you new hearts and a new spirit;" nothing less than a new creation in your souls can qualify you for your new faith: be converted, be turned from your iniquities, that your sins may be blotted out. Happy tidings! that your sins may be blotted out; happier still to be informed by whom this great salvation should be effected. It shall take place "when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;" that is, that you may, at the day that God shall give rest to the righteous, escape the vengeance denounced against the rejecting of this offer of salvation, which will be when all the prophecies concerning him are accomplished. Times of refreshing undoubtedly mean days of comfort and consolation; and in the coming of Christ are these comfortable times to be expected. As St. Peter's sermon was addressed solely to the Jews, the deliverance of the Christians at the then future siege of Jerusalem has been understood to be meant by this passage. However that may be, it is applicable to us, when by repentance and contrition we are made fully sensible of the presence of the Lord, that Lord now in a state of exaltation, who, we are assured, will come again at the end of the world to judge both the quick and the dead. A reference to the prophecies was a most powerful argument to the Jews. If they enquired, therefore, who that Saviour was, they were ready to be told that it was He of whom Moses predicted; it was He of whom all the Prophets had spoken, from Samuel who founded the school of the Prophets, and who appears upon re

cord as being the first after Moses who wrote his own prophecy; it was He of whom it was said to Abraham, “In thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed." And if all the Gentiles, adds St. Peter emphatically, had this promise, how much more may you, children of these prophets, and of this covenant, expect him? "Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities." This is indeed the sum and substance of the Gospel revelation, redemption from sin by Christ, manifested to the Jews, after his resurrection, by the plentiful effusion of the Holy Spirit.

This address of Peter was calculated to make a strong impression on the minds of the people. The connection of present circumstances, with prophecies well known to every Jew, left them without reply. How could they doubt, but that God would bestow these blessings on them through the intervention of his Son, when they saw him who had been healed in his name stand before them whole? How could they doubt, but that other blessings would follow those that believe, when such mighty signs and wonders were given as evidences of their truth? How could they doubt, but that He whose word controled the powers of nature, and restored soundness to the infirm, could, with equal ease, pour forth the abundance of his grace, and heal the inveterate sickness of a disordered soul?

From a contemplation of what the Jews felt on

this occasion, let us turn our thoughts more se riously on ourselves. These valuable addresses of the primitive Apostles descend to us with every advantage. They are the result of cool reason, tempered by the genial warmth of true religion. They are noble and eloquent effusions, dictated by the supernatural influence of divine wisdom. What more could the ancient Jews desire, what more can we desire, to convince us that this, and this only, is the rock of our salvation and our refuge?

Here no partiality appears to any age or nation; no flattery to any man, or ranks of men, to compromise the truth; the Jew is no longer a chosen person; the great and magnificent temple no longer a super-eminent place of public worship; all are made equal before the cross of Christ. As “ all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God 1;" so all, through Christ, are made partakers of equal privileges. God hath sent his Son Jesus, to bless us all, with temporal, spiritual, and eternal blessings, by turning away every one of us from our iniquities; for as there are no exceptions in guilt, so there are none in the offers of salvation.

1 Rom. iii. 23.

LECTURE VI.

ACTS IV. 1 -31.

Imprisonment and release of Peter and John.-Assembly and Prayer of the Believers, strengthened by the Holy Ghost. Jerusalem, A. D. 33.

THOSE Who profess the faith of Christ must learn to suffer for his sake. This was one of the first lessons which our Saviour taught his disciples while he was with them in the world, and this will be one of the last lessons which good Christians, to the latest generations, will find occasion to observe. The Spirit of God and the spirit of the world are at enmity; nor can they ever be reconciled till the latter be subdued by conquest. But in this conflict, what trials do the righteous suffer? Yet in nothing are they dejected, for they are contented, with St. Paul, to "spend and be spent for Christ1;" well-knowing, that he, and he only, "who shall endure unto the end shall be saved 2."

2

I have now, my brethren, to introduce to you the first persecution of the Apostles, for preaching the high and important doctrines of their Master.

1 2 Cor. xii. 15.

2 Matt. xxiv. 13.

H

An easy reception of these truths they did not expect. They had been forewarned of the opposition they should meet with, and they looked for it as an evidence of their Lord's veracity. "Ye shall be brought before governors and Kings for my sake1." The time too was at no great distance when they should suffer such things. Before the completion of the prophecy concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, these things should come to pass. "But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before Kings and Rulers for my name's sake; and it shall turn to you for a testimony 2."

The success which had attended St. Peter's sermon in Solomon's porch, had added very considerably to the number of believers. The conferences probably had continued late; for it was now eventide, when the Priests, the Captain of the Temple, and a party of the sect of the Sadducees, took the Apostles into custody. It is easy to imagine, why the Priests and the Sadducees should thus violently oppose them; and if we understand by the Captain of the Temple, the Captain of the Levites' guard, the eagerness with which they laid hands on them will soon be accounted for. On the great days of the different feasts, the Roman guard from the tower of Antonia, one of the forts of the temple, assisted the ordinary officers in keeping the peace. This was the case at the apprehension of

1 Matt. x. 18.

2 Luke xxi. 12.