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mystical sheet, which contained all manner of creatures, was denoted the purification of the Gentiles by faith, who were once unclean, and their junction with the believing Jews in the Christian or universal church. The purport of the vision, thrown into prophetical language, would run thus :-"The wolf "shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie "down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion "and the fatling together: the cow and the bear "shall feed, and their young ones shall lie down to"gether; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. "And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child put his hand on the "cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy "in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be 'full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters 66 cover the sea. In that day there shall be a root of "Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the peo

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ple; to it shall the Gentiles seek." The arrival of those who were sent from Cornelius, and the injunction of the Spirit, Arise, and get thee down, and go with them, nothing doubting, for I have sent "them," fully satisfied Peter, as to the intention of the heavenly vision; and, in his own mind, he readily applied to Jew and Gentile, what he had seen and heard concerning the clean and unclean animals.

10. Cornelius, in the mean time, impatiently waited the return of his faithful messengers; and, with a truly open and liberal spirit, desirous that others should partake of the good which Heaven had sent him, he "had called together his kinsfolk and "near friends," that they likewise might hear the

word of life as knowing, it is with the grace of God as with the light of heaven, of which no man has the less because a million of his brethren enjoy it as well as he. There is enough for all the world, and every individual has as much as he is capable of receiving.

11. As Cornelius had been ordered by an angel from heaven to send for Peter, it was natural for him to regard the apostle in the highest light; and therefore, when he had the happiness to behold him entering his doors," he fell down at his feet, and "worshipped him. But Peter took him up, saying, "Stand up; for I myself also am a man"-one encompassed with the infirmities of mortality like yourself; a fellow-creature, whose duty it is to join with you in the worship of him to whom alone worship is due. This is one part of St. Peter's conduct, among many, which his pretended successors in the see of Rome have not been solicitous to imitate; or we should never have heard of the style, Dominus, Deus noster, Papa!

12. By the opening of St. Peter's address to Cornelius and his friends, it appears, that he understood the vision as we have above explained it.

"Ye

know," says he, "how that it is an unlawful thing "for a man that is a Jew, to keep company and "come unto one of another nation: but God hath "showed me," that is, plainly, by the creatures in the sheet," that I should not call any MAN common " or unclean." The creatures, therefore, represented men; and to mankind, as divided into Jews and Gentiles, St. Peter transferred the idea suggested by

the animals distinguished into clean and unclean. Hego es on to declare himself at length convinced, "that God is no respecter of persons, but in every "nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteous"ness, is accepted with him;" that is, the partitionwall is broken down, and people of every nation, as well as the Jewish, are accepted, upon the same terms of faith and obedience, whenever, by God's grace, they come into them, as Cornelius did, and as the whole Heathen world afterward did, upon the publication of the Gospel. "God is no respecter "of persons;" he does not show favour to the Jews because they were the children of Abraham, if, by rejecting the Gospel, they cease to believe and act like Abraham; which if the Gentiles, by receiving the Gospel, do, they will be accounted children of Abraham and heirs of the promises: "in every nation "he that feareth God, and worketh righteousness," which without faith it is impossible to do" is ac"cepted with him."

13. After this introduction, St. Peter proceeds to confirm to his little audience the truth of that word which they had heard concerning Jesus of Nazareth. He declares to them his unction with the Holy Ghost and with power; the works wrought by him for the deliverance of poor mankind from the yoke of the great oppressor; his death, resurrection, and appointment to be the judge of quick and dead; with the consentient testimony of all the prophets to the doctrine of remission of sins through faith in his name. While he preached these interesting and glorious truths, the Holy Ghost fell upon those who

heard the word, and they were immediately baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.

14. In this manner were the first fruits of the Gentiles consecrated to God; and thus was the gate opened, through which hath since passed that "great

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multitude, not to be numbered by man, of all na"tions, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, who "stand continually before the throne, and before the "Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in "their hands, crying with a loud voice, Salvation to "our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and to "the Lamb!" The same gate is still open, and blessed is he who desireth and striveth to enter in thereat. In order to which, when he hath considered the example of Cornelius, we have only to add"Go, and do thou likewise."

264

DISCOURSE XVIII.

THE PROVIDENTIAL DELIVERANCE FROM THE GUNPOWDER TREASON.

PSALM LXIV. 9.

They shall wisely consider of his doing.

THE Psalm from whence these words are taken, is one of the proper Psalms appointed to be used upon this day; and well suited indeed it is to the occasion. A king in danger of being cut off by the secret contrivances of his malignant adversaries, prays to God that his life may be "preserved from fear of the ene"my;" speaks of the secret counsel of the wicked;" of their shooting in secret, laying snares privily, and "saying, Who shall see them?" But he foretels that the Almighty, who surveys the darkest proceedings of the wicked, shall, in a moment when they least expect it, blast all their designs: "God shall shoot at " them with an arrow, suddenly shall they be wound"ed." He intimates the manner-that their schemes should be discovered and betrayed by themselves; "So shall they make their own tongue to fall upon "themselves;" and then follows the effect that should be produced in the hearts of others by so

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