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 in t!)e Citp of i^eto |9orfe 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
LECTURES 
 
 UPON THK 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 
 
 OF THE j 
 
 I I.!!U:IARY. 
 
 FIRST THREE CENTURIES,/ Q;^ H . 
 
 FROM THE CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS CHRIST. 
 TO THE YEAR 313. 
 
 EDWARD BURTON, D.D. 
 
 l.ATE REGIUS PUOFESSOR OF DIVINITY AND CANON OF CHRIST CHURCH. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 OXFORD, 
 
 rRINTED HY T. COMIiE, TRINTER TO TllE UNIVERSITY, 
 
 FOR J. H. PARKER : AND J. G. AND F. RIVINGTON, LONDON. 
 
 MDCCCXXXIX. 
 
u 
 
 / 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IT will perhaps be remarked, that the following 
 Lectures upon the ecclesiastical liistoi'ij oftliefii'st 
 century might have been entitled with equal pro- 
 priety, Lectures upon the Acts of the Apostles. The 
 remark is not inapplicable to the first nine Lectures : 
 and instead of feeling a wish to remove such an ob- 
 jection, I would state at the commencement of this 
 preface, that one of my objects in delivering these 
 Lectures was to furnish a commentary upon the 
 Acts of the Apostles, which might be useful to per- 
 sons who were studying that work, as well as to 
 the general reader of ecclesiastical history. 
 
 If we look through the first century of the Chris- 
 tian era, we shall find among other divisions of it, 
 which are more or less artificial, that we may divide 
 it into the periods before and after the death of St. 
 Peter and St. Paul. If these apostles suffered mar- 
 tyrdom at the end of the reign of Nero, we may say 
 in round numbers, that this division consists of two 
 periods, the first of seventy, the latter of thirty years. 
 Concerning the greater part of the first period, we 
 have the most authentic materials in the writings 
 of the New Testament : concerning the latter period, 
 we know little, and are left principally to conjecture 
 and tradition. This being the case, a minute history 
 
 of events in the first century will appear tedious and 
 
 a 2 
 
 O 1 Q 1 ^> 
 
 ^ J_ tJ -4. 'V 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 unnecessary to many persons, so long as they are 
 attending to facts, which they have already collected 
 from the New Testament: and accordingly many 
 writers pass over this part of the history very rapidly, 
 assuming that their readers are already familiar with 
 it. There is perhaps no place, in which I might 
 have more justly made this assumption, than where 
 I was addressing an academical audience, and where 
 many of my hearers were professionally studying 
 the Scriptures. I have, however, preferred the plan 
 of dwelling with equal minuteness upon every por- 
 tion of the first century, where materials presented 
 themselves : and one object, as I observed above, 
 was to furnish an illustration of the Acts of the 
 Apostles. 
 
 I am not aware of any ecclesiastical historian, who 
 has followed the same plan. Most writers appear 
 to me to have made this part of their history too 
 short and superficial. My own work will perhaps 
 be considered too minute and circumstantial : but 
 having stated the twofold plan, which I had in view, 
 I have to hope that criticism will be confined to the 
 execution only. 
 
 The part which will probably give rise to most 
 discussion, is that which concerns the chronology : 
 and having ventured to differ from many modern 
 writers, I may state in justice to myself, that the 
 scheme was not adopted hastily, but that continued 
 reflection persuades me more and more of its ap- 
 proximation to truth. It may be added, that the 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 Fathers and early ecclesiastical writers are nearly- 
 unanimous in supporting it. In writing a connected 
 history, it was absolutely necessary, that some dates 
 should be assigned : and the inconvenience of intro- 
 ducing critical discussions upon points of chronology 
 is very apparent. I have therefore assumed the cal- 
 culations to be true, which I explained in a small 
 tract published in 1830, entitled, ^w attempt to as- 
 certain the cJu^onology of the Acts of the Apostles, 
 and of St. Paul's Epistles : and the following short 
 statement will enable any person to make the same 
 calculations for himself. 
 
 I have taken the death of Herod Agrippa, men- 
 tioned in Acts xii. as a fixed and ascertained date. 
 Good reasons have been advanced for fixing it in 
 43 : but so large a majority of critics has placed it 
 in 44, that I have adopted that opinion. The first 
 apostolic journey of St. Paul commenced about this 
 period : (compare Acts xi. 30. xii. 25. xiii. 2 :) and 
 in following the detailed narrative of St. Luke, I 
 cannot but be astonished, that any person should 
 suppose this journey to have occupied more than a 
 few months, or at most more than one year. This 
 leads us to place the Council at Jerusalem (Acts xv.) 
 in the year 46 : and each successive perusal of the 
 Epistle to the Galatians persuades me more and 
 more, that the visit of St. Paul to Jerusalem, men- 
 tioned in Gal. ii. 1, is that when he went with Bar- 
 nabas to attend the Council in 46. This visit was 
 fourteen years after some former event in his life ; 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 and I cannot but conclude, that he was speaking of 
 fourteen years from the visit to Jerusalem, men- 
 tioned in Gal. i. 18: and this is expressly said to 
 have been three years after his conversion. We 
 might thus seem to be carried back seventeen years 
 from the year 46, and so to place the conversion of 
 St. Paul in the year 29 : but since this appears too 
 early a date for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, (which 
 must have preceded the conversion of St. Paul,) there 
 must be some error in the calculation : and this may 
 easily be rectified, by supposing one or both of the 
 periods of three and fourteen years to be taken in- 
 clusively ; or in other words, by supposing St. Paul 
 to have meant, m the third year I went up to Je- 
 rusalem^ (Gal. i. 18.) and in the fourteenth year 
 after I went up again to Jerusalem, (ii. 1.) We 
 might thus go back only fifteen years from the year 
 46, and the conversion of St. Paul would be placed 
 in 31. This is the date which I have assumed for 
 that event : and I may again quote the authority of 
 the early writers, as supporting me in placing the 
 conversion of St. Paul within a few months after 
 the ascension of Jesus Christ. For the arguments 
 in support of this opinion, I would refer to the tract 
 mentioned above. 
 
 The cardinal points in this scheme of chronology 
 are the conversion of St. Paul, the council at Jeru- . 
 salem, and the first arrival of St. Paul in Rome. The 
 latter date must be fixed by calculating the time 
 which is necessary for the events detailed by St. 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 Luke : and whoever has considered the latter part 
 of St. Paul's life, will feel the convenience of sup- 
 l)osing him to arrive at Rome as early as 56 : by 
 which means we have a period of six or eight years 
 subsequent to his release, in which he may have 
 preached the gospel in different countries. 
 
 This is the outline of the plan, which was fol- 
 lowed by myself: and I have more confidence in 
 asking the reader to make a similar calculation, be- 
 cause upon two occasions, when I was lecturing 
 upon the Acts of the Apostles, nearly all the per- 
 sons, who attempted to arrange these dates, came 
 sej^arately and independently to the same conclu- 
 sions. I may be excused for feeling strengthened 
 in my own previous opinion by this unbiassed and 
 involuntary agreement. 
 
 The reason, which I have given for not intro- 
 ducing chronological discussions, has also led me 
 in other cases to state the conclusions, without add- 
 ing the process by which they were obtained. His- 
 torical disquisitions are curious and valuable, but 
 they impede the course of regular history : and few 
 persons can have read the works of Mosheim, with- 
 out lamenting the length of his notes, and conse- 
 quently the frequent interruption of the narrative. 
 I have thought it better to refer the reader to the 
 authors, who have discussed these points: and though 
 it has not been my wish to multiply references, I 
 have endeavoured to supply the reader with the 
 means of obtaining the best information. I ought 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 perhaps to apologize for having so often referred to 
 my Bampton Lectures : but many of the events, 
 which are noticed in the present work, have been 
 discussed at considerable length in the notes to the 
 Bampton Lectures : and having seen no reason to 
 alter my opinions, I could hardly avoid pointing out 
 the places, where the grounds of my reasoning may 
 be seen. 
 
LECTURE Ut Tpb 4RY 
 
 K.YOS-^^- J 
 
 "xj'' vnA'. '^^^_ __ ^ 
 
 When the Son of God had finished the work for 
 which he came into the world, and ascended to his 
 former glory, the Roman empire was swayed by a 
 man, whose character is marked by as much un- 
 mixed depravity, as we meet with in the annals of 
 any civilized nation. It would be hopeless, and 
 perhaps it is unnecessary, in a dissertation of this 
 kind, to attempt to settle accurately the year of our 
 Lord's crucifixion. A probable approximation to 
 the truth is sufficient for our present purpose : and 
 speaking generally I should say, that those chrono- 
 logists appear to have most reason on their side, 
 who place the crucifixion and ascension of Jesus 
 Christ in the year 783 or 784 from the building of 
 Rome, which correspond with the years 30 and 31 
 of the Christian era^. If we adopt the latter date, 
 our Lord was crucified when Tiberius had been in 
 sole possession of the empire for nearly seventeen 
 years. It was a little before this period, that the 
 death of his mother Julia Augusta'' had freed him 
 from a partial restraint, and he had plunged more 
 deeply into that refined and degrading sensuality, 
 which, together with cold-blooded and calculating 
 cruelty, seem at this time to have absorbed a mind, 
 
 " See Seneschallus, Trind. Apost. p. 46. Fabricius, Bib- 
 Evangel. Qusest. I.e. I — 12. Hog. Antiq. c. y'n. sect. 10. p. 
 Natalis Alexander, Diss. II. 187. 
 Quasi. I. L. Capellus, Hisl. ^ Tacit. Annal. V. i. 
 
2 State of the lect. i. 
 
 not unsuited by nature for worthier and higher ob- 
 ject^. It was about this time also, that his minister 
 and favourite Sejanus met the reward of his crimes, 
 and was deprived at once of his influence and liis 
 life ^. This was perhaps another restraint with- 
 drawn from the licentious passions of Tiberius ; and 
 like other persons, who have heaped favours upon 
 their minions, after profiting by their vices, he was 
 perhaps not sorry to get rid of a man, who, after 
 being the means of depressing others, had become 
 himself an object of jealousy. 
 
 Tiberius had at this time little to interest or 
 employ him in political affairs. His reign, though 
 morally disgraceful, was glorious for the Roman 
 arms ; and the empire, Avhich was transmitted to 
 him by Augustus almost in a state of peace, was 
 enlarged in more than one direction by accessions of 
 territory. At the time of which I am speaking, 
 the Roman dominion was bounded only by the ocean 
 on the side of Spain and Britain. A chain of for- 
 midable garrisons held the Gauls in subjection : and 
 Germanicus had not only pushed his conquests to 
 the mouth of the Rhine amidst the fens and mo- 
 rasses of modern Holland ; but he had inflicted signal 
 vengeance on Arminius, and exhibited the triumphs 
 of Rome on the banks of the Elbe. A revolt, which 
 was more than once excited in Africa by Tacfarinas, 
 was as often and speedily suppressed ; and in the 
 east, where the limits of the empire were more un- 
 defined, the dissensions between Parthia and Arme- 
 nia gave to their ambitious neighbours, as is usual 
 in such ijnpolitic quarrels, a groutid of interference, 
 and thence an acknowledged superiority. The whole 
 
 '^ DioCass. LVIII. II. p. 885. 
 
LECT. I. Roman Empire. 3 
 
 of Asia Minor might be said to be divided into pro- 
 consular governments. Cappadocia was ' the last 
 country which maintained its independence ; and 
 when the king was summoned to Rome, and there 
 ended his days, his kingdom was reduced to a pro- 
 vince in the fourth year of the reign of Tiberius. 
 The commander, whose station was most critical, 
 and whose services were most actively engaged, was 
 the person who represented the Roman government 
 in Syria. Beside being in constant communication 
 with the military governor of Egypt, he had a deli- 
 cate and unceasing occupation nearer home, in watch- 
 ing the jealousies between Parthia and Armenia, 
 and in securing the dominion which Rome really ex- 
 ercised over both. The storm had not yet begun to 
 gather fully in Judaea ; and the disturbances, vi^hich 
 occasionally arose on account of the paying of the 
 tribute, were sufficiently checked by the ordinary 
 Roman forces quartered in the country. These were 
 under the command of the president of Syria, who 
 fixed his residence at Antioch ; and of the procurator 
 of Judaea, vrhose inferior office required him par- 
 ticularly to vratch the movements of that country, 
 and who, being generally stationed at Caesarea, went 
 up to Jerusalem on few occasions, except at the 
 public festivals. 
 
 The circumstances of the Jewish people at this 
 period, and their political situation, are so intimate- 
 ly connected with the first rise of Christianity, that 
 a little more detail may be necessary upon this 
 point. 
 
 I need not go back to the period of their return 
 from captivity, nor to the serious evils which they 
 suffered from being situated between the rival king- 
 
 B 2 
 
4 State of the Jeivs. i.ect. i. 
 
 donis of Syri«i and Egypt. The brilliant successes 
 of the Maccabees had also no immediate connexion 
 with the present subject ; though perhaps it was the 
 increase of territory, and the rising importance which 
 the Jewish nation had assumed under their com- 
 mand, that first led the Romans to view them with 
 a jealous eye. Hyrcanus, who beside conquering 
 the Idumeans in the immediate neighbourhood of 
 Jerusalem, made himself master of all Samaria and 
 Galilee, had the prudence to enter into a treaty of 
 close alliance with Rome^. This was about 129 
 years before the birth of Christ: and the kingdoms 
 of Syria and Egypt were still so far independent, 
 though both were tottering to their base, that an 
 extension or contraction of the Jewish territory did 
 not necessarily call for Roman interference. The 
 dissensions of the grandsons of Hyrcanus led to this 
 fatal consequence ; and in the year 63 before Christ, 
 Jerusalem was besieged and taken by Pompey, who 
 had listened as arbiter to both parties, but probably 
 intended from the first to settle the dispute by his 
 own soldiers*'. Pompey, as might be expected, fa- 
 voured that one of the rival brothers who was likely 
 to be the most submissive tool in his own hands : 
 and leaving the feeble Hyrcanus as high priest and 
 nominal head of the Jewisii nation, he carried off 
 the more warlike and enterprising Aristobulus as 
 his prisoner. He took care also to limit the domin- 
 ions of Hyrcanus to Judaea, and then for the first 
 time he imposed a tribute upon the Jews, which was 
 to be paid to the Roman people. The profanation 
 of the temple by Pompey was never forgiven by the 
 Jews. In the civil war which ensued, they took 
 
 fl Joseph. Aniiq. Xill. 9. e lb. XH'. 4. 
 
LECT. I. Herod the Great. 5 
 
 part with Caesar, and were able to render him some 
 assistance in his Egyptian campaigns ^ The op- 
 portunity, however, which this contest might have 
 given them of once more regaining their independ- 
 ence, was lost by their own internal dissensions. 
 Aristobulus, and his son Alexander, made many at- 
 tempts to reinstate themselves in power; and Jeru- 
 salem was for some years a constant scene of blood- 
 shed. Antipater the Idumean, who might have 
 used his influence with Caesar in benefiting his coun- 
 try, was looking merely to his o\\ n interest ; and 
 being invested by the conqueror with the govern- 
 ment of Judaea, in the larger sense of that term, he 
 appointed his son Herod to superintend the affairs 
 of Galilee?^. Herod was from the first bold, crafty, 
 ambitious, and regardless of the measures which he 
 pursued : hence, as might be expected in such times 
 of anarchy, he was often successful, but sometimes 
 on the brink of ruin ; and never losing sight of the 
 expediency of paying court to Rome, he gained the 
 summit of his ambition, when his affairs seemed 
 almost desperate. Antigonus, the son of Aristobu- 
 lus, by aid of the Parthians entered Jerusalem, and 
 held it with a numerous army. Herod, who was 
 wholly unable to meet him in the field, took the de- 
 cisive step of going to Rome ; and there, unexpect- 
 edly, as it appears, even to himself, he received the 
 crown of Judaea from Mark Antony and Augustus. 
 Returning with astonishing celerity, and almost be- 
 fore the news of his elevation could be known, he 
 marched an army to Jerusalem, and in conjunction 
 with the Roman forces commanded by Sosius, he 
 
 f Joseph. Anliq. XIV. 8. ? Ibid. XIV. 9. 
 
 B 3 
 
6 Herod the Great. i.ect. i. 
 
 took their city after a long and obstinate struggle''. 
 This may be looked upon as the real beginning of 
 Herod's reign, about thirty-seven years before the 
 Christian era : and though the precise date of He- 
 rod's death is attended with difficulty, we know that 
 our Saviour's birth did not long precede it. 
 
 During this period of thirty-seven years, the 
 chains which bound Judiea to Rome were more 
 firmly riveted, although there was always a strong 
 and zealous party opposed to such a disgraceful de- 
 pendence. Herod Avas an usurper, and had there- 
 fore a real interest in removing every remnant of 
 the Asmonean family. This is a clue to most of 
 the atrocious cruelties which disgraced his reign : 
 and he had sagacity enough to see, that nothing but 
 a close alliance with Rome could secure his power. 
 In pursuance of this principle, notwithstanding his 
 former connexion with Antony, he contrived to pro- 
 pitiate Octavius after the battle of Actium ; and the 
 conqueror bestowed on him part of the territory, 
 which Cleoi)atra had formerly wrested from Judaea'. 
 This put him in possession of Samaria, and several 
 maritime towns : and later in his reign he gained 
 also the country called Trachonitis, to the east of 
 the lake of Gennesaret'^. It would be absurd to 
 deny to Herod the possession of talent and deep po- 
 litical foresight. To keep on good terms with Rome 
 was perhaps not difficult : but it is certain, that 
 there was a large party of the Jewish people, with 
 whom he was not unpopular. This was perhaps 
 owing to his unbounded magnificence, which dazzled 
 the eyes of his subjects ; added to which, his reign 
 
 b Joseph. Aidiq. XIV. i6. i Ih. XV. 7, 3. ^ Ibid. XV. 10, i. 
 
LFCT. I. Herod the Great. 7 
 
 was really one of peace and prosperity to the nation 
 at large. His great work of rebuilding the temple, 
 which he commenced about seventeen years before 
 Christ ^ must have been particularly gratifying to 
 the national feeling ; and he made use of his in- 
 fluence at Rome to obtain for the Jews of Asia 
 Minor a ratification of all their privileges. Still 
 there was not a particle of real patriotism in the 
 breast of Herod. To promote and secure his own 
 authority was the first and last of all his cares. It 
 was this which embrued his hands so deeply in the 
 blood of his own family, and which urged him to 
 the policy of gradually accustoming his subjects to 
 Grecian and Roman manners. This could only be 
 done with great caution, and to a small extent in 
 Jerusalem itself: nor did his attempts always pass 
 without open opposition. But in other towns of his 
 dominions, and particularly in Caesarea, (which he 
 built on the sea-coast where Straton's towei* before 
 stood,) he disregarded the customs and religious 
 feelings of his subjects, and endeavoured to reconcile 
 them to heathen manners. There was a party, as I 
 have already said, which always watched these in- 
 novations with a jealous eye : and though his al- 
 liance with Rome made it impossible to throw off 
 the yoke, there were many who sternly refused to 
 make any profession of dependence upon a foreign 
 power. The Pharisees and Essenes were most reso- 
 lute in this opposition : and we have other evidence, 
 beside that of the New Testament, that a national 
 expectation was generally entertained of some great 
 Deliverer, who was shortly to appear, and restore 
 
 1 Joseph. Aiitiq. XV. ii. 
 B 4 
 
8 Herod the Great. lect. i. 
 
 them to their former freedom "\ Such an expecta- 
 tion was likely to agitate Herod, as well as the Ro- 
 man government ; and the tragedy, which was acted 
 at Bethlehem not long before Herod's death, though 
 not noticed by Josephus, or any other historian, is 
 in accordance with all that we read of his suspicious 
 and sanguinary temper. The flight of Joseph and 
 his wife's infant son into Egypt is another proof 
 that Herod's fears were by no means slight, and that 
 he took active measures to remove the possibility of 
 a rival. The slaughter of the innocents, or the exe- 
 cution of his own son, was the last public act of 
 Herod's life : and since his policy had not led him 
 to court personal attachment, the Jews could of 
 themselves have had no desire to place any of his 
 family upon the throne. Herod, however, in the 
 course of his long reign had cut off almost every 
 branch of the Asmonean family. The hopes, which 
 might have been kindled by a leader sprung from 
 that heroic line, were destroyed ; and feelings of 
 patriotism, or deep and sullen discontent, were not 
 sufficient to shake the firm foundation on which the 
 power of Rome was built. 
 
 The sons of Herod, whose feelings were much 
 more foreign than Jewish, did not hesitate as to the 
 quarter to which they were to look for possession 
 of their father's territories. Regardless of the anar- 
 chy in which they left Jerusalem and Judaea, they 
 hastened to Rome, and pleaded against each other, 
 at the foot of Caesar's throne, for the right of suc- 
 ceeding to a father, whom they had hated, and of 
 oppressing a people whose interests they ought to 
 
 mSeeTacit.//?>^V.i3. Sue- Jtid.Yll. 12. Basnage, //w7. 
 ton. Vespa.s. 4. Joseph, c/e i?e/. des Jiiif.s, torn. V . c. 10. p. 193. 
 
LECT. I. Soms of Herod. 9 
 
 have protected. The feeling of the Jews towards 
 Herod's family, and their devoted love of liberty, 
 were shewn by their sending at the same time a de- 
 putation to Augustus, and petitioning to be restored 
 to their independence ". The account of this em- 
 bassy also informs us of the great numbers of Jews 
 who were then resident at Rome. We are told that 
 8000 were present at the audience which the em- 
 peror gave to the deputies from Judaea. It was 
 not however probable that he would listen to their 
 request. The fact of there being so many of these 
 foreigners within his own capital may perhaps have 
 impressed upon him still more the expediency of 
 keeping the people in subjection ; and we may trace 
 a well known principle in the science of extensive 
 despotism, in his dividing the dominions of Herod 
 among three persons, who would be checks upon 
 each other, and all of them dependent uj)on Rome. 
 The territory, which was now at the disposal of 
 Augustus, comprised Judaea in the largest sense of 
 that term ; i. e. from Idumaea on the south, to Ga- 
 lilee on the north, as well as a tract of nearly equal 
 extent on the east of the Jordan. Archelaus re- 
 ceived what was perhaps considered the most dis- 
 tinguished portion, containing Idumaea, Judaea, and 
 Samaria ; but it might be doubted, whether Antipas 
 had not really a more enviable allotment in the 
 quieter districts of Galilee and Peraea. The northern 
 part of the trans-Jordanic territories was allotted to 
 Philip. Archelaus had left Jerusalem in a state of 
 great confusion ; and the love of liberty, as well as 
 the rapacity of the Roman officers, had excited the 
 
 a Joseph. Anliq. XVII. ti. de Bel. Jud. II. 6, i. 
 
10 Judcea tributary lect. i. 
 
 Jews to such a degree, that Varus, the president of 
 Syria, was scarcely able to quell them with a large 
 military force. The reign of Archelaus was one of 
 continued riot and unpopularity ; and the accusa- 
 tions against him compelling him to go to Rome in 
 the tenth year from his appointment, he was ba- 
 nished to Vienne in Gaul". This was about the 
 year 8 or 9 of the Christian era ; and from the 
 banishment of Archelaus the Jews did not retain 
 even the semblance of independence. Judaea, with 
 the adjoining districts of Idumsea and Samaria, was 
 placed under the president of Syria, and under the 
 immediate superintendence of a governor called Pro- 
 curator, who Avas nominated by the emperor. There 
 is reason to think that this change, though it made 
 the subjection of the Jews complete, was the cause 
 of throwing more power than before into the hands 
 of the priests and the sanhedrim. The Roman pro- 
 curator collected the tribute : he continued the sys- 
 tem, which had been begun first by Herod, of ap- 
 pointing and deposing the high j)riest at his will : 
 and he overawed the multitude, particularly at the 
 great festivals, by a strong military force : but a 
 Roman officer had no taste for discussing or deciding 
 points of Jewish law ; and the civil and criminal 
 jurisprudence seems to have been left very much 
 to Jewish tribunals. It may be doubted whether 
 those persons are right who assert that the Jews lost 
 at this time the power of life and death. " Take 
 " him, and judge him according to your law'','' was 
 the answer of Pilate himself to the Jewish authori- 
 ties, when they called upon him to execute Jesus : 
 
 o Joseph. Aniiq. XVII, 13. P John xviii. 31. 
 
LECT. I. to Route. 11 
 
 and they may have done this, because it was con- 
 trary to their religion to execute criminals at the 
 passover, and because they wished to cast upon 
 Jesus the odium of political disaffection ^i. However 
 this may be, there can be no doubt that the uncer- 
 tain tenure upon which the high priests held their 
 office, led them into the usual consequences of in- 
 trigue, injustice, and rapacity : the rivalry between 
 Pharisees and Sadducees distracted the counsels of 
 the sanhedrim ; and it is not strange, that the people 
 were led by the example of their rulers into the 
 commission of similar excesses. 
 
 The immediate annexation of Judaea to the Ro- 
 man empire was the time chosen by Augustus for 
 collecting the tax, for which the inhabitants had 
 been assessed nine or ten years before, at the time of 
 oiu' Saviour's birth. Quirinius, who had the dis- 
 agreeable office of receiving it, was met with violent 
 opposition. For some years the Jews in different 
 parts of the country had followed one leader after 
 another, who excited them against the Romans, and 
 generally led them to destruction. A more formid- 
 able insurrection was now raised by Judas in Ga- 
 lilee ^ ; and though, like former leaders, he could 
 make no stand against the Romans in the field, the 
 party of Judas continued active for a long time: and 
 the persons who were called Zealots, from their zeal 
 for the national religion and independence, perhaps 
 began first to be organized at this period. 
 
 Augustus appointed three procurators during the 
 remaining six years of his reign ** ; the disturbed 
 
 ^ See Deylingius, Observ. 2. Biscoe, c. 6. 
 iSV/rr. part. II. p. 313. Basnage, ' Joseph. Antiq. XVIII. i. 
 
 Uift. des J//ifs, torn. III. 15^ c. ^ Coponius, A. D. 8. M. Am- 
 
12 Jeivs under Tiberius. lect. i. 
 
 state of the country perhaps making it impossible 
 for any of these officers to satisfy his master. During 
 the twenty-three years which Tiberius reigned, there 
 were only two procurators * ; which might seem to 
 shew that a better method had now been learnt of 
 keeping the Jews in subjection; or, as Tiberius him- 
 self professed, he considered that a governor, who 
 continued long in his province, was not likely to be 
 so rapacious, as those who knew that they were soon 
 to be superseded. Tacitus despatches the history 
 of Judoea during the reign of Tiberius in three 
 words, "^wi Tiherio qaies^;'' and the sententious 
 Roman would have thought himself justified in using 
 the term quiet, if no serious or successful resistance 
 was made at that period to the Roman arms. A 
 Jewish historian would probably have written very 
 differently ; or if the state of things might be de- 
 scribed at all as quiet, it was like the quiet of the 
 elements before a storm ; when he who can dis- 
 cern the signs of the times, perceives that the evil is 
 only suspended, and waiting for a signal to burst 
 forth. The term quiet was still less applicable to 
 the Jews, who came more immediately under the 
 notice of Tiberius; for in the year 19 some thou- 
 sands of them were sent from Rome, their peculiar 
 religion being confounded with the superstitions of 
 Egypt : and again, about the year 23, by the in- 
 fluence of Sejanus, the emperor banished them from 
 Rome, or, as some think, from Italy ^. This de- 
 cree was not reversed till after the fall of Sejanus, 
 
 bivius, A. D. lo. A. Riifus, A. ^ See Joseph. Aniiq. X\'^III. 
 
 D. 13. 3. Pliilo Ju(i. Leg. ad Caiuui, 
 
 ' Valerius Gratus, A. D. 15. p. 569. adv. Flacciim, p. 517. 
 
 Pontius PilatuS;, A.D. 26. Tacit. Aiiiial. II. 85. Suetou. 
 
 ^i Hist. V. 9. Tib. 36. 
 
LECT. I. Pontius Pilate. 13 
 
 which happened in the year 31 ; so that many Ro- 
 man Jews were likely to be in Judaea during our 
 Saviour's ministry ; and the Romans, who are spoken 
 of as resident in Jerusalem when the Holy Ghost 
 fell on the Apostles y, may have been some of those 
 Jews and proselytes to Judaism, who had been 
 forced to leave Rome. 
 
 The two procurators sent to Judaea by Tiberius 
 were Valerius Gratus and Pontius Pilate; the latter 
 of whom was appointed in the year 26. The ordi- 
 nary residence of these officers being at Caesarea, 
 brought them less frequently and personally in con- 
 tact with the Jewish authorities. Pilate however 
 found a strong proof of the national feeling which I 
 have described, when he introduced some troops 
 into Jerusalem by night, and in the morning the 
 Roman standards exhibited to the Jews the eagle, 
 and the image of the emperor. This public display 
 of an image offended their religious, still more than 
 their political, feelings ; and though Pilate was at 
 first disposed to treat their remonstrance with con- 
 tempt, he was obliged at last to yield, and the ob- 
 noxious standards were withdrawn''. 
 
 Such was the state of things in Judaea when John 
 the Baptist began to preach in the fifteenth year of 
 Tiberius, perhaps about the year 28 of our era; and 
 our Saviour's ministry may be supposed to have 
 begun in the following year 29. The Jews, as we 
 have seen, were impatient of subjection, and had 
 often broken out into revolt ; but they had now been 
 accustomed to the yoke for nearly twenty years ; 
 and I should suspect, that beside the Zealots, whose 
 
 y Acts ii. lo. 
 
 ^ Joseph. Antiq. X\''III. 3. dc Bel. Jxd. II. 9, 2. 
 
14 Preaching of lect. i. 
 
 principles were openly avowed, the opposition to 
 Rome was greater, or at least more sincere, among 
 the lower orders of peoj)le, than with the priests and 
 rulers. The latter, as I have observed, had much 
 real power left in their hands by the Romans, and 
 this may have been a measure of policy, to separate 
 the interests of the higher and lower orders : but 
 the people, who felt and cared little about the exer- 
 cise of power, knew that they paid a tribute to fo- 
 reigners ; and, as is often the case, though as often 
 a mistaken expectation, they coupled the idea of 
 political independence with that of a freedom from 
 taxation. In one sense therefore the people of Ju- 
 dciea were ready to receive any person who professed 
 to be their deliverer ; and yet when the real De- 
 liverer appeared amongst them, they rejected and 
 crucified him. The reason of this apparent incon- 
 sistency is not difficult to find. In the first place, if 
 we contrast the conduct of Jesus with that of Theu- 
 das, Judas of Galilee, or any other of the popular 
 leaders, we see at once the striking contrast, that 
 these men excited the people not to pay tribute, and 
 rested theii- popularity upon this resistance ; whereas 
 the principle of Jesus was, Rencle?' unto Ccesar the 
 things that are Caesar's. Jesus therefore was not 
 the deliverer who was looked for by the people : if 
 his opinion was considered at all concerning the 
 question of Roman interference, it was rather in 
 favour of it than against it ; and if he gained fol- 
 lowers, it must have been upon some other principle 
 than that which we have hitherto been tracing. 
 Again, if we look to the Gospel history, we find that 
 the lower orders ivere much more disposed than their 
 rulers to acknowledge Jesus. Upon more than one 
 
LECT. I. John the Baptist. 15 
 
 occasion he was forced to elude their intentions to 
 make liim a king : the priests were well aware that 
 this was the popular feeling ; and never perhaps 
 was the inconstancy of such a feeling more strikingly- 
 displayed, than when the same multitudes shouted 
 at the crucifixion of Jesus, who but a ioMV days be- 
 fore had hailed him with Hosannas, and followed 
 him in triumph into Jerusalem. 
 
 These considerations may assist us in understand- 
 ing how John the Baptist was the forerunner of 
 Jesus. So long as the public feeling continued as 
 it was, it was impossible that the gosj)el could be 
 generally received. The wickedness of the nation 
 had become enormous ; and the only deliverance 
 which they sought was from their Roman masters. 
 To effect this was, as they thought, to restore again 
 the kingdom of God ; but as for any moral change, 
 which should make them fit to receive God's favours, 
 they did not entertain a notion of it. John there- 
 fore began by trying to convince his hearers, that 
 repentance and amendment were necessary. His 
 doctrine, as that of our Saviour, was, that the hing- 
 dom of heaven was within them; i. e. it might be 
 within them, and depended upon the purity of their 
 own hearts. We read, that the preaching of John 
 had an astonishing effect. We need not suppose 
 that all who were baptized by him abandoned the 
 idea of an earthly deliverer ; but they at least ad- 
 mitted the principle, that in order to belong to the 
 kingdom of God, they must repent, and forsake their 
 sins. The preaching of John seems to have left 
 two leading impressions upon the minds of his dis- 
 ciples; one, that the expected deliverer was at hand ; 
 and the other, that this deliverer would not profit 
 
16 John the Baptist. lec'J'. i. 
 
 them, unless they brought forth fruits meet for re- 
 pentance. John therefore was strictly the forerunner 
 of Christ. He was to make ready a people pre- 
 pared for the Lo9'd. His doctrine was in every 
 sense the same as that of Jesus Christ ; only he was 
 not himself that Light, hut teas sent to hear witness 
 of that Light. His preaching appears to have pro- 
 duced an effect beyond the limits of Judaea ; and at 
 a period twenty years later we read of some Jews 
 at Ephesus, who had been baptized unto John's bap- 
 tism*. I should understand by this, that they be- 
 longed to that party which acknowledged the ne- 
 cessity of holiness and repentance, and which looked 
 anxiously for the coming of the promised Redeemer. 
 This expectation was in some sense entertained by 
 all the Jews ; but John's preaching gave rise to a 
 great division of them into those who thought re- 
 pentance necessary, and those who did not : and the 
 former adopted as the outward token of their belief 
 that bodily ablution, which long after the time of 
 John himself continued to bear his name. 
 
 Our Saviour found this division already esta- 
 blished when he began his ministry. There were 
 many already disposed to hear his heavenly mo- 
 rality ; and the doctrine of a judgment to come, 
 which implied a chance of even true Israelites being 
 rejected, made a deep and practical impression upon 
 their hearts. This was a great step gained : but 
 the doctrine of a future judgment, if founded upon 
 mere human principles, can scarcely fail to lead to 
 the notion, that good and evil deeds will balance 
 each other : it will inflate some men with arrogant 
 presumption; it will sink others into melancholy 
 
 « Acts xix. 3. 
 
LECT. I. Preaching of Jesus. 17 
 
 despair. The preaching of John, if a mightier than 
 he had not followed him, might only have been 
 marked by this result : and Jesus Christ undertook, 
 with the aid of twelve unlettered men, to subvert 
 these conclusions of human reason, and to convince 
 mankind that their own righteousness could never 
 bring them to heaven. John appears to have gained 
 his influence by the methods usually employed by 
 popular teachers : but Jesus had greater and more 
 mysterious truths to impart ; and it was necessary 
 that he should command attention by other and ex- 
 traordinary means. The miracles of Jesus Christ 
 were not mere displays of superhuman power, in- 
 tended to dazzle and confovmd ; nor were those, 
 which had a beneficent and merciful effect, directed to 
 that as their sole object: they were worked, that men 
 might draw from them this conclusion, that no man 
 can do these miracles^ except God he with him^ ; 
 and that the followers of Jesus might appeal to him 
 as a man approved of God hy miracles and wonders 
 and signs, which God did by him^. We are not to 
 look upon the ministry of Christ, during the short 
 time that he was upon earth, as a full developement 
 of the scheme which he came to accomplish. He 
 was rather the doer and perfecter of that scheme, 
 than the expounder of it. It may be doubted, 
 whether his immediate forerunner, at the time of 
 his death, fully vmderstood the real nature of his 
 office, and of the deliverance which was at hand. 
 Jesus himself certainly did not declare it openly. 
 He let fall occasionally obscure ajid mysterious say- 
 ings, which his disciples remembered afterwards, 
 
 'I John iii. 2. ^ Acts ii. 22. 
 
18 Preaching of Jesus. lect. i. 
 
 when their hearts were enlightened ; but nothing 
 short of a miracle could have made them understand 
 at once the spirituality and universality of the gospel 
 scheme. The disciples required to be trained and 
 disciplined, as well as the rest of the people ; and 
 we shall see that several years elapsed, before they 
 comprehended the whole of the doctrine which they 
 were to preach. Jesus therefore and John the Bap- 
 tist preached one and the same doctrine. The lan- 
 guage of both of them was, that the h'lngdom of 
 heaven is at hand. As preachers, they both pre- 
 pared men to be admitted into this kingdom : the 
 diiference between them was, that Christ by his 
 death opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. 
 The redemption of man was then accomplished ; 
 but man had yet to learn this great truth : and he, 
 who had prepared men to receive it, and had him- 
 self purchased their deliverance, provided means to 
 spread the glad tidings throughout the world. 
 
 This view of our Saviour's earthly ministry may 
 remove our surprise, that it continued so short a 
 time. The great end of his coming was to die for 
 man, and by his own resurrection to enable us all 
 to rise again. It was necessary that he should be 
 tried, as men are tried, but that he should be with- 
 out sin: and even a shorter life than his would have 
 been sufficient for such a trial. If he had not 
 preached at all, the object of his coming would have 
 been equally accomplished ; though his disciples 
 would perhaps have found greater difficulty in spread- 
 ing the gospel. As it was, he prepared men to re- 
 ceive it, by teaching them to feel the necessity of 
 repentance. He touched their hearts by the awful 
 simplicity of his words ; and they were afraid to 
 
i.ECT. I. Preaching qf'JerSiis. 19 
 
 disobey a teacher, who proved himself to be sent 
 from God. Thus the necessity of repentance and 
 holiness being once admitted, they were ready to 
 receive any other doctrine which was built upon it : 
 and since the great doctrine could not be imparted 
 till Christ had died, it was in every way expedient 
 that his earthly ministry should be short. 
 
 Upon the whole, I should be inclined to adopt the 
 notion which has been held in ancient as well as in 
 modern times, that our Saviour's ministry occupied 
 part of three years ; i. e. one whole year and part 
 of two others '^ He perhaps began to preach in 
 28 or 29, and was crucified at the passover of 30 or 
 31. The greater part of his ministry was passed in 
 Galilee : he went up to Jerusalem occasionally at 
 the festivals, and when he was there he addressed 
 the people, and worked miracles. That he should 
 have attracted followers was nothing remarkable. 
 Judas of Galilee, Theudas, and others, had perhaps 
 produced a greater effect. But the singularity of 
 his success consisted in his following a course the 
 very opposite to that of these popular leaders. They 
 attracted their followers by promising to remit the 
 tribute ; and they retained them by allowing, if not 
 encouraging, them to live by pillage and violence. 
 This was the beginning of the robbers and sicarii, 
 who afterwards infested the country : and the mul- 
 titudes, who were led to destruction by false Christs, 
 were an aggravation to the many horrors of the 
 Jewish war. But the true Christ raised no standard 
 
 ^ Irenseus speaks of Jesus his ministry to last only one 
 
 attending only three passovers, year. Strom. I. 21. p. 407. So 
 
 though he seems afterwards to also Tertullian, ^rfz;. Jwf/.VIII. 
 
 contradict himself, II. 22. Cle- p. 191 . and Origen, de Princip. 
 
 ment of Alexandria supposed IV. 5. p. 160. 
 
 c 2 
 
20 Preaching of Jesus. lkct. i. 
 
 of revolt against the Roman government : he pro- 
 mised no deliverance from earthly masters : he al- 
 lowed no indulgence of the passions ; and yet he 
 gained many followers, who obeyed him as a teacher 
 sent from God. His miracles undoubtedly contri- 
 buted much to this success. Judaea was not a coun- 
 try where the word of God, if left to itself, would 
 have made much progress ; but the common people 
 could not perhaps distinguish between the real mi- 
 racles of Jesus, and the lying wonders, with which 
 the country then abounded. If Jesus worked a mi- 
 racle, and told those who witnessed it to forsake 
 their sins ; and if another person appeared to work 
 a miracle, and told the spectators that by such power 
 he would lead them to conquer the Romans, it is 
 plain that men of worldly minds were more likely 
 to follow the latter than the former. The preaching 
 therefore of Jesus cannot be viewed in its proper 
 light, unless we bear in mind the state of feeling 
 among the Jews in those days. We shall then see, 
 that at the time of his death there were great num- 
 bers in Judaea and in Galilee, who were prepared to 
 receive a pure and spiritual religion ; one which re- 
 quired them to forsake their sins, and to believe that 
 their descent from Abraham was not of itself suffi- 
 cient to bring them to heaven. We have no data to 
 ascertain the number of those persons who were 
 sincere disciples of Jesus during his abode on earth. 
 It seems to have been his intention to give to every 
 person within the limits of Galilee and Judaea, a 
 chance of being convinced of the necessity of re- 
 pentance. He preached within no great distance of 
 Tyre and Sidon on the north, and he visited part of 
 the country on the east bank of the Jordan. He 
 
LECT. I. Essenes. 21 
 
 sent out his twelve apostles to deliver the same in- 
 structions ; and at another time he sent seventy 
 disciples, who were to travel two together, and visit 
 every town and village. He must have had great 
 success in his own personal teaching, before he could 
 have engaged so many followers in his cause ; and 
 we must know little of the rapidity with which re- 
 ligious impressions are conveyed, if we could doubt 
 the effect of these men traversing the country, 
 preaching a spiritual religion, and commanding at- 
 tention by miraculous power. We know that 500 
 brethren were assembled in one place to see him 
 after his resurrection^; and the affectionate piety of 
 the female character is very naturally exhibited in 
 the case of several women, who left their homes in 
 Galilee, and followed their instructor to Jerusalem ^ 
 The concise narrative of the Evangelists may per- 
 haps cause some persons to form an inadequate con- 
 ception of the effect of our Saviour's preaching : but 
 it is plain, that the fame of it was very widely 
 spread even among persons, whose hearts did not 
 entertain the precepts which he gave. 
 
 There was at this time a sect or body of men 
 already existing in Judaea, who, it might be thought, 
 could not have listened with indifference to the 
 preaching of Jesus. It has sometimes excited sur- 
 prise, that the Evangelists make no mention of the 
 Essenes, whose singular habits are described by 
 Philo Judaeus and Josephus, and to whom the op- 
 ponents of Christianity have sometimes pointed, as 
 the source from which it was derived. The Essenes 
 of Palestine, according to Philo and Josephus, were 
 
 e I Cor. XV. 6. f Matt, xxvii. 55. Mark XV. 40^41. Luke xxiii. 55. 
 
 c 3 
 
22 Essenes. i-ect. i. 
 
 about 4000 in their own day. Philo describes also 
 another set of men under tlie name of Therapeutae, 
 who have been called contemplative Essenes, and 
 who were found in the greatest numbers in Egypt^. 
 The accounts of these two sects have many points 
 of agreement ; and perhaps, as I shall observe pre- 
 sently, they may be traced to a common origin : but 
 there seems no reason to conclude that Philo meant 
 to speak of the Egyptian Theraj^eutae as Essenes. 
 It is plain from Josephus, that the Essenes were a 
 Jewish sect ; but the Therapeutae, though traces of 
 Judaism appear in their religious principles and 
 customs, cannot be considered to have been origi- 
 nally or exclusively Jews^'. The Essenes were re- 
 markable for their strict morality, for their ascetic 
 and abstemious habits, for having a community of 
 goods, and for living in villages apart from the great 
 towns. Some of them held marriage to be unlaw- 
 ful ; but all of them were regular in following some 
 employment : their industry was conspicuous ; and 
 their early devotions, which were repeated every 
 day, could only have been the fruits of sincere and 
 genuine piety. There is undoubtedly much in the 
 character of the Essenes, which may remind us of 
 the habits of the early Christians. Eusebius, who 
 was not much of a reflecting, still less of a critical 
 
 g Philo treats of the Essenes, temp. VI. p. 538. and by Mo- 
 
 Quod liber sil quisquis, &c. vol. sheim de rebus ante Const. Cent. 
 
 II. p. 457. and de f'tta coutcm- I. Introd. c. 1 1. not. "". It was 
 
 philiva, p. 471 . So does Jose- opposed by Viilesius ad Ens. II. 
 
 •phus, Ant iq. XIII. 5, 9. XV^III. 17. Langius, de Essceis. Xean- 
 
 I, 5. de Bel. Jud. II. 8, 2. der, Allgem. Geschict. part I. p. 
 
 ^ The identity of the Thera- 79. See Fabricius, Lux. Saluf. 
 
 peutye and Essenes was main- £j'rt»o'. p. 55. Triglandius, .Syw- 
 
 tained by Scaliger^ de emend, tagina de Jndceorum Sectis. 
 
LECT. I. Essenes. 23 
 
 historian, was so deceived by this resemblance, that 
 he supposed Philo to have met with some Christian 
 communities in the neighbourhood of Alexandria, 
 and to have described them by the name of Thera- 
 peutse'. That there is no foundation for such a 
 notion, or for identifying the Therapeutae with the 
 Essenes, has been shewn satisfactorily by many 
 writers'^. The Essenes, however, who were a Jewish 
 sect, and lived in Palestine, could hardly have heard 
 our Saviour or his apostles, without being struck 
 by the truth of their preaching ; and it is perhaps 
 singular, that no mention is made of them by the 
 Evangelists. In the first place, I would observe, that 
 thovigh the time when the Essenes first appeared is 
 not distinctly known, there is reason to think that 
 they had not been long in existence before this 
 period : they may only now have been beginning to 
 form their system, and the name of Essenes may not 
 yet have been given them. In the next place, the 
 accounts which we have of our Saviour's journeys 
 and discourses are connected principally with the 
 cities and towns : whereas the Essenes, as I have 
 stated, avoided these places, and lived in small iiistic 
 communities of their own. If Philo and Josephus 
 computed their number rightly at 4000 within the 
 whole of Palestine, they must have been very thinly 
 scattered over the country ; and our Saviour in his 
 circuits may seldom have met with them. Accord- 
 ing to Pliny, their principal settlements were in the 
 neighbourhood of the Dead Sea ' ; and this might 
 
 • Hist. Eccl. II. 17. many writers. 
 
 ^ SeeBrucker, Hist. Philos. 1 Hist. Nat. V. 17. 
 vol. II. p. 759. who refers to 
 
 c 4 
 
24 Essenes. lect. i. 
 
 account for the Evangelists making no mention of 
 them, since our Saviour is not said to have visited 
 that country. To all which I would add, that what 
 I have said above of the great object of his preach- 
 ing might lead us to expect, that he would not par- 
 ticularly have sought out the Essenes during the 
 short period of his ministry. His object, as I have 
 explained it, was not to unfold the whole of that 
 great scheme which he was about to accomplish ; 
 this he left to his apostles, who were to come after 
 him : his own preaching was to prepare men for a 
 pure and spiritual religion ; to remove from their 
 minds all which impeded their salvation ; and so to 
 leave them open to receive the truth, whenever it 
 was revealed to them. This being the case, the 
 Essenes were already better prepared than most of 
 the Jews of that time to receive the gospel : the 
 moral discipline which was requisite, was not wholly 
 new to them ; and when our Saviour said, / am 
 not come to call the righteous, but sinners to re- 
 pentance, and when the towns of Juda?a and Ga- 
 lilee were so abundantly filled with objects of the 
 latter kind, we need not wonder that less of his at- 
 tention was paid to the more moral, and compara- 
 tively more spiritual people, who were afterwards 
 called Essenes. 
 
 I by no means wish to paint the morals and reli- 
 gion of the Essenes in too favoural)le colours. There 
 was much in their system, which is unsuited for 
 man in the discharge of those social duties, which 
 God has intended him to fulfil. There was also a 
 mixture of superstition, which seems clearly to point 
 to an eastern origin ; and if we suppose some of the 
 
LECT. I. Essenes. 25 
 
 more rigid Pharisees, who saw with disgust the 
 general depravity of the nation, to have admitted 
 into their creed some speculative notions, which had 
 travelled into Judaea from Persia, we shall perhaps 
 have no incorrect idea of the origin of the Essenes™. 
 Still it must be remembered that their morality, if 
 compared with that of the Jews at large, was vastly 
 more pure and spiritual. The obstacles which were 
 to be removed in their conversion to the gospel were 
 as nothing, when contrasted with the mountains 
 which shut out that heavenly view from the Scribes 
 and Pharisees. The preaching of our Saviour, if 
 viewed as a whole, may prove to us the great truth, 
 that the chief impediment to the gospel is the cor- 
 ruption of the heart. It is not ignorance, it is not 
 weakness of intellect, it is not a want of learning, 
 which are the main causes of infidelity; it is an 
 absence of that moral feeling, of that deep conviction 
 of our own frailness, and of the necessity of holiness, 
 which first leads men to justify what they are deter- 
 mined to commit, and then sets them to hate that 
 which would prove their principles to be wrong. 
 It was thus that our Saviour's preaching was di- 
 rected, not so much to the head, as to the heart. It 
 was in pursuance of feelings such as these, that the 
 Jewish authorities never ceased till they had put 
 him to death ; and when his ascension to heaven 
 left his disciples to finish the work, for which he 
 had thus prepared the way, and to announce to 
 mankind that redemption which his death and re- 
 surrection had now completed, their labours were 
 
 "' I may refer to my Bampton Lectures, p. 74. 
 
36 Essenes. lect. i. 
 
 met by the same resistance ; and the same moral 
 lesson is read in those mournful pages of ecclesiasti- 
 cal history, which record the sufferings and perse- 
 cutions of the early Christians. 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 W E have now to trace the history of the gospel, 
 when the earthly presence of our Saviour was with- 
 drawn, and when eleven men of obscure rank and 
 little education were left, humanly speaking, to 
 themselves and their own exertions, to spread a new 
 religion throughout the world. In order to form 
 some notion of the difficulties which they had to 
 encounter, we will consider the treatment which our 
 Saviour received from three descriptions of persons ; 
 the generality of the people throughout the country; 
 the Jewish authorities at Jerusalem ; and the repre- 
 sentatives of the Roman government. 
 
 If we view the Jewish populace at different pe- 
 riods, we shall see them at one time anxious to make 
 Jesus a king, at another compelling Pilate by their 
 clamours to put him to death. The former was their 
 own spontaneous impulse : they were excited to the 
 latter by their priests. From both we may perhaps 
 argue, that their feelings towards Jesus had little 
 connexion with religion. They had seen his mi- 
 racles ; they knew him to be kind and beneficent ; 
 they heard him expose the vices of their superiors ; 
 all which excited their curiosity ; and wherever he 
 appeared, they could hardly fail to listen to him with 
 pleasure. As many of them as were zealous for po- 
 litical freedom, might think that this was the end 
 
28 Opposition of the Jews. i.ect. it. 
 
 which he had ultimately in view ; but when he came 
 up to one festival after another, still with the same 
 few obscure followers ; when he put himself at the 
 head of no party, and manifested no resistance to 
 foreign interference, the attachment which such per- 
 sons had been inclined to feel would naturally sub- 
 side : they might mistake his meekness for indeci- 
 sion ; and the lessons of obedience which he gave 
 would be construed into cowardice. If they felt 
 strongly, they might be glad to see him punished, 
 as having raised hopes which he did not realize ; 
 and if they felt little, they would be wholly indif- 
 ferent whether one person more or less was led to 
 crucifixion. Jesus Christ, as I have already ob- 
 served, did not make himself generally known as 
 the founder of a new religion. If he had, so ab- 
 rupt a disclosure of it would have been received 
 with horror by the zealous adherents of the Law of 
 Moses. Again, therefore, I would repeat, that we 
 must not consider the part which the populace took 
 in the crucifixion of Jesus as proceeding from feel- 
 ings of religion. They might have heard some- 
 thing of liis intending to destroy the temple, and 
 they might have fancied at the moment that he de- 
 served to be put to death ; but they could have no 
 definite idea of the doctrine which was about to be 
 preached, nor could they have assigned any reason 
 for hating his followers : they acted, as multitudes 
 are often apt to act, Avithout knowing their own 
 motives ; and upon the whole I should say, that 
 the general impression concerning the apostles 
 would be, that they were the followers of a man 
 who was j)ut to death, but of whom they could not 
 remember any evil. 
 
LECT. II. Scribes arid Pharisees. 29 
 
 It was not so with the Scribes and Pharisees, and 
 the persons who composed the Jewish sanhedrim. 
 To account for the antipathy which these persons 
 felt towards Jesus, we need only remember what has 
 been said of the nature of his preaching. He pre- 
 pared men for receiving a spiritual religion, by en- 
 forcing the necessity of holiness and repentance. 
 Both John the Baptist and himself had dwelt upon 
 the terrors of a future judgment ; and had said 
 plainly, that the children of the kingdom, i. e. the 
 natural descendants of Abraham, might finally be 
 cast out. This was a hateful doctrine to men who 
 placed the whole of their religion in outward forms ; 
 who were looked up to by the people as patterns of 
 sanctity ; and who now heard, that publicans and 
 harlots might enter into heaven before them. This 
 will perhaps be found a sufficient clue to the whole 
 conduct of the Scribes and Pharisees. It might 
 seem strange, that they thought of punishing the 
 teacher of this new doctrine with death ; but it is 
 only strange, if we view the matter according to 
 modern notions. In the times which we are now 
 considering, and particularly in Judaea, the shed- 
 ding of blood was an ordinary occurrence ; and the 
 pages of ecclesiastical history will prove to us sadly 
 too often, that he who silences an adversary by 
 death, persuades himself that he is benefiting the 
 cause of truth. 
 
 I have here mentioned the Scribes and Pharisees : 
 and the Pharisees were likely to inveigh loudly 
 against Jesus for undervaluing the ceremonies of 
 the Mosaic Law. This was the cloak which con- 
 cealed their real feelings at the mortification of their 
 pride, and the detection of their hypocrisy. But 
 
30 Sadducees. i.ect. ii. 
 
 the other Jewish sect, the Sadducees, were found 
 equally hostile to the religion of Jesus ; and what 
 we know of their principles, will fully account for 
 this part of their conduct. The Sadducees were 
 a less numerous body than the Pharisees. But they 
 made up in wealth what they wanted in numbers. 
 The Pharisees had the highest character among 
 the people for their reputed sanctity and adhe- 
 rence to the Law. The Sadducees were found 
 mostly among the rich, and did not pretend to the 
 merit of abstinence or austerity^. If the Pharisee 
 was too proud, the Sadducee was too worldly, to 
 listen to the preaching of Jesus : and if this had 
 not been the case, the peculiar creed of the Sad- 
 ducees would have made it impossible for them to 
 embrace his doctrine. That doctrine rested upon 
 the resurrection, as its corner stone. It was because 
 all men were to rise again, and be judged for their 
 deeds, that John the Baptist and Jesus had preached 
 the necessity of repentance ; but all notion of a re- 
 surrection was rejected by the Sadducees '^i and if 
 we merely regard this as a difference upon a specu- 
 lative point, we know little of the human heart, if 
 we seek any other ground for rancour and animosity. 
 The Sadducees, however, though they denied a re- 
 surrection, by no means rejected the doctrine of a 
 Providence. They believed that rewards and punish- 
 ments were strictly administered by God in this life : 
 and this may have been one reason why, as Jose- 
 phus informs us^, they were particularly severe in 
 executing the punishments of the law. I mention 
 this fact in the character of the Sadducees, because 
 
 a Joseph. Ant'iq. XIII. lo, 6. Joseph, de Bel. Jud. II. 8, 14. 
 ^^Matt. xxii.23. Actsxxiii.8. c _L. c. 
 
LECT. II. Pontius Pilate. 31 
 
 we shall find the remark of the Jewish historian 
 confirmed by the history of the Apostles. 
 
 I proj)osed to consider, in the third place, the 
 treatment which Jesus received from the represen- 
 tatives of the Roman government. This however 
 requires us to notice little else than the character 
 and conduct of one individual. Pontius Pilate held 
 the office of procurator of Judaea during the whole 
 of our Saviour's ministry ; but he does not appear 
 to have been called upon to notice him till the pass- 
 over, at which he ordered his execution. The fate 
 of Judas of Galilee, Theudas, and perhaps many 
 other popular leaders, made it difficult for Jesus to 
 disclose himself in his real character. He was the 
 deliverer who was expected by the whole nation ; 
 and yet if he had appeared as such, he was certain 
 to have raised an insurrection, and as certain to 
 have been put down by the Roman power. We 
 may find many instances in the Gospels of Jesus 
 being placed in this dilemma, and of his prudently 
 escaping from it. The same difficulty will also ac- 
 count for his extreme caution in declaring himself 
 to be the Christ. He revealed the great secret to a 
 few ; and they that remembered his words after- 
 wards, might call to mind many expressions which 
 led to this conclusion : but there is no reason to 
 think that the Roman governor, who resided at Cse- 
 sarea, had ever felt the slightest uneasiness, even if 
 he had heard a rumour, concerning Jesus. It was 
 an incidental expression from the chief priests, which 
 made him know that Jesus was a Galilean ** ; and it 
 seems plain from his conversation with Jesus, that 
 he then heard for the first time of his being called 
 
 <• Luke xxiii. 5, 6. 
 
32 Pontius Pilate. i.ect. it. 
 
 the Christ, and King of the Jews. Pilate would 
 probably know what was meant by the Christ ; and 
 if Jesus had really made pretensions to be a king, 
 the suspicions of the Roman governor might natu- 
 rally have been excited. The Jews indeed spoke 
 out plainly, and accused Jesus of resisting the pay- 
 ment of tribute ; but notwithstanding all this, Pi- 
 late declared him to be innocent. He most probably 
 consulted his Roman officers concerning the truth of 
 these charges ; and three times he publicly declared, 
 that he found no fault in Jesus. The sentence of 
 crucifixion was at length extorted from him through 
 fear of being himself accused of disaffection to the 
 emperor : and the infamy, which attaches to the me- 
 mory of Pilate, should be confined to his permitting 
 the execution of a man, whom in his own conscience 
 he believed to be guiltless. When the feast of the 
 passover was ended, Pilate would probably return 
 to Caesarea ; and the Acts of the Apostles confirm 
 what we might have expected to be the case, that 
 he took no part in persecuting the followers of 
 Jesus. 
 
 There is a story however told concerning Pilate, 
 which, if the circumstances of it have any founda- 
 tion in truth, ought to be considered in this place. 
 The early Christian writers appealed very confi- 
 dently to the Acts of Pilate, or the official account 
 which was transmitted by him to Rome concerning 
 the crucifixion of Jesus. Justin Martyr, who wrote 
 about the year 140, is the earliest writer who men- 
 tions these Acts^ : but Tertullian, who wrote at the 
 end of the same century, supplies us with much 
 more detail, and says, that Tiberius proposed to the 
 e Apol. I. 35. p. 65: 48. p. 72. 
 
i-ECT. II. Tiberius. 33 
 
 senate, that Jesus Christ shovild be admitted as a 
 God. According to the same authority, the senate 
 rejected the proposal ; but the account sent by Pi- 
 late made such an impression upon Tiberius, that 
 from that time he shewed particular favour and in- 
 dulgence to the Jews^ The statement of Tertul- 
 lian has been repeated by later writers? ; and the 
 degree of credit which is due to it, has led to much 
 discussion. That Tiberius should have been willing 
 to acknowledge Jesus as a god, can perhaps scarcely 
 be believed. It was about this time, that he began 
 to plunge more deeply into his licentious profligacy; 
 and though the union of vice and superstition is by 
 no means unusual, the mind of Tiberius was cer- 
 tainly not likely to be interested at present with a 
 question of this kind. It was about two years be- 
 fore, that he had prohibited the senate from paying 
 divine honours to his mother^ ; and though he had 
 allowed the cities of Asia Minor in the ninth year 
 of his reign to erect a temple to himself, his mother, 
 and the senate', he refused the same honour two 
 j'ears afterwards, when the offer was made by a dis- 
 trict in Spain '^. Most of the events of the years 
 29, 30, and 31, were recorded in that part of the 
 Annals of Tacitus, which is lost : but the circum- 
 stances which I have just mentioned might rather 
 lead us to expect, that if Tiberius had proposed to 
 increase the number of deities, the senate would not 
 have refused. We should also recollect, that if Pi- 
 late transmitted his account soon after his own re- 
 turn from Jerusalem, he would not be likely to say 
 
 f Apol. 5. p. 6 : 21. p. 2o. h Tacit. Annol. V. %. 
 
 g Eus. H. E. II. 2. Orosius > lb. IV. 15. 
 
 VII. 4. kib. IV. 37. 
 
 D 
 
34 Pontius Pilate. lect. ii. 
 
 any thing of Jesus being looked upon as a god. He 
 would acquaint the emperor with his own convic- 
 tion of the innocence of Jesus ; but nothing had as 
 yet transpired, which would lead him to think that 
 Jesus was considered, even by his own followers, to be 
 more than human. Neither is it easy to understand, 
 why Tiberius, even if he was led to think favour- 
 ably of Jesus, should therefore be induced to confer 
 favours on the Jews. Pilate's official despatches 
 could only have represented the Jewish authorities 
 as cruel, malicious, and unjust : they had murdered 
 the man whom Tiberius, according to this same ac- 
 count, was wishing to honour as a god : and the 
 jealous mind of the emperor would scarcely have in- 
 clined him to deify a man, to whom his own procu- 
 rator had given the title of king of the Jews. All 
 these considerations may make us pause in admit- 
 ting the story, as it was embellished in the time of 
 Tertullian ; but the earlier and more simple state- 
 ment of Justin Martyr can hardly be set aside : nor 
 can we think that in a defence delivered publicly to 
 the emperor, he would have referred him to Pilate's 
 official report, if such a document was not in exist- 
 ence. It could be proved, if proof was necessary, 
 that the governors of provinces were in the habit of 
 transmitting to Rome an account of the events which 
 had hapjiened ' ; and it ought rather to excite our 
 surprise, if Pilate had not informed the emperor of 
 the crucifixion of Jesus. It is almost impossible to 
 suppose, that the Fathers were mistaken in believ- 
 ing some such document to be preserved in the ar- 
 
 ' See Pliny's celebrated let- from Alexandria, De Legat. 
 ter to Trajan, X. 97. Philo p. 570. 
 mentions such Acts being sent 
 
LECT. II. Pontius Pilate. 35 
 
 chives. We know that in the third centuiy a work 
 called the Acts of Pilate was forged, which con- 
 tained calumnies against the Christians '^ : more than 
 one spurious letter, purporting to have been written 
 by Pilate, is still extant " ; but the very fact of these 
 forgeries rather sujjports the notion, that some ge- 
 nuine Acts of Pilate were known to have existed. 
 All therefore which I would infer concerning this 
 matter is, that Pilate sent to Tiberius an account of 
 the crucifixion of Jesus ; and that the early Chris- 
 tians knew the substance of it not to be unfavour- 
 able to their Founder's character". We might con- 
 clude for certain, that Pilate would make the same 
 statement to the emperor, which he had made to 
 the chief priests : he would assert that he knew of 
 no fault in Jesus ; and the remarkable anecdote, 
 which is preserved by St. Matthew p, of Pilate's wife 
 having been troubled in a dream concerning him, 
 might perhaps have led Pilate to reflect still more 
 upon the iniquity of his sentence. He would also 
 be likely to add, what the Evangelists assure us was 
 not unknown to him, and which he might have 
 heard from some of his own officers quartered at Je- 
 rusalem, that the chief priests had put Jesus to 
 death, because ^they envied him his popularity. It 
 is true, that it was about this time, as I mentioned 
 in my last lecture, that Tiberius rescinded the de- 
 cree which had banished the Jews from Rome. 
 
