible of what they, perhaps, were little aware of as yet, how many arts the enemy of souls employs to discourage those who are beginning to walk in wisdom's ways. He afterwards went to Saul, and prevailed on him to leave Tarsus, and join with him in the service of the Gospel at Antioch. By the Lord's blessing on the endeavours of these faithful labourers, the church was so greatly increased, that the believers there first received the general denomination of Christians: a significant and instructive appellation, strongly importing their duty and relation to Christ, and to each other; and has therefore universally obtained, and will, probably, subsist to the end of time. But though this name is accounted honourable with us, and has always been deemed, by those who truly deserve it, the noblest title, the highest style of man, it had not the same general estimation when first imposed. In the mouth of unbelievers, whether Jews or Heathens, it was a term of infamy and reproach, and expressive of the highest contempt;

d

quos per flagitia invisos vulgus Christianos appellabat : auctor nominis ejus Christus, qui, Tiberio imperante, per procuratorem Pontium Pilatum suppliciis affectus erat.-Tacitus, Ann. xv.

and may be therefore ranked among the many opprobrious epithets by which the Lord's faithful followers have been marked out to the rage and scorn of the world.

Caligula, having rendered himself universally odious by his inhumanity and caprice, was assassinated in his palace, in the fourth year of his reign.

f

CLAUDIUS, A. D. 41.] He was succeeded by Claudius, who, soon after his entrance on the government, bestowed the kingdom of Judea on Herod Agrippa, a grandson of Herod styled the Great (mentioned Matth. ii.), the nephew to Herod the tetrarch, who put John the Baptist to death. This prince experienced much of that vicissitude which usually attends ambition; he had been detained in prison and chains by Tiberius, greatly favoured and advanced by Caligula, and now seemed to have attained the summit of his wishes; but, employing his power to persecute the church, he was suddenly cut off, in the height of his prosperity : for who can harden himself against the Lord and prosper! Herod was a professed zealot for the law of Moses and the Jewish institutions, and studied by every means to ingratiate himself with the people. He first expended vast sums in the defence and ornament of the city; but it was in his power to attempt a still more acceptable service, by exerting his authority against the people of Christ and the motives of vanity and popularity by which he was governed, prompted him to embrace the occasion. He began, by apprehending the apostle James, the son of Zebedee, whom he hastily put to death; and finding that the Jews were highly pleased Josephus's Ant. lib. x. f Acts, xii.