331 



miraculously sent a messenger to teach him a better way ; to pro- 

 claim the remission of sins through that name alone whereby we 

 can be saved. 



There could not be a more zealous worshipper of God than 

 Saul of Tarsus, under a dispensation which came from heaven, by 

 signs and wonders, and a combination of every thing to render it 

 sublime and awful; yet in his memorable journey to Damascus, 

 the Redeemer of man, having then fulfilled the law, introduced a 

 new dispensation, and ascended into heaven, appeared in a won- 

 derful manner to this zealous champion for Judaism. While he was 

 breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the Christian 

 church, the great Head of that church suddenly arrested him in his 

 career, and sent him, as a chosen vessel, to bear his name before 

 the Gentiles, and to preach his gospel to kings and people; espe- 

 cially to the polished nations of Greece and Rome, whose philoso- 

 phers believed in the unity of God as much as the absorbed brah- 

 min, or twice-born man, among their devotees; but where the mass 

 of the people were, like the Hindoos, given up to polytheism, idol- 

 atry, and pagan darkness. 



If we place the superior brahmins on an equality with the good 

 Cornelius, more cannot be expected; yet Cornelius was to be 

 taught a better way. And it is granting, perhaps, more than is 

 required, to allow the Hindoos at large to be in the same condi- 

 tion as the Jews, " to whom appertained the adoption, the glory, 

 the covenant, the giving of the law, the service of the sanctuary, 

 and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is God 

 over all, blessed for evermore!" Yet, after all this superiority over 

 every other nation, the apostle most ardently prays for Israel, that 