 •n Eus. H. E. I. 9. X 5. crefo Tiberii, &c. Bibliotheque 
 
 n See Fabricius, Cod. Ap'oc. Germanique, torn. 32. p. 147: 
 
 A^. T. p. 298, 972. torn. 33. p. 12. Altmann, de 
 
 o See Lardner, Testimonies epistola P. Pilati. Balduinus, 
 
 of Ancient Heathens, c. II. Til- Com. ad. edicta vet. priric. Rotn. 
 
 lemont, MSmoires, torn. I. p. de Christianis, p. 22. 
 
 422, 732. Th. Hasaeus, de de- P XXVII. 19. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 Calumnies of lect. ii. 
 
 But I have already observed, that there could have 
 been nothing in Pilate's despatch concerning the 
 Jevrs, which dictated such a measure ; and Philo has 
 preserved a curious fact, if it be true, that the ba- 
 nishment of the Jews had been owing to the in- 
 trigues of Sejanus, who feared lest their attachment 
 to the emperor should interfere with his own de- 
 signs ; and that when the day of retribution came, 
 and the ambitious favourite was destroyed, Tiberius 
 discovered what he had done, and permitted the 
 Jews to return •!. 
 
 Such tiien was the state of public feeling in Ju- 
 daea concerning Jesus Christ at the time of his cru- 
 cifixion. The Roman authorities had heard little 
 concerning him, and felt no jealousy or suspicion of 
 his designs. With the people at large he had at 
 times been popular ; but they could not understand 
 his character ; and they looked on with indifference, 
 perhaps with a conviction of his guilt, when they 
 saw their own rulers and the Roman officers com- 
 bine in putting him to death. The only persons 
 who were zealous in this nefarious murder, were 
 the members of the Jewish sanhedrim. They had 
 now silenced the man, who had shewn such insight 
 into their hearts : and we have a curious instance 
 how prejudice will operate even against conviction, 
 in their bribing the soldiers to say, that the disciples 
 came by night and stole the body of Jesus from the 
 sepulchre. This proves that the fact of Jesus being 
 seen alive again was known to the chief priests. 
 They had their information from the soldiers them- 
 selves, who must have told them of the stone being 
 rolled away, and of their own terror at seeing the 
 <1 De Legat. ad Caium, p. 569. 
 
LECT. II. the Jews. 37 
 
 angel. Though Jesus shewed himself but seldom 
 after his resurrection, the fact must have been known 
 to some persons at least beside his immediate fol- 
 lowers. To those who doubted, it was an obvious 
 expedient to go to the sepulchre, and see whether 
 the body was really there. The conclusion, which 
 such an inspection would incline them to draw, was 
 met by the story circulated by the high priests, that 
 the disciples had come by night and stolen the body. 
 This was sufficient to account for the appearance of 
 the sepulchre : and St. Matthew informs us, that 
 this story concerning the disciples was commonly re- 
 ported among the Jews at the time of his writing 
 his Gos2)el. Justin Martyr has added, (and his 
 evidence in this instance can hardly, I think, be 
 doubted,) that the Jews sent persons into every 
 country to spread this story •■. It was necessary, 
 that some steps of this kind should be taken beyond 
 the limits of Judaea. The Passover being now 
 ended, many of the foreign Jews would return to 
 their own country ; and the chief priests would be 
 anxious, that they should not carry with them an 
 account of the resurrection of Jesus. The return of 
 these men to their homes would furnish them with 
 the means of spreading the report in the manner 
 mentioned by Justin Martyr : and we may perhaps 
 conclude, that the first account which the Jews in 
 some countries received concerning Jesus, was 
 coupled with this notorious falsehood of his disciples 
 having carried off his body from the sepulchre. 
 The effect of such a calumny, superadded to the 
 
 '' Dial, cum Tryph.17. p. 117: Salut. Lux Evang. c. VI. 
 108. p. 202: 117. p. 210: p. 121. 
 120. p. 213. See Fabricius, 
 
 D 3 
 
38 Ascemion. lkct. ii. 
 
 ignominy of a public crucifixion, is too plain to re- 
 quire me to dwell upon it. 
 
 Jesus appears to have staid at least eight days in 
 Jerusalem after his resurrection : or to speak more 
 properly, the place where he shewed himself occa- 
 sionally during this interval was Jerusalem or its 
 vicinity. The disciples, after this, returned into Ga- 
 lilee, which it was natural for them to do when the 
 Passover was ended. Some of them seem to have 
 resumed their former occupation on the lake of 
 Gennesaret ; and while they were there, they again 
 saw Jesus appear among them. We have no means 
 of ascertaining how many days they continued in 
 Galilee. The whole number of days between the 
 resurrection and ascension of Jesus was forty ; and 
 we know that the ascension took place near Be- 
 thany, which was not quite two miles from Jeru- 
 salem. If we were to seek a reason for Jesus thus 
 sending his disciples into Galilee, and then bringing 
 them back again to Judaea, we should perha^Ds find 
 it in his wishing to withdraw them for a while from 
 public notice, and then sending them to attend the 
 approaching feast of Pentecost. It was on every 
 account to be expected that Jerusalem would be the 
 place, from whence the new religion would proceed ; 
 and the miracle, which was intended to be worked 
 on the day of Pentecost, required the attendance of 
 those crowds, who were assembled only at Jerusalem. 
 
 It is not necessary for me to dwell upon the part- 
 ing address, which Jesus delivered to his disciples. 
 It is plain, that some of them up to that time enter- 
 tained a hope of an earthly kingdom ; nor did his 
 answer fully explain to them the nature of their de- 
 lusion. This, as well as many other points, was 
 
31. 
 
 LECT. II. Ascension. S9 
 
 left to the successive illumination which he intended 
 to impart to them by the Holy Ghost ; and nothing 
 is more striking than the contrast between the 
 worldly notions of the disciples, up to the time of 
 their Lord's ascension, and their spiritual views of 
 Christ's kingdom, as soon as the Holy Ghost had 
 come upon them. Jesus now told them to wait in 
 Jerusalem, till this promised illumination should ar- 
 rive : he told them also, that they were to preach 
 his religion throughout the earth ; and his last words 
 must have seemed to them particularly strange, 
 when he spoke of their preaching, not only in Jeru- 
 salem and Judaea, but in Samaria, and the utter- 
 most parts of the earth. 
 
 We are now arrived at the most critical period in A. D. 
 the history of the Apostles. The days were truly 
 come, when the bridegroom was taken from them. 
 The city, to which they were returning, was filled 
 with persons, who not fifty days before had put 
 their Master to death ; and his prophetic warnings, 
 which had been so fatally accomplished in his own 
 person, taught them what they were to expect for 
 themselves. We may say, as of our first parents, 
 that " the world was all before them ;" and friend- 
 less as they were, without money, without learning, 
 and, which might almost be added, diffident of their 
 own cause, they were to go forth and promulgate 
 a religion, which was to triumph over polytheism 
 and philosophy, and to plant the cross of Christ in 
 the capital of the Roman world. Well may we say 
 with the Psalmist, This is the Lord's doing, and it is 
 marvellous in our eyes ! The Apostles no doubt felt 
 some conviction of this sort in their own breasts ; 
 and though as yet they knew but very imperfectly 
 
 D 4 
 
40 The Afjostlcji lect. ii. 
 
 A. D. the high cominission which they had received, the 
 ^^- thought of their Master being in heaven consoled 
 them for his loss, and we read that they worshipped 
 him, and I'eturned to Jerus(dem with great joy. 
 
 They had still ten days to pass l^efore the jiru- 
 mise, which had been so solemnly repeated, was ful- 
 filled ; and the time, though short in itself, must 
 have been one of intense anxiety. The eleven apo- 
 stles were not entirely left to themselves. Some 
 other of the followers of Jesus were still with them ; 
 and we might suppose, from the nature of the case, 
 that they were of the most zealous. We know that 
 some of them had attended ui)on Jesus as long as 
 the apostles themselves, from his baptism to his 
 ascension ** ; and we may conclude that some, per- 
 haps many of them, were of the number of those 
 seventy disciples, who had been sent out by Jesus 
 to preach the gospel. It is not certain whether any 
 other persons, beside the eleven apostles, were present 
 at the ascension ; but from the promise of the Holy 
 Ghost, and the conmiission to preach the gospel, we 
 might perhaps conclude, that this last and solemn 
 scene was witnessed by the apostles only. When 
 they returned to Jerusalem, tliey appear to have 
 gone to some place, where they were in the habit of 
 assembling; and our curiosity might be excited to 
 know, how so many persons contrived to meet fre- 
 quently together without attracting notice. The 
 danger of their situation appears to be greatly in- 
 creased by what St. Luke expressly tells us, that 
 they ivere continually in the temple, praising- and 
 blessing God\ That they were in the habit of 
 attending daily in the temple, is said in many pas- 
 
 s Acts i. 2 1. ' xxiv. :;^. 
 
LECT. II. in Jerusalem. 41 
 
 sages of the Acts"; and some writers have conjee- A. D. 
 tiired, that the upper chamber, in which they are '^ ^ • 
 stated to have assembled, was an apartment over 
 the porticos of the temple^. It has even been sup- 
 posed, that they were in a room in this same place, 
 when the Holy Ghost fell upon them on the day of 
 Pentecost ; and Josephus certainly speaks of there 
 being many such apartments connected with the 
 temple >'. This however seems rather improbable. 
 That they should attend in the temple at the hours 
 of prayer, was by no means extraordinary : and they 
 may have been less likely to attract attention by 
 that public worship, than by meeting together in a 
 private house. Jerusalem was perhaps filled with 
 strangers during the whole interval between the 
 Passover and Pentecost : and some who came from 
 a distance to attend the former feast, would be likely 
 to stay for the latter also. This would cause the 
 temple to be visited by many worshippers every day: 
 and even if the apostles and their friends had gone 
 thither in a body, they need not have been particu- 
 larly noticed in the crowd of strangers. If it could 
 be proved that these vir^pwa, or upper chambers, which 
 are mentioned by Josephus, were open to all persons 
 who chose to occupy them ; or if there was reason 
 to think, that persons of the same nation, who at- 
 tended the festivals, made use of these apartments 
 for want of more private accommodation, then we 
 might perhaps conclude, that the apostles and their 
 company, being all of them Galilaeans, had taken 
 possession of one of these chambers, and there with- 
 
 '1 Acts ii. 46. V. 20, 21, 42. y Antiq. VIII. 3, 2. XI. 5, 
 
 " See L. de Dieu, Krebsius, 4: de Bel. Jnd. V. 5, 5. 
 ad Act. i. 13. 
 
42 Apostles in Jerusalem. lect. ii. 
 
 A. D. out molestation or suspicion laid the foundation of 
 ^^- that religion, which was to rise upon the ruins of 
 the very building where they met. However this 
 may be, the room, in which they assembled, was 
 sufficiently spacious to hold 120 persons ; and when 
 they elected Matthias, we can hardly suppose that 
 they were not in private, and secure from interruption. 
 We need not conclude, that the number of disciples 
 in Jerusalem was confined to 120. This Avas the 
 number, which assembled to fill up the place of Ju- 
 das : but it does not follow, that every individual 
 disciple was admitted to this election. It might 
 seem from the words of St. Peter, that all these 120 
 persons had accompanied Jesus from the beginning of 
 his ministry^: and this mav have been the ofround 
 of their being thus selected. But if there were 120 
 persons no\v in Jerusalem, who had been followers 
 of Jesus for so long a period, we must naturally 
 conclude, that the believers altogether were much 
 more numerous. St. Luke mentions the women, 
 and Mary the mother of Jesus ; and there are many 
 reasons, which lead me to think that St. Luke was 
 himself at Jerusalem at this time. Whether he was 
 converted before the day of Pentecost, might per- 
 haps be doubted, though some ancient Avriters have 
 supposed him to have been one of the seventy dis- 
 ciples-^. The brothers or cousins of our Lord are 
 also mentioned as being present at these meetings : 
 and if any credit could be attached to the lists which 
 have been made of the seventy disciples, we might 
 know the names of several others of these founders 
 of our religion. But it is demonstrable, that these 
 lists were composed by bringing together the most 
 ' See Acts. \. z\. * See Tillemont, yiemoires, tom. II. p. 236. 
 
LECT. II. Election of Matthias. 43 
 
 prominent names which are mentioned in the Acts A. D. 
 and Epistles'^; and thongh it is probable that some, 
 if not all, of the seven deacons were with the apo- 
 stles from the time of the ascension, the only two 
 names, which can be placed with certainty in that 
 most distinguished company, are those of Barsabas 
 and Matthias. 
 
 These meetings of the eleven apostles and the 
 other disciples appear to have been held daily, but 
 even now some preeminence was conceded to the 
 eleven : and no greater proof could be given of this, 
 than their thinking it necessary to fill up the va- 
 cancy, which was caused by the treachery of Judas. 
 This was done in some part of those ten days, which 
 elapsed between the Ascension and Pentecost : and 
 the form of election was perhaps the same, which 
 was used in the church for some time after. The 
 apostles seem to have decided, that none should be 
 eligible, but those who had attended upon Jesus 
 through the whole of his ministry. Out of these, 
 the disciples selected two, who were most deserving : 
 and the pretensions of these two were decided by 
 lot. This is the first time that the names of Bar- 
 sabas and Matthias are mentioned in the l:^e\v Tes- 
 tament : and since it is also the last, we cannot 
 hope to discover any further particulars concerning 
 them. They are stated by some early writers^" to 
 have been of the number of the seventy disciples, 
 and the words of St. Peter make this not impro- 
 
 ^ Lists are given by Fabri- the life and death of Closes, 
 
 cius, Append, ad Hippol. vol. I. published by Gaulminus. 
 p. 41. Townsend, Xew Testa- c Ens. H. E. I. 12. Epipha- 
 
 ment arranged, vol. I. p. 309. nhis, /Inacephal. c. 125. vol. II. 
 
 See the three books concerning p. 138. 
 
44 Matthias and Barsahas. i.ect. ii. 
 
 A. D. bable. An aljsurd tradition is preserved by Clement 
 3J- of Alexandria, that Matthias was the same person 
 as Zacchajus^': but the time of Zacchaeus first be- 
 coming acquainted with our Saviour makes this im- 
 possible. The same writer ascribes a saying to Mat- 
 thias, which has nothing in it to lead us to admit or 
 to reject it : he is reported to have said, " that we 
 " ought to strive against and mortify the flesh, not 
 " indulging it for the enjoyment of intemperate 
 " pleasure, but we should improve the soul by faith 
 " and knowledge '^Z' It is perhaps suspicious, that 
 a precept, which among Christians may ])e almost 
 called a truism, should be ascribed particularly to 
 any one of the apostles : and if the name of Matthias 
 was thus made a vehicle of unfounded traditions, we 
 need not trouble ourselves to expose the inconsist- 
 ency of several Gnostic sects professing to follow 
 him ^. Concerning Joseph or Barsabas, who was 
 also called Justus, we know nothing else, except that 
 Papias, who lived in the first century, preserved a 
 tradition of his having drunk poison, but received 
 no injury from it?. The words of our Saviour '^ 
 might prepare us to expect a miracle such as this : 
 but where the evidence is so small on which these 
 traditions rest, it is safest to leave Matthias and 
 Barsabas to the unquestionable distinction of being 
 thought worthy to be numbered with the eleven 
 apostles. I shall have occasion to observe presently, 
 that the notion of Barsabas being the same person 
 with Barnabas, is entitled to little weight. I have 
 
 d Strom. IV. 6. p. 579. Clem. Alex. 1. c. lb. VII. 17. 
 
 « Strom. III. 4. p. 523. p. 898, 900. 
 
 f This was the case with the S Apud Eus. H. E. III. 39. 
 
 Nicolaitans, Marcionites, Va- '' iNIark xvi. 18. 
 
 lentinianS;, and Basilidians. See 
 
LECT. II. Day of' Pentecost. 45 
 
 said, that the pretensions of Barsabas and Mat- A. D. 
 thias were decided by lot; and such is generally •^'^- 
 siqjposed to be the meaning of St. Luke's words: but 
 Mosheim, whose opinion is always entitled to consi- 
 deration, has endeavoured to shew, that the disciples 
 did not cast lots, but simply gave their votes'. In 
 either case we cannot doubt, that he, to whom they 
 prayed, that he would point out the person to be 
 chosen, directed their judgment, or caused the lot to 
 fall upon the worthiest object : and if we see reason 
 to think that the Lord, the searcher of hearts, who 
 was addressed in this solemn prayer, was their be- 
 loved Master, to whose service they were about to 
 consecrate another faithful follower, we have an in- 
 stance of divine worship paid to Jesus at the earliest 
 period in which it could have been offered. 
 
 This election was perhaps the only affair of mo- 
 ment, which happened before the day of Pentecost : 
 and there is no reason to think, that the expectation 
 of any thing extraordinary had brought them to- 
 gether on that day. There is more room for discus- 
 sion as to the number of persons who were present. 
 Roman Catholic writers contend, that the Virgin 
 Mary was one of them : and some protestants have 
 supposed, that the Holy Ghost did not descend on 
 the apostles only'^. It certainly is not improbable, 
 that other persons were present beside the twelve 
 apostles : but when we consider the terms of the 
 original promise, and the intimate connexion which 
 it had with the preaching of the gospel, we shall 
 perhaps see reason to think, that this extraordinary 
 
 ' De rebus ante Const. Cent. torn. I. p. 383. Benson, Hi.s- 
 I. c. 14. not. c. fori/ of the first planlivg, Sic. 
 
 ^ See Tillemont, Memoires, book I. c. 1, 2. 
 
46 Descent of lect. ii. 
 
 A. 1). and palpable manifestation of the Holy Spirit was 
 ^^- vouchsafed to tlie apostles only. I do not mean to 
 say, that the effect produced by it was not imparted 
 subsequently to other believers ; and the gift of 
 tongues was perhaps not uncommon : but we never 
 read afterwards of the fiery appearance : and it is 
 not unreasonable to suppose, that this first effusion 
 of the Ploly Ghost was communicated in such a way 
 as to distinguish the apostles from the other be- 
 lievers. 
 
 A sound was heard, as the violent rushing of 
 wind ; and it was not only perceived in the room 
 where they were sitting, but when St. Peter ad- 
 dressed the multitudes outside, he appealed to them 
 also as having heard it. In addition to this, a fiery 
 appearance was seen : and though the generally re- 
 ceived notion has been that Jiert/ tongues rested upon 
 each of the apostles, the words may admit of the in- 
 terpretation, that these drops or particles of flame 
 were distributed to each of them ^ The passage ap- 
 pears always to have been considered obscure ; and 
 Theodoret extracted from it the still more extraor- 
 dinary meaning, that the tongues of the apostles 
 appeared to be divided, and touched by a lambent 
 flame. This interpretation was probably adopted, 
 in order to make the miracle emblematical of its im- 
 mediate effect, the gift of tongues : but the expres- 
 sion, tongues of fire oy fiame, had perhaps no re- 
 ference to the tongue, as the organ of speech, and 
 merely signified a small, separate particle of flame, 
 which settled on each of the apostles ; and whatever 
 its appearance may have been, it was not merely 
 
 1 "Q^6r)(Tav avTols fitafiepL^ofievai yXaxraai ojcrei nvpos. Acts ii. 3- 
 
LECT. II. the Holy GJiost. 47 
 
 momentary, but was something which all the people A. D. 
 could see, while St. Peter was addressing them. ^^- 
 
 The history of this miracle may certainly seem 
 to confirm the notion, that the apostles were occupy- 
 ing an apartment in the temple, and this would ac- 
 count for so large a multitude being assembled so 
 near and at the time. If St. Luke had not men- 
 tioned it, we should have known that Jerusalem was 
 at this season filled with foreign Jews, who attended 
 the feast of Pentecost. Many of them, as I have ob- 
 served, may have staid there from the last Passover: 
 and we can hardly suppose, that such a crowd of 
 them was assembled in any other place than in the 
 temple. This was the last and most solemn day of 
 the festival, when the temple was most likely to be 
 thronged with worshippers : and it was about nine 
 o'clock in the morning'", which was one of the Jew- 
 ish hours of prayer, when the Holy Ghost descended 
 in an appearance of fire upon the apostles. Many 
 of the worshippers would now be beginning to as- 
 semble ; and while they were filling the courts and 
 porticos of the temple, they seem to have heard the 
 extraordinary sound, which I have already described. 
 Perhaps the room, which contained the apostles, was 
 sensibly shaken, as it was upon another occasion, 
 when they were filled with the Holy Ghost " ; and 
 the motion may have been felt in other parts of the 
 building. However this may have been, it is plain 
 that the apostles came forth and mixed with the 
 multitudes below. It is impossible to describe, or 
 even to conceive the sensations, which must now 
 have come over them. The mysterious noise, the 
 lambent flame, were signs which their senses could 
 m Acts ii. 15. n Acts iv. 31. 
 
48 Descent of lect. ii. 
 
 A. 1). not mistake : they perceived at once, that the long 
 ■^^- expected promise was fulfilled ; and in a moment 
 they found within themselves the inclination and the 
 power to converse in languages which they had never 
 learnt. We may suppose, that the worshippers from 
 different countries would, on account of their com- 
 mon languages, form distinct parties in the courts 
 of the temple. The attention of all of them was ar- 
 rested by the noise and by the flame ; and to their 
 still greater astonishment, they heard the persons, 
 on whom the flame rested, addressing each of them 
 in their respective languages. Beside the foreign 
 Jews who were assembled, there would also be many 
 of the resident inhabitants of Jerusalem : and some 
 of these might be aware that the room in question 
 was occupied by a party of Galilaeans. The foreign 
 Jews, who had heard this, would be still more sur- 
 prised, when the apostles descended and addressed 
 them in their own languages : but the miracle would 
 not be so apparent to the native Jews, who only 
 heard a language which was strange to them, and con- 
 veyed no intelligible sound. Being perhaps already 
 prejudiced against these Galilaeans, they sought to 
 destroy the impression produced by the miracle; and 
 forgetting the extreme improbability of men select- 
 ing that time and place for a convivial meeting, they 
 could think of no more j)lausible calumny, than that 
 of charging the apostles with drunkenness. St. Pe- 
 ter, who was always the most forward and zealous 
 of the apostles, having heard this calumny from 
 some of the Jews who were near him, immediately 
 addressed the multitude in a speech of considerable 
 length : and the remark of some of the Fathers is 
 perhaps entitled to attention, that in this instance 
 
LECT. II. the Holy Ghost. 49 
 
 the nature of the miracle was changed, and though A. D. 
 St. Peter used the common language of his country, ^^- 
 it seemed to each of his hearers as if they heard their 
 own". It cannot be doubted, that St. Peter was un- 
 derstood by the multitude at large ; and though 
 some jiersons have observed, with a view to depre- 
 ciate the miracle, that a common language was 
 spoken, as a medium of communication, by the Jews 
 of every country, yet even if we suppose St. Peter to 
 have delivered his address in this common dialect, 
 or if we suppose all the Jews to have understood 
 sufficiently the language of Palestine, that will not 
 allow us to explain away their own expression of 
 astonishment, How hear we every man in our own 
 tongue^ wherein we were horn f 
 
 The effect of St. Peter's address was electrical. We 
 have a right to ascribe some feelings of devotion, at 
 least at that time, to the Jews who were now fulfil- 
 ling the object of their long and troublesome journey. 
 They were not now under any control froin the priests 
 and sanhedrim : many of them perhaps had heard no 
 calumnies against Jesus : they were left to the natu- 
 ral and spontaneous feelings of their own hearts ; and 
 now at a season of great religious excitement, within 
 the national sanctuary of their faith, they saw and 
 heard irresistible proofs of a communication from 
 heaven. St. Peter's allusion to the unjust cruci- 
 fixion of Jesus would not touch the consciences of 
 the foreign Jews, who were guiltless of his blood : 
 they would know, that the passage, quoted from the 
 Psalms, had always been applied by them to the 
 Messiah : and when St. Peter spoke of the recent 
 
 o See Arnobius, lib. I. pag. is refuted by Benson, /. c. p, 
 
 27. Erasmus ad L The notion 29, 30. Castalio ad L 
 
 E 
 
50 Fi7'st Converts on i.ect. ii. 
 
 A. D. miracle as that which ye now hear and see ; when 
 "^^- he thus appealed to their senses, and when Jesus was 
 named as the author of this miracle by one on whom 
 the flame was still resting, and while the awful noise 
 was perhaps still passing over them, we cannot 
 wonder if many of them were pricked to the heart, 
 and exclaimed in the impulse of the moment, Men 
 and hrethreny what shall we do f The result was, 
 that 3000 persons were baptized : and since this was 
 the first conversion since the ascension of Jesus, we 
 may observe, that what the apostles required of all 
 the converts, was repentance. St. Peter's speech also 
 implied, that they believed Jesus to be the Christ : 
 and the fact of all these converts being Jcavs will at 
 once explain, why more information was not given 
 upon this point by St. Peter. His hearers had only 
 to transfer their previous notions of the Messiah to 
 Jesus of Nazareth, and to believe that he had risen 
 from the dead, and St. Peter assured them, that this 
 belief would give them remission of all their former 
 sins. We cannot doubt, but that the form of bap- 
 tism, which had been delivered to them by their Master 
 not many weeks before, was used by them in the 
 admission of all these converts : and by telling them 
 to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, St. Peter 
 required them to profess their belief, that the Son of 
 God, whose name was there united with the Father 
 and the Holy Ghost, was no other than Jesus of 
 Nazareth, who had died and risen again. 
 
 Before we continue the history of these first be- 
 lievers in Jerusalem, I should wish to consider, what 
 was likely to be the effect in distant countries, when 
 some of them returned to their homes. We can 
 hardly doubt, that of the .3000 persons who were 
 
LECT. II. the day of Pentecost. 51 
 
 bai^tized on the day of Pentecost, many, if not most, A. D. 
 were foreign Jews. They had come to Jerusalem ^^- 
 for the feast, and would now be returning to their 
 several countries. St. Luke enumerates some of the 
 quarters from which they came, and he perhaps men- 
 tioned those districts, in which the Jews were known 
 to be most numerous f'. Josephus informs us, that 
 there were many myriads of his countrymen beyond 
 the Euphrates 'i, who had probably remained there 
 ever since the captivity, and kept up a constant 
 communication with Jerusalem. The Acts of the 
 Apostles will shew, that the Jews abounded through 
 the whole of Asia Minor. In the neighbourhood of 
 Alexandria, or rather in the whole of Egypt, they 
 are com^mted by Philo at a million •" ; and with re- 
 spect to Cyrene, we know of one person who came 
 from that country, and who carried our Saviour's 
 cross. This Simon is described by St. Mark as the 
 father of Alexander and Rufus : and it is worthy of 
 remark, that St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, 
 sends a salutation to Rufus and his mother^. If 
 the same Rufus be meant in both places, it is per- 
 haps not too much to conclude, that his father Simon 
 was one of the first converts to the gospel ; and he 
 may have been selected to bear the cross of Jesus, 
 as being known to be one of his followers. I have 
 already alluded to the Romans, who are said in this 
 passage to have been resident at Jerusalem, both 
 Jews and proselytes ; and I remarked, that they 
 might perhaps have been the Jews, who had been 
 banished from Italy a few years before by the edict 
 
 P This passage may be com- XVIII. 9, i. Philo says the 
 
 pared with one in Philo Judseus, same, /. c. p. 578. 
 de leg. ad Caiinn, p. 587. >" Adv. Flaccum, p. 523. 
 
 q Antiq.XV.3,1. XVII.2,2. s xvi. 13. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 First converts. lect. ii. 
 
 A. D. of Tiberius. We know, that this edict must have 
 •^^- sent several thousand persons to seek an asylum in 
 foreign countries ; and there was no place, to which 
 they would have looked more naturally, or been 
 more likely to be kindly received, than Judaea. I 
 have also stated, that it was about this time that 
 Tiberius revoked his decree, and permitted the Jews 
 to return to Rome ; so that many were perhaps 
 waiting in Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost to 
 be over, that having been present at its solemnity, 
 they might return to their former residence in Rome. 
 In this way it is not improbable, that within a few 
 weeks after the feast of Pentecost some persons 
 would be found, who had been baptized into the 
 name of Christ, in Persia and in Egypt, in Rome 
 and in Cyrenaica. How far these persons were 
 likely to carry back a true idea of Christianity, and 
 whether some of them may not have done harm by 
 representing it imperfectly, may furnish matter for 
 future consideration : but it is difficult to think that 
 any of the persons, who were baptized on the day of 
 Pentecost, could ever have forgotten the sight which 
 they had witnessed, and the impression which it had 
 made. They must have known, that their own con- 
 version was owing to twelve men being enabled to 
 speak languages, which they had never learnt : and 
 if they reflected at all, they must have known, that 
 this power could have come only from God, and that 
 God would never have given it for the propagation 
 of a false rolig-ion. 
 
 We may now return to consider what may truly 
 be called the infant church at Jerusalem. Of the 
 3000 who were baptized on the day of Pentecost, I 
 have conjectured that some, perhaps many, returned 
 
LECT. II. Miracles of the Apostles. 53 
 
 to their homes in foreign countries. But we are A. D. 
 told, that the number of believers increased daily ; 
 and they are stated shortly after at 5000*, if that is 
 not rather the number of new converts who were 
 made in a single day. The still crowded state of 
 Jerusalem was perhaps favourable to the spreading 
 of the gospel. The apostles would be likely to meet 
 with many friends from Galilee, who had been dis- 
 ciples of Jesus while he was in their country, and 
 would now assist them in making converts. But in 
 viewing the astonishing progress of Christianity, we 
 must never lose sight of the fact, that the apostles 
 were daily exhibiting stupendous miracles. The gift 
 of tongues, as I said before, would not be so striking 
 to the settled inhabitants of Jerusalem : but when 
 the same persons, who in their daily visits to the 
 temple had seen a cripple lying there, saw him sud- 
 denly rise up, walk, and leap, at the pronouncing of 
 the name of Jesus Christ — when this was done at 
 the hour of prayer, when the temple was most 
 crowded — and St. Luke perhaps singled this in- 
 stance out of many for detail, merely because he had 
 watched the whole of it himself — when this state of 
 things was going on daily and hourly, we may well 
 take St. Luke's expression literally, and believe that 
 Jem' came o?i evert/ soul. If we read the Gospels, 
 we see what was the effect of the miracles of Jesus. 
 The fame of them spread rapidly through the coun- 
 try ; and wherever he went, the multitudes hung 
 upon his words. It was not his design, as I have 
 observed more than once, to unfold in his lifetime 
 the whole of that religion, of which his death was the 
 t Acts iv. 4. 
 E 3 
 
54 First Converts. lect. ii. 
 
 A. D. seal : but it is plain, that his miracles would have 
 •^^- persuaded thousands to embrace any doctrine which 
 he had chosen to announce : and the same effect was 
 produced by the miracles of the apostles. The in- 
 ference was irresistible, as I have observed with re- 
 spect to the gift of tongues, that God would not 
 have given preternatural assistance to men, who were 
 j)ropagating a false religion. We must remember 
 also, that the apostles did not only receive this mi- 
 raculous power themselves, but they were able to 
 confer it upon others. The influence of the Holy 
 Ghost was evidently something which could not be 
 mistaken ; it shewed itself by visible and infallible 
 signs, which terrified even while they convinced : 
 and if 3000 converts were made on the first day, we 
 may reasonably suppose that the numbers increased 
 rapidly. 
 
 The remark will, I believe, be generally found 
 correct, that every movement in religion on a large 
 scale has shewn itself first among the lower or less 
 educated orders. It requires perhaps some master 
 mind to give the first impulse ; but our Saviour as- 
 serted a general principle, as well as a particular fact, 
 when he said that the poor have the gospel preached 
 to them, or rather, that the poor receive the gospel. 
 In the case now before us, the first impulse was 
 given from above. Man could no more have de- 
 vised the scheme of Christianity, than he could have 
 accomplished it ; and the learned or the powerful 
 were not the instruments employed by God in the 
 infancy of the church. The scriptures are some- 
 times quoted, as representing the first Christians to 
 have had a community of goods ; but Mosheim has 
 
LECT. II. Barnabas. 55 
 
 satisfactorily shewn, that this, in the literal sense of A. D. 
 the expression, was not the case". In the simple 
 language of scripture, the believers were of one heart 
 and of one soul : they were brothers not merely in 
 name ; and they looked upon their goods, not as ex- 
 clusively their own, but as a store from which some- 
 thing might be spared to succour those who were 
 in need. Some of them did literally sell their pro- 
 perty, not perhaps the whole of it, {for that would 
 have made themselves dependent in future upon 
 public charity,) but they converted a part of it into 
 money, and made a common stock, which the apo- 
 stles distributed to the poor. The immediate insti- 
 tution of this fund, and the zeal with which it was 
 raised, are proofs that many of the poorer classes 
 embraced the gospel : but they prove also, that some 
 were converted who possessed this world's goods ; 
 and the future labours of Barnabas will account for 
 St. Luke having singled him out as one of these cha- 
 ritable contributors. It has been conjectured, as I 
 observed before, that Barnabas was the same per- 
 son with Barsabas ", who was a candidate with Mat- 
 thias for the vacant apostleship ; and several ancient 
 writers have said that he was of the number of the 
 seventy disciples >' : but the fact of Barnabas being 
 a Levite seems effectually to refute either of these 
 notions. Barsabas had accompanied Jesus from the 
 beginning of his ministry, which we can hardly sup- 
 pose would have been the case with a Levite : and 
 
 " See his Disaertationes ad p. 489. Eus. i/. E.\. 12. Epi- 
 
 Histurium Ecclesiasiicam per- phanius Heer. XX. 4. vol. I. p. 
 
 tinenles, vol. II. Diss. I. 50. A/iacep/ial. c. 125. vol.11. 
 
 " See Lord Barriiigtoii, M/Ac p. 138. See Tillemont, Me- 
 
 Sacr. vol. II. p. 37. moires, torn. I. p. 1044, 11 87. 
 
 > Clem. Alex. Strom. II. 20. 
 
 E 4 
 
56 Opposition of lect. ii. 
 
 A. I), the narrative of St. Lvike seems clearly to shew, that 
 Barnabas laid the price of his field at the apostles' 
 feet, as the offering of a heart, which was then over- 
 flowing with the Ih'st impulse imparted by the 
 gospel. The family of Barnabas had settled in Cy- 
 prus ; perhaps he himself was born there : but his 
 office of a Levite would require him, as soon as he 
 was of the proper age, to reside mostly in Jerusa- 
 lem : and if the statement of a late writer ^ is au- 
 thentic, that he had studied with St. Paul in the 
 school of Gamaliel, he could not long have entered 
 uj)on his office. 
 
 While the gospel was thus spreading so rapidly, 
 (though perhaps we have been considering the events 
 of only a few days,) we should naturally expect that 
 the priests and sanhedrim would not be idle in at- 
 tem2)ting to supi)ress it. We are told expressly, that 
 the apostles delivered their doctrine daily in the 
 temple : their miracles were worked there, and in 
 the face of day ; and the thousands, who were con- 
 verted, could not escape notice. The same persons, 
 who had crucified Jesus, could not see with indif- 
 ference that that measure, which they had thought 
 so successful, was likely to be of no avail ; but the 
 remarks, which were made at the beginning of this 
 lecture, will account for the apostles not being mate- 
 rially impeded by the sanhedrim. I have observed, 
 that Jesus was evidently not an object of jealousy to 
 the Roman government. The i)rocurator sacrificed 
 him to preserve his own character for loyalty to the 
 emperor : and had he continued at Jerusalem, it is 
 
 2 Alexander, a monk of C\'- places him in the fifth century.) 
 prus, who probably lived at a and is worthy of little or no 
 late period, (though Baronius credit. 
 
LECT. II. the Priests. 57 
 
 probable that the Jews might again have succeeded A. D. 
 ill prejudicing him against the Galileans. But Pi- '^^• 
 late would return to Cit'sarea, as soon as the Pass- 
 over was ended ; and though his absence might be 
 thought in some respects to leave the Jewish author- 
 ities a greater power of acting as they pleased, it is 
 plain, that the chief priests were not seconded in 
 this instance by the wishes of the people. I have 
 said, that Jesus had on several occasions been the 
 object of popular regard : even at the last Passover 
 the multitude had followed him with enthusiasm ; 
 and the sanhedrim was aware, that an attempt 
 against his life might excite an uproar among' the 
 people. This was the real reason of their bringing 
 him before Pilate as guilty of a political crime: they 
 had themselves condemned him to death for blas- 
 I)lieiiiy against God ; and the story, which they told 
 to Pilate, was merely to induce him to execute the 
 sentence, which they were afraid of atteini)ting them- 
 selves. When the apostles took up the cause, which 
 was expected to have been extinguished by the death 
 of Jesus, they revived among the people the same 
 kindly feelings, which had been exhibited toward 
 their Mastei*. The miracles which they worked, in- 
 dependent of their beneficent character, and the real 
 good which resulted from them, could not fail to 
 raise the workers of them in the eyes of the people. 
 The chief priests were well aware of this, and took 
 their measures against the apostles with extreme 
 caution. On one occasion we read of their taking 
 them into custody, but ivithout violence. Jar they 
 feared the people, lest they should have been stoned. 
 More than once the apostles were imprisoned, and 
 corporal punishment was inflicted on them ; but 
 
58 Pharisees and Saclducees. lect. ii. 
 
 A.T). t^ach of these attempts rather shewed the timidity of 
 31. their opponents, and strengthened the cause which 
 they were intended to depress. To say nothing of 
 the apostles being released from prison by a miracle, 
 they declared openly in the council that they in- 
 tended to proceed ; and the moment of their dis- 
 missal saw them once more preaching in the tem- 
 ple, and multitudes crowding to hear them. 
 
 St. Luke has perhaps disclosed a circumstance, 
 which might lead us to think that party feelings 
 divided the sanhedrim upon this question. He twice 
 speaks of the high priest and his party as being Sad- 
 ducees ; and though we have evidence, that the Pha- 
 risees were equally, if not more enraged with Jesus, 
 for the severity of his reproofs, they were likely to 
 differ from the Sadducees, when the preaching of 
 the apostles was discussed as a question of doctrine. 
 The resurrection of Jesus was the point, which the 
 apostles put first and foremost in all their discourses ; 
 and this was likely to exasperate the Sadducees, who, 
 as I have already remarked, had the character of 
 being severe in the infliction of punishments The 
 Pharisees, though they were glad to have the apo- 
 stles punished, would not wish to see the Sadducees 
 take the lead, nor to have the doctrine of Jesus con- 
 demned, because it supported a resurrection : and 
 there is perhaps reason to suspect, that this division 
 in the sanhedrim operated for a season in favour of 
 the apostles. The high priest at this time was pro- 
 perly Caiaphas, who had been appointed in the year 
 26 ; but his father-in-law Annas, or Ananus, who 
 had himself filled the office for fifteen years, and had 
 influence enough to obtain it successively for five of 
 his sons, appears still to have retained the power in 
 
LECT. II. Gamaliel. 59 
 
 his own hands : and St. Luke, who wrote several A. D. 
 years after, mentions him before Caiaphas, and by '^^' 
 the name which he seems to have retained through 
 life, of Annas the high priest. Two other per- 
 sons are named by St. Luke, who have thus re- 
 ceived the distinction of being handed down among 
 the earliest opponents of the gospel. Tliese were 
 John and Alexander; and though it is unsafe to rest 
 upon a mere identity of names, it has been supposed 
 that both of them were persons of celebrity : that 
 the former, who is here called John, was the Rabbi 
 Jochanan ben Zaccai, the first president of the san- 
 hedrim after the destruction of Jerusalem "^ ; and 
 that Alexander was the brother of Philo Judaeus, 
 who held the oflSce of alabarch of the Jews in Alex- 
 andria •'. It would seem that all these persons were 
 Sadducees, and particularly active in endeavouring 
 to silence the apostles. We know, however, that 
 the council was not composed entirely of persons of 
 that party ; and I may conclude this lecture with 
 the mention of a Pharisee, whose name even now 
 is held in estimation among the Jews. This man 
 was Gamaliel, who has been said upon authority 
 which is entitled to some weight, to have been son 
 of that Symeon, who took the infant Jesus in his 
 arms, when he was presented in the temple. By his 
 mother's side he was of the seed of David ; and was 
 grandson of Hillel, who was one of the most learned 
 Jewish doctors of his day. He himself died eighteen 
 years before the destruction of Jerusalem, having 
 held the office of president of the sanhedrim for seve- 
 
 a See Biscoe, p. 72. Light- XVIII. 6, 3. XIX. 5, 1. XX. 
 
 foot, vol. I. p. 2009. 5, 2. 
 
 ^ See Josephus, Antiquit. 
 
60 Gamaliel. lect. ii. 
 
 A. D. ral years, in which he was succeeded by his descend- 
 ^^- ants for ten generations. The well known advice 
 of Gamaliel concerning the apostles need not be re- 
 peated here; nor do I mean to question the sincerity, 
 with which he cautioned his colleagues against in- 
 curring the danger of fighting against God : but it 
 is not improbable, that Gamaliel and his party may 
 have been unwilling to give the Sadducees a triumph 
 by punishing men who maintained the doctrine of a 
 resurrection ; and thus God, who watched over his 
 infant church, may have made the divisions of its 
 adversaries contribute to its growth. I may have 
 occasion to notice hereafter, what is asserted by some 
 early writers, that Gamaliel was in his heart a 
 Christian, and that after this period he openly 
 avowed himself*^. At present I would only observe, 
 that such a notion appears to be perfectly unfounded. 
 The advice of Gamaliel certainly gave the apostles 
 liberty for a season, and the punishment which they 
 received was equivalent to a triumph. It was the 
 complaint of the high priest himself, that they had 
 filled Jerusalem with their doctrine ; and multitudes 
 came even from the cities round about, bringing 
 with them the sick, who were miraculously cured. 
 The Sadducees and the persecuting party were de- 
 feated for a time ; but a new actor appeared soon 
 after upon the scene, who seconded their utmost 
 wishes, and attacked the rising sect in the manner 
 which will be described in the following lecture. 
 
 '^ For an account of Gania- Ldden.s, p. 12. Wolfius, Bib- 
 liel, see Tillemont, Memoires, llolh. Hcbr. part. II. p. 822. et 
 torn. II. p. 44. Witsius, Meld, ad Act. v. 34. 
 
LECTURE III. 
 
 r EW points have been more controverted in chro- A. D. 
 nology, than the date of the conversion of St. Paul ; • 
 
 and since it is obviously impossible to enter at pre- 
 sent into detail in a discussion of this kind, I shall 
 only give it as the result of careful and impartial in- 
 vestigation, that the ancient opinion seems most 
 vi^orthy of credit, which would place that memorable 
 event within a few months from the crucifixion of 
 our Saviour^. That it followed closely upon the 
 death of Stephen, would perhaps be conceded : and 
 if the appointment of Stephen and his colleagues 
 should seem to require a longer space of time to ac- 
 count for the number of l)elievers, I would answer, 
 that 3000 converts were made on the day of Pente- 
 cost, and 5000 are mentioned a short time after. 
 The numbers appear to have continued increasing 
 in this rapid ratio : and the enthusiasm, with which 
 the wealthier converts provided sui)port for the 
 poorer, gave the apostles incessant occupation in dis- 
 pensing this conniion property, in addition to their 
 more urgent duties of preaching the gospel. It was 
 the difficulty or impossibility of attending to both 
 these cases, which led to the appointing of the dea- 
 cons : and since this public provision for the poor 
 began with the very first conversions, there would 
 have been nothing surprising, if St, Luke had in- 
 
 ^ Such is the opinion of Til- Biironius, Liibbe, Genebrard, 
 lemont, Mnrioircs, toui. I. p. i. Usher, Calvisius, Petavius, &c. 
 
62 Fi7^st Converts. lect. hi. 
 
 A. D. formed us, that the deacons were appointed imme- 
 ^^' diately after the day of Pentecost. This however is 
 not the case ; but there is nothing in his narrative 
 which contradicts the notion, that they were a\i- 
 pointed witliin a few months ^ ; and there are rea- 
 sons which would induce me to think that they were 
 chosen about the feast of Tabernacles. 
 
 If we take the year 31 for the date of the cruci- 
 fixion, the feast of Pentecost fell about the month of 
 June. The release of the apostles after the advice 
 given by Gamaliel may well have happened in the 
 course of the following month : and I shall say little 
 more of the internal condition of the church, excejjt 
 that the believers met together for prayer and for 
 breaking of bread : which last phrase has always 
 been taken to mean, that a certain time was fixed 
 for a common meal, at the end of which the body 
 and blood of Christ were symbolically received in 
 the bread and wine. It also appears, that beside 
 the public instruction which was given by the apo- 
 stles in the temple, they were in the habit of meet- 
 ing in private houses ; or, as the expression is per- 
 haps to be interpreted, there were rooms in different 
 quarters of the city expressly set apart for these 
 meetings ^. 
 
 In the mean time we cannot suppose, that the 
 persecuting party in the sanhedrim would abandon 
 the design of suppressing the rising sect. Hitherto 
 they had been foiled by men, whom they described 
 as unlearned and ignorant : the apostles were so po- 
 pular with the multitude, that another apprehension 
 
 '' It is said to have happened I. Sj'iiops, c. 6.) 
 in the first year after the ascen- *^ See IMosheim, de rebus ante 
 sion by Natalis Alexander, (Saec. Const. Cent. I. c. 37. not. ". 
 
LECT. III. Feast of Tabernacles. 6.3 
 
 of them might have endangered their own lives ; and A. D. 
 the high priest and his party, who were Sadducees, ^^- 
 might feel mortified, that advice given by a Pliarisee, 
 had in fact delivered the apostles out of their hands. 
 Other and more effectual measures were to be taken. 
 The resurrection of the dead was too delicate a point 
 to be made the ground of objection to the apostles' 
 doctrine. It was well known, that the mass of the 
 people took part with the Pharisees upon this ques- 
 tion ; and unless the people could be brought to 
 join in the opposition, there was no chance of any 
 measures of severity being undertaken with success. 
 A new scheme was therefore devised, which was 
 likely to rouse the religious feelings of all true Israel- 
 ites : and the approaching feast of Tabernacles would 
 furnish an opportunity for putting this scheme into 
 practice. 
 
 The feast of T'abernacles, which took place in the 
 month of September, may also be considered the 
 cause of an important arrangement in the affairs of 
 the Christians. We are told, that the appointment 
 of the deacons was owing to a murmuring of tJie 
 Grecians against the Hebrews^ because their widows 
 were neglected in the daily ministration. The per- 
 sons, who are here called Hebrews, were the na- 
 tive inhabitants of Jerusalem ; and the Grecians 
 were those foreign Jews, who since the caj)tivity had 
 lived in great numbers in different countries, and 
 generally spoke Greek as the prevailing language. 
 We learn from this passage, that many of these 
 foreign Jews had embraced the gospel ; and they 
 liad either heard of it now for the first time upon 
 coming to the feast ; or, whicli is not improbable. 
 
64 Appointment of the Deacons, lect. iii. 
 
 A. 1). many of them may have been converted at the feast 
 '^^- of Pentecost, and living at no great distance in Syria 
 or Judaea, they may have come up again to vrorship 
 in the temple, and to see the apostles. Many of 
 these foreign Jews were of the poorer sort : and the 
 apostles, who were at this time particularly engaged 
 in instructing the new converts, had also their other 
 labour increased of distributing the public money to 
 so many new claimants. They therefore determined 
 to free themselves from this latter office, and com- 
 mit it to other hands ; by which means they would 
 be able to devote the whole of their own time to 
 preaching and instruction. As in the case of the 
 election of Matthias, they called upon the believers 
 in general to name fit persons to discharge this office ; 
 and seven men were accordingly commissioned by 
 the apostles to distribute the public money. From 
 this peculiar branch of their ministry they were 
 called "^laKoi/oi, or deacons ; and the name continued 
 ever after to denote the first or lowest office in the 
 church. We must not however suppose, that this 
 was the only duty which the deacons fulfilled. Be- 
 fore their appointment, they are described as being 
 ^ftill of the Holy Ghost and of wisdom : the first of 
 which expressions was applied to those persons, who 
 gave visible proofs of possessing the miraculous gifts 
 of the Holy Ghost ; and irisdom was a term, which 
 implied a preternatural ability in preaching the word 
 of God. We may suppose therefore, that the seven 
 deacons had distinguished themselves before in assist- 
 ing the apostles to instruct the converts. We know 
 from what follows, that they worked miracles, de- 
 fended the gospel in public discussions, and admin- 
 
LECT. III. Seven Deacons. ^5 
 
 istered baptism*'. All these things were perhaps A. D. 
 done by them before their appointment. The bap- '^^• 
 tizing so many thousand persons could not have 
 been performed by the apostles only. The actual 
 distribution of the money must also have employed 
 several other persons ; and we can hardly conceive, 
 that the apostles did not from the first single out 
 some zealous disciples, who might assist them in 
 their various duties. When Ananias and Sapphira 
 died, we read of persons being immediately at hand 
 to take them to their burial : and Mosheim may per- 
 haps be right in thinking, that these young men, as 
 they are called, were not present accidentally, but 
 that it was their business to attend upon the apo- 
 stles, and execute any commission*'. It is reason- 
 able to conclude, that the seven deacons were young 
 men such as these ; though if it be true, as some 
 early writers *^ have asserted, that they had been of 
 the number of the seventy disciples, we might sup- 
 pose that they were at least of the same age as the 
 youngest of the apostles. The names of two of 
 these persons, Stephen and Philip, will soon call for 
 more particular notice. The five others are not 
 named again in the New Testament, nor is any 
 thing authentic known concerning their history ?: 
 though we shall have occasion to consider hereafter, 
 whether Nicolas, who was a proselyte of Antioch, 
 was the person who gave a name to the sect of the 
 Nicolaitans. 
 
 '• See Zeigler dc Diacouis rt p. 50. See Tillomont, Me- 
 
 diaconlssis, c. 19. j). 347. Biiig- moires, toni. I. ]i. 730. 
 liani, Orig. Eccl. II. 20. ? For the traditions conceni- 
 
 ^ De rebus ante Const, cent, ing tlieni, see Tilleniont, Mc- 
 
 I. c. 37. not. ^. c. 37. not.^^'. woircs, toni. il. p. 1 24. 
 
 f Epiphanius, liar. XX. 4. 
 
66 Seven Deacons. i.ect. hi. 
 
 A. D. The relief, which the apostles felt in having this 
 trouhle taken off their hands, seems to have shewn 
 itself immediately in the increasing number of con- 
 verts. We now meet with the extraordinary fact, 
 that a great multitude of the priests embraced the 
 gospel ; and the feast of Tabernacles, which I have 
 sujiposed to be at hand, would be likely to bring 
 many new converts among the foreign Jews. The 
 presence of one of the great festivals is also indicated 
 by what we read of Stephen disputing with persons 
 belonging to the synagogues of Cyrene, Alexandria, 
 Cilicia, and Asia Minor. We are told, that there 
 were as many as 480 synagogues in Jerusalem '' : 
 and it seems highly probable, that many of them 
 were built by foreign Jews, who thus had syna- 
 gogues of their own, to which they could resort, 
 when they attended the public festivals. Some of 
 these persons now heard for the first time of a new 
 sect, which was making a surprising progress in Je- 
 rusalem : and we may perhaps infer, that the chief 
 priests had been waiting for their arrival, in the 
 hopes of engaging them in their scheme against the 
 Christians. There were now several persons beside 
 the ajiostles who were active in preaching the gospel ; 
 and though the synagogues were crowded by this 
 influx of foreign Jews, they entered them boldly, 
 and defended their doctrines. We read particularly 
 of Stephen being engaged in these discussions : and 
 as far as words were concerned, his victory was easy ; 
 for i)rejiidice and error were against him, but truth 
 and sincerity were on his side. It was then, that 
 the new method of attack was put in execution : and 
 false witnesses were hired, who accused him to the 
 
 1> Biscoo, p. 94. Lightfoot, vol. I, p. 363. 
 
LECT. III. Persecution of Stephen. 67 
 
 council of speaking blasphemous words against A. D. 
 Moses and against God; and of saying that Jesus ^'- 
 of Nazareth should destroy that place ^ and change 
 the customs which Moses had delivered. We can 
 hardly suppose, that even the apostles were aware at 
 this time, that the gospel was to supplant the reli- 
 gion of Moses : still less could we imagine, that Ste- 
 phen would have spoken blasphemously of Moses or 
 of God. But while he was enforcing the indispens- 
 able necessity of faith in Christ's death, he may have 
 given offence to many Jews, who thought that as 
 followers of the law, they could not be excluded 
 from salvation. He would also be siu-e to repre- 
 sent Moses as inferior to Jesus ; and to those who 
 knew the latter only as a crucified Galilsean, the as- 
 sertion would be looked upon as little less than blas- 
 phemy. When the chief priests represented the doc- 
 trine of the apostles as subversive of the Law, they 
 struck upon a chord which vibrated to the heart of 
 every Israelite. The Pharisees would even have 
 been more forward than the Sadducees to resent an 
 insult such as this : and the high priest and his fol- 
 lowers could not have devised a plan more likely to 
 unite all parties against the Christians : nor could 
 there have been a fitter time for spreading this new 
 calumny, than when persons were entering Jerusa- 
 lem every day, who had as yet heard nothing of the 
 rising sect. If some Jewish accounts may be be- 
 lieved, Gamaliel himself was no longer the advocate 
 of cautious measures. It is possible, that as a rigid 
 Pharisee, and even upon his own principle, he may 
 have looked upon it as a proof that the counsel of 
 the apostles was not of God, since they blasphemed 
 Moses and the Law. According to the same au- 
 
 F 2 
 
68 Saul of Tarsus. lect. iii. 
 
 A. I), thority he composed a prayer, which implored the 
 ' • extermination of these heretics*. The same is said 
 of a zealous disciple of his, named Samuel : and per- 
 haps some credit may be attached to these traditions, 
 when we know, that Saul, who carried the persecu- 
 tion to its height, was a disciple of Gamaliel. 
 
 Saul was at this time in the vigour of his life: 
 and it has been supposed upon good grounds, that 
 he was born about the same year with our Saviour'^. 
 His own express testimony fixes his birth at Tarsus 
 in Cilicia, which effectually disproves the tradition 
 preserved by Jerom^, that he was born at Giscala 
 in Judaea, from which place his jDarents removed to 
 Tarsus, when Judaea was overrun by the Roman 
 armies. Tarsus, the capital of Cilicia, which in the 
 time of Xenophon was a large and flourishing city, 
 is spoken of in terms of equal commendation by Jo- 
 sephus. As a place of learning, it had the character 
 of rivalling Athens and Alexandria'"; and having 
 fortunately taken part with Csesar in the civil war, 
 it was rewarded by the victorious party with poli- 
 tical privileges. The inhabitants had freedom con- 
 ferred upon them by Antony, and other rights were 
 extended to them by Augustus". Hence the pa- 
 
 i See Witsius, as quoted at speaks of him as aK^ida-ai at the 
 
 p. 60. time of our Saviour's ascension. 
 
 k Tillemont makes him to (Strom. IV. p. 625.) Clement 
 
 have been born two years ear- probably conceived his conver- 
 
 lier. But there is no authority sion to follow shortly after the 
 
 for this, except a si)urious trea- ascension ; and if he was then 
 
 tise, ascribed to Chrysostom, a little more than thirty, he 
 
 which says that St. Paul was would have been called uKyM- 
 
 sixty-eight years of age at the tray, 
 
 time of his death. St. Luke ' In Philemon. 23. 
 
 calls him veavias (Acts vii. 58.) >" Strabo XIV. p. 673. 
 
 and Clement of Alexandria ° See Dio Cass. XL VII. p. 
 
LECT. III. Saul of Tarsus. 69 
 
 rents of Saul, and he himself in right of his birth, A. D. 
 were citizens of Rome. He was of the tribe of 
 Benjamin, and according to his own expression, of 
 the purest Jewish extraction*'. His family was per- 
 haps above the common rank ; at least the fact of 
 his working at a trade is no proof to the contrary : 
 for it has been shewn, that for a child not to have 
 learnt some method of maintaining himself was 
 reckoned a disgrace p ; and his general education 
 was learned and attended with expense. Notwith- 
 standing what I have said, upon the authority of 
 Strabo, of Tarsus being so celebrated as a seat of 
 learning, it is added by the same writer, that most 
 of the inhabitants, after laying the foundation of 
 their acquirements in their native city, travelled 
 abroad to finish their education. This was certainly 
 the case with Saul. His acquaintance with profane 
 literature was perhaps acquired before he quitted 
 Tarsus : but he completed his studies at Jerusalem ; 
 and being inclined to the sect of the Pharisees, he 
 had the advantage of being instructed by Gamaliel, 
 the most celebrated teacher of his day. I have men- 
 tioned Samuel, as another zealous disciple of Gama- 
 liel ; and I have also stated that Barnabas is said to 
 have studied in the same school with Saul. The 
 latter however speaks of himself as having surpassed 
 many of his contemporaries in Jewish learning, and 
 as being preeminently attached to the traditions of 
 the Fathers. This was the distinguishing mark of 
 the Pharisees : and though with many of them it 
 was a cloak for violations of the written law, there 
 
 342. Appian, Bel. Civ. IV. p. » Phil. iii. 5. 
 
 320. Dio Chrys. Or. XXXIV. P See Witsius, /. c. I. 12. p. 
 
 P.4T5. 12. 
 
 f3 
 
70 Saul of Tarsus. lect. hi. 
 
 A. D. never has been any evidence adduced, tliat this was 
 ^^- the case with Saul. He appears to have been sincere, 
 where many were hypocrites, and strict where many 
 were self-indulgent. Some of the Fathers have dis- 
 cussed the question, whether he was married'!; and if 
 the affirmative could be proved, his marriage must be 
 assumed to have taken place before his conversion : but 
 there seems no doubt, that the notion of his having 
 a wife arose from some mistaken passages in his 
 Epistles*', and has no foundation whatever in truth. 
 If he was of the same age as our Saviour, he must 
 have jiassed some years, after quitting the school of 
 Gamaliel, of which we know nothing. There are 
 l)assages in his own writings which seem to shew, 
 that he had never seen Jesus while he was on earth ^: 
 and on the whole I should conclude, that he came 
 to Jerusalem for the feast of Tabernacles about the 
 time of the appointment of the seven deacons. 
 When St. Luke mentions the synagogues, in which 
 Stephen disputed, he names one belonging to the 
 Cilicians : and it is not improbable, that Saul may 
 have taken part in these discussions. Being tinahle, 
 as St. Luke adds, to resist the ivisdom and spirit 
 with which Stephen spohe^ he would eagerly catch 
 at the charge which was now brought against him 
 of speaking against the Temple and the Law. Saul 
 may have been one of those, who brought Stephen 
 before the council : and the chief priests had now 
 accomplished their great object of raising a popular 
 feeling against the new doctrine. The council would 
 soon assemble : care would be taken, that a sufficient 
 number of persons should be present to approve of 
 
 ^1 See Tilleinont, Memoircs, •" i Cor. ix. 5. Phil. iv. 3. 
 
 torn. I. p. 797. s Heb. ii. 3. Acts xiii. 3 i. 
 
LECT. III. Death of Stephen. 71 
 
 any severity : and Saul perhaps now offered his A. D. 
 services to the high priests, and brought a party of ^^- 
 Cilicians to attend the trial. Stephen was heard, 
 while he went through the Jewish history from 
 Abraham to Solomon, though his object was to 
 prove, that their ancestors had always shewn the 
 same blindness and obstinacy as in the recent case 
 of Jesus Christ : but he was not suffered to proceed 
 to this conclusion : it was perhaps agreed before- 
 hand, that as soon as he came to speak of the cru- 
 cifixion of Jesus, he should be interrupted, and sen- 
 tence should be passed. Even the form of a trial 
 does not seem to have been observed : the chief 
 priests knew that they were safe in the approbation 
 of the by-standers ; and we have the evidence of 
 Saul himself, that his vote was given for the death 
 of Stephen *. This perhaps means, that he was one 
 of those who shouted acclamation, when the chief 
 priest delivered the sentence. No time was lost in 
 carrying it into execution, Stephen was hurried 
 from the temple where the council sat, to some place 
 witliout the walls : and before even the news of 
 what had been done could be generally known, the 
 work of murder had begun. The first stones, as 
 was always the case, were thrown by the witnesses, 
 who had been hired to accuse Stephen of blasphemy: 
 and that they might do their work more effectually, 
 they took off their looser garments and committed 
 them to the care of Saul. I have supposed Saul to 
 have been an actor in the whole of this iniquitous 
 scene ; and he had now the satisfaction of seeing 
 the blood of him, whose arguments he had been un- 
 
 t Acts xxii. 20. 
 F 4 
 
72 Saul the Persecutor. lect. hi. 
 
 A. D. able to answer, and whom he believed in the sin- 
 • • cerity of his heart to be a blasphemer of Moses and 
 of God. 
 
 The services of such a zealous agent as Saul were 
 not to be neglected by the chief priests. We may 
 perhaps infer that Gamaliel himself did not now 
 oppose the ardor of his former pupil : and the watch- 
 word of the Temple and the Law being in danger 
 was sufficient to raise a ferment from one end of 
 Jerusalem to the other. Many believers, who had 
 never viewed the matter in this light, might per- 
 haps begin to doubt of their newly adopted faith : 
 the suspicions of those, who had doubted or wa- 
 vered before, would be strengthened : and in the 
 mean time both Pharisees and Sadducees were ac- 
 tive in prejudicing the new comers against the 
 Christians. The success of the attempt against Ste- 
 phen shewed the policy of attacking the leaders of 
 the party. The jDlaces where they assembled would 
 be easily discovered : and the panic, which attends 
 any great popular movement, would cause many of 
 the believers to hide themselves from the storm. 
 Saul and his party succeeded in laying hold of some 
 who were less cautious ; and they either lodged 
 them in the prisons, or bringing them into the syn- 
 agogues, which were sure to be filled with the 
 foreign Jews, they ordered them to abjure their doc- 
 trines on jDain of instant punishment. This scene 
 of violence began immediately after the death of 
 Stephen. It was perhaps prudent, that his mur- 
 derers should not wait till a greater crowd had as- 
 sembled : and the mangled remains of the first mar- 
 tyr were left to be removed by the friends who had 
 been bold enough to attend. His funeral seems to 
 
LECT. III. Dispersio7i of the Deacons. 73 
 
 have been performed with some publicity": but A. D. 
 though a few Christians might meet in safety tor 
 such a purpose without the walls, they would find 
 a most formidable change in public opinion when 
 they returned to the city. The necessity of yield- 
 ing to circumstances was apparent. It was decided 
 that the Apostles should remain in Jerusalem, and 
 endeavour, if they could, to protect their converts : 
 but that the deacons, and the others who had taken 
 a prominent part in public discussions, should leave 
 the city. Nicolas, one of the deacons, was a native 
 of Antioch : Philip appears to have resided at Cae- 
 sarea : some of those who fled with them belonged 
 to Cyprus and Cyrene : so that if many of them re- 
 turned to their homes, the persecution was in fact 
 the cause of the gospel being more widely spread. 
 We shall see presently, that it was carried by some 
 of these persons as far as Phenicia, Antioch, and 
 Cyprus : but the immediate result was the conver- 
 sion of several persons in the nearer places of Ju- 
 daea and Samaria. 
 
