learning the truth, and prepared to receive the Gospel with an honest and good heart. This is the description of persons alluded to, when it is said, as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed.*

St. Paul informs us, in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, that he had baptized in that city none but Crispus, and Gaius, and the household of Stephanas; but, as we read in the Acts, that many of the Corinthians believed and were baptized, we may infer, that the ceremony of baptism was performed by his attendants. Of the two branches of that commission, which was delivered by Christ to his Apostles, Go teach all nations, and baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, one only appears to have been insisted upon in the special instructions given to St. Paul, for he says, Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the Gospel. We are not, however, to understand from this expression, that St. Paul thought baptism an unimportant ceremony, or himself at liberty to dispense with it; but that, while others around him administered the outward rite of admission into the Church of Christ, he himself had been employed in the more difficult and *Acts xiii. 48. + 1 Cor. i. 13. ‡ 1 Cor. i. 17.

important work of preaching the Gospel, and of preparing his hearers for admission into the Church of Christ. And when he thanked God, that he had baptized none of the Corinthians, but Crispus and Gaius and Stephanas, it was because he had thus given no pretence to any of the parties, into which the Church was divided, to say, that he had baptized in his own name. That he preached in his own name, they could not lay to his charge; for he appealed to the Corinthians as witnesses, that he preached not himself, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and himself their servant for Jesus' sake.*

From the encouragement given him in a vision, Be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace; it may appear, that the Apostle laboured under a sense of his personal deficiencies, and a diffidence of his powers of persuasion, which he had exerted to so little purpose at Athens; and which he was perhaps reluctant again to put to the proof, before the learned inhabitants of one of the most polished cities of Greece. This notion is confirmed by his own expressions to the Corinthians, in the tenth chapter of his second Epistle: Now I Paul myself beseech you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ; who in

* 2 Cor. iv. 5.

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presence, or outward appearance, am basé among you, but being absent, am bold towards youhis letters (say they) are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible. Whatever may have been the cause, it is certain, that even an Apostle stood in need of spiritual encouragement in the discharge of his sacred duties. And what minister of Christ does not feel the want of such comfort and support, when he reflects on the magnitude and unspeakable importance of the work to which he is called; the foes which he has to encounter ; the obstacles to be beaten down; and the infinite value of the souls, whose eternal welfare may perhaps depend upon the success of his labours? for we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish. To the one we are the savour of death unto death, and to the other the savour of life unto life: and who is sufficient for these things?* Who indeed is sufficient? Not he, who relies entirely upon enticing words of man's wisdom;t upon the stores of his learning, or the power of his eloquence; but he, who knows the true value of human acquirements, as instruments of ministerial usefulness; who, in the simplicity of an + 1 Cor. ii. 4.

*2 Cor. ii. 15.

entire devotion to the cause of Christ, and with a confidence in its prevailing excellence, and acknowledging his sufficiency to be of God, by manifestation of the truth, commends himself to every man's conscience in the sight of God;+ not compromising, nor concealing the truth, for fear of offending the prejudices, or incurring the ridicule of those, who, like the Jews at Corinth, oppose themselves and blaspheme, or like Gallio, care for none of these things; but doing faithfully the work of an evangelist, reproving, rebuking, exhorting; while the voice of the master, whom he serves, prevails against the suggestions of a false shame, and the clamours of an opposing world; Be not afraid; but speak, and hold not thy peace; for I am with thee.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth chapters we find two instances recorded of persons, who had been baptized either by John or his disciples, and who had been prepared by their preaching for the coming of the Messiah; and are yet supposed not to have been aware that the Messiah was already come. In that case they could not have heard either Jesus or any of his Apostles; and it would then be probable that they had not been baptized by John himself, but by some * 2 Cor. iii. 5. † 2 Cor. iv. 2. Acts xviii. 17.

of his disciples, who had quitted Judæa before the miracles and preaching of Jesus had excited attention or perhaps by some of those, who doubted whether Jesus were the Christ, and whose doubts were not removed by the sublime answer which he gave to them, when they were sent to him by the Baptist.

But it appears to me, that both Apollos, and the Ephesian disciples, had in fact heard of Jesus Christ, and believed him to be the Messiah announced by John the Baptist; but that they were imperfectly acquainted with the nature of the Gospel revelation, and ignorant of the necessity of entering into the Church of Christ by baptism. St. Luke says of Apollos, that he was instructed in the way of the Lord; had learned the rudiments of Gospel truth; understood the meaning of those prophecies which foretold the coming of Christ, and knew that they had been accomplished in the person of Jesus, and was able to prove this by the Scriptures; for he taught diligently, or accurately, the things of the Lord; but yet he did not understand the nature, nor the dimensions, nor the efficacy of that faith in a crucified Redeemer, which could reconcile a sinner to his God; nor the indispensableness of something more than repentance, to qualify him for an