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by a voice from heaven, that thou must not dare to consider those unclean whom God himself has pronounced clean, and whom he now sends to thee. On the next day, he departed with the messengers from Joppa, accompanied by six other Christians of Jewish descent, to whom he had told what had happened, and who awaited the result with eager expectation. As the distance for one day's journey was too great, they made two short days' journeys of it. On the day after their departure, (the fourth after the messengers had been despatched by Cornelius,) about three in the afternoon, they arrived at Cæsarea. They found Cornelius assembled with his family and friends, whom he had informed of the expected arrival of the teacher sent to him from heaven; for he doubted not that he whom the voice of the angel had notified as the appointed divine teacher, would obey the divine call. After what had passed, Peter appeared to Cornelius as a super-earthly being. He fell reverentially before him as he entered the chamber; but Peter bade him stand up, and said, "Stand up, I myself also am a man. ." He narrated to the persons assembled, by what means he had been induced not to regard the common scruples of the Jews respecting intercourse with heathens, and expressed his desire to hear from Cornelius what had determined them to call him thither. Cornelius explained this, and ended with saying, "Now therefore are we all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God." Peter was astonished at the pure disposition so susceptible of divine truth, which appeared in the words of Cornelius, and formed so striking a contrast to the obstinate unsusceptibility of many Jews; and perceived the hand of God in the way Cornelius had been led, since he had sought the truths of salvation with upright desire; he therefore said, "Now I perceive of a truth that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation, he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted of him." As to these memorable words of Peter, the sense cannot be, that in every nation, every one who only rightly employs his own moral power, will obtain salvation; for had Peter meant this, he would, in what he added, announcing Jesus as him by whom alone men could obtain forgiveness of sin and salvation, have contradicted himself. On that supposition, he ought rather to have told Cornelius, that he had only to

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remain in his present disposition, that was enough, and he needed no new doctrine of salvation. But, on the other hand, it is impossible, according to the connexion, to understand by every one that feareth God and worketh righteousness," those who had attained true piety through Christianity, and to make the words mean no more than this-that Christians of all nations are acceptable to God for the words plainly import that Cornelius, on account of his upright pious striving, was deemed worthy of having his prayers heard, and being led to faith in the Redeemer. Nor can these words relate only to such who already believed in the revelation of God in the Old Testament, and according to its guidance, honoured God, and expected the Messiah. But evidently Peter spoke in opposition to the Jewish nationalism-God judgeth men' not according to their descent or non-descent from the theocratic nation, but according to their disposition. All who, like Cornelius, honour God uprightly according to the measure of the gift entrusted to them, are acceptable to him, and he prepares by his grace a way for them, by which they are led to faith in Him, who alone can bestow salvation. This is what Peter meant to announce to them.'

It was natural that, since the minds of these persons were so much more prepared than others for the appropriation of saving truth, and for living faith by their inward want and earnest longing, that the word would make a much quicker and more powerful impression on them. While Peter was speaking to them, they were impelled to express their feelings in inspired praises of that God, who in so wonderful a manner

1 Cornelius belonged to that class of persons who are pointed out in John iii. 21. We are by no means authorized to maintain that Peter, from the general position laid down by him, intended to draw the inference, that God would certainly lead to salvation those among all nations, to whom the marks belonged which he here specified, even if they did not during their earthly life obtain a participation in redemption. He expressed that truth, which at the moment manifested itself to him in a consciousness enlightened by the Holy Spirit, without reflecting on all the consequences deducible from it. We must ever carefully distinguish between what enlightened men consciously intend to say, according to historical conditions, and in relation to interests immediately affected by existing circumstances,-and what forms the contents of eternal truth, to be developed with all the consequences involved. To develop the first is the province of exegesis and historical apprehension; the second, that of Christian doctrine and morals.

had led them to salvation. One inspiration seized all, and with amazement the Jewish Christians present beheld their prejudices against the Gentiles contradicted by the fact. What an impression must it have made upon them, when they heard the Gentile who had been considered by them as unclean, testify with such inspiration of Jehovah and the Messiah! And now Peter could appeal to this transaction, in order to nullify all the scruples of the Jews, respecting the baptism of such uncircumcised persons, and ask, “Who can forbid water that these should be baptized, who have already received the baptism of the Spirit like ourselves?" And when he returned to Jerusalem, and the manner in which he had held intercourse with the Gentiles had raised a stumbling-block among the strict pharisaical believers, he was able to silence them by a similar appeal. "Forasmuch then," said he, "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?" Acts xi. 17.