 I have said, that of the first converts, who were 
 made on the day of Pentecost, many, when they 
 returned from the feast, would carry back their new 
 opinions into their own countries. We have also 
 seen, that multitudes had come from the neighbour- 
 ing towns, and brought their sick to be cured by 
 the Apostles. The gospel therefore had already 
 produced a considerable sensation beyond Jerusa- 
 
 " The story is worthy of that at Ifiiiith Gmnaliol was 
 
 little attention, that the hody instrumental in having it bn- 
 
 of Ste])hen continued a day ried in his own ground, eight 
 
 and a night without interment ; leagues from Jerusalem. See 
 
 during which time it was not Tillemont, M6moires, tom. II. 
 
 touched by any animal, and p. 13. 
 
74 Samaritans. lect. hi. 
 
 A. D. lem : but this was the first time, that any persons 
 holding an office in the church, and regularly com- 
 missioned to preach and baptize, had gone with such 
 an object to any of the neighbouring towns. Philip, 
 one of the deacons, now took the direction of Sama- 
 ria : and we may observe, that this was the begin- 
 ning of the completion of those remarkable words 
 which our Saviour delivered before his ascension. 
 He then said, that the gospel was to be preached 
 in Jerusalem^ and in all Jiiclcea, and iti Saj?iaria. I 
 need not dwell upon the hatred which existed be- 
 tween the Jews and Samaritans ; and there can be 
 little doubt, that the Jews considered the Sama- 
 ritans to be excluded from the promises, which were 
 given only to themselves. We know however, that 
 the expectation of a Messiah was as prevalent in 
 Samaria as in Judeea. It might be doubted, perhaps, 
 whether there was not a greater mixture of ancient 
 Jewish blood in the inhabitants of Samaria, than is 
 generally supposed. Their language retained more 
 of the original Hebrew ; and they had preserved the 
 old uncouth Hebrew characters, while their neigh- 
 bours in Judaea had adopted the more elegant form 
 of Chaldee letters from Babylon ^. The two countries 
 had now for some years been under the same go- 
 vernment. Herod the Great obtained Samaria from 
 Augustus after the battle of Actium, and rebuilt the 
 capital, which was called by him Sebaste in honour 
 of the emperor, with great magnificence. AVhen 
 Herod's dominions were divided at his death, Sa- 
 maria as well as Judaea was the portion of Arche- 
 
 " Concerning the Samarit- Hebr. vol. II. p. 434. Carp- 
 ans I would refer to Brucker, zovius, Crit. Sacr. V. T. part, 
 vol. II. p. 661. Wolfius, B'lbl. II. c. 4. p. 585. 
 
LECT. III. S'mion 31agus. 75 
 
 laus : and at the time which we are now consider- A. D. 
 ing, the two countries were still united under the ^^- 
 government of Pontius Pilate. 
 
 The name of the city in Samaria, in which Philip 
 preached, is not mentioned : but his arrival there 
 had been anticipated by an extraordinary man, who 
 obtained great j)opularity, not only in Samaria, but, 
 if we may believe the ecclesiastical writers, over a 
 large part of the world. This man was Simon Ma- 
 gus : in noticing whose history it is extremely dif- 
 ficult to separate truth from fiction : but the most 
 authentic facts, which we know of him, being re- 
 corded by St. Luke, and comiected with the earliest 
 propagation of the gospel, it is impossible not to 
 take some notice of him in this place. 
 
 Justin Martyr, who was himself a Samaritan, in- 
 forms us that Simon was a native of Gittum, a vil- 
 lage in that country>'. Of his education we know 
 nothing for certain : but in a work, which although 
 spurious is of considerable antiquity, it is said that 
 he studied at Alexandria, and was well versed in 
 Grecian literature, as well as being a proficient in 
 oratory and dialectics''. That he studied at Alex- 
 andria, is not improbable: and he would have learnt 
 in that city, what he seems undoubtedly to have 
 professed, the doctrine of the Gnostics. The name 
 of Gnosticism was perhaps not yet given to any 
 particular sect of philosophers. ]h\t as is generally 
 the case in the progress of opinions, the thing ex- 
 isted, and had advanced a considerable way, before 
 it assumed a distinctive name. Philosophy had long 
 been verging towards an eclectic character in Alex- 
 andria. There had in fact never been an exclusive 
 
 y Apol. I. 26. p. 59. z Clement. Hoin. II. 22. 
 
76 Philosojihy of Alexandria, lect. hi. 
 
 A. D. school predominant in that city : and though the 
 • Platonic philosophy was perhaps the most popular, 
 it received some important modifications from two 
 different quarters. The Jews had been settled in 
 Alexandria in considerable numbers from the foun- 
 dation of the city. Their language soon became 
 Greek, and many of them had an extensive ac- 
 quaintance with heathen literature. This produced 
 an important effect upon the philosophy of one party 
 and the religion of the other. The Platonists stu- 
 - died the Jewish scriptures, and saw in them traces 
 of a pure and sublime theology. The Jews, who 
 wished to remove the prejudices against their pe- 
 culiar creed, endeavoured in an evil hour to shew- 
 that it harmonized with many of the speculations 
 of Plato. They even asserted, that Plato had bor- 
 rowed from the writings of Moses : a statement, 
 which, though certainly void of any just foundation, 
 was implicitly believed by many of the Fathers^. 
 The Platonists met this charge by referring to 
 writings much older than the time of Plato, and, 
 as they contended, prior also to Moses. This was, 
 I believe, the origin of many of the forgeries, which 
 under the names of Orj^heus, Musaeus, and other 
 poets of the heroic ages, may be traced to Alexan- 
 dria as their source. The intercourse with the Jews 
 "wdll also account for many expressions in the spu- 
 rious oracles, which were ascribed to the Sibyls and 
 the Magi, and which were probably written with a 
 view to conciliate the creeds of Moses and of Plato. 
 The Alexandrian Jews were not only the corrupters 
 of their religion from heathen sources : but their 
 doctrines, as they exj^lained them to the Grecian 
 a I may refer to my Bampton Lectures, note 87. 
 
LECT. III. G?iosticism. 77 
 
 philosophers, were ah'eady debased with a consider- A. D. 
 able alloy from Babylon and Persia. The conquests ^^- 
 of Alexander, and the communication between Egypt 
 and the East, which flowed from them, were another 
 means of introducing the Persian doctrines into Alex- 
 andria : and thus from these three sources, the phi- 
 losophy of Plato, the religion of Moses, and the the- 
 ology of the Magi, a new and heterogeneous system 
 sprang up, which led to the ill-digested but not ir- 
 rational eclectic philosophy on the one hand, and to 
 the ravings of Gnosticism on the other. The most 
 fertile topic of discussion was the origin of Matter 
 and of Evil : and the attempts to account for evil, 
 without making God the author of it, have perhaps 
 been productive of more error and absurdity than 
 all the other speculations of human reason. 
 
 That Matter was independent of the Deity, and 
 coeternal with him, was a fundamental tenet of Pla- 
 tonism : nor did the Alexandrian Jews find any 
 repugnance to extract this from the writings of 
 Moses. That several orders of spiritual beings were 
 interposed between God and the human race, was 
 maintained alike by both parties ; the demons of 
 the one being identified with the angels of the other. 
 The Jews had also admitted many innovations in 
 their belief concerning angels from their residence 
 in Babylon. The Oriental notion was, that several 
 successive emanations of spiritual beings had pro- 
 ceeded from God : and the theory of emanations 
 l)ecame the favourite tenet of the Gnostics, and 
 their grand invention for accounting for the origin 
 of Evil. They supposed the Deity, by acting upon 
 his own mind, to have produced the first pair of 
 beings wliom they called iEons ; and these, by sue- 
 
78 Gnosficis7n. i.ect. hi. 
 
 A. D. cessive emanations, gave birth to other beings, which 
 ^^- gradually deteriorated and had less resemblance to 
 the great first Cause. One of these later emanations 
 passed the boundaries of the Pleroma, which was the 
 abode of the Deity, and there coming in contact with 
 Matter created the world. According to this scheme 
 the great first Cause had nothing to do with creation, 
 nor was even aware of its having taken place. The 
 evil, which appeared in the world, was inherent in 
 Matter itself; and the Deity was constantly em- 
 ployed in attempting to remedy it. We may re- 
 cognise in this scheme the doctrine of two Prin- 
 ciples, which was held so generally in Persia, and 
 was afterwards more widely diffused in the west by 
 Manes or Manicha^us. Some of the Gnostics be- 
 lieved the world to have been created by the evil 
 principle : but the creator was supposed by all of 
 them to have more or less connexion with evil ; and 
 the boast of Gnosticism was to free mankind from 
 the tyranny of this being, and to restore the hnoiv- 
 ledge of the true God. 
 
 Such, as far as we can penetrate this obscure sub- 
 ject, was the state of one branch of philosophy, which 
 Simon Magus would meet with, if he studied in the 
 schools of Alexandria. We can trace another con- 
 nexion with that system in the pretensions which 
 he made to preternatural power : and the Gnostics 
 have always been represented as dealing in magic. 
 That Simon appeared at least to work miracles, can- 
 not be doubted. He had attracted attention in Sa- 
 maria some time before Philip arrived there ; and 
 all the people looked up to him as an extraordinary 
 being. His history, as I have observed, is so mixed 
 with fable, that it is difficult to say, whether it con- 
 
LECT. III. Simon Magus. 79 
 
 tains any foundation of truth. There is, however, A. D. 
 some evidence, that Simon vi^as not the first person, ^^- 
 who introduced his peculiar notions into Samaria. 
 The name of Dositheus has been mentioned, as hav- 
 ing preceded him ; and Dositheus has been connected 
 with the history of John the Baptist ^. We may 
 perhaps be right in collecting from these accounts, 
 that the preaching of John the Baptist made a great 
 sensation in Samaria : and that coupled with the 
 national expectation of the Messiah, it led to more 
 than one impostor pretending to be the person an- 
 nounced by John the Baptist. The Jews or Sama- 
 ritans, who embraced Gnosticism, would couple this 
 expectation with their peculiar doctrines. They 
 would give out that the person, who was to come, 
 would free the world from the corruption of matter 
 and the tyranny of the evil principle, and once more 
 restore the knowledge of the true God. ^Miether 
 Dositheus, if such a person existed, or Simon Magus, 
 proclaimed themselves as this long expected person, 
 may perhaps be doubted. It is certain, that Simon 
 gave out that himself was some great one, and that 
 his general title was the great j^ower of God. Soon 
 after he had established this character, Philip the 
 deacon appeared in the same town, working niucli 
 more stupendous miracles, and announcing a teacher 
 sent from God, who would free mankind from the 
 tyranny of sin. The delivery of such a doctrine at 
 this time was critical, and could not fail to make a 
 great impression vipon the mind of Simon. Though 
 he was an impostor as to his miracles, he may have 
 been sincere in his philosophy ; and Philip certainly 
 appeared to realize the expectations, which Simon 
 
 ^ Banipton Lectures, note 40. 
 
80 Conversions in Samaria. lect. hi. 
 
 A. D. had been teaching the whole Samaritan nation to 
 ^^- entertain. It need not lower the opinion, which we 
 form of the gospel, if we suppose its reception to 
 have been promoted in this instance by a philosophy, 
 which was in a great measure false. The reality 
 and overwhelming character of Philip's miracles are 
 in fact greatly confirmed by what took place in Sa- 
 maria : and the baptism of Simon was a remarkable 
 instance of the testimony which error pays to truth. 
 There are reasons, which seem to shew, that the 
 conversions in Samaria occupied a very short portion 
 of time: and if we think of the previous impression, 
 which Simon had produced, and of the stupendous 
 works with which Philip confirmed his own superior 
 pretensions, we need not be surprised at the whole 
 population professing so rapidly their faith in Christ. 
 The news of such unexpected success would be be- 
 yond measure consoling to the Apostles in Jerusa- 
 lem. Philip would not fail to acquaint them M^ith 
 the joyful fact of his flight having contributed to 
 the extension of the gospel : and he would perhaps 
 be perplexed at being left to himself with the sole 
 superintendence of so many converts. The Ajiostles 
 had continued at Jerusalem in the hour of trial : and 
 had they then left it, their departure might have 
 been fatal to their suffering cause : but as soon as 
 they heard of the conversions in Samaria, they felt 
 that the presence of some of their body was as much 
 wanted there as in Jerusalem. Peter and John, 
 two of the most distinguished of them, immediately 
 went down : and their presence could not fail to 
 produce a still stronger impression of jn^eternatural 
 power. Though Philip worked miracles himself, 
 he was not able to communicate the same power to 
 
i>ECT. III. Simon 3Iagus. 81 
 
 others. His baptism conferred the ordinary, sane- A. D. 
 tifying influence of the Holy Spirit, but not any of 
 the visible and extraordinary gifts. It appears from 
 many passages of the New Testament, that the power 
 of communicating these gifts was possessed exclu- 
 sively by the apostles : and if any of Philip's converts 
 had begun to entertain doubts as to their faith, they 
 had now the evidence of feeling themselves invested 
 with superhuman power. This was the effect of 
 Peter and John merely laying their hands upon 
 them and praying : and no stronger evidence could 
 be borne to the reality of these miracles, than by the 
 fact of Simon offering money, that he might possess 
 the power of conferring these miraculous gifts. This 
 offer, which has coupled the name of Simon with 
 such disgraceful recollections, shewed too fully the 
 imperfect nature of his faith. He had believed in 
 Jesus Christ as an emanation from God, but he had 
 built that belief upon his own false and superstitious 
 philosophy. How far his countrymen ])artook of 
 that fatal delusion, we are not informed. Justin 
 Martyr speaks of all Samaria looking up to him as 
 a God : and the Fathers are unanimous in naming 
 him as the founder of the Gnostic heresies. If we 
 understand by this, that he was the first Gnostic, 
 who introduced the name of Christ into that absurd 
 system, we may perhaps admit the assertion as true : 
 and we have seen, that he heard of the name of 
 Christ very early in the establishment of the gospel. 
 After this interview with the apostles, he probably 
 made use of the name of Jesus in his magical delu- 
 sions : and when he explained his doctrine of ema- 
 nations, he gave to Jesus Christ the part of that 
 divine Being, who was to free mankind from the 
 
 G 
 
82 Philip the Deacon. lect. hi. 
 
 A. D. evil principle, and reveal the knowledge of the true 
 God. Thus his system contained a foundation of 
 truth under a multifarious mass of error : and there 
 is reason to think that the name of Christ vras in- 
 troduced by him and his followers into many places, 
 before it was announced by an apostle. We shall 
 have occasion to consider hereafter the visit of Simon 
 Magus to Rome : I shall not now pursue his history 
 any further, having only observed, that he probably 
 left Samaria for the present, and endeavoured to 
 remove himself as far as possible from the preachers 
 of Christianity'^. 
 
 The apostles, having thus confirmed the Samarit- 
 ans in the truth, as well as freed them from delu- 
 sion, returned to Jerusalem ; and we read of their 
 preaching the gospel in many villages through which 
 they passed. Before I consider the state, in which 
 they found the church at Jerusalem, I shall finish 
 this part of the history of Philip, who had been the 
 means of converting Samaria. I have supposed him 
 to have escaped from Jerusalem a little before or 
 during the feast of Tabernacles ; and the feast lasted 
 eight days. A journey of not many hours would 
 bring him into Samaria : and I have observed, that 
 the peculiar circumstances preceding and attending 
 his preaching would make a short time necessary for 
 the success which he met with. The next transac- 
 tion, in which he was engaged, proves that the feast 
 of Tabernacles was now over. He went in conse- 
 quence of a vision on the road to Ga^a, and he there 
 met with an Ethiopian eunuch, who, it is said, had 
 
 c He perhaps travelled in read of his mistress Helena, 
 many countries: but his visit Iren. I. 23, 2, p. 99. Ter- 
 to Tyre is marked by what we tull. de anima, 34. p. 290. 
 
i.ECT. III. EtMopian Eunuch. 83 
 
 gone up to Jerusalem to worship, and was now re- A. I). 
 turning. The country here called Ethiopia was 
 probably Abyssinia : and having performed so long 
 a journey, he may have protracted his stay some- 
 what beyond the time taken up by the festival. This 
 would make it perfectly practicable for Philij) to 
 have left Jerusalem at the beginning of the feast of 
 Tabernacles ; to have preached with success in Sa- 
 maria ; and then to have met the Ethiopian eunuch, 
 who was returning home after the festival. This 
 meeting, as I have stated, was the result of a vision : 
 and curiosity may perhaps enquire, why the conver- 
 sion of this one man was made the subject of a pre- 
 ternatural communication. If the tradition could 
 be established, which is preserved by Eusebius *^, 
 and which is still prevalent in Abyssinia, we might 
 perceive a sufficient reason for this special interfer- 
 ence : for it has been asserted, that this eunuch, who 
 was a great person in the Ethiopian court, and pre- 
 sided over the treasury, was the means of introduc- 
 ing Christianity into his own country upon his re- 
 turn. We are told however by persons, who have 
 investigated this matter, that there are no grounds 
 for such a supposition ; and that Christianity was 
 not introduced into that country till the fourth cen- 
 tury*^. It might also be conjectured, that since 
 eunuchs were forbidden to enter into the congrega- 
 tion of the Lord ', but Isaiah had prophesied that in 
 the times of the gospel they should have a place and 
 a name there better than of sons and of daughters^ ^ 
 
 d Eus. //. E. II. I. Cyril. e See Ludolf. Hist. Mthiop. 
 
 Hieros. Cateches. XVII. 25. p. III. 2. 
 
 276. See Fromondus in Act. ^ Deut. XXIII. 1 — 3. 
 
 p. 618. g Isai. LVI. 3— 8. 
 
 G 2 
 
84 Ethiojmm Eunuch. lect. hi. 
 
 A. D. the baptism of this eunuch may have been intended 
 ^^- to remove one more prejudice from the exclusive 
 notions of the Jew^s. The admission of their old 
 enemies the Samaritans to the new dispensation was 
 a great step gained : and it is possible, that the bap- 
 tism of the eunuch may for this reason have been 
 provided for by a special revelation. However this 
 may be, it is important to remark, that the Ethio- 
 pian eunuch was probably a Jew, or at least a pro- 
 selyte. This might be inferred from his having 
 gone to worship at Jerusalem, and being engaged 
 in reading the prophecies of Isaiah : but it seems 
 almost demonstrable, that no admission of a Gentile 
 convert had taken place before the baptism of Cor- 
 nelius. Philip would never have ventured to take 
 a step, which even Peter afterwards would not have 
 taken without a command from heaven : and if he 
 had now baptized a Gentile, the question would not 
 have been considered a new one, nor have excited 
 so much sensation in the case of Cornelius. I con- 
 clude therefore that the Ethiopian eunuch was a 
 Jew*^, who had risen to a high station in the court 
 of Candace : and though St. Luke relates but a small 
 part of the conversation between him and Philip, 
 we gather from it the important fact, that the pro- 
 fession of faith required at baptism, was belief in 
 Jesus Christ as the Son of God. 
 
 The success of Philip's preaching was not con- 
 fined to the conversion of the eunuch : and perhaps 
 indeed this was a small part of the benefit intended, 
 when he was sent on this journe3\ He disappeared 
 suddenly and miraculously from the eunuch : and 
 these repeated interpositions of divine power were 
 \ h See Tilleniont, Metiioires, tom, II. p. 361. 
 
LECT. III. Progress of the Gospel. 85 
 
 perhaps made to strengthen his faith, and to assure A. D. 
 
 him of assistance from above. The place, to which _L_ 
 
 he found himself transported, was Azotus or Ash- 
 dod on the coast of the Mediterranean : and from 
 thence to Caesarea he preached the gospel and made 
 converts in the towns and places through which he 
 passed. Caesarea appears to have been his usual 
 place of residence*, and he probably continued to 
 live there : so that this important city, which might 
 be called the Roman capital of the province, and 
 was the Procurator's general abode, had now the 
 advantage of hearing the gospel from this zealous 
 and successful preacher. ^Ve have thus seen the 
 gospel circulated in the northern part of Judaea, in 
 several places of Samaria, and along the whole ex- 
 tent of the coast from Azotus to Caesarea : and all 
 this was immediately owing to the very measures, 
 which had been taken by the enemies of the gospel 
 to suppress and exterminate it. It is time, however, 
 that we should now return to consider the conti- 
 nuance of these cruel measures, and the state of the 
 believers in Jerusalem, whom we left in the midst 
 of such great sufferings and danger. 
 
 The prudence, which dictated the retirement of 
 the deacons, was perhaps followed by the Christians 
 ceasing to hold their public meetings : and if they 
 continued to attend regularly in the temple, and to 
 conform to all the outward ceremonies of the Law, it 
 might be difficult for Saul and his party to have de- 
 tected them. We may perhaps conclude, that the 
 leaders of the new sect were the principal objects of 
 persecution ; and there must still have been thou- 
 sands of believers in Jerusalem, who escaped the 
 
 i This is saifl bv Isidor. Pleus. I. ep, 449. p. 1 14. 
 G 3 
 
86 JDamascus. i.ect. hi. 
 
 A. D. danger. Saul however was not satisfied with having 
 3'- thus silenced them for a while in the capital. When 
 the festival was ended, it was probably his plan to 
 return to Tarsus ; and he considered whether on his 
 journey he might not do some further injury to the 
 Christians. The large and populous city of Da- 
 mascus did not lie much out of his road ; and it is 
 highly probable that he had been in the habit of 
 visiting it in his journeys from Tarsus to Jerusalem. 
 It is known at this time to have contained a vast 
 number of Jews. A few years later, in the reign of 
 Nero, as many as 10,000 were killed in a quarrel 
 with the other inhabitants'^ : which shews to what 
 a great extent they had settled and multiplied there. 
 It is plain also, that at this time the gospel was 
 spreading at Damascus. It might have been carried 
 thither by some Jews who returned from the last 
 feast of Pentecost : and others, who went up to the 
 feast of Tabernacles, might have informed the high 
 priest of the progress of the new sect. Saul now 
 volunteered his services to endeavour to check it, 
 and even offered to return to Jerusalem with any 
 of these heretics whom he might find at Damascus. 
 The high priest readily gave him letters to the syn- 
 agogues of that city ; and these would invest him 
 with power over the inhabitants who were Jews. 
 The political state of Damascus at this time may 
 also have pointed it out as a likely place for such 
 acts of violence to be committed with impunity. 
 
 Damascus had come into the possession of the 
 
 Romans when Tigranes was conquered byPompey; 
 
 but there is reason to think, that at this time it was 
 
 held by Aretas, the petty sovereign of Arabia Pe- 
 
 ^ Joseph, de Bel. Jud. II. 20. 
 
LECT. III. Aretas. 87 
 
 traea. We know, that this was the case three years A. D. 
 afterwards : and the war between Aretas and Herod 
 Antipas, which probably put him in possession of 
 this city, must have broken out some time before. 
 Herod, as we know from the evangelists, had formed 
 an incestuous connexion with the wife of his brother 
 Philip. His own wife was the daughter of Aretas : 
 and as soon as she discovered the insult which was 
 offered her, she took refuge with her father. Aretas 
 made war upon his son-in-law, and totally defeated 
 him in a decisive engagement'; and though this 
 victory is generally placed several years later, it 
 seems more natural to think, that Aretas resented 
 the affront soon after it had happened : and when 
 Josephus says, that the defeat of Herod was consi- 
 dered to be a punishment for his unjust execution of 
 John the Baptist, he might lead us to infer that the 
 one event followed shortly upon the other. I con- 
 clude therefore, that Aretas gained his victory be- 
 fore the crucifixion of our Saviour : and it is pro- 
 bable, that the occupation of Damascus was one of 
 the consequences of his success. If this were so, it 
 was his obvious policy to pay covirt to the Jews. 
 Beside their importance from their great numbers 
 within the city, they might be likely to feel an in- 
 terest in the cause of Herod, who was in some re- 
 sf)ects their countryman ; or Herod might at least 
 wish to engage them on his side : and Aretas, who 
 knew that Herod was not popular, might think that 
 by judicious conciliation he might hinder the Jews 
 from giving him this advantage. All this would 
 not be unknown to Saul, who therefore looked for- 
 ward to receiving no molestation from the local au- 
 
 1 Joseph. Anliq. XVIII. 5. 
 G 4 
 
88 Conversion of Saul. i.ect. hi. 
 
 A. D. thorities of Damascus in his proceedings against the 
 ^ Christians : and if he wanted companions or assist- 
 ants, he would find them in his countrymen of Cili- 
 cia, who were returning like himself from Jerusa- 
 lem. 
 
 It is not my intention to detail the extraordinary 
 history of the conversion of Saul, except so far as 
 any circumstances of it may illustrate the progress 
 of the gospel. I have observed, and the history 
 itself makes it evident, that there were at this time 
 several believers in Damascus. I have also said, 
 that this fact might be made known in Jerusalem 
 by the Jews who went up to the feast of Taber- 
 nacles : and it would seem that some of these per- 
 sons had returned to Damascus before Saul arrived 
 there ; at least the part which Saul had taken in 
 the persecution was already known to Ananias, and 
 his arrival with the commission from the high priest 
 was expected. I have sometimes been inclined to 
 think, that Ananias was one of the numerous con- 
 verts who had been made at the preceding Pente- 
 cost™. That he was a believer in the gospel, can- 
 not be doubted. He is not only called a disciple, 
 but it was by his hands that Saul was baptized : 
 and I can hardly think, that at this time any persons 
 administered baptism, except those who had received 
 their own commission from the apostles. St. Luke's 
 narrative of Saul's residence in Damascus is evidently 
 imperfect ; and we may account for this by sup- 
 posing, that he was one of those who left Jerusalem 
 during the persecution, and retired to his native city 
 Antioch. It appears, however, from Saul's own 
 
 '" Tlie Greek inartyrologies the seventy disciples, and after- 
 state him to have been one of wards martyred. 
 
LECT. III. Saul in Arabia. 89 
 
 words, that at this time he did not stay long in Da- A. D. 
 niascus. He had as yet many things to learn. The 
 whole doctrine of remission of sins through Christ's 
 death was new to him : and so far from being at 
 present fit for the office of an apostle, the hmnblest 
 disciple in Damascus was his superior in knowledge. 
 If the conversion of Saul had been an ordinary oc- 
 currence, his obvious course was to have staid in 
 Damascus, till he was more fully instructed in his 
 new faith. Ananias was at hand, who would have 
 opened the eyes of his nn'nd, as he had restored him 
 to his bodily sight : or he might at once have re- 
 turned to Jerusalem, and obtained instruction from 
 the apostles, whose lives he had so lately sought. 
 But it is plain, that there was an higher Power con- 
 trolling all his actions. He had to learn the first 
 elements of the gospel, but it pleased God to reveal 
 them to him by special illuminations. It was doubt- 
 less under this guidance that he now withdrew into 
 Arabia ; a step, which was perhaps necessary on ac- 
 count of the odium which attached to his name ; 
 and it was in this period of solitude and privacy, 
 that his mind went through that moral and intellec- 
 tual training, which was to fit him for his high call- 
 ing. It has been disputed, whether St. Paul preached 
 the gospel while he was in Arabia ; and it is rash 
 to pronounce upon questions, which present such 
 little evidence : but I cannot help thinking it most 
 probable, that the commencement of his apostolic 
 ministry is not to be dated so early. He was now 
 preparing himself for his future labours : and if the 
 opportunity occurred, he would doubtless endeavour 
 to extend the same blessing to others, which he had 
 lately received himself: but I should certainly ima- 
 
90 Saul in Arabia. lect. hi. 
 
 A. D. giiie, that he was not now a preacher of the gospel 
 31- in the proper sense of that expression. The term 
 also of his residence in Arabia has led to discussion. 
 In the third year from his conversion he was at Je- 
 rusalem", and for some time previous he had been 
 at Damascus ; but whether the greater part of this 
 interval was spent in Damascus or Arabia, it is diffi- 
 cult to determine. From the surprise which his 
 presence caused at Jerusalem, I should infer, that he 
 , could not have been long at Damascus, where he 
 certainly preached the gospel, or the sincerity of his 
 conversion would have been more generally known. 
 I should therefore conclude, that his first visit to 
 Damascus was a very short one ; that he went into 
 Arabia before the winter of 31 ; that he passed the 
 whole of the following year in seclusion there ; and 
 that early in 33 he returned to Damascus". Whe- 
 ther these conclusions be correct or no, it is con- 
 soling to think, that since the departure of Saul 
 from Jerusalem, the Christians in that city were 
 comparatively at rest. The ferment, which had 
 been raised by the influx of strangers at the feast of 
 Tabernacles, would subside with their removal ; and 
 the chief priests had lost their most active coadjutor 
 in Saul. The state of the cliurch at Jerusalem 
 during the period of his retirement in Arabia, will 
 be considered at the beginning of the following- 
 Lecture. 
 
 " Gal. i. 1 8. Benson I. 7. p. 188: 9. p. 202. 
 
 o This is tlif opinion of Lud. but opposed by Tillemont, Me- 
 Cappelkis. Hist. Aposf. p. 8, g. moires, torn. I. p. 520, 798. 
 
/ cca..coi. 
 
 1 T ixiM AT 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 1 PROPOSED to consider in the present Lecture A. D. 
 the state of the church at Jerusalem after the de- ' 
 
 parture of Saul. Whether Saul set out for Damas- 
 cus before Peter and John went into tSaniaria, is not 
 certain. That the conversions were going on in 
 Samaria by the j)reaching of Philip, while Saul was 
 continuing his persecutions in Jerusalem, can hardly 
 be doubted : but perhaps Saul had commenced his 
 journey, before Peter and John left the city. The 
 two apostles need not have been long in completing 
 the work, which Philip had begun so prosperously : 
 but we have seen, that as they were returning, they 
 preached the gospel in many places, through which 
 they passed : and perhaps they knew, that the depar- 
 ture of Saul and of the foreign Jews made it less 
 urgent for them to join their colleagues in Jerusa- 
 lem. Philip was probably preaching in the towns 
 upon the coast, while Peter and John were making 
 converts in Samaria and Judita : and when the two 
 apostles returned to Jerusalem, they would bring 
 with them intelligence which was far more favour- 
 able, than the most sanguine disciple could have 
 looked for. 
 
 It is difficult always to assign causes for historical 
 events : and it is certainly extraordinary that we do 
 not read of another persecution in Jerusalem for 
 
92 Church at Jernsalem. lect. iv. 
 
 A.J), twelve or thirteen years. It is possible that the 
 " • calm was ruffled by many a passing storm, though 
 St. Luke has not recorded them. His leading ob- 
 ject, though not expressly stated, was evidently to 
 trace the apostolical labours of St. Paul : beside 
 which I have conjectured that he was himself at 
 Antioch during this period, and had little communi- 
 cation with the church at Jerusalem. If Me knew 
 more of the civil and political transactions in Judaea, 
 we might perhaps j^erceive causes, which would ex- 
 plain this absence of persecution : but to all appear- 
 ance the stat^of things continued exactly the same. 
 Pontius Pilate was still procurator of Judaea ; and 
 the two sons of Herod, Antipas and Philip, conti- 
 nued to enjoy their respective tetrarchies. Caiaphas 
 also remained high priest for some years longer. 
 The same opportunity would occur three times every 
 year of exciting the foreign Jews against the Chris- 
 tians : and we may be sure, that the will would not 
 be wanting in the sanhedrim. But still from some 
 cause or other their opposition was ineffectual ; and 
 the affairs of the new sect became more organized 
 and prosperous : from which we can hardly fail to 
 infer, that the new plan of attack devised by the 
 chief priests had lost its force ; and that the mass of 
 the people refused to be kept in excitement, where 
 their feelings did not lead them to think themselves 
 aggrieved. 
 
 St. Luke in a few words gives a delightful pic- 
 ture of the period which followed the conversion of 
 Saul. Then, he says, had the churches rest through- 
 out all Judcca, and Galilee, and Samaria, and 
 were edified: and walking in the fear of the Lord, 
 and in the confort of the Holy Ghost, ivere multi- 
 
LECT. IV. Conversion qf Galilee. 93 
 
 plied^. St. Luke does not specify, to what parti- A. D. 
 
 o 1 
 
 cular period of time he meant this description to 
 apjDly: but he adds nothing, which would hinder us 
 from extending it to the whole interval of time be- 
 tween the conversion of Saul in 31, and his being 
 brought to Antioch by Barnabas in 42. We may 
 also extract from a single word in this sentence an 
 important fact, which we might not have learnt 
 from his short and compendious narrative. He 
 says that this rest was enjoyed by the churches of 
 Galilee, though he had said nothing before of the 
 gospel being preached in Galilee. We know how- 
 ever that our Saviour's most numerous followers, 
 while he was upon earth, were in that country. 
 Five hundred brethren are mentioned as having 
 seen him at one time after his resurrection : and 
 though we are not to suppose that all these persons 
 understood his real character, yet it is highly pro- 
 bable, as I have already observed, that many of 
 them may have been baptized on the day of Pente- 
 cost; and thus the gospel might very early have 
 travelled into Galilee. Again, we know, that it was 
 established in places more remote than Galilee, for it 
 had made some progress in Damascus : and I have 
 quoted St. Luke as saying, that some of the persons, 
 who fled after the death of Stephen, went as far as 
 Phoenicia, Antioch, and Cyprus. It is most pro- 
 bable, that these persons passed through Galilee : 
 and this is another way, in which the gospel may 
 have been introduced or extended in that country. 
 Still however we have no account of any of the apo- 
 stles, although they were Galilaeans, having tra- 
 velled thither : but there is reason to think, that in 
 ^ Acts ix. 31. 
 
32. 
 
 94 Journeys of the Apostles. lect. iv. 
 
 A. D. the year 32, which followed the conversion of Saul, 
 ^^- St. Peter, and perhaps some other of the apostles, 
 visited the churches in their native country. The fact 
 of the apostles being Galilaeans would be likely to 
 cause a still more favourable recej)tion to the gospel : 
 and if the term GalilcBan was already used by the 
 other Jews as an epithet of reproach, this might 
 make the inhabitants of Galilee feel proud of the 
 appellation. 
 
 A. D. In the verse which follows St. Lidie's account of 
 the churches having rest in Judaea, Galilee, and Sa- 
 maria, we read of Peter travelling, or malting a cir- 
 cuit through all. The expression is obscure ; and 
 the detail of the narrative describes him as engaged 
 in Judsea and Samaria : but I should certainly con- 
 ceive, that Galilee is also to be included in the places 
 which he visited : and if this took place in the year 
 32, that year was marked by the important circum- 
 stance of the apostles no longer confining themselves 
 to Jerusalem, but taking short journeys to visit the 
 believers in different towns. When we consider the 
 astonishing progress which the gospel had made in 
 a few months, and the number of places in which it 
 had been received, we shall perhaps conclude, that 
 the year 32, i. e. the second year from the cruci- 
 fixion, is not too early for these first ajDOStolical jour- 
 neys of St. Peter. The state of the Christians in 
 these scattered towns and villages must have been a 
 constant subject of anxiety to the apostles. They 
 would be in danger every where from the bigoted 
 adherents of the Law : and in Samaria in particular, 
 there was great fear of their corrupting the gospel 
 by the false philosophy, which had been preached by 
 Simon Magus. To save them from these perils, and 
 
LECT. IV. Settlement of the Churches. 95 
 
 to keep them firm in the true faith, the apostles ap- A. D. 
 pear to have been in the habit of making short ^^' 
 journeys from Jerusalem to visit them. St. Luke 
 only mentions two or three such visits of St. Peter : 
 but it is most i)robable, that all the apostles were 
 engaged in the same labour : and though the care of 
 the churches was divided among tv/elve, yet the cri- 
 tical state of them might warrant us in saying even 
 then, that the harvest indeed was plent'ifid, hut the 
 lahourers were few. 
 
 St. Luke says, that the churches in these different 
 places were edified: an expression, which as well as 
 the other of being established or confirmed, seems 
 always to denote the settlement of certain rules and 
 regulations, which were called for by the increasing 
 numbers. That some order was established in these 
 infant congregations, cannot be doubted : the mere 
 necessity of instruction would give to the teachers a 
 superiority over the taught : and it is demonstrable, 
 that the authority of the apostles was considered su- 
 preme. The apostles however could not always be 
 present ; and whoever were left by them, as instruc- 
 tors of the new converts, would naturally be invested 
 with some sort of superintendence. A charge of 
 this kind could not then have been an object of am- 
 bition ; and although in one sense it was a high and 
 honourable office, it imposed a fearful responsibility 
 upon him who filled it. It was necessary, how- 
 ever, that the post of danger should be occupied : 
 and though we know little of the constitution of the 
 early church, it seems most probable that a ministry, 
 something like that of the seven deacons, was esta- 
 blished in every place, where there were believers. 
 When the apostles visited any of these places, they 
 
96 Deacons. lect. iv. 
 
 A. D. gave public instruction, they worked miracles, and 
 ^^- imparted those visible gifts of the Spirit, which no 
 one but an apostle could communicate ; but there 
 were many things of daily occurrence, which the 
 apostles, with their numerous other duties, and not 
 being always on the spot, could not, and would not 
 attempt to attend to. It is possible, that in some 
 cases they brought with them persons from Jerusa- 
 lem, whose usefulness had already been j)roved in 
 the church there : and these persons (like Philip 
 the deacon before the apostles came to Samaria) 
 would be left to superintend the common concerns 
 of the congregation. These ministers, however, or 
 deacons, (for this name seems to have been the one 
 generally adopted,) would often be selected from the 
 new believers themselves ; and their number would 
 be decided by the number of the whole body. Such 
 persons would have to regulate the times and places 
 of public meetings, to offer prayers, to explain 
 the scriptures and the peculiar doctrines of the 
 gospel, to baptize new converts, to provide for the 
 mystical eating of the body and blood of Christ ; and 
 their office would especially require them to consider 
 the poorer brethren, to excite the wealthier to give 
 to those who were in need, and to manage the dis- 
 tribution of the money which was collected for this 
 charitable purpose. For the discharge of all these 
 duties, the deacons would receive instructions from 
 the apostles, and would look for their model to the 
 system pursued in the parent church at Jerusalem. 
 But there was a difference between this church and 
 that in every other place : for in Jerusalem some of 
 the apostles were always at hand, to whom the dea- 
 cons and inferior ministers might refer for direction 
 
i.ECT. IV. Presbyters. 97 
 
 and advice : but in the provincial churches of Ju- a. D. 
 daea, Samaria, and Galilee, this advantage was to be ^2. 
 had less frequently ; and it is obvious, that in the 
 more distant places, where the wants perhaps were 
 more urgent, the visits of the apostles would be sub- 
 ject to longer intervals. It seems highly probable, 
 that this inconvenience was met by the apostles ap- 
 pointing one person in each community of Chris- 
 tians to superintend the whole ; and this, I conceive, 
 was the natural and almost necessary origin of a 
 new office being established in the church, that of 
 presbyters or elders. St. Luke tells us nothing as to 
 the time or the cause of these ministers being first 
 appointed. We may conclude, that there was no 
 such office, when the deacons were chosen : and 
 what I have said of the apostles being always at Je- 
 rusalem, would shew that it was not wanted ; for 
 the apostles themselves were the elders, from whom 
 the deacons received their commission and subse- 
 quent instructions. The first time, when the exist- 
 ence of elders is mentioned by St. Luke, is when 
 Saul and Barnabas went with contributions from 
 Antioch to Jerusalem in the year 43 or 44 ^ It is 
 ^ plain, that at that time they held a distinct and defi- 
 
 nite office in the church : and St. Luke, who wrote 
 several years later, forgot that he had said nothing 
 of its first institution. All therefore which we can 
 collect from St. Luke is, that presbyters or elders 
 were appointed at Jerusalem some time between the 
 years 32 and 43 or 44 : and my own conclusion 
 would be, that they were appointed very early, and 
 were the necessary consequence of churches being 
 established in distant places, which the apostles could 
 ^ Acts xi. 30. 
 H 
 
98 Preshyterti. lect. iv. 
 
 A. D. only visit occasionally. I cannot see, that this simple 
 _ •^^- hypothesis is at all affected by the question of epi- 
 scopacy. The language of Beza, one of the most 
 strenuous advocates of presbyterian government, ap- 
 pears to me unanswerably to prove the conclusion 
 which I have drawn. He says, " It was essential, 
 " and has for ever existed according to the perpetual 
 " ordinance of God, that some one should take the 
 " chief active management in the presbytery, having 
 " a priority of place and rank, with that power 
 " which is given to his office by God :" and again, 
 " No assembly of presbyters can be said to be rightly 
 " constituted, in which there is no oyyoy^aevo?, or per- 
 " son to take the lead." These passages from Beza 
 might perhaps be used to prove more than what I 
 at present draw from them : but whoever considers 
 the state of a Christian community, even when its 
 numbers were fewest, can hardly fail to subscribe to 
 the position of Beza, that some one person must 
 have taken the lead. 
 
 I have supposed this one person to have been ap- 
 pointed by the apostles : and I would here observe, 
 that there is no evidence of a deacon or elder taking 
 upon him such an office in these early times, unless 
 he was appointed by an apostle, or by some one who 
 had himself received his commission from an apostle, 
 lliis appointment was made by the laying on of 
 hands : and it seems plain, that this apostolical or- 
 dination, if I may so term it, conveyed the visible 
 and miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 If the view here taken of the first institution of 
 presbyters be correct, they were likely to exist in 
 some of the neighbouring towns before they were 
 wanted in Jerusalem. And such perhaps was the 
 
i.ECT. IV. Presbyters. 99 
 
 fact. The apostles and a sufficient number of dea- A. D. 
 cons would provide for all the wants of the Chris- ^^- 
 tians in Jerusalem : but it was almost unavoidable, 
 that some of the deacons would be more active, and 
 would insensibly acquire more influence than the 
 rest. This would particularly be the case with 
 those, who were literally presbyters in age : and the 
 name of this office might perhaps lead us to infer, 
 what seems indeed most natural, that the presby- 
 ters, who were left by the apostles in the different 
 towns, were selected from the other brethren on ac- 
 count of their age. There would of course be ex- 
 ceptions to this rule ; and, as is often the case with 
 names, the original meaning of this would some- 
 times be not observed ; and the term presbyter, like 
 that of senator at Rome, would come to be applied 
 without any regard to seniority. It ought perhaps 
 to be observed, that the Jewish church furnished an 
 analogy for the office of presbyters or elders : and 
 though I cannot agree with those persons, who de- 
 rive the three orders of bishops, priests, and deacons 
 from corresponding orders in the Jewish church, 
 yet the apostles, as Jews, when they found the ne- 
 cessity of giving the chief authority to some one of 
 the deacons, were not unlikely to think of the man- 
 ner, in which the temple-service was arranged, and 
 might have marked this office with a name which 
 was already one of dignity and respect. This no- 
 tion will perhaps appear still more plausible, if it be 
 true, that each synagogue had its own elder or 
 elders, who managed the concerns of that particular 
 congregation *". 
 
 c Concerning the office of ag. III. i. part. I. c. i. p. 609. 
 preshyler, see Vitringa, dc Syn- Carpzovius, iti Epist. ad Heh. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 James the first Bishop lect. iv. 
 
 A. D. Though I have thus supposed the office of elder 
 to be ovviiiff to the wants of the local churches in 
 different towns, it may perhaps be inferred, that the 
 absence of the apostles in visiting these churches led 
 also to the creation of a new office, and to an ap- 
 pointment of still greater importance in the church 
 of Jerusalem. The early M^riters are unanimous in 
 speaking of James, the brother or cousin of our 
 Lord, as the first bishop of Jerusalem : and though 
 St. Luke is aeain silent as to the fact or the date of 
 any such appointment, yet he mentions James in 
 such a manner, as fully to confirm this tradition, 
 and to shew that in the concerns of the church at 
 Jerusalem he had equal authority with the apostles ^. 
 An incidental expression of St. Paul'' seems to prove 
 that James was in possession of this authority as 
 early as the third year after his own conversion, i. e. 
 in the year 33 : and my own conjecture would be, 
 that the apostles appointed him to superintend the 
 church at Jerusalem, when the}'^ found themselves 
 so repeatedly called away to distant parts of the 
 country. Some ancient writers have asserted, that 
 he was appointed to this office by our Lord himself : 
 but though every act of the apostles was in one 
 sense the act of their Master, I should not press the 
 literal sense of this tradition any further, than as 
 confirming the notion of his being appointed early. It 
 was the impossibility of seeing to the temporal as well 
 
 p. 499. Biuldeus, de Ecc/ex. vi. 16. and Acts i. 13. 
 
 Apost. c. 6. p. 719. Pfartius, dc ^ Gal. i. 19. 
 
 Orig. Jur. Ecc/. p. 4g. ^ Euseb. H. E. Vll. 19. 
 
 d Acts xii. I 7. XV. 13. xxi. 18. Chrys. in i Cor. xv. 7. Epi- 
 
 Perhaps also this is the rea- phan. ILtf. LXX\"III. 7. Hie- 
 
 son why he calls Jude l/ic bro- ron. in Gal. i. 19. 
 f/icr of James in his Gospel, 
 
LECT. IV. of Jerusalem. 101 
 
 as the spiritual concerns of their converts, which led A. D. 
 the apostles to appoint the seven deacons: but though ' 
 the trouble of much practical detail was thus taken off 
 their hands, they were still the persons, to whom, 
 as I said before, the deacons would apply for in- 
 structions. When, however, they were constantly 
 leaving Jerusalem, and the increase of the provincial 
 churches was sufficient to occupy all of them, the 
 deacons of the parent church would be able to have 
 less of their direction and advice. This would na- 
 turally lead, as I said before, to some of the deacons 
 at Jerusalem being more active and influential than 
 the rest : and it was then, perhaps, that the same 
 order was introduced into the parent church, which 
 had already existed in the provincial towns. The 
 oldest or most trustworthy of the deacons wovild be 
 constituted elders : and the absence of the apostles, 
 as well as their incessant occupations, would give 
 to the elders almost the sole management of the 
 church at Jerusalem. Perhaps the silence of St. 
 Luke has concealed from us some painful facts, which 
 the usual imperfections of the human mind might 
 have prepared us to expect even thus early. It is 
 possible, that the apostles may have seen, or at least 
 anticipated, some of those baneful effects of jealousy 
 and ambition, which have sometimes disgraced the 
 rulers of the church in succeeding ages : and we 
 may be sure, that many evil consequences were 
 avoided, if it was now, as I should conclude, that 
 the apostles appointed James to be bishop of Jeru- 
 salem. I may add, that Eusebius, in his Chronicle, 
 appears to place the appointmejit of James in the 
 second year after the crucifixion^. 
 
 & L. Gappellns is certainly wrong, when he says that James 
 H 3 
 
102 Bishop and Preabyter. lect. iv. 
 
 A. ]). I use the term hlshop in accordance with the 
 statement of all the ecclesiastical writers ; though I 
 by no means intend to affirm that this was the title 
 given at first to James ; or that the office, which he 
 bore, was analogous to that of bishop in later times. 
 If the Epistle to Titus was written, as I supi)ose, in 
 the year 51, and the first Epistle to Timothy in 52, 
 these are the earliest instances, in which the Greek 
 term iTriiKOTtoi, or hishop, is used : and it was used by 
 St. Paul in his address to the elders of Ephesus, 
 which I should suppose to have been delivered in 
 the year 53. We thus find, that the term bishop 
 was in use nineteen or twenty years after the date 
 which I should assign to the appointment of James : 
 and it is demonstrable, that at that time the terms 
 bishop and presbyter were partly convertible. Every 
 presbyter was by the nature of his office an eTcia-Konog, 
 or overseer, of the rest of the flock : but that every 
 person, who was called episcopus, was merely on a 
 level with every other presbyter, has perhaps been 
 too hastily assumed : and certainly the ecclesiastical 
 writers, who spoke of James as bishop of Jerusalem, 
 intended to assign him a decided preeminence over 
 every other officer in the church. Without then 
 entering further into this question, I should give it 
 as the unanimous opinion of the early writers, that 
 the apostles ai)pointed James, the brother or cousin 
 of our Lord, to superintend the concerns of the 
 church at Jerusalem. I conceive it to be very pro- 
 bable, that this appointment was made as early as 
 the year 32, or the second year after the conversion 
 
 the sou of Zebedee (wlio was death, when he was succeeded 
 killed A. D. 44.) was head of by James the sou of Alphaeus. 
 the church of Jerusalem till his Hist. Apost. p. 9, 50. • 
 
LECT. IV. James Bishop of Jerusalem. 103 
 
 of Saul : and I also conceive it to have been caused A. D. 
 by the care of so many other churches devolving ^^- 
 upon the apostles, and the necessity of their fre- 
 quent journeys in Judaea, Samaria, and Galilee. 
 James was to all intents and purposes an a])ostle in 
 power and authority ; though he was not, in the 
 literal sense of that term, an envoy or ambassador 
 to preach the gospel in different countries. The 
 office, to which he was specially appointed, pre- 
 cluded him from doing this : but I conceive him to 
 have had full power over the presbyters and deacons ; 
 to have appointed other persons to those stations, 
 when the occasion required ; to have seen that these 
 ministers fulfilled their duty with respect to the 
 I)oor : and though it is not expressly said, I should 
 conclude, that the distinctive mark of an apostle, 
 the power of conferring the miraculous gifts of the 
 Si)irit, was possessed by James. Whenever any of 
 tlie apostles were present in Jerusalem, his office was 
 not suj)erseded, nor did the a])ostles cease to have 
 the paramount authority. The name of James is 
 sometimes mentioned first, even before that of Peter 
 and John : and this remarkably confirms the eccle- 
 siastical tradition, that he was head of the church 
 at Jerusalem : but he was mentioned first, because 
 the apostles had conceded to him the whole temporal 
 and si)iritual management of the parent church : if 
 the occasion required, and if any of them happened 
 to be present, they formed a sort of coiuicil to deli- 
 berate upon any new occurrence ; and for ordinary 
 matters he seems to have consulted with the presby- 
 ters. We may say, i)erhaps, that the church at Je- 
 rusalem was left by the apostles to the care of the 
 elders under the direction of James : or it might be 
 
 H 4 
 
104 Brothers of our Lord. i.ect. iv. 
 
 A. D. equally correct to say, that it was left to James, who 
 
 •^2. was assisted by a council of elders : and this is the 
 
 impartial conclusion to which I should come, Avith- 
 
 out any reference to the bearing which it may have 
 
 uj)on the much disputed question of episcopacy. 
 
 There are several other points connected with the 
 history of James, which might naturally present 
 themselves in an ecclesiastical history, but the de- 
 tails of which would be much too tedious and mi- 
 nute for the present occasion. Upon some of these 
 points I cannot give even the general result with 
 certainty, for different opinions are still entertained. 
 I cannot, however, avoid touching upon two ques- 
 tions, which are closely connected with the personal 
 history of James : 1, in what sense he was the bro- 
 ther of our Lord ; 2, whether he was one of the 
 twelve apostles. 
 
 That James, Joses, Simon, and Judas, though 
 called the brothers of our Lord, Avere not literally 
 so, i. e. that they were not sons of the same mother, 
 Mary, by her husband Joseph, is the conclusion now 
 generally adopted. If we compare the accounts given 
 by the different Evangelists concerning the women, 
 who were present at the crucifixion ^', it seems cer- 
 tain, that these four brothers were sons of Mary, 
 the sister of the Virgin and the wife of Clopas. They 
 Avere therefore not brothers, but cousins of our Lord : 
 and the notion of their being half-brothers, or the 
 sons of Joseph by a former wife, cannot be main- 
 tained. That the Virgin ]\Iary should have a sister 
 of the same name, is certainly a difficulty : but it is 
 a difficulty, which attends every hypothesis, and 
 which results from the express woi'ds of St. John, 
 
 h Matt, xxvii. 56. John xix. 25. 
 
LECT. IV. James not an Apostle. 105 
 
 who speaks of the mother of Jesus, and his mother's A. D. 
 
 sister, Mary the wife of Clopas. It is possible, that ^^- 
 
 the term sister is here to be taken in the same sense 
 with that in which I have supposed the term hrother 
 to be used, and that the two Maries were not sisters 
 but cousins. In this case, James, Joses, Simon, and 
 Judas would be second cousins of our Lord. There 
 is also a tradition preserved by some early writers', 
 that Joseph and Clopas were two brothers, each of 
 whom married a wife named Mary : and thus the 
 two Maries would be sisters-in-law, and their re- 
 spective children would, as before, be cousins. I shall 
 not do more than mention these different hypotheses, 
 all of which seem to support the conclusion, that James 
 the bishop of Jerusalem was cousin of Jesus Christ^. 
 With respect to the second question, whether he 
 was one of the twelve apostles, I have already deli- 
 vered my own opinion in the negative, when I spoke 
 of him as appointed by the apostles to su])ply their 
 place. It is certainly possible, that they might have 
 chosen one of their own number to fill this impor- 
 tant station ; though their special comniission to 
 preach the gospel to every creature would seem 
 hardly to have allowed of one of them being thus 
 limited to Jerusalem : and the voice of ecclesiastical 
 antiquity is certainly in favour of the bishop of Je- 
 rusalem not being one of the twelve'. Those who 
 maintain the affirmative suppose him to be James 
 the son of Alphaeus, and they assert that the same 
 
 i Hegesippus apud Eus. H. l This was the opinion of 
 
 £. III. 1 1. IV. 2 2. Epiphaniiis, Eusebius, Epiphanius, Gre- 
 
 Haer. LXXVIII. 7. p. 1039. gory of Nyssa, Chrysostom, 
 
 ^ See Tilleniont, Memuires, Theodoret, Jerom, Constit. A- 
 
 tom. I. p. 1126. Lardner, c. post. 
 t6. vol. VI. p. 162. 
 
106 James the first BisJiop lect. iv. 
 
 A. D. Hebrew characters would express the name of Al- 
 phaeus or Clopas. 1 cannot however subscribe to 
 this notion: and when St. Luke mentions J udas the 
 hrother of James among the twelve apostles, I con- 
 ceive him not to have referred to James the son of 
 AlphiCiis, (for then he would not have placed Simon 
 Zelotes between the two brothers,) but to James the 
 bishop of Jerusalem ; and he distinguished Jude by 
 this epithet, because all his readers would know who 
 was meant by James. In the same manner this 
 Jude at the beginning of his Epistle describes him- 
 self as hrother of James ; all which seems to con- 
 firm the notion, that James was a well known per- 
 son, and held some high station. 
 
 The precise time, at which James the cousin of our 
 Lord became one of his followers, is not ascertained. 
 St. John informs us, that when Jesus was about to 
 attend the feast of Tabernacles in the year 30, his 
 brethren did not then believe on him™ ; but if I am 
 correct in supposing, that Jude, the brother of James, 
 who was one of the twelve, was also one of these 
 brethren, we may perhaps conclude, that St. John 
 meant only to say, that all the brethren of Jesus 
 did not believe on him : for it is most probable, that 
 Jude was at this time chosen to be an apostle. If 
 this be so, j)erhaps James was not a follower of Je- 
 sus so early as this feast of Tabernacles: and we may 
 find another reason for thinking so in what took 
 place at the election of Matthias. We know that 
 the cousins of our Lord were at Jerusalem, and at- 
 tended the apostles, in the interval between the As- 
 cension and Pentecost". James therefore at that 
 trying time exhibited his faith ; and his zeal must 
 
 "> John vii. 5. n Acts i. 14. 
 
LECT. IV. of Jerusalem. 107 
 
 have been j)reeinineiitly conspicuous, or he would A. D. 
 not in tlie following year have been sins^led out to __1J11_ 
 preside over the cliurch at Jerusalem. His name, 
 however, was not put forward with those of Mat- 
 thias and Barsabas : and since Peter advised the 
 election to be made from persons who had accom- 
 panied Jesus from the beginning of his ministry, we 
 may perhaps conclude that this was not the case 
 with James. Some ancient writers have said, that he 
 was the young man mentioned by St. Mark **, who, 
 when our Savioiu' was seized in the garden, left his 
 linen garment and ran away naked i' : and another 
 has added, that the person \^'ho laid hold of liim, 
 mistook him for our Saviour on account of his like- 
 ness 1. But little dependance is to be placed upon 
 stories such as these. I should, however, be inclined 
 to think, that he was the James intended by St. 
 Paul, to whom our Lord vouchsafed a special ap- 
 pearance of himself after his resurrection*": and this 
 j)erhaps would indicate something peculiar in his 
 attachment to Josus. We have no means of ascer- 
 taining the exact nature of the services which raised 
 him to his high station. His relationship to Jesus 
 Christ perhaps assisted his claims, which must have 
 been otherwise great : and if he was one of those 
 who remained in Jerusalem during Saul's persecu- 
 tion, that would have recommended him to the apo- 
 stles and to all the brethren. This relationship to 
 Jesus was certainly reckoned a distinction : and we 
 know, that several years later the descendants oi 
 these brothers were distinguished on that ground, 
 
 <> xiv. 5 I . lived at tlio oiid of tlio four- 
 
 P Epiplian. vol. I. p. 1045. toentli ceiitiirv. 
 Theophylact. «■ i Cor. xv. 7. 
 
 M Petrus de Natalibus, who 
 
108 Brothers of our Lord. lect. iv. 
 
 A. D. and the peculiar name of ^ea-TroVwo* was given them 
 •^ on account of their connection with our Lord^. 
 Whether James himself left any descendants, might 
 be doubted. St. Paul certainly speaks of the bro- 
 thers of our Lord being married ^ ; but his words, 
 if taken literally, would seem to apply to those who 
 travelled into different countries : and we cannot 
 tell, whether they also included James, who con- 
 tinued at Jerusalem ". With respect to the other 
 brothers, we shall have to consider Simon hereafter, 
 who is said to have succeeded James as bishop of 
 Jerusalem ; though Origen confesses that he knew 
 nothing concerning Joses and Simon ^. I have al- 
 ready conjectured, that Jude was one of the twelve 
 apostles : and these details will perhaps be excused 
 on account of the high character and preeminent 
 station, which have caused the memory of James to 
 be preserved. The tradition, which assigns to him 
 the surname of the Just, appears to be entitled to 
 credit >' ; though many things were reported of him 
 by early writers, which can only be looked upon as 
 fables. I may perhaps have occasion to notice some 
 of these traditions hereafter : and the martyrdom of 
 James forms a melancholy sequel to the little which 
 I have here collected of his early history. We may 
 now return to the period, at which I have supposed 
 him to be apjwinted bishCp of Jerusalem, when the 
 
 s Hegesippus, apud Eus. H. ^ In Mat. torn. X. 17. vol. 
 
 E. I. 7. III. p. 463. 
 
 * I Cor. ix. 5. y According to Hegesippus 
 
 " That he was not married, (apud Eus.) he was also called 
 
 is said by Epiphanius, Har. Ob/ias, which he interprets to 
 
 LXX\"III.i3. p. 1045. Hieron. mean Trtpioxri roG Xaov. Scaliger 
 
 adv. Jovin. lib. I. tSee Schmi- says that (Jphlias might signify 
 
 dius, de Aposlol is uxoraiis, §. 7. uxvpafxa Qeoxi. 
 p. 60. 
 
32. 
 
 LECT. IV. Journeys of Peter. 109 
 
 churches were increasing in .Tncla?a and Galilee ; and A. D. 
 the apostles, having })r()vide(l for the care of the _ 
 parent chnrch, were able to absent themselves in 
 visiting dillerent towns. 
 
 St. Lnke, as I have already observed, speaks only 
 of Peter undertaking tiiese journeys ; and the rapid 
 spread of Christianity seems less extraordinary,when 
 we read of the miracles which he worked, and of 
 his raising the dead to life. It may be thought 
 strange that St. Luke, \y\\o takes so little notice of 
 the apostles dnring this interval, shonld mention 
 only St. Peter, and shonld single out i)articularly 
 the miracles at L}'dda and Jopi)a. 'i'here seems 
 however a very sufficient reason for this specifica- 
 tion. St. Luke, \\ho in this part of his history is 
 so concise, yet devotes nearly two entire chapters to 
 the conversion of Cornelius ; and we can easily un- 
 derstand wh}' this story is told so cirucmstantiali}-. 
 The angel, who a])peared to Cornelius, told him to 
 send to Jopj)a ; mid Peter's trance took place at 
 Joppa. St. Luke therefore merely wished to explain 
 what it was which had caused Peter to be at Joppa ; 
 and he could hardly relate this without stating, that 
 tlie disciples at Jo])pa had srnt to him, because they 
 heard of his having cured iPaieas of his paralysis in 
 the neii>hboiu'ini>- town of Lvdda. St. Luke there- 
 fore, intending to narrate the important conversion 
 of Cornelius, went a little further back in the his- 
 tory, in order to account for Cornelius not sending 
 to Peter at Jerusalem : and when he said, that IVter 
 was at this time travelling or making a circuit 
 through several places, he could ])erhai)S have add 
 ed, that most or all of the other apostles were en- 
 gaged in similar journeys. 
 
no Conversion of Cornelius. lect. iv. 
 
 A. D. The conversion of Cornelius, though told by St. 
 •^^- Luke with the minuteness which it deserves, has 
 nothing to mark its date : and there are few points, 
 concerning which commentators have more widely 
 differed. Being obliged to assign it to some period, 
 I cannot help expressing my opinion, that it iiap- 
 ])ened earlier than what is generally supposed : and 
 I ground this upon the probability, that the ques- 
 tion of Gentile converts would have occurred early, 
 and therefore would not have been left undecided. 
 I can hardly conceive the gospel to have made the 
 progress which it did in so many towns of Judaea, 
 without attracting the notice of some of the Gen- 
 tile inhabitants : but that Cornelius furnished the 
 first instance of a Gentile convert, cannot, I think, 
 be doubted ; and it was on account of this being the 
 first decision of the case, tiiat St. Luke relates it in 
 detail. I should not indeed have been surprised, if 
 the question had been agitated within a few months, 
 or even a few weeks, of the memorable day of Pen- 
 tecost : and when the dispersion of the deacons after 
 the death of Stephen carried the gospel into distant 
 parts of Judaea, it was fully to be expected, that 
 some Gentiles would be anxious to receive it. Pur- 
 suing these considerations, I should not hesitate to 
 conclude, that the conversi(m of Cornelius might have 
 happened in the year tliirty-two, i. e. in the second 
 year after the crucifixion : and whatever difficulty 
 may attend this early date, it appears to me much 
 more extraordinary to supjiose, that no Gentile should 
 by this time have presented himself for baptism'. 
 
 2 Tillemont, who placed the and tlie Chronicle of Alexan- 
 cruciHxion in 33, phiced the dria says that it took place two 
 conversion of ('ornelins in 35 ; yt'ars after the ascension. L. 
 
