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eminent degree of piety and perfection may be attained by the grace of God. And long as the day is past since the bright beams of the sun have reflected themselves on a world distinguished by a pure profession of religion, let us not think that a renovation of those blessed times is wholly without hope. Christ is with us still. What he has done for his Church, we are assured, by his promise, he is still ready to perform. As he has always been faithful to his word, we have every just reason to imagine that he will continue to befriend us. But whatever reflections we may too frequently have occasion to make on the general habits and manners of professing Christians, not one among us should neglect the study of his own heart. Collectively, and individually, we must still remain faithful to him-faithful to those heavenly doctrines which he came from heaven to offer to the world-faithful as sons and servants, accepting his atonement with thankfulness, and dedicating ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice unto him.

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My son said the Wise Man, give me thine heart'." It is our heart, in the strictest and completest sense of the word, which we must offer, and present, before the throne of grace; not an heart full of the world, full of vanity, sin, and folly; but an heart emptied of every vain-glorious thought, humbled to the dust with a sense of its unworthiness, and trusting only to the merits of

1 Prov. xxiii. 26.

our ever-blessed Redeemer. It is from this point only that we dare look to the luminous examples of the primitive Christians; as it is from this point only, through the assistance of the Holy Ghost the Comforter, that we can have any just confidence of success.

SECTION I.

LECTURE III.

ACTS I.

The Ascension-Return to Jerusalem, and Devotion of the Apostles-Election of Matthias. Jerusalem, A.D. 33.

THE entrance on a new field of instruction is like the approach to a new discovered country; or at least to a country, of whose existence, perhaps, we might not have been ignorant, but of which we have neither admired the beauties, nor tasted the delicious fruits. The Acts of the Apostles, though long a favourite and a fruitful study in the Christian Church, may yet be new to some who have never considered its history in detail, have never attended the primitive Christians to their retired places of worship, have never observed the effect of the first preaching of the Apostles, nor accompanied them in their progresses to disseminate the word of salvation.

If gratitude may yet be found within the human heart, if affection yet remain for those who have

been the means of conferring everlasting benefits on mankind, if a pious zeal for the propagation of those doctrines which speak peace to those who are near, and to those who are far off, have yet any influence on a world, devoted, alas! too frequently to other purposes, with what rapture shall we not look back upon the labours of our first instructors; how shall we not bless God for the honest warmth of Peter, the eloquence and energy of Paul, the piety, wisdom, and discretion of the other holy founders of the Christian Church!

Of all species of writing, that of biography has been esteemed the most interesting and instructive; as "it is most easily applied to the purposes of life." General history makes less impression on the mind than those events which are connected with personal occurrences. We remember with less ardour and improvement the result of many actions, than we do the particular changes which took place in the accomplishment of them; we rest with peculiar interest on the difficulties which occur; we weep with those that weep over circumstances of distress; we rejoice with those that do rejoice for the happy termination of affliction.

The history of the Acts of the Apostles, into which we are now entering, abounds in biographical anecdote. Many characters in it are developed by their actions, and the interest which we take in such discoveries, enriched as they are by the invaluable properties of gospel-knowledge, meliorate the affections, improve the understanding, regulate and reform the heart.

The introduction to this book carries back our attention to the Gospel written by the same author', in which he had given us an account of the life, doctrine, and religion of Jesus, " of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up, after that he, through the Holy Ghost, (when he breathed on his disciples, and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost") had given commandments unto the Apostles whom he had chosen." In the present treatise, the divine plan is still further pursued, by a revelation of the means by which this religion, which was at first so wonderfully declared, was afterwards as wonderfully propagated in the space of thirty years not only in Jerusalem, and within the narrow limits of Judea, but through many neighbouring nations, even as far distant as Rome, then justly esteemed the metropolis of the world. A propagation the more wonderful, as it was not assisted by Kings and Emperors, nor even promoted by rulers of powerful districts and provinces, but by plain and obscure men-by men, however, lifted from their humble sphere by the appointment of our Lord himself, and commissioned, as evidences of the sacred truth which they proclaimed, with miracles, and wonders, and signs.

"The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus." Dr. Benson conjectures that St. Luke wrote both his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles in one book, and divided it into two parts; and that the Acts are the second part of the book, or history, of which he himself has called his Gospel the first part, тоν πрштоν Xoyov. The latter is inscribed to Theophilus, as well as the former.

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