Therefore they were
willing to hope, that if they endeavoured to observe the great
principles of morality which Christ had represented as the principal
part, the sum and substance of religion; if they thought honourably of
the Gospel; if they offered no injury to the Christians; if they did
them all the services that they could safely perform, they were willing
to hope that God would accept this, and that He would excuse and forgive
the rest." Jortin's Dis. on the Christ. Rel. p. 91, ed. 4.
_________
Christianity, however, proceeded to increase in Jerusalem by a progress
equally rapid with its first success; for in the next chapter of our
history, we read that "believers were the more added to the Lord,
multitudes both of men and women." And this enlargement of the new
society appears in the first verse of the succeeding chapter, wherein we
are told, that "when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there
arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their
widows were neglected;" (Acts v. 14; vi. 1) and afterwards, in the same
chapter, it is declared expressly, that "the number of the disciples
multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and that a great company of the priests
were obedient to the faith.
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