LECT. IV. Proselytes. Ill 
 
 The question can hardly be considered yet de- A. D. 
 cided, whether Cornelius was a proselyte or no: and ^^- 
 this partly involves another question, whether the 
 division is correct into iwoselytcs of righteousness 
 and proselytes of the gate. That the Law and the 
 practice of the Jews allowed them to make prose- 
 lytes, cannot be doubted ; so that with respect to 
 what have been called the proselytes of I'ighteous- 
 7iess, i. e. Gentiles, who adopted circumcision and 
 every other ordinance of the Mosaic Law, there is 
 no room for discussion. It is equally plain, that 
 Cornelius was not a proselyte in this sense of the 
 term, as is apparent through the whole story, and 
 particularly from the remonstrance made to Peter, 
 that he went in to men uncircumcised, and did eat 
 with them. This question indeed had been settled 
 already: for Nicolas ttie deacon is called by St. Luke 
 a iwoselyte of Antioch : and though it is not ex- 
 pressly stated, I have little doubt that St. Luke dis- 
 tinguished him by this title, because it was one 
 which applied also to himself. There is, however, 
 great room for doubt, whether the distinction of 
 proselyte of the gate is not more fanciful than real: 
 or whether, as is often the case, the persons who 
 have discussed this point, have not in a great mea- 
 sure disputed about words. That many Gentiles, 
 who lived in the neighbourhood of Jews, and par- 
 ticularly in Palestine, were persuaded to adopt a 
 purer form of religion, and to worship the one spi- 
 ritual Being, the God of the Jews, might reasonably 
 be expected, and was certainly the fact. The reader 
 of the New Testament will remember many expres- 
 
 Cajipellus supposed Cornelius the abode of Saul in Arabia, 
 to have been converted during Hist. Apust. p. 40. 
 
112 Cornelius. lect. iy. 
 
 A. D. sions, which speak of such persons as devout, and 
 ^^- worshipping or fearing God. They would perhaps 
 differ from each other as to the greater or less de- 
 gree, in which they conformed to the Mosaic Law; 
 and I would not deny, that in some cases the term 
 proselyte of the gate may have been the received 
 appellation ". But without entering further into this 
 question, it is plain, that Cornelius was one of these 
 persons. The expressions of devout, and fearing 
 God, are applied to him : he observed the Jewish 
 hours of fasting and prayer ; and it is worthy of 
 remark, that St. Peter in his address refers him to 
 the prophets, which he would hardly have done, if 
 he had not known, that the Jewish prophets were 
 regarded by Cornelius. There was perhaps no town 
 in the Roman empire, in which the mind of Corne- 
 lius might not have received this religious impres- 
 sion from an intercourse with Jews : but there is 
 perhaps something remarkable in the fact of his be- 
 longing to the forces, which at this time were quar- 
 tered at Ciesarea. This town, as I have already 
 stated, was the ordinary residence of the Roman 
 Procurator : and since that officer always went up 
 to Jerusalem at the festivals with a military force, 
 it is by no means improbable, if I am correct as to 
 the date of this event, that Cornelius may have been 
 in Jerusalem with Pilate at the Passover when Jesus 
 was crucified. We may remember, that Pilate's ex- 
 amination of Jesus was made in the presence of his 
 soldiers ; and they were the Roman soldiers, who 
 amused themselves with insulting and mocking Je- 
 
 ^ Concerning this question, see Lardner, \o\. \'I. p. 216. 
 vol. X. p. 307. 
 
LECT. IV. Cornelius. 113 
 
 sus. I merely mention this, because if Cornelius A. D. 
 was then at Jerusalem, he must have witnessed some ^^• 
 of these things. He may have heard Jesus pro- 
 nounced innocent by Pilate ; he may have observed 
 his patient suffering under the insults and cruelty of 
 the soldiers ; and he could hardly fail to have been 
 present at some part of the scene of the crucifixion. 
 When St. Peter addressed Cornelius, he certainly 
 assumed, that he was acquainted with the outline 
 of the history of Jesus : he appeals to him as know- 
 ing that his ministry began in Galilee, after the 
 preaching of John the Baptist, and that it ended 
 with his being crucified at Jerusalem. Cornelius, 
 as I have observed, might have been led to acquaint 
 himself with these things, when he attended Pilate 
 to Jerusalem : but the date, which I have assigned 
 for his conversion, may perhaps appear to be con- 
 firmed, when we remember that Philip the deacon 
 was at this time in Caesarea, and had returned thi- 
 ther only a few months before from preaching the 
 gospel in Samaria. When St. Luke speaks of St. 
 Paul meeting with Philip, twenty years after this, at 
 Caesarea, he calls him Philip the Evangelist ; which 
 honourable title must have been given him on ac- 
 count of the zeal, with which he was known to 
 preach the gospel. The warmth and the success of 
 that zeal at the beginning of his ministry, we have 
 already considered : and if this was the case in Sa- 
 maria, where the people were strange to him, and 
 where he staid but a short time, we may well sup- 
 pose with what earnestness he laboured to convert 
 his friends and fellow townsmen in Caesarea. It is 
 highly probable, that the conversion of Cornelius 
 was the effect of Philip's preaching : and we thus 
 
 I 
 
114 Conversion of Cornelius. lect. ys . 
 
 A. I), have an account of the gospel first making its way 
 among the Roman soldiers. 
 
 Concerning the subsequent history of Cornelius 
 the scripture is silent. There are some vain and 
 unfounded traditions of his having been bishop of 
 Caesarea ^ : but there vras a fancy in the third or 
 fourth century for inventing such stories of all the 
 persons, whose names are mentioned in the New 
 Testament : and this is not entitled to the smallest 
 credit. St, Luke evidently inserted this history on 
 account of the importance of the case which was de- 
 cided : but though a great step was thus gained in 
 removing the prejudices of the Jews, we must not 
 think that this was the final step. Even if it should 
 not be admitted, that Cornelius was a proselyte of 
 the gate, he certainly was not an idolatrous Gentile : 
 neither do the Jews appear to have thought, that 
 the baptism of Cornelius was a precedent for admit- 
 ting all Gentiles whatever. This full and final ex- 
 tension of tlie gospel was left, as we shall see, for 
 the ministry of St. Paul, and did not take place till 
 several years after. It can hardly be doubted, that 
 the believers in general did not fully acquiesce in 
 the admission of Cornelius. They could not answer 
 St. Peter at the time, and they acknowledged, though 
 perhaps confining their remark to Cornelius, that 
 God also to the Gentiles had granted repentance 
 unto life : but the ancient prejudices seem partly to 
 have revived : and nothing perhaps but a a ision 
 from heaven would have satisfied the scruples of 
 St. Peter himself. 
 
 This jourjiey of St. Peter through Lydda and Joppa 
 to Caesarea, and so back again to Jerusalem, I have 
 
 ^ See Tillemont, Memoircs, torn. I. p. 222, 738. 
 
LECT. IV. Saul at Damascus. 115 
 
 supposed to have been made in some part of the year a. D. 
 32 : and I have also supposed, that the other apo- 32. 
 sties were engaged in making similar circuits through 
 different parts of Judaea, Samaria, and Galilee. We 
 read of no circumstance favourable or unfavourable, 
 which happened to these churches for some time 
 after : but though there is every reason to think that 
 their numbers increased, and that in a spiritual sense 
 they continued to flourish, yet if we may judge from 
 what took place in Damascus, the Jews were unre- 
 mitting in their hostility to the gospel. 
 
 We left Saul, at the end of the year 31, retiring 
 into Arabia. I have supposed him to have conti- 
 nued there the whole of the following year, and in 
 that seclusion to have received by special revelation 
 a knowledge of the doctrines which he was to preach. 
 His own expression is, that he conferred not ivith 
 flesh and blood ^ : from which we need not under- 
 stand, that he had no intercourse with mankind dur- 
 ing his residence in Arabia : but he alludes to his 
 having been instructed in the gospel, not by man, 
 but immediately by Jesus Christ : and these myste- 
 rious revelations were first made to him in Arabia. 
 In the third year after his conversion he returned A. D. 
 again to Damascus. It was then that the preach- ^^• 
 ing of Saul appears properly to have begun. We 
 are told that he went boldly into the synagogues, 
 and asserted there the great doctrine of the gospel, 
 that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. At first he 
 was looked upon with suspicion by all parties. His 
 appearance would naturally excite inquiry, and all 
 that the Christians could hear of him was, that he 
 had been a violent persecutor of the church at Jeru- 
 c Gal. i. i6. 
 I 2 
 
11() Saul in Damascus. lect. iv. 
 
 A. D. salein. This seems demonstrably to prove, that his 
 ^ • stay in Damascus immediately after his conversion 
 must have been extremely short. Whether Ananias 
 was now in Damascus, and able to bear testimony to 
 liis conversion, we are not informed : but the zeal 
 and boldness of his preaching would soon satisfy the 
 Christians, that their suspicions were groundless. 
 These same qualities could not fail to exasperate the 
 Jews : but it seems plain, that the Christians were 
 now very numerous, or tlie Jews would not have 
 found it so difficult to silence one man. Two years 
 before, the letters of the high priest had struck ter- 
 ror into Damascus, which authorized the seizing of 
 the Christians, and bringing them before the syn- 
 agogues : but now Saul disputed openly in the syn- 
 agogues, and when his enemies could not answer 
 him, and sought to kill him, they dared not attempt 
 any thing but despatching him privately. The friends 
 of Saul now thought it advisable that he should leave 
 the city, but the Jews contrived to throw impedi- 
 ments in his way. Damascus was still in the hands 
 of Aretas the Arabian prince, as I have supposed it 
 to have been at the time of Saul's conversion. I 
 then said, that Aretas would be likel}^ to grant any 
 favour to the Jews, with a viL?w of detaching them 
 from Herod, with whom he was at war; and if they 
 asked him for assistance in persecuting the Christians, 
 he would at least have thrown no obstacle in their 
 way. This state of things, which was then partly 
 conjecture, appears actually to have existed, when 
 Saul returned from Arabia. The officer, \\'lio held 
 the city for Aretas, allowed his soldiers to watch 
 the gates, that Saul might not escape : and since it 
 is impossible to conceive that the Arabian could care 
 
LECT. IV. Saul in Jerusalem. 117 
 
 for Saul's religious opinions, I can only conclude that A. D. 
 
 he took this step, because he had been instructed by '_ 
 
 his master to do every thing to conciliate the Jews. 
 Saul however contrived to escape, by being let down 
 at night from the walls in a basket ; and instead of 
 going to his own country of Cilicia, he proceeded at 
 once to Jerusalem. 
 
 It might be thought perhaps from Saul's own 
 words, that even if he had not been forced to leave 
 Damascus thus hastily, he had reasons of his own for 
 going to Jerusalem : at least he says, when speaking 
 of this journey, that he went thither to see Peter '^: 
 and much discussion has been raised as to the object 
 which he could have had in wishing to see Peter, 
 rather than any other of the apostles. The Roman 
 Catholics dwell much upon this passage, as support- 
 ing the primacy of Peter, and shewing that even 
 Saul considered it to be his duty to consult him. 
 This, however, would require us to make this single 
 passage contradict the whole tenor of Saul's conduct, 
 and his own express words in other places : and it 
 appears to me, that a much more natural and con- 
 sistent account may be given of his wishing at this 
 time to see Peter. That his seclusion in Arabia had 
 been the means of opening his mind to the doctrines 
 of the gospel and to his own future labours, cannot, 
 I think, be doubted. I conceive this period to have 
 been to Saul a period of successive revelations, and 
 mysterious communion with God. That the gospel 
 was to be preached to all nations, and that he was 
 himself to be the means of converting the Gentiles, 
 was then undoubtedly revealed to liim : and I say 
 this, not only because it was announced to him in 
 
 'I Gal. i. 1 8. 
 
 I 3 
 
118 Saul at Jerusalem. lect. iv. 
 
 A. D. a vision, which he had at this very time in Jerusa- 
 ^^- lem", but because it had been expressly declared both 
 to himself and to Ananias at the time of his conver- 
 sion ^ He might not at the time have understood 
 the full meaning of his being a chosen vessel to 
 hear the name of Jesus before the Gentiles: but the 
 words, which he then heard, must have been deeply 
 engraved upon his heart ; and when he returned to 
 Damascus, and delivered the doctrines which he had 
 received from heaven, I doubt not, that he himself 
 well knew, that he was destined to labour in a far 
 more extensive field. At present however he con- 
 fined himself to disputing with the Jews. His own 
 countrymen, who believed in Christ, were not yet 
 prepared for that full extension of the gospel, which 
 had been made known to Saul by revelation. Whe- 
 ther any cases occurred, while he was in Damascus, 
 of devout Gentiles being persuaded by his preaching, 
 we are not informed. The fact however is not im- 
 probable : and Saul could hardly fail to let fall some 
 intimations of his being destined by God to convert 
 the Gentiles. Such an announcement, however cau- 
 tiously made, would be sure to lead to some discus- 
 sion at Damascus ; and if I am right in the date of 
 the conversion of Cornelius, the news of it, as soon 
 as it reached that city, would have been particularly 
 gratifying to Saul. He had already experienced the 
 obstinate incredulity of the Jews ; and his ardent 
 mind would make him impatient for that time, when 
 he was allowed to disclose the full extent of his com- 
 mission. With this view I conceive him to have 
 been particularly anxious to see Peter, when he went 
 to Jerusalem : he probably knew, that there still 
 <•' Acts xxii. 17. * ix. 15. xxii. 15. xxvi. 17. 
 
LECT. IV. Peter not bishop of Antiocli. 119 
 
 were persons, who had scruples as to the baptism of ^- ^• 
 
 Cornelius ; and he therefore wished to discuss the '— 
 
 subject with Peter himself ; to hear from his own 
 mouth the history of what he had done, and to ac- 
 quaint him with the revelation, which he had him- 
 self received upon this subject from heaven. So far 
 from going to consult Peter, or receive any instruc- 
 tions from him, as the church of Rome contends, 
 there is good reason to think, that at this time the 
 mind of Saul was more enlightened than that of 
 Peter upon this question : he went to acquaint him 
 with the subject of his own revelations ; and to 
 shew, that the baptism of Cornelius was entirely in 
 accordance with the commission which he had him- 
 self received. 
 
 I have supposed this visit of Saul to Jerusalem to 
 be made in the year 33, which was the year follow- 
 ing the conversion of Cornelius. At this time St. 
 Peter was in Jerusalem. He had either not set out 
 upon another journey, subsequent to his return from 
 Caesarea, or he may again have concluded a similar 
 excursion. It was about this ]>eriod, according to 
 some Roman Catholic writers, that he went to An- 
 tioch, and establislied himself as the bishop of that 
 see. But such a notion seems utterly untenable. 
 It is attended with historical and chronological dif- 
 ficulties, which it is impossible to remove ; nor are 
 there any grounds for saying that he held the see of 
 Antioch for seven years : and no fact seems more 
 certain, than that Peter did not visit Antioch till 
 several years after the time of St. Paul going to see 
 him at Jerusalem ?. The other apostles appear to 
 
 S Tillemont discusses this question very inipartially, and 
 
 I 4 
 
120 Said at Jerusalem. lect. iv. 
 
 A. D. have been absent, and engaged in visiting different 
 •^3- churches : at least Saul speaks of having seen none 
 except Peter, and James the Lord's brother: and 
 as lie staid in Jerusalem fifteen days, he could hardly 
 have failed to see the other apostles, if they had been 
 there. This therefore confirms the statement which 
 I have made, that the apostles were now occupied in 
 visiting the churches ; and that James, the cousin of 
 our Lord, was left to take care of the church at Je- 
 rusalem. 
 
 "When Saul first arrived there, he was received 
 with the same suspicion, as when he returned to 
 Damascus from Arabia. The Christians indeed at 
 Jerusalem had stronger reasons to think of his for- 
 mer conduct : and from it not being known at Jeru- 
 salem, that he had been lately preaching the gospel, 
 it would seem that his second visit to Daniascus 
 could not have been a long one. We are then told, 
 that Barnabas took him, and brought him to the 
 apostles, and acquainted them with his conversion, 
 and his preaching at Damascus. By the apostles 
 we are only to understand Peter and James : for 
 the latter, though not strictly an apostle, was called 
 so from the station which he filled ; and we find the 
 title occasionally given to Barnabas and other per- 
 sons. The last mention which we had of Barnabas 
 was wlien he sold some of his property, and laid the 
 money at the feet of the apostles, to be added to the 
 connnon fund. A space of about two years had 
 elapsed since that time, during which we know no- 
 thing of what happened to Barnabas ; neither are 
 we told why Barnabas was the person, who assured 
 
 evidently agreed with the opiniDii which I have expressed. 
 Me moires, torn. I. p. 739. 
 
LECT. IV. Barnabas. 121 
 
 the Christians at Jerusalem of the sincerity of Saul's a. D, 
 conversion. I have mentioned, liowever, that one 33. 
 ancient vrriter speaks of Saul and Barnabas having 
 studied together in the school of Gamaliel ; and per- 
 haps the tradition is confirmed by this apparent ac- 
 quaintance between them, as well as by their future 
 friendship. We may remember also, that Barnabas 
 was a native of Cyprus : and if the vicinity of Tar- 
 sus to that island caused Barnabas to resort to it on 
 account of the celebrity of its schools, it is possible, 
 that his intimacy with Saul may liave begun before 
 they were fellow-pupils of Gamaliel. This might 
 account for Barnabas being anxious to clear the cha- 
 racter of Saul : and if we were acquainted with his 
 history, during the last two years, it might perhaps 
 explain, why he was better informed than the other 
 Christians at Jerusalem, of what had lately happened 
 to his former acquaintance. Among the persons 
 who fled from Jerusalem after the death of Stejjhen, 
 we are told by St. Luke, that some went and preached 
 the gospel as far as Cyprus. The names of these 
 persons are not mentioned ; but there is nothing 
 imiH'obable in supposing that Barnabas was one of 
 them : and we can prove by his conduct on tv^'o sub- 
 sequent occasions, that he felt a warm interest in the 
 conversion of his countrymen. If Barnabas went to 
 Cyprus in the year 31, he had come back again to 
 Jerusalem by 33 : and it is very possible, that he 
 heard on his way of the history of Saul. If he did 
 not himself pass through Damascus ^ he could hardly 
 have failed to stop at Antioch, where, as we shall 
 see presently, the gospel had already made some 
 
 1' Chrysostom says, that he had there heard of Saul, in Act. 
 had been to Damascus, and p. ig6, b. 
 
122 Saul leaves Jerusalem. lect. iv. 
 
 A. D. progress : and the Christians of Antioch were likely 
 •^^- to have communication with those of Damascus. In 
 this way Barnabas may have been able to remove 
 the prejudice which existed against Saul : and the 
 result seems to have been, that the services of Saul 
 were immediately accepted as a preacher of the gos- 
 pel. It might perhaps be inferred from St. Luke's 
 words, that one of the three festivals was now ap- 
 proaching : at least he speaks of Saul disputing with 
 the Grecians ^, by which we are always to understand 
 the foreign Jews. Barnabas may also have come to 
 Jerusalem on account of this festival : and if Saul 
 had staid longer in Jerusalem, he would perhaps 
 have seen some more of the apostles, who would 
 have met Peter there upon that occasion. The same 
 scene, however, was now acted in opposition to Saul, 
 as that, in which he had been the principal mover 
 two years before. He was then one of the foreign 
 Jews who disjnited against Stephen, and when de- 
 feated in argument he had recourse to force. He 
 now in turn defended the gospel against the foreign 
 Jews, and again, as in Damascus, his life was in 
 danger. It was natural, that the Jews should be 
 ■ particularly violent against Saul as an apostate : and 
 their opposition against him became so active, that 
 it was thought better for Saul to retire before the 
 storm. Nor was this only the suggestion of his 
 friends. We know from his own words, that while 
 he was praying in the temple, he had one of those 
 visions which were so often vouchsafed to him, and 
 
 ' Some copies of the Vulgiite f'ul, whether the gospel was at 
 
 nuike him to have disputed with this time openly preached to 
 
 the Gentiles ('E\Xt)vas pro'EXX?;- the unproselyted lieathen in 
 
 viards) : but it is at least doubt- Jerusalem. 
 
LECT. IV. Progress of the Gospel. 123 
 
 Jesus Christ himself told him to leave Jerusalem ; A. D. 
 repeating to him at the same time his former decla- 
 ration, that he intended to send him to the Gen- 
 tiles ^. He accordingly left Jerusalem after a stay 
 of only fifteen days, and went to his native city 
 Tarsus. We shall there leave him for several years. 
 The state of the Christians at Jerusalem at this time 
 is perhaps a specimen of what was their condition 
 for a considerable period. The return of each fes- 
 tival, and the arrival of the foreign Jews, caused a 
 more than ordinary activity in the enemies of the 
 gospel. The Christians, however, had probably 
 learnt to protect themselves on those occasions. The 
 length of time, in which James presided over the 
 church at Jerusalem, would seem to shew the pru- 
 dence of his measures : and it is very apparent, that 
 notwithstanding these short seasons of animosity, 
 the gospel on the whole was rapidly, though silently 
 advancing. This was likely to be the case in Judaea, 
 Galilee, and Samaria, where the apostles were con- 
 stantly making visits to the different towns : but the 
 gospel had also made its way into places, which as 
 yet had been visited by none of the apostles : and I 
 shall begin the following lecture with considering 
 the state of these churches. 
 
 ^ Acts xxii. 17. 
 
LECTURE V. 
 
 A. D. W g have hitherto considered the state of the 
 oo — oo. 
 churches in Judaea, Samaria, and Galilee. We liave 
 
 seen them rising out of the persecution whicli fol- 
 lowed the death of Stephen, and prospering under 
 the care of the apostles, who visited them from Jeru- 
 salem. In the mean time the gospel was making its 
 way in other and more distant countries. I have 
 said, that of the 3000, who were bai)tized at the 
 first Pentecost, many may have been foreign Jews, 
 and may have spread the gospel upon their return 
 to their homes. The same effect may have been 
 produced by the subsequent festivals ; and we shall 
 see reason to think that this was the case, when we 
 come to consider the Roman church. It was per- 
 haps the case with the Christians who have already 
 attracted our notice, at Damascus. But I wish now 
 to consider the places, which are expressly mentioned 
 by St. Luke, and which, he says, received the gospel 
 from the persons iv/io were scattered ah road upon 
 the persecution that arose atmut Stephen. 
 
 I have already stated, that these countries were 
 Phoenicia, Antioch, and Cyprus ; and it is reason- 
 able to supi^ose, that the jiersons, who fled thither, 
 were going to their respective homes. Concerning 
 the Christians in Phoenicia we know little. There 
 seem to have been several brethren there in 46 * : 
 
 ^ Acts XV. 3. 
 
LECT. V. Presidents of Syria. 125 
 
 and when St. Paul went to Jerusalem in 54, he A. D. 
 
 landed at Tyre, and found some disciples ''; butwhe- 33 35 
 
 tber the gospel had increased much in these twenty 
 years, we are not informed. I have already conjec- 
 tured, that Barnabas may have been one of the per- 
 sons, who carried the new doctrines into Cyprus ; 
 and if we may judge from the speed with which he 
 and Saul traversed the island a few years afterwards, 
 a considerable impression had already been made. 
 The church, which requires most of our notice, and 
 which is mentioned most in detail by St. Luke, is 
 that of Antioch ; a city, which was once the capital 
 of Syria, and which was now the residence of the 
 Roman officer, who governed that country with the 
 title of president. The president of Syria was in 
 fact responsible to Rome for the whole of Pales- 
 tine : and the procurator of Juda?a, and the two 
 tetrarchs of Galilee and Trachonitis, though nomi- 
 nally independent, were often obliged to call in the 
 aid of the president of Syria. The person, who 
 held this station in the year of the crucifixion, was 
 Silanus, who was succeeded in the year 34 by Vi- 
 tellius : and the war, which I have mentioned as 
 existing between Herod Antipas and Aretas, and 
 which lasted some years, could not be uninteresting 
 to the Roman commander at Antioch. We shall 
 see, that Vitellius was at length ordered by Tiberius 
 to pursue active measures against Aretas ; but the 
 Roman policy had perhaps suffered the war to con- 
 tinue thus long, that both combatants might exhaust 
 their strength, and make themselves still more de- 
 pendent upon Rome. In the account, which St. 
 Luke has left us of the church at Antioch, we do 
 
 ^ xxi. 4. 
 
126 Church at Aiitioch. lect. v. 
 
 A. D. not meet with any thing of Roman interference. 
 33—35. -yy-g have seen indeed, that this was not likely to 
 take place, except at the instigation of the Jews; 
 and though we cannot suppose that the Jews with- 
 held their opposition, nothing is said of their offer- 
 ing it with any success. We know from Josephus, 
 that the Jews were extremely numerous in An- 
 tioch*^: but it is probable, that the excesses which 
 they committed in their own country would not 
 have been allowed in a Grecian city, commanded by 
 a Roman garrison ; and from some of these causes 
 the gospel took root so early at Antioch, and flou- 
 rished so rapidly, as almost to rival the parent 
 church at Jerusalem. 
 
 Unfortunately there is a doubtful reading in the 
 narrative of St. Luke'', which leaves it uncertain, 
 whether the first preachers at Antioch made con- 
 verts among the Gentiles. Some critics have sup- 
 posed, that they only preached to the Jews who 
 spoke Greek ; though this was so certain to be the 
 case in the Grecian city of Antioch, where all the 
 Jews probably spoke that language, that it is diffi- 
 cult to see why this circumstance was noticed by 
 St. Luke : on the other hand, it is difficult to con- 
 ceive, that the great question concerning Gentile 
 converts was decided from the very first in the 
 church at Antioch : unless we suppose, which is pro- 
 bably the real state of the case, that St. Luke meant 
 to speak of two periods, and to say, that at first the 
 gospel was preached only to the Jews, but that af- 
 terwards some other persons came to Antioch who 
 converted the devout Gentiles. It has always been 
 conceived, that the church at Antioch consisted in a 
 
 ^ De Bel. Jud. VII. 3, 3. '^ xi 20. 'E\Xj7«/i(rTa9or''EXX»;j/ay. 
 
LECT. V. Church at Antioch. 127 
 
 great measure of Gentile converts, and St. Luke's A. D. 
 
 ^ . Oo q- 
 
 words certainly rather support the notion. The 
 church in that city may be said to have been inde- 
 pendent of the church at Jerusalem : it being nearly 
 certain, as I have already stated, that the tradition 
 of St. Peter having established himself there as 
 bishop is entirely groundless. Its foundations were 
 laid by persons who fled from Jerusalem ; but it 
 was beyond the utmost limits of Judaea, and out of 
 the reach of those apostolical circuits, which we 
 have seen to have been made in Judaea, Samaria, 
 and Galilee. It is evident, that for a long time 
 there was little communication between the believers 
 in Antioch and Jerusalem : but still the gospel in- 
 creased rapidly in the former city ; and perhaps we 
 may find a confirmation of this in the history of the 
 impostor Apollonius of Tyana, who is said to have 
 left Antioch in disgust, " a place which as usual con- 
 *' ducted itself with insolence, and paid no regard to 
 " Grecian institutions'^." Apollonius was at Antioch 
 some time between the years 37 and 47, which 
 coincide with the rapid increase of the gospel there : 
 and a heathen writer might have used these expres- 
 sions, to describe the numerous conversions to Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 We may thus ccmclude, that the Christians in 
 Antioch and Jerusalem, though without any com- 
 munication with each other, came both to the same 
 decision, that devout Gentiles might be admitted to 
 baptism ; and perhaps they both began this practice 
 about the same time. The news of what was pass- 
 ing at Antioch at length reached Jerusalem, though 
 we are not told in what year the first direct notice 
 e Philostratus, III. 58. p. 139. 
 
128 Pontius Pilate removed. lect. v. 
 
 A. D. was taken of it. I should rather infer, tliat this 
 33 — 3"). flourishing state of tlie church at Antioch had gone 
 on for a long time before any person visited it from 
 Jerusalem : and in the fifth year after the cruci- 
 fixion an event happened, vv^hich was likely to cause 
 more communication between the two cities. Pon- 
 tius Pilate, after holding the office of procurator of 
 Judaea for nearly ten years, was removed on the 
 following occasion. The Samaritans, whose attach- 
 ment to Simon Magus we have already considered, 
 were seduced in great numbers by another impostor 
 in the year 35. Whether the general expectation 
 of the Messiah led this person, like so many others 
 about the same period, to assume that character, we 
 are not informed : but an armed multitude followed 
 , him, and raised such a tumult in the country, that 
 Pilate immediately marched some troops against 
 them, and killed a great number. This severity 
 caused the Samaritans to complain of Pilate to Vi- 
 tellius the president of Syria, who immediately or- 
 dered the procurator to go to Rome, and answer for 
 
 A. D. his conduct. The result was, that Tiberius banished 
 3<>- him to Vienne in Gaul, and according to Eusebius 
 . he afterwards destroyed himself^: his office of pro- 
 curator was not at present renewed ; and Judaea 
 and Samaria were annexed to the presidentship of 
 Syria. This, as I said before, was likely to cause 
 more communication between Jerusalem and An- 
 tioch. Vitellius indeed soon after went in person to 
 Jerusalem, and attended the passover?. His con- 
 duct was on the whole gratifying to the Jews ; and 
 among other acts of authority, he displaced Caiaphas, 
 who had held the office of high priest ten years, and 
 f H. E. II. 7. S Joseph. Aulhi. XVIII. 4. 
 
LECT. V. Vitelliiis. 129 
 
 appointed Jonathan, who was son of Annas, or Ana- A. D. 
 nus, A tradition has been preserved, but the author- ^^- 
 ity of which is doubtful, that Caiaphas afterwards de- 
 stroyed himself*^. We hear nothing of his open hos- 
 tility to the Christians subsequent to the persecution 
 of Saul. He was still in office, when Saul returned 
 to Jerusalem in 33 ; and it may have been at his 
 instigation, that the Jews raised that opposition to 
 Saul, which caused him to leave the city. When 
 Vitellius was at Jerusalem in 36, we do not hear, 
 among his other measures, by which he gratified the 
 Jews, that he aided them in persecuting the Chris- 
 tians : and if Caiaphas had not influence enough to 
 keep his office of high priest, he was not likely to 
 call the attention of Vitellius to the new sect. The 
 presidents of Syria henceforth adopted the plan of 
 frequently removing the high priests : and this may 
 perhaps have contributed to the security of the 
 Christians. The high priests, when they found the 
 people not seconding them in their violence, were 
 able sometimes to accomplish their object by means 
 of the Roman soldiers. But when Pilate was re- 
 moved, and the commander in chief was resident at 
 Antioch, they had little chance of getting him to 
 listen to their calumnies : and if Vitellius knew any 
 thing of the Christians at Antioch, he would only 
 know that they were quiet and inoffensive : added 
 to which, the high priests being constantly in dread 
 of their own removal, would be more anxious to 
 benefit themselves, than to injure the Christians ; 
 and this frequent change would be likely to keep up 
 the jealousy between the Pharisees and Sadducees : 
 all which may perhaps account in some degree for 
 
 h Constit. Apost. VIII. 2. 
 K 
 
ISO Death of Tiberius. lect. v. 
 
 A. D. the little molestation, which the Christians appear 
 •^"' to have received. 
 
 It is possible, that when Vitellius attended the 
 Passover in the year 36, some persons in his train 
 acquainted the Christians at Jerusalem with the 
 state of the church at Antioch : and it would be in- 
 teresting to think, that Cornelius met with some 
 soldiers, who had been converted like himself to the 
 
 A. D. gospel. The following year .S7 might have fur- 
 '■ nished another opportunity for conveying this in- 
 telligence. Vitellius was then again at Jerusalem 
 during the Passover, having been ordered by Tibe- 
 rius to take up the war, which Herod Antipas had 
 carried on so long and so unsuccessfully against 
 Aretas '. Vitellius took that opportunity of paying 
 another visit to Jerusalem, and deposed Jonathan, 
 whom he had so lately made high priest, and ap- 
 pointed his brother Theophilus. Thus Annas had 
 still influence to keep the office in his own family ; 
 and from what St. Luke tells us of Caiaphas, we 
 may infer that the party of the Sadducees still had 
 the advantage. Tiberius died on the l6th of March 
 this year, and the news reached Jerusalem while 
 Vitellius was there, who shortly after dismissed his 
 troops and returned to Antioch. 
 
 I need not say more as to the means of communi- 
 cation between the two churches, which had thus 
 become so flourishing independently of each other : 
 and the Christians at Jerusalem gave a convincing 
 proof of their anxiety for their brethren at Antioch. 
 But before I mention the mission of Barnabas to 
 the latter city, I may say something of another per- 
 son, who now filled an important station in Judaea, 
 
 i Josephus, Antiq. XVIII. 5. 
 
LECT. V. Herod Agrippa. 131 
 
 and who afterwards shewed hhnself inclined to per- A. D. 
 secute the Christians. This was Herod Agrippa, ^'' 
 the son of Aristobulus, and grandson of Herod the 
 Great ; the vicissitudes of whose fortunes, in the 
 early part of his life, are more suited for the drama 
 or for romance, than the pages of real history. I 
 must content myself with saying, that at the time of 
 the death of Tiberius he was in prison at Rome ; 
 but fortunately for himself his crime consisted in 
 having shewn too great attachment to Caligula : and 
 when that prince succeeded to the empire, he not 
 only immediately released Agrippa, but transferred 
 him from a prison to a throne ^. His kingdom in- 
 deed was but small, consisting merely of the te- 
 trarchies on the east of the Jordan, which had been 
 vacant since the year 34 by the death of his imcle 
 Philip. Such as it was, however, Agrippa left Rome a. D. 
 in 38, with the title of king, to take possession of ^^• 
 it. Fortune seemed now to be making up to him 
 for his former sufferings. Herodias his sister, who 
 was still living with Antipas, envied Agrippa his 
 title of king ; and in an evil hour persuaded her 
 husband, if he may be so called, to go to Rome 
 and solicit from the emperor the same distinction. 
 Agrippa took care to anticipate his arrival by pre- 
 judicing the emperor against him : and the unfor- 
 tunate journey of Antipas and Herodias to Rome 
 ended in both of them being banished to Lyons in 
 Gaul. The dominions of Antipas were then given 
 to Agrippa, who thus became king of Galilee, and 
 of nearly all the country on the east of the Jordan, 
 which had belonged to Herod the Great. Judaea 
 still continued subject to the president of Syria : 
 
 k Joseph. Atitiq. XVIII. 6. lo. 
 K 2 
 
132 Caligula. lect. v. 
 
 A.D. which, as I observed before, was perhaps a favour- 
 "^^^ able circuinstaiice to the Christians: and since every- 
 thing had this result, which gave occupation to the 
 Jewish authorities in Jerusalem, we may perhaps 
 conceive, that the reign of Caligula, though disas- 
 trous in many respects to the Jews, was rather 
 favourable than otherwise to the affairs of the Chris- 
 tians. 
 
 I need not dwell upon the dissensions in Alex- 
 andria between the Jews and other inhabitants, nor 
 upon the advantage which was given to the latter 
 by the contempt with which Caligula treated the 
 Jewish ambassadors. These indignities, though 
 great, were lost in the outrage inflicted upon the 
 whole nation by the cruel attempt of Caligula to 
 have his statue erected in the templet This kept 
 not only Jerusalem, but all Palestine, in a ferment, 
 during nearly the whole of Caligula's reign. The 
 
 A. D. edict enforcing this insult was issued in the year 39, 
 and Petronius, who succeeded Vitellius as president 
 of Syria, Avas ordered to carry it into execution. 
 Fortunately Petronius had not courage or cruelty 
 enough to exasperate a whole nation : and though 
 his own head was likely to suffer for his forbear- 
 ance, he continued to protract the business through 
 the whole of the following year. Agrippa also went 
 to Rome, to endeavour to persuade the emperor to 
 relax : but before he had finally succeeded, or re- 
 turned to his dominions, relief was given to man- 
 
 A. D. kind at large, as well as to the Jews, by the assas- 
 '*^" sination of Caligula. This affair of the statue must 
 entirely have absorbed the attention of the author- 
 ities at Jerusalem ; and for two or three years no 
 1 Joseph. Antiq. XVIII. 8. 
 
LECT. V. Church at Antioch. 133 
 
 time was allowed for shewing hostility to the Chris- A. D. 
 tians. The Christians indeed, as we know from ^^- 
 their subsequent history, would have joined in the 
 most determined opposition to the profanation of 
 the temple. Their constant refusal to pay divine 
 honours to the emperor was a frequent cause of their 
 blood being shed by their heathen enemies ; and the 
 insult, which was now offered to the whole nation 
 collectively, was perhaps the means of minor dis- 
 tinctions being forgotten, and of the progress of the 
 gospel being overlooked in the midst of the general 
 calamity. 
 
 We have evidence that this progress was constant 
 and unceasing. The distress of the Jews w^as per- 
 haps most general in Jerusalem and Judaea. During 
 most of the agitation, Petronius and his forces were 
 stationed at Ptolemais or Tiberias in Galilee ; and 
 thus Antioch would be likely to be less disturbed by 
 the general commotion. The consequence was, that 
 the gospel increased rapidly in that city, and it would 
 seem, that the Gentile converts were very numerous. 
 St. Luke says. Then tidings of these things came 
 unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem; 
 and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as 
 far as Antioch. I have already observed, that the 
 date of this event is not mentioned. It is plain, how- 
 ever, that Barnabas was in Antioch in the year 41 
 or 42, and I should rather infer, that he had not been 
 there long before. It was in the January of the former 
 year that Caligula died : and since his death restor- 
 ed Judaea to a state of tranquillity, it was perhaps at 
 that period, that the Apostles sent Barnabas from 
 Jerusalem to Antioch. It is not improbable, that a 
 principal motive for their taking this step was the 
 
 K 3 
 
134 Send at Tarsus. lect. v. 
 
 A. D. account which they had received of the Gentile con- 
 __£|___ verts : and there are reasons, which might induce us 
 to think, that there was no person more fit for such 
 a mission than Barnabas, who had perhaps been 
 fully informed by his friend Saul of the revelations 
 which he had received concerning Gentile converts. 
 This notion is confirmed by our reading shortly 
 after, that Barnabas went to Tarsus to seek Saul, 
 which brings us once more to the history of this ex- 
 traordinary person. 
 
 We left him in the year 33, when he was obliged 
 to quit Jerusalem, and when he went to his native 
 city of Tarsus. The space of time, which he passed 
 in that city, before he was brought to Antioch by 
 Barnabas, is certainly a long one, and may perhaps 
 appear an objection to the scheme of chronology 
 which has been followed. We can however fix the 
 time of his arrival in Antioch with tolerable accu- 
 racy, which could hardly have happened earlier than 
 41 or 42 ; and though this leaves a period of eight 
 or nine years, which he passed at Tarsus, the diffi- 
 culty attending such a notion appears to me much less, 
 than that of placing his conversion later. The diffi- 
 culty indeed principally consists in our supposing Saul 
 to have passed eight or nine years at Tarsus in inacti- 
 vity : but if it can be shewn, that this was perhaps by 
 no means the case, the objection is at least consider- 
 ably lessened. The words of Saul himself, when he 
 is describing that part of his life which followed his 
 departure from Jerusalem, are as follows ; After- 
 wards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia: 
 and ivas unhiotvn hij face tmto the churches ofJii- 
 dcBa which were in Christ : but they had heard on/i/, 
 that he, which persecuted us in times past, now 
 
LECT. V. Saul at Tarsus. 135 
 
 preacheth the faith which once he destroyed^. If we A. D. 
 take these words literally, they can only be inter- 
 preted to mean, that after Saul left Jerusalem, it was 
 known to the Christians in that city, that he was 
 engaged in preaching the gospel. The same infer- 
 ence might be drawn from his saying, that he came 
 into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. St. Luke 
 tells us, that he went to Tarsus : and if Saul himself 
 had only said, that he came into Cilicia, the two 
 statements would have been the same. But he 
 speaks also of the regions of Syria ; and since I 
 cannot suppose this to be an unmeaning addition, 
 I can only infer, that Saul was employed in preach- 
 ing, not merely in Tarsus, but in different places in 
 Syria and Cilicia. We shall see other reasons here- 
 after for concluding, that churches were founded by 
 him in these two countries : and if his preaching 
 extended far into Syria, it could hardly have failed 
 to be known to the Christians at Antioch. This 
 was perhaps the case, and may partly account for 
 Barnabas going to Tarsus to seek Saul: but I should 
 rather infer, that his preaching was principally con- 
 fined to the places in the neighbourhood of Tarsus. 
 It may be mentioned here, that a calculation of 
 dates will require us to fix in some part of these 
 eight or nine years, that extraordinary vision or 
 rapture, which he speaks of having received, when 
 he was caught uj) into the third heaven, or Para- 
 dise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not 
 lawful for a man to utter^"^. This appears to have 
 happened some time about the year 38, or five years 
 after his having gone to Tarsus : and we may under- 
 stand from this, that he still received similar revela- 
 1 Gal. i. 21. ""2 Cor. xii. 2, &c. 
 
 K 4 
 
4^2. 
 
 136 Christians at Anlioch. i-ect. v. 
 
 A. I), lions to those wliicli lio liad experienced during Jiis 
 ^^- seclusion in Ai;il)i;i. He speaks at the Harne time of 
 the atu(u(t<iu('(' or cxcchh of rciu'fattons wliicli were 
 gi'untcd to liini : and it mij^lit l)e thought tliat t?ie 
 infirmity, whatever it might l)e, wliich was sent as 
 a sort of corrective to spiiitiial pride, came upon him 
 soon alter tlie j"aptui'(! ah'cady mentioned. 
 
 A. I). it seems most j>rohahle, that Saul arrived at An- 
 tioch in 42, which was the second year of the reign 
 of (Maudins; and St. F^idce says expressly, that lie 
 and IJarnalms staid then; a whole year. It was 
 ahout this time, that l^eti'onins was succeeded as 
 president of" Syria hy Marsus ; and still we find no 
 trace of the Jionian authorities interfering with the 
 (.lirislians at Antioch. 'i'he gospel aj)j)eai's at this 
 time to lia\c' been |)arti(iilai'ly flourishing in that 
 city : and it was in some part of the period, wliich 
 we have been now considering, that the believers 
 came; to be known theic by the name of (Christians. 
 I have already for the sake of convenience antici- 
 pated the use of this n.nme ; and we cannot say for 
 certain, what was the appellation generally given to 
 them befoi'e this time. It can be j)rove(l, that they 
 were sometimes called (Jalila'ans and Nazarenes. 
 'J'he latter term was evidently taken from the no- 
 tion, that Jesus was a native of Nazareth : and St. 
 Matthew was j)r()l)ably thinking of the application 
 of this name to the Christians, when he referred to 
 the pro|)liets, as saying that Christ should l)e called 
 a Naxarene, i. e. that he and his followers should be 
 marked by opprobrious appellations. 'J'lie name of 
 (lalila'an was owing to most, if not all, the apostles 
 being natives of that country: and ^\'e can j)rove that 
 this also would convey unfavourable impressions. 
 
i.ECT. V. Christians at Antioch. 137 
 
 When they are spoken of as the sect or heresy of the A. D. 
 NazareneSjWe need not snppose, that the term heresy 
 was intended as a reproach. It is the same term, 
 which Josephus, as well as the sacred writers, uses 
 for the sects of the Pharisees and Sadducees ; and 
 merely meant a division or choice of opinions em- 
 braced by a certain })arty. We know that the Gen- 
 tiles, who never thonght or cared much about Jew- 
 ish matters, for a long time considered the Christians 
 as merely a Jewish sect : and the first believers at 
 Jerusalem would perhaps not have spoken of them- 
 selves in any other manner. 'I'here is reason to 
 think, that the term way was used in a peculiar 
 sense by the Jews, when they wished to si)eak of 
 the tenets of the Christians : but these different 
 terms, though of connnon apj)licati()n in Jerusalem 
 and Judira, had perhaps not fomid their way to 
 Antioch, where the hostility of the Jews was not so 
 apparent, and where the church had in fact sprung 
 uj) without the assistance of the Galila^ans. St. Luke 
 lias not informed us at what time the name of Chris- 
 tian came first into use ; aiul if it was invented after 
 the arrival of Barnabas, it was in the period between 
 the years 41 and 43. It has been argued, that the 
 word Christiauus is one rather of Latin than of 
 (Jreek formation " : and if the notion be correct, we 
 must account for it from the prevalence of Roman 
 manners, in consequence of Antioch being the resi- 
 dence of tlie presidents of Syria. 
 
 Saul, as I have stated, came to Antioch about the 
 year 42, and St. Luke si)eaks of his contimung there 
 a whole year. In the fourth century some caverns 
 were shewn in the neighbourhood of Antioch, in which 
 
 " Witsius, MvlH. l.cidcus. III. 4. p. 38. 
 
138 Saul at Jerusalem. lect. v, 
 
 A. D. it was said that St. Paul had concealed himself. 
 ^2- The tradition, if founded upon facts, would perhaps 
 prove, that the Christians had not been so much un- 
 molested in that city, as I have supposed. But the date 
 of this concealment cannot be ascertained ; and such 
 traditions, when unsupported by other and earlier evi- 
 dence, are scarcely to be trusted as deserving of credit. 
 
 A. D. In 44 Saul went up to Jerusalem with contri- 
 butions for the inhabitants of Judaea, who were suf- 
 fering from a famine. This famine had been pre- 
 dicted at Antioch some time before by a man named 
 Agabus ; and the Christians at Antioch were there- 
 fore able to send relief in time, and they made a 
 charitable collection, which was carried to Jerusa- 
 lem by Barnabas and Saul. They arrived at Jeru- 
 salem about the time of the Passover in 44, which 
 was the fourth year of the reign of Claudius : and 
 the state of the church there would forcibly remind 
 Saul of vi^hat had happened to himself at his last 
 visit. Ten years had now elapsed since he had left 
 Jerusalem, and the interval had been one of compa- 
 rative rest to the Christians. The Jews however 
 were now under a king, who might be said to be 
 of their own nation ; and they had succeeded in pre- 
 judicing him against the Christians. We left Agrip- 
 pa in Rome at the time of Caligula's death, where 
 he had been endeavouring to get the edict revoked, 
 which had ordered the erection of the emperor's sta- 
 tue in the temple. The death of Caligula saved him 
 any further trouble upon this score : and one of the 
 first acts of the new emperor Claudius was to con- 
 firm to Agrippa the territories which he already 
 possessed, with the addition of Judaea, Samaria, and 
 
 o Theodoret, de vitis patrtim, c. 2. p. 782. 
 
LECT. V. Herod Agripjm. 139 
 
 the district called Abilene : so that the kingdom of A. D. 
 Agrippa now included all the countries, which had 4^- 
 been reigned over by his grandfather, Herod the 
 Great. He also at the same time procured the small 
 territory of Chalcis, with the title of king, for his 
 brother Herod. This was in some sense and for a 
 few years a restoration of independence to the Jews. 
 Since the removal of Pontius Pilate in 36, they had 
 been governed by the president of Syria, instead of 
 having a procurator of their own p. They now had 
 once more a king, who had some of the ancient As- 
 monean blood in his veins, and who upon more than 
 one occasion had shewn himself a real friend to the 
 interests of his nation. He continued the Roman 
 policy of frequently removing the high priests ; and 
 his reign, which lasted not quite four years, saw 
 three persons in succession fill that office^. By this 
 measure, which might be thought an unpopular one, 
 he was sure to have the person, who actually filled 
 the ofl[ice, at his command ; and the others, who were 
 expecting it, would be careful not to offend him. 
 Agrippa also found it convenient to conciliate his 
 subjects, since he was jealously watched by Marsus 
 the president of Syria : and it was no easy matter 
 for a king of the Jews to be popular with his sub- 
 jects, and yet to stand well with the Roman author- 
 ities in the country. One of the means, which A- 
 grippa took to make himself popular at Jerusalem, 
 was by persecuting the Christians : and since he 
 
 P Josephus speaks of Vitel- XVIII. 4, 2.) but I do not con- 
 
 lius sending Marcellus, a friend ceive him to have been procu- 
 
 of his own, to manage the af- rator. 
 
 fairs of Judaea, when he or- q Simon, Matthias, Elioneus. 
 dered Pilate to Rome : (Antiq. 
 
140 Death of St. James. lect. v. 
 
 A. D. wished to be accounted particularly strict in his ob- 
 '^^' servance of the Law, he would easily be persuaded, 
 that it was his duty to crush this increasing sect. As 
 usual, the Passover was again chosen as the occasion 
 for these acts of cruelty : and the chief civil power 
 being thus gained over, there was less difficulty than 
 ever in carrying on the attack. Agrippa began at 
 once with seizing the ringleaders : and either just 
 before or just after the arrival of Saul and Barna- 
 bas, he had publicly beheaded James, who was dis- 
 tinguished from the bishop of Jerusalem, as being 
 the son of Zebedee and the brother of John. We 
 know nothing of his history subsequent to the as- 
 cension of Jesus Christ : but he had been particu- 
 larly favoured by his Master while on earth, and the 
 violent nature of his death seems to have been pre- 
 dicted^. There can be no doubt, that like the other 
 apostles, he preached in Judaea and Galilee ; but there 
 is every reason to think, that his apostolical labours 
 were confined to these countries. The time of his 
 death makes it quite impossible that he should have 
 preached, as one ancient writer^ asserts, to the twelve 
 tribes dispersed throughout the earth : and the as- 
 sertion was probably made from a mistaken notion, 
 that the general epistle of St. James was written by 
 this apostle. The notion is equally unfounded, that 
 he carried the gospel into Spain ; and several writ- 
 ers* of the Romish church have agreed in demon- 
 strating it to be untrue. It is plain, as I observed 
 before, that at the time of his death the apostles had 
 
 >■ Matt. XX. 23. it, but afterwards retracted his 
 
 s Sophroniiis, who translated opinion. It is opposed by Es- 
 
 Jerom de viris iUustribus, and tins (in Rom. xv. 20.) Xatalis 
 
 made many additions. Alexander (Diss. XIV. Saec. I.), 
 
 t Baronius once supported Tillemont, (Memoires, torn. I. 
 
LECT. V. Death of Herod Agrippa. 141 
 
 confined their journeys to Judaea and Galilee ; and a. 1). 
 James was perhaps just returned from one of these 44. 
 excursions, and intending to keep the Passover at 
 Jerusalem, when he was called to his crown of mar- 
 tyrdom. A tradition existed in the time of Clement 
 of Alexandria", that the person, who had assisted in 
 his apprehension, was converted to Christianity, and 
 suffered death at the same time. 
 
 Agrippa f)erceived that this act was highly grati- 
 fying to the Jews ; and he had prepared to please them 
 still more by getting Peter into his power. This dis- 
 tinguished leader of the Christians was kept for a kind 
 of auto dafe, which was to be exhibited at the close 
 of the Passover : but a greater than Agrippa, by whom 
 his own days were already numbered, released Peter 
 from his chains, and by a direct interposition from hea- 
 ven once more set him free. It is painful to read that 
 Agrippa, when he heard of this escape, ordered the 
 keepers of the prison to be put to death : and such a 
 train of deliberate cruelty might prepare us for seeing 
 the hand of Heaven fall heavy on the author of it. 
 Joseph us, as well as St. Luke, has told us, that this 
 was remarkably and awfully the case. There is no 
 occasion for me to detail the circumstances of Agrip- 
 pa's death. He was seized with the illness, which 
 soon carried him off, on the second day of some splen- 
 did games which he was celebrating at Caesarea : 
 and it is not improbable, that the occasion was the 
 birthday of Claudius, which fell on the first of Au- 
 gust. He appears to have left Jerusalem soon after 
 Easter : and this would perhaps hinder the chief 
 
 p. 1073.), and Pope Innocent I. " Apud Eus. £. H. II. 9. 
 
 disbelieved it ; (Concil. Lat. Suidas. The Pseudo-Abdias 
 vol. II. p. I 245 ) makes many additions. 
 
142 Famine in Judcea. lect. v. 
 
 A. D. priests from continuing their persecution of the 
 Christians. 
 
 I have supposed the death of Agrippa to have 
 happened in 44, though good reasons have been 
 advanced for placing it in 43, and this would cause 
 us to antedate the arrival of Barnabas at Antioch by 
 one year. There is also room for doubt, whether 
 the famine had actually begun to be felt in Jeru- 
 salem, when he and Saul arrived there with the 
 contributions. It may be collected from other au- 
 thors, that the famine was severe in the fourth year 
 of Claudius : and at all events the relief which was 
 now brought would soon be extremely seasonable. 
 Relief was also afforded at this or a later period by 
 Helena, who was queen of the people called Adia- 
 beni on the river Tigris. She and her son Izates 
 had embraced the Jewish religion, and caused a 
 large supply of corn and other food to be brought 
 to Jerusalem from Alexandria and Cyprus. The 
 fact, as here stated, rests upon the authority of Jose- 
 phus'^ : and though two later writers >' have asserted, 
 that the journey of Helena and her son to Jerusalem 
 ended in their being converted to Christianity, the 
 story can hardly be received as an authentic part of 
 ecclesiastical history. It would be interesting to 
 suppose, that their conversion was owing to their 
 finding Saul and Barnabas engaged in the same cha- 
 ritable undertaking with themselves. 
 
 It has been thought, that none of the aj^ostles were 
 now at Jerusalem, because the money is said to have 
 been sent, not to them, but to the elders. This, how- 
 ever, is to assume, that the Christians at Antioch had 
 such accurate information, as to know, that when Saul 
 
 X Antiq. XX. 2. y Orosius, VII. 6. Ado Vienn. Chron. 
 
LECT. V. St. Peter released from prison. 143 
 
 and Barnabas arrived at Jerusalem, they would find A. D. 
 all the apostles absent : a fact, which the distance be- ^^' 
 tween the two cities makes extremely improbable : 
 and if Agrippa had not killed James and imprisoned 
 Peter, it is certain, that the money might have been 
 received by these two apostles. The fact, however, 
 is, as I have already observed, that the apostles had 
 long ago given up all management of such contri- 
 butions : the deacons were the proper persons to re- 
 ceive them ; and I have supposed, that when the 
 apostles began to be often absent from Jerusalem, 
 they gave to some of the deacons the name of elders^ 
 and invested them with authority over the rest. 
 The elders therefore were the proper persons, to 
 whom the collection from Antioch was sent : they 
 would see that the deacons distributed it properly : 
 and we cannot argue from this expression, whether 
 any of the apostles were at this time in Jerusalem or 
 no. We may observe, however, that when St. Peter 
 was miraculovisly released from prison, he gave di- 
 rections that James should be informed of it ; which 
 not oTily shews that James was now in Jerusalem, 
 but confirms the notion of his filling some important 
 station. St. Peter, as might be expected, did not 
 run the risk of staying at present in the city. St. 
 Luke says, that he went to another place^ but he 
 does not specify the name. The notion of his going 
 now to Antioch, and presiding over the church there, 
 which has been advanced by some Roman Catholic 
 writers, need only be stated to be exposed. The 
 same may be said of his journey to Rome : and the 
 whole history of St. Peter, before and after this pe- 
 riod, except what is recorded in the Acts, is involved 
 in inconsistencies and fable. According to some 
 
144 John surnamed Mark. lect. v. 
 
 A. D. writers ^ he had preached in several parts of Asia 
 44. Minor and at Rome before his imprisonment at Jeru- 
 salem in the year 44 : but all evidence is against 
 such a notion ; and though there is no reason, whj 
 he might not have undertaken a longer journey after 
 his imprisonment, I should rather infer that he 
 merely commenced another of those evangelical cir- 
 cuits, which I have already so often spoken of: and 
 that is the reason wYij St. Luke does not mention 
 any particular place, to which he went. It is pro- 
 bable, that Saul and Barnabas returned to Antioch 
 soon after Easter : at least they returned, when they 
 had finished their ministry : and since they were to 
 deliver the money to the elders, there was no occa- 
 sion for them to stay there a long time themselves. 
 They took with them John, who was surnamed 
 Mark : and though the question will perhaps never 
 be decided, I cannot help agreeing with those per- 
 sons, who think that this was not Mark the Evan- 
 gelist. It was to his mother's house, that St. Peter 
 is stated to have gone, as soon as he was released 
 from prison. This house appears to have been one 
 of the places, where the Christians met for the pur- 
 pose of prayer : and though we know nothing of 
 Mark's previous history, we can hardly doubt but 
 that he was an early convert to the gospel. What 
 we know for certain is, that he was son to the sister 
 of Barnabas, which will account for his now accom- 
 panying his uncle to Antioch : and perhaps we may 
 conclude, that he was considerably younger in age. 
 
 We are not told how long Saul and Barnabas 
 continued at Antioch, before they commenced their 
 first apostolic journey. They perhaps arrived there 
 2 See Tillemont, Memoir es, torn. I. p. 45 i. 
 
i>ECT. V. Extension of the Gospel. 145 
 
 from Jerusalem after Pentecost in the year 44 : and A. D. 
 St. Luke's narrative might rather lead us to conclude, ^^' 
 that they did not leave it till the following year. 
 The expression, vrhich he uses, is very remarkable ; 
 and shevi^s how direct and immediate was the inter- 
 ference of God in providing for the spreading of the 
 gosjjel. Saul, as I have already stated, must long 
 have known, that he was destined to carry the name 
 of Jesus into distant countries : it is probable also, 
 that Barnabas had received a similar intimation ; 
 and though they had now waited twelve years for 
 their final instructions, they do not seem to have 
 thought of commencing their labours, till the actual 
 time was signified to them from heaven. There 
 might be room for much serious speculation, if we 
 were to consider why the further propagation of the 
 gospel was delayed to so long a period. But in 
 questions of this kind, where the first principles of 
 our knowledge must be drawn from Revelation, it 
 is sufficient to know what God has done, and the 
 deepest reasoner will never be able to demonstrate 
 why he did so. It is undoubted, that the labours 
 of the apostles, for about twelve years after the as- 
 cension of their Lord, were confined to Palestine. 
 Salvation through Christ was offered first to the 
 Jews : not that the Gentiles would have been ex- 
 cluded, if the Jews had accepted the offer : nor can 
 we suppose, that this preference was shewn to the lat- 
 ter, merely because they had of old been God's chosen 
 people. God doubtless had wise reasons for laying 
 the foundations of the gospel in Palestine, and for 
 not extending it to other countries, till it was firmly 
 established in Judcea. If we could dive into the 
 Divine counsels, we should see, that the time did not 
 
146 Apostles leave Judcea. lect. v. 
 
 A. D. arrive earlier for the Gentiles to be converted : we 
 ^^- should see, that if the apostles had left the Jews to 
 their prejudices, and gone at once into distant coun- 
 tries, their success would not have been the same. 
 We may not at present see the reason of this, and 
 human wisdom might have expected a different 
 course : but when the conclusions of reason are dif- 
 ferent from the wa3^s of Providence, we want no 
 further argument to tell us, that reason was wrong, 
 but that the counsels of God must be right. A tra- 
 dition has been preserved by two early writers, that 
 the apostles had been told by their master not to 
 leave Jerusalem for twelve years ^. If we substitute 
 Judaea for Jerusalem, and take Judaea in its widest 
 sense, as including Samaria and Galilee, the tradi- 
 tion is not at variance with what we know from his- 
 tory. There is every reason to think, that at the 
 time of Saul and Barnabas going to Jerusalem in 
 44, (which coincides with the death of Herod Agrip- 
 pa, and with the fourth year of the reign of Clau- 
 dius,) none of the apostles had passed the limits of 
 what might properly be called their own country. 
 I have supposed it to be in the following year, that 
 the Holy Ghost said to the Christians at Antioch, 
 Separate meJBarnahas and Saul for the work ivhere- 
 unto I have called them : and perhaps at the same 
 time it was signified to the other apostles, that the 
 period was come for their more distant labours. We 
 shall see, however, that some of the ajjostles still con- 
 tinued in Judaea : at least they were in the habit of 
 visiting it at intervals ; and though the Gentiles were 
 now to profit by their preaching, the churches of 
 Palestine would still require some of their attention, 
 a Clem. Alex. Strotn. VI. 5. p. 762. Eus. H. E. V. 18. 
 
LECT. V. Paul and Barnabas in Cyprus. 147 
 
 Saul and Barnabas probably set out on their first A. D. 
 journey in the spring or summer of 45 : and we 
 might have expected, that Saul's first care would 
 have been to visit his countrymen in Cilicia, more 
 especially as it lay on his way to the places where 
 he ultimately preached. He however went by sea, 
 and made first for Cyprus, leaving Cilicia unvisited ; 
 which confirms me in the notion, that he had pre- 
 viously planted the gospel in that country : and this 
 will be still more apparent, when we read, that he 
 commenced his second journey by confirming the 
 churches in Syria and Cilicia ; an expression, which 
 implies, that this was not the first time of his visit- 
 ing them. It was perhaps at the suggestion of Bar- 
 nabas, who was a native of Cyprus, that they com- 
 menced their labours in that island ; and since we 
 have seen that the gospel had been preached there 
 soon after the death of Stephen, we may suppose 
 that the way was partly prepared for them. This 
 remark, however, will not extend to the tradition of 
 Lazarus having gone to Cyprus after the martyr- 
 dom of Stephen, and having been bishop of the 
 church at Cytseum for thirty years ^. The most 
 extraordinary circumstance in the visit of Saul and 
 Barnabas to this island was the conversion of Ser- 
 gius Paulus the proconsul, who perhaps might be 
 thought from the narrative to have heard something 
 of Christianity before ; and if he had been long in 
 
 b Epiphanius has however have heard of it, having been 
 
 preserved a tradition of Laza- himself the metropolitan bishop 
 
 rus having lived thirty years in that island. See Tillemont, 
 
 after his resurrection: (Hser. Mewoi/T*, torn. II. p. 59. Na- 
 
 LXVI. 34. p. 652.) but he says talis Alexander, Saec. I. Diss. 
 
 nothing of his residence in Cy- XVI. p. 608. 
 prua, though he was likely to 
 
 L 2 
 
148 Sergius Paulus. lect. v. 
 
 A. D. the island, it could hardly have been otherwise. It 
 ^•^- also cannot be doubted, that the proconsul was bap- 
 tized : and his name therefore deserves to be re- 
 corded, as the first idolatrous Gentile who was ad- 
 mitted to the gospel. He was at least the first of 
 whom we have any account. It is possible, that 
 similar cases may have occurred at Antioch ; but 
 the evidence is rather against it : and I have already 
 observed, that the case of Cornelius, and persons like 
 him, who already believed in the true God, did not 
 go the whole length in establishing the admission 
 of Gentiles. Concerning the subsequent history of 
 Sergius Paulus we know nothing authentic. If he 
 continued in the island, he had the opportunity of 
 seeing Barnabas again in the following year: but 
 we have no account of St. Paul having ever again 
 visited Cyprus : and the story of his taking Sergius 
 with him, when he went several years after to Spain, 
 and appointing him bishop of Narbonne, is entitled 
 to no credit*^. 
 
 The great principle of admitting even idolatrous 
 Gentiles was practically settled by Saul and Barna- 
 bas on their present journey. From Cyprus they 
 went to Pamphylia, where for some reason, which 
 is not mentioned, Mark left them ; and from thence 
 they went to Antioch in Pisidia''. It was here, that 
 they formally announced to the Jews, that the gos- 
 pel, which was rejected by themselves, would hence- 
 
 c Ado, de festiv. Aposf. ad suit Natalis Alexander, (Saec. 
 
