CHAP. IV. means disposed to think with any particular compassion of Gentiles, and would scarce have thought of spreading the Gospel beyond the bounds of their own nation, had not the persecution driven many out of Jerusalem. The teachers themselves needed to be taught of God in this part of their office. So helpless is man in divine things, even after he has been favoured with some spiritual light, that by fresh communications alone, he can be induced to make any additional improvement. After Philip had finished his work at Samaria, he was by an extraordinary commission, ordered to travel southward toward the desert. He soon discovered the reason: he fell in with an Ethiopian eunuch, a minister of Candace Queen of the Ethiopians, who had been worshipping at Jerusalem, and was returning home in his chariot. Men, who feel the worth of their souls, will not be unemployed when alone. Their concern for their best interests will operate most powerfully, when they are most disengaged from business. The man was reading the prophet Esaias, and the adorable providence of God had directed him at that particular time to the fifty-third chapter, which gives so clear a description of Christ crucified. Philip asked him, if he understood what he was reading. The man confessing his ignorance, desired Philip to come and sit with him. The Evangelist took the opportunity of expounding to him the Gospel from the passage he was then reading, which at once lays open the guilty and the miserable condition of mankind, their recovery only by the grace of Jesus Christ, the nature, end, and efficacy of his death and resurrection, and the doctrine of justification before God by the knowledge of the same Jesus and by HIS merits. The Ethiopian's mind had been prepared for the doctrine: he had been at the pains to attend Jewish instructions, the best then to be had in the world, except the Christian, which he now heard, for the first time; nor had the scandalous wickedness of the Jewish nation hindered him from attending that worship, which he believed to be of divine origin. The ignorance of his own country suited not even the weakest and most glimmering light of a serious mind. His case is an encouragement for men, however ignorant and mistaken at prezent, to seek earnestly to God, for HE will take care that they shall find. The man felt himself guilty and wicked, and the views of the prophetical chapter before us, laid open by the preacher, discovered to him the remedy, which it pleased. God so powerfully to apply to his heart, that as soon as they came to a certain water, he desired to be bap tized. Philip assured him that there was no impediment, if he was sincere in the faith of Christ. On which he professed his belief, that the Jesus of Nazareth, whom Philip had preached to him, was indeed the Son of God prophesied of by Isaiah, and that he answered the character of Saviour there given to him. Philip then baptized the Ethiopian, who, though his instructor was, by the Spirit of the Lord, immediately taken from him, went on his way into his own country rejoicing. Doubtless this joy had a solid and powerful cause; and if this case be compared with that of the three thousand first converts, and both of them with the doctrine of the fifty-third Chapter of Isaiah, conversion will appear to be a spiritual internal work, humbling men for sin, and comforting them with forgiveness by Christ. The nominal profession, with which great numbers of persons content themselves, may seem to fit them for little else, than to disgrace Christianity by their practice. It is impossible that the Ethiopian, thus powerfully enlightened and rejoicing in God, could be silent, when he returned home. His influence, and character would at least secure to him a respectful attention from some of his countrymen; and thus, the Gospel, most probably, was first planted in Ethiopia. But we have no more scripture-light on the subject. • Acts, viii. V. CHA P. V. CESAREA. CHAP. THE great mixture of Jews and Gentiles, in some of the extreme parts of the Holy Land or its neighbourhood, afforded a providential opportunity for the gradual illumination of the latter, for the abatement of Jewish bigotry, for the demonstration of Divine Grace in the salvation of all sorts of men, and for the union. of Christian hearts. Thus we find that a Church was planted at Tyre, another at Ptolemais, places which must have abounded with Gentiles. But Cæsarea affords the most remarkable instance of the observation just now made. It was the residence of the Roman Governor, and was so situated in the confines of Syria and Judea, that it was a matter of doubt to which region it ought to be assigned. And the final determination of this question in favour of the Syrians is mentioned by Josephus, as one of the immediate causes of the war, which ended with the destruction of Jerusalem. This circumstance shows the great importance of this city, and the strong interest which