concerning the history of this Church,-except a single hint in another epistle,* in which he recommends to the Corinthians to use the same plan for the relief of the poor saints, which he had suggested to the Galatians. From the influence which he hence appears to have had in Galatia, it is probable, that the Judaical perversion was overcome. CHAP. VIII. PHILIPPI. THE dispensation of the Gospel is doubtless the greatest blessing that can be vouchsafed to any country. But the times and the seasons God hath reserved to himself. Even in this sense salvation is of grace; and Divine Providence alone orders and appoints, that the Gospel shall be preached here or there, as he pleases. Paul and Silas, if left to themselves, in their progress to the west, would have evangelized Pergamus or Asia propria and Bithynia, but were prevented by special intimations of the Holy Spirit. They came now to Troas, so called from its being the place, or near the place, where old Troy had stood, by the sea-coast, uncertain whither they should go next, and perhaps little apprehensive that God, now for the first time, was introducing his Gospel into Europe. A nightly vision, in which a Macedonian intreated Paul to come over into his country and help them, determined at once their destination. They sailed from Troas to the island of Samothracia, and the next day to Neapolis, a Macedonian sea-port, whence, through the gulf of Strymon, they came to Philippi, the first city of that part of Macedonia, which they would meet with in their way from Neapolis. So I understand St. Luke's expression Пpw; for Thessalonica was the capital of Macedonia. The city of Philippi, though originally Macedonian, and so named from Philip, the father of Alexander, was then a Roman colony, inhabited by Roman citizens, and regulated by Roman laws and customs. The region in which it stood, had been renowned for consti * 1 Cor. xvi. 1. + Acts xvi. 7. tuting the third of the four great monarchies under the arms of Alexander, and the place itself had been, something more than half a century ago, the scene of a famous battle, between two Roman parties engaged in a civil war. Neither of THOSE seasons would have been at all convenient for the Gospel. The present was a scene of tranquillity and order under the Roman government: and Macedonia, though now only a Roman province, was going to be the subject of transactions infinitely more noble than those, which adorn the history of its greatest princes. The appearances on their arrival did not promise any thing remarkable. They spent a few days at first with little prospect of success. They found a few Jews there, who used on the Sabbath-day to frequent an oratory out of the city by the river-side: and some women, religiously disposed, resorted thither. It was the constant method of the Apostles to join themselves to Unitarians, wherever they could find them, as the first opening for the Gospel of Christ. They did so on this occasion, and spake to the women. One of them was Lydia, a person of some property. Her heart the Lord opened, that "she attended to the things which were spoken by Paul." She was baptized with her family, and with affectionate importunity she prevailed on the Apostle and his companions to make her house their home in Philippi. Here we have the beginnings of the Philippian Church; but the conversion was sound and stable, and the progress of Lydia in the divine life seems of the same kind as that of Cornelius. Vexed at the prospect, Satan employed a young woman possessed with a spirit of Python to bring the Gospel into contempt if possible. She constantly followed the Christian preachers, and bore them the most honourable testimony. Paul was grieved, as being fully sensible of the ill effect, which a supposed union between Christ and Python* must occasion in the minds of men. He was at length enabled miraculously to eject the demon. The proprietors of the young woman, who had made a *The very term leads me to apprehend, that the oracular work of the Pythian Apollo among the pagans had something diabolical in it: and the story before us demonstrates the reality of such delusions, and that human fraud and sagacity alone are not sufficient to account for them. traffic of her oracular powers, finding that she was dispossessed of the demon, wreaked their vengeance on Paul and Silas, and by slanderous accusations induced the magistrates to scourge them severely, and to commit them to prison. The jailor thrust them into the inner prison, and fastened their feet in the stocks. In this situation, distressing indeed, and in the eyes of many contemptible, these two servants of God, at midnight, though oppressed with pain and hunger and every disagreeable circumstance, were yet enabled to pray and sing praises to God. So powerful are the consolations of the Holy Ghost, and so much did the love of Christ constrain them! And now the Lord caused a great earthquake, which opened all the doors of the prison, and loosed every one's bonds. The jailor awaking, in his first trepidation, by a practice which I wish had been creditable among pagans only, was about to destroy himself. Paul kindly assured him that none of the prisoners had escaped. And now being struck with horror