 XI. CaK April. Bolland. ad 22 I. Synops. c. X. art. 2.) Tille- 
 
 Mart. p. 371. mont, {Metnoires, torn, II. p. 
 
 d Whoever wishes to read an 107.) 
 
 account of St. Thecia, who is I feel compelled to omit all 
 
 said to have been converted by mention of this fabulous though 
 
 St. Paul at Iconiunij may con- celebrated saint. 
 
LECT. V. St. PauVs first Journey. 149 
 
 forth be jDreached to the Gentiles ; and many of the A. D. 
 latter immediately embraced it. It was on this jour- 
 ney, that Saul appears first to have adopted the name 
 of Paul, by which we may in future designate him. 
 The custom seems to have been common for Jews 
 to have Roman or Grecian names as well as their 
 own ; and we need not seek any other reason for 
 Saul, who was henceforth to be a preacher among 
 the Gentiles, adopting a name with which his hear- 
 ers would be more familiar*^. While they were tra- 
 versing Lycaonia, his life would have been destroyed 
 at Lystra by stoning, if he had not miraculously re- 
 covered: and this, as well as all the opposition, which 
 they met with on their journey, seems to have been 
 excited in the first instance by the Jews. On this 
 occasion Pamphylia and Pisidia were the limits of 
 their journey to the west : unless we suppose, with 
 some writers ^, that they made excursions as far as 
 Phrygia and Galatia. This, however, seems not pro- 
 bable : and I should rather conclude, that neither of 
 those two countries was visited by St. Paul till the 
 following year. The two apostles appear now to have 
 visited most of the towns a second time : a measure, 
 which would enable them to form a judgment of the 
 characters of their converts : and we find, that in 
 every place they appointed elders ; by which we are 
 to understand, that they followed the plan of the 
 churches in Judaea, and placed the deacons under 
 the authority of one or more of their number, who 
 were entrusted with the superintendence of the whole 
 body. In many of these infant churches one elder 
 would be sufficient : where more were wanted, they 
 
 c See Tillemontj Metnoires, ^ Macknight. Pref. to Gal. 
 
 torn. I. 789. 
 
 L 3 
 
150 Appointment of Elder s. lect. v. 
 
 A. D. probably placed the chief authority in the hands of 
 
 _2_; one, whose office approached more nearly to that of 
 
 bishop, though his district was confined to a single 
 town. We know, that this was the practice of St. 
 Paul a few years later ; and a simpler arrangement 
 could not have been devised, or one which was more 
 likely to ensure the prosperity of the churches. The 
 expression used by St. Luke seems to imply, that 
 these elders were not simply appointed by Paul and 
 Barnabas, but that they were chosen by general suf- 
 frage. We have seen, that some selection of this 
 kind was made in the case of Matthias. The seven 
 deacons also were chosen by the whole body of be- 
 lievers at the suggestion of the apostles : and this 
 was probably the method pursued in all appointments 
 of this kind. The word here used would literally 
 imply a shew of hands : and whether this was the 
 mode of election or no, we may conclude that Paul 
 and Barnabas called upon the believers to recom- 
 mend some of their number for the oflfice of elder ; 
 and the persons thus recommended were instructed 
 in their duties, and had the care of the church com- 
 mitted to them, by Paul and Barnabas. The two 
 apostles having thus once more passed through Pi- 
 sidia and Pamphylia, embarked at Attalia, and re- 
 turned to Antioch, from whence they had set out. 
 The whole journey could easily have been performed 
 before the winter. 
 
 As soon as they arrived at Antioch, they made 
 known to their brethren the result of their mission- 
 ary labours ; and the words of St. Luke seem clearly 
 to shew, that they had gone further in converting 
 the Gentiles, than what had been practised before. 
 He says, that they gave an account of what God had 
 
LECT. V. Admissio7i of Gentiles. 151 
 
 done by their hands, and how he had opened the A. D 
 
 45. 
 
 door of faith to the Gentiles. This door therefore _ 
 had not been open to the Gentiles before ; and yet 
 some years had elapsed since the conversion of Corne- 
 lius. I have also stated, that the church of Antioch 
 appears certainly to have consisted of Gentiles as 
 vrell as Jews : and yet Paul and Barnabas speak of 
 the door of faith being opened now, as for the first 
 time, to the Gentiles. I have already partly antici- 
 pated the solution of this difficulty. Cornelius was 
 a Gentile, but he had learnt from the Jews to wor- 
 ship the true God. At the time of his conversion 
 he was not an idolater ; and I should conclude the 
 same of all the Gentile converts at Antioch. The 
 Gentiles converted by Paul and Barnabas on this 
 journey, were of a very different kind. They were 
 turned immediately from idols and the grossest su- 
 perstitions to worship the one God, and to believe 
 in his Son's resurrection. This was the final exten- 
 sion of the gospel. It was a step, which the apostles 
 certainly did not contemplate at the time of their 
 Lord's ascension : and a less space of time than that 
 which had elapsed, would perhaps not have been 
 sufficient to make them acquiesce in it. We shall 
 soon see, that many even now were not prepared to 
 go the whole length. 
 
 A report of what had been done, was probably 
 conveyed speedily to Jerusalem '^ ; and the result was, 
 that some persons went down from thence to An- 
 tioch, and asserted that the Gentile converts ought 
 
 h Tillemont, who supposes travelled in the interval as far 
 
 five years to have elapsed be- as Illyria. (Mem. torn. I. p. 
 
 tween the return of Paul and 551) But the notion is utterly 
 
 Barnabas and the council of untenable. 
 Jerusalem, makes them to have 
 
 L 4 
 
152 Titus. LECT. V. 
 
 A. D. to be circumcised, and to conform in all things to 
 ^^- the Law of Moses ^ It is plain from the sequel, that 
 these persons were not authorized to deliver such a 
 doctrine : nor does it appear, that they found many 
 who supported it in Antioch. The Gentile converts 
 of every kind would naturally oppose it, and they 
 formed a strong party. Paul and Barnabas also 
 argued against the proposition : and it was consi- 
 dered so important to set this great question finally 
 at rest, that a deputation was sent to Jerusalem. 
 Paul and Barnabas were at the head of this em- 
 bassy : the former indeed api^ears, as before, to have 
 been directed to take this step by special revelation : 
 and among other persons they were accompanied by 
 Titus, who is mentioned now for the first time. He 
 was himself much interested in this question, being 
 a Gentile ^, and, as is generally supposed, a native 
 of Antioch. There is no doubt, that he was con- 
 verted by St. Paul ^ Their route lay through Phoe- 
 nicia and Samaria, and they took care to inform the 
 Christians, as they jiassed, that the Gentiles had 
 been converted. St. Luke adds, that the announce- 
 ment caused great delight, which was not unnatural 
 in those two countries : but we are not told whether 
 they spoke as openly to the Christians of Juda?a and 
 Galilee. It is probable, that they did not stop long 
 in any place : and their instructions were to confer 
 with the church at Jerusalem, which consisted always 
 of James and the elders, and with any of the apostles 
 who might be at Jerusalem. It is certain, that all 
 the apostles had not yet begun their more distant 
 
 i Epiphanius is the earliest Hser. XXVIII. 4. p. 112. 
 writer, who says that Cerin- '^' Gal. ii. 3. 
 
 thus was one of these persons. ' Titus i. 4. 
 
LECT. V. State of JudcBU. 153 
 
 journeys : Peter and John are mentioned by name A. D. 
 as being at Jerusalem "' ; and it is not unlikely that ^"' 
 some more of them were there. The Christians ap- 
 pear at this time to have been unmolested : and per- 
 haps the death of Herod Agrippa was a favourable 
 circumstance. His son Agrippa being then only 
 seventeen years old, Judaea was again governed by a 
 Roman procurator". The first was Cuspius Fadus, 
 who contrived to make himself very unpopular with 
 the Jewish authorities, and he only held his office one 
 year. His successor in 45 was Tiberius Alexander, 
 who was nephew to Philo Judieus, the celebrated 
 Alexandrian writer ; but he had apostatized from 
 his religion, and on that account must have been 
 very unpopular with the Jews. We may conclude it 
 to have been a measure of policy, rather than any 
 regard for Jewish feelings, which led the emperor to 
 take from these procurators the superintendence of 
 the temple, and the power of appointing the high 
 priests, and to confer them upon Herod, whom he 
 had lately made king of Chalcis. This power was 
 not again exercised by the Roman authorities till the 
 destruction of the city. It was perhaps owing to 
 the unpopularity of these two procurators, that the 
 country swarmed with impostors. Opposition to 
 the Roman tribute had long been a watchword to 
 persons such as these : and there was generally a 
 mixture of religious with political excitement. Theu- 
 das was beheaded by Cuspius Fadus for an offence 
 of this kind; and Tiberius Alexander crucified James 
 and Simon, who endeavoured to revive the party of 
 their father Judas the Galilaean. 
 
 m Gal. ii. 9. n Joseph. Anliq. XIX. ult. XX. i. 
 
154 Gentile Converts. lect. v. 
 
 A. D. "pjie country was in this state, when Paul and 
 46. . . 
 '- — Barnabas arrived at Jerusalem in the year 46 : and 
 
 we may suppose, that the high priests were not likely 
 to have much influence with the Roman authorities. 
 It is indeed highly creditable to the Christians, that 
 they were not noticed by such men as Fadus and 
 Alexander. A Roman officer might easily have 
 been persuaded to identify Jesus with the impostors 
 Theudas and Judas ; but we read of nothing of this 
 kind : and the manner in which the Christians met 
 to discuss this great question, would seem to argue 
 a period of tranquillity. 
 
 The deputation from Antioch was received by the 
 church at large : but the conversion of the Gentiles 
 appears not to have been fully explained at the first 
 meeting. Paul took an opportunity of disclosing it to 
 the apostles ; and this is another j^roof, that idol- 
 atrous Gentiles had only lately been admitted. The 
 question, however, soon came to be agitated ; and 
 some, who before their conversion had been Pha- 
 risees, did not scruple to maintain, that the whole of 
 the Mosaic Law was of universal obligation. The 
 fact of Titus being come with the party from An- 
 tioch, and of his not being circumcised, was soon 
 discovered. It might be thought perhaps from St. 
 Paul's own words, that some persons pretended to 
 be Christians, and having learnt what was the case 
 with Titus, proposed this question for discussion, in 
 order to sow divisions among the Christians : and it 
 was strongly urged by many, that Titus ought to 
 conform to the Law. Paul, however, stood firm, and 
 resisted the demand. The apostles also and James 
 appear to have been convinced by his reasoning : 
 though this rather shews, that up to this time the 
 
LECT. V. Council at Jerusalem. 155 
 
 apostles themselves had not sanctioned the admis- A.D. 
 sion of idolatrous Gentiles. A general meeting was '^^- 
 now called, at which James, the two apostles, and 
 the elders were present : it is probable also, that 
 other believers were admitted. The question to be 
 discussed was whether the Gentile converts were to 
 be circumcised : at least this was the original cause 
 of dispute : but the matter had now been brought 
 to a still more general issue ; and it was contended 
 on one side, that the whole Law of Moses was bind- 
 ing upon all. The decree of this council becomes 
 much more intelligible, if it is considered as bearing 
 upon the greater as well as upon the lesser of these 
 two questions. The business was opened by Peter, 
 who spoke strongly in favour of not laying this bur- 
 den upon the Gentile converts. Paul and Barnabas 
 then gave the same account of their proceedings to 
 the whole meeting, which they had given before to 
 the apostles in private : and they were able to use 
 the same argument, which had been employed so un- 
 answerably by Peter, that God had sanctioned their 
 admission of the Gentiles by enabling them to work 
 miracles : lastly, James in the name of the whole 
 meeting delivered the decree, which is another proof 
 of the authority which he possessed in the church at 
 Jerusalem even in the presence of apostles. With 
 respect to the question which had been first started, 
 but which had now been made a branch of the 
 greater question, the Gentile converts were released 
 altogether from the necessity of circumcision : and 
 this in fact was equivalent to deciding, that the Law 
 of Moses was not of universal obligation. Still, how- 
 ever, it remained to be considered, whether there 
 were not some parts of it, which ought to be en- 
 
156 Decree of the Council. i.ect. v. 
 
 A. D. forced : and this question could only affect such of 
 ^^- its enactments as were arbitrary and positive : for 
 concerning the moral precepts of the Law, those 
 which are of eternal obligation, and written as it 
 were upon the heart, concerning these, there was no 
 dispute between Jews and Gentiles. There was only 
 one obligation of a moral kind, which required to be 
 mentioned. The violation of chastity, which was 
 strictly forbidden by the Jewish Law, was not looked 
 upon as a crime by the heathen, except so far as it 
 interfered with any social rights. This therefore 
 was mentioned in the decree which was delivered by 
 James : and the observations now made may explain 
 why the sin of fornication is forbidden in the same 
 decree, which prohibited other matters of a purely 
 arbitrary nature. Some few instances of this kind 
 were selected out of regard to the prejudices and 
 customs of the Jews. Wherever there was a con- 
 gregation of Christians, Jews and Gentiles were living 
 closely in contact. As James observed in his sjieech, 
 the Law of Moses was read hi the synagogues 
 every sahhath ; and this law prohibited some things 
 which were harmless in themselves, but which were 
 matters of perfect abhorrence to the Jews. Such 
 was the eating any thing that was killed with the 
 blood in it, or any thing which was sold for food 
 after having been offered to an idol ; concerning nei- 
 ther of which things did the Gentile converts feel 
 any scruple. It is probable, that many Jews had 
 complained of their feelings being hurt by the Gen- 
 tiles in these particulars : and the council at Jeru- 
 salem now strongly urged the Gentile Christians to 
 pay regard to the usages of the Jews. The two 
 cases mentioned above were likely often to occur. 
 
LECT. V. Decree of the Council. 157 
 
 when Jews and Gentiles met at any meal ; and the A. D 
 
 council was anxious to prevent disagreements of this ^_ 
 
 kind. The decree therefore maybe regarded as ab- 
 solving the Gentile converts from all obligation to 
 the Law of Moses, as an imperative law. The sin- 
 fulness of fornication was antecedent to the delivery 
 of the Law by Moses ; and it would not have been 
 specified now, if the Gentiles had not ceased to look 
 upon it as sinful. The other prohibitions regarded 
 things which were in their nature indifferent : and 
 abstinence from which laid little or no burden upon 
 the Gentiles. The decree was in every sense one of 
 conciliation and peace : and though some of the more 
 rigid Jews were still dissatisfied, it set at rest a most 
 important question, and was highly gratifying to a 
 large body of believers. There is evidence, that as 
 late as the end of the third century**, some Chris- 
 tians considered themselves bound by this decree : 
 which is one proof, among many, of the strong hold 
 which positive ordinances take upon the mind, even 
 after the cause which imposed them has ceased to 
 operate. There is no doubt, that Christians of every 
 age are bound not to offer wilful violence to the 
 scruples of any of their brethren. The language of 
 St. Paul upon this point is plain and unequivocal: 
 but he never for a moment deceived his converts as 
 to the things prohibited in this decree being in them- 
 selves indifferent. If we were brought into daily 
 contact with Jews, as the first Gentile converts were, 
 we should find it highly expedient to observe this 
 decree. We should observe it as grounded upon 
 
 o See Clem. Alex. Pad. III. Origen. cont. Cclsinn, VIII. 30. 
 3. p. 267. Tertull. Apul. 10. p. 763. See Natalis Alexander, 
 p. 10. Minucius Felix, p. 300. Diss. IX. Saec. i. 
 
158 St. Paul retur7is to Antioch. lect. v. 
 
 A. D. the common principles of Christian charity : but an 
 ^^- observance of it upon any other principle is unrea- 
 sonable, and borders vipon sviperstition. 
 
 The decree was addressed to the Gentile converts 
 of Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia : which clearly proves 
 a close connexion between the Syrian and Cilician 
 churches ; and is another confirmation of what I 
 have conjectured, that St. Paul had preached the 
 gospel in Cilicia before his being brovight to An- 
 tioch by Barnabas in 42. That he should keep up 
 a connexion between the churches in his own coun- 
 try and in Antioch, after his arrival at the latter 
 city, was perfectly natural : and it is probable, that 
 he was commissioned to express the wishes of the 
 Gentile converts in Cilicia, when he went to Jeru- 
 salem. Before he returned to Antioch, he appears 
 to have come to a full understanding with the apo- 
 stles who were present. Peter and John acknow- 
 ledged him to be an apostle like themselves ; and it 
 was agreed, that while they devoted themselves more 
 especially to the Jews, St. Paul should labour in the 
 conversion of the Gentiles. They were now to part, 
 and enter upon their respective duties ; and St. Paul 
 promised not to forget the temporal wants of the 
 brethren, whom he was leaving, but to urge his 
 Gentile converts to make collections for the Chris- 
 tians in Judaea. The famine, which had been felt 
 two years before, and which continued more or less 
 throughout the reign of Claudius, made this promise 
 very acceptable : and the whole of this important 
 matter being thus amicably settled, Paul and Barna- 
 bas returned to Antioch with the decree ; and Judas 
 and Silas, who were distinguished in the church at 
 Jerusalem, were commissioned to accomj^any them. 
 
LECTURE VI. 
 
 1 HE nature of the business, which had led Paul A. D. 
 
 and Barnabas to Jerusalem, would make them anxious L 
 
 to return as soon as it was settled. The decree of 
 the council, as might be expected, gave great joy to 
 the Gentile converts : and it might be thought, that 
 the question concerning the Law of Moses was set 
 entirely at rest. This, however, was not the case. 
 It is probable that St. Peter arrived at Antioch 
 shortly after : and this is the first time, that we read 
 of his taking any journey, except in Juda?a, Samaria, 
 or Galilee. I have conjectured, that about the time 
 of St. Paul going on his first mission, the other apo- 
 stles also began to visit more distant countries. St. 
 Peter was perhaps on his way to some other place, 
 when he came to Antioch : and it was natural for 
 him to wish to see a church, which was so flourish- 
 ing. The Roman Catholics, as I have already ob- 
 served, would wish to make out, that St. Peter was 
 bishop of Antioch : but the notion is contrary to all 
 evidence ; and nothing is more certain, than that the 
 church at Antioch was wholly independent of the 
 church at Jerusalem ; that it flourished for some 
 years without being visited by any apostle ; and that 
 we have no account of St. Peter ever residing there 
 for any length of time. 
 
 I have supposed, that he visited Antioch some 
 time in the year 46 : and at first he associated in- 
 
160 St. Peter at Antioch. lect. vi. 
 
 A. D. differently with Jews or Gentiles, making no dis- 
 ^^^- tinction between them^. There seems, however, in 
 the course of this year to have been a more than 
 usual communication between Jerusalem and An- 
 tioch. Perhaps the unsettled state of Judaea, and 
 the constant riots which had already begun as pre- 
 ludes to the approaching war, induced some of the 
 Christians to look for a safer residence. A party 
 from Jerusalem followed Peter to Antioch : and 
 though St. Paul speaks of them as coming from 
 James^, he must either mean merely, that they be- 
 longed to the church at Jerusalem, of which James 
 was the head ; or that they pretended to be follow- 
 ing his instructions. Their conduct shews, that 
 James could not really have authorized their pro- 
 ceedings : for they attempted to revive the former 
 prejudice, that a Jew must not eat with a Gentile. 
 It does not appear, that they wished to dispute the 
 decree of the council, or tried once more to bind the 
 Gentile converts to the Law of Moses : but they 
 pretended that this Law prohibited themselves from 
 eating with Gentiles : which clearly shews the wis- 
 dom and the charity of this decree, in compliance 
 with which the Gentiles were to avoid giving any 
 offence to the Jews in their peculiar customs. If 
 we could think, that the Gentile converts disregarded 
 the decree, and offended the Jews in the article of 
 food, the conduct of the seceding party might be ex- 
 cused : but nothing of this is said ; and St. Paul 
 would not have felt so warmly, if the Gentiles had 
 been to blame. The most surprising part of this 
 transaction is, that St. Peter himself was persuaded 
 to return once more to his former prejudices : and it 
 a Gal. ii. II. b Qal. ii. 12. 
 
LECT. VI. St. Peter rel)uked hij St. Paul. 161 
 
 is scarcely less strange, that Barnabas also did the a. D. 
 same, though he had assisted St. Paul in opening __4^ 
 the door of faith to the Gentiles on his first journey. 
 I would again repeat, that it is not said, that Peter 
 and Barnabas and the other Jews attempted to re- 
 vive the notion, that the Gentile converts must con- 
 form to the Law : they only declined joining them 
 in their meals : and it was for this, that St. Peter 
 received a public rebuke from St. Paul*^. The step, 
 which was taken by these Judaizing Christians, was 
 certainly uncalled for, and might lead to some fun- 
 damental errors. It was uncalled for, because the 
 decree of the council would provide against the Gen- 
 tiles giving any offence to the Jews at their meals ; 
 and the censure delivered by St. Paul points out the 
 danger of the Jews trusting to these legal ceremo- 
 nies, as if they had any merit to remit sin. This 
 was the consequence, which was foreseen and dreaded 
 by St. Paul : his own enlightened mind already saw 
 in its full extent the perfect equality between Sew 
 and Gentile, and the utter indifference of the Mosaic 
 ordinances. He himself still conformed to them, 
 when by not doing so he would have offended the 
 Jews : but he rebuked even the two apostles, Peter 
 and Barnabas, when he thought that their conduct 
 endangered the doctrine of justification by faith. 
 
 We are not told, what length of time elapsed, be- 
 fore St. Paul undertook his second journey. It is 
 probable, however, that it was not long ; and I 
 
 c Some persons have wished ed, that St. Paul merely pre- 
 
 to argue, that the person re- tended to rebuke St. Peter, 
 
 buked by St. Paul was not St. But see Natalis Alexander Da*. 
 
 Peter, but another disciple, X. Saec. I. Tillemont, M(?;»o?r^*, 
 
 named Cephas. Others have tom. I. p. 467. 
 followed Jerom, and contend- 
 
 M 
 
162 John surnamed Mark. lect. vi. 
 
 i\.D. should suppose him to have commenced it in the 
 ^^^- summer of the same year 46. The churches, which 
 he had planted in Pisidia and Lycaonia in the pre- 
 ceding year, must often have occupied his mind : and 
 he now proposed to Barnabas, that they should go 
 and visit them. Barnabas was as anxious as St. 
 Paul to luidertake the journey : but he proposed, 
 that his nephew Mark should again accompany 
 them : and this proposal was the cause of a separa- 
 tion between himself and Paul. We are not told 
 what was the reason of Mark having left the two 
 apostles on their former journey : but it is plain, 
 that his conduct was not approved by St. Paul. We 
 can hardly think, that it was a want of zeal : for 
 then he would not have returned to Jerusalem, where 
 the Christians were always in most danger, and 
 where James had been put to death, and Peter im- 
 prisoned, not long before. Barnabas also would not 
 have taken him as a companion, if he had found him 
 to be deficient in courage or in zeal. It is possible, 
 that he felt strongly concerning the necessity of Gen- 
 tile converts conforming to the Law. Having lived 
 with Peter at Jerusalem, he might have imbibed 
 prejudices upon that point : and it is perhaps re- 
 markable, that he quitted the two apostles upon their 
 journey just after the conversion of Sergius Paulus, 
 which, as I then observed, was the first instance of 
 an idolatrous Gentile embracing the gospel. It is 
 possible, that Mark may have had doubts concern- 
 ing the propriety of this act : and since we read of 
 his returning to Jerusalem, he may have gone thi- 
 ther to refer the matter to Peter. His doubts, if 
 they existed, would have been removed by the de- 
 cree of the council : and since we read of liis being 
 
T-ECT. VI. Barnabas. 163 
 
 shortly afterwards at Aiitioch, he may either have A. D. 
 accompanied Paul and Barnabas thither, when they 
 carried back the decree ; or he may have been one 
 of the persons who went afterwards with Peter. In 
 either case it is probable that he joined Peter and 
 Barnabas in that ill-advised secession from the Gen- 
 tile converts, which was censured by St. Paul : and 
 this, as I said before, may have been partly the rea- 
 son, why St, Paul did not wish to be accompanied 
 by Mark on his second journey. 
 
 The dispute, which ensued between Paul and Bar- 
 nabas, may give rise to painful reflections, but it was 
 the cause of the gospel being more rapidly and 
 widely spread. The two apostles now travelled in 
 different directions : and the division of labour, as is 
 generally the case, was beneficial to the object which 
 they had in view. Barnabas again shewed his affec- 
 tion for his native country by going to Cyprus ; and 
 this perhaps may be said to be the last event in his 
 life, which we can state with certainty. We know 
 nothing of the time which he passed in the island, 
 nor of the success which he met with. It is pro- 
 bable, however, that he preached in many other 
 countries ; and St. Paul himself seems to inform us, 
 that he was alive in the year 52, and was then ac- 
 tively engaged in preaching the gospel^. There are 
 traditionary accounts, which connect him with the 
 foundation of the church of Milan '^ ; and there is 
 perhaps nothing improbable in supposing him to 
 have visited that part of Italy : but the evidence is 
 only of a late and suspicious character ; nor are there 
 
 d 1 Cor. ix. 6. torn. I. p. 1 191. Sormani, Ori- 
 
 ^ See Baronius, ad an. LI. gtne Aposiolicadella chiesa Mi~ 
 No. 54. Tillemont, Mhnoires, lanese. 
 
 M 2 
 
164 Silas. Prophecy. lect. vi. 
 
 A. D. any stronger grounds for believing him to have been 
 '^^'- stoned to death at Salamis in Cyprus by the unbe- 
 lieving Jews ^ The time and manner of his death 
 must be considered wholly uncertain : though if he 
 was the author of the Epistle, which still bears his 
 name, there would be reason to think, that he sur- 
 vived the destruction of Jerusalem. This Epistle 
 has been ascribed to him by some ancient and mo- 
 dern writers : but upon the whole I cannot help 
 agreeing with those persons who think it a later 
 composition, though it certainly existed in the se- 
 cond century ; and no authentic work can be said to 
 exist of the apostle Barnabas. St. Paul found an- 
 other zealous companion in Silas, or Silvanus, who 
 had accompanied himself and Barnabas on their re- 
 turn from Jerusalem. Silas is spoken of as having 
 filled a high station in the church at Jerusalem. He 
 had probably been a deacon, and then raised to the 
 office of presbyter. St. Luke also speaks of him as 
 a prophet; by which we are to understand, that 
 in the distribution of the miraculous gifts of the 
 Spirit he received the power of interpreting scrip- 
 ture. The great scheme of Christianity had been 
 successively unfolded in the Old Testament : but the 
 revelation was often couched in dark and enigma- 
 tical expressions. There were many of these say- 
 ings, which even the apostles did not understand, 
 till their minds were specially enlightened : and 
 they were now able not only to see through these 
 mysteries themselves, but by laying their hands on 
 their converts, they could impart to them also the 
 possession of this preternatural knowledge. This 
 
 f Alexander Monachus apud of his remains being found in 
 Surium XI Jun. p. 172. §. 19. Cyprus, II. 2. p. 571. 
 — 21. Theodorus Lector speaks 
 
LECT. VI. St.PauVs second Journey, 165 
 
 gift was called prophecy^ the right interpretation of a. D. 
 the ancient prophecies being the principal part of it: '^^- 
 and the same Spirit, who had wrapped the divine 
 revelations in their designed obscurity, now fur- 
 nished the means of removing the mysterious veil ^. 
 Silvarms was one of these projDhets ; and from this 
 period we shall find him a frequent and favourite 
 companion of St. Paul. 
 
 The great apostle now commenced his journey by 
 land, and took the route, which we might have ex- 
 pected him to have followed on the former occasion. 
 He travelled through Syria and Cilicia ; and the 
 expression used by St. Luke of his confirming the 
 churches in those countries, proves, as I before ob- 
 served, that he must have planted these churches at 
 an earlier period. He now confirmed them : i. e. he 
 gave them such regulations as were necessary for 
 their welfare. Wherever deacons were wanted, he 
 ordained them ; he appointed others to the office of 
 elders : and there can be little doubt, that to some 
 or all of these ministers he imparted those mira- 
 culous gifts of the Spirit, which were so useful for 
 the instruction of the converts, and furnished such 
 convincing evidence of the gospel. 
 
 Having passed through Cilicia, St. Paul entered 
 the country, which he had traversed in the year pre- 
 ceding, and the churches in Lycaonia and Pisidia 
 appear to have been extremely flourishing. In the 
 town of Derbe or Lystra he met with Timothy, 
 who had either been converted by himself and Bar- 
 nabas on the former visit, or he had embraced the 
 gospel in the interval. On his mother's side he was 
 
 g See Mosheim's Disserta- Diss, ad Hist. Eccl. pertinen- 
 tion, Tie iU'is qui Prophetce vo- tium. 
 canturin novo feeder e, Syntagm. 
 
 M 3 
 
166 Circumcision of' Timothy. lect. vi. 
 
 A. I), of Jewish descent, and it was probably by her means 
 '*^*- that he became a Christian, Eunice, and her own 
 mother Lois, appear to have been converted, when 
 St. Paul first visited Derbe : and we have St. Paul's 
 own testimony, that Eimice had instructed her son 
 in the Jewish scriptures from his childhood ''. The 
 father of Timothy was a Gentile : and though no- 
 thing more is said of him, we may conclude, that he 
 worshipped the true God, and adopted the religion 
 of his wife, though he did not comply with the 
 burdensomiC ceremonies of the Law. On the same 
 principle his son Timothy had not been circumcised : 
 and we know, that this was no objection in the 
 opinion of St. Paul to his embracing the gospel. It 
 is singular, however, that St. Paul now made him 
 undergo this ceremony : and it is the more remark- 
 able, because at this very time he was the bearer of 
 the apostolical decree, which released the Gentile 
 converts from the necessity of circumcision. This 
 apparent inconsistency is easily explained. If Ti- 
 mothy had remained at Derbe, he would not have 
 been circumcised : but he was henceforward to ac- 
 company St. Paul, and assist him in propagating the 
 gospel. The apostle was aware, that the Jews would 
 never consent to be instructed by one who was un- 
 circumcised. The Gentiles had no objection to the 
 preaching of a Jew : and therefore the circumcision 
 of Timothy, which was a matter of indifference 
 with respect to the Gentiles, was indispensable in 
 the conversion of the Jews. St. Paul therefore or- 
 dered it to be performed. When the circumcision 
 of Titus was demanded, as essential to his own sal- 
 vation, St. Paul persevered in resisting it : so also he 
 
 li 2 Tim. i. 5. iii, 15. 
 
LECT. VI. Galatia. 167 
 
 admitted Timothy into the duirch without his being A. D. 
 circumcised : but when he saw, that by submitting '^^^ 
 to this ceremony, he might be made the instrument 
 of converting the Jews, he immediately had him 
 circumcised. It was a measure of expediency, and 
 perfectly in accordance with St. Paul's principle of 
 observing or abstaining from things indifferent, ac- 
 cording as the example was likely to do good or 
 harm. The decree of the council was not at va- , 
 riance with this principle. It exhorted the Gentile 
 converts to abstain from certain things, which were 
 offensive to the Jews. St. Paul also knew, that the 
 Jews would take offence, if an uncircumcised person 
 preached to them about salvation. He therefore had 
 him circumcised : not as if this act conveyed any 
 spiritual benefit to Timothy ; but it enabled him to 
 labour more successfully in the cause of the gospel. 
 Timothy now accompanied Paul and Silvanus. 
 Having visited the churches, which had been planted 
 the year before in that part of the country, they 
 proceeded to the north-west, and traversed Phrygia 
 and Galatia. The latter country was inhabited by 
 a tribe of Gauls, who left their homes about the year 
 278 B. C, and passing through Thrace crossed the 
 Bosphorus, and assisted Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, 
 against his brother Zyboetas : for which service they 
 were rewarded with a territory in the interior of 
 Asia Minor, and gave to it the name of Gallo-Grsecia, 
 or Galatia'. From their first settlement there to 
 the period of their being visited by St. Paul, was an 
 interval of more than 300 years : and if Jerom is 
 correct, they had still retained their old Celtic lan- 
 guage ; for he speaks of their using it in his own 
 i Liv. XXXVIII. 1 6. 
 M 4 
 
168 Phrygia and Galatia. lect. vi. 
 
 A. D. day, when 300 more years had passed away. We 
 "^^^^ must infer however from tlie Epistle addressed to 
 them by St. Paul, (and the name of Gallo-Gnecia 
 might lead us to the same conclusion,) that the more 
 polished language of Greece had been generally 
 adopted by the barbarian settlers ; and the popula- 
 tion was jjerhaps at this time composed of a mixed 
 race. Both in Phrygia and (ialatia St. Paul appears 
 to have met with great success ; and the churches of 
 Laodicea, Colossae, and Hierapolis, which we shall 
 have occasion to notice hereafter, were perhaps 
 j)lanted by him during this journey through Phry- 
 gia*^. The principal cities of Galatia were Ancyra, 
 Pessinus, and Tavium, whose names are not con- 
 nected with early ecclesiastical history: but we know, 
 that many converts were made throughout the coun- 
 try. St. Paul himself speaks of the eagerness, with 
 which the Galatians listened to his preaching ^ : and 
 though the fact hardly requires proof in any parti- 
 cular instance, we have his own testimony, that his 
 success in Galatia was furthered by the working of 
 miracles '". This is a fact, which is never to be lost 
 sight of in the history of the apostles. It is not 
 incorrect to say, that miracles form part of the or- 
 dinary narrative : and we can only account for the 
 gospel spreading through whole districts in such 
 short periods, by remembering that the new doctrine 
 was preached by men, who proved by miracles, that 
 God was with them. 
 
 When St. Paul and his company reached the 
 
 ^ This was the opinion of in Col. ii. i. Usher, Aiiiial. ad 
 
 Theodoret, p. 343 : but others an. 64. p. 680. TiHemont, Me- 
 
 liave thought that St. Paul moires, torn. I. j). 564, 859. 
 never personally visited Lao- ' Gal. iv. 15. 
 
 dicea, or Colosssc. See Estius >» iii. 5. 
 
LECT. VI. Luke joins St. Paid. 169 
 
 western boundary of Galatia, where it borders upon A. D. 
 
 Mysia, they were uncertain as to the direction in '__ 
 
 which they were to proceed. They had hitherto 
 been in countries, which, though subject to the Ro- 
 man empire, were for the most part called barba- 
 rous, and where Grecian civilization had made little 
 progress. As they approached the coast, they would 
 meet with people of a more polished character. If 
 they turned to the south, they entered Ionia ; and 
 Ephesus, which was the capital, and the seat of the 
 Roman proconsul, could not fail to be an interesting 
 field. If they went to the north, they would tra- 
 verse Bithynia, which still contained traces of the 
 wealth and munificence of the kings of Pergamus. 
 It would seem, however, that neither of these coun- 
 tries was as yet prepared to receive the gospel. The 
 reason is not assigned ; but St. Paul was hindered 
 by a special revelation from entering either country. 
 He then travelled through Mysia, and reached the 
 sea-coast at Troas, where he received a still plainer 
 and more definite revelation, ordering him to cross 
 over to Macedonia. It is generally supposed, that 
 St. Luke joined St. Paul for the first time at Troas ; 
 and there can be no doubt, that he accompanied him 
 from thence. We know nothing of the reason, 
 which had brought him to Troas, nor of the length 
 of time which he had passed there. I have conjec- 
 tured, that he was a member of the church of An- 
 tioch, and that he passed some years in that city 
 after his conversion. He probably left it before St. 
 Paul, and apparently soon after the arrival of the 
 apostolical decree ; which may account for his say- 
 ing nothing of St. Peter's visit to Antioch. If he 
 arrived at Troas before St. Paul, he probably reached 
 
170 Philijyjn. lect. vi. 
 
 A. ]). it by sea : at least there is reason to think, that no 
 "^^^ person had anticipated St. Paul in preaching the 
 gospel in the countries through which he passed : 
 and St. Luke would have been likely to do this, if 
 he had already travelled in the same line. From 
 this time it is plain, that he assisted St. Paul in 
 preaching the gospel. It might be supposed, that 
 he had already been so employed at Antioch : and 
 whatever was the mark or token of an evangelist, 
 it was henceforward to be found in St. Luke. The 
 very notion of his being a companion of Paul and 
 Silas, and cooperating with them in preaching the 
 gospel, implies that he had received the miraculous 
 gifts of the Spirit. Whatever was wanting from 
 human instruction, he would receive from St. Paul : 
 and his subsequent history will shew, that he was 
 one of the ablest, as well as most zealous, supporters 
 of the Christian cause. 
 
 St. Paul and his two companions lost no time in 
 crossing over to Macedonia, and the first place of 
 importance, in which they stopped, was Philippi. 
 The Jews here do not seem to have been numerous : 
 at least they had no synagogue in the town ; and 
 we now meet with the first instance of the heathen 
 authorities offering any serious opposition to the 
 gospel. The duumviri of Philippi did not how- 
 ever know much of the opinions which they per- 
 secuted : and their conduct will perhaps illustrate 
 some of the later acts of violence which the gospel 
 encountered. The apostles were brought before 
 them by some persons who had made money by 
 divination ; and a young woman had been employed 
 by them, who was under the influence of an evil 
 spirit. Paul having exorcised this evil spirit, and 
 
LECT. VI. Intolerance oj' the Ronians. 171 
 
 restored the woman to her right mind, she was no A. D. 
 longer able to act the part of a prophetess, and gain 
 money for her employers. This made these per- 
 sons feel great ill-will against Paul : and we shall 
 frequently see hereafter, that the enemies of the 
 gospel were excited by the diminution or loss of 
 some profitable trade. In the present case Paul and 
 Silvanus were brought before the magistrates, and 
 accused of disturbing the city by introducing cus- 
 toms, which the inhabitants, as Romans, could not 
 receive. It was added, that they were Jews : a 
 charge, which in the present instance was true, and 
 would of itself exhibit them in an unfavourable 
 light : but we shall also see, that many of the fu- 
 ture sufferings of the Christians were owing to 
 their being confounded with the Jews. There can 
 be little doubt, that these accusers of Paul and 
 Silvanus alluded to their having preached against 
 heathen idolatry : and to decry the established reli- 
 gion, or to introduce a new one, was, as these per- 
 sons justly observed, prohibited by the Roman laws. 
 There cannot be a greater misrepresentation, than 
 to describe the religion of Rome as a tolerant reli- 
 gion ; or to assert, that what is now called liberty 
 of conscience was allowed to exist in ancient times. 
 The intolerance of Christians may furnish matter of 
 sarcasm to the sceptic or the infidel : but they seem 
 to forget, that for some centuries the Christians were 
 patient victims to the intolerance of heathen magis- 
 trates and heathen philosophers. If we look to the 
 first days of the republic or of the empire, we see 
 the same exclusive spirit in matters of religion. Cicero 
 has preserved a law, which he calls as old as the 
 time of Romulus, and which ordered, that no person 
 
172 Jewish religion tolerated. lect. vi. 
 
 "to 
 
 A. D. should have gods to himself, nor new gods ; and 
 ^^' that no person should worship in private strange 
 gods, unless they were publicly recognised. There 
 is also a speech preserved of Maecenas, in which he 
 advised Augustus to be particularly observant him- 
 self of religious worship as already established, and 
 to force others to do the same ; but if any were for 
 introducing innovations, to hate and punish them ". 
 We have here the spirit of intolerance in all its 
 bigotry and rigour. It was enforced, not perhajDS 
 without good effects, in the case of the rites of Bac- 
 chus and other obscenities ^ : it was applied occa- 
 sionally to get rid of the superstitions of Egypt ; and 
 I have already mentioned, that the Jews were some- 
 times confounded with the Egyptians, as objects of 
 jealousy and of punishment. It may be said, per- 
 haps, that the existence of so many thousand Jews 
 in Rome is a proof that these laws were not very 
 strictly enforced. They were at times ordered to 
 quit the city, but the edicts were soon recalled, and 
 they were allowed to observe their peculiar customs 
 and forms of worship. This is certainly true ; and 
 the toleration was owing to the Jews not being 
 anxious to make proselytes. If many Romans had 
 adopted this foreign superstition, as it was called, 
 the alarm would have become general, and the laws 
 would have been enforced : but the unsocial and ex- 
 clusive character of the Jewish religion was prover- 
 bial with the heathen. The Jews were represented 
 as hating the whole human race ^ : and though the 
 feeling perhaps was mutual, neither the magistrate 
 nor the philosopher cared to punish a people, whom 
 
 n Dio Cass. LII. 36. p. 689. P Tacit. Hist. V. 5. 
 
 oLiv. XXXIX. II. 
 
LECT. VI. St.Paul at Philippi. 173 
 
 they were contented to despise, and whose peculiar A. D. 
 tenets produced no sensible effect upon the national ^^■ 
 religion. It was not so, however, with Christianity, 
 when it began to be widely spread. The Jews asked 
 only for toleration, and to worship the God of their 
 fathers unmolested. They looked upon an image 
 as an abomination in their own country, and would 
 have died rather than suffer it to be erected : but in 
 Rome or any other city they took no pains to draw 
 away the heathen from their false gods. The Chris- 
 tians,on the other hand, felt it a solemn duty to spread 
 their tenets. Their object was not to gain toleration 
 for themselves, but to extend salvation to others. 
 Their religion admitted of no compromise, and no 
 divided worship. Wherever idolatry existed, they 
 saw a field for their exertions : and the first step in 
 the conversion of an heathen, was to make him an 
 apostate from the laws and religion of his country. 
 Such no doubt was the impression produced by the 
 preaching of St. Paul at Philippi : and it was for 
 this violation of the laws, that the magistrates or- 
 dered him to be scourged and imprisoned. 
 
 I need not relate the miraculous circumstances, 
 which attended the release of Paul and Silvanus. 
 The authorities of the place were likely on the 
 whole to receive a favourable impression of their 
 religious tenets : and since the Philippian converts 
 sent pecuniary assistance to Paul more than once 
 after he had left them^, we may perhaps infer, that 
 the gospel was embraced by persons, who were nei- 
 ther few in number nor low in rank. It aj^pears, 
 that St. Luke continued at Philippi. He and Timo- 
 thy had escaped imprisonment ; and St. Luke will 
 
 f| 2 Cor. xi. 9. Phil. iv. 15. 
 
174 Sf. Paul at Thessalonka. lect. yi. 
 
 A. D. be seen to take a particular interest in the welfare 
 
 '^^'- of the Philippian church. Some writers indeed have 
 
 supposed him to be a native of Philippi, and have 
 made that circumstance account for his long resi- 
 dence in the city. But I cannot see any satisfactory 
 evidence of this fact; and I should rather infer, that 
 his acquaintance with the Philippians began with 
 this visit : and his being left there by St. Paul, to 
 superintend the affairs of the church, is exactly in 
 accordance with what we shall frequently observe 
 in following the apostle's history. 
 
 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy went through Am- 
 phipolis and Apollonia to ThesSalonica, which Avas 
 the largest and most important city of any which 
 they had yet visited in Greece. They staid here 
 some weeks : and we now read for the first time of 
 St. Paul working with his own hands to maintain 
 himself. The apostles, it may be concluded, carried 
 with them little worldly means for so long a jour- 
 ney. The maintenance of three or four men (and 
 their company does not seem to have been greater) 
 would not have been much burden to the converts, 
 if they had asked to receive it of them. But we 
 shall see, that St. Paul had good reasons for not 
 wishing to have it said, that his journey was one of 
 profit : beside which, he had promised the apostles 
 at Jerusalem, that he would urge his converts every 
 where to send relief to the Christians of Judaea''; 
 and at this time he was probably making a collec- 
 tion for that jHirpose. I have mentioned, that he 
 allowed the Philippians to send him money, though 
 he refused to take it from the Thessalonians : from 
 which it may be inferred, that he knew the Philip- 
 
 1" Gal. ii. lo. 
 
LECT. Vi. St. Paul a tent-maker. 175 
 
 pian converts to be more wealthy ; and there is no A. D. 
 evidence, that he applied this remittance to his own ^^- 
 personal wants. He speaks himself of having worked 
 night and day, while he was at Thessalonica^; and 
 we know, that he did the same in other places. His 
 occupation is called that of making tents : and an 
 epithet is sometimes applied to him, which was evi- 
 dently used in contempt, and which would describe 
 him as a dresser or cutter of leather*. The most 
 probable notion seems to be, that he employed him- 
 self in making small portable shades of leather, for 
 which the hot climate of Greece caused a frequent 
 demand : and the employment, which was not par- 
 ticularly laborious or irksome, was perfectly compa- 
 tible with what we conceive of St. Paul's rank in 
 life, and the education which he had received. It 
 was in fact considered disgraceful, as I have already 
 observed, for a Z^w not to teach his children some 
 occupation : and any of his countrymen, if placed 
 in the same situation, would perhaps have been able 
 to support himself in a similar way. 
 
 In Thessalonica, where the Jews were sufficiently 
 numerous to have a synagogue, we find the usual 
 consequence, that they were the principal opponents 
 of the apostle's preaching. This scene indeed was 
 so invariably acted during St. Paul's journey through 
 Greece, that we may call to mind what I have men- 
 tioned upon the authority of the Fathers, that the 
 Jews, soon after our Saviour's crucifixion, sent mes- 
 sengers from Jerusalem, who prejudiced their coun- 
 trymen every where against the Christians. I have 
 said, that this may have been effected by means of 
 
 s I Thess. ii. 9. 2 Thess. iii. 8. * lKvroT6\i.o^ Suicer in v. 
 
176 Gnostic doctrines. I-ECT. \'I. 
 
 A. D. the Jews who attended the festivals, and then re- 
 ^^^' turned to their homes in different countries: and 
 certainly when we consider, that this custom filled 
 Jerusalem with foreign Jews three times every year, 
 we cannot but suppose that St. Paul, wherever he 
 went, found his countrymen partly acquainted with 
 the history of Jesus. They would also know, that 
 the authorities at Jerusalem were strenuously opposed 
 to the rising sect : and that this was really the case, 
 we may see fully confirmed by this first journey of 
 St. Paul into Greece. There was no reason, how- 
 ever, why the inhabitants in general, and the per- 
 sons in office, should have heard much, if any thing, 
 of the Christian doctrines. The Jews would not be 
 likely to give any information of this kind to the 
 heathen among whom they lived : and it is plain, 
 that in most of the Grecian towns, as in Thessalo- 
 nica, St. Paul met with unprejudiced and willing 
 hearers among the heathen. I have said, when 
 speaking of Simon Magus, that the Gnostic philo- 
 sophy was now beginning to be widely spread : and 
 we have seen, that Simon himself was not only ac- 
 quainted with the name of Jesus, but had for a time 
 been a believer in his doctrines, and afterwards mixed 
 them up with his own fanciful philosophy. I then 
 stated that Simon, after his interview with Peter and 
 John in Samaria, appears to have left Palestine and 
 to have travelled into other countries. There is evi- 
 dence of his being at Rome ; concerning which visit 
 I shall have occasion to speak hereafter : and it is 
 probable, that if his object was to spread his opin- 
 ions, he would not have neglected Greece, which 
 lay in his way. Wherever he went, he would make 
 use of the name of Christ : and there is reason to 
 
LECT. VI. Paul leaves Thessalon'ica. 177 
 
 think, that St. Paul would often have to remove the A. D. 
 erroneous notions of Christ, which this impostor had 
 disseminated. It does not however appear, that the 
 northern part of Greece, which St. Paul as yet had 
 visited, knew much of the Gnostic doctrines. Simon 
 Magus was more likely to seek for disciples in Athens 
 or Corinth, where philosopliy had a wider field : and 
 St. Paul's Epistles confirm the notion of Gnosticism 
 having shewn itself in the Peloponnesus, before it 
 was introduced into Macedonia. We can trace it at 
 Ephesus, which place is likely to have been visited 
 by Simon, when travelling from Palestine toward 
 the west : it appears to have taken root in Crete, 
 which island was again in the line of Simon's route; 
 and we may perhaps find signs of it at Corinth. All 
 these places were perhaps infected by this false phi- 
 losophy before the year 46, when St. Paul first en- 
 tered Greece from the north : and if those obscure 
 passages in the Epistles to the Thessalonians" allude, 
 as is most probable, to the Gnostic doctrines, we have 
 evidence that St. Paul foresaw the approaching evil, 
 and warned his Macedonian converts of the effects 
 which it would produce. The Gentiles in Thessa- 
 lonica appear to have embraced the gospel in consi- 
 derable numbers : and though the Jews succeeded 
 in bringing Paul before the magistrates, which was 
 the cause of his leaving the city, they do not seem 
 to have excited any general feeling against his doc- 
 trines : and it is plain, that on the whole he met 
 with great success in Thessalonica. 
 
 He however found it expedient to go by night to 
 Beroea, accompanied by Silas: and Timothy, who 
 perhaps staid to perfect some arrangements in the 
 
 " 2 Thess. ii. 3 — 13. 
 
 N 
 
178 Paul goes to Athens. lect. vi. 
 
 A. D. Tliessaloiiian church, followed shortly after. The 
 '^^' Jews of Beroea furnished some exception to the pre- 
 judices of their countrymen ; and several of them 
 were persuaded to emhrace the gospel. This how- 
 ever provoked the Jews of Thessalonica : and not 
 satisfied with having driven the preachers from their 
 own city, they tried to raise a feeling against them 
 in Beroea. St. Paul's plan was never to exasperate 
 the Jews, when their opposition was likely to injure 
 the gospel : and once more he avoided them by a 
 hasty departure, and set out by himself for Athens. 
 This is one of the most interesting periods of St. 
 Paul's life. He appears to have been literally alone : 
 and though avowedly a Jew, and the bearer of doc- 
 trines directly hostile to polytheism, he went to brave 
 it in its strongest hold, and to challenge discussion 
 in the most learned and philosophical city of Greece. 
 Silvanus and Timothy were probably left in Bercea, 
 where the short residence and hasty departure of St. 
 Paul would have made their presence for some time 
 highly expedient. The state of these infant churches 
 in Macedonia was of itself enough to occupy the 
 mind of St. Paul, even if he had not had to encounter 
 the philosophers of Athens : and knowing, as he did, 
 the unceasing animosity of the Jews, he felt a con- 
 siderable desire to return and watch over them in 
 person^. His great object, however, was to advance: 
 he knew generally, that a wide field was open to 
 him, though he seems to have resigned himself en- 
 tirely to his heavenly guidance, and not always to 
 have been acquainted with the places which he was 
 to visit next. If we follow his own words, he had 
 for a long time contemplated a journey to Rome>', 
 
 ^ I Thess. ii. i8. Y Rom. i. 13. xv. 23. 
 
i,ECT. VI. Macedonian Churches. 179 
 
 and perhaps still further to the west ; and having a. D. 
 advanced as far as Athens, he would naturally be ■^^• 
 unwilling to recede, though his presence would be 
 of use to the Macedonian churches. He therefore 
 provided as well as he could for the discharge of all 
 his duties. I have mentioned, that Luke was pro- 
 bably stationed at Philippi ; and if there were any 
 Christians at Neapolis or Amphipolis, they may also 
 have been placed under his superintendence. Silva- 
 nus, as we have seen, was left at Beroea ; and there 
 he appears to have staid : but Timothy received a 
 message from St. Paul, while he was at Athens, to 
 go to Thessalonica, and to watch over the Christians 
 in that city''. Thus these three zealous coadjutors 
 of St. Paul were left in charge of the Macedonian 
 churches ; and Timothy, who had the central sta- 
 tion at Thessalonica, would be able to communicate 
 with either of his colleagues. This was the method 
 adopted by St. Paul, and probably by all the apostles, 
 for governing the churches. He still considered them 
 as dependent upon himself, and watched over them 
 with parental anxiety ; but he committed them in 
 his absence to the care of some person, in whom he 
 could confide. These persons were furnished with 
 the power of working miracles, and of imparting the 
 same gift to others, whenever they thought fit. They 
 were also to attend to the ordinary concerns of the 
 church, and particularly to appoint deacons and 
 elders, according as the numbers and wants of the 
 congregations increased. Under the guidance of 
 such men as Timothy and Silvanus, the churches in 
 Macedonia made great progress. Sopater of Beroea, 
 Aristarchus, Secundus, and Jason of Thessalonica, 
 
 z 1 Thess. iii. 2. 
 
 X 2 
 
180 A thens. l e c T . v i . 
 
 A. 1). Caius of some other place in Macedonia, have all 
 
 '• had their names perpetuated by St. Paul ; and when 
 
 Timothy and Silvanus followed the apostle to Achaia, 
 
 these men would take charge of the congregations 
 
 in their respective cities. 
 
 St. Paul, however, as I have already stated, con- 
 tinued for some time by himself at Athens. The 
 duration of his residence there is not mentioned, but 
 it probably was not long ; and the usual bitterness 
 of the Jews seems not to have shewn itself as it had 
 done elsewhere. The condition of Athens at this 
 time can hardly fail to excite feelings of pity. Like 
 the rest of Greece, it had sunk under the overwhelm- 
 ing influence of Rome, though it maintained a no- 
 minal independance, and was dignified with the title 
 of the ally of the republic. The Roman arms had 
 in fact emancipated it from the remnant of Macedo- 
 nian tyranny ; and though Sylla entered it as a con- 
 queror, and the Athenians took part successively with 
 Pompey and Antony, they were treated with kind- 
 ness by the victorious party, which \vas probably 
 owing to the interest excited by their former great- 
 ness. When St. Paul visited Athens, it was still 
 noted as a place of learning : but the inhabitants 
 preserved the same character for idle curiosity, which 
 had been censured by Demosthenes nearly 400 years 
 before'': and the similarity of the charge which was 
 brought against Socrates and St. Paul, of introducing 
 strange gods, is a remarkable instance of the con- 
 tinued force of national prejudice. It would seem, 
 however, either from the political weakness of the 
 state, or from the effect of constant philosophical dis- 
 cussion, that the introduction of new opinions in re- 
 
 a Pliilipp. I. p. 43. Epist. iul Philip, p. 156, 157. 
 
LECT. VI. Paul at Athens. 181 
 
 ligioii was not so dangerous a measure now, as it A. D. 
 
 was some centuries before. It has been disputed, '_ 
 
 whether St. Paul was brought to the Areopagus, to 
 be tried before the court which sat there, or whether 
 it was merely curiosity which fixed upon that place 
 as convenient for hearing his discourse^. There is 
 certainly no trace in St. Luke's narrative of any ju- 
 dicial proceedings : and though many of his hearers 
 treated his arguments with contempt, he appears to 
 have been at full liberty to explain them without 
 molestation. He had never perhaps had to reason 
 with such learned opponents as during his residence 
 at Athens : and St. Luke expressly mentions some 
 Epicurean and Stoical philosophers, who listened to 
 his preaching. Upon the whole, his visit here may 
 be said to have been successful. He obtained at least 
 a patient hearing from many, who might have been 
 expected to treat him with contempt : and we have 
 not hitherto met with a more remarkable fact in the 
 preaching of St. Paul, than his conversion of Diony- 
 sius the Areopagite. Sergius Paulus, the proconsul 
 of Cyprus, was a man of rank ; and being a Roman 
 officer, his conversion to Christianity would perhaps 
 have considerable effect. But Dionysius was a man 
 of learning : and if, as is most probable, he was a 
 member of the court of Areopagus, he held a sta- 
 tion, which, in the better days of Greece, was one of 
 the highest and most honourable, which any city 
 could confer. Unfortunately, his history is so mixed 
 up with fable, that we scarcely know what to be- 
 lieve. That he was in Egypt at the time of the 
 crucifixion, and had his mind impressed by the pre- 
 ternatural darkness, though asserted by more than 
 
 ^ Wollius ad Act. xvii. 22. 
 N 3 
 
182 jyionijfiiun the Areopagite. lect. vi. 
 
 A. 1). one writer, is a tradition which few would believe*^. 
 The books, which are still extant as written by him, 
 are undoubtedly spurious, and were perhaps forged 
 in the fourth or even in tlie sixth century '^ Whe- 
 ther he was an author at all, or at least of any Chris- 
 tian writings, may reasonably be questioned : though 
 perhaps the fact of so many works being ascribed to 
 him, may confirm the tradition of his having been a 
 man of learning. That he was bishop of the church 
 of Athens, is reported by another Dionysius, who 
 was himself bishop of the Corinthian church toward 
 the end of the second century ** : and the age of this 
 witness, as well as his station and character, and the 
 proximity of the two cities, make it improbable, that 
 he should have been mistaken in this fact. At the 
 same time it is a suspicious circumstance, that several 
 persons, who are mentioned in the New Testament, 
 are said to have been bishops of the places connected 
 with their names. Thus Cornelius is said to have 
 been bishoj) of CVesarea, and to have succeeded Zac- 
 chcLHis, though it is highly ijnprobable, that either 
 of them filled such an office. Perhaps the tradition 
 is received u ith greater scepticism, because persons 
 are unwilling to believe, that bishops, in the modern 
 sense of the term, existed at all in those early times. 
 But this is to let an argument depend upon a mere 
 name : and the real question is, whether a particular 
 individual was chosen to direct tlie affairs of a par- 
 ticular church. Dionysius the bishop of Corinth 
 
 <^ 8ee Pseiulo-Dioiiys. Epist. mont,.V(v//o/r('.v, toni. II. p. 436. 
 
 ad Polycarpuni, vol. II. p. 88. Their genuineness is defended 
 
 Suidas in v. byNatalisAlexanderjDiss.XXI. 
 
 •1 See Dallivus, dc opcribiis S;bc. I. 
 Dio)njsioctIgnatio1r'ihuli.s.\uMi- ^ Apud Ens. 11. E. III. 4. 
 
 noy, (le (luobiis Dio/njsiis. T\\\l'- IV. 23. 
 
LECT. VI. Paitl arrives at Corinth. 183 
 
 niiist certainly have heard this of his namesake at A. D. 
 Athens : and since we have seen, that it was the ^^• 
 custom of St. Paul to commit his churches to the 
 care of one individual, there is nothing improbable 
 in supposing, that he made choice of Dionysius. His 
 own residence in Athens was certainly not long: and 
 he had no confidential friend now with him, like 
 Luke or Timothy or Silas, who had been left by 
 him in charge of the Macedonian churches. He 
 would therefore be obliged to take the deacons and 
 elders of the church at Athens from the new converts 
 themselves : and I would again observe, that if there 
 is nothing improbable in supposing Dionysius to have 
 undertaken the office, there is nothing improbable in 
 supposing St. Paul to have committed it to him. The 
 subsequent history of Dionysius is involved in simi- 
 lar obscurity. There is respectable authority for 
 supposing him to have suffered martyrdom f, and the 
 event appears to have happened in the reign of Do- 
 mitian : but the tradition, which would connect him 
 with the planting of Christianity in France, is only 
 to be mentioned to be rejected as absurd and fabu- 
 lous. 
 
 St. Paul appears to have left Athens and arrived 
 at Corinth before the end of the same year in which 
 he set out from Antioch, i.e. at the beginning of the 
 winter of the year 46. He was still alone, not having 
 yet been joined by any of his companions from Ma- 
 cedonia : but an event had lately happened at Rome, 
 which provided him with an able and zealous assist- 
 ant. Claudius had lately ordered all Jews to quit 
 the caj)ital : and there is some evidence, that the 
 
 f See Routli, RcLSacr. I. p. 74. Tillemoiit;, Menwircfi, toni. II. 
 p. 221. 
 
 N 4 
 
184 Jeivs expelled from Rome. lect. vi. 
 
 A. D. edict was caused by the increasing jn'ogress of Chris- 
 ^^- tianity. I have mentioned, that the Jews were suf- 
 fering from a similar act of severity about the time 
 of our Saviour's crucifixion : and I also conjectured, 
 that some of these Roman Jews, who soon after were 
 allowed to return, may have carried back with them 
 to Rome a knowledge of the gospel. We shall see 
 presently, that by some means or other the gospel 
 certainly made a rapid progress in that city : and 
 we know, that the government was always extremely 
 jealous of what it called foreign superstitions. It 
 is more than probable, that the Jews in Rome would 
 put themselves forward to suppress the new doc- 
 trines : and the Romans, who looked upon the whole 
 nation with contempt, would see nothing in this op- 
 position, but a dispute between two sects of a con- 
 temptible religion. If the Jews had recourse to the 
 same turbulent measures in Rome, which we have 
 seen them practise in Thessalonica and Beroea, it 
 was quite necessary for the government to interfere: 
 and a succession of disturbances of this kind, coupled 
 with the dissemination of Christianity, would best 
 illustrate the expression of Suetonius, where he speaks 
 of the expulsion of the Jews^. Those of them, who 
 had embraced Christianity, would of course be in- 
 volved in the same sentence : and perhaps the former 
 decrees against foreign superstitions would now be 
 directed specially against the Christians. It is pos- 
 sible, that this may have been the meaning of the 
 charge brought by the Jews of Thessalonica, that 
 Paul and his companions were acting contrary to 
 the decrees of the emperor ^ : and if Greece was at 
 
 P Jiulii'os inipulsore C'hresto j)ulit. Claud. 25. 
 assidue tumultuuntes Roma ex- ^ j^^cts xvii. 7. 
 
LECT. VI. Aqiiila. 185 
 
 this time more than usually filled by Jews, who had A. D 
 
 been forced to leave Rome, they would be particu- '_ 
 
 larly bitter against the Christians, who were in some 
 measure the cause of the edict being passed. 
 
 St. Luke informs us, that one of the Jews, who 
 had thus been obliged to leave Rome, was Aquila. 
 By his birth, or at least by his family, he was con- 
 nected with Pontus : but some cause or other, per- 
 haps the purposes of trade, had led him to Rome: 
 and since we find him there again in tracing St. 
 Paul's history', it is most probable that his usual 
 residence had been in that city. His history, like 
 that of Dionysius, has given rise to many inventions 
 among the early writers : and perhaps we should 
 receive nothing concerning him, except what we read 
 in St. Luke and St. Paul. He is said to have been 
 brother of Clement, who was afterwards bishop of 
 Rome ^ : but none of the early writers have men- 
 tioned Pontus as the country of Clement ; and the 
 story is probably altogether fabulous. It is a more 
 interesting tradition, which represents him as having 
 been a disciple of Simon Magus ^ : and since there 
 is reason to think, as I shall observe hereafter, that 
 Simon Magus had spread his doctrines in Rome be- 
 fore this time, there would be nothing extraordinary 
 in Aquila having been attracted by them. The se- 
 quel of this story, which states him to have been 
 converted to Christianity by Zacchseus, is wholly 
 unworthy of attention. We have no authentic ac- 
 count of Zaccha^us subsequent to the crucifixion of 
 Christ : and it is jjlain, that his name was a favour- 
 ite vehicle for apocryphal tradition. We should not 
 
 i Rom. xvi. 3. A. D. 53. 1 Clem. Recogn. II. i, 6. 
 
 k Const. Apost. VI. 8. VII. 33. 
 
186 Corinth. lect. vi. 
 
 A. D. know from St. Luke's narrative, whether Aquila was 
 ^"- ah'eady a Christian, when he arrived at Corinth, or 
 whether he was converted hy St. Paul. He liad 
 arrived there but a short time before with his wife 
 Priscilla, and St. Paul's acquaintance with him be- 
 gan from their both being engaged in the same 
 trade. If Aquila and Priscilla now embraced Chris- 
 tianity for the first time, they embraced it zealously 
 and heartily. We shall hereafter find them suffer- 
 ing more than once for the faith, which they pro- 
 fessed : and according to Theophylact, they were 
 finally martyred in the reign of Nero. 
 
