deceive you to your ruin ! Let them argue as they will, no other foundation can ever be laid for a sinner to build upon, but that which God has laid, even the Lord Jesus Christ ]
2. Improve them for the end for which they are delivered —
[God has sent them to you by my mouth, even as he did to Cornelius by Peter ; and for the same ends ; namely, that " you and your households should be saved by them." Consider your state as guilty and undone creatures, and as needing mercy at the hands of God : and lay hold upon the hope that is set before you. So shall you obtain " the remission of all your sins," and " be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation."]
Acts xi. 13, 14. Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, ivhose surname is Peter ; who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.
WHILST we deny that the Apostle Peter pos- sessed any such supremacy above the other Apostles as the Papists ascribe to him, we most willingly ac- knowledge that very singular honours were conferred upon him by our Lord himself; and especially that of bearing the keys of the kingdom of heaven, or, in other words, of opening the kingdom of heaven both to Jews and Gentiles. We all know, that, on the day of Pentecost, it was his sermon which was made so pre-eminently useful for the converting of three thousand souls at once : nor can we doubt but that his ministry continued to be crowned with very abundant success. But, for the space of six years, he did not discern the just extent of the commission that had been given to the Apostles generally ; namely, to " go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature ;" and still less did he know what authority he had himself personally received, to open the door of salvation to the Gentiles, as he had already done to the Jews. Hence, when the time was come for the fuller manifestation of the truth to the Gentiles, he needed to have his prejudices