But from these bloody minded men let us return to the apostles, who are prepared to shed their own blood for the cause of truth; and from them we may learn the temper in which christians ought to suffer persecution. They calmly justify their conduct, confirm their doctrine, and admit no compromise of any part of their duty: they are firm and undismayed: they betray no anger, and indulge neither complaints, revilings, nor threats: they do not even deprecate the resentment of their persecutors. How dignified their conduct! how infinitely superior to the irritation and petulance, the sneers and contempt with which christians of the present day are disposed to treat not only those who persecute the church, but one another, and that for points of difference implicating in a very trivial, if in any degree, the common salvation.

Persecution soon waxed more violent, and Stephen was the first who sealed the truth with his blood. Many others probably suffered about the same time, and some weak believers were intimidated to blaspheme Christ. The persecution was, however, productive of some good; for several zealous and able ministers, fleeing from Jerusalem, preached the gospel with success in other places. In Samaria the ministry of the deacon Philip was so well received, that, in the beginning of the next year Peter and John were delegated to confirm his converts, who, finding that none of the believers in that region, though baptized in the name of Jesus, had yet been honoured with the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, laid their hands on some of them, and imparted to them a share of their own powers. Among these converts was Simon the magician, whose attention had been arrested by the miracles wrought by Philip, and who, from motives which were either wholly or in part sinister, had joined the church. Instigated by covetousness, he betrayed his character, by offering to purchase of the apostles the power of communicating the Holy Ghost to others. St. Peter rejected his offer with abhorrence, severely reproved his wickedness, and exhorted him to pray, if, perhaps, the thought of his heart might be forgiven him.

From this transaction the purchase of ecclesiastical benefices has been termed simony, a shameful traffic, which numerous expedients have been adopted to prevent. But it is to be apprehended that the spirit of Simon extends farther than to the purchase of livings, and that all those will be considered by Christ as actuated by it, who enter into the christian ministry from motives of emolument merely. And, surely, there is no prejudice which operates more fatally against christianity, than the too prevalent idea

that its ministry is a trade, which may be taken up and conducted on the same principles as any other occupation.

When the object of his mission to Samaria was fulfilled, St. Peter returned to Jerusalem, where he found the church again flourishing in peace; the most active of its persecutors having been converted to the faith. How long he continued at Jerusalem is not certain; but we next hear of him visiting the churches in other quarters. The miracles he performed at Lydda and at Joppa, particularly the restoration of Tabitha to life, were made the means of turning many to the Lord.

It was at Joppa that Peter had that remarkable vision which was intended to prepare him for the admission of the Gentiles into the church of Christ. While he was meditating on the vision, messengers arrived from Cæsarea, sent by Cornelius, a just man, who feared God, and who had been warned by an angel to request a visit from him. Being admonished by the Spirit to accompany them, he obeyed, and when on the next day he arrived at Cæsarea, he found the kinsmen and near friends of Cornelius assembled with him. To this company the apostle preached the forgiveness of sins through faith in a crucified Saviour, and while he was speaking, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. The Jews who came with Peter were astonished when they saw the Holy Ghost poured out on the Gentiles: but the apostle gladly recognised them as heirs of the promise of life, and commanded them to be baptized, observing that that seal of the covenant could not, with propriety, be refused to those whom God had evidently received and acknowledged as his children.

By the whole of this transaction we are taught a lesson of charity and forbearance. We see that various preparatory measures were deemed necessary to obviate the prejudices of the apostles themselves; and that though divinely inspired, all those things which it concerned them to know were not revealed at once, but were communicated to them as the occasion required; a circumstance which ought to check the headstrong confidence of young christians in their own knowledge and acquirements. On the other hand, the excellent temper of St. Peter, in laying aside the prejudices of the Jewish church, when he saw the hearts of these Gentile believers purified by faith, is worthy the imitation of all the ministers of God. Could we so far subdue our prejudices as cordially to embrace all real christians, though their knowledge and attainments should be inferior to our own, peace and brotherly love would increase; and, with the divine blessing, we might hope to see the followers of Christ become one fold under one shepherd.

By this catholic spirit the apostles at Jerusalem appear to have been influenced; for no sooner had St. Peter explained to them what had passed, than they all cheerfully acquiesced and glorified God for having given repentance unto life unto the Gentiles. Let those whose blind partiality for their own opinions induces them to depreciate the labours of all who differ from them, however these labours may promote the interests of christianity, carefully consider the conduct of the apostles in cheerfully sacrificing their prejudices to the glory of Christ, and to the salvation of mens' souls. And may we learn to regard each other in the same spirit of love with which our common Lord views all his followers.

About the year of our Lord 43 or 44, Herod Agrippa drew the sword against the church, and finding that the death of James, the brother of John, gratified the Jews, farther to ingratiate himself with that stubborn people, he committed Peter to prison. Afflicted and alarmed at the martyrdom of James, the church made fervent supplication for the life of Peter. Their prayers were heard; he was freed by an angel from his chains, and, after informing the other apostles of his gracious deliverance, he retired from Jerusalem to parts where he might serve the Lord without molestation.