 It is plain, that Corinth had not been visited by 
 any apostle before St. Paul. Christianity had per- 
 haps been scarcely heard of there, except by the 
 Jews : and it had the distinction of being the first 
 Grecian city, in whicli St. Paul made any long resi- 
 dence. Corinth, though at this time a large and 
 populous place, was very far from having recovered 
 its former splendour. After the destruction of it by 
 Mummius, which ha])pened 146 years before Christ, 
 it contiimed for a long time little more than a heap 
 of ruins. Julius Caesar, not long before his death, 
 caused it to be rebuilt, and established there a nu- 
 merous colony. Early in the reign of Augustus, 
 when Achaia became a proconsular province, Corinth 
 was the caj)ital : from which circumstance it would 
 be likely to rise in importance, as well as to aj)- 
 proach more to the character of a Roman town. 
 The maintenance of a proconsul being always a 
 burden to a i)rovince, the inhabitants of Achaia pe- 
 titioned Tiberius to be released from it ; and for 
 some years they were governed by a praetor, who 
 held his office from the immediate aj)pointment of 
 
LECT. VI. Gall'io. 187 
 
 the emperor. Claudius, however, in the year 44, a. D. 
 about two years before St. Paul's arrival, restored 46. 
 this patronage to the senate and people : and the 
 name of the proconsul in the year 46, which has 
 not been recorded by any heathen writer, is pre- 
 served by St. Luke. The office was then filled by 
 Gallio, who is supposed to have been the brother of 
 the celebrated Seneca : and though he is mentioned 
 by his brother in terms of high commendation '", 
 his character is not treated so favourably by other 
 writers ". We shall see presently, that he did not 
 interfere to the prejudice of St. Paul during his long 
 residence in Corinth ; and we may perhaps again 
 notice his relationship with Seneca, when we con- 
 sider the communications which are said to have 
 taken place between that philosopher and St. Paul. 
 Though Gallio gave no proofs of being himself im- 
 pressed with the doctrines of the gospel, his govern- 
 ment was perhaps not unfavourable to their propaga- 
 tion. In every case of opposition, which the apostle 
 met with, we have hitherto seen the Jews to be the 
 first and principal movers : and the Roman authori- 
 ties either refused to interest themselves in such mat- 
 ters, or gave a tacit consent to the Jews indulging 
 their malice. The apostles would therefore be safer 
 in a Roman or Grecian town, than in one, which 
 was more immediately subject to Jewish influence : 
 and Corinth, which was the capital of a province, 
 and the residence of the proconsul, was perhaps less 
 likely than any other town in Greece to tolerate dis- 
 turbances excited by a foreign religion. This may 
 be one reason, why St. Paul staid so much longer 
 in Corinth, than he had hitherto done in any other 
 m Nat. Quffist. IV. preef. " Tacit. An. VI. 3. XV. ^o,. 
 
188 Macedonian Churches. lect. vi. 
 
 A. D. place upon his travels. He arrived there before the 
 46 48. -^yinter of the year 46, and left it in the spring of 
 48, after staying there eighteen months. 
 
 I have already mentioned, that he lived at first in 
 the same house vi^ith Aquila and Priscilla ; and as 
 usual, he began his missionary labours by preaching 
 in the Jewish synagogues. His success was consi- 
 derable both with Jews and Gentiles ; and the name 
 of Stephanus, who is said by Theophylact to have 
 been a person of note, deserves to be mentioned, as 
 that of the first Corinthian convert ^. The Jews, 
 however, soon shewed symptoms of their usual 
 bigotry; and the arrival of Silas and Timothy, which 
 probably took place before winter, would be likely 
 to give the apostle great comfort and assistance. 
 They brought with them most favourable accounts 
 of the converts whom he had left in Macedonia. 
 They had been j)ersonally resident in Beroea and 
 Thessalonica ; and they might easily have commu- 
 nicated with Luke, who had been stationed at Phi- 
 lippi. In all these places the gospel was flourishing : 
 and St. Paul pursued with fresh spirit the work 
 which he had begun, being enabled now to hold out 
 the Macedonian churches as an example to the Co- 
 rinthians. It was now, that he wrote the first of 
 those apostolical Epistles, which the chm'ch for 
 eighteen centuries has valued among her richest 
 treasures : and it is no small honour to the Thessa- 
 lonian converts, that they were selected to receive 
 this conununication. The Jews in Macedonia had 
 by no means withdrawn their oi)position upon the 
 departure of St. Paul ; and since he was now so far 
 removed from them, and Silas and Timothy had 
 o I Cor. i. 1 6. xvi. 15. 
 
LECT. VI. Crispiis. Sosthenes. 189 
 
 also left them, the exhortations contained in his A.D. 
 letter were particularly needed. St. Paul could write 46 48. 
 feelingly upon this subject : for the increased zeal, 
 with which he now continued his preaching, only 
 increased the opposition of the Corinthian Jews ; 
 and he soon found it necessary to devote himself ex- 
 clusively to addressing the Gentiles. He had the 
 gratification, however, of making a convert among 
 his countrymen, who, if not so distinguished a cha- 
 racter as Dionysius at Athens, must have produced 
 a considerable sensation by embracing the gospel. 
 This was Crispus, who had been president of the 
 synagogue : and the importance of his conversion is 
 shewn by the fact of St. Paul baptizing him, even 
 after the arrival of Silas and Timothy, with his own 
 hands. The tradition of Crispus having been bishop 
 of MginSi is perhaps one of those, which deserves to 
 be rejected 1*. It appears, that the apostle was not in 
 the habit generally of administering baptism : his 
 time was devoted to preaching, and instructing the 
 converts : the great numbers of them would make 
 the work of baptism extremely laborious ; and he 
 probably lost no time in appointing deacons, who 
 might discharge this office. We find mention also 
 of another president of the synagogue, who was a 
 sufferer in the attempt made by the Jews to excite 
 the proconsul against Paul. But whether Sosthenes 
 appeared upon that occasion as a friend or enemy of 
 the apostle, is a matter of dispute. If he was the 
 former, it is probable that he was the same Sos- 
 thenes, who was afterwards the companion of St. 
 Paul"!, and who appears as taking an interest in the 
 
 P Constit. Apost. VII. 46. q See Tillemont, M^moires, tom. 
 I. p. 820. 
 
190 Paul at Corinth. i-ect. vi. 
 
 A. D. Corinthian church : so that during this residence of 
 46—48. St. Paul at Corinth, two presidents of the synagogue 
 were converted by his preaching. Caius also, who 
 as well as Stephanus and Crisjius was baptized by 
 St. Paul himself, was probably a person of some 
 note, or he would not have been so distinguished : 
 but it is uncertain whether he is the same with 
 Caius the Macedonian, who, according to some tra- 
 ditions, was bishop of Thessalonica^ 
 
 The whole of the year 47 was passed by St. Paul 
 at Corinth : and though we have his own evidence 
 for the gospel not being embraced by many persons 
 of rank or learning, we are expressly told, that he 
 made many converts, especially among the Gentiles. 
 He alludes himself to the miracles which he worked: 
 and it is also plain, that the preternatural gifts of 
 the Spirit were largely diffused among the members 
 of the Corinthian church. He appears upon the 
 whole to have met with little molestation. The 
 Jews succeeded once in bringing him before Gallio's 
 tribunal ; but they made nothing of the charge : and 
 the conduct of the proconsul upon the occasion rather 
 gave a triumph to the apostle than to his opponents. 
 This is almost the only transaction, which we know 
 to have occurred during the eighteen months, which 
 St. Paul passed at Corinth ; and after he gave up 
 attempting to subdue the obstinacy of the Jews, his 
 time was probably spent with little variation in the 
 same uniform course of instruction and conversion. 
 He continued to receive favourable accounts of the 
 Macedonian churches, and addressed a second letter 
 to the church at Thessalonica. The Christians in 
 tliat city had been suffering persecution, to which 
 
 *■ See Tillemontj M^molres, tom. I. p. 583, 816. 
 
LECT. VI. Paul visits Jerusalem. 191 
 
 the Gentiles, as well as the Jews, appear to have A. D. 
 been parties. The faith, however, of the new con- ^^- 
 verts was not shaken : and St. Paul appears to have 
 felt peculiar pleasure in thinking of his visit to 
 Thessalonica. 
 
 In the former part of the year 48 he left Corinth, 
 intending to be at Jerusalem early in June, to keep 
 the feast of Pentecost. We need not seek for any 
 special reasons for this visit to Jerusalem. It was 
 now two years since he had been there, and he may 
 have felt desirous of attending the festival. He may 
 also at this time have had some contributions for 
 the Christians of Judaea, as he had Vv hen he went 
 there five years after : and we have seen, that he 
 had promised the apostles at Jerusalem to excite his 
 new converts to this work of charity. I have stated, 
 that the continued famine may perhaps have made 
 this assistance very acceptable in Judsea. Aquila 
 and Priscilla accompanied St. Paul as far as Ephe- 
 sus ; and from our finding them again in that city 
 four years after, we may perhajjs infer, that this was 
 not the first time of their having visited it. St. Paul, 
 however, had not yet been in that part of Asia 
 Minor ; and from his being asked by some Jews at 
 Ephesus to prolong his stay, we are perhaps to con- 
 clude, that the gospel had already found its way into 
 Ephesus, though as yet it had not been visited by 
 any apostle. Being bent upon reaching Jerusalem 
 by Pentecost, he could not comply with their re- 
 quest. He promised, however, to return to them 
 shortly ; and in the mean time Aquila, who remained 
 there, would prepare the way for his personal preach- 
 ing. Silas and Timothy appear to have accompa- 
 nied him to Jerusalem, where, as I have already 
 
192 
 
 Paul at Jerusalem. 
 
 I.ECT. VI- 
 
 A. D. stated, he arrived by the feast of Pentecost^ : and I 
 48. shall begin the following Lecture with a few re- 
 marks upon the state, in which he would find Ju- 
 daea. 
 
 s The New Testament tells 
 us nothing of Silas after this 
 visit to Corinth, except that lie 
 is mentioned in the First Epistle 
 of St. Peter, v. 1 2. According 
 
 to some traditions he preached 
 in Gaul and died in Macedonia. 
 See Tillemont, Memoir es, torn. 
 I. p. 587. 
 
LECTURE VII. 
 
 W HEN St. Paul attended the council at Jerusalem a. D. 
 in the year 46, he found Judaea, as I then stated, 4^- 
 once more in the hands of a Roman procurator, Ti- 
 berius Alexander : and the unpopularity of this man, 
 as well as the increasing turbulence of the Jews, 
 made the city and the whole country a scene of con- 
 tinued disorder and bloodshed. The political state 
 of things had not improved, when he went there 
 again in the year 48. A person was now rising 
 into importance, who might have excited in the Jews 
 some feelings of national attachment, and who lived 
 to see the final misfortunes of his unhappy country- 
 men. This was Agrippa the younger, son of Herod 
 Agrippa who died in 44 : at which time, as I then 
 stated, his son was only seventeen years of age ; and 
 the emperor Claudius, though well disposed towards 
 him, did not choose to bestow on him any of his 
 father's territories. In the year 48 his uncle Herod 
 died, who was sovereign of a small territory, called 
 Chalcis ; and Agrippa, who was now twenty-one 
 years of age, obtained this from the emperor, which 
 also gave him the superintendence of the temple 
 with its treasury, and the power of appointing the 
 high priests. The dates and successions of the Ro- 
 man procurators about this period are involved in 
 some obscurity : but it seems most probable, that in 
 this same year 48 Tiberius Alexander was removed, 
 
 o 
 
194 Cumanus and Felix. lect. vii. 
 
 A. D. and the three districts of Judaea, Samaria, and Ga- 
 ^' lilee were committed to two governors, Cumanus 
 and Felix '^ The usual consequences of a divided 
 government, jealousy, rapacity, and oppression, en- 
 sued. The two procurators, who rivalled each other 
 in pillaging their subjects, either overlooked the 
 crimes which were committed, or suffered the cri- 
 minals to proceed, that they might fall upon them 
 with more signal severity. We read of 20,000 Jews 
 being killed in a riot by Cumanus '\ Every part of 
 the country was infested with robbers and assassins : 
 and when St. Luke despatches the visit of St. Paul 
 to Jerusalem in a few words ^, we can easily explain 
 why the visit itself, as well as the description, oc- 
 cupied but a short time. The aspect of Judaea 
 must have caused great pain to St. Paul, even with- 
 out reference to that spirit of prophecy, by which 
 he probably foresaw the still greater evils which 
 were impending over his unhappy country. Fortu- 
 nately his mind had sufficient occupation without 
 dwelling upon these misfortunes ; and when he once 
 more took leave of his countrymen, it was to re- 
 sume those labours, to which he now felt, that his 
 life was to be exclusively devoted. In Antioch, to 
 which place he went from Jerusalem, he would find 
 a very different state of things, and one which would 
 console him for the miseries, which he had lately 
 witnessed. Under the government of Quadratus, who 
 was appointed president about this time, the province 
 of Syria enjoyed comparative rest. This officer was 
 
 ^ Tacitus, All. XII. 54. Jo- writers, seeBrotierorf Tac.l.c. 
 sei^has Aiiliq.^li.. 6ety.de Bel. ^ Joseph. ^4rt//</. XX. 5, 3. 
 Jud. II. 12. Concerning the •= Acts xviii. 22, 
 disagreement between these 
 
i,ECT. VII. Church ofAntioch. 195 
 
 often called upon (and perhaiis his instructions A. D. 
 l)ointed out this course) to interfere in the affairs of _____ 
 the neighbouring province of Judaea : and while the 
 presence of a strong Roman force kept the Jews of 
 Antioch in subjection, or perhaps drove the worst 
 part of them into their own distracted country, the 
 Christians in that city remained unmolested, and 
 enjoyed that protection, or rather that quiet obscu- 
 rity, in which the Roman government for some years 
 allowed them to continue. It was now about two 
 years, since St. Paul had left Antioch to commence 
 his second journey ; and the gospel appears to have 
 met with the same success during that interval, 
 which had marked its progress there from the be- 
 ginning. There is reason to think, that St. Peter 
 was at Antioch, when St. Paul left it, or at least 
 that he had been there not long before '^ Roman 
 Catholic writers have asserted, that the church of 
 Antioch was founded by St. Peter, which is certainly 
 not true, and has no support whatever from scrip- 
 ture. It is also asserted, that he held the see of 
 Antioch for some years : an expression, which if 
 taken in any thing like its modern signification, is 
 perhaps not true of any of the apostles ; whose cus- 
 tom, as I have already observed, was not to con- 
 tinue stationary in one place, but to travel about, 
 planting new churches, and occasionally visiting 
 those, which they had already founded. This re- 
 quired thein to commit the Christians in each city 
 to the care of some one individual, though they 
 themselves continued to superintend the work which 
 they had begun ; and this will explain, why later 
 writers, when they enumerated the bishops of the dif- 
 •1 See p. 160. 
 O 2 
 
196 Evodius. lect. vii. 
 
 A. D. ferent sees, sometimes began the list with an apostle, 
 ^^- and sometimes with the first person appointed by an 
 apostle. We have seen, that this mode of conduct- 
 ing the government of distant churches was followed 
 from the first by St. Paul : and perhaps in this sense 
 we may admit St. Peter to have had some share in 
 establishing the church at Antioch. I have already 
 observed, that there is no evidence of his having 
 visited that city till the year 46, though St. Paul 
 had been there frequently before, and the gospel had 
 probably been carried thither within a few months 
 after our Saviour's ascension. There is good evi- 
 dence for naming Evodius as the first bishop of An- 
 tioch : and though the date of his appointment is 
 uncertain, we may perhaps follow Eusebius, who 
 places it early in the reign of Claudius. If that 
 writer meant to place it precisely in the year 4.3, as 
 some have supposed'', Evodius was appointed at the 
 period which is described by St. Luke, when Barna- 
 bas had brought Saul from Tarsus, and when they 
 passed a whole year in Antioch. The date is not 
 improbable ; though as the name of Evodius is not 
 mentioned by St. Luke among the prophets and 
 teachers, whom he enumerates shortly after, I should 
 be inclined to place it somewhat later. "WTien St. 
 Peter and St. Paul met at Antioch in the year 46, 
 they both of them were on the point of visiting dis- 
 tant churches. The time or the place of their next 
 meeting was wholly uncertain ; and nothing is more 
 likely, than that before they parted, they committed 
 the church at Antioch to the care of some one per- 
 son, who was worthy of such a trust. This person, 
 
 ■^ The Armenian edition of second or third year of Clau- 
 the Chronieon places it in the dins. 
 
LECT. VII. St. PauVs third journey. 197 
 
 as I have stated above, was Evodius : and if I am A. D. 
 right in supposing him to have commenced his office '*"• 
 in the year 46, St. Paul would be able to judge of 
 his ability and zeal, when he revisited Antioch after 
 an absence of two years in 48 ^. 
 
 St. Paul remained in Antioch some time. It was 
 about the middle of summer, when he arrived there : 
 and most of the remaining part of the year was 
 occupied by him in traversing Asia Minor. He 
 probably visited the churches, which he had planted 
 in his native country Cilicia : and we are told parti- 
 cularly, that he passed through Galatia and Phrygia. 
 This was in fact the same route, which he had taken 
 two years before. The gospel ajipears to have ad- 
 vanced prosperously during his absence, and hitherto 
 we hear nothing of false teachers having perverted 
 his doctrine. The churches of Laodicea, Colossae, 
 and Hierapolis, which were afterwards so celebrated, 
 if they were not planted during his first visit, as I 
 before conjectiu-ed, were perhaps established now. 
 If Silas and Timothy accompanied him to Jerusa- 
 lem, as seems most probable, they would be of great 
 use to him in confirming the Asiatic churches : and 
 when he joined his former companions at Ephesus 
 toward the end of the year, he would be able to give 
 them a most cheering account of the progress of the 
 gospel. Hitherto he had scarcely seen any thing of 
 
 f Some have supposed that pointed separately and conse- 
 Ignatius and Evodius were both cutively, as I have stated. See 
 appointed to preside over the Halloix, I gnat. p. 294, 394. 
 church at Antioch, and that Baronius ad an. 45. §. 13. Til- 
 Ignatius succeeded to the sole lemont,3/ft'OTo/re,y, torn. II. part, 
 management upon the death of II. p. 44, 442. Natalis Alexan- 
 Evodius in 68 : but it is most der, Ssec. I. Diss. XIII. Co- 
 probable, that they were ap- teler. ad Const. Apost. VII. 46. 
 
 O 3 
 
198 Apollos. LECT. VII. 
 
 A. D. Ephesus : and it is plain that before this year, the 
 ^^ gospel was very little, if at all, known in that city. 
 Aquila and Priscilla had remained there, when St. 
 Paul proceeded to Jerusalem ; and an event had 
 happened during his absence, which on many ac- 
 counts deserves to be considered at some length. 
 
 It is at this time, that the name of Apollos is first 
 mentioned. He was an Alexandrian Jew, and a 
 man of learning. His knowledge of the scriptures 
 is particularly mentioned : but if we may judge from 
 Philo, and from what we know generally of the 
 literature of the Alexandrian Jews, his regard for 
 the Law of Moses would not hinder him from cor- 
 rupting, or at least blending, it with portions of hea- 
 then philosophy. Before he came to Ephesus, he 
 had heard something of the doctrine of Jesus Christ ; 
 and what he had heard, had made an impression 
 upon his mind : but this interesting fact becomes 
 less easy to comprehend, when we read, that hi- 
 therto he was acquainted only with the baptism of' 
 John. This expression, together with that of his 
 being instructed more fully in the way of God by 
 Aquila and Priscilla, make it plain, that when he 
 came to Ephesus, his belief in Jesus Christ, if it ex- 
 isted at all, was very imperfect. There can how- 
 ever be no doubt, (for so much is positively stated 
 by St. Luke,) that he believed in the baptism of 
 John, and that he had heard of Jesus Christ : and 
 the actual state of his mind upon these two points 
 might furnish matter for much curious speculation. 
 It was now nearly twenty years, since John the 
 Baptist was beheaded : and the evangelical narra- 
 tive would not perhaps lead us to infer, that his 
 ministry produced much impression, or was even 
 
LECT. VII. Effect of John's Baptism. 199 
 
 much known, out of Judaea. This, however, is per- A. D. 
 haps one of the conclusions, which we are apt to "*"• 
 form erroneously from the concise language of the 
 Evangelists. The multitudes, who were personally 
 acquainted with John, were evidently extremely nu- 
 merous : and it is difficult to conceive, that some of 
 the foreign Jews, who attended the festivals, did not 
 partake of his baptism, and carry back an account 
 of it to their respective countries. No person would 
 perhaps imagine, that Apollos had himself been bap- 
 tized by John : and the words of St. Luke must be 
 taken as a satisfactory proof, that John's baptism 
 still produced an impression after the expiration of 
 twenty years. A passage in the Jewish Antiquities 
 of Josephus might perhaps lead us to the same con- 
 clusion. Educated as he was in Judaea, and passing 
 the early part of his life in that country, Josephus 
 might not perhaps tell us any thing of the effect 
 which John had produced in distant places. But 
 Josephus was not born till seven or eight years after 
 the Baptist's death ; and what he writes concerning 
 him, could not have been collected till several years 
 later. It is plain from this passage, that Josephus 
 had heard much of the effect of John's preaching : 
 and when he speaks of John recommending his bap- 
 tism as efficacious, not for the removal of sins, but 
 merely for the purifying of the body^, I cannot help 
 concluding, though the commentators have not no- 
 ticed the expression, that it was covertly intended as 
 an insinuation against the Christian doctrines. A 
 
 g OvTcci yap kol ttjv ^dnTtcriv T09, are 8r] Koi Tijs ■\|/v;^^y 8iKai- 
 
 dnoSeKTrjv avTco (jiavelaSat, jxr] eVi oavurj TTpofKKiKa6npp.ivr]s. Ailtuj, 
 
 Tivav dpaprdScov irapaiTr)<T(i XP^~ XVIII. 5' 2. 
 pevcav, dXk' e(f) dyveia Toil crcopa- 
 
 o 4 
 
200 Effect of John's Baptism, i.ect. vii. 
 
 A. D. man of learning and observation, like Josephus, 
 48. must at least have heard what were the leading 
 points, which the Christians professed to believe ; 
 and he must have known, as a matter of fact, that 
 they baptized their converts, and promised them re- 
 mission of sins. In the passage to which I have 
 alluded, I conceive him to have wished to tell his 
 readers, that the baptism of John was not intended 
 to convey remission of sins ; a remark which was in 
 one sense true : and hence he wished to insinuate, 
 that the pretensions of the Christians to remit sins 
 by baptism were equally unfounded. We may per- 
 haps suppose Apollos to have received the same ac- 
 count of John's baptism, which was given to Jose- 
 phus ; but it produced upon him a different impres- 
 sion. The preaching of John may be considered in 
 two points of view: 1. as inculcating the necessity 
 of virtue and repentance : 2. as preparing men for 
 receiving forgiveness from one who was shortly to 
 appear. The first of these two doctrines was plain 
 and intelligible ; the second was involved in some 
 obscurity. The precepts, which enforce the former, 
 can never be altered or superseded ; but the an- 
 nouncement of forgiveness by a Saviour who was to 
 come, must necessarily be changed when the Sa- 
 viour had arrived. Now if we suppose, out of the 
 multitudes that flocked to John's baptism, that many, 
 or at least some were foreign Jews, we may con- 
 ceive them returning to their homes, impressed not 
 only with the necessity of repentance and an amended 
 life, but with a belief, that the promised Redeemer 
 was at hand, and that he, whose coming was an- 
 nounced by John, was the long expected Messiah. 
 This notion was perfectly in accordance with Avhat 
 
LECT. VII. Apollos. 201 
 
 we know to have been the general opinion at that A. D. 
 period, that a great deliverer was shortly to arrive : '^^- 
 and the disciples of John the Baptist were perhaps 
 only distinguished by their coupling this expecta- 
 tion with a stricter attendance to the duties of mo- 
 rality. The religious notions of Apollos may have 
 been of this kind : he may have been taught to look 
 for a spiritual, rather than a political deliverance ; 
 and he may have hoped for mercy and forgiveness, 
 not through his own righteousness, but through the 
 Messiah, who was shortly to come. Of a person, 
 whose mind was in this state, we might truly say, 
 that he was not far from the h'mgdom of God. 
 The process was probably a short one, by which 
 Aquila and Priscilla convinced him, that the object 
 of his faith and expectation was already come ; and 
 that Jesus of Nazareth was the person, whom John 
 had announced, and whose death had actually work- 
 ed the deliverance, which the followers of John so 
 earnestly expected. The conversion of a disciple of 
 John into a discii)le and a preacher of Christ was 
 natural and easy : and Apollos, who was well ac- 
 quainted with the scriptures, became at once a 
 powerful advocate of the Christian cause in the 
 Jewish synagogues. It seems, however, to have been 
 reserved for St. Paul to lay the foundations of the 
 Ephesian church : and the zeal of Apollos was per- 
 haps more successfully directed in merely watering 
 M'here the apostle had planted. He was sent with 
 letters from the few Christians who were at Ephe- 
 sus to Corinth, and he was there of great use in 
 confuting the Jews, who had perhaps become more 
 bold upon the departure of St. Paul''. 
 
 ^ Jerom speaks of Apollos as bishop of Corinth : In Til. 
 
202 St. Paul at Ephesus. lect. vii. 
 
 A. D. The great apostle in the mean time, as I have 
 ah-eady stated, had gone from Jerusalem to Antioch, 
 and travelled from thence through Phrygia and Ga- 
 latia : and it was perhaps not long before winter, 
 that he arrived at Ephesus. We are not told by 
 St. Luke, whether he found Aquila and Priscilla 
 there or no. He had left them at Ephesus, when 
 he went on to Jerusalem ; and they were certainly 
 there shortly after, when they converted Apollos. 
 We have also evidence of their being at Ephesus at 
 two subsequent periods': but they had visited Rome 
 in the interval ^ ; and I should rather conclude, if 
 they had not now returned to Rome, that they were not 
 at Ephesus, when St. Paul arrived there. I should 
 infer this from the small progress which the gospel 
 appears to have hitherto made in that city ; and 
 particularly from the fact of St. Paul meeting with 
 some persons, who, like Apollos, were only acquainted 
 with John's baptism ; and who had not heard of 
 the gifts of the Holy Ghost. Unless we suppose St. 
 Paul to have met these persons upon their first ar- 
 rival, it is difficult to conceive that Aquila and Pris- 
 cilla, if they were still there, would not have already 
 converted them : and their history, as it is related 
 by St. Luke, furnishes another instance of the very 
 general impression, which the preaching of John 
 had produced. These men, like Apollos, had been 
 baptized in token of their admitting the doctrine of 
 
 iii. 13: but there is no evi- L,ect. p. 929. Ferrarius, Mar- 
 
 dence of such an appointment, tyrol. univ. ad 22 Julii. 
 
 The traditions are stillless wor- i i Cor. xvi. 19. (A. D. 52.) 
 
 thy of attention, which repre- 2 Tim, iv. 19. (A. D. 64, 65, or 
 
 sent him as bishop of Colophon, 66.) 
 
 of Durazzo, and of Conium in '^ Rom. xvi. 3. (A. D. 53.) 
 
 Plirygia. See Canisius, Antiq. 
 
LECT. VII. St. Paul at Epliesus. 203 
 
 repentance ; and they believed that some greater A. D. 
 person than John was shortly to appear : but they "*^' 
 had not heard, that this person was already come ; 
 nor did they know any thing of the preternatural 
 gifts, which the Holy Ghost bestowed upon the be- 
 lievers in Jesus. I have already said, that the power 
 of imparting these gifts appears to have been con- 
 fined to the apostles : and since St. Paul had not yet 
 distributed them in Ephesus, these persons could 
 not have witnessed them, unless they had met else- 
 where with some other apostle. The necessity 
 of baptism is remarkably confirmed by the fact, 
 that these men, though they had received the bap- 
 tism of John, were baptized again, as soon as they 
 professed their faith in Christ. The baptism, which 
 they had previously received, gave no remission of 
 sins, and no spiritual grace. It was merely an ini- 
 tiatory rite. It shewed on the part of the reci- 
 pient, that he felt the necessity of repentance : but 
 John could not forgive sins, when the atonement as 
 yet was not offered : and they, who had not heard 
 of Jesus, could not have that faith, which alone can 
 ensure the assistance of God's holy Spirit. The case, 
 however, of these men and of Apollos may shew, 
 how truly John the Baptist was the forerunner of 
 Christ : or in other words, that repentance and holi- 
 ness are the true preparations for receiving the gos- 
 pel. They felt their own insufficiency, they felt the 
 necessity of a Saviour : and when their hearts thus 
 led the way, the terms of salvation were accepted as 
 soon as they were proposed. 
 
 The conversion of these men (which appears to 
 have been the first ministerial act of St. Paul at 
 Ephesus) must have contributed also to the propa- 
 
204 Ephesus. lect. vii. 
 
 A. D. gation of the gospel : for they received the miracu- 
 ^^- lous gifts of the Spirit, and were enabled to speak 
 different languages ; an effect, which had probably 
 not yet been felt in Ephesus. This city now be- 
 came the scene of St. Paul's labours for a much 
 longer jDeriod than he had as yet passed in any one 
 place. He had spent eighteen months in Corinth, 
 and apparently met with little ojiposition, except 
 from his prejudiced countrymen. The philosophers 
 of Greece probably treated him with contempt : but 
 this was of little importance, as it affected himself; 
 and the very fact of being despised perhaps saved 
 him from persecution. But we shall see his long 
 residence in Ephesus attended by that systematic 
 opposition, which now for the first time was exhi- 
 bited by the heathen, and which exposed the Chris- 
 tians for nearly three centuries to a series of opj^res- 
 sion and cruelty. 
 
 Ephesus was the capital of a province, which, 
 like the rest of the civilized world, had bowed be- 
 neath the yoke of Rome, but which still retained 
 traces of its former wealth and greatness. Like the 
 United States of America in our own times, this part 
 of Asia Minor had the name of the whole continent 
 applied in a special manner to itself: and it was not 
 peculiar to the writers of the A^ew Testament to 
 speak of Asia, when they meant merely Ionia and a 
 few adjoining districts. Ephesus had now for many 
 years taken the lead among the Grecian cities on 
 that part of the coast. Strabo speaks of it as the 
 place of the greatest trade in Asia to the wQ^t of 
 mount Taurus ; and its preeminence was still fur- 
 ther established by its becoming the residence of 
 the Roman proconsul. We must not suppose, that 
 
LECT. VII. Ephesus. 205 
 
 the Roman authority was less absolute here than in A. D. 
 other provinces, because we read of Asiarchs, who 
 met at Ephesus from the different cities. It seems 
 most probable, that they were so deputed : and their 
 appointment might i3erhaps be traced to that vene- 
 rable assembly, the Panionium, which was coeval 
 with the colonization of the country. But the 
 Asiarchs in the time of St. Paul had probably no 
 political power at all. The Romans understood too 
 well the art of governing, to allow more than the 
 shadow of popular representation : and there is rea- 
 son to think that the Asiarchs had no other func- 
 tions to perform, than that of presiding (if presid- 
 ing it might be called) at the public games. It 
 might be doubted, whether it was the inherent coarse- 
 ness of their own taste, or a knowledge of human 
 nature, which led the Romans to find a political 
 engine in the circus and the amphitheatre. Per- 
 haps both causes combined : and if the emperor 
 wished some act of tyranny to pass unnoticed, or if 
 a tributary state shewed symptoms of disaffection, 
 delusion and submission were obtained by a more 
 than usually splendid display in the public games. 
 The cities of Asia Minor were likely to be easily 
 caught by this dazzling magnificence. In matters 
 of taste they were always observed to be fond of the 
 florid and ornamental : and in Ephesus this feeling 
 found an additional vent in the pride of having their 
 temple considered the wonder of the world. If St. 
 Paul met with more opposition from learning and 
 philosophy in Corinth than in Ephesus, he probably 
 saw more of luxury and dissipation in the latter 
 city ; and the Asiatic philosophy was at this jjeriod 
 undergoing a change, which not only affected St. 
 
206 Gnosffcism. i.ect. vii. 
 
 A. D. Paul (luring his residence at Ephesus, but to a most 
 serious degree, and for a long period of time, pro- 
 duced a fatal effect upon the gospel, 
 
 I allude to the Gnostic philosophy, concerning the 
 origin of which I made some remarks, when speak- 
 ing of Simon Magus. I then stated, that Gnosticism 
 took its rise in Alexandria, and might be described 
 as a compound of the oriental philosophy, Platonism, 
 and Judaism ; to which Simon Magus is said to have 
 added certain doctrines, which he borrowed from the 
 gospel. I have also observed, that ecclesiastical his- 
 tory represents Simon Magus to have travelled from 
 Palestine to Rome ; and the progress of Gnosticism 
 (as might be expected, if it commenced in Alexan- 
 dria) may be traced in the same direction. Many 
 proofs might be brought of this pernicious philoso- 
 phy being eagerly embraced in Asia Minor, and par- 
 ticularly in Ephesus. The Epistles of St. Paul, which 
 were written to or from that city, contain many al- 
 lusions to it : and we might perhaps account for his 
 long residence in Ephesus by the fact of this being 
 the time, when Gnosticism first appeared there. He 
 knew that the name of Christ held a place in that 
 false and fanciful system ; and he was anxious to 
 sow the seeds of the true gospel, before the enemy 
 had succeeded in introducing the counterfeit. Gnos- 
 ticism was in fact not merely a perversion, but a 
 subversion of the gospel. It taught, that Christ was 
 a being who proceeded from God, and who came to 
 reveal the true God to mankind : but it taught also, 
 that the body of Jesus was a phantom, and that 
 Christ was neither born, nor suffered upon the cross. 
 Thus the doctrine of the atonement and of faith in 
 the death of Christ found no place in the mystical 
 
LECT. VII. Apollonius of Tyana. 207 
 
 system of the Gnostics ; and this is sufficient to ac- A. D. 
 count for the anxious endeavours of St. Paul and "^^^ 
 the other apostles to arrest the evil. 
 
 Another characteristic of the Gnostics was their 
 addiction to magic : and this perhaps contributed to 
 procure a ready reception for their doctrines in 
 Ephesus. The Ephesian letters or characters had 
 been popular as charms long before the time of 
 vi^hich w^e are speaking : and the number of persons, 
 who were persuaded by St. Paul to abandon these 
 superstitions, is a proof of the extent, to which this 
 wickedness was carried. The teachers of Gnosticism 
 appear at this time to have been principally Jews : 
 and such persons were likely to be attracted parti- 
 cularly by St. Paul. It is not improbable, that the 
 exorcists, who are mentioned by St. Luke, were per- 
 sons of this kind^ They saw the success of the 
 apostle in curing the daemoniacs ; and their system 
 allowed them to make use of the name of Jesus for 
 a similar purpose. We know, however, that the ex- 
 periment failed ; and such cases were well suited to 
 illustrate the difference between true and false Chris- 
 tianity. It has been conjectured also, that Apollo- 
 nius of Tyana arrived at Ephesus during the time 
 that St. Paul resided there. The existence of this 
 impostor, and his success in pretending to preterna- 
 tural power, can hardly be doubted : and what has 
 been said of the extent to which magical arts were 
 carried, may explain why such numbers were deluded 
 by his spurious miracles. It seems certain, however, 
 that his whole history is full of fables, which were 
 added purposely to set him up as a rival to Jesus 
 Christ. Many of the real miracles of our Lord and 
 
 * Acts xix. 13. 
 
208 St. Paul at Ephesus. lect. vii. 
 
 A. D. his apostles may be recognised in the marvellous his- 
 tory of Apollonius ; and if he encountered St. Paul 
 
 at Ephesus, it is very probable that he tried to imi- 
 tate him in some of his preternatural w^orks. It is 
 known that Apollonius was at Ephesus, where his 
 fame obtained for him the honour of a statue. He 
 was certainly pursuing his travels about this period ; 
 and, as I observed before, it is not improbable, that 
 he came in contact with St. Paul : but though nothing 
 could be more interesting than a detailed account of 
 such a meeting, it is obviously not the province of 
 history to dwell upon such conjectures. 
 A. D. St. Luke accounts for two years and three months, 
 48—52. ^}ji(,}j g^ Paul passed at Ephesus"^ : but the apostle 
 himself, on a subsequent occasion, reminds the Ephe- 
 sians of his having spent thi'ee years in warning and 
 exhorting them". The two expressions might per- 
 haps be understood so as not to present much dis- 
 agreement : but there is good reason to think, that 
 St. Paul by no means confined himself to Ephesus 
 during the whole of this period. He arrived there 
 in the winter of 48, and left it in the spring of 52 : 
 so that he may literally have been three years at 
 Ephesus ; and yet St. Luke, who was speaking of 
 the beginning of his residence, may have been cor- 
 rect in saying, that he was there two years and three 
 months. This might enable us to allow a year for 
 his visiting other places, and returning again to 
 Ephesus before his final departure : and we are not 
 without materials for tracing his history during this 
 interval. 
 
 In the first place we are not obliged to suppose, 
 even when St. Luke speaks of his being all this time 
 ™ Acts xix. 8^ lo. " XX. 31. 
 
LECT. VII. St.Paul at Ephesus. 209 
 
 at Ephesus, that he literally never passed beyond the A. D. 
 walls. St. Luke himself informs us, that all they 48—52. 
 which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord 
 Jesus, both Jews and Greeks" : and though this 
 may have been done by persons flocking to Ephesus 
 to hear the apostle, it is highly improbable, that he 
 did not himself visit other places, and establish 
 churches there. He had already on two former 
 journeys approached the eastern boundary of Ionia ; 
 and there would be nothing unreasonable in suppos- 
 ing, that in some part of these three years he visited 
 his converts in the interior of Asia Minor. But we 
 have positive evidence, that before the year in which 
 he left Ephesus, he had undertaken some more dis- 
 tant journeys, which are not recorded by St. Luke. 
 His second Epistle to the Corinthians was undoubt- 
 edly written not long after his quitting Ephesus : 
 and he there speaks, among other perils, of his 
 having thrice suffered shipwreck, and having been 
 a night and a day in the deepP. We cannot but 
 suppose, that he spoke of a period subsequent to his 
 conversion, when he was labouring for the gospel ; 
 and St. Luke describes his first and second journeys 
 too minutely to allow us to svippose these misfortunes 
 to have befallen him then. These events, therefore, 
 could hardly have happened till after the time, when 
 St. Luke speaks of his arriving at Ephesus ; and 
 during the three years and some months, which 
 elapsed before his finally quitting it, there is ample 
 space for several journeys to have been taken. It 
 would be useless to speculate upon the direction, in 
 
 o xix. lo. are not recorded in the Acts, 
 
 P xi. 25. He also speaks of and which must have happened 
 several other misfortunes, which before the year 52. 
 
 P 
 
210 jSL Paul in Crete. lect. vii. 
 
 A. D. which St. Paul was sailing;, when he suffered these 
 
 43 52 . ^ 
 
 1 shipwrecks ; but there are many reasons, which in- 
 duce ine to conclude, that at this period he under- 
 took a voyage to Crete. We have his own author- 
 ity for saying, that once at least he was in that 
 island, and left Titus there ^i ; and though some per- 
 sons have placed this voyage much later in the apo- 
 stle's life, I should be more inclined to assign it to 
 this period. There are expressions in his Epistle to 
 the Corinthians, from which we might infer, that he 
 had also touched at Corinth'' ; and perhaps in the 
 coasting voyages of those days this was the most 
 regular way of approaching Crete from Ephesus. In 
 sailing to or from the island, he could hardly have 
 failed to be out at sea a day and a night : but he 
 most probably alluded to a storm, and this may have 
 been one of the occasions, when he .lered ship- 
 wreck. The two other occasions of his meeting with 
 this disaster cannot even be conjectured : but we 
 are left to infer, that during this period of three 
 years he preached not only in Asia Minor, but in 
 some other countries, which required to be visited 
 by sea. We may perhaps place this voyage to Crete 
 in the year 5 1 , which was the third year from his 
 arrival at Ephesus. He appears, as I have said, to 
 have touched at Corinth on his way, and jjerhaps 
 he took Apollos with him from thence. Titus also 
 accompanied him : and though this is the first men- 
 tion of an apostle visiting the island, his presence 
 was perhaps required by the gospel having already 
 made some progress there. Some Jews from Crete 
 were at Jerusalem, when the Holy Ghost fell upon 
 the apostles on the day of Pentecost : and some of 
 '1 Titus i. 5. 1" I Cor. xvi. 7. 
 
LECT.vii. Titus Bishop of Crete. 211 
 
 these may perhaps have carried back a knowledge A. D. 
 of the gospel. There are traces also of Gnosticism 
 having been imported into Crete at the time of which 
 we are speaking ; and this may have been a reason, 
 why St. Paul was anxious to visit the country in 
 person. At the time of his leaving it there were 
 congregations of Christians in several cities, and suf- 
 ficiently numerous to require the establishment of 
 deacons and elders. It would seem, that he had not 
 time to remain long in the island himself; but hav- 
 ing laid the foundation of the church, he left Titus 
 to finish the superstructure. Apollos also was pro- 
 bably there ; and the name of Zenas the lawyer is 
 mentioned, who seems to have been a companion of 
 Apollos. Titus was the person, who was commis- 
 sioned by St. Paul to superintend the Cretan church. 
 He was particularly enjoined to appoint elders in 
 the different cities : and whatever may be said of 
 the title, which he bore% yet when we consider the 
 district committed to him, and the nature of his du- 
 ties, it must be conceded, that his office very nearly 
 resembled that of a bishop in the modern sense of 
 the term. It is true, as I have observed before, that 
 Titus would still be called an elder ; and the elders, 
 whom he appointed, were also called lulaKOTioi, for so 
 they were in the district, or as we should now say 
 in the parish, which each of them overlooked : but 
 Titus surely was an iTriuKoiTog in a higher sense of 
 the term : and if it be allowed, that the whole of 
 Crete was committed to his superintendence, with 
 spiritual authority over all the elders and their 
 churches, it is trifling about words to dispute whe- 
 
 s He is called bishop of Crete in Tit. Constit. Apost. VII.46. 
 by Eusebius, III. 4. Chrysost. See Baroiiius ad an. 58. §. i. 
 
 p2 
 
212 Deaconesses. lect. vii. 
 
 A. D. ther episcopacy was countenanced by St. Paul or no. 
 ^^- It may be added, that in the instructions given to 
 Titus by St. Paul, express mention is made of female 
 elders. The same cause, which led to the appoint- 
 ment of deacons, would also require that the female 
 converts should have some of their own sex to min- 
 ister to them. In cases of sickness, and perhaps 
 even in the solemn rite of baptism, it might have 
 been expedient for women to be occasionally em- 
 ployed. Hence the order of deaconesses arose, which 
 continued for some centuries in the church : but 
 their office was confined entirely to temporal mat- 
 ters : there is no evidence whatever of their taking 
 a share in spiritual concerns. St. Paul expressly 
 prohibited their speaking in the Christian assem- 
 blies : and though they may have attended the 
 female converts at baptism, there is no trace of the 
 sacrament itself being administered by a female ^ 
 Their office, as I have stated, was principally con- 
 fined to works of charity : and the female elders 
 perhaps only differed from the rest in being literally 
 what their name implied, and in seeing that the 
 younger deaconesses discharged their several duties". 
 I should conjecture, that St. Paul returned from 
 Crete to Ephesus, and that shortly after he wrote 
 his epistle to Titus. At this time he intended to 
 winter at Nicopolis " : and since there were many 
 towns of this name, much discussion has arisen as 
 to the particular place intended. The Nicopolis in 
 
 t Tertulliuii mentions some denies that the custom ever 
 
 heretics, who alh)wed \v<mien existed in the church. Hcer. 
 
 to baptize. De bapt'ismo, 17. LXXIX. 3. 
 Epiphaiiius names the Pepu- " See Bingham, II. 22. 
 
 ziaiis, a branch of the Monta- -"^ Titus iii. 12, 
 
 nists. Iher. XLIX. 2. but he 
 
LECT. VII. St.Paul at Ephesus. 213 
 
 Bithynia is perhaps the most probable : but we are A. D. 
 not obliged to suppose, that he kept to his intention 
 of wintering there. If he did, and if the voyage 
 to Crete was taken in the year 51, he returned to 
 Ephesus before the Easter of 52. The labour of 
 attending to all the churches, which he had planted, 
 now began to press heavily upon St. Paul. Ephesus 
 was a central spot for his commvuiicating with them : 
 and this perhaps was another reason, for his residing 
 there so long : but it was an anxious care to watch 
 over infant churches in Macedonia, Achaia, the island 
 of Crete, and great part of the continent of Asia 
 Minor. His converts in Macedonia appear to have 
 caused him the least anxiety. Less learned and re- 
 fined than the inhabitants of southern Greece, they 
 were perhaps less likely to be led away by theory, 
 or distracted by party. I have mentioned also, that 
 Gnosticism appears to have been later in visiting the 
 north than the south of Greece : and perhaps some- 
 thing is to be ascribed to the constant vigilance of 
 St. Luke, v/ho is supposed upon good grounds to 
 have continued all this time at Philippi. 
 
 The Corinthian church unfortunately was not so 
 tranquil. St. Paul had left Corinth in the spring 
 of 48. His place was shortly after supplied by A- 
 pollos : and it has been conjectured, that about this 
 j^eriod the city was visited also by St. Peter. This, 
 however, must be considered a doubtful point ^i nei- 
 ther do we know to whose superintendence St. Paul 
 committed the church of Corinth : and the want of 
 his own personal presence appears to have been felt 
 in several ways. The morality of the Corinthians 
 
 y See Pearson, De Success. Diss. I. c. VII. 3. Tillemont, 
 Memuires, torn. I. p. 756. 
 
 p 3 
 
4H 
 
 214 Gnosfics. LECT. vii. 
 
 A. D. had never stood high : and this sometimes caused 
 • scandal and detriment to the Christian cause. Next 
 to Athens, Corintli was i)erhaj)s the most distin- 
 guished Grecian city for learning and philosophy : 
 and though the gospel is deei)ly indebted to real 
 learning, the philosophy of the Grecian schools was 
 more likely to perplex than to benefit the new con- 
 verts. The divisions and parties, which 8t. Paul so 
 strongly deplores in the Corinthian church, were 
 encouraged rather than repressed by the sophists 
 and their respective hearers. The resurrection of 
 the body, with all its physical and metaphysical dif- 
 ficulties, was sure to form a topic of discussion : and 
 as if the subtlety of the ancient sects was not suflS- 
 cient to mar the simplicity of the gospel, the baneful 
 spirit of Gnosticism was now beginning to spread 
 itself in Greece. St. Paul himself may be quoted as 
 shewing that the term yvxa-ig, from which the Gnos- 
 tics took their name, was used in a peculiar sense, 
 and was arrogated by a certain party in Corinth^. 
 The discussions about marriage were perhaps intro- 
 duced by these new philosophers : for while some of 
 the Gnostics indulged in the grossest sensuality, there 
 were others who inculcated every self-mortification, 
 and prohibited marriage. The Gnostics also denied, 
 that in any sense of the term there would be a resur- 
 rection of the body : they held, that the soul of the 
 man, who had been purified by knowledge, as soon 
 as it was separated from the body by death, fled up 
 at once to the Pleroma, and there dwelt for ever in 
 the presence of God. Whatever the Christians said 
 of a resurrection, the Gnostics interpreted figura- 
 tively. According to them, the Gnostic rose from 
 ^ I Cor. viii. i, 7. xii. 8. xiii. 8. 2 Cor. vi. 6. viii. 7. x. 5. xi.6. 
 
LECT.vii. False teachers at Corinth. 215 
 
 darkness to light, from death to life, when he was A. D. 
 initiated in their mysteries, and became perfect in_4o— 52. 
 knowledge. There is good evidence, that they adopted 
 the Christian rite of baptism ; and there is a tradi- 
 tion, that some of them, if a person died before the 
 rite had been performed, substituted a living person, 
 who was baptized for the dead^. A fuller acquaint- 
 ance with the tenets of this extraordinary sect would 
 perhaps throw additional light upon St. Paul's Epi- 
 stles to the Corinthians. The scruple about eating 
 meats which had been offered to idols, was perhaps 
 felt most strongly by the Jewish converts. These, 
 however, formed only a small part of the Corinthian 
 church ; and here also the Gnostics may perhaps 
 have been the cause of some dissension : for we know 
 that a few years later, when persecution was raging, 
 it was the characteristic of some Gnostic sects, to 
 join without hesitation in heathen sacrifices. In 
 addition to all these causes, which affected the whole 
 body, there can be little doubt, that St. Paul's per- 
 sonal character had suffered in some respects during 
 his absence from Corinth. In the course of the two 
 or three years, which followed his departure, some 
 persons seem to have visited that city, whose object 
 was to injure the character, and to lessen the in- 
 fluence of St. Paul. The malicious design is un- 
 doubtedly to be traced to the Jews. Those among 
 them, who altogether opposed the gospel, would 
 think to further their end by throwing out calum- 
 nies against St. Paul : and we may infer, that some 
 even of the believing Jews still retained their ancient 
 bigotry, and could not acquiesce in the perfect equality 
 
 a St. Paul has been supposed 29. See Bampton Lectures, 
 to allude to this in i Cor. xv. note 78. 
 
 p 4 
 
216 Epistle to the Corinthians, lect. vii. 
 
 A. D. between Jew and Gentile, which was preached by 
 •'"*2. tlie great apostle. Jerusalem was the place, where 
 these prejudices were most strongly felt. We have 
 positive evidence, that at this time there were many 
 myriads of Jewish Christians, who still adhered to 
 the Law of Moses'': and there is reason to think, 
 that some among them even sent out emissaries to 
 the countries which St. Paul had visited, and tried 
 to persuade the Gentiles to conform to the Mosaic 
 Law. Wherever the church was composed in a great 
 measure of Jews, the agitation of this question caused 
 much trouble to St. Paul. We shall have occasion to 
 notice its effects in Galatia and at Rome ; and if we 
 see less of these dissensions at Corinth, it was from 
 the cause already mentioned, that the Corinthian 
 church was composed principally of Gentiles. The at- 
 tempt, however, seems to have been made at Corinth ; 
 and it required no little firmness, as well as judg- 
 ment in St. Paul, to maintain his influence with his 
 converts, and to refute the calumnies which had been 
 brought against him. I have conjectured, that he 
 touched at Corinth on his voyage to or from Crete, 
 and that this took place in the year 51. In the be- 
 ginning of 52 he was again at Ephesus : and having 
 fixed to make another tour through Greece, before 
 he went to Jerusalem, he sent Timothy, not long 
 before Easter, as the bearer of a letter to Corinth. 
 
 About the same time, or not long before, I con- 
 ceive him to have written his Epistle to the Gala- 
 tians. When he returned to Ephesus after his visit 
 to Crete, he probably found accounts awaiting him 
 from some of the churches which he had planted : 
 and it is too plain, that the account from Galatia 
 ^ Acts xxi. 2o. 
 
LECT. VII. Ejyistle to the Galatians. 217 
 
 was calculated to give him much uneasiness. He A. D. 
 had visited that country at least twice : once in 46, 48 52. 
 when he first preached the gospel there ; and again 
 two years after, when he seems to have been no less 
 warmly received than before. In the end of 51, or 
 the beginning of 52, (about three or four years since 
 his second visit,) I conceive him to have had occa- 
 sion to write to them in language of reproof: but 
 the evil, which he deplored, had probably not been 
 felt much before this time. I have conjectured, that 
 the bigoted party at Jerusalem sent emissaries to 
 the countries converted by St. Paul, and endea- 
 voured to impose upon them compliance with the 
 Mosaic Law. The simple and half-civilized Gala- 
 tians seem to have been easily persuaded by them ; 
 and with a rapidity, which is not surprising to 
 those, who have studied the human mind, they im- 
 mediately began to make the gospel merely an ap- 
 pendage to the Law. St. Paul, no doubt, had ex- 
 plained to them the connexion and the difference be- 
 tween the two covenants, and had warned them 
 against the error which they now adopted. The 
 lapse of three or four years could not have made 
 them forget his lessons ; and while they looked up 
 to him as their spiritual father, they could hardly 
 have been induced to listen to this new doctrine. 
 It was necessary, therefore, for these false teachers to 
 undermine the authority of St. Paul, and to draw off 
 the Galatians from their warm attachment to him. 
 They taught, accordingly, that he was not properly 
 an apostle : that he had neither been a companion 
 of Jesus Christ while on earth, nor received his com- 
 mission from those who possessed this advantage. 
 The Galatians, who are represented by heathen 
 
218 Epistle to the Galatians. lect. vii. 
 
 A. D. writers, as easily open to persuasion*^, were led away 
 48— .02. jjy tijis fallacious statement : and St. Paul heard 
 with the deepest sorrow, that the field, which he 
 had been cultivating for some years with the fairest 
 hope, had in one night been thickly sown with tares. 
 He saw that no time was to be lost : and in a tone 
 of warm though affectionate expostulation, which 
 does not appear in any other of his writings, he 
 warned them of the fatal step which they had taken. 
 It was an easy task to prove his own credentials as 
 an apostle : and in a hasty sketch of his life from 
 the time of his conversion, he shews that there was 
 no period, at which any other of the apostles could 
 have instructed him in the gospel. His instruction 
 as well as his commission was given by special re- 
 velation from Christ : and thus he met the false 
 teachers in that part of their argument, which con- 
 cerned himself. But he cared for himself only so 
 far, as his influence was essential to his saving the 
 souls of others ; and he told the Galatians in the 
 plainest terms, that if they trusted to the Law of 
 Moses for salvation, their faith in Christ would be 
 of no avail. St. Paul was accused of teacJi'mg all 
 the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsahe 
 MoseSf saying that they ought not to circumcise 
 their children, neither to ivalk after the customs ^^. 
 But this was a calumny. St. Paul only contended, 
 that the Law of Moses had no power to justify. 
 He knew, that faith in Christ's death could alone 
 save from sin : but he knew also, that the Galatians 
 were trusting for salvation to the Law of Moses. 
 This was the fatal error, which called forth his warm 
 
 c Themistius, Orat. XXIII. limachus in Deliim, 184. 
 p. 299. Strabo IV. p. 299. Cal- ^ Acts xxi. 21. 
 
LECT. VII. Collections for the Poor. 219 
 
 expostulation and his affectionate entreaties : and it A. D. 
 is to be lamented, that we know nothing of the ^^' 
 effect which his letter produced. 
 
 When he wrote to the Corinthians, he intended 
 to stay in Ephesus till Pentecost ^ ; after which he 
 was to go through Macedonia, and so to Corinth ; 
 where he thought of passing the winter, and going 
 from thence in the following year to Jerusalem. 
 He had promised to excite his converts to make a 
 collection for the Christians in Judaea : and it is in- 
 teresting to see how early the custom arose of each 
 congregation making a provision for its poor. The 
 Galatian, Macedonian, and Corinthian churches all 
 received instructions from St. Paul upon this head : 
 and we may assume that in every other place the 
 same custom was followed, which was, that when 
 tlie}'^ met together for prayer upon the Sunday, each 
 person should contribute a certain sum according to 
 his means. Institutions of charity seem to have ac- 
 companied the gospel from its very earliest days. 
 We have seen some of the first converts selling their 
 property, and throwing the produce of it into a 
 common stock ; and we have seen deacons appointed, 
 who had a special office to attend upon the poor. 
 We know also, that in the Corinthian church a list 
 was made out of the widows who were destitute of 
 support : and it may be doubted whether Grecian 
 history presents any parallel to this public subscrip- 
 tion for the inhabitants of Palestine. 
 
 St. Paul's departure from Ephesus took place 
 sooner than he expected. He had been there, as I 
 have already stated, for a considerable portion of 
 three years : and the gospel had now by his means 
 
 e I Cor. xvi. 8. 
 
r.9 
 
 220 Causes of persecution . lect. vii. 
 
 A Y) made great progress, not only in that city, but 
 throughout the whole country of Asia INIinor. The 
 Jews were perhaps not so numerous in this neigh- 
 bourhood, as in other places, which St. Paul had 
 visited ; and the gospel seems to have been left to 
 make its way with only the natural opposition which 
 heathenism presented. The result was as might 
 have been expected : but this success raised up ene- 
 mies of a new kind, whose assaults were far more 
 lasting and more fatal than those of the Jews. I 
 have observed, that great jealousy always existed in 
 Rome against the introduction of foreign supersti- 
 tions. The same feeling had often shewed itself in 
 Greece : and there was no place, in which a similar 
 spirit was more likely to be displayed than in Ephe- 
 sus, where the celebrity of the temple would make 
 the people peculiarly attached to their tutelar deity 
 and their national religion. Another powerful feel- 
 ing also came into operation, when the preachers of 
 Christianity began to diminish the worshippers in 
 the heathen temples. The number of sincere be- 
 lievers in any system of paganism, of men who wor- 
 shipped God with all their hearts, or who even knew 
 what they worshipped, may perhaps have been 
 small : and this was the great reason, why paganism, 
 a religion of outward show, fled before Christianity, 
 a religion of the heart ; but paganism, with the 
 pcmip and pageantry of its worship, made many per- 
 sons deeply interested in its preservation. From the 
 architect and the sculj)tor, whose temples and statues 
 became the wonder of the world, down to the lowest 
 shopkeeper, who supplied materials for a sacrifice, 
 there was a long series of persons, more or less im- 
 portant individually, but numerically of the greatest 
 
LECT. VII. Tumult at Ephesus. 221 
 
 importance, whose fame and even livelihood de- A. D. 
 pended upon polytheism being maintained. It mat- ^^- 
 tered little to such men, whether Diana or Apollo 
 was the favourite deity of the day, but Christianity 
 ruined them at once. " Nil praeter nubes et coeli 
 " numen adorant," was said, in contempt, of the 
 Jews : and the Christians not only succeeded to this 
 obloquy, but their apologists had even to defend 
 them from the charge of atheism. There can be 
 little doubt, that it was from such persons as De- 
 metrius, the Ephesian silversmith, that this accusa- 
 tion came. It was no objection to atheism, upon 
 any principles of philosophy or piety, which pvit the 
 Christians to death ; for then the followers of Epi- 
 curus, rather than of Paul, would have been the 
 sufferers : but Demetrius let out the true reason, 
 when he said to his companions, Ye know, that by 
 this craft ive have our wealth. The tumult, which 
 this man was able to raise in Ephesus, is an excel- 
 lent comment, not only upon popular commotions 
 in general, but upon the history of religious perse- 
 cutions. St. Luke says, that the more part knew 
 not wherefore they were come together, notwith- 
 standing that they shouted out for two hours. Great 
 is Diana of the Ephesians. But the silversmith 
 and his party knew very well, why they had brought 
 the multitude together. They cared little or no- 
 thing for Diana of the Ephesians ; but they cared 
 for the money, which they got by making silver 
 shrines : and it was because these men were in 
 danger of losing their gains, that the apostles and 
 their followers were to be put to death. This tu- 
 mult appears to have been the first of the kind ; 
 and the authors of it were not jqX. able to engage 
 
222 Tumult at Ephesus. i.ect. vii. 
 
 A. D. the multitude in their cause. The Roman govern- 
 '^'" ment also had not yet taken up the question : and a 
 popular insurrection, from whatever cause it came, 
 was always a thing to be repressed. The person, 
 who appeased the tumult, seems to have known the 
 temper of the citizens, as well as the character of 
 the apostles : and there is good reason to tliink, that 
 persons of some rank and station interfered for the 
 protection of St. Paul. It has been disputed, whe- 
 ther he was not at this time made to fight with 
 beasts in the amphitheatre at Ephesus : and his 
 own words', as well as ecclesiastical traditions, have 
 been quoted to maintain the affirmative. On the 
 whole, 1 am rather inclined to reject the story. Had 
 the attempt been made, he would probably have 
 pleaded his Roman citizenship ; and St. Luke, who 
 has described the riot with some detail, would hardly 
 have omitted such an interesting occurrence. We 
 have, however, his own evidence for saying, that 
 the latter part of his residence in Ephesus was at- 
 tended with personal danger^. When he wrote his 
 Epistle to the Corinthians, he saw that the storm 
 was gathering ; and some of the Christians had 
 perhaps already begun to suffer for their faith. I 
 would not assert, that they had not been made to 
 fight with beasts in the amphitheatre ; and some 
 such attempt would perhaps have been made upon 
 the apostle, if he had not hastened his departure, 
 and set out, as he had previously intended, for Ma- 
 cedonia. It was his plan to have left the Ephesian 
 church under the charge of Timothy, who had 
 gone to Corinth with the apostle's letter, and would 
 
 f I Cor. XV. 32. ? I Cor. xv. 30. 2 Cor. i. 8. 10, perhaps 
 
 also Rom. xvi. 4. 
 
LECT. VII. aS'^. Pmd leaves Ephesus. 223 
 
 have returned to Ephesus before his departure, if A.D. 
 he could have remained there, as long as he had in- 
 tended. It is uncertain, whether Timothy arrived 
 in time to see St. Paul. If he did, he had but a 
 short interview, and St. Paul wrote from the first 
 place where he stopped, perhaps from Troas, giving 
 Timothy ample directions for the discharge of his 
 important duty. The apostle's mind must have 
 been distracted with various anxieties upon leaving 
 Ephesus. He had fixed to go to Jerusalem, and 
 perhaps wished to have another conference concern- 
 ing the Gentile converts. It was six years, since he 
 had seen his converts in Macedonia, who were par- 
 ticularly attached to him ; and he was solemnly 
 pledged to go soon to Corinth, if he did not even 
 take it first before Macedonia. All this might re- 
 concile him to leaving Asia Minor, where he had 
 laboured successfully for upwards of three years ; 
 but still he was compelled to leave it at the crisis 
 when his presence was most necessary. If Chris- 
 tian blood had not already been shed in Ephesus, 
 there was at least great danger to the Christians 
 who continued there : and if they escaped from 
 these open enemies, there was a still more fatal 
 danger to their souls from the Gnostic philosophy. 
 There can be little doubt, that Hymenseus and Alex- 
 ander, who were delivered by St. Paul to Satan not 
 long before his departure from Ephesus'', had em- 
 braced the Gnostic errors ; and the apostle probably 
 had recourse to this severity, that it might deter 
 others from doing the same. The punishment seems 
 to have consisted in the infliction of some bodily 
 suffering ; and it was part of the preternatural 
 
 '' I Tim. i. 20. 
 
224 St. Paul leaves Ephesus. lect. vii. 
 
 A. D, power committed to the apostles, to be able to visit 
 ^^- offenders with these visible tokens of displeasure. 
 The measure would be doubly necessary, when the 
 Ephesian converts were deprived of the watchful 
 superintendence of him who had instructed them ; 
 and Timothy, who had now been the companion of 
 St. Paul for six years, and had been employed in 
 the management of the Macedonian churches, was 
 well suited to undertake the important charge. The 
 apostle had some intentions of returning shortly 
 himself. The length of his absence would depend 
 upon the state of his converts in Macedonia and 
 Corinth : but he was not aware at this time, that 
 M'hen he took his departure from Ephesus, he was 
 never to see that city more. 
 
