Whether he thought that his Lord had not a right to do as he pleased with his own, or whether he confidered the objects of his Lord's benevolence as unworthy of his regard, in either cafe his dilatoriness must be acknowledged to have been unjustifiable, admitting he so firmly believed his Lord to be indeed the Messiah, and that the Father had given him " power over all flesh." And if it may not be imputed to one of those causes as so clear a manifestation of the will of God concerning the nations had been made by his only begotten Son-and-as he was afterwards so wonderfully qualified to accomplish that gracious purpose of announcing the redemption to mankind, by being endued with the gift of languages by the Holy Spirit, it will be no easy matter to discover the true cause of his inactivity. And yet, it is much to be feared, lest an undisguised recital of the feveral remarkable circumstances that relate to this transaction, may even render it questionable whether either of those confiderations kept him from complying with his Lord's injunction. Let any one that doubts it only attend to the following account of the manner in which he was, at first, gradually initiated into this wonderful mystery-after that-consider the purpose for which the Holy Spirit was sent to him -and the gift he then received, and then let him compare the refult of his obfervations with what is faid concerning the affair of Cornelius.

As a religious Ifraelite he must be supposed to have been in the habit of hearing the Prophets read in the synagogues on the fabbath-days (among whose predictions that relating to the return of the idolatrous nations to the spiritual worship of the one true God through the mediation of their expected Meffiah seems to be the most remarkable) he had been an intimate companion of one whom he knew by the nature and number of his works to be, at least, the greatest of the Prophets, and whom he firmly believed on the evidence of his own teftimony to be the Meffiah himself; (kk) -he had been apprised by that most wonderful perfonage that the very prediction which must have appeared to him the most remarkable of all others would shortly begin to be verified; he had very probably heard of, at least, and it is not improbable that he had been even an eye witness to a most memorable instance of that same extraordinary person's condescension, towards the servant of one who appears to have been an alien to the common-wealth of Ifrael;-he

(kk) John vi. 68.69,

cannot

1

cannot well be supposed to have been unacquainted with the parable of the marriage feast (//) which was spoken by his Lord for the purpose of giving his country-men to understand, that those for whom the feast was originally intended would not be permitted to partake of it, and that " the poor, the maimed, the halt, and the blind," would be invited in their stead from the streets, the lanes, the highways and the hedges" he had received a command from him, not many days after he had been put to death and restored to life again, and but a very short time before he had afcended up to heaven in the prefence of himself and others, " to go and preach repentance in his name to all nations" as the only means by which they could obtain " remiffion of ans"-and-he had frequently heard the fame predictions that related to this event, read in the synagogue on the sabbath for the space of seven (mm) years (if general report be true) after his understanding had been opened by his Lord, and the gift of tongues had been imparted by the Holy Spirit:-but notwithstanding all this-he stood in need of a vision, it seems, to induce him to go to a fojourner among his own people, though in all probability he knew him to be generally efteemed by them; -Nay-fo little does he appear to have thought of all that had paffed as to declare before the first Gentile company that he visited, as soon as he was introduced to it, that he had been induced to take a step so notorioufly contrary to the practice of all his compatriots, by what God had intimated to him only two or three days before by an emblematical phænomenon, without adverting, in the least, to any thing that had been previously said about the reconciliation of God to the Gentiles by him whom he fincerely believed to be his only begotten, his well-beloved Son.

Had the will of God not been intimated to him by what he faw in the trance, it is certain that he would not have thought himself at liberty to go to Cæfarea on fuch an errand; (nn) that he would have still confidered Cornelius as an unclean thing: -To say that he would have gone without it, what is it but to make God interfere in the matter unnecessarily. Nay it appears by all his introductory converfation

(ll) Luke xiv. 16.

(mm) The conversion of Cornelius happened, as I suppose, in the year 41 of our Saviour's nativity, according to the vulgar computation. WATSON'S TRACTS, vol. ii. c. 6. p. 421.

(nn) Peter would not have conversed with him if he had not

been directed by an express command, p. 412,

fation with Cornelius that he would not have thought of fetting out on fuch an expedition without it he told him expressly that it was the vision that had induced him to do it -he gave him to understand that he had presfumed to visit him in direct opposition to an established custom of his country; he did not omit to remind him "how that it is an un lawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company with, or to come unto one of another nation;-and-he seemed to intimate that "God had shewn him," then as it were for the first time, " that he should not call any man common or unclean" that he then only began "to perceive of a truth, that God is no respecter of persons."

Nay though it may be thought to appear from the question which he put to Cornelius and his company on his introduction to them at Cefarea, " I ask therefore for what intent ye have fent for me," (00) that he was not even then fully satisfied for what particular purpose the Centurion had fent for him, notwithslanding he had before asked the messengers of Cornelius, on their admission into the house of the tanner with whom he lodged at Joppa, "what is the cause wherefore ye are come?" (pp)-And though he may, of course, be supposed to have been all the while under a dreadful apprehenfion of being pressed to partake of an unholy entertainment, or of being otherwise polluted; yet when the purport of the instruction which was conveyed to the Centurion by the heavenly messenger is attended to, by a person inclined to believe that a vision was necessary to induce St. Peter to comply with the petition which the Centurion was directed to send to him, fuch an one may then think it by no means an unnatural supposition, that the Apostle did not confider himself as being at liberty to go to any Gentile whatever, however respectable, though for no other purpose whatever but to converse with him,-and-that the Almighty knew that he would not prefume to do so if the divine permission were not notified to him in some extraordinary manner. For when Cornelius "was warned from God by an holy angel to send for Peter into his house," it was not that he might then take the opportunity of requesting him to remain a few days in it-nor-to partake of a single repast-it was "to be told by him what he ought to do"-" to hear words from

be

(00) Acts x. 29.

(pp) Acts x. 21.

P

VOL. XIV.

Chm. Mag. Feb. 1808.

him whereby he might be saved." And as fuch seems to have been the sole purport of the message delivered to Cornelius, if the interference of the Almighty was really fo very necessary to prevail on St. Peter to comply with it,the effect, which all the pains that his Lord had taken to teach him this part of the will of God, had produced in his mind, seems to be pretty evident.

Moreover, That St. Peter would not have gone to Cornelius even for the purpose of converfing, with a special license from the Almighty, will appear to any one who will attend to the detail of the Apostle's preliminary conference with Cornelius, as given us by St. Luke. For as foon as St. Peter had made that remark, "ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company with, or, to come unto one of another nation," to the Centurion and his friends, he immediately added "But God hath shewed me that I should call no man common or unclean. Therefore came I unto you as soon as I was fent for without gainsaying." He then, and not before, proceeded to ask " for what intent they had fent for him." And as foon as Cornelius had answered that it was to afford him an opportunity "of speaking" to him and had subjoined, "Now therefore we are all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God. Then Peter opened his mouth and said-Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him." After he had faid this, he began his discourse, and when he had ended it, "then prayed they him to tarry certain days."

The behaviour of the other Apostles seems to have been in every respect very like that of Peter on this occafion.They, it feems, were no better acquainted either with the law, or the prophets, or the example, or the command of their Lord, than Peter himself had been. They seem to have thought it a very unwarrantable piece of presumption for a fon of Abraham to converse with any Gentile whatever.-They, we are told, were so offended at Peter's profane intercourse with men uncircumcised that they "contended with him" about it, (qq) as foon as he returned to Jerufalem; so much indeed, that he seems to have thought it necessary to fet about justifying his conduct in a formal

manner.

That

(qq) Both St. Peter, and the Apostles, and the Brethren, evidently mean the same thing. DODD, on Acts x. 34, 35.

That the other Apostles were of the party that contended with Peter on his return to Jerufalem will appear, not fo much from the beginning of the chapter which contains the account of this transaction, as from certain other particulars which are recorded in it-viz. from the words with which St. Peter concluded his rehearsal of what happened during the interview: "As I began to speak the Holy Ghost fell on them as on us at the beginning", - from the manner in which he spake of that prediction of his Lord which immediately occurred to him on his beholding so unexpected a manifestation of the Spirit-viz.-as being well known to the persons before whom he was justifying his conduct : "then remem. bered I the word of the Lord; how that he said John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence," and from the expoftulation with which he concluded the vindication of his conduct in this affair, "forafmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, what was I that I could withstand God?" - From these several particulars it may safely be inferred that they of the circumcifion who contended with Peter on this occafion, were, at least, some of the company on whom the Holy Ghost descended on the day of Pentecost.

Since then the Apostles and brethren are mentioned together in the first verse as having heard of the conversion of Cornelius, his kinsman, and near friends;-and-as it appears that they of the circumcifion, who were spoken of in the second verse as having contended with Peter, were at least some of the company that were affembled together on the day of Pentecost, it will be no easy matter to acquit the Apostles of having taken a part in reprehending him.-Indeed whoever considers the manner in which St. Peter was at first prevailed on to go to Cornelius, the tenor of his conversation with him,-and-the formal manner in which he thought it necessary to justify himself "by rehearfing the matter from the beginning, and expounding it to them in order," will think it by no means an extravagant or unwarrantable supposition that the other Aposties (rr) may have been capable of contending with him about it.

That

(rr) But I do not suppose, that the Apostles, like many other of the Jewish believers, were OFFENDED at what Peter had done. Or-if they were at first SOMEWHAT OFFENDED, they were soon

and