at the thought of the world to come, to which he had been hastening in all his guilt, and being divinely convinced of his danger, he came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and asked what he must do to be saved. The answer was plain and direct. Why do any persons who call themselves Christian ministers ever give any other? "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house." They then instructed him and his household in the nature of the Gospel, and opened to him the doctrine of forgiveness of sins by the blood of Christ. His conversion appears evidently of the same kind, as that of the three thousand at Jerusalem. He was humbled for his sins, and he received pardon by faith in Jesus. His ready submission to baptism, his affectionate treatment of those, who had just before been the objects of his severity, and his joy in the Lord, demonstrated, that he was turned from Satan to God. His whole family shared with him in the same blessings. In the morning the magistrates sent an order for the dismission of the prisoners. But Paul thought it not inconsistent with Christian meekness, to demand from them an apology for their illegal behaviour to Roman citizens; for such it seems Silas was, as well as Paul. The magistrates, alarmed, came personally to make concessions, which were easily accepted. Being dismissed from prison, they entered into Lydia's house, comforted the disciples, and left Philippi for the present. Some years after, the Apostle again visited the Philippians, and found them still in a flourishing state. He always took a peculiar pleasure in this Church; and, in his epistle written from Rome, he thanks God for their sincere fellowship in the Gospel from the beginning. He expresses his expectation of liberty, and of being enabled to see them again, and exhorts them to bear patiently the persecutions to which they were exposed, as being an evidence of the divine favour.* Liberality was a shining virtue among these converts. They had sent once and again to his relief at Thessalonica. And now they had sent Epaphroditus to Rome, to minister to his wants. A dangerous illness had brought that disciple to the borders of the grave. Upon his recovery he was afflicted to think of the distress, which the news of his sickness must have brought on the minds of the Philippians. Paul was therefore the more anxious to send him back. The sensibility of that love, with which the Holy Ghost had influenced all concerned in this affair, is finely described in this part of the epistle. The Apostle, toward the close of it, even exults in the pleasure which the charity of these disciples gave him; and he assures them, that his God would "supply all their need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." He warns them however against the dangers of seduction. Judaizing teachers desired to pervert them. He reminds them, therefore, of his own simple dependence on the Lord Jesus, though he had fairer pretensions than most men to selfrighteousness; and with tears in his eyes declares, that, even then, many pretended Christians walked like enemies of the Cross of Christ. Such was the work of God at Philippi. A considerable number of persons, once worshippers of idols, devoted to * Phil. i. 28, 29. + Phil. iv. 16. Chap. ii. 19 to the end. the basest lusts, and sunk in the grossest ignorance, were brought to the knowledge and love of the true God, and to the hope of salvation by his Son Jesus. In this faith and hope they persevered amidst a world of persecutions, steadily brought forth the fruits of charity, and lived in the joyful expectation of a blessed resurrection. CHAP. IX. THESSALONICA. OF Amphipolis and Apollonia, the next cities of Macedonia through which St. Paul passed, nothing particular is recorded. But at Thessalonica another European Church was formed, inferior in solid piety to none in the primitive times. This city had been rebuilt by Philip of Macedon, and had its name from his conquest of Thessaly. Here Paul followed his usual practice of preaching first to the Jews in their synagogue; and he spent the first three Sabbaths in pointing out the evidences of Christianity. The custom of the Jews in allowing any of their countrymen to exhort in their synagogues, gave the Apostle an easy opportunity of preaching to this people, till their accustomed enmity and obstinacy began to exert itself. Some of the Jews were however converted,* and a great multitude of religious Gentiles who used to attend the synagogue, and not a few females of quality. So difficult is it even for Satan himself to erase all perception of the one true God from the minds of men, so powerful is the voice of natural conscience, and so totally unreasonable is the polytheism of the pagans, that notwithstanding the extreme depravity of human nature, we find, wherever the Jews carried on the public worship of the God of Israel, it was common for some Gentiles to join in their worship. Within the bounds of the Holy Land there were a number of this sort. And I observe through the whole tenour of Josephus's history, that the Romans treated with respect what the Jews held sacred; and whoever was distinguished by any religious thoughtfulness from others, * Acts xvii. 4. |