pleasure. As it respects, indeed, the spiritual privileges which he confers on men in this life, he exercises the power of the potter over his clay, to "create one vessel to honour,. and another to dishonour."* He pours on some the full splendour of Gospel truth, while he dispenses to others only the faint light of reason and nature. Still, in every nation, they that fear him and work righteousness, according to the measure of religious knowledge and aid which they enjoy, are accepted with him. "The Judge of the whole earth will do right." The moral qualities of his intelligent creatures are the only standard by which he will finally regulate his favours to them. "He will judge every man according as his work shall be."t

Let us apply this general principle to those destitute of the light of the Gospel. The state of the heathen world excites many interesting inquiries in the benevolent mind; and the text satisfies these inquiries, by declaring the standard by which God will judge those to whom it has not pleased him to vouchsafe his revealed will. He accepts them according to the fear and service which they render him. If they cultivate the knowledge of him which they have received from tradition, and which nature, and reason, and conscience, confirm; if adoring his power who made the universe, they fear to offend him who is as omnipotent to destroy as he is to save; if rendering homage to his goodness, they devote themselves to him in whom they live, and move, and have their being; if obeying his voice speaking to them through the dictates of reason and conscience, it is their study, as far as

SERMON X.

THE RULE OF FINAL JUDGMENT.

ACTS x. 34, 35.

Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation, he that feareth him and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.

AFTER that lamentable event "which brought death into the world and all our wo," all flesh corrupted their way before God. The sinful propensities of our fallen nature overcoming the feeble dictates of reason, there was danger that the knowledge and fear of the great Creator and Governor of the universe would be totally extinguished in the earth. To restore men from this moral degradation, and to preserve among them his name, his worship, and service, it pleased God, at sundry times, to reveal himself to the patriarchs, and finally more fully to his chosen people Israel. In the midst of the darkness of idolatry which overspread the nation, they were selected to preserve the knowledge of the one living and true God, until the fulness of time came, when he should send forth his Son to proclaim his salvation to all the ends of the earth,

But, as was natural, from the pride of human nature, the Jews became elated with their spiritual distinctions, and they fancied that their law should last for ever. It was indeed to be continued in that spiritual dispensation which was to be the fulfilling

both of the law and the prophets, and to the blessings of which the Gentiles should be admitted; but they supposed it was to be perpetuated in those ceremonial institutions which confined God's covenant favour to their own nation. This restrictive idea of the nature and extent of God's mercy in the promised Messiah, was contrary to the original promise to Abraham, that in his seed all the families of the earth should be blessed; it was contrary to the voice of the prophets, declaring that all the ends of the earth should see the salvation of God; yet it was rigidly cherished by the Jews. Even the apostles of him who came to give his life a ransom for all, were influenced by its contracted spirit; they'supposed that redemption should extend only to Israel, and that the fold of the Messiah was inaccessible except through the narrow door of legal ceremonies.

This opinion swayed the apostles even after their Master had commissioned them to preach the Gospel to all nations. To correct an error so fundamentally opposed to the design of the Gospel, a miraculous vision was vouchsafed to Peter. In this vision, under an emblematic representation of a sheet let down from heaven containing various animals, some of which, according to the Jewish law, were unclean, but which Peter was directed to eat, he was taught that the ceremonial distinctions of the Jewish law were abolished, and that the church of God was thenceforward opened to all nations. As an evidence of this, he was commanded to attend some messengers sent to him from Cornelius, a devout Gentile, who desired to be taught the things belonging to the kingdom of God. Thus miraculously instructed in God's gracious purpose

the infirmity of their nature will admit, to "work righteousness," they will be accepted by that merciful Parent whose creatures and children they are. God will judge them independently of those disadvantages, over which they have no control; he will accept them according as their work shall be. Cornelius was an alien from the commonwealth of Israel, and a stranger to the covenant of promise; he lived among those Gentile nations who, when compared with the light which shone upon Israel, may be said to have sitten in darkness and the shadow of death, yet he is styled "a devout man, one who feared God with all his house, and gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway.' "* And because he was thus pious and holy, though he was not in external covenant with God, he was accepted-" his prayers and his alms came up for a memorial." He was accepted before the offer of the Gospel was made to him. And he was still further accepted, by being received, through the miraculous ministry of Peter, into the Christian fold. Here he enjoyed superior means of virtue, superior spiritual aid, and the prospect of superior reward. In the present state of the world, there are large portions of mankind who, like Cornelius, are aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenant of promise. Destitute of the light of divine truth, of the knowledge of a Saviour, of the means of grace, of the hope of glory, their spiritual condition is more deplorable than was that of Cornelius. From his vicinity to God's favoured people, to whom appertained the adoption, and the covenant, and the giving of the law, and

the promises, he possessed means of spiritual instruction far superior to those now enjoyed by vast portions of the heathen world. Still it is true. at the present day, that in every nation, even though destitute of God's revealed will, they who fear him and work righteousness are accepted with him; they are accepted through the merits of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, of that Saviour who gave himself a ransom for all. Obscure, and in many respects erroneous, is their knowledge of the God who made and preserves them; superstitious and imperfect is the homage which they render him; feeble and partial are the intimations of duty afforded by natural conscience, by the glimmering light of reason and tradition; in them too the Divine Spirit, given only in an inferior measure, exerts only in an inferior degree his life-giving power; the hope of immortality, excited only by the dubious deductions of reason and the uncertain dictates of their feelings, sheds only a faint light on the darkness of the grave. Oh! how precious to Christians should be that blessed Gospel which displays in full lustre, and rests on the testimony of God himself, these most interesting truths-how distinguished the privileges of Christians on whom has shone the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ-and how earnestly should they desire and labour to extend to the benighted nations, that Gospel which enlightens with divine truth the path of this life, and prepares those who obey it for more exalted glory in the life to come. Still God the Father is no respecter of persons; and, therefore, in whatever degree the unenlightened heathen know, fear, and serve him, thus far they will be accepted-thus far they will be reVOL. III.

15