COa..CQI,T. 
 
 IRi. ^^ 
 
 J- 
 
 ^■" 
 
 X '' 
 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 OT. PAUL left Ephesus some time before Pente- A. D. 
 cost in the year 52. According to the plan, which ' 
 
 he had fixed before the tumult in the theatre, he 
 had intended not to set out till after Pentecost, to 
 visit the churches in Macedonia, and to winter in 
 Corinth. Being obliged to leave the city in a hurry, 
 he seems hardly to have decided whether he should 
 still keep to his former plan, or whether he should 
 not hasten his journey through Greece, and return 
 as soon as he could to Ephesus ^. On many ac- 
 counts he was anxious to arrive at Corinth. His 
 converts there were by no means in a satisfactory 
 state, and he had not yet heard how they had re- 
 ceived the letter which he wrote to them. When 
 he reached Troas, he partly expected to meet Titus 
 there, who for some reason or other had left Crete, 
 and touching at Corinth was to have brought St. 
 Paul an account of the state of the Corinthian 
 church ^. It may have been about a twelvemonth, 
 or perhaps more, since St. Paul himself was in 
 Crete ; and Titus was probably coming to confer 
 with him, after having given regulations to the 
 churches in that island. The apostle, however, did 
 not meet with Titus at Troas ; and though the 
 gospel was already established there, and a pro- 
 
 '' See I Tim. i. 3. iii. 14, 15. ''2 Cor. ii. 12, 13. 
 
 Q 
 
226 St. Paul in lect. viii. 
 
 A. D. mising field was open to his labours, he would not 
 •^^^- allow himself to stay, but passed on to Macedonia. 
 His first Epistle to Timothy seems to have been 
 written, as I have already stated, soon after his 
 leaving Ephesus, perhaps from Troas ; and it con- 
 tains many evident allusions to the errors of the 
 Gnostics. He had already told the Thessalonians, 
 that the time would come, when many Christians 
 would fall away from the faith ; and he now de- 
 livers the same prediction to Timothy. I conceive 
 both of these remarkable passages*^ to relate to 
 Gnosticism, and to evils which were to happen to- 
 ward the close of the first century, when most of 
 the apostles were dead. This defection to Gnosti- 
 cism appears to have been a frequent topic in the 
 prophetic warnings of St. Paul ; and he naturally 
 wrote more plainly and more fully to Timothy, be- 
 cause the evil had already begun to shew itself at 
 Ephesus. 
 
 We have little or no account at this time of St. 
 Paul's journey through Macedonia. He had two 
 principal objects in view : to visit his converts in 
 those parts, and to excite them to make a collection 
 for the Christians in Judaea. He had partly pre- 
 pared the way for the latter measure by sending 
 Timothy and Erastus some time before ; and while 
 Timothy went on to Corinth with St. Paul's letter, 
 Erastus remained in Macedonia. We know, that 
 the Macedonians met this call upon tl:eir charity 
 with the greatest alacrity, and St. Paul was able 
 to use the zeal of them and the Corinthians as a 
 mutual example to each other. While he was in 
 Macedonia, he had also the gratification of receiv- 
 
 c 2 Tliess. ii. i Tim. iv. i. 
 
LECT. VIII. Macedonia. 227 
 
 ing a favourable account from Corinth. Titus, who A. D. 
 was to have met the apostle at Troas, joined him in ^^- 
 Macedonia, and having been at Corinth since the 
 arrival of his letter, he was able to acquaint him 
 with its reception, and the good effect which it had 
 produced '^ This intelligence was particularly gra- 
 tifying to St. Paul ; and he shortly sent Titus back 
 again to Corinth, as the bearer of a second Epistle. 
 He speaks also of sending with him two other per- 
 sons, but does not mention their names : and great 
 discussion has arisen, as to who these persons were. 
 The notion was entertained by some ancient and 
 modern writers, that one of them was St. Luke": 
 but there are no good grounds for such an ojiinion, 
 which seems to have arisen from a mistake. The 
 apostle's own words make it more probable, that 
 these persons were Macedonians ; and he seems to 
 have sent them on this mission, that one or both of 
 them might finally accompany him to Judaea, and 
 prevent any calumnious reports which his enemies 
 might spread, of the Macedonian money not being 
 projierly applied. We know the names of some 
 Macedonians, who were at Corinth at the end of 
 this year, when the apostle himself was there ; such 
 as AristarchuSj Secundus, and Jason of Thessalo- 
 nica, and probably Sopater of Beroea ; and of these, 
 Aristarchus accompanied St. Paul to Jerusalem ; so 
 that he may have been one of the bearers of St. 
 Paul's second Epistle to Corinth. 
 
 Before this Epistle was written, St. Paul had been 
 joined by Timothy; and it is difficult to explain, 
 why Timothy had so soon left his charge at Ephe- 
 sus, and followed the apostle into Macedonia. There 
 
 '1 2 Cor. vii. 6. ^' Origen, Jeroni, Grotius, Cappeilus. 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 Church at Ephesus. lect. viii. 
 
 A. D. is reason also to think, that Aquila and Priscilla 
 • quitted Ephesus about the same period : at least 
 
 they were residing there, when St. Paul wrote to 
 the Corinthians before Easter, and by the end of the 
 year they had returned to Rome. We should wish 
 to know what induced them and Timothy to leave 
 Ephesus at a time, when the presence of every zea- 
 lous teacher seemed so particularly needed. St. Paul 
 speaks of Aquila and Priscilla having laid down 
 their own necks for his lije^; an expression, which 
 at least implies, that they had incurred some per- 
 sonal danger. This may have been at the time of 
 the riot in the theatre, when St. Paul was persuaded 
 by the brethren not to risk his own life, by encoun- 
 tering the populace: or they may have been exposed 
 to peril subsequent to St. Paul's departure, and in- 
 duced in consequence to seek a safer residence. If 
 so, Timothy may also have been forced to leave 
 Ephesus, from his life being in danger; and he may 
 have gone to consult St. Paul upon these melancholy 
 events ; but I should be more willing to believe, that 
 the storm blew over soon after St. Paul's departure ; 
 that the Ephesian church resumed its former secu- 
 rity both from internal and external enemies ; and 
 that Timothy thought it better to pass a few months 
 in company with St. Paul, intending to return with 
 him to Ephesus, when the Grecian churches had 
 been visited. We are apt to forget the small extent, 
 which Greece occupied, even if we take in the Ionian 
 colonies. A journey of four or five days would have 
 brought Timothy from Ephesus to Macedonia, and 
 he might have returned back again, if necessary, in 
 
 ' Rom. xvi. 3, 4. 
 
LECT. VIII. St.Paulin Corinth. 2^9 
 
 as many more : and notwithstanding the defective A. D. 
 navigation of those days, it is plain, even from the ^^' 
 New Testament, that there was great facility of com- 
 munication between one place and another through 
 the whole of Greece. Timothy, however, did not re- 
 turn to Ephesus for some time, and was with St. 
 Paul during his residence at Corinth ; which con- 
 firms the notion of the Ephesian church having be- 
 come more tranquil. The same cause perhaps in- 
 duced St. Paul to stay a longer time in Macedonia, 
 than he at first intended ; and instead of going im- 
 mediately to Corinth, and then back to Ephesus, he 
 visited the churches, which he had planted in Mace- 
 donia, and traversed the country till he came to the 
 borders of Illyria ^. This would occupy some months, 
 and he probably would not reach Corinth till the 
 beginning of winter. 
 
 This was the second residence of St. Paul in 
 Corinth, and he staid there three months ; during 
 which period, we know little or nothing concerning 
 him, except that he wrote his celebrated Epistle to 
 the Romans. He appears to have formed a wish 
 some time before of going to Rome, and even beyond 
 Italy, to Spain ; and at present his intention was to 
 take that journey, as soon as he had been to Jeru- 
 salem. He had heard much of the flourishing state 
 of the Roman church : and our curiosity is naturally 
 excited, to know how the gospel had taken such deep 
 root in a place, which as yet had not been visited by 
 any apostle. Roman Catholic writers would not 
 allow this statement, and would easily solve the dif- 
 ficulty by saying, that St. Peter visited Rome in the 
 second year of Claudius, when he founded the church 
 
 g lb. XV. 19. 
 Q 3 
 
230 Church at Home. lect. viii. 
 
 A. D. in that city. This assertion rests upon a single pas- 
 ^^- sage, which is perhaps interpolated, in the Chronicle 
 of Eusebiiis: and nothing seems more certain from the 
 Acts of the Apostles, than that in the second year of 
 Claudius, which was the year 42, St. Peter had not tra- 
 velled beyond Judaea. It is also plain from this very 
 Epistle of St. Paul, that at the time of its being writ- 
 ten, which was the year 53, no apostle had visited 
 Rome^ ; and he was himself anxious to go thither, 
 because his principle was, not to build upon another 
 man's foundation. Still, however, the seed had been 
 sown, and, according to the apostle himself, was now 
 bringing forth an abundant croj). I have conjectured, 
 that some of the Roman Jews, who were at Jerusalem 
 on the day of Pentecost, which followed the cruci- 
 fixion, may have carried with them a knowledge of 
 the gospel, when they returned to Rome. I men- 
 tioned, that Rufus, who was living with his mother 
 at Rome, when St. Paul wrote this Epistle, was pro- 
 bably the son of Simon of Cyrene, and they may 
 have been among the first preachers of Christianity 
 in that city. St. Paul also mentions his relations 
 Andronicus and Junias, who had been converted 
 earlier than himself: and if the apostle's conversion 
 happened, as I have supposed, within the first year 
 after our Lord's ascension, it becomes highly pro- 
 bable, that these his two relations were among the 
 first converts on the day of Pentecost. I have al- 
 ready observed, that it is not quite certain, whether 
 Aquila and Priscilla had embraced the gospel, before 
 they met St. Paul at Corinth in the year 46 : but 
 enough has been said to shew, that the gospel may 
 have been known at Rome fifteen years before that 
 ^ See Romans i. 1 1 . xv. l8, 22. 
 
LECT. VIII. Simon Magus at Rome. 231 
 
 period : and the edict of Claudius, which ordered A. D. 
 the Jews to quit the city, most probably caused many ^^- 
 Christians to seek a residence in other places. There 
 are reasons to think, that this edict continued in 
 force but a short time ; and since the Christian com- 
 munity at Rome, at the time of St. Paul writing this 
 Epistle, contained a great number of Jews, it is 
 plain that they must have been allowed to return 
 some time before. 
 
 It may perhaps appear extraordinary, that St. 
 Paul should have written this letter to the Romans, 
 when as yet he had not visited them, and had had 
 no share in their conversion : but he himself perhaps 
 furnishes the reason, when the principal part of his 
 argument consists in proving that salvation cannot 
 be obtained by the Law of Moses. The same rea- 
 soning, and the same exhortations, which he had 
 used upon this subject to the Galatians, are repeated 
 to the Romans : and we should not perhaps be mis- 
 taken in supposing, that the same false teachers, who 
 had visited Galatia, went ou afterwards to Rome. 
 
 There is reason also to think, that these Judaizing 
 teachers were not the only persons, who had misre- 
 presented the gospel at Rome. If Eusebius is to be 
 believed, Simon Magus visited Rome immediately 
 after he had been rebuked by St. Peter in Samaria : 
 but Eusebius contradicts himself^ : and if he knew 
 only of one journey of Simon Magus to Rome, he 
 might equally be quoted as placing that journey se- 
 veral years later. There is, however, another author- 
 ity, which I cannot but consider as most respectable, 
 which positively asserts that Simon went to Rome 
 in the reign of Claudius. Justin Martyr, who was 
 
 » Compare H. E. II. 13, 14. 
 Q 4 
 
232 Simon Magus lect. viii. 
 
 A. D. himself a Samaritan, of the same country with Simon, 
 and must have been born early in the second century, 
 speaks with some detail of the success of that im- 
 postor. He says that his doctrine had spread over 
 the whole of Samaria, where he was looked upon as 
 a god : he then adds with great minuteness, that he 
 came to Rome in the reign of Claudius, was received 
 there with divine honours, and had a statue erected 
 to him in the river Tiber, between the two bridges, 
 with a Latin inscription, SIMONI DEO SANCTO^^. 
 I am aware, that the accuracy of Justin in giving 
 this account, has been called in question, and he has 
 been charged with making a mistake from not being 
 able to read Latin. The same inscription, however, 
 is quoted by Latin Fathers, who co\ild not have been 
 so deceived' ; and it is to be remembered, that Justin 
 made this statement in a defence, which he presented 
 to the emperor Antoninus Pius about the year 140, 
 when he was himself at Rome ; and it is difficult to 
 believe, that he could have been so deceived concern- 
 ing the history of Simon ; or that he would have 
 invented a story, which, if false, would have been 
 detected not only by the emperor, but by every per- 
 son in Rome. Upon the whole I am inclined to 
 admit it as a fact, that Simon Magus came to Rome 
 in the reign of Claudius, and that his doctrine met 
 with an extraordinary reception : but since Claudius 
 reigned nearly fourteen years, it is difficult to con- 
 jecture the date of his arrival. A spurious though 
 ancient document, which has been ascribed to Cle- 
 ment"', speaks of Aquila having been a disciple of 
 
 ^ Apol. I. 26. p. 59. Cyril of Jenisaleiii. See Banip- 
 
 1 Tertullian, Augustin. It ton Lt'ctures, note 42. 
 
 is also noticed by the Greek '" Kecogn. Clem. II. J. 
 
 writers, Ireneeus, Theodoret, 
 
LECT. VIII. in Rome. 233 
 
 Simon Magus : and since Aquila joined St. Paul at A. D. 
 Corinth in 46, this would make Simon to have vi- ^^- 
 sited Rome during the six first years of the reign 
 of Claudius. It is probable also, that the impostor 
 himself, as being a Samaritan, might have been 
 driven from Rome by that emperor's edict against 
 the Jevv^s : but the whole of this testimony concern- 
 ing Aquila is worthy of little credit : and I should 
 rather be inclined to place Simon's arrival at Rome 
 late in the reign of Claudius, perhaps not long be- 
 fore the date of St. Paul's Epistle. Though Simon 
 introduced the name of Christ into his extravagant 
 philosophy, there is reason to think, that for some 
 years at least it did not produce much effect upon 
 the gospel. I have observed, that Gnosticism does 
 not appear to have attracted the Christians in 
 Greece, till about the latter part of St. Paul's resi- 
 dence in Ephesus. The apostle may also have 
 heard, that the Roman Christians were beginning to 
 be seduced by it ; and it may have been in allusion 
 to this, that he said to them, Noiv I beseech you, 
 brethren, mark them which cause divisions and 
 offences, contrary to the doctrine which ye have 
 learned, and avoid them: for they that are such 
 serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own 
 belly ; and by good words and fair speeches deceive 
 the hearts of the simple ^ . This description is by 
 no means inapplicable to the Gnostics, who in later 
 times, if not now, defended immorality upon prin- 
 ciple, and used their pretended miracles for the pur- 
 poses of gain. It might be thought also, that evil 
 was already beginning to be felt by the Christians 
 from their being confounded with the Gnostics. 
 " Rom. xvi. 17, 18. 
 
234 Si. Paul leaves Corinth, lect. viii. 
 
 A. D. The latter may have said, Let us do evil, that good 
 ^^- may come; and they may have asserted, by a strange 
 perversion of argument, that the principle was to be 
 found in the doctrines of the Christians. If there 
 are these grounds for believing, that the converts at 
 Rome were in danger of having their faith perverted 
 by the Judaizing teachers and by the Gnostics, we 
 can easily account for St. Paul addressing to them 
 this Epistle ; and the more so, since he probably 
 thought at this time, that within a few months he 
 should himself visit Rome. 
 
 A. D. The Epistle to the Romans was written from Co- 
 rinth, when St. Paul was on the point of leaving it 
 for Jerusalem : and since he travelled by land to 
 Philippi, and set sail from that city immediately 
 after Easter, the Epistle must have been written 
 early in the year 53, probably in February. This 
 agrees with what is said by St. Luke, that St. Paul 
 passed three months in Greece. I have supposed 
 some months to have been occupied by his journey 
 through Macedonia, and that he arrived in southern 
 Greece at the beginning of winter. This would 
 allow him to have spent three months there ; and 
 perhaps the greater part of the time was passed at 
 Corinth. As soon as the season for sailing was ar- 
 rived, he intended to set out for Judaea, taking with 
 him the money, which had been collected as alms 
 from the converts in Macedonia and Achaia. The 
 Jews, however, laid wait for him ; partly perhaps 
 from their ancient enmity to him, and partly to get 
 possession of the sum, which he was known to be 
 carrying off. We are not informed of the plan 
 which they had taken to intercept the apostle ; nor 
 does it appear why it was safer for him to take the 
 
i.ECT. VIII. Feast of Easter. 235 
 
 circuitous route of going through Macedonia by A. D. 
 land, than to sail direct for Judaea by sea. He de- ^"^^ 
 cided, however, upon the former course, and arrived 
 at Philippi before Easter. I have mentioned some 
 Macedonians, who were with him at Corinth, So- 
 pater of Beroea, and Jason, Secundus and Aristar- 
 chus of Thessalonica. All these, except Jason, ap- 
 pear to have left Corinth with the apostle : and in 
 addition to these there were Timothy, and Caius, 
 who was also of Derbe, and Tychicus and Trophi- 
 mus, who were natives of Asia Minor, and probably 
 of Ephesus. All these, except Sopater, proceeded 
 immediately to Troas ; but St. Paul himself re- 
 mained at Philij)pi to keep the feast of Easter ; and 
 I may remark in this place, that there is evidence of 
 the Christians having observed this season from the 
 earliest times. The fact indeed could hardly have 
 been otherwise, when so many of the first converts 
 were Jews ; and the Gentile converts had as good 
 reason to remember the solemnity, which reminded 
 them of their Saviour's resurrection. There can be 
 little doubt, that St. Paul himself, and perhaps all 
 the Christians, at this early period, observed the 
 feast of Easter according to the Jewish method of 
 computation. The time of it depended upon the 
 Paschal full moon, and the Asiatic churches con- 
 tinued for a long time to adhere to this rule. The 
 western churches did not make it a moveable feast : 
 but the controversy, which arose from this differ- 
 ence of customs, belongs to a later period of eccle- 
 siastical history. It is supposed that the festival 
 lasted for fifteen days, i. e. for the seven days which 
 preceded Easter Sunday, and the seven which fol- 
 lowed it. 
 
236 St. Luke at Philipjyi. lect. viii. 
 
 A. D. When the Easter was over, St. Paul set sail for 
 ^^' Troas to rejoin his companions ; and since St. Luke 
 accompanied him from Philippi, but was not with 
 him before, there is reason to think that he had 
 been staying some time in that city. The last time 
 we have had any positive mention of St. Luke, was 
 when he arrived at Philippi with St. Paul in the 
 year 46 ; and since he does not speak of himself as 
 accompanying the apostle from that city, and it is 
 plain, that he was not with him at Athens or Co- 
 rinth, I conjectured, that he continued at Philippi, 
 and had a principal share in managing the Macedo- 
 nian churches. During the six years which fol- 
 lowed, we hear nothing of St. Luke ; and whether 
 he remained at Philippi till 53, when he accompa- 
 nied St. Paul to Jerusalem, must be considered un- 
 certain. It seems most probable, that he passed this 
 interval either in that city, or in visiting other places 
 of Macedonia ; and the flourishing state of the 
 churches in those parts is perhaps to be ascribed to 
 the zeal and ability of St. Luke. Some persons have 
 supposed, that he wrote his Gospel at this period : 
 a notion, which rests principally upon the fact of 
 his continuing so long in one place, where he might 
 be conceived to have had leisure for such an under- 
 taking. The hypothesis is capable of being neither 
 proved nor disproved ; and the date of St. Luke's 
 Gospel is perhaps correctly fixed to about this pe- 
 riod : but it seems to me more probable, as I shall 
 state presently, that it was written in Palestine. 
 
 St. Paul arrived at Troas in five days, where he found 
 the rest of his company, and staid there seven days. 
 It is not necessary for me to dwell upon the miracle of 
 his raising Eutychus to life : but the occasion, which 
 
LECT. VIII. Sunday. 237 
 
 led to it, furnishes one of the many proofs, that the A. D. 
 first day of the week was observed by the Christians 
 for meeting together to pray, and to take the bread 
 and wine. We know also, from an Epistle written 
 by St. Paul in the preceding year, that charitable 
 collections for the poor were sometimes made on the 
 Lord's day^. This was the name, which it gene- 
 rally bore. The heathen name of Sunday was ap- 
 plied to it in the second century even by Christians''; 
 and perhaps this was the case at an earlier period. 
 There can however be no doubt, that the Lord's 
 day was observed in the time of the apostles, and it 
 was always considered as a day of rejoicing. In 
 later times it was held unlawful to fast upon the 
 Sunday : but this rule was perhaps not established 
 in the first century'J. The Christians were also 
 accustomed for a long time to observe the Jewish 
 Sabbath as well as the Sunday. It was perhaps 
 natural for them to do so, while so many of them 
 had been Jews : and those who have watched the 
 effect produced by times and seasons, will not be 
 surprised that even the Gentile Christians should 
 have assisted afterwards in continuing the custom ^ 
 St. Paul probably staid purposely these seven 
 days at Troas, that he might pass the Sunday there; 
 but we have already seen, that the gospel had made 
 some progress in that town. He had found St. Luke 
 there in the year 46, when he was passing over for 
 the first time into Macedonia. How long St. Luke 
 had been staying there, does not appear : but he 
 had probably preached with success ; and when St. 
 
 o I Cor. xvi. 2. Paul fastetl on the Sunday. 
 
 P Justin. Mart. ApoL I. 67. Ei)ist. XXVIII. ad Lucinium. 
 p. 83. r See Bingham. XX. 2. Hol- 
 
 q Jerom observes, that St. den on the Christian Sabbath, 
 
238 Church of Ej)hesus. i-Ect. viii. 
 
 A. D. Paul came to Troas from Ephesus in 52, he fouutl, 
 ^^- as he says, a door opened to him ^ for preaching the 
 gospel. At that time he was not able to stay there ; 
 but at present, though he was in a hurry to pro- 
 ceed, he remained seven days. From thence in five 
 days more he arrived at Miletus, having sailed by 
 Ephesus without stopping there : for though the 
 inducement was great to visit his converts in that 
 city, he knew that he should find it difficult to leave 
 them, and he was anxious, if possible, to be at Jeru- 
 salem by Pentecost. He therefore stopi)ed at Mile- 
 tus, and sent to Ephesus, which is about fifty miles 
 off, requesting the elders of that church to come and 
 meet him. The scriptures scarcely contain a more 
 affecting scene, than that which took place in conse- 
 quence. St. Paul's address to these persons, whom 
 either he or Timothy had placed over the Ephesian 
 church, not only throws light upon his former resi- 
 dence in that city ; but if vi'^e take historically what 
 he delivered prophetically, we learn something of 
 what took place at Ephesus after this period ; and 
 when the apostle said, / know this, that after my 
 departing shall grievous wolves enter in among 
 you, not sjxiring the flock : cdso of your own selves 
 shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw 
 away the disciples after them, he seems very plainly 
 to allude to the errors of the Gnostics. If we take 
 his words literally, he seems also to have known, 
 that liis converts at Ephesus were never to see him 
 again ; and we certainly have no account of his ever 
 visiting Ephesus after this time. Nothing is said 
 of his leaving Timothy at Ephesus on this occasion : 
 but since St. Luke is equally silent as to Timothy 
 s 2 Cor. ii. 1 2. 
 
LECT. VIII. Church of Tyre. 239 
 
 going on to Jerusalem, we might perhaps conjee- a. D. 
 ture, that he staid with his Ephesian converts, from ^'^• 
 whom he had now been separated about a twelve- 
 month*. 
 
 There is no occasion to follow the apostle in his 
 voyage along the coast of Asia Minor. There was 
 no place, at which he stopped even for one day, till 
 he reached Tyi-e ; but here he met with some Chris- 
 tians, and staid with them a week. It does not ap- 
 pear, that he had ever been here before : but Phoe- 
 nicia is mentioned among the places which received 
 the gospel from some of those persons, who were 
 dispersed upon the death of Stephen. Twenty-two 
 years, therefore, had elapsed since Christianity had 
 first been established in Tyre ; and lying as it did, 
 on the road from Jerusalem to Antioch, it was not 
 unlikely to be occasionally visited by some of the 
 apostles. We might perhaps conjecture, that this 
 had been the case, since there were persons there, 
 when St. Paul arrived, who possessed the spirit of 
 j)rophecy ; and it seems certain, that these spirit- 
 ual gifts were only conveyed by the hands of an 
 apostle. The disciples at Tyre had received preter- 
 natural intimation, that some misfortune would be- 
 fall the apostle at Jerusalem : but such anticipations 
 had no effect upon him, and he proceeded on by 
 Ptolemais to Caesarea. We here meet again with 
 Philip, who was one of the seven deacons, and who 
 after converting the Samaritans, and baptizing the 
 Ethiopian eunuch, is said to have gone to Caesarea. 
 It must have been an interesting meeting between 
 him and the apostle, if they had never met since the 
 time that Saul's persecution had forced the surviving 
 
 t This is filso the conjecture of Baronius. 
 
240 Philip the Deacon. lect. viii. 
 
 A. D. deacons to leave Jerusalem. Caesarea was perhaps 
 ^^' the usual residence of Philip : but we need not sup- 
 pose, that he had confined himself to that one place 
 during the two and twenty years which had elapsed. 
 St. Luke calls him the evangelist : by which we are 
 certainly to understand, that a special gift of the 
 Spirit enabled him to preach the gospel ; and we 
 are perhaps to infer, that without holding an office 
 in any definite church, he preached in his own city, 
 and in other neighbouring places. The nature of 
 these spiritual gifts may be further illustrated by 
 what we read of his four daughters, who had the 
 gift of prophecy ; by which we are perhaps to un- 
 derstand, that they were sjjecially enlightened in ex- 
 pounding the scriptures. There is abundant evi- 
 dence, that this and every other miraculous gift 
 was bestowed without any distinction of sex : and 
 though St. Paul prohibited females from speaking in 
 the churches, they would have frequent opportunity 
 of exercising their sjiiritual gifts, in making con- 
 verts of their own sex, and in instructing those who 
 already believed. It is singular, that so many 
 early writers have confounded Philip the deacon 
 with Philip the aj)ostle ; and when we are told, that 
 two of his daughters, who died unmarried, were 
 buried with himself at Hierapolis, and that a third 
 was buried at Ephesus, there is perhaps an allusion 
 intended to the daughters of the evangelist, men- 
 tioned in the Acts, though the tradition related 
 more properly to Philip the apostle. 
 
 We have still another instance of these spiritual 
 gifts in the case of Agabus, who came down at this 
 time from Jerusalem to Ciiesarea. He may perhaps 
 have been the same person, who more than twelve 
 
LECT. VIII. Inspiration of St. Paul. 241 
 
 years before had predicted the famine, which hap- A. D. 
 peiied in the reign of Claudius ; and he now signi- ^'^• 
 fied to St. Paul, by a symbolical representation, 
 common in eastern countries, that he would be im- 
 prisoned at Jerusalem and delivered to the Gentiles. 
 The prediction is worthy of being remarked, be- 
 cause it appears plain from other passages, that St. 
 Paul, though gifted to a high degree with the spirit 
 of prophecy, had not yet received a clear revelation 
 of what M'as awaiting him. He had been able to 
 foretell to his converts at Thessalonica and Ephesus, 
 that the Gnostic errors would in a few years, and 
 after his own decease, be productive of great evils to 
 the church. He even knew, that his converts at 
 Ephesus would never see his face again ; and yet it 
 is plain, that it was not till his arrival in Judaea, 
 that he knew the full extent and the immediate ap- 
 proach of the trial which he was to undergo. When 
 he wrote to the Romans, he fully expected that he 
 should see them shortly, and that after having been 
 to Jerusalem he should be at liberty to travel in any 
 direction : but if there could be any doubt upon this 
 point, it would be removed by what he said to the 
 Ephesian elders, A^oif^ / go hound in the spirit unto 
 Jerusalem, not hnoiving the things that shall hejall 
 me there : save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in 
 every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide 
 me. The fact is curious, as illustrating the nature 
 of these preternatural illuminations; and so far from 
 making us think less of the apostle's inspiration, it 
 ought greatly to strengthen our conviction, that 
 there was no delusion in these spiritual gifts, and 
 that St. Paul spoke truth when he said, There are 
 diversities of operations, hut it is the same God 
 
 R 
 
242 Inspiration of St. Paul. lect. viii. 
 
 A. D. which workcth all in all: arid all these uorketh 
 • that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every 
 man severaUij as he will. An impostor would never 
 have laid claim to imperfect inspiration. If the 
 whole had been a contrivance, St. Paul and not Aga- 
 bus would have been the principal prophet. He 
 would never have acknowledged, that he was igno- 
 rant of the fate which awaited him ; nor would he 
 have left it to inferior pretenders in the different 
 towns, to disclose by degrees what personally con- 
 cerned himself. The persons, who are surprised, 
 that St. Paul's foreknowledge was limited, can have 
 paid little attention to the question of prophecy. In- 
 spiration cannot be separated from the notion of a 
 superintending and controlling power : if it could, 
 or if the extent of the foreknowledge depended upon 
 the will of the person possessing it, it would cease 
 to be inspiration : and if we proceed to say, that St. 
 Paul was not inspired, because he did not know 
 every thing, we are in fact deciding what it is best 
 for God to do ; and we are judging by ordinary and 
 human rules of that which by the very hypothesis 
 is extraordinary and superhuman. If a person de- 
 nies the existence of prophecy, he nuist be met 
 by other arguments : but if he allow it to be pos- 
 sible, it bespeaks not only a more humble, but a 
 more philosophical mind, to judge of prophecy by 
 what is revealed. Inspiration would not be given 
 at all, but for wise and good purposes ; and he, 
 who thinks that St. Paul's foreknowledge ought to 
 have exceeded that of Agabus, should be prepared 
 to prove, that the counsels of God would have suc- 
 ceeded better, if this had been the case. 
 
 The prediction so clearly jnade by Agabus pro- 
 
i>ECT. VIII. Felix Procurator of Judcea. 243 
 
 cluced no more effect upon St. Paul than the warn- A. D. 
 ings, which he had received at Tyre. His resolu- "* 
 tion was fixed, and he continued his journey to Je- 
 rusalem : but before we proceed to consider his re- 
 ception there, a few remarks will be necessary con- 
 cerning the political state of Judaea. 
 
 It was now five years, since St. Paul had visited 
 the metropolis of his countrymen : at least we have 
 no account of his going thither since the year 48 ; 
 and it does not appear, that he visited Judaea during 
 the three years, which he spent for the most part in 
 the neighbourhood of Ephesus. His last visit was 
 a short one. which was caused, as I then conjec- 
 tured, by the disturbed and melancholy state of 
 affairs in that country. Cumanus and Felix had 
 just been appointed to the joint government of 
 Judaea, including Samaria and Galilee : and nothing 
 could exceed the rapacity of these two governors, 
 and the miseries which ensued to the people at 
 large. At length, in the year 50, when Quadratus 
 the jH'esident of Syria was ordered by ClaudiiLs to 
 investigate the cause of these continued outrages, 
 Cumanus was deprived of his share in the govern- 
 ment" ; while Felix, who was equally guilty, con- 
 trived to escape, and had the whole of the province 
 committed to his rule. He was perhaps indebted 
 for this iniquitous partiality to his brother Pallas, 
 the celebrated freedraan and favourite of the empe- 
 
 " Joseph. Ani'iq. XX. 5. Ta- " between the Jews and Chris- 
 
 cit. J«??rt/. XII. 54. Suidashas " tians^ and he had orders to 
 
 preserved a curious fact, if the " punish the latter." voc. Clau- 
 
 truth of it could be proved, dius. It might be thought^ if 
 
 that " Claudius sent Felix to we compare this passage with 
 
 " govern the country, when Josephus, that Suidas meant to 
 
 ^' there had been disturbances write ^afiapeircov for Xpianavcbp. 
 
 R 2 
 
244 State ofJudcva. lect. viii. 
 
 A. 1>. ror Claudius : but though hitherto his government 
 •^•^- had been marked by avarice and oppression, there is 
 reason to think that the Jews were gainers by having 
 got rid of one of their oppressors. When TertuUus 
 said to Felix, as is reported in the Acts, JVe enjoij 
 by thee great quietness, and very worthy deeds are 
 done unto this nation by thy iwovidence, the flattery 
 was not altogether unfounded, though it was only 
 by comparison with still greater anarchy, that the 
 country could then be said to be enjoying quietness. 
 The sicarii still committed many acts of violence ; 
 but Felix had no interest in tolerating them, and he 
 took every means to put them down by the strong 
 arm of power. Eleazer, who for twenty years had 
 acted as the head of these marauders, was taken by 
 his exertions and sent in chains to Rome ; but this 
 perhaps happened after the arrival of St. Paul. Im- 
 postors also continued to appear from time to time, 
 taking advantage of the national expectation of the 
 Messiah, and drawing after them great multitudes, 
 who frequently fell under the severity of the govern- 
 ment, as being guilty of riot. It was not long be- 
 fore the arrival of St. Paul, that an Egyptian tried a 
 similar artifice, and deluded as many as 30,000 per- 
 sons, who followed him to the mount of Olives, and 
 threatened to enter Jerusalem. The inhabitants, 
 turbulent as they were, and impatient of their yoke, 
 willingly supported Felix in checking such formid- 
 able invaders ; and the Roman garrison quartered 
 in Jerusalem quickly dispersed the ill-organized 
 rabble, whom fanaticism and a love of plunder had 
 united in this hopeless enterprise^. 
 
 ^ Acts xxi. 38, Josepli. (Ic Bel. JikL II. 13, 5. 
 
LECT. VIII. Ananias Hmh Priest. 245 
 
 to' 
 
 The priesthood was not exemjit from the violence A. D. 
 and disorder which were now disfiguring the poli- 
 tical state of Judaea. The high priests had for 
 some time been tools in the hands of contending 
 parties ; which not only led to a quick succession of 
 them, but caused them to be implicated in much of 
 the wickedness and intrigue, which were now so 
 shamelessly practised. They did not scruple to 
 employ sicarii to get rid of a rival : and at the time 
 of St. Paul coming to Jerusalem, it was difficult to 
 say, who was really high priest. Ananias, who had 
 been appointed to that office in 47, was sent to 
 Rome by Quadratus in consequence of a dispute be- 
 tween the Jews and Samaritans. This probably 
 happened about the time that Felix secured the 
 sole government ; and such causes did not generally 
 obtain a speedy hearing in Rome. In the meantime 
 the high priesthood had been given to Jonathan, 
 who had held the office before, and was now ad- 
 vanced in years. He had been of some use in pro- 
 curing the government for Felix ; and he took ad- 
 vantage of this service, as well as of his age, to re- 
 monstrate with the governor upon the violence of 
 his measures. Felix could ill bear such expostula- 
 tions, and bribed a confidential friend of Jonathan 
 to put him to deaths. While this tragedy was 
 being acted, Ananias appears to have obtained his 
 release from Rome, and to have returned to Jeru- 
 salem. Finding the high priesthood vacant, he pro- 
 bably resumed it, as if his place had never been 
 filled by another. It is not certain, whether this re- 
 sumption of his office was ever ratified by the proper 
 authority ; and it was perhaps more easy for him to 
 
 y Joseph. Antiq. XX. 8, 5. 
 R 3 
 
246 St. Paid at Jerusalem, lect. viii. 
 
 A. D. dispense with such a ceremony, because the power 
 
 ^^- of making- and deposing- the high priests was vested, 
 
 not in Felix, but in Agrippa. I have stated, that 
 this young prince, u])on the death of his uncle He- 
 rod in 49, succeeded to his small kingdom of Chalcis : 
 and four years after, in the year of St. Paul's arrival 
 at Jerusalem, Claudius took this territory from him, 
 and g-ave him Trachonitis and the adjoining district. 
 This change in his dominions, as well as the situa- 
 tion of them, would be likely to keep him from Je- 
 rusalem, and to hinder him from looking- closely 
 into the appointment of the high priests : so that 
 Ananias may have held the office for some time 
 after his return from Rome, and it was not the busi- 
 ness of Felix to investigate his claim. There is 
 reason to think that in this same year he was de- 
 posed by Agrippa, and Ismael appointed in his 
 room. 
 
 Such was the state of Judaea, when St. Paul arrived 
 there in the year 53 : and we may now proceed to 
 pursue his personal history at this critical period of 
 his life. He reached Jerusalem immediately before 
 the feast of Pentecost, when the city would be 
 crowded with foreign Jews from many distant places. 
 It does not appear, that any of the other apostles 
 were now at Jerusalem ; from which we may per- 
 haps infer, that they were dispersed in distant coun- 
 tries to preach the gospel. James was still the resi- 
 dent bishop of Jerusalem : and his station is marked 
 by the fact of St. Paul going to him on the day after 
 his arrival, and giving an account of his proceedings 
 to him and the elders who were present. The other 
 persons, who had travelled with St. Paul, also at- 
 tended this meeting. We know, that Luke, Ari- 
 
LECT. VIII. Judamng Christians. 247 
 
 starchus, and Trophimus, were with him, and perhaps A. D. 
 some more of those, who set out from Greece. I ^'^- 
 have conjectured, that Timothy was left at Ephe- 
 sus ; and perhaps some others remained at different 
 churches on the way. Those, who went on to Je- 
 rusalem, were well received by the brethren in that 
 city ; and there seems to have been a full and ex- 
 plicit understanding between them, as to the mea- 
 sures which had been adopted with the Gentile con- 
 verts. Still, however, there was a strong Judaizing 
 party, who had heard, that St. Paul wished to ab- 
 solve the Jews, as well as the Gentiles, from the 
 obligation of obeying the Law ; and though James 
 and the elders knew that the report was false, they 
 urged upon St. Paul the expediency of giving it an 
 immediate and open contradiction. St. Paul could 
 ea^ly do this without compromising any principle. 
 He only maintained, that the Law and its ceremo- 
 nies could not procure salvation : but if a man chose 
 to observe them, as mere ceremonies, he never ob- 
 jected ; and there is no doubt, that he himself adhered 
 to the Law of Moses in many particulars. All that he 
 wished to impress upon his converts was, that such 
 things were in themselves indifferent ; and the rule 
 which he gave for compliance or noncompliance, was 
 whether other persons were likely to take offence. He 
 had now to apply this rvde to his own case. James and 
 the elders had no intention whatever of imposing the 
 Law of Moses upon the Gentiles ; but they knew, 
 that St. Paul would give offence to many, if he did 
 not comply with it himself. They therefore pointed 
 out a ready method, by which he might prove his 
 regard for the ceremonial Law. There were always 
 several jDersons in Jerusalem, and particularly at the 
 
 R 4 
 
248 Vow of a Naxarite. lect. viii. 
 
 A. 1). great festivals, who took upon them the vow of a 
 ^^- Nazarite : that is, they vowed to abstain from wine, 
 or any fermented liquor, for a certain number of 
 days, the term being optional with themselves ; and 
 when it was over, they were to bring the prescribed 
 oftering to the priest ; till which time the hair of 
 their head was not allowed to be cut. The offer- 
 ing appointed for the Nazarite at the expiration 
 of his vow was very expensive ^ ; and it often hap- 
 pened, that a poor man began his course of ab- 
 stinence, but was not able to fix the termination of 
 it, because he had no means of providing the offer- 
 ing. In these cases the vow might continue a long 
 time : and a king or great person, when he arrived 
 at Jerusalem, sometimes made himself popular, by 
 enabling the Nazarites to provide their offering**. 
 The elders happened to know of four Christians, 
 who had taken upon themselves a vow, which they 
 were not able to discharge ; and they therefore sug- 
 gested to St. Paul, that if he took the same vow 
 upon himself, and assisted these men to provide their 
 offering, the fact would be publicly known, and the 
 charge brought against him would be proved to be 
 false. He accordingly went the next day with the 
 four Nazarites publicly into the temple ; and they 
 made their declaration, that in seven days they 
 would bring their offering to the priest. 
 
 This probably satisfied the Judaizing Christians : 
 but the city was filled with foreign Jews ; and St. 
 Paul was now too well known, not to have some 
 enemies among those who were come to worship. 
 
 z Numbers vi. 14, 15. 
 
 'I Joseplms, Antiq. XIX. 6, 1. dc Bel. Jud. II. 15, i. 
 
LECT. VIII. Riot at Jerusalem. 249 
 
 The Jews, who lived at Ephesus, were particularly A. D. 
 likely to remember him, after his long residence in ^^• 
 that city ; and we find that the Jews of Asia Minor 
 were the first authors of his troubles. They also 
 recognised Trophimus, who was an Ephesian and 
 a Gentile ; and they chose to say, that St. Paul had 
 brought this man into the inner part of the temple, 
 which none but Jews were allowed to enter. The 
 charge was made, when the seven days were nearly 
 expired, and when St. Paul himself happened to be 
 in the temple. A great tumult ensued ; and it seems 
 to have been preconcerted, that St. Paul should be 
 dragged out of the temple, and put to death in the 
 confusion. The temple, however, was overlooked by 
 the tower of Antonia, a strong fortress, which Herod 
 had rebuilt, and called after the name of Mark An- 
 tony. The troops, which the Romans always kept 
 in the city, were quartered here ; and during the fes- 
 tivals, which frequently led to a riot, the soldiers 
 remained under arms, and were ready at a moment's 
 notice to descend by two flights of steps to the porti- 
 cos of the temple^. The commander at this time 
 was Claudius Lysias ; who being informed of the 
 tumult, immediately hastened to the spot, and res- 
 cued St. Paul, who had already received several blows. 
 The throng continued so great, that as soon as he 
 was fastened by chains to two soldiers, Lysias or- 
 dered him to be taken to the tower of Antonia ; and 
 while they were making their way up the steps, he 
 had time to ask him some questions, as to who he 
 was. It was perhaps an intentional falsehood of some 
 of the rioters, which led him to mistake St. Paul for 
 the Egyptian impostor, whom I mentioned not long 
 b Joseph, de Bel. Jnd. V. 5, 8. 
 
250 St. Paul before the Sanhedrim, lect. viii. 
 
 A. D. ago : but being answered by him in Greek, and 
 ^•^- hearing him declare himself a citizen of Tarsus, he 
 allowed him to address the multitude from the steps 
 on which they were standing. 
 
 St. Paul delivered his address in the language of 
 the country, which so far pacified the Jews, that 
 they listened to him for a time, while he related the 
 history of his conversion : but when he mentioned, 
 that his commission extended to the Gentiles, they 
 no longer restrained their impatience, but shewed 
 by shouts and other indications, that they were bent 
 upon taking his life. The tribune prevented this by 
 carrying St. Paul within the fortress ; where he 
 would have proceeded to scourging him, with a view 
 of extorting a confession, if St. Paul had not declared 
 himself to be a Roman citizen. This saved him from 
 further indignities, and procured him a release from 
 his chains : and the next day, the tribune ordered 
 the chief priests to convene the Sanhedrim, and 
 brought St. Paul out of the fortress to appear before 
 them. He had no sooner begun his defence, than 
 Ananias ordered the bystanders to strike him in the 
 face ; a wanton insult, which called forth a remon- 
 strance from St. Paul, together with a prophetical 
 allusion to the violent death which Ananias after- 
 wards met with*'. Being reproved for speaking thus 
 disrespectfully to the high priest, he professed his 
 ignorance, that the office was at this time filled : and 
 what I said before, of Ananias returning from Rome 
 after the murder of Jonathan, will explain the re- 
 flexion, which St. Paul seemed to cast upon the lega- 
 lity of his appointment. This was perhaps a ques- 
 
 <= Josephus. de Bel. Jud. II. i 7, 2, 6, 9. 
 
LECT. VIII. St. Paid at Ccesarea. 251 
 
 tion, which Ananias was unwilling to agitate : and A. D. 
 St. Paul gained a further advantage by declaring ^^' 
 himself a Pharisee, and stating that his belief in a 
 resurrection was the cause of his then standing as 
 a criminal before them. I have conjectured, that 
 the dissension between the Pharisees and Sadducees 
 had been of some service to the Christians very early 
 in their history ; and it now so far befriended St. 
 Paul, that the Pharisaical part of the council de- 
 clared him to be innocent. The tumult which en- 
 sued was so great, that Lysias was again obliged to 
 interfere, and carry St. Paul within the fortress ; 
 and being informed in the course of the next day, 
 that more than forty Jews had made a vow to put 
 St. Paul to death, he determined to send him by 
 night to Csesarea, where Felix was then residing. 
 At the same time he wrote to Felix, asserting his 
 belief in the innocence of Paul ; and he settled with 
 the chief priests, that they should go in a few days 
 to Ca?sarea, and state their complaints to the Pro- 
 curator. 
 
 Ananias went down in person, and an advocate 
 was hired to give more weight to the accusation. 
 St. Paul also was heard in his defence; and on the 
 whole he seems to have produced a favourable im- 
 pression. We are told, that Felix was well aware 
 of the progress which Christianity was making ; and 
 though St. Paul failed to convert him, the power of 
 the gospel was never more strongly exhibited, than 
 when Felix sent for him frequently, and heard him 
 deliver those awful truths, which a sinner is gene- 
 rally unwilling, because afraid to receive. Felix was 
 alarmed ; but unfortunately many causes combined 
 to hinder his repentance. The wife, or to speak 
 
252 Felix succeeded hy Festus. lect. viii. 
 
 A. D. more properly, the adulteress*^, with whom he was 
 53 — 55. living, was not likely to assist in his reformation. 
 The Jews had shewn a disposition to complain of 
 his government ; and the elevation of Nero to the 
 empire, which took place in the following year, re- 
 quired him to take measures for obtaining an in- 
 fluence with the new sovereign. The affairs of the 
 east were also in some alarm from an invasion of the 
 Parthians. Quadratus the president of Syria took 
 the field : even Agrippa with his small territories 
 was ordered to furnish his contingent ; and Felix, 
 if not absent from Caesarea, must at least have been 
 actively employed in these military movements*'. 
 Political business and intrigue prevailed over the 
 workings of conscience. There was a chance of his 
 pleasing the Jews by keeping Paul in prison : and 
 so little did he know of the real character of his pri- 
 soner, that he allowed him to come often into his 
 presence, not for the pleasure of hearing him, but in 
 the hope of receiving a bribe for his release. The 
 result was, that St. Paul passed two years in the 
 prison at Caesarea : and in the year bb^ when Felix 
 was superseded by Festus, he thought to lessen the 
 displeasure of the Jews against himself, by leaving 
 St. Paul still in prison. The plan, however, did not 
 answer. As soon as he was gone, some of the prin- 
 cipal Jews at Caesarea followed him to Rome to ac- 
 cuse him to the emperor : and he would at length 
 have suffered for his many years of misrule, if his 
 brother Pallas had not again befriended him, and 
 
 'i Felix married three wives: king of the Emeseni. Jose- 
 
 his present wife was Drusilla^ phus, Aniiq. XX. 7, 2. Tacit, 
 
 sister to Agrippa, who had Hist. V, 9. Sueton. Claud. 28. 
 
 been married before to Azizus, ^ See Tacitus, Jw/m/. XIII. 7. 
 
LECT. VIII. St. Paulin prison at C(jesarea. 253 
 
 exerted his powerful influence to secure liim from A. D. 
 Nero's displeasure. 53 o5. 
 
 The personal history of St. Paul, during the two 
 years of his imprisonment, is necessarily a blank. 
 In the former part of it, and perhaps throughout the 
 whole, he was allowed by Felix to see any of his 
 friends ; and with the exception of not having his 
 liberty, he seems to have suffered little personal in- 
 convenience. I have mentioned, that Luke, Ari- 
 starchus, and Trophimus, attended him to Jerusalem; 
 and since the two former accompanied him after- 
 wards to Rome, we may perhaps conclude, tliat they 
 were with him during his imprisonment. We have 
 also seen, that Philip the evangelist lived at Caesa- 
 rea : and though I have rejected the tradition of 
 Cornelius being bishop of that city, as not deserving 
 of any credit, there is reason to think that a church 
 was established there, which may have enjoyed some 
 security by the presence of the Roman procurator. 
 
 I should be inclined to select this period as the 
 most probable date of an undertaking, in which 
 Christians of every country, and to the latest pos- 
 terity, will feel an interest. I allude to the compo- 
 sition of the Gospel of St. Luke. I shall have occa- 
 sion to observe, that his other work, the Acts of the 
 Apostles, was written during the tw^o years which 
 St. Paul passed in prison at Rome ; and we know 
 that his Gospel was written first. We may assume 
 therefore, according to the chronology which I have 
 adopted, that St. Luke had written his Gospel before 
 the Slimmer of the year ^b : and unless we conjec- 
 ture him to have composed it at Philippi, there is 
 no period, which would have afforded him so much 
 leisure for the work, as when he was attending upon 
 
254 St. Luke's Gospel. lect. viii. 
 
 A. D. St. Paul in his imprisonment at Ca^sarea. A great 
 
 53—55 
 
 majority of critics has agreed in assigning St. Luke's 
 Gospel to this period of his life, though they differ 
 in the exact year, because the date of St. Paul's im- 
 prisonment is not certainly fixed ^. Philippi is not 
 mentioned by any ancient author as the place of its 
 composition : but some of these writers have named 
 Achaia or Boeotia : there is also a late tradition of 
 its being written at Alexandria ; and so many con- 
 flicting accounts will only perhaps lead us to the 
 conclusion, that little was known upon this subject 
 in ancient times?. Some writers have said that it 
 was composed fifteen years after the Ascension ; 
 which would assign it to about the year 46, when 
 St. Luke appears for the first time to have travelled 
 with St. Paul ; and this is sufficient to refute the 
 notion of so early a date. That St. Paul in some 
 way or other superintended its composition, is as- 
 serted by several authorities '' ; and though this tra- 
 dition might be sufficiently correct, if St. Luke com- 
 mitted to writing what he had heard St. Paul deli- 
 ver in preaching, it may at least be quoted as con- 
 firming the supposition of this Gospel being written 
 at Cassarea. St. Luke had here ample leisure for 
 collecting and arranging his materials ; and St. Paul 
 would be glad to further in any way the knowledge 
 of that Gospel, which he was now hindered from 
 preaching in person. 
 
 Another question has led to great discussion, which 
 of the three evangelists, Matthew, Mark, or Luke, 
 
 f See Tillemont, MSmoires, ^ Iren?eiiSj III. i. p. 174. 
 
 torn. II. p. 463. Tertull. Adv. Marcion. IV. 5. 
 
 g See Lardner in his account p. 416. 
 of St. Luke. 
 
LECT. VIII. Order of the Gospeh. 255 
 
 was the first to publish his Gospel. Irenaeus, who A.D. 
 
 is the earliest writer upon the subject, certainly 1 
 
 states, that Luke wrote subseqviently to Matthew 
 and Mark : but Clement of Alexandria, who flou- 
 rished not much later, quotes an early tradition, 
 which would require us to believe, that Matthew 
 and Luke wrote before Mark'. I conceive the fact 
 to be, that these three Gospels were published at no 
 great interval of time from each other ; though per- 
 haps some confusion may have arisen in the tradi- 
 tions, from a distinction not being observed between 
 the writing and publishiug ; and this may account 
 for different writers giving the precedence to this or 
 that Evangelist, and for their differing as to the 
 country, in which each Gospel was composed. St. 
 Luke himself informs us, that many persons had 
 attempted, before his own work, to give an account 
 of the transactions, which he was going to relate ; 
 and I should certainly agree with those commenta- 
 tors, who suppose him not to include Matthew and 
 Mark in this statement. It is most probable, that 
 he had seen many such attempts ; some of them con- 
 taining fragments, or merely detached parts of our 
 Saviour's history ; but none of them presenting a 
 detailed account from his birth to his death. These 
 scattered narratives were likely to abound in Pales- 
 tine, which was the scene of our Saviour's personal 
 history ; and I should rather infer, that St. Luke 
 did not mean to mark these unauthorized, and per- 
 haps anonymous compositions, with his approbation. 
 Several apocryphal gospels are extant, which were 
 written at an early period ; but none of them seem 
 to be so old, as those which are alluded to by St. 
 i Apiul Euf.. H.E. VI. 14. 
 
256 St. LuJee\s Go.spel. lect. viii. 
 
 A. D. Luke ; and it is most probable, that they were writ- 
 'J-*- ten ill imitation of the three first canonical Gospels. 
 
 If these remarks be correct, we may perhaps be 
 inclined to place St. Luke's Gospel first in the order 
 of time ; or at least to suppose, that at the period 
 of his writing it, he had not seen those of IMatthew 
 or Mark. It is stated by early writers, that he wrote 
 it for Gentile converts ; a fact, which we might be 
 inclined to believe, from what we know of his con- 
 stant attendance upon the great Apostle of the Gen- 
 tiles. He addressed it to a person, named Theophi- 
 lus ; concerning whom we know nothing certain; 
 but tradition points him out as a person of rank, and 
 perhaps an inhabitant of Antioch. This may con- 
 firm the notion already advanced, that St. Luke 
 himself was a native of that city ; and during the 
 long period of St. Paul's imprisonment at Caesarea, 
 St. Luke was not unlikely to pay a visit to the 
 Christians at Antioch, or other cities in Palestine. 
 Before he set sail with St. Paul for Rome, he pro- 
 bably finished his Gospel, and sent it to Theophilus, 
 wherever that person was residing. 
 
 The question of St. Luke's inspiration may be dis- 
 cussed in a few words, and has not always been 
 placed upon its true footing. The subject has been 
 perplexed by the advocates and opponents of inspi- 
 ration treating it, as if we were inquiring, whether 
 the evangelists were inspired, when they had the 
 pen in their hands. But this is a very unnecessary 
 inquiry. St. Luke was an Evangelist, not merely as 
 writing a gospel, which he did once ; but as preach- 
 ing the gospel, which he did for several years. Evan- 
 gelists are mentioned by St. Paul among the persons, 
 who received the miraculous gifts of the Spirit ; 
 
LECT. VIII. Inspii'dtion of St. Luke. 257 
 
 and one of these persons was St. Luke. He in- a. D. 
 eludes himself, when he says of the vision, which ^3 — 55. 
 called St. Paul into Macedonia, JV^e assuredhj ga- 
 thered from it, that the Lord had called us for to 
 preach the gospel unto them. This was very early 
 in St. Luke's ministry, at which time he was called 
 by the Lord to preach the gospel ; and what is this 
 but inspiration in the fullest and highest sense of 
 the term ? He continued to preach the gospel for 
 several years. I have supposed an interval of eight 
 years to elapse between his first accompanying St. 
 Paul, and his beginning to write his Gospel. He 
 had perhaps preached the gospel before this time : 
 but during these eight years he certainly did so ; 
 and not a week, perhaps not a day elapsed, in 
 which he was not employed in relating parts of 
 the same history, which he afterwards committed 
 to writing. The question therefore is not, whe- 
 ther he was inspired, when he wrote his Gospel, 
 but whether he was inspired, when he preached 
 the gospel. That St. Paul, who communicated the 
 gifts of the Spirit to so many of his converts, would 
 not have included St. Luke, can never be seriously 
 maintained. He undoubtedly received these mi- 
 raculous gifts, and employed them for many years 
 in preaching the gospel. A special inspiration 
 therefore was not needed, when he afterwards com- 
 mitted the same facts to writing, which he had 
 been delivering orally for so long a period : or if 
 it was, we could never suppose, that the preter- 
 natural assistance, which had been vouchsafed to 
 him so long, would have deserted him at a time 
 when it was most needed for the benefit and in- 
 struction of all succeeding Christians. 
 
 s 
 
LECTURE IX. 
 
 oa. 
 
 A. p. J HAVE stated, that Festus succeeded Felix as 
 procurator of Judaea in the year 55^ : and when he 
 came into his province, probably in the middle of 
 summer, St. Paul had been imprisoned at Csesarea 
 two years. Political changes of some importance 
 had taken place in this interval. In the year 54 
 Claudius was poisoned by his wife Agrippina, whose 
 son Nero then succeeded to the empire. In the first 
 year of his reign he gave a further increase of terri- 
 tory to Agrippa, who, as I have already mentioned, 
 had received from Claudius the country called Tra- 
 chonitis and the adjacent districts. Xero now be- 
 stowed upon him part of Galilee, and several towns 
 in Peraea ; and his position might be thought to be 
 of some importance, when he was looked to as one 
 of the means of checking an irruption of the Par- 
 thians. Josephus and Tacitus as well as St. Luke 
 give him the title of king, though Judaea, properly 
 so called, still continued subject to the procurator's 
 authority. The only connexion, which Agrippa had 
 with Jerusalem, arose from his retaining, by permis- 
 sion of the emperor, the direction of the sacred trea- 
 sury, the government of the temple, and the right of 
 nominating the high priests. Ananias, who had re- 
 
 a For this date I may refer to my work upon the Chronology 
 of the Acts. 
 
oo. 
 
 LECT. IX. Festus succeeds to Felix. 259 
 
 sumed the office of high priest not long before St. a. D. 
 Paul's arrival in the year 53, was displaced soon 
 after, and Ismael was appointed, who held the office 
 for several years. 
 
 In the second year of Nero's reign, Festus was 
 sent to supersede Felix as procurator of Judaea, and 
 the Jews lost no time in endeavouring to get St. 
 Paul into their power. Festus, however, only gra- 
 tified them so far, as to give them a public hearing 
 at Ccesarea, when St. Paul was allowed to speak in 
 his defence. It ended in his publicly appealing to 
 the emperor, and claiming his right as a Roman 
 citizen to have his cause heard at Rome. Some 
 measure of this kind seemed now indispensable. He 
 had already wasted two years in prison, which 
 ought to have been spent in propagating the gospel. 
 The arrival of a new procurator might give him 
 some hopes of release ; but the only offer, which 
 was made him, was to have his cause heard at Je- 
 rusalem ; and he knew, that a journey to that city 
 would be followed by an attempt upon his life. An 
 appeal to the emperor was therefore his most pru- 
 dent course, if he merely looked to the recovery of 
 his liberty ; but it also insured him a journey to 
 Rome : and though, when he had originally planned 
 that journey, he had not tliought of going thither 
 in chains, still it enabled him to accomplish his pur- 
 pose ; and a direct communication from heaven 
 had told him, that he should preach the gospel in 
 Rome^. 
 
 One more opportunity was given him of pleading 
 his cause, before he set out for Italy. Agrippa, 
 whom I have lately mentioned, came to Caesarea, 
 
 ^ Acts xxiii. I I. 
 
 s 2 
 
260 St. Paul before Agrippa. i.ect. ix. 
 
 A. D. soon after the arrival of Festus, to congratulate him 
 55. upon his appointment ; and Festus, who knew little 
 of the customs and religion of the Jews, told the 
 king of Paul being accused by his countrymen, and 
 of his having appealed to the emperor. Agrippa, 
 who must have felt his real insignificance, when 
 coinpared with the Roman procurator, would be 
 glad of any opportunity, which made him appear of 
 importance : and Festus would be pleased to flatter 
 him at so easy a rate, as by appealing to his supe- 
 rior knowledge of Jewish law. The king and his 
 sister Berenice were accordingly indulged with hear- 
 ing Paul : and it was creditable to Agrippa, (though 
 perhaps we ought to say no more,) that he professed 
 himself almost persuaded to be a Christian. He 
 seems to have been a man, who in better times 
 might have governed a larger territory with advan- 
 tage to his subjects : but since he survived the de- 
 struction of Jerusalem many years, and died at an 
 advanced age without shewing any attachment to 
 Christianity, we must not think too favourably of 
 his paying this attention to the arguments of St. 
 Paul. 
 
 The apostle shortly after set sail for Rome, and 
 Luke and Aristarchus accompanied him. There is 
 no reason to think that either of these persons had 
 been imprisoned at Csesarea. Aristarchus appears 
 afterwards to have suffered confinement at Rome*^ ; 
 but it is most probable, that both he and Luke were 
 voluntary companions of St. Paul in his voyage to 
 that city. Their shipwreck on the island of Malta, 
 where they ])assed the three winter months, is too 
 well known to require to be related. We are war- 
 « Col. iv. lo. 
 
i.ECT. IX. St. Paul arrives at Rotne. 261 
 
 ranted in asserting, that Christianity was at that A. D. 
 time introduced into the island ; and the miraculous ^^- 
 cures performed by St. Paul would alone have been 
 sufficient to make many converts : but when we read 
 in ancient martyrologies ^^5 that Publius was made 
 bishop of Malta, and afterwards succeeded Diony- 
 sius the Areopagite in the bishopric of Athens, we 
 are perhaps to remember, what I have already stated 
 more than once, that these lists of early bishops are 
 sometimes deserving of no credit. At Puteoli, which 
 was a common j^lace of landing for persons coming 
 from Sicily, they found some Christians, and con- 
 tinued there seven days ; a period, which was evi- 
 dently intended to include the solemnities of the 
 Lord's day. We may form some opinion of the 
 numbers and the zeal of the Christians then at 
 Rome, when we find that in these few days they 
 heard of St. Paul being at Puteoli, and that some 
 of them came even as far as fifty miles from the city 
 to meet him on his way. 
 
 The same vessel had brought other prisoners from 
 Palestine, who, as soon as they arrived at Rome, 
 were committed, as usual ^, to the commander of 
 the praetorian guards. This post was held at pre- 
 sent by Burrus, one of the few persons, whose cha- 
 racters relieve the depravity of the reign of Nero. It 
 would have been interesting to know, that such a 
 man had come in contact with St. Paul : but the 
 charge brought against the apostle made his case an 
 exception to those of the other prisoners, and he was 
 allowed to choose a residence for himself, with the 
 single restraint of having one of his arms fastened 
 
 d Ado, defestiv. Apost. p. 39. Bolland. ad Jan. 21. p. 338. 
 e See Plin. Epist. X. 65. 
 
 S 3 
 
262 St Paul arrives at Borne, lect. ix. 
 
 AD. by a chain to the arm of a soldier, who was thus his 
 ^^^- constant companion. The Jews of Rome appear to 
 have been less illiberal and bigoted than those in 
 the countries nearer to Asia, which St. Paul had 
 hitherto visited. They had heard some of the ge- 
 neral calumnies spread against the Christians : but 
 their countrymen in Judaea had not taken the same 
 pains to prejudice them against St. Paul, which they 
 had used in Greece and Asia Minor. While he was 
 at Caesarea, they had hoped to put him to death, 
 and so to hinder his further exertions ; and he ar- 
 rived at Rome so early in the year, that they had 
 not had time during the winter months to send their 
 usual emissaries, who might spread their calumnies 
 against him. We know, that many of the Jews 
 at Rome were already believers in the gospel ; and 
 St. Paul's first attempt, after arriving there, was to 
 convert the unbelieving part of them. They at least 
 listened to him with patience, and some were per- 
 suaded by his arguments : but St. Paul found enough 
 of their usual obstinacy, to make him express him- 
 self with some harshness, and to declare explicitly 
 his commission of preaching salvation to the Gen- 
 tiles. 
 
