REFLECTIONS. 1. FROM the conduct of those men who were the accusers of these preachers, and the cause of their punishment, we may learn, how a pretended zeal for religion and the public welfare, may be employed to cover interested and selfish motives. So long as their actions interfere not with the interests of individuals, they are allowed to be innocent and peaceable men; they are allowed to worship and teach as they please; but no sooner do their enemies find their property affected, and the hope of their gain departed, than they are denounced as troublers of the city, and teachers of unlawful customs, and justice is demanded against them as public nuisances. Men of the same character and temper are to be found in every age, who raise a noisy clamour about religion and the public good, whenever any new doctrine or practice is proposed, while they are actuated only by resentment for past, or by fear of future losses. Happy are they who have wisdom to discern their motives, and firmness to resist their clamours, and suffer not themselves, as these magistrates at Philippi did, to be hurried into acts of violence and injustice to the instructers and reformers of mankind. From this example we may judge how much opposition Christianity must have experienced from those who found themselves interested in the support of pagan worship and pagan superstition, and how strong that evidence must have been which could establish it in the world, in the face of this opposition. 2. We see what joy a belief in the gospel is capable of producing in the most afflicted circumstances. The objects of general indignation, confined to the closest part of a prison, lying in the most uneasy posture, and smarting with the anguish of the wounds which had been just inflicted-one might have supposed, that these two companions in wretchedness would have spent the night in sighs and groans, and mutual lamentations, or in deep and sullen silence; or, that if they had formed any articulate sound, it would be to exclaim against the violence of the populace, and the injustice of the magistrates; to call for vengeance upon their persecutors, or to arraign the justice of Heaven in suffering them to go unpunished: but to find them easy in such circumstances, rejoicing in their sufferings, and singing psalms of praise to God, is truly surprising: yet is it the natural effect of a firm faith in the gospel of Christ, and of a wellgrounded expectation of those glorious rewards which are promised to all who suffer in its defence. Happy men! Ye are more to be envied in your dungeon than the men who placed you there, than the greatest and most affluent of the human race, who are sleeping upon beds of down. If such be the fruits of your principles, Christians, cherish them in your hearts with the utmost care: fear not pain, or sorrow, or death; these principles will obtain for you a glorious triumph in every scene. 3. We learn that Christianity does not require men to abandon their civil rights, and tamely to submit to tyranny and oppression. Paul claims his privileges as a Roman citizen, reproves the magistrates for violating them, and insists upon their conducting him out of prison, as an acknowledgment of their fault, and as a tribute of homage to the laws. SECTION XXVII. Paul preaches at Thessalonica and Berea, and being persecuted by the Jews, comes to Athens. ACTS xvii. 1—15. 1. Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews. This convenience Philippi, the last place which they had visited, did not afford. The apostle takes advantage of it, as usual, to preach the gospel first to his countrymen. The two first of these places were considerable cities, which lay to the westward of Philippi, along the coast of the Ægian sea. Thessalonica was upon the same sea, and a large and trading city. As Luke speaks of Paul and his companions in the third person, it is probable that he accompanied him no further than Philippi; but Silas and Timothy were still with him. 2. And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath-days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, 3. Opening, i. e. the Scriptures, and alleging, "proving," that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ. As the Jews entertained a firm expectation of a great deliverer under the character of the Messiah, founded upon the prophecies of their Scriptures, the readiest way to bring them over to Christianity, was to show that these prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth, and particularly in that least-expected part of the history of the Messiah, his death and resurrection. This was what the apostle often attempted to do, and not without success. In this exposition of the prophecies there is no reason to suppose that he was miraculously assisted; his own judgment, aided, as it must be, by the other evidence which he possessed to prove that Jesus was the Messiah, would be sufficient for this purpose: a prophecy, which requires inspiration to understand it, does not deserve the name. 4. And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas, "joined them," and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women, not a few. The labours of the apostle at Thessalonica, at this time, laid the foundation of a very considerable church in that city, to which he afterwards addressed two epistles, which we have at this day; but we learn thence, that the church principally consisted of converts from heathenism; for thus the apostle writes, 1 Thes. i. 9, "For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God;" whereas, according to the account given by Luke in this history, the converts were all Jews or devout Greeks, who were worshippers of God, and could not be said to be turned from idols. This seeming difference, however, between the history and the epistle, is removed by supposing that the passage in the history describes only the effects of Paul's discourses, during the three sabbath-days that he preached in the synagogue; and that his application to the Gentiles at large, and his success amongst them, were subsequent to this.