by miracles and wonders and figns, which GOD did by him, in the midst of you, as ye yourselves alfo know; him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and flain." But David foretold of the Meffiah, that he should rife from the grave, and not fee corruption, And accordingly "this Jefus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witneffes."

Such is the clear demonftration of the apostle, that Jefus was the Mefliah; that, being man, he fuffered, and died, and rose again from the dead. But did the holy preacher stop here? having taught the humanity of this Son of David, did he prudently avoid dropping the leaft intimation, before a prejudiced multitude, of a higher character, sustained by the fame person; and referve that and other myfterious points, to be inftilled by degrees, among the initiated, in private conference? Far otherwife. The very fame gift, which in the beginning of his fpeech, he afcribes unto God, even Jehovah the true God, for He it is, who utters the words in Joel; this self same gift, to

9 See Joel ii. 27. &c.

wards

wards the close of his addrefs, he attributes to Chrift: "Therefore," fays he, " being by the right hand of GoD exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghoft, he hath fhed forth this, which ye now fee and hear." Immediately after this, he quotes from the royal Pfalmift, a paffage, which is, at once, a proof of our gracious Redeemer's exaltation, as the Meffiah, and of his proper Divinity, as the Son of GOD: "The LORD faid unto my Lord, fit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool." And then he draws, from the whole, this general conclufion : "Therefore let all the houfe of Ifrael know affuredly, that God hath made that fame. Jefus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ."

During the personal abode of our blessed Saviour with his difciples, they were enjoined fecrecy, on some important articles; but it was only, till the Son of man was risen from the dead'. There were likewife many things, which as yet they could not bear '; but when the Spirit of truth was come, he was to guide

Comp, Matt. xvii. 9. Mark. ix. 9. with Matt. xvi, 20. Mark viii. 30. Luke ix. 21.

See John xvi. 12, 13.

them

them into all the truth; and then, as their Lord had exprefsly charged them, they were to speak in the light, what he had told them in the darkness of parables, and to preach upon the house-tops, boldly and publicly, what they had heard in the ear, the inftructions imparted to them in private. And they did what they were commanded, in this, as well as in other inftances. They kept back from their hearers, as they themselves, with confcious integrity, profeffed, nothing that was profitable for them; nor fhunned to declare unto them all the counfel of GOD". Points of doctrine, or of difcipline, which were of subordinate moment, might be afterwards taught, and errors might be confuted, as they should arife; but articles of effential confequence engaged their chief attention, and the first care of the wife mafter-builders was, to lay a firm foundation. The The great atonement of the crofs, as we learn from St. Paul, was a primary doctrine *; and this was not taught, perhaps indeed could not be, without explaining the dignity of Him who made it. For a creature, however exalted, muft owe, to his Creator, all poffible ho

See Matt. x. 27. * See I Cor. xv. 3.

" See Acts xx. 20. 27.

mage;

mage; and cannot therefore greffions of others.

pay for the tranf

But this momentous point was not left to uncertain inference. As by St. Peter in his first fermon, fo likewife by the reft, it was explicitly taught. Belief in GOD, and belief in Chrift, were inculcated by them, with equal earneftnefs, and in the very fame form of words. "Repentance from dead works," the confeffion and renunciation of fin, led the way. This was followed by faith, towards Him who had accepted, and towards Him who had made, through the eternal Spirit, a full propitiation. To these was added "the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of eternal judgement."

: Conformable to what the apostles taught was the declaration of faith, made by their converts, when they were admitted into the church. For they were required to profess, not only that Jefus was the Christ, but that he was likewife the Son of GOD"; after which they were baptized, " in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghoft "."

y See Heb. vi. 1, 2. and comp. ix. 14. Acts xx. 21. z See Acts viii. 37. a Matt. xxviii. 19. But

But to return from this digreffion; if indeed, on the prefent occafion, it be a digref fion, to fhew the order and manner, in which the gospel truths were communicated to mankind. Upon the miraculous acceffion of converts, on the day of Pentecoft, a regular church feems forthwith to have been eftablished. For they, who were baptized, "continued fteadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, and" in "fellowship" one with another; they partook of the emblems of Chrift's bleffed body and blood, and joined together in prayers b.

As yet no fign, or none that is recorded, had been wrought by the apostles, if we except that ftupendous one, of speaking with new tongues, But in the third chapter of the Acts, a miracle is recited, of which no inftance is diftinctly related, in any of the Gofpels, as performed by our Lord; the healing of a man, lame from his mother's

b. See Acts ii. 41, 42.

The man healed at Bethesda, John v. 2. &c. feems not to have been lame, but afflicted with fome other bodily infir mity. Compare the 3d, 5th, and 7th verfes. Cyril of Jerufalem, in a fragment on this miracle, calls the man a paralytic. See p. 311. ed. Oxon. 1703.

womb.