thankfulness for the reformation of our national Church-and with more earnest desires for its purity, prosperity, and

peace.

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LECTURE XI.

ACTS XV. 7-21.

And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago, God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.

And God which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto

us:

And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.

Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?

But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they.

Then all the multitude kept silence, and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them.

And after they had held their

peace,

James answered,

saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me.

Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written,

After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down: and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:

That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things.

Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.

Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God:

But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.

For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbathday.

THE importance to be attached to the proceedings of this first recorded Council, as serving to be regarded as a sort of model for all similar proceedings, has already been remarked. How many of those who had come together to consider of the

matter brought before them did more than give their vote on the occasion we are not informed, though it would seem from the "much disputing" referred to in the 7th verse, that many individuals took part in the debate. This disputing was probably between some of the elders and the dissentients from Antioch. At all events there was no disputing on this occasion between the inspired Apostles: on the contrary, they were perfectly consistent and unanimous in their opinions; nor does it appear that any of them spoke until the inferior members of the Council had given their sentiments at length. It is remarkable also that no one ventured to call in question the opinion of the Apostles when once they had deliberately given it. Their judgment was decisive; and all the assembly felt it to be their duty cheerfully and unhesitatingly to submit to it.

And here I may observe, that though there was much disputing before the Apostles gave their sentence upon the

matter, nothing that was said was thought by the historian worthy of being recorded. And how much, brethren, is there in the world, of disputation and debate which, so far from deserving to be remembered, ought, if possible, to be erased from the memory! There is seldom much controversy without much folly and falsehood, on one side at least; and it behoves those who are ready of utterance, and swift to speak, to beware lest they give expression to sentiments and opinions of which they may soon have occasion to repent. Too many there are, however, who obstinately persevere in their erroneous notions, though proved to be directly contradictory to the declarations of Apostles and Prophets, and of Jesus Christ himself.

The first of the inspired authorities who rose up on this occasion to address the meeting was the Apostle Peter. He began by reminding his hearers that he had been divinely commissioned a considerable period before, to promulgate