* It may be seen in Griesbach that there is a reading of the passage, supported by respectable authorities, which entirely removes the difficulty; viz. "and of devout persons and of Greeks," &c. Paul must have spent a longer time in the place than three weeks; for during his residence there, he received supplies once and again from the Philippians for his support, which he would not have wanted in so short a period. He tells the Thessalonians, also, that he wrought with his own hands, that he might not be chargeable to any of them: it is probable, therefore, that after having spent three sabbath-days in preaching to the Jews, and having found his labours attended with little success, he quitted the synagogue, and preached to a Gentile audience, by whom his services were better received.t 5. But the Jews took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, "wicked men of the rabble,' and gathered a company, "gathered a mob," and set all the city on an uproar, and came up to the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. 6. And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also; 7. Whom Jason hath received; and these all do contrary to the decrees of Cæsar, saying, That there is another king, one Jesus. The charge brought against Jesus by the Jews, before Pontius Pilate, was, that he made himself king of the Jews, because he * Paley's Horse Pauline, pp. 309, 311. + Paley's Hore Paulinæ, pp. 306, 311. represented himself as the head of a new dispensation, which was called the kingdom of heaven; and the same charge is now exhibited against his disciples, probably on the same ground. 8. And they troubled the people, "the common people," and the rulers of the city, when they heard these things. They were alarmed, lest some scheme should be carrying on, in opposition to the Roman government, which might involve them in trouble. 9. And when they had taken security of Jason and of the other, they let them go. During the violence of the mob, the apostle and his companion were in concealment; but as soon as the tumult had subsided, his friends took the first opportunity of sending him away to a place of safety. 10. And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night, unto Berea, a town of Macedonia, at some distance from Thessalonica, who, coming thither, went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11. These were more noble, "of a better disposition," than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so. The apostle pursued the same method of proof with the Bereans, as he had done before with the Thessalonians, appealing to the prophecies of the Old Testament, but with greater success, because he addressed himself to a more candid and inquisitive audience. 12. Therefore, many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men not a few. He made many converts, not only from the Jews, but likewise from the Gentiles, and some of them persons of the first rank. 13. But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul in Berea, they came thither also, and stirred up the people. Having seen their success in raising a mob against these strangers, they resolved to try the same experiment a second time at Berea, and they were unhappily successful. The apostle and his companions are again obliged to flee from them. 14. And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul, to go, as it were, to the sea, "as if on his way to the sea," but Silas and Timotheus abode there still. 15. And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens, no doubt by his own direction, and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed, they departed. 1. REFLECTIONS. LET not the friends of truth and of the best interests of man, be offended or discouraged at the ill treatment which they experience from the world. Anxiously endeavouring to rescue men from ignorance, superstition, and vice, to deliver them from those disorders which are the natural consequences of such evils, and hereby to promote virtue, good order, and general tranquillity, are they represented as enemies to the public peace, and as wishing to promote anarchy and disorder? Is their zeal spoken of as pride? their benevolence as selfishness? their courage in avowing the truth as obduracy in wickedness, and their desire for reformation as restless ambition, aiming to exalt itself upon the ruins of public order? Are they accused of being artful men, who, under cover of zeal for religion, are propagating political principles of the most dangerous tendency? However painful it may be to the feelings of a generous mind to have its views thus misunderstood or misrepresented, there is no reason for complaint or discouragement, for arraigning the justice of Heaven, or for despairing of a good cause. The same, or even more atrocious calumnies have been uttered against men whose upright intentions and unspotted character are universally acknowledged; against men who have obtained the esteem and veneration of all ages, and who are celebrated as the deliverers of the world. By ignorantly or maliciously uttering them against you, men pay involuntary homage to your characters, and rank you with apostles, who are represented as those that turn the world upside down, as teaching things contrary to Cæsar, and endeavouring to overthrow his government. 2. Let us admire and imitate the undaunted zeal and fortitude of these first preachers. No sooner are they delivered from close imprisonment and severe scourging at Philippi for preaching the gospel, than they renew their labours at Thessalonica; when driven from this city, by a mob of misguided or malicious rabble, they resume the same undertaking at Berea; and when driven thence, in like manner, we shall still find them engaged in the same hazardous office. No clamours can silence their voice, no dangers deter them, no obstacles arrest their progress. If you ask what is the cause of this undaunted courage and invincible resolu |