sus: a most extraordinary instance of the efficacy of Gospel miracles and doctrines, and of their complete victory over the most successful competitors and pretenders. Some commendation also is due to Simon on the occasion, if he did really believe that he did not, like many others, turn away from all possible means of conviction, although his whole former credit and authority must at once be given up, and for ever, by a confession of the Christian faith.

:

But, alas! we have in this man a remarkable example of that inconsistency which is too often found in human nature. For not long after he had thus candidly made all his own powers and pretensions submit to Christ, and brought his understanding into complete subjection to our Lord's divine authority, he gives a fatal proof, that his heart was not right in the sight of God. Having observed

Apostles had sent

that Peter and John (whom the from Jerusalem to Samaria, to accomplish and confirm the new converts) were empowered, by prayer and imposition of hands, to confer the gift of the Holy Ghost upon those already baptized by Philip; he offered them money, for enabling him to do the same. How such a thought could enter the mind of any man, who had ever heard a syllable of the Gospel, is to us matter of great surprise. For: so contrary to its whole frame and spirit is the de.

sire here expressed, that we cannot account for it by the most extreme ignorance. But what may not admit explanation in one view of the case, may be very clear in another; I mean corruption of heart. No blindness of the understanding is so fruitful of error; no defect of the judgment more dull and stupid. Had Simon been free from this most false interpreter of all law, human and divine, I believe no one imagines that he could have been capable of so great absurdity, not to say guilt. He certainly must have possessed considerable talents, whether acting in his former capacity by his own powers, or aided by evil spirits; otherwise he could never have acquired so many followers. But what availed these or greater talents, so long as there remained in the soul a mass of pollution, which truth could not penetrate? The eye, to outward appearance may be fair and beautiful, and even its structure just and accurate: but if any foul stuff should lodge on that part, where the images of things are painted, all is darkness. The light of religion is indeed to enter through the understanding; but should there be any thing to intercept its passage to the heart, vain is the brightest intellect, the finest wit, the acutest reason. For religious perception is not so much to know, as to feel the great things which God hath done for us, and the infinite obligations we lie under for his most gracious work of redemption. "It is with

the heart that a man believeth unto life." This disposition was wanting to Simon. He saw and confessed a divine power in the wonders wrought by the Apostles; but the impression reaching no farther, because his heart was still full of the world, his knowledge was barren, and soon vanished away. St. Peter therefore assures him, that he had neither lot nor part in this matter ;" and exhorts him "to repent of his wickedness;" which like bitter gall vitiating sweet and wholesome food, corrupted this bread from Heaven; or, like bonds and fetters, held his soul imprisoned and enslaved. This reproof and exhortation seem to have sunk more deeply, and had a better effect upon the mind, than all his former conviction; for they alarmed his conscience, silenced his clamorous appetites, and began to purify his heart. He feels, or appears to feel, terror and remorse, and such a sense of his own unworthiness, that he intreats the Apostles to pray for him, lest the punishment due to his crime should fall upon him. Yet this humility was not lasting; for he afterwards fell into heresy, denying Christ to be the Son of God; paying divine honours to Angels, as makers of the world, and mediators between God and men; maintaining an universal license to sin; with other abominable tenets. So that his heart was never perfectly cured from the pollution of its first imposture.

In the foregoing argument I have supposed that

Simon was sincere in his belief. But it is very possible that from the first he played the hypocrite, and that perceiving Philip able to do greater works than himself, he joined him for the purpose of obtaining greater authority and profit than he could acquire by his own art. Which of these was the case, I cannot take upon me to determine. The history says, "he believed." I thought it right, therefore, to reason the point, as if that faith were so far honest, as to convince him that he saw works more than human; particularly as some useful reflections arose out of this supposition.

On

The next distinguished convert made by Philip, of whom we read, was the treasurer of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had come to Jerusalem for to worship." He was, probably, one of those Hellenistic Jews, mentioned in a former lecture, who used to attend the great festivals. his returning home in his chariot, he was employed in reading the famous prophecy of Isaiah, relating to the Messiah; He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearers, so opened he not his mouth. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away, and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth." This last verse is translated pretty closely from the Septuagint Greek version already noticed, and differs in a small degree from the passage referred to in Isaiah, c. liii. v. 8. as

translated from the Hebrew; which is as follows: "He was taken from prison and from judgment; and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living." The meaning in both is much the same; and is rendered more clear by Bishop Lowth's translation, "By an oppressive judgment was he taken off, and his manner of life who would declare ?" that is, who would stand forth in his defence?

I have no further remarks to detain you with, on the remainder of this chapter, where in the conversion and baptism of the eunuch by Philip is related with all imaginable plainness; unless it be to recommend the same honest search after truth, the same readiness to be instructed, and the same joy at being made partaker in the Gospel of Christ, which seem to have distinguished this officer in the present memorable transaction.

We are now come to one of the most important events that ever occurred in the propagation of Christianity, the conversion of St. Paul; which is recorded very distinctly and fully in the ninth chapter of the Acts. The account is so generally and well known, that I shall not quote it at length, but give you an explanatory view of what it principally contains. Saul, yet breathing out slaughter against the church, had obtained a commission from the high priest, to bring all the Christians, whom he should find at Damascus, bound to Jeru