of a desperate disease? Peter had himself tasted that the Lord was gracious; he had greatly sinned, yet had been freely forgiven; he had seen his excellent glory upon the mount, and had received an express commission from his mouth. In these, and other respects, he was a proper person to proclaim him to others, more so than an angel from heaven. We may therefore safely infer, a fortiori, that no man, however great his talents may otherwise be, can be qualified, or fit to preach the Gospel, until he has known the evil of sin himself, and been a partaker of the pardoning grace of God, through a crucified Redeemer.

Cornelius was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. His example and instructions had been a blessing to his household; so that he had servants about him to whom he could communicate this extraordinary event, and depend on their fidelity. Having related his vision to them, he sent them to Joppa, to invite Peter to his house.

When they departed from Cæsarea, Peter was under the influence of the national prejudice, which would hardly have permitted him to have gone with them; but while they were on the journey, the Lord prepared his mind to comply. The time was now come, when it was necessary he should know the extensive designs of God in favour of sinners of all nations, people, and languages; and that the partition-wall between Jews and

In the Lord's dispensations in favour of his people, there is often a counterpart, resembling that which is related in this chapter. The minds of two or more persons are inclined, by different means, to concur in the same design, though, perhaps, they are far asunder, and know nothing of each other's intentions: in time, circumstances fall out which connect their views, and prove that the whole was from the Lord.

Gentiles was broken down, and taken away, by the death of Christ. He received this intimation by a vision, which exactly corresponded in its circumstances with the case in hand. About noon, the following day, when the messengers were near to Joppa, he was retired to the top of the house, for the convenient exercise of secret prayer; and, having an appetite for food, he saw, as it were, a large sheet, or wrapper, let down from heaven, suspended by the four corners, containing all sorts of beasts, birds, and reptiles, without any regard to the ceremonial distinction of clean and unclean: this appearance was accompanied with a voice, directing him to slay and eat. When he answered, that he had never yet transgressed the law, by eating unclean food; the voice replied, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common or unclean. impress the whole upon his mind, and to convince him that the vision was real and significant, it was repeated three times. When it was finally withdrawn, and while he was thinking what it might import, the men sent by Cornelius were inquiring for him at the door below; of which receiving previous notice by the secret suggestion of the Spirit of God, and being directed to go with them without hesitation, he went down and spoke to them, before they had time to send him word of their arrival by the people of the house. When he had heard their business, and compared the vision of Cornelius

To

* Peter was faithful to the light he had already received, and did not hastily follow the first impulse upon his mind; though the liberty seemed to be authorized by a voice from heaven, he did not accept it without consideration. His example should be considered by those who give themselves up to the influence of every sudden impression, without taking time to consider its nature and tendency, and how far it is consistent with the revealed will of God.

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 Peter 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 προσωποληπίης 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 receive 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 suc cess was, (what has, perhaps, seldom happened,) universal; the whole company believed, 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

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.