DISCOURSE XII.

ACTS, CHAP. X.-VERSES 34, 35.

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.

THESE words, if not carefully attended to, may seem to carry a sense contrary to the meaning of the Apostle in delivering them. St. Peter in the text declares that God, without respect to any national or personal privileges, was ready to admit all people into the covenant made with Christ Jesus, provided they were duly prepared for such admission. Some from his words have concluded that there is no necessity of becoming disciples of Christ, but that it is sufficient if we live according to the principles and light of nature; forasmuch as 'every one who feareth God, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him :' and thus supported, as they think, by one passage of Scripture, they have been emboldened to despise and reject all the rest as of no use to them, and to put their salvation on their own strength, in opposition to the method revealed and declared by the Son of God. This error is common, as well as dangerous: and since the great regard which some pay to moral virtue is purely opposition to the gospel, it is worth while to examine this passage of St. Peter, and to place his meaning in a true light, that the doctrine of the gospel may not be overthrown by its own authority.

The Jews had a notion that the blessings of the promised Messiah were to be peculiar to themselves, and not to be extended to any other nation or people whatever, whom they looked on as aliens from God, and not under his care and protection, as they were. Hence in the Prophets they plead their privilege, and tell God that he is not God of the heathen, but

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of the people of Israel; which conceit of theirs St. Paul refers to and confutes in his Epistle to the Romans: Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? yes, of the Gentiles also.' The disciples of our Lord, and especially St. Peter, were as deep in this opinion as others; and during our Saviour's abode on earth, they were confirmed in it by what they observed in him he declared, he was not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel:' and when he sent out his disciples to preach, he expressly charged them not to go into the way of the Gentiles, nor to enter into any city of the Samaritans; but to go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel :' and after his resurrection, when he enlarged their commission, and bade them Go, teach all nations;' they understood him not, but were inquisitive about his restoring the kingdom to Israel.' After the ascension, the Apostles continued at Jerusalem preaching to their own nation, till, on the persecution of St. Stephen, many fled into other parts, and though they went as far as Phenice, Cyprus, and Antioch, yet they preached the word to none but Jews only:' Acts xi. 19. And when St. Peter, admonished by an heavenly vision, had admitted some Gentiles into the church of Christ through baptism, he was called to an account for it by the Apostles and brethren who were in Judea, chap. xi. 1: nor were they satisfied, till he had told them what vision he had seen, what also Cornelius had seen, and in what a miraculous manner the Holy Ghost was poured forth on the Gentiles, before he ventured to baptize them and then under the astonishment of this conviction they held their peace, blaming his behavior no longer; but glorified God, saying, 'Then hath God also unto the Gentiles granted repentance unto life:' Acts xi. 18. St. Peter himself was equally surprised, when he found, by comparing Cornelius's vision with his own, that God had determined to admit the Gentiles as well as the Jews into the church of Christ; and he expresses himself in the same manner, though not just in the same words, with the Apostles and brethren. They say, 'Then hath God also unto the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.' St. Peter says, ' 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.' These two reflexions, as

they are made on the same case, one by St. Peter, when he was with Cornelius, the other by the Apostles and brethren, when St. Peter related the story of Cornelius, so are they in substance the same: and St. Peter, when he says, 'that in every nation he that feareth God-is accepted with him,' and the Apostles and brethren, when they say that God hath granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life,' mean one and the same thing and therefore, in the text, to be accepted with God' means no more than to have from God the offer of 'repentance unto life;' and both certainly mean our having admission into the covenant with God through Christ Jesus. So that the whole of what St. Peter says in the text amounts to this: 'I now at length perceive that God has not confined his mercies to a particular nation only; but that all are capable of inheriting the promises in Christ Jesus, who are duly prepared by righteousness, and the fear of God.'

