should leave this world, than during his personal CENT ministry*. Judea and Galilee being thus prepared for the Gospel, the blessed tidings began to be spread through them, and to be attended with rapid success, soon after the first persecution which arose concerning Stephen. Those, who had felt the flame of Divine Love in Jerusalem, being obliged to flee, preached through these regions, and many thousands were converted, as we have seen. The motherchurch, no doubt, was the most numerous, but various Churches in the country must have contributed to make up the sum. The small size of Palestine may tempt some to wonder, if many thousands became Christians, how the main body of the nation could yet remain in infidelity. remain in infidelity. The amazing populousness and fertility of the country accounts for this. The number of populous towns, in Galilee particularly, is astonishing, as appears from Josephus's narrative of the Jewish war. The single town of Gadara, near the lake of Gennezaret, by no means a town of the first magnitude, maintained two thousand swinet. If then the importance of regions be measured by the number of inhabitants, rather than by the extent of ground, this small country night vie perhaps with modern Russia. Of these Churches the first instruments were not the Apostles themselves, though they doubtless visited them afterwards, and confirmed them. James the son of Zebedee would not confine his labours to Jerusalem, till the time of his martyrdom, no more than the rest of the twelve, if perhaps we except James the son of Alpheus, who was the first standing Pastor of Jerusalem. * Let this account, once for all, for the much greater use which I make of the Acts and of the Epistles, than of the four Gospels. These last are indeed inestimable; but their uses are of another kind, and fall not within the plan of this work. + Mark, v. 15. 1. CHAP. II. These Churches, most probably, followed the example of the parent-church, both in its first love and comfortable progress, and also in its unhappy declension. Peter's activity in establishing them was very conspicuous. "The Lord wrought effectually" in him for the conversion of the Jews all along *. He passed through all quarters, and visited the places most remote from the capital, such as Lydda, Saron, and Joppat. In all these places the Spirit of God accompanied his work. It was in this last city that the Lord by him raised Tabitha from the dead. I should scarce have mentioned this miracle, in a work which professes all along to record the ordinary, not the extraordinary operations of the Holy Ghost, were not the woman distinguished by "her good works and alms-deeds which she did." All the widows stood by Peter weeping, and showing the "coats and garments which she had made, while she was with them." Thus had this woman's faith evidenced itself by good works; and the Spirit of piety and of prayer had gone hand in hand with that of industrious beneficence. Hail, Tabitha! thou hast the highest glory and of the most solid kind, which is attainable on earth! But the reader sees how simple and low Christian exploits must appear in the eyes of worldly men. They are not like the swelling deeds of heroes and statesmen, which have hitherto, for the most part, monopolized the historic page. But the persons who are influenced by the Spirit of Christ, with Tabitha will yet know with whom they would wish to be numbered. The female sex, almost excluded from civil history, will appear perhaps more conspicuous in ecclesiastical. Less immersed in secular concerns, and less haughty and independent in spirit, they seem, in all ages, to have had their full proportion, or more than the other sex, of the grace of the Gospel. CHA P. III. SAMARIA. THIS country lay in the midst between Judea and Galilee, though distinguished from them both in its polity and religion. The inhabitants possessed a large part of the district, which had belonged to the ten tribes, whom the kings of Assyria had carried into captivity. These conquerors had filled their vacant place with various colonists*, who mixed the worship of Jehovah with their idols, vainly boasted of their relation to Jacob †, professed to regard the law of Moses, and despised or at least depreciated the rest of the Old Testament. Our Saviour clearly decides the contest, which, for ages, had been carried on between thein and the Jews, in favour of the latter. But though the Samaritan was an idolater in his very foundation, yet in moral practice he appears not worse than the Jew. Both,: indeed, were at this time extremely corrupt, and gloried in cherishing an enmity, which forbad them the exercise of common humanity to one another. The Divine Saviour pitied this people. He visited them himself, and some sinners were converted. He made a second attempt, but the bigotry of the village to which he approached, prevented them from receiving him there, a circumstance which excited the fiery zeal of the two sons of Zebedee, and gave occasion to our Lord to say, "The Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." He/meekly bore the repulse, and went to another village. But the effusions of his kindness toward this unhappy people were now to appear in abundance. Among the seven deacons the next person to Luke, ix. 53. CENT. CHAP. Stephen, in zeal and activity, was Philip. Driven III. from Jerusalem by the persecution, he was directed to go to the city of Samaria, perhaps to the saine city called Sychar, where our Lord had conversed with the woman over Jacob's well. There he preached Christ, and the Gospel entered the hearts of many, so "that there was great joy in that city." The inhabitants appear to have been a very ignorant simple people, but now that the Spirit of God was poured upon them, none received the Gospel with more cordial pleasure. One effect immediately appeared, which indeed never fails to attend the hearty reception of the Gospel. Superstition and diabolical delusions vanished. A person, named Simon, had deceived this people with sorceries; I dare not say with pretended sorceries: We shall see sufficient proof, before we have done with the apostolical history, that sorcery was a real thing. For a long time they had been infatuated; but Philip's doctrine expelled their regard for these things, and numbers of both sexes were baptized. Simon himself, though a stranger to the nature and power of Christ's religion, was yet convinced, that Christianity in general was true; and this seems the just idea of a mere historical believer. The Apostles hearing of the happy reception of the Gospel at Samaria, sent down Peter and John, who prayed on the behalf of the people, that the Holy Ghost might be imparted through the imposition of hands. The Spirit was communicated, not only in extraordinary gifts, but also in an effusion of the same holy graces, which had appeared in Judea. The former were those alone, which attracted the attention of Simon. His avaricious heart immediately conceiving the prospect of vast wealth to be acquired, were he once possessed of this supernatural power, he offered the Apostles a sum of money for the communication of the secret. Peter, who saw * Acts, viii. 8. I. distinctly both his covetousness and his ignorance, CENT. rebuked him in the severest manner, assured him that his heart was wrong altogether, and his state accursed, notwithstanding his baptism and profession of Christianity. At the same time he exhorted him to repent and to seek the divine forgiveness. Here we see how singularly remote the religion of Jesus is from all worldly plans and schemes, and what an awful difference there ever is between a real and a nominal Christian. The conscience of Simon felt the reproof: he begged the Apostles' prayers; but it does not appear that he prayed for himself. Peter and John preached through many Samaritan villages, and then returned to Jerusalem. The Samaritans, a sort of half Jews, for they were all circumcised,-being favoured with the same spiritual blessings as the rest, the minds of Christians were prepared to expect a similar extension of heavenly grace to uncircumcised idolaters. And among the wonders of divine love which we have reviewed, these are pleasing circumstances, that Jews and Samaritans, who, for ages, had disagreed in rites, should now be united in Jesus; and while each felt the same obligations to grace, should have learnedmutual charity for the first time. CHA P. IV. ETHIOPIA*. IV. It is instructive to observe, by what gentle degrees CHAP the goodness of God was preparing the way for the general diffusion of his grace in the world. The first Christians, even the Apostles themselves, were by no The Ethiopia to which this chapter is confined, seems to be that part of the country, whose metropolis is called Meroe, eituated in a large island encompassed by the Nile and the rivers of Astapus and Astoborra: For in these parts (as the elder Pliny informs us) Queens had a long time governed under the title of Candace. See Cave's Life of Philip. |