At this time he is said to have visited Rome, and to have staid there several years; but this is highly improbable. In the year of our Lord 62, when St. Paul entered that city as the prisoner of Jesus Christ, the Jews living in it appear to have been entirely ignorant of Christians, except as a sect every where spoken against. But we cannot believe that they could have been thus ignorant had so eminent a character as St. Peter, distinguished as the apostle of the circumcision, previously visited that place, and much less had he made any considerable stay there.

In the year of Christ 51, we find St. Peter at Jerusalem, when the controversy between the judaizing christians and the Gentiles was submitted to the decision of the apostles. St. Peter was the first who offered his sentiments on the point in question. He argued, that as the Lord had graciously purified the hearts of the Gentiles by faith, and had attested that grace by miraculous gifts, it would be tempting God to insist on their observance of circumcision, and other rites of the ceremonial law. These he declared to be a yoke that neither they nor their fathers had been able to bear. To St. Peter's counsel, modified by St. James, and confirmed by the account which Paul and Barnabas gave of what the Lord had done among the Gentiles by their ministry, they all agreed; and the Gentile christians were only commanded to abstain from idolatry and fornication, and from eating blood and

strangled animals. The two first were evidently incompatible with christianity, and the two last were enjoined as temporary regulations, necessary to preserve peace in the church; for it was evident that no familiar association could subsist between Jews and Gentiles, if meats were served up at table which the Jews could not see without abhorrence. Nor can this regulation be censured. Aware by experience of the force of their national prejudices, it became the wisdom and piety of the apostles to bear with their weak brethren, and as no plea of conscience could be urged by the Gentiles for eating such meats, their abstaining from them was a tribute due to the mother church.

Not long after, St. Peter visited the christians at Antioch, and associated freely with them, until some zealots came from Jerusalem, and induced him to withdraw from their society. This disingenuous conduct gave offence to the Gentiles, and cherished the prejudices of the Jews; and as it threatened to impair the usefulness of St. Paul's ministry, it drew from him a just reproof. To this reprehension St. Peter seems to have submitted with a meekness and candour becoming his character. The error into which he fell shows strongly the infirmity adhering to the best of men, and the necessity of bringing the highest human authority to the test of scripture; and also that an undue regard to the opinions of others may prove a snare to minds inaccessible to every other mode of attack. In St. Paul we recognise with pleasure the first protestant of the church of Christ.

Hitherto we have followed the records of the inspired penmen, but we must now be led by guides of inferior authority; our history will, therefore, be as brief as it is precarious. Where St. Peter continued to exercise his ministry we cannot pretend to determine. The pretensions of the church of Rome to the long continued services of this apostle are generally discredited by protestant writers. Nor are we disposed to give more credit to Eusebius, when, on the authority of Metaphrastus, he affirmed that St. Peter preached in Britain. From the circumstance of his being distinguished as the apostle of the circumcision, we incline to think that Judea, Samaria, Syria, together with Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bythinia (to the Jewish strangers of which countries his epistles are addressed) were the principal scenes of his ministry. In the latter part of his life, he appears to have spent some time at Rome, and there he received the honour of martyrdom. His contest with Simon Magus in that city we pass over in silence, as a pious fraud of later times, which can add nothing to the solid greatness of our apostle's character.

A champion like Peter, who fought in the hottest front of the battle, could not but draw upon himself the fury of his enemies. Orders were issued to apprehend the apostles; and St. Ambrose tells us that by the pressing solicitations of the church, he was persuaded to look for some secure retreat, and was passing through the gates of Rome, when he met the venerable form of his Master, who told him he was going to Rome, 'to be crucified a second time.' This vision St. Peter is said to have considered as a reproof of his cowardice, and returning again into the city, was apprehended, and thrown with St. Paul into the Mamertine prison. Here he continued eight or nine months, preaching to the prisoners, and such as resorted to him; and during his imprisonment he is supposed to have written his second epistle, in which he speaks of his martyrdom as nigh at hand. On the return of Nero from Acaiah, he was ordered for execution, and expired on the cross on the top of the Vatican Mount. If he was crucified with his head downward, we attribute it to the contempt and rage of his persecutors, rather than to his own desire, as the reason assigned for so extraordinary a request, namely, that he was unworthy to suffer in the same posture as his Lord, appears too weak for the mature wisdom of the aged apostle.

Such was the glorious death by which St. Peter finished the career of his illustrious labours. From the beginning to the end of it, he was distinguished by his Master's confidence, and the marked deference of his brother apostles. Both these circumstances indicate some personal superiority in St. Peter, which chiefly consisted, however, in the boldness and simplicity of his character, the strength of his faith, and the ardour of his love and zeal. His faults were the result of the same natural constitution of mind to which we ascribe his peculiar excellencies. The first were corrected, and the last improved, as he grew in knowledge and in grace. His epistles have all the features of a bold and vigorous mind. The fire of his imagination is mellowed by time; and, with all the richness of mature wisdom and piety, he lays open a heart full of affection and solicitude for the welfare of the flock. But we lay down our pen, impressed with a sense that it is not for men of our stature to appreciate his merits, and that his praise as well as his reward, is not of man but of God.