BOOK III.

THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY AND FOUNDING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH AMONG THE GENTILES BY THE INSTRUMENTALITY OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.

CHAPTER I.

PAUL'S PREPARATION AND CALL TO BE THE APOSTLE OF
THE GENTILES.

In this manner, Christianity, independently of Judaism, began to be propagated among the Gentiles; the appointment of the gospel as a distinct means of forming all nations for the kingdom of God, was now acknowledged by the apostles; and consequently, on their part, no opposition could be made to employing it for this purpose. While, by the arrangements of the Divine wisdom, the principal obstacle to the conversion of the heathen was taken out of the way, and the first impulse was given to that work; by the same wisdom, that great champion of the faith who was to carry it on, and lay the foundation for the salvation of the heathen through all ages, was called forth, to take the position assigned him in the development of the kingdom of God. This was no other than the apostle Paul; a man distinguished, not only for the wide extent of his apostolic labours, but for his development of the fundamental truths of the gospel in their living organic connexion, and their formation into a compact system. The essence of the gospel in relation to human nature, on one side especially, the relation namely to its need of redemption, was set by him in the clearest light; so that when the sense of that need has been long repressed or perverted, and a revival of Christian consciousness has followed a state of

spiritual death, the newly awakened Christian life, whether in the church at large, or in individuals, has always drawn its nourishment from his writings. As he has presented Christianity under this aspect especially, and has so impressively shown the immediate relation of religious knowledge and experience to the Lord Jesus, in opposition to all dependence on any human mediation whatever, thus drawing the line of demarcation most clearly between the Christian and Jewish standing-point; he may be considered as the representative among the apostles of the Protestant principle. And history, though it furnishes only a few hints respecting the early life of Paul before his call to the apostleship, has recorded enough to make it evident, that by the whole course of his previous development, he was formed for what he was to become, and for what he was to effect.

Saul, or Paul (the former the original Hebrew, the latter the Hellenistic form of his name),' was a native of the city of Tarsus in Cilicia. This we learn from his own expressions

1 The latter was his usual appellation, from the time of his being devoted entirely to the conversion of the heathen; Acts xiii. 9. Although the ancient supposition, that he changed his own name for that of his convert Sergius Paulus, has been recently advocated by Meyer and Olshausen, I cannot approve of it. I cannot imagine that the conversion of a proconsul would be thought so much more of by him than the conversion of any other man (and he was far from being his first convert), as to induce him to assume his name. It is more agreeable to the usage of ancient times, for the scholar to be named after his teacher, (as Cyprian after Cæcilius, Eusebius after Pamphilus,) rather than for the teacher to be named after the scholar; for no one could think of finding a parallel in the instance of Scipio Africanus. And had this really been the reason why Paul assumed the name, we might have expected, as it was closely connected with the whole narrative, that Luke would have expressly assigned it. And Fritzsche is correct in saying (see his Commentary on the Romans, Proleg. p. 11), that, in this case, not Acts xiii. 9, but xiii. 13, would have been a natural place for mentioning it. Still I cannot, with Fritzsche, think it probable, that Luke was accidentally led, by the mention of Sergius Paulus, to remark that Paul also bore the same name. The most natural way of viewing the matter seems to be this; Luke had hitherto designated him by the name which he found in the memoirs lying before him on the early history of Christianity. But he was now induced to distinguish him by the name which he found in the memoirs of his labours among the heathen, and by which he had personally known him during that later period; and, therefore, took the opportunity of remarking, that this Paul was no other than the individual whom he had hitherto called Saul.

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