SERMON X.

ON THE DUTY OF

TURNING FROM OUR

INIQUITIES.

ACTS iii. 26.

Unto you first, God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.

WHEN St. Peter and St. John had, in virtue of the divine power that was given them, entirely cured, in an instant, a man who was begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple in Jerusalem, and who had been lame from his birth,-the people who were upon the spot, wondered greatly at this miracle. St. Peter, therefore, informed them, that it was not effected by any power or holiness that he and his brother Apostle possessed of their own, but that it had been wrought through faith in Christ. He reminded these people of the injustice, of which they and their rulers had been guilty, in delivering Jesus to be crucified, and in refusing to liberate him when

Pilate himself had been willing to do so;-but, at the same time, he mildly imputed it to their ignorance; and, instead of upbraiding them with the sin and cruelty of their conduct, he exhorted them to "repent, and be converted, that their sins might be blotted out." To encourage their repentance, he briefly adverted to the prophecies which had foretold the coming of Christ,-and concluded with saying, "Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.' Unto you first, God, having raised up his Son Jesus,* sent him to bless you, or, blessing you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities."

When the Apostle asserts that God sent his Son Jesus to bless the Jews in the first instance, and in preference to any other nation, he declares the same thing that is recorded by the Evangelists; for they represent our Saviour as saying, that he was not sent to exercise his personal ministry among any but the Jewish people and when he gave the twelve Apostles their first commission, he charged them not to go to the Gentiles or to the Samaritans, but to confine themselves "rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." The conversion, indeed, of the Jews to Christianity, was a favourite object in the early days of the Church. St. Peter was so devoted

i. e. raised him up among you as a lineal descendant, in his human nature, from Abraham.

+ Matt. x. 6.

His

to it in his own mind, that he is emphatically styled the Apostle of the Circumcision; and we know that when he was sent for by Cornelius the Roman Centurion, he would have refused to go, if God had not intimated to him by a vision, that the Gentiles were equally admissible with the Jews to the privileges of the Gospel. St. Paul, as being chiefly employed in the conversion of the Gentiles, is styled the Apostle of the Uncircumcision; and yet two of his epistles,--that to the Romans, and that to the Hebrews,—were addressed to persons who had been Jews. anxiety for converting the whole nation to the Christian faith, is expressed in language as affectionate and forcible as can well be conceived." Brethren," says he, "my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved." "I say the truth in Christ; I lie not,-my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh : who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever, Amen."+

We see, then, that though the Jews were the persecutors and murderers of our Lord Jesus Christ,

yet the blessings of the Gospel dispensation were offered to them as freely and generously, as if their conduct had been ever so good. The Apostles

appear to have been actuated towards them with the same feeling that Christ himself was, when he uttered on the cross that mild and placable ejaculation,Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."

66

Nothing could be more conciliating or winning than St. Peter's declaration in the text;-nothing could be so attractively encouraging, as his assuring the persons whom he addressed, that, in Christ's earthly mission, the preference was given to their nation, and that "God had sent him to bless them, in turning away every one of them from their iniquities." No individual was excepted; but the blessing was offered to every one of them. No respect of persons is even hinted at; but the people and their rulers are all and individually included in the declaration.

Notwithstanding this and other gracious proposals, the Jewish people, with comparatively few exceptions, persisted in their hardness of heart, and with a culpable consistency rejected the doctrines and evidences of that Gospel, the blessed Author of which they had, "with wicked hands," and in defiance of his miracles and his works of benevolence, " crucified and slain."

But though these "rejected the counsel of God, against themselves," yet other nations accepted the

glad tidings of that salvation which is effected for mankind by the atonement of Jesus Christ;—and as we are in the number of those, we may apply to ourselves the Apostle's cheering assurance, that to us, though not first in order, nor personally in ministration,-yet effectually and to all the timely purposes of our eternal good, the Almighty has sent his beloved Son to "bless us also, even us," in turning away every one of us from his iniquities." Let us examine, therefore, the nature of this blessing.

The word "iniquities" in the text, signifies depravities, wicked habits or practices, and might with equal propriety, have been so translated. When it is said that our Saviour's blessing consists "in turning away every one of us from his iniquities," we are not to conclude that this will be done without any effort or inclination of our own; for God's gifts are always accommodated, in some degree, to the disposition of the receiver. Religion would not be a service,— much less would it be a reasonable service-if nothing were to be done on our part ;-and the conferring of divine grace upon us is not a mere mechanical operation,--otherwise, the Scriptures, which are intended as the law of our minds and the rule of our actions, would be useless, and we should be impelled and governed by immediate inspiration, without any care or duty on our own part. St. Peter himself contradicts this notion, in the very address before us; for he charges the Jews to "repent, and be converted, that their sins may be blotted out ;" and their