This will farther appear to be the true interpretation, if we examine the case of Cornelius, and what the acceptance was that he found. Cornelius was a Gentile, and one of the best of them; a devout man, and one who feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway' and yet his goodness did not make it unnecessary for him to become a Christian. The heavenly vision was not sent to satisfy him that his righteousness was sufficient, and that he had no need to look out for farther assistance or direction: on. the contrary, it was sent to inform him where he might seek and find a proper instructor. St. Peter had also a vision to prepare him to do the duty of an Apostle to the Gentile centurion; and when this devout man came to him, in obedience to the heavenly warning, he instructs him in the faith of Christ Jesus, and baptizes him with water: on which St. Peter says, he finds that men of all nations, who do ́righteously, are accepted with God. He could not possibly mean that those who did their best on the light of nature, had no need of any other teacher; that reflexion could never rise from the case before him for why did he then instruct Cornelius in the knowlege of Christ, and baptize him in his name? St. Peter therefore certainly meant that all Gentiles duly prepared were capable of the blessings of the gospel through the mercy of

God; in opposition to his former error, that none but Jews had such a privilege. And the Apostle undoubtedly understood that the best of the Gentiles had need of the gospel; or else his commendation of the goodness of God amounts to this only, that he perceived that God would give to the honest-minded Gentiles, who feared him, and did righteously, that which they had no occasion to receive.

From the words and circumstances of the text thus explained, we learn what is the true notion of that acceptance, which St. Peter says the Gentiles of all nations are entitled to through the mercy of God.

But then there arises a difficulty from the terms to which St. Peter has limited this privilege: for he does not say that men of all nations are accepted of God; but that in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness' is accepted of him. Now, one great end of the Christian religion being to instruct us in the fear of God, and in works of righteousness, it may seem strange that in order to the obtaining this benefit of being duly instructed in the fear of God, and in works of righteousness, it should be required, as a previous condition, that we should fear God, and do righteously: which condition supposes us already in possession of the main thing for which the privilege itself is granted; and consequently, the privilege becomes in a manner useless by our having the qualifications necessary to the obtaining it. To clear this matter, we must consider what the Apostle to the Hebrews teaches us, chap. xi. 6. Without faith it is impossible to please God: for he that cometh to God, must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.' The meaning of which is, that a man cannot offer himself to God, much less enter into the covenant of his mercy, without a firm persuasion of his being, and a due notion of his attributes. He must know 'that he is;' otherwise he can never move or advance towards him he must know also that he is a rewarder of them who diligently seek him;' or else he cannot be encouraged to move towards him: which two articles of belief infer a just fear of God as the supreme Governor of the world, and a desire to please him as the dispenser of rewards and punishments according to the good or evil which men do. This is the faith, with

out which, the Apostle to the Hebrews says, it is impossible to please God; this is the faith with which, St. Peter says, the men of every nation are accepted with him. And in truth these qualifications are so necessary to a man's being accepted with God, and admitted into the covenant of his grace through Jesus Christ, that without them the gospel cannot be so much as tendered to him: for on what foot would you press men to become Christians in order to obtain the mercy of God, who have no sense of the fear of God, and consequently no concern about pleasing or displeasing him? The gospel does not teach, but suppose this doctrine and was even an Apostle to preach to a nation perfectly ignorant of God, he must lay by the gospel, and first convince the people from reason and nature of the being of God, and the necessity of righteousness in order to deserve his favor, before he could invite them to embrace the gospel as the perfect rule of righteousness prescribed and ordained by God himself. And therefore, when St. Peter says, ' that in every nation he that feareth God, and worketh righteousness, is accepted of him,' he is not to be understood as limiting the mercies of God to certain persons of the best character, but rather as declaring the natural order of things. It is frequently taught that our Lord came to save sinners; and therefore he began his preaching with an exhortation to repentance in the same words that John the Baptist had done before him, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand:' which is as much as if he had said, turn to God, and fear him, working righteousness, that ye may be made members of the kingdom of his Son, which now approaches.

But should the case of Cornelius, 'who was a devout man, fearing God with all his house, giving much alms, and praying alway,' from which case St. Peter makes the reflexion contained in the text, incline us to believe that he means a greater degree of goodness by fearing God, and working righteousness, than was commonly to be found; and consequently, that what St. Peter says can be applied only to the most virtuous and best-disposed heathens; on this supposition, both the case of Cornelius and the declaration of St. Peter evidently prove that the best of men stand in need of the assistances of the gospel of Christ, to make themselves secure of obtaining the end of