both parties had in it. Philip, after a laborious journey from Azotus, preaching in all the cities, through which he passed, settled at length in Cæsarca. Here he was stationary for many years t. We find him, toward the conclusion of the period of about thirty years, which takes in the history of the Acts, still fixed in the same place, with four virgin daughters, where he entertained St. Paul in his last journey to Jerusalem. I can no more conceive Philip to have been idle and unfruitful all this time, than James to have been so at Jerusalem. A Church, mixed of Jews and Gentiles, would naturally be formed under so zealous a pastor, whose observation of the Grace of God in the case. of the eunuch, must have opened his mind to an affectionate reception of Gentile converts. * Acts, xxi. † Acts, viii. 40. all compared with xxi. 8. I. Indeed the abuse, which the malignant pride of the Jews had made of the Mosaic prohibition of intercourse with Gentiles, was a great bar to the extension of the Gospel. They refused to keep company with foreigners, and seem to have looked on them as devoted to destruction. The Apostles themselves were, as yet, under the power of the same bigotry, till a vision from heaven instructed Peter, as he was praying on the house-top at Joppa, that he ought not to call any man common or unclean *. By this he was prepared for the work which the Lord was immediately assigning him. The Holy Spirit suggested to him that three men were at that time enquiring for him, and directed him to go with them; "for I have sent them t." Peter was soon informed Cornelis by the men, that they had been sent to him from Peter. Cæsarea by Cornelius, a Roman centurion there, a devout man, and one that feared God with all his family, gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway; who had been warned from God by a holy angel to send for him.-Peter lodged the three men that night two of them were houshold servants, and the third-rare character!—a devout soldier, who waited on the centurion continually. On the next day Peter went with them, but had the precaution to take with him six Jewish Christians * Acts, x. The proper personality and divinity of the Holy Ghost, and the unlimited subjection due to him from Christian pastors, and, of course, from all Christiaus, are solidly deducible from this and various similar passages in the Acts of the Apostles. Much has been written concerning two sorts of Proselytes to the Jewish religion, circumcised ones, and incomplete ones, called Proselytes of the Gate. Two learned critics, Dr. Lardner and Dr. Doddridge, seem to have shown, however, that the latter had no existence. Cornelius was a Gentile altogether, and was treated as such by the Jews, though from his pious attention to the Jewish religion he must have been at least a Proselyte of the second sort, if any ever were so. In that case it seems difficult to conceive, why any Jew should have made such a difficulty of conversing with persons of this description, sends for CHAP. V. from Joppa as witnesses of his proceedings. The following day they entered Cæsarea, and came into the house of Cornelius, who had called together his kinsmen and near friends, with that charity for their souls, which fails not to influence the minds of those, who have real charity for their own. On the entrance of Peter he falls down and worships. Peter corrects his mistaken devotion. Cornelius informs him, that having been particularly engaged in fasting and prayer, he was assured by an angel that his prayers and alms were acceptable to God, and that he had obeyed the divine direction in sending for him. Peter now preached the Gospel to the company, frankly owning, that he was at length fully convinced, that God was no respecter of persons; but that he equally regarded Jew and Gentile, whoever the person was that "feared God, and wrought righteousness." On this broad basis of encouragement, he was enabled to preach to them the good news of forgiveness of sins by Jesus Christ, whose history they knew, though they did not understand the nature of his doctrine. He directed them now to receive that doctrine cordially for their peace with God. The perfect holiness and the supernatural works of Jesus, he observed, demonstrated him to be no impostor, but sent of God unquestionably: that he himself and the other Apostles were witnesses of Christ's resurrection, and had received a commission from him to preach to the people, and to urge men's acceptance of him here, if ever they expected to be welcomed by him, when he should judge the quick and dead at his second coming and that all the prophets had testified, that whoever placed his confidence for salvation in the name of Jesus Christ, should receive remission of sins. Few words suffice, where God himself powerfully works. The whole company were converted to God, The Holy Ghost, both in an extraordinary and in an ordinary way, sealed the Apostle's sermon. The |