 It is greatly to be lamented, that St. Luke did 
 not continue the Acts of the Apostles beyond the 
 arrival of St. Paul at Rome. He tells us indeed, 
 that he dwelt two whole years in his ow?i hired 
 house, and received all that came in unto him ; preach- 
 ing' the kingdom of God, and teaching those things 
 which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all con- 
 fidence, no man forbidding him : but this is all the 
 information, which he has left us ; and what we 
 know of these two years, is scantily gathered from 
 
LECT. IX. Charges against St. Paul. 263 
 
 expressions in St. Paul's own Epistles, and from the A. D. 
 few traditions preserved by ecclesiastical writers. " ^"' 
 
 We should wish particularly to know, whether 
 he pleaded his cause before the emperor in person. 
 Festus had professed himself at a loss as to the 
 terms of the accusation, which he was to send with 
 him to Rome : and we are not informed, under 
 what description of prisoners he would be classed, 
 when he arrived in that city. He had said dis- 
 tinctly to Festus, Neither- against the law of the 
 Jeivs, neither against the temple^ nor yet against 
 Ccesar, have I offended any thing at all : and Fes- 
 tus as well as Agrippa had acknowledged as dis- 
 tinctly, that he had done nothing ivorthy of death 
 or qfl)onds. It is the opinion of Baronius, that he 
 would have to appear, not only before the emperor, 
 but before the senate and the pontifical college ; in 
 which he seems to have considered, that the case 
 woidd have been treated as one affecting religion. 
 But this is very uncertain. The persons in author- 
 ity at Rome would have felt, like Festus, that the 
 dispute between Paul and the Jews merely involved 
 certain questions of their own superstition : and if 
 the apostle's long confinement at Rome was caused 
 at all by the machinations of the Jews, they would 
 not have been likely to press those points, which 
 concerned their own religion. I'hey had re])re- 
 sented him to Felix, as a iiestHent fellow, and a 
 mover of sedition ; and they had perhaps wished to 
 persuade him, as the Jews of Thessalonica said to the 
 magistrates of that city, these men are acting con- 
 trary to the decrees of Ccusar, saying, that there is 
 another king, one Jesus. An accusation such as 
 this would have deserved investigation, and Festus 
 
 s 4 
 
264 St. Paul at Home. lect. ix. 
 
 A. D. perhaps mentioned it in the despatch which he sent 
 56—58. with St. Paul to Rome. It is difficult to account 
 for the length of time that elapsed hefore St. Paul 
 was released ; except that such delays appear to 
 have been not unfrequent in the hearing of causes 
 which came from distant provinces. He certainly 
 made a defence, because he speaks of it in one of 
 his own letters^; but we are not told, that he ad- 
 dressed it to Nero himself; and it seems certain, 
 that he made it not long before his release. We 
 might perhaps conjecture, that the Jews were in- 
 strumental in keeping him so long a prisoner. At 
 least we know, that the wish would not be wanting ; 
 and though they might not be able to allege any 
 specific crime, their object was so far gained, if they 
 could check for a time his more active exertions. I 
 have stated, that soon after the removal of Felix, the 
 Jews sent a deputation to accuse him to the emperor; 
 and these men may perhaps have insinuated, that 
 he had favoured a person, who was opposed to the 
 Roman government. Felix himself was probably 
 in Rome, when St. Paul arrived there ; and it is 
 difficult to say, what account he would have given 
 the emperor of his extraordinary prisoner. His 
 own opinion would certainly have been favourable : 
 but at this time he would wish to conciliate the 
 Jews, who were come to accuse him ; and he may 
 have helped to throw delays in the way of St. Paul 
 making his defence. I have stated, that Felix was 
 screened from punishment through the influence of 
 Pallas ; and though this favourite of fortune was no 
 longer at the head of affairs, as he had been in the 
 
 f Phil. i. 7. 
 
LECT. IX. Character of Nero. 265 
 
 former reign, he may have contrived to keep St. A. D. 
 Paul from obtaining an hearing. 06 oQ. 
 
 It has sometimes been said, that the slight re- 
 straint, vt^hich was put upon St. Paul, and the faci- 
 lity, which he seems to have enjoyed of preaching 
 the gospel, were owing to the personal character of 
 Nero, who had not yet indulged in the crimes, which 
 disgraced the later years of his reign. But the re- 
 mark would not bear a strict examination. That an 
 innocent man should be kept two years in prison, 
 without having his cause heard, does not tell well 
 for any government : and a young man, who at the 
 age of seventeen is made sovereign of the whole 
 civilized world, could hardly add cruelty to the list 
 of his vices. It is true, that the Christians were not 
 persecuted at the beginning of his reign : but it was 
 because the calumnies against them were not gene- 
 rally known, and not because the emperor was dis- 
 posed to protect them. He was a boy, when he 
 came to the throne, but he was more than full 
 grown in vice. In the second year of his reign he 
 went about the city at night, committing the most 
 disgraceful excesses ; he shewed vulgarity, as well 
 as licentiousness, in his amours ; his conduct to his 
 mother was most unnatural ; and he caused his 
 relation Britannicus to be jioisoned. This will pro- 
 bably account, rather than any sounder and better 
 feelings, for his giving no molestation to St. Paul. 
 It was sufficient ill treatment to keep him so long 
 in prison, without affording him a hearing : and it 
 was the unrestrained indulgence of his passions, 
 which made him thus inattentive to the ordinary 
 affairs of state. 
 
 St. Paul, as I have observed, did not obtain an 
 
266 Progress of the Gospel i.ect. ix. 
 
 A. D. hearing, till after he had been a prisoner nearly two 
 .)6 58. years ; and he probably obtained this act of justice 
 from the gospel having made its way with the per- 
 sons employed about the court. If the Narcissus, 
 who is mentioned by St. Paul ^, was the celebrated 
 freedman of Claudius, Christianity had found its 
 way into the emperor's household three years before 
 the arrival of the apostle ; and some of these con- 
 verts were probably people of rank. But the iden- 
 tity of these two persons must be considered a very 
 doubtful point. It is more satisfactory to find St. 
 Paul sending a salutation from tliose of Ccesar's 
 household "^^ ; and though when he says, that the 
 whole iwcetorium was made acquainted with his 
 imprisonment, it is disputed whether he meant the 
 emperor's palace, or the quarters of the praetorian 
 guards, the expression in either of its senses must 
 make us think highly of the progress of the gospel. 
 Tacitus has perhaps supplied us with the name of 
 one lady of rank, who embraced Christianity while 
 St. Paul was in Rome. This was Pomponia Grae- 
 cina, the wife of Plautus, the conqueror of Britain ; 
 who in the second year of the apostle's imprison- 
 ment is stated to have been " guilty of a foreign 
 " superstition ^ ; " and the expressions of the histo- 
 rian have generally been taken to indicate that she 
 had embraced Christianity. The Martyrologies men- 
 tion Torpetes, who was attached to the emperor's 
 household : but we know nothing more concerning 
 him, except that he is said to have suffered martyr- 
 dom ^. Much less credit is due to the notion, that 
 
 g Rom. xvi. II. ^ Martyrol. Rom. Mali 17. 
 
 h Pliil. i. ] 2, 13. iv. 22. Theodoras ]Metochita, a Avriter 
 
 i Anna]. XIII. 32, of the thirteenth century, men- 
 
LECT. IX. at Rome. 267 
 
 Poppsea Sabina, one of the earliest of Nero's mis- A. D. 
 tresses, was converted to the gospel. Josephus 
 speaks of her as a woman of piety, because she 
 sometimes had shewn a disposition to favour the 
 Jews ^ : but such a feeling was not unlikely to pre- 
 judice her against the Christians ; and it is impos- 
 sible to read the character given of her by Tacitus '", 
 without seeing that there was no period in her dis- 
 graceful life, when the gospel could be said to have 
 made an impression upon her mind. If St. Paul, 
 like the other prisoners, who came with him, had 
 been committed to the care of the commander of the 
 praetorian guards, he might have become acquainted 
 with Burrus, who, as the tutor of Nero, still retained 
 some influence over him ; and though the apostle 
 lived in his own hired house, he was subject, as I 
 have stated, to military control, and may sometimes 
 have been visited by the officers on guard. The 
 soldier, to whom he was chained, and who was per- 
 haps often relieved, may sufficiently account for his 
 singular case becoming generally known. If Bur- 
 rus had ever visited him, it is probable that Seneca 
 would also have heard of him ; and thus another 
 chance would have been given of his obtaining an 
 audience from the emperor. It is interesting even 
 to know, that two such men as St. Paul and Seneca 
 were living in Rome at the same time. We may 
 perhaps go so far as to say, that if Seneca had heard 
 of him, he would have made further inquiries ; but 
 the doubts and suspicions, which attach to this part 
 of Seneca's history, should make us cautious how we 
 
 tions a cupbearer and a mis- ' A/tliq. XX. 8, ii. 
 
 tress of Nero, who were con- n> Annal. XIII. 45. 
 
 verted by St. Paul, p. 81. 
 
268 St. Paul and Seneca. lect. ix. 
 
 A. D. indulge in such suppositions. There certainly was 
 56 58. a notion in early times, that the apostle and the 
 philosopher were personally acquainted. It has even 
 been said, that Seneca was secretly a Christian ; a 
 fact, which it seems impossible to reconcile with his 
 writings ; unless we ascribe to him also a degree of 
 dissimulation, which no real Christian could pos- 
 sibly have practised. At the same time it must be 
 allowed, (and the subject gives room for much cu- 
 rious investigation,) that the writings of Seneca pre- 
 sent some remarkable coincidences with expressions 
 used by St. Paul". The latter had written the 
 greater number, and the most important, of his Epi- 
 stles before he came to Rome ; and it certainly was 
 possible for Seneca to have seen them. To say 
 more than this, would perhaps exceed the limits of 
 judicious criticism : neither would we dwell much 
 upon the probability, that Seneca may have heard 
 something from his brother Gallio of St. Paul having 
 been brought before him, when he was proconsul 
 of Achaia. There seems, however, to be now but 
 one opinion, that the letters, which are extant, and 
 which professed to have been interchanged between 
 St. Paul and Seneca, are spurious. They are men- 
 tioned by Jerom" at the end of the fourth century, 
 but not by any earlier writer. The earliest of them 
 are supposed to have been written during these two 
 years of St. Paul's imprisonment ; and if they were 
 genuine, we should learn not only, that Seneca was 
 a convert to the doctrines of St. Paul, but that Nero 
 also had expressed himself favourably of his writings. 
 Whether the authority for these letters is altoge- 
 
 " Upon this subject I would vol. II. p. 121. 
 refer to Fabricius,i?iV;//o///.Lrt/. Catal. Script. Eccles. 
 
LECT. IX. St. Paul preaches at Rome. 269 
 
 ther fictitious, or whether the forgery was grounded A. D. 
 upon certain ancient traditions, is a point which ^^ ^"' 
 perhaps each person will decide, according as his 
 fancy leads him to think of the imprisonment of St. 
 Paul P. 
 
 Whether Felix, or Pallas, or Burrus, or Seneca, 
 interested themselves in any way in St. Paul's im- 
 prisonment, may still be considered doubtful : but 
 we are perhaps justified in saying, that some per- 
 sons, who had access to the court, were instrumental 
 in obtaining him the hearing of his cause. I have 
 stated, that this did not take place, till after he had 
 been confined a long time, probably not long before 
 his release, which took place in the middle of the 
 year 58. We have seen, that during this interval 
 he preached the gospel with all confidence, no man 
 forbidding him : nor is there any thing, which 
 would lead us to think, that he was at all ill-treated, 
 except that in letters, which he wrote during his 
 confinement, he speaks of Epaphras and Aristarchus 
 as his fellow-prisoners i. He may perhaps have 
 used the expression figuratively, or he may have 
 alluded to their being sharers in some former im- 
 prisonment ; but if he meant that at that time they 
 were literally in confinement, we must suppose 
 that for some period during these two years the 
 gospel was persecuted. The persecution probably 
 did not last long, nor affect many individuals. 
 St. Paul himself speaks of some persons preaching 
 Christ with a view to harass him'". These were 
 perhaps the Jews, who wished the heathen to con- 
 
 P The letters may be seen Synops. ex. art. 3. 
 in Fabricius, Cod. Apoc. p. 880. q Philemon 23. Col. iv. 10. 
 
 See Natalis Alexander, Ssec. I. "" Phil. i. 16. 
 
270 Christianitij at Rome. lect. ix. 
 
 A. D. found Christianity with Gnosticism : and the scheme 
 5b 58. ^^y jj^ some degree have succeeded. If Simon 
 Magus, as I have conjectured, had been to Rome 
 before this time, and if his great success was ob- 
 tained on his first visit, there must have been many- 
 persons in Rome, who had heard of Christ through 
 this false philosophy. St. Paul seems rather to have 
 rejoiced at this than otherwise. He felt confident, 
 that the real doctrine concerning Christ would ulti- 
 mately prevail : but if the Gnostics had already 
 avowed the same licentious principles, which some 
 of them professed afterwards, they may for a time 
 have brought Christianity into disrepute : and Ari- 
 starchus and Epaphras may have been thrown into 
 prison from some cause of this kind. 
 
 It is plain, however, that St. Paul had many other 
 companions and fellow-labourers at Rome, who en- 
 joyed their liberty. His friend Timothy, whom I 
 have supposed to be left by him at Ephesus in the 
 year 53, joined him while he was at Rome. If 
 he came to him in the second year of his imprison- 
 ment, he had had four years for watching over his 
 flock at Ephesus, and probably for visiting the other 
 churches in Asia Minor. Tychicus also and Epa- 
 phras arrived at Rome from the same country ; and 
 the latter, who seems to have been a native of Co- 
 lossae, would bring him an account of his converts 
 in Phrygia. According to the Martyrologies, Epa- 
 phras had been ordained bishop of Colossa? by St. 
 Paul * ; and he is said to have suffered martyrdom 
 in that city. Others represent him as bishop of 
 Laodicea ; all which must be considered extremely 
 
 s See Usuard. Ado, Martyrol. Rom. ad Jul. 19. 
 
LECT. IX. Ejnstle to the Ephesians. 271 
 
 uncertain. The principal churches in Phrygia, as I A. D. 
 
 rp PIP 
 
 have already stated, were at Laodicea, Colossae, and "* ' 
 
 Hierapolis ; and all of them appear at this time to 
 have been affected by Gnosticism. The Jews, who 
 had embraced that extravagant philosophy, had 
 taught the Christians in those parts to adopt many 
 of their superstitious observances ; and St. Paul, who 
 foresaw and deplored this increasing evil, though he 
 was prevented from visiting them in person, took 
 the most effectual measures for convincing them of 
 their error. It was his intention to go thither him- 
 self as soon as he was released ; and in the mean 
 time he wrote letters, which might serve them for 
 general instructions upon this and other subjects. 
 He sent them by Tychicus, who was a native of 
 Asia Minor, and probably of Ephesus. One of them 
 seems to have been intended to be read in different 
 chvu'ches. The bearer of it perhaps left a copy of it 
 at Ephesus ; and the celebrity of that city caused it 
 to be considered as addressed particularly to the 
 Ephesians. He then went on to Laodicea, and left 
 another copy of it in that city ; from whence a 
 short day's journey would take him to Colossae : and 
 either to oblige Epaphras, or from the greater pre- 
 valence of Gnosticism among them, he sent a special 
 letter to the Colossians, as well as an injunction to 
 read the other, of which Tychicus was the bearer. 
 Tychicus was also accompanied by Onesimus, who 
 had been converted by St. Paul at Rome, and was 
 now returning to his master Philemon, who lived at 
 Colossae. It appears, that he had left his master's 
 service without leave, and like many other of his 
 countrymen, had gone to Rome. His introduction 
 to St. Paul may have been owing to Epaphras, who 
 
272 Colossce. Philemon. Onesimus. i.ect. ix. 
 
 A. D. was acquainted with Philemon : and however this 
 ^o- may have been, his journey to Rome was the most 
 fortunate circumstance in his life. Having become 
 a Christian, he took the opportunity of Tychicus 
 returning to Asia Minor, and travelled with him to 
 Colossse. St. Paul gave him a letter to his master, 
 and we cannot doubt, that he not only forgave him, 
 but received him as a brother. Philemon had pro- 
 bably himself been converted by St. Paul during his 
 journey through Phrygia in 46 or 48. He and his 
 wife Appia lent their house for the accommodation 
 of the Christians at Colossae ; and l^heodoret" speaks 
 of having had it pointed out to him so late as the 
 fifth century. It has been said, that Philemon was 
 made bishop of Colossae by St. Paul ^ ; an office, 
 which, as I have stated, is ascribed by others to 
 Epaphras : and this fact, as well as the subsequent 
 martyrdom of himself and his wife at Colossse, are 
 perhajDs deserving of very little belief. We know 
 also the name of Archippus, who was a deacon in 
 the Colossian church ; and if ecclesiastical traditions 
 may be followed, Onesimus was raised to a still 
 higher station in the church. A person of this name 
 was certainly bishop of Ephesus in the time of Igna- 
 tius >' ; and some writers have stated, that Timothy 
 was succeeded by the former slave of Philemon ^ : 
 but this must be considered uncertain ; and unless 
 Onesimus was extremely young, when converted by 
 St. Paul in 57 or 58, he could hardly have been 
 
 u Prfpf. in Ep. ad Philem. y Epist. ad Eph. §. 6. 
 
 X Constit. Apost. VII. 46. z The succession is said to 
 
 See also iMenaea magna Graj- havebeen Timothy, John, Caius, 
 
 corunij ad Nov. 22. Basilii ^IMe- Onesimus. Others make the 
 
 nolog. apud Ughelhim, Ilal. disciple of St. Paul to have been 
 
 Sacr. vol. VI. p. 1 142. martyred A. D. 95. Feb. 15. 
 
i-ECT. IX. Epistle to the Ph'dippians. 273 
 
 bishop of Ephesus at the beginning of the second A. D. 
 century. Other accounts have represented him as 
 bishop of Beroea in Macedonia ; and they add, that 
 he suffered martyrdom in the reign of Domitian**. 
 
 I should be inclined to think, that St. Paul wrote 
 these Epistles in the summer of 57, or early in 58. 
 He had also received accounts from other churches 
 beside those of Asia Minor. Epaphroditus had 
 been sent to him from Philippi : and he was the 
 bearer of pecuniary assistance, which the Philippians 
 now forwarded to him, as they had done upon a 
 former occasion, soon after their conversion^'. Epa- 
 phroditus was taken ill after his arrival in Rome ; 
 and some time seems to have elapsed, before this 
 communication was acknowledged by St. Paul. In 
 the meanwhile he had made his defence*^; and 
 though his sentence had not been pronounced, when 
 he wrote to the Philippians, he seems to have known, 
 that the issue would be favourable. As soon as 
 Epaphroditus'^ was recovered, he sent him back to 
 Philippi as the bearer of a letter, in which he pro- 
 mised to send Timothy to them shortly, and also 
 gave them hopes of visiting them himself^. This 
 was perhaps written after the others to Asia Minor, 
 and not long before his own release. We might 
 conjecture, that some of his other companions had 
 now quitted Rome ; and their anxiety for St. Paul's 
 
 ^ See Const. Apost. VII. 46. 55. Suoton. A^ero, 49. Domit. 
 
 Martyrol. ad Feb 16. 14 
 
 '^ Philipp. iv. 15 — iS. e 'pheodoret calls Epaphro- 
 
 f Philipp. i. 7. ditus bishop of Philippi: (in 
 
 ^ Some have conjectured, Phil. iv. 18.) but there is no 
 
 but with little reason^ that this evidence of this. Others make 
 
 was the freedman and secre- him to have been bishop of 
 
 tary of Nero, who was master .Adriacum. Bolland. ad Mart. 
 
 ofEpictetus, Tacit, /4m««/.XV. 22. 
 
 T 
 
274 Acts of the Apostle.^. lect. ix. 
 
 A. D. personal safety being over, they had probably dis- 
 56—58 . persed to continue their labours in different coun- 
 tries. Beside the persons whom I have mentioned, 
 we know that Justus and Demas had also been with 
 him ; and two other names would excite particular 
 attention, which are those of Mark and Luke. We 
 have seen, that Luke was the companion of his 
 voyage from Caesarea to Rome ; and we know that 
 he was with the apostle when he wrote to the 
 Asiatic churches *^. It might be conjectured, that 
 Luke was no longer with him, when he wrote to the 
 Philippians ; or he would hardly have omitted to 
 mention a name, which was so familiar and so dear 
 to the converts in that city. Luke had perhaps 
 himself gone to Philippi, from which place he had 
 now been absent nearly five years. Some ancient 
 traditions confirm the notion of his going from 
 Rome into Greece; and Boeotia, Achaia, and Dal- 
 matia, as well as Macedonia, are mentioned as the 
 scene of his preaching. He is even stated to have 
 visited Africa and Gaul : but all this is extremely 
 uncertain ; and it is only by conjecture, founded 
 upon his former history, that I have imagined him 
 to have gone in the year 58 to Philippi. In what- 
 ever direction he travelled, he probably carried with 
 him the work, which he had composed in Rome 
 during St. Paul's imprisonment ; and which has 
 come down to us under the name of the Acts of the 
 Apostles. If he had written it later, he could hardly 
 have failed to continue the history of St. Paul ; and 
 since he mentions his remaining two whole years at 
 Rome, he could not have finished it, till those two 
 
 f Col. iv. 14. Philemon 24. 
 
LECT. IX. John surnamecl Mark. 275 
 
 years were expired. We seem therefore brought to A. D. 
 the middle of the year 58, as the date of the Acts ^^ ^°' 
 of the Apostles, a work, which might perhaps with 
 equal propriety have been called a history of St. 
 Paul. 
 
 Mark also was with the apostle, when he wrote 
 to the Asiatic churches, and he seems to have been 
 intending to take a journey to Colossee^. I have 
 already expressed my opinion that this person was 
 not Mark the evangelist : but he was certainly the 
 nephew of Barnabas ; and twelve years had now 
 elapsed, since we heard of his accompanying his 
 uncle to Cyprus. It is pleasing to find, that the 
 disagreement, whatever it might be, which led to 
 the separation between St. Paul and himself thir- 
 teen years before, was now so entirely forgotten. 
 Mark had perhaps in the interval been travelling 
 with Barnabas ; but at present, as I stated, he was 
 at Rome, and had made preparations for going to 
 Asia Minor. 
 
 Much discussion has been raised upon the ques- 
 tion, whether St. Peter himself was at this time at 
 Rome. It has even been debated, whether he ever 
 visited Rome at all ; and I cannot help thinking, 
 that some protestant writers have weakened their 
 cause by labouring to answer this latter question in 
 the negative. There is, however, no satisfactory evi- 
 dence, that St. Peter had been to Rome before the 
 time of St. Paul leaving it in 58. I have stated, 
 that no apostle seems to have visited Rome, when 
 St. Paul wrote his Epistle to the Romans in 53 : 
 and he sends salutations to so many persons at the 
 
 g Col. iv. lo. Philemon 24. 
 T 2 
 
276 St. Peter at Rome. lect. ix, 
 
 A. D. end of that Epistle, that he would hardly have 
 o(j— 58. omitted St. Peter, if he had been at that time in 
 Rome. By the same argument it might be inferred, 
 that St. Peter was not at Rome, when St. Paul wrote 
 his four Epistles during his imprisonment ; or the 
 name of his fellow apostle would have been men- 
 tioned in the salutations. Whatever may be said 
 by Roman Catholic writers, the Fathers constantly 
 speak of the Roman church being founded by St. 
 Paul, as well as by St. Peter : and the work was 
 probably ascribed to both of them, because they met 
 in that city before their martyrdom. It is, how- 
 ever, much more correct to say, that the Roman 
 church was founded by St. Paul : if, as I have en- 
 deavoured to shew, he visited Rome before St. Peter 
 had been there. Though Christianity, as I have 
 observed, had flourished at Rome for some years, 
 there was properly no church there before St. Paul's 
 arrival : though necessity would lead them to cer- 
 tain rites and regulations, they could have no elders 
 or deacons ordained by the imjDosition of hands ; 
 nor was there any one person, as we have seen to 
 be the case in Ephesus and Crete, who was appointed 
 to watch over the whole. It is not probable, that 
 St. Paul would leave Rome without arranging the 
 church there on the same plan, which he had fol- 
 lowed in other places : but we are deserted at this 
 period by the inspired writers ; and no point of ec- 
 clesiastical history is involved in so much perplexity 
 and contradiction, as the succession of the early 
 bishops of Rome. Some of this confusion has per- 
 haps arisen from later writers assuming, that the 
 first bishop was to date his accession from the death 
 of St. Peter and St. Paul ; whereas I have shewn. 
 
LECT. IX. Linus. 277 
 
 that it was a regular custom with St. Paul, when he A. D. 
 left any city where he founded a church, to commit 
 the superintendance of it to one of the presbyters. 
 The early writers are nearly unanimous in saying, 
 that Linus was the first bishop of Rome after the 
 apostles ; and his office is supposed to have begun, 
 when St. Peter and St. Paul were martyred. This 
 latter notion might be correct, if St. Peter himself 
 held the see of Rome for so many years, as Roman 
 Catholic writers have contended ; but it is impossi- 
 ble for us to adopt it, if we believe that before the 
 year 58 St. Peter had not been at Rome, and if we 
 think, that St. Paul would not have left the Chris- 
 tians in that city without some person to direct them. 
 It is not an improbable conjecture, that St. Paul 
 committed the Roman church to Linus ; and it is 
 somewhat remarkable, that most of the early writers 
 state him to have held his office eleven or twelve 
 years. Bishop Pearson supposes Linus to have died 
 in the year 67, and therefore would shorten the 
 period of his presiding over the Roman church : but 
 if we reckon back from the year 67 to the year of 
 St. Paul's release, we have an interval of ten years ; 
 or if we go back two years more, to the date of St. 
 Paul's arrival in Rome, we have exactly twelve years, 
 which is the period assigned by some writers for the 
 bishopric of Linus : and it is not improbable, that 
 St. Paul's first care upon arriving at Rome was to 
 select one person, who should take upon himself the 
 temporal management of the church ; more espe- 
 cially as his own exertions were restrained by his 
 being kept in partial confinement. I allow, that in 
 all this statement there is much of conjecture : but 
 beside being in itself not improbable, it is substan- 
 
 T 3 
 
27S St. Paul leaves Rome. lect. ix. 
 
 A. I), tially grounded upon the earliest traditions, and 
 ^^- enables us in some degree at least to reconcile those 
 traditions with each other '\ 
 
 I shall assume, therefore, that St. Paul left Rome 
 about the middle of the year 58, and that Linus, 
 who had managed the church under his directions 
 for the two last years, was now entrusted with the 
 sole care of it. The scheme of chronology, which 
 I have followed, allows at least six years for St. 
 Paul's future labours : a period, which was probably 
 full of interest to himself and to the gospel, but con- 
 cerning which we know scarcely anything. His 
 own expressions, which occur incidentally in his 
 Epistles, are perhaps our safest guides : and it is 
 difficult to say, whether the early writers merely 
 followed these, or whether they had also the assist- 
 ance of old and authentic traditions. St. Paul had 
 expressed an intention five years before of visiting 
 Spain': and it is probable, that he put it into execu- 
 tion : but if we are to judge of what he actually 
 performed by what he says of his own intentions, 
 we must conclude that the journey to Spain was 
 postponed for the present, and that he travelled first 
 into Greece and Asia Minor'^. He certainly intended 
 
 h Irenteus says, that Peter stolical Constitutions say ex- 
 
 and Paul, after having esta- pressly, that Linus was ordain- 
 
 blished the church of Rome, ed bishop of Rome by St. Paul 
 
 committed it to Linus. (IIL before the death of St. Peter. 
 
 3,3.p.i76.) Epiphanius states, (VIL 46.) See Xatalis Alex- 
 
 that since Peter and Paul could ander, Sjec. I. Diss. XIII. 
 
 not be always at Rome on ac- * Rom. xv. 24, 28. 
 
 count of the journeys whicli "^ His journey to the east 
 
 they were taking, it was neces- is supported by L. Cappelhis, 
 
 sary that the care (if the Roman Append, ad His/. Apost. p. 29: 
 
 church should be committed but he argues unnecessarilv, 
 
 to others. (User. XX\'"II. 6. p. that he did not also go to the 
 
 107.) SoalsoRufinus. TheApo- West. 
 
i.ECT. IX. Epistle to the Hehr^ews. 279 
 
 to go to Philippi ; and he even asked Philemon to A. D. 
 prepare him a lodging at Colossse. This was a very ^°' 
 natural route for him to take : and perhaps we are 
 not going too far in supposing, that he visited these 
 places on his way to Jerusalem. We have no evi- 
 dence of St. Paul having gone to Judaea in the in- 
 terval between his first and second imprisonment at 
 Rome ^ : but his former habits make the event pro- 
 bable ; and it is difficult to conceive, that he would 
 not have wished to see the land of his fathers, and 
 the birthplace of the gospel, once more before he 
 died. If the Epistle to the Hebrews was written 
 at this time, as some critics have supposed, there is 
 evidence that the writer of it intended shortly to 
 visit Judaea™. I assume, that it was addressed to 
 the Jewish Christians of Palestine ; and a careful 
 examination of the question has led me to decide, 
 that it was certainly written by St. Paul". If the 
 date of it be rightly placed, the apostle was now re- 
 leased from imprisonment, and sent the letter from 
 some place in Italy or Greece. He seems to have 
 been expecting Timothy, who, as I have stated, had 
 been with him at Rome during the greater part of 
 the last two years. An expression in the letter might 
 lead us to think that Timothy had been imprisoned; 
 and since St. Paul had signified an intention of send- 
 ing him to Philippi °, it is possible, that his impri- 
 sonment may have taken place in some town of 
 Greece p. If St. Paul was himself in Greece, when 
 
 1 It is said by Chrysostom, « Phil. ii. 19. 
 
 fraf. in ep. ad Heb. P This is also the conjecture 
 
 "1 Heb. xiii. 23. of Tillemont, Memoires, torn. 
 
 n See Tillemont, MSmoircs, II. p. 262, 473. 
 torn. I. p. 864. 
 
 T 4 
 
280 St. Paul at Jerusalem. lect. ix. 
 
 A. D. he wrote to the Hebrews, he may have heard of this 
 misfortune of his friend, and may then have been 
 expecting his release. As soon as this took place, 
 we may suppose that they travelled together, and 
 went through Macedonia and Asia Minor to Jeru- 
 salem. The Christians in Judaea were probably at 
 this time enjoying comparative peace. Festus was 
 still the procurator ; and his government was firm, 
 though his measures against the banditti were fre- 
 quently severe. Agrippa was endeavouring to raise 
 himself to political importance ; and his command 
 of the temple and the priesthood gave him a pre- 
 text for having a residence in Jerusalem. Festus 
 would be likely to watch his proceedings with jea- 
 lousy ; and if the Jews had raised any disturbance 
 in venting their hatred against the Christians, it 
 was the policy of the Romans immediately to sup- 
 press it. St. Paul therefore would probably find the 
 Christians in a state of prosperity, if he visited Ju- 
 daea in 58 ; but the storm was gathering in that un- 
 happy country ; and he knew by the spirit of pro- 
 phecy, as well as by the signs of the times, that the 
 predictions of his heavenly Master concerning the 
 approaching calamities of Judaea were drawing to 
 their fulfilment. The Epistle to the Hebrews con- 
 tains many allusions to this season of tribulation : 
 and one reason for the apostle going to Jerusalem 
 at this time, might be found in his wishing to warn 
 the Christians of the means which they were to 
 take for their escape. 
 
 The journey of St. Paul into Spain has opened the 
 way to much controversy. Clement, bishop of Rome, 
 who wrote only a few years after the apostle's death, 
 and had been personally known to him, speaks of 
 
LECT. IX. St. Paul in Spain and Gaul. 281 
 
 his having gone "to the extremity of the wesfi;" A.D. 
 and those persons, who think that such an expres- ^^- 
 sion would not have been applied to Rome, particu- 
 larly by one who was then residing in that city, will 
 quote the authority of Clement as decisive, that St. 
 Paul went further to the west than Rome : and if 
 so, the probability is greatly increased, that he went 
 to Spain. The fact is asserted by Epiphanius, 
 Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Jerom'': and I have 
 already observed, that St. Paul had probably six 
 years in which he may have performed the journey. 
 Theodoret adds, that he visited also the islands in 
 the Mediterranean : and if he went or returned by 
 sea, he was not unlikely to touch at those places. 
 This journey, however, into Spain, has led to still 
 greater controversy concerning the early introduc- 
 tion of Christianity into Gaul. It has been main- 
 tained that the apostle went by land, and followed 
 the road over the Pyrenees, which led from Nice by 
 Aries and Narbonne. Luke and Crescens are said 
 to have been his companions ; or at least to have 
 been sent by him to preach the gospel in Gaul. Epi- 
 phanius is the only writer, who states this of Luke'' ; 
 and it has been doubted, whether even this testimony 
 ought not to be restricted to Cisalpine Gaul. But 
 it must be acknowledged, that the authority of Epi- 
 phanius is not sufficient to make us believe in any 
 sense of the expression that Luke preached in GauP. 
 The notion of Crescens having gone into that coun- 
 try was perhaps founded upon the words of St. Paul, 
 
 1 Cap. 5. ^ ^ee'Lidiu.noY, Sulpitii Severi 
 
 ■■ See Tillemont, Memoires, sententia de primis GalUoe mar- 
 
 tom. I. p. 867. Natalis Alex- Ujrihus vindicata c. 17. p. 89. 
 
 ander, Saec. I. Diss. XIV. Tillemont, MSmoires, torn. II . 
 
 s Haer. LI. i i. p. 433. p. 462. 
 
282 Gospel preached lect. ix. 
 
 A. D. where he speaks (according to our present copies) of 
 • Crescens having gone into Galatia" : and it must be 
 allowed, that there is good authority, particularly 
 from the Fathers, for supposing St. Paul to have 
 written Gaul rather than Galatia. Still, however, 
 there is the same uncertainty as to Transalpine or 
 Cisalpine Gaul being intended : and if this was the 
 only mission of Crescens into that country, it is 
 demonstrable, that he was not travelling in com- 
 pany with the apostle ; and St. Paul's journey into 
 Gaul remains as uncertain as before". A namesake 
 of the apostle is also said to have attended him, and 
 to have remained at Narbonney. Nor was this the 
 only channel, by which the gospel is stated to have 
 found its way into France. We need not stop to 
 consider the palpable fiction of Mary Magdalene, 
 with the two other Maries and Lazarus, going by 
 sea to Marseilles soon after the martyrdom of Ste- 
 phen, and of Lazarus presiding over the church of 
 Marseilles for thirty years. Such fables will now 
 find few if any supporters^. It is perhaps worthy 
 of more attention, that the church of Aries has 
 claimed some precedence over the other churches, as 
 being founded by Trophimus^: and this person, 
 who is meant to be the Ephesian, who accompanied 
 
 ^1 2 Tim. iv. lo. p. 371. Natalis Alexander, 
 
 " The name of Crescens is Saec. I. Diss. XV. 
 connected with the churches z Jt jg defended at much 
 
 of Vienne, Mayence, and Co- length by Natalis Alexander, 
 
 logne : but the tradition is al- Saec. I. Diss. XVI. But see 
 
 together rejected by Launoy, J^axinoy, de Magda/e/KTyLazaii 
 
 dediiubiis l)h))iijsi'is, toni. II. p. (^'C. in Provlnciam appidsu. 
 41. Tillemont, Mcmoi res, torn. '^ See Baronius, ad an. 61. 
 
 I. p. 877. It is supported by §. 4. Bolland. ad Feb. i. p. 
 
 NutalisAlexander, Sa^c. I.Diss. 81. Ado Viennens. ad an. 59. 
 
 XV. Natalis Alexander, Saec. I. Diss, 
 
 y See Bolland. ad Mart. 22. XV. 
 
LECT. IX. in France. 283 
 
 St. Paul to Jerusalem, is said to have received his com- A. D. 
 mission for preaching in Gaul from St. Peter. Other ^°' 
 persons are mentioned as having founded churches 
 in that country, who vrere sent by the chief of the 
 apostles. We read of Martialis at Limoges^, Satur- 
 ninus at Thoulouse, Gatianus at Tours'^, and others. 
 St. Peter himself has never been claimed as having 
 travelled into France : but beside St. Paul, the apo- 
 stle Philip ^^ is stated to have preached the gospel in 
 that country, and even in Britain. Dionysius the 
 Areopagite has also been named as taking a princi- 
 pal share in the conversion of the Gauls. The scene 
 of his preaching is not confined, like that of the per- 
 sons named above, to the Romanized provinces of 
 Narbonne, and Aquitain ; but he is stated to have 
 penetrated even as far as Paris, where he suffered 
 martyrdom : and whatever may be the truth of his 
 history, many French writers have believed their 
 patron saint to be the Athenian who was converted 
 by St. PauP : others, however, have advanced good 
 reasons for believing, that Dionysius the first bishop 
 of Paris did not visit that country till the reign of 
 Decius^ 
 
 Such are some of the traditions concerning the 
 introduction of Christianity into France ; and where 
 there is such an absence of ancient authority, and 
 such an evident rivalry between churches which 
 claim to be founded by apostles, there is the great- 
 
 ^ See Natalis Alexander, Tillenioiit, MSmoires, torn. I. 
 
 Saec. I. Diss. XV. p. 1 153. 
 
 c Gregor. Turon. de glor. <? SeeNatalisAlexander, ScEc. 
 
 Confess, c. 4. I. Diss. XV. H. Menardus, de 
 
 ^ Pseudo-Isidor. de vil. et unico Dionyslo. 
 
 mort. Sand. But see Launoy, ^ See Tilleniont, M^moires, 
 
 de Sulp. ut supra, p. 92, 95. torn. II. p. 434. 
 
284 Christianity in Gaul lect. ix. 
 
 A. D. est reason for caution, perhaps for incredulity. Still, 
 TjS. however, I cannot think it unreasonable to believe, 
 that the gospel was known in France at least as 
 early as the reign of Nero. The Roman character 
 of the towns in Provence, and their ready commu- 
 nication by sea with Italy and the whole of the 
 Mediterranean, might lead us to think, that Chris- 
 tianity could not long have continued unknown 
 there. If St. Paul went by land from Italy into 
 Spain, I should say, that the fact of his preaching 
 in Gaul can hardly be denied. The great object of 
 his heart, or I might say, the great business of his 
 life, was to plant the gospel, where no seeds of it 
 had as yet been sown. He says of himself, that he 
 was debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barba- 
 rians ; and if he survived his first imprisonment at 
 Rome by so much as six years, the cities in the 
 south of Gaul and in Spain were by no means un- 
 likely to benefit by his labours. I would not per- 
 haps altogether reject the tradition of Crescens or 
 Trophimus having been left in charge of some of 
 the cities in Provence : and we shall see that early 
 in the second century the gospel had made consi- 
 derable progress in that country. 
 
 The journey of St. Paul into Spain, and his 
 preaching in Gaul, are connected with another ques- 
 tion, which is of more interest to ourselves ; that 
 is, whether he also passed over into Britain, and 
 planted the gospel in this island. The exj^ression 
 quoted above from Clement, of St. Paul having gone 
 to the extremity of the west, and which I have said 
 may fairly be taken in support of the notion of his 
 having visited Spain, has also been insisted on as a 
 proof of his having preached in Britain. But such 
 
LECT. IX. and m Britain. 285 
 
 an inference, to say the least of it, is extremely un- A. D. 
 certain. On the other hand the evidence appears to _____ 
 me irresistible, that toward the end of the second 
 century Christianity had penetrated into very remote 
 parts of the British isles : and persons vrill perhaps 
 argue differently as to the length of time which was 
 required from its first introduction. Eusebius, who 
 wrote in the former part of the fourth century, cer- 
 tainly mentions Britain as one of the distant coun- 
 tries, which was visited by the apostles ^ ; but he 
 does not mention any particular apostle : and the 
 first writer, who names St. Paul, is Theodoret, who 
 wrote at the beginning of the fifth century ^^ We 
 may therefore say, that in the fourth century there 
 was a tradition of Christianity being preached in 
 Britain by some of the apostles : but even the tra- 
 ditionary evidence in favour of St. Paul is such as 
 sound criticism can hardly accept. Eusebius must 
 not be quoted for this part of the story. He cer- 
 tainl}'- believed, that the Britons were converted as 
 early as the apostolic age ; but there is as much 
 reason to think, that he would have ascribed the 
 work to St. Philip, as to St. Paul. I have mentioned 
 the tradition of St. Philip having preached in Gaul : 
 and Isidorus of Hispala, a writer of the sixth century, 
 who has been quoted as stating this fact, might seem 
 also to allude to Britain, when he speaks of the same 
 apostle enlightening " barbarous nations, which bor- 
 " dered upon darkness, and were bounded by the 
 " swelling oceans" A tradition, which is even so 
 weakly supported as this, is not perhaps to be classed 
 
 g Dem. Evang. III. 5. p. 1 1 2. rum^ c. 74. This work is con- 
 h De Cur. Grsec. IX. sidered to be spurious. 
 
 i De vita et morte Sancto- 
 
286 Conversion of Britain. t.ect. ix. 
 
 A. 1). with the idle legend of Joseph of Arimathea founding 
 ^"- a church at Glastonbury'^, or of Claudia the daughter 
 of Caractacus carrying back Christianity from Rome 
 into her father's territories. But it is singular, that 
 Joseph of Arimathea and his twelve companions 
 are said to have been sent to Britain by St. Phi- 
 lip ; so that this apostle's name was certainly con- 
 nected in early times with the conversion of our 
 island. Ujion the whole I would say, as in the 
 case of France, that at the time, when St. Paul 
 might have visited Britain, i. e. in the reign of 
 Nero, there is nothing um'easonable in supposing, 
 that the gospel might have been known there. That 
 it was introduced by St. Paul, appears to me a very 
 gratuitous assumption : but there is reason to think, 
 that at this time eleven other apostles were travel- 
 ling in different countries for the sole purpose of 
 propagating the gospel ; and unless we think, that 
 Britain was too obscure a place to attract their 
 notice, we might perhaps believe, without undue 
 credvility, that St. Philip or some other of the apo- 
 stles crossed over from Gaul, and preached the gos- 
 pel in this country. 
 
 If the journey of St. Paul into Spain be denied, 
 we have no alternative but to confess our utter igno- 
 rance of his proceedings for the last six or eight years 
 of his life : and the journey, even if it be allowed, 
 will fill up but a small portion of that period. The 
 ecclesiastical history of the remaining part of the 
 first century is extremely imperfect. A few scatter- 
 ed notices, unconnected as to time and place, must 
 henceforth satisfy our inquiries : and I shall con- 
 
 ^ See Bolland. ad Mart. 17. p. 509. 
 
LECT. IX. State qfJudeea. 287 
 
 elude this Lecture with relatins^ an event of some A. D. 
 
 go 
 
 importance, which happened in Judaea. '_ 
 
 I have conjectured, that under the firm admin- 
 istration of Festus, the Christians in Palestine were 
 comparatively free from molestation : and the state- 
 ment is confirmed by what took place soon after his 
 decease. Fie died in the eighth year of the reign of 
 Nero ; and as soon as the news of his death arrived 
 at Rome, Albiims was appointed to succeed him. 
 Some time however elapsed, before the new procu- 
 rator reached his government ; and the high priest 
 took advantage of the interregnum to persecute the 
 Christians. The office of high priest had been fre- 
 quently changed about this period. Agrippa, who 
 still resided at Jerusalem, had lately appointed Jo- 
 seph, and shortly after Ananus, or Annas, the son 
 of the Annas, whose name is connected with the 
 crucifixion of our Saviour. This was the fifth of his 
 sons, beside his son-in-law Caiaphas, who had held 
 the pontifical dignity ; and the present high priest, 
 being a Sadducee, had probably additional motives 
 for shewing hostility to the Christians. His plan 
 of attack, though iniquitous and cruel, was certainly 
 well conceived. The blow was aimed at once at the 
 head and leader of the party ; and the Easter of the 
 year sixty- two is generally taken to be the period, 
 when James the bishop of Jerusalem was martyred. 
 The atrocious act is alluded to by Josephus^, and 
 was related in much detail by Hegesippus, a Chris- 
 tian historian of the second century. His account 
 has been preserved to us by Eusebius"*; and though 
 some parts of it have an air of fiction, we may per- 
 haps believe the following circumstances to be sub- 
 1 Antiq. XX. 9,1. in H.E. II. 23. 
 
288 Death of James the Just. lect. ix. 
 
 A. D. stantially true ". The religion of Jesus had now 
 62. for some years been sj^reading raj^idly in Jerusalem, 
 and many persons of consequence had embraced the 
 gospel. The death of Festus seemed to give to the 
 unbelieving party a greater licence of acting ; and 
 their object was plainly developed, when they ap- 
 plied to James, as a person of great weight and in- 
 fluence, and asked him to undeceive the people, who 
 were so eagerly running after the new religion. 
 James was placed upon an elevated part of the 
 temple, and was ordered to address himself to the 
 multitudes, who were attracted by the festival in 
 the courts below. Ananus and his party could hardly 
 have hoped, that James would so suddenly retract 
 his opinions ; there can be no doubt, that they only 
 sought a public opportunity for putting him to 
 death ; and their wishes were shortly gratified. In- 
 stead of dissuading the people from following Jesus, 
 he spoke of him in terms, which at once shewed his 
 belief and veneration of him ; upon which the per- 
 sons, who had placed him there, hastened to the 
 spot, and threw him down. Others were ready be- 
 low to stone him, and when he still survived, and 
 was praying for his murderers, a person out of the 
 crowd despatched him with a fuller's club. 
 
 Such was the tragical end of James the Just, the 
 first bishop of Jerusalem, after he had watched over 
 the Christian church in that city for thirty years ''. 
 It seems most probable, that he was not employed, 
 like the other apostles, in converting distant na- 
 tions. The Christians of Judaea were committed to 
 
 •^ See Le Clerc^, Hist. Eccles. own system of chronologj'; and 
 duorum primonim Scac. p. 414. it is exactly confirmed by Je- 
 This is the result of my rom, dc vir. illusi. c. 2. 
 
LECT. IX. Epistle of St. James. 289 
 
 his peculiar care : but he has also left a proof of A. D. 
 the interest which he took in his brethren of every "" 
 country, if, as there is the greatest reason to be- 
 lieve, he was author of the Epistle which bears his 
 name i'. The Epistle of James is addressed to the 
 twelve tribes disjjersed throughout the world ; by 
 which of course we are to understand the Christians 
 in any of the twelve tribes. James must have seen 
 many of these persons, when they attended the fes- 
 tivals : and the resident head of the Christian church 
 at Jerusalem was a very fit person to send a circular 
 letter to the Jewish Christians in different countries. 
 With respect to the date of this Epistle, I should be 
 inclined to fix it late : probably not long before the 
 martyrdom of the writer. It contains allusions to 
 the approaching trials, which the Christians were to 
 suffer ; and there are expressions in it, which seem 
 to be directed against Gnostic errors. James must 
 have witnessed the effect of this false philosophy in 
 the neighbouring country of Samaria, where Simon 
 Magus, as I have stated, met with great success. 
 That impostor perverted the doctrines of the gospel ; 
 and probably quoted St. Paul, as saying, that good 
 works were of no importance. I have conjectured, 
 that Simon was at Rome about the time of St. Paul 
 addressing his Epistle to the Christians of that city. 
 He may himself have seen that Epistle, and may 
 have spread a false account of it upon his return 
 shortly after to Samaria. The bishop of Jerusalem 
 would feel himself called upon to repress an evil, 
 which came so near : and we thus arrive at a pro- 
 bable cause, as well as an approximation to a date, 
 of the catholic Epistle of James. It was perhaps 
 
 P See Tillemont, Memoirrs, torn. I. p. 1024, 1147. 
 U 
 
290 Symeon succeeds i.ect. ix. 
 
 A. D. written between the year 53, when St. Paul wrote 
 • to the Romans, and the year 62, when James him- 
 self was put to death. His death happened, as I 
 have said, at the time of the Passover ; and Jose- 
 phus adds, that some of the Jews sent to Albinus, 
 who was then on his way from Alexandria, com- 
 plaining of this illegal conduct of the high priest. 
 Albinus threatened him with his displeasure ; and 
 Agrippa, who was always glad to shew his author- 
 ity, made it a pretext for displacing Ananus, and 
 appointing Jesus, the son of Damnaeus. There is no 
 reason to think, that either Albinus or Agrippa were 
 actuated by any partiality to the Christians. The 
 assumption of judicial power in the absence of the 
 Procurator was looked upon as a dangerous prece- 
 dent ; and any open act of persecution was perhaps 
 for a time repressed. The Christians proceeded to 
 repair the loss they had sustained : and Symeon, one 
 of the brothers of James, became the second bishop 
 of Jerusalem. Eusebius states in his history, that 
 all the surviving apostles met for the purpose of this 
 election ; and that Symeon was unanimously chosen 
 by them, and by the relations of our Lord. It is 
 added by a later writer^, that he had ventured 
 openly to re])roach the Jews for their cruelty to his 
 brother. If any of the apostles were at this time in 
 Judaea, they probably had a share in making this 
 appointment : but there is reason to think, that for 
 some years they had been engaged in distant coun- 
 tries ; and Symeon was probably chosen by the 
 elders of the church at Jerusalem, as being brother 
 to their martyred bishop, and himself a relation of 
 our Lord. Eusebius has preserved a fragment of 
 q Epiphanius, Hcer. LXXVIII. 14. p. 1046. 
 
LECT. IX. 
 
 James the Just. 
 
 291 
 
 Hegesippus, a writer of the second century, from 
 which it would appear, that another person of the 
 name of Thebuthis had wished to be elected to this 
 office : and that from disappointment at seeing Sy- 
 meon preferred before him, he began to attract a 
 party, and to introduce new opinions into the church'". 
 It is not, however, certain, whether this did not hap- 
 pen upon the death of Symeon, who lived as late as 
 the year 107 : and a fitter opportunity will occur 
 hereafter for considering the heresies, which arose 
 after this time in the Jewish church. 
 
 A. D. 
 
 G2. 
 
 r Eus. H. E. IV. 2 2. Hege- 
 sippus, as his words are here 
 quoted, seems to have placed 
 the discontent of Thebuthis 
 after the death of James : but 
 there appears to be something 
 corrupt or missing in the nar- 
 rative : and we can hardly re- 
 
 concile this quotation with an- 
 other from the same passage, 
 unless we suppose Hegesippus 
 to have been speaking of the 
 death of Symeon. He is so 
 understood by Baronius ad an. 
 cix. §. 2, 4. 
 
 u 2 
 
LECTURE X. 
 
 A. D. -L HE same year, which witnessed the martyrdom 
 " • of James, the bishop of Jerusalem, is also marked 
 by the death of another person of note, who is some- 
 times mentioned as the bishop of another of the 
 principal sees. This was the evangelist St. Mark, 
 who is said to have founded the church of Alex- 
 andria, and to have been succeeded in the eighth 
 year of Nero by Annianus, who is sometimes called 
 the second, and sometimes the first bishop of that 
 see. With respect to Annianus being placed at the 
 head of the Alexandrian church in the year 61 or 
 62, I should be inclined to receive the tradition as 
 true ; and perhaps he was appointed upon the death 
 of St. Mark ; but the expressions of some early 
 writers would equally allow us to infer, that St. 
 Mark merely left the care of the church to Annia- 
 nus, as soon as he had sufficiently settled its affairs ^ 
 The question is intimately connected with the iden- 
 tity of John, surnamed Mark, the companion of 
 Paul and Barnabas, with Mark the evangelist, the 
 companion of St. Peter : for St. Paul, in the letter, 
 which he wrote to Timothy not long before his 
 death, perhaps about the year 65, tells him to bring 
 Mark with him '' ; and it is plain, that this Mark 
 
 a See Eus. H. E. II. 24. Til- 1 69, &c. 
 lemont, Memoires, toni. II. p. '> 2 Tim. iv. 11. 
 
LECT. X. St. 3Iark. 293 
 
 was not then bishop of Alexandria ; whereas Mark A. D. 
 the evangelist is stated to have died at Alexandria ^^- 
 in the year 61 or 62. We must therefore either 
 give up the identity of these two persons ; or we 
 must conclude, that Mark the evangelist left Alex- 
 andria in the year 62, and resumed his former occu- 
 pation of ministering to the different churches. I 
 have already j^rofessed myself favourable to the first 
 of these two opinions ; and the chronological diffi- 
 culty just stated perhaps furnishes an additional rea- 
 son for adopting it. 
 
 The earliest and most respectable writers do not 
 say any thing of the martyrdom of St. Mark : but it 
 is mentioned with some detail in Roman and Greek 
 martyrologies ; and the tradition is entitled to some 
 consideration. That he was connected with the 
 first establishment of the Alexandrian church, is 
 supported by such a concurrence of ancient testi- 
 mony, that I shall assume it as an historical fact : 
 and it is also highly probable, that he either accom- 
 plished this work in conjunction with St. Peter, or 
 was sent by that apostle to undertake it. If Mark 
 the evangelist was not the person, who accompanied 
 Paul and Barnabas, we know nothing of his early 
 history from the New Testament ^ ; except that he 
 seems to be the person mentioned by St. Peter in 
 his first Epistle, where he calls him his son^. This 
 would perhaps lead us to infer, that St. Peter was 
 his spiritual father, or in other words, had converted 
 
 c Epiphanius is the earliest, century, says expressly that he 
 
 and almost the only ancient Avas not : (apud Eus. H. E. III. 
 
 writer, who says that he was 39.) and he is followed by Ter- 
 
 one of the seventy disciples, tullian, Theodoret, Augustin, 
 
 (Haer. LI. 6. p. 428.) Papias, &c. 
 who wrote early in the second ^ i Pet. v. 13. 
 
 u 3 
 
294 St. Peter in Rome. lect. x. 
 
 A. D. him to Christianity : and ecclesiastical writers are 
 unanimous in representing St. Mark as the compa- 
 nion of St. Peter. 
 
 I have already alluded to the scanty evidence 
 which we have of the apostolical labours of St. 
 Peter; and his journey to Rome is one of the points, 
 which has led to most controversy. I have given 
 reasons for thinking, that St. Peter had not visited 
 Rome at the jjeriod of St. Paul's release in 58 : but 
 it is not improbable, that he went thither shortly 
 after. This is not the commonly received opinion : 
 but it is one, which is not j)ositively inconsistent 
 with any ancient testimony, and it may perhaps 
 enable us to reconcile some difficulties. In the first 
 place, St. Peter and St. Paul are frequently men- 
 tioned as the joint founders of the Roman church ; 
 and since they seem not to have been there toge- 
 ther, except at the time of their martyrdom, the 
 work could only be ascribed to both of them, if one 
 followed the other, and finished what was already 
 begun. I would conjecture, therefore, that St. Peter 
 came to Rome in the summer of 58, either just be- 
 fore or shortly after St. Paul was released from con- 
 finement ; and there is good evidence for saying, 
 that St. Mark was the companion of St. Peter in 
 this visit to Rome. There was a tradition at the 
 beginning of the fourth century, that St. Peter en- 
 countered Simon Magus, while he was in that city®; 
 and I should be inclined to believe the fact, though 
 the date of it is uncertain. The meeting either 
 took place now, or a few years later, when St. Peter 
 was again in Rome and accompanied by St. Paul. 
 The story has been embellished by so many mar- 
 
 e Arnohius, ]. II. p. 50. 
 
i.ECT. X. Simon 3Ingus. 295 
 
 velloiis circumstances, that some critics have rejected A. I), 
 it altogether : but after having given the subject the ^^- 
 most mature consideration, I cannot help concluding, 
 that this would be to carry our scepticism too far. 
 That Simon Magus pretended to vi^ork miracles^ is 
 stated not only by the Fathers, but by St. Luke ^ : 
 and when we read of his challenging St. Peter to a 
 trial of their powers, and of his attempting to fly 
 through the air, I cannot see that the story is at all 
 at variance with what we know of this impostor, 
 and of the times in which he lived. It is singular, 
 that heathen writei^s have preserved an account of 
 a person attempting to fly in the reign of Nero, and 
 being killed in the attempt &: and though I would 
 not connect this story with that of Simon Magus, it 
 at least shews, that there is no improbability in sup- 
 posing a person to have attempted to fly in the 
 reign of Nero. We are told that Simon Magus 
 undertook such an exploit, and he seems to have 
 made use of a fiery chariot for his perilous excur- 
 sion : but St. Peter, who was present, having ad- 
 dressed his prayers to God, the impostor fell to the 
 ground, and broke both his legs. It is added, that 
 he afterwards destroyed himself, through shame and 
 vexation, by falling from the top of a house. Some 
 persons will perhaps still think, that the whole of 
 this narration is to be rejected as a fable : but I 
 cannot help repeating that the outline of it is pro- 
 bably true ; and that at some time or other St. Peter 
 exposed a false miracle of Simon Magus at Rome, 
 and was the cause of his death ^\ According to Eu- 
 
 f Acts viii. 9. I 2. Juvenal. III. 79. 
 
 E Dio Chrys. Or. XXI. p. h gge Bampton Lectures, 
 
 371. ed. 1604. Suetonius, Nero note 41. 
 
 u 4 
 
29() S/. Mark's Gospel. lect. x. 
 
 A. 1). sebius, the result of this encounter was the extinc- 
 ^^- tion of Simon's popularity, and of the circulation 
 given to his doctrine at Rome : and there certainly 
 is reason to believe, that the Roman church conti- 
 nued for a long time particularly free from heresy. 
 
 Another interesting circumstance is mentioned by 
 Eusebius '\ who tells us, that St. Peter met the cele- 
 brated Jewish writer Philo, while he was at Rome. 
 There is no chronological difficulty attending such a 
 supposition ; and a mind like Philo's could not have 
 failed to be attracted by the doctrines of the gospel. 
 But throughout the whole of his voluminous writ- 
 ings there is no allusion whatever to the Christians ; 
 and the fact of his meeting with St. Peter can only 
 be received as a probable, though unsupported tra- 
 dition. 
 
 We have more circumstantial evidence for con- 
 necting the publication of St. Mark's Gospel with 
 the preaching of St. Peter at Rome. Many writers 
 have conceived, that St. Mark published his Gospel 
 soon after the death of St. Peter and St. Paul : but 
 they do not seem to notice the difficulty which arises 
 from the death of St. Mark being placed in the year 
 62, while the two apostles did not suffisr till some 
 years later. If we suppose St. Peter to have visited 
 Rome about the year 58, this difficulty vanishes ; 
 and nearly all the ancient traditions concerning St. 
 Mark's Gospel may be reconciled. I should con- 
 ceive St. Peter not to have remained long in Rome 
 at this time ; and before his departure, the disciples 
 requested Mark to put down in writing the sub- 
 stance of the apostle's preaching. St. Peter is said 
 
 i H. E. II. 17. 
 
LECT. X. SL Peter in Egypt. 297 
 
 to have seen and approved of what he wrote '^ ; so A, D. 
 that the work comes to us upon the highest aposto- 
 lical authority. What I have said of the inspira- 
 tion of St. Luke, will also apply to the case of St. 
 Mark, who had perhaps for several years been ac- 
 companying St. Peter, and constantly receiving spi- 
 ritual assistance for preaching the gospel. If I was 
 right in assigning the year 55 for the finishing of 
 St. Luke's Gospel, it is possible that St. Mark may 
 have seen it before he wrote his own. But St. Luke 
 composed it for the special use of Theophilus, who 
 is supposed to have lived at Antioch : and unless he 
 brought another copy of it when he came to Rome, 
 it may not have been much circulated in that city. 
 At all events experience tells us, that authors are 
 not deterred from publishing, because their works 
 have been anticipated. It was evidently the object 
 of St. Mark to give the converts at Rome a short 
 manual of the miracles and discourses of our Lord : 
 and since he was going to travel into other countries, 
 he may have preferred taking with him his own 
 work, rather than the more elaborate composition of 
 St. Luke. He is said by more than one ancient 
 writer to have carried his Gospel into Egypt : and 
 this leads us to what I have already anticipated 
 in his history, the foundation of the church at Alex- 
 andria. 
 
 It is perhaps not asserted by any ancient writer, 
 that St. Peter was ever in Egypt. There would 
 indeed be indisputable evidence of it, if we could be 
 certain, that the Babylon, from which he dates his 
 first Epistle, was situated in Egypt : but this will 
 
 •^ Papias apud Eus. H. E. i. p. 174. Clem. Alex, apud 
 III. 39. lb. II. 15. IreiicTiis III. Eus. H. E. VI. 14. 
 
298 SL Peter's first Epistle. lect. x. 
 
 A. D. perhaps for ever remain a doubtful point. In an- 
 "^- cient times it was generally conceived, that the ex- 
 pression was a figurative one, and that Rome was 
 the place intended. Of modern writers, those who 
 have not adopted this notion, have rather inclined 
 to the celebrated city upon the Euphrates : but 
 Pearson' and a few others have argued in favour of 
 a place of that name in Egypt. The question is 
 of little importance, except as furnishing a fact in 
 the scanty history of St. Peter : and without pre- 
 tending to decide, where such great authorities have 
 differed, I cannot help observing, that there is much 
 reason for thinking the Egyptian Babylon to be in- 
 tended. There is certainly some traditional evi- 
 dence for supposing St. Peter to have sent St. Mark 
 to preach the gospel in Alexandria'": and on the 
 whole I should be inclined to conclude, that St. Peter 
 himself visited Egypt. The date of his journey 
 may be fixed about the year 58 or 59, and when he 
 was leaving the country, he perhaps wrote his first 
 Epistle from Babylon, a town near Heliopolis, which 
 was addressed to the Christians in Pontus, Galatia, 
 Cappadocia, Asia, i. e. Ionia, and Bithynia. Mark 
 was then with him, as was also Silvanus, who was 
 perhaps the same person that travelled with St. Paul 
 in his second journey. We have heard nothing of 
 Silas or Silvanus since the year 47, when he was re- 
 siding with St. Paul at Corinth : but since we have 
 no trace of his attending St. Paul in his subsequent 
 journeys, we may perhaps conclude, that he staid 
 some time longer at Corinth, and afterwards joined 
 St. Peter. 
 
 Though I have supposed St. Peter to have preached 
 
 1 De Success. I. 8. 3. ™ See the authorities in Lardner. 
 
LECT. X. Church of Alexandria. 299 
 
 in Egypt, we must perhaps assume, that he did not A. D. 
 visit Alexandria. If he had, it could hardly have 
 happened, that the Alexandrian Christians would 
 not have claimed him as the founder of their church ; 
 whereas the ancient writers are unanimous in as- 
 cribing its foundation to St. Mark. The event, 
 whenever it happened, was a very important one 
 for the interests of Christianity. The believers in 
 that city far surpassed all others in learning ; and 
 they seem from very early times to have established 
 schools for the instruction of the converts. When 
 the precedence of the patriarchal sees came to be 
 settled, Alexandria obtained the second rank": and 
 since it was not the seat of empire like Rome, and 
 Jerusalem and Antioch had both preceded it in re- 
 ceiving the gospel, it could only