question, prompted, perhaps, by vain curiosity; and yet enough was stated, to show that no common care, no trifling exertion was necessary, in order to secure salvation. The gate is described as strait, the way as narrow, that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

To the minds of those who have felt the obligation which attaches to all mankind, to " work out their own salvation with fear and trembling," various conjectures may have arisen, as to the final result of that wondrous plan of salvation, which has been offered to a ruined and guilty world. Such conjectures cannot be useless or improper, if they are pursued with reference to our own eternal welfare, and if they lead us to those same conclusions to which Christ evidently wished to direct the minds of his disciples; namely, the necessity of our own exertions, the duty of zeal and earnestness in our christian profession.

In fact, the more closely we examine the nature of those qualifications, which can alone fit us for our heavenly inheritance, the more fully shall we be convinced of the value of those means of grace, which are vouchsafed to us in order to our preparation for that inheritance; the more readily shall we acknowledge the goodness of God, who has not left us to wander undirected in our pilgrimage, but has given us his word to be a lamp to our feet and a lantern unto our paths.

It can arise only from a very imperfect idea of God's law, and a very erroneous comprehension of the state to which we shall soon be introduced, that many persons entertain the most vague notions respecting the absolute necessity of accepting the revelation of God, in its hopes and promises, in its principles and its demands. It is surely from a very inferior estimate of the holiness which must be established in the soul, in order to the enjoyment of everlasting happiness, that men are led to undervalue the means by which alone that holiness can be acquired; or that any can be brought to imagine, that the belief of those doctrines, which by their adoption become influential principles of action, may be a matter of no importance; and that the rejection of those doctrines involves no crime, and incurs no danger. No man who feels that, with all the appliances and means of godliness offered by the covenant of mercy, he still falls far short of that example which is proposed for his imitation; no one who thus feels, can acknowledge that sufficient advancement in true virtue could still be made, if Christianity had never been revealed; or at least, if, when revealed, it should be despised and slighted, deprived of all its holy hopes, and awful sanctions, its moral influence opposed, its practical utility denied.

In forming our opinion of the obligation to believe the things which God has revealed, we

ought never to omit the consideration, that the gospel comes to us, not only recommended by its own intrinsic excellence and its undisputed truth, and therefore demands our acceptance upon the ground of its excellence and its truth; but it is enforced also by the express authority of God. We are not even left to form our choice upon the ground of its excellence and its truth: but we are commanded to believe: "This is his commandment, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." The system of religion proposed to us is not so proposed that we may accept or reject it, at least with safety to our immortal souls. God has declared his will, and our only duty is obedience. God has issued his commands, and it can never be a matter of indifference to any man, who is acquainted with those commands, whether he shall submit to them or not. Unbelief is indeed an open violation of the authoritative command of God it is a positive dereliction of that duty and allegiance to him which the creature owes to the Creator; and thus it is exposed to that dread punishment, which is denounced against it by the voice of Almighty justice, "He that believeth not shall be damned."

The words of the text have often been imagined to support an opinion, very much at variance with the preceding remarks-an opinion which tends to invalidate revelation, and to make eternal salvation depend solely upon the performance

of the duties of natural religion.

"He that fear

eth God and worketh righteousness, is accepted of him."

Now, without adverting to the principle, generally recognized in the fair and candid interpretation of the Scriptures, that a fundamental doctrine, established by the undoubted testimony of several texts, cannot be overthrown by an apparent meaning of a single passage; we shall endeavour to ascertain what the apostle really intended to express in these words; and this we shall be able to do, by a careful examination of the circumstances which had brought Peter to the house of Cornelius, to be the first preacher of the gospel to the Gentiles, and to exercise for the first time among the heathen, that power which was entrusted to him, as having "the keys of the kingdom of heaven.”

It is well known that the Jewish nation imagined themselves exclusively entitled to the favour of God. "To Abraham and his seed were the promises made," and they supposed that the simple fact of their natural descent from Abraham gave them the right to the enjoyment of these promises. The Gentiles around them were esteemed as dogs, as outcasts from God's heritage, as accursed of the Lord. Nay, some even held, that no Jew, however wicked, could be deprived of salvation; and that no Gentile, however enlightened, could attain it. Christ had

expressly denied the validity of these claims. He had told them, "If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham." He had traced their rejection of himself and his doctrine, to that bitter hatred of the truth which marked them as the children of the wicked one. "Ye

your

are of your father the devil, and the lusts of father ye will do." It required, however, the lapse of some considerable time, and the interposition of the divine teaching, to eradicate from the breasts of the apostles this feeling of exclusiveness which distinguished the Jewish character. Even they to whom was given the solemn charge, Go, and preach the gospel to every

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creature," seemed for a while to doubt whether their commission extended beyond the pale of the Jewish church; or whether God would accept and admit to the privileges of his gospel others than the children of Abraham after the flesh. In order to convince the mind of Peter, that God had purposed to convey the blessings of the gospel to the Gentiles, a vision of a peculiar description was communicated to him; and this in such a manner, that its import could not be mistaken. He was told expressly not to call "that common or unclean, which God had himself cleansed." He was thus prepared for the unexpected application of a pious Gentile, whose state of fitness for the reception of the gospel was aptly shadowed forth by that part of the vision,