with all our houses, in any constant method of daily devotion; and if it was not for Sunday's religion, which is set out to our hands, and, as it were, forced upon us, our families would hardly know, by any thing we say or do at other times, whether we so much as believe there is a God, who is to be loved, served, and worshipped by us. I pray God send this rebuke to your hearts, for we are a dead people; and I fear it cannot be said of many of us, that we outstrip the heathens in the practice of a hearty free devotion towards God, or our conscientious dealings with one another. And what, then, shall we do, when God entereth into judgment with us? for these things are on all hands allowed to be proper, if not necessary, marks of true religion; and, without them, neither Cornelius, nor any other man upon earth, could be accepted. But still, you will say, why could he not be accepted with and for them, for his justice, his alms, his prayers, or without any thing else? God be merciful to us! what could he want? I will tell you: he wanted what all want; he wanted Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world; he wanted the healing virtue of his most precious blood, to wash out the foul stains, both of original and actual pollution; he wanted the merits of his all-sufficient sacrifice, and perfect righteousness, and the application of them by faith to his own soul; he wanted the Holy Spirit, to enable him for this believing application, and to make all his graces truly so; nay, he wanted repentance unto life, as saint-like and as good as he was ; and if he had not prostrated himself at the foot of the cross with this confession in his mouth, breathed from the bottom of his heart, as all must who come to Christ for salvation "God be merciful to me a sinner!" he could have had no benefit from him. Here, therefore, is a man for God's purpose, to give us the strongest information, and the clearest possible evidence, in a necessary

point of belief; here is one singled out to convince the world of sin, and show men to their faces, that "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" here is one who could have stood upon his own bottom, if ever any man could, and yet we are plainly given to understand, that if Christ had not been preached to him, and received by him, he could have had no title to eternal life. For though these words at first hearing may seem to sound otherwise, "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," x. 34, 35; as if honest, moral men, so called, in all parts of the world, would be accepted without any more ado, and for the sake of their own righteousness; yet this portion of sacred Scripture is a direct confutation of that notion. For else, why should a method have been taken with Cornelius, one of the best of men; what need was there of vision upon vision to bring him to the knowledge and belief of Christ, if he could have been accepted without him? And what stronger proof can we have than this instance, that "there is salvation in no other; no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved?" Acts, iv. 12. I say again, this one instance casts down all our towering thoughts of ourselves, and levels all, the best and the worst, in point of justification with God. And as other parts of sacred Scripture invite sinners, and give encouragement to the greatest of sinners to cast themselves upon Christ, so this was written to show us, that out of Christ all are and will be reputed of God as sinners, and that none must plead themselves, or their own works, how specious soever, as the ground of their salvation. No, my brethren; mercy we all want; and whoever they are who will not sue for it to the throne of grace, in a humbling sense of their vileness and misery, have a fiery trial to go through. Christ rejects none that come

unto God by him; but one sin unpurged with his blood will quite dash all our plea of merit, and sink us to hell. If this sound harsh, and you will still think that some reckoning may well be made of what you call your good hearts, good meanings, and good actions, I must tell you farther, that you have not so much as one perfectly good action, free from all spot of sin, to show for yourselves in your whole lives; and then what will you do with all the rest? And as for the good hearts we talk of, I am sure that is a naughty, proud heart, stark blind, and full of hypocrisy, guile, and rebellion, which will not stoop to Christ, suffer all its imaginary perfection to be torn from it, and be a debtor to God for his mercy. Look to it, for evil is before you; there is no trifling with this sacred, fundamental point of Christian belief, that it is Christ "who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption," 1 Cor. i. 30; that "by grace we are saved, through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God;" Eph. ii. 8. Think with yourself, what are you beyond other men, and what have you done to enable you to lift up your face with confidence before God, defy his justice, and challenge his heaven as the due reward of your deeds? You are no extortioner, unjust man, nor adulterer; you have a fair character in the world, and do much to justify yourself before men. But you do not fast twice in the week, nor perhaps twice in a year, upon a religious account; you do not give alms in proportion to your estate; you do not pray always, continually in the bent of your heart, daily in secret, and at the times and seasons of public prayer in your parish; you do not fear God with all your house, so as to set up his worship in it, and teach all that belong to you to fear him. But still, if you fasted, and prayed, and gave much alms, as Cornelius did; if you could say with St. Paul, that you know nothing by yourselves, and

as touching the righteousness which is of the law are blameless; if, like Job, you were perfect and upright, fearing God, and eschewing evil; yet if the foundation of all you do is not laid firm and sure in the blood of Christ, and faith in him by the Holy Ghost, you build with untempered mortar; all this goodly fabric of your own raising must be thrown down, and not one stone left upon another. Still this is man's righteousness, and not God's; it may do well enough for this world, and promote the satisfaction of your lives in some degree, and procure you the esteem of men; but it is not, cannot be the ground of eternal life, and, if you make it the ground of your trust, will ruin you for ever. Still you are but just where Paul was when God struck him to the earth with a light from heaven; still you are not come to Job's confession, I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes;" still you are in the same condition that Cornelius was before his conversion, and may learn from his story, that before you can have hope towards God, you must "send for Peter, and hear words whereby you must be saved." Plead what you will for yourselves; if you could say to God, what you know you cannot say Lo, here is a fair account of my daily prayers and good deeds! lo, here is a life in the main exact and spotless, and squared by the rule of thy commandments!' his answer to us, one and all, is, "Send for Peter, search the Scriptures," listen to those who proclaim the glad tidings of salvation to thee in my name, give up the thoughts, give up the pride of thy heart, let me save thee.

There is another particular worthy of observation this history of Cornelius, which is, God's stated meth of helping us, and bringing us to the knowledge of truth. As it is in the natural world, so it is in things, and in the great affair of our conver works in the use of means, and does not ordi

without them. As he has put things into a constant, regular course to supply our bodily wants, gives bread to the sower, and feeds man in the way of his own labour, though he could do it immediately, and without the use of any such means; so he acts with regard to our souls, not speaking to us directly from heaven, but making use of men as his instruments; insomuch that one man's salvation depends greatly upon the instruction, advice, persuasion, and example of another, and sometimes almost upon a word speaking from a weak creature like ourselves. So when Jesus had appeared to Paul, and could as easily have finished his conversion as he began it, he left him to the ministry and teaching of Ananias, Acts, ix. So when the eunuch was to be converted, the angel of the Lord sent Philip to open the Scriptures, and preach Jesus to him, Acts, viii. And so here in the case of Cornelius, though God in a wonderful manner prepares the way for his salvation by the knowledge of Christ, first appearing to him, and then to Peter in order to it, yet the words whereby he and his house were to be saved, must come from Peter's mouth. And God still proceeds in the same method, sending and calling to man by man, as he does this day to you by me. For though the work of conversion is his, and he gives the increase, though Christ must be with his ministers alway, even to the end of the world, to bless and prosper their endeavours, yet if they do not plant and water, no effect will follow in the ordinary course of things. God grant I may speak the mystery of Christ boldly as I ought to speak, and that I may not always speak to you in vain! I beseech you even now in his name, be ye reconciled to him. Nay, my brethren, I will speak to you the

have spoken, and, with his help, words of eternal life. Only have pity on your own souls; see in this your day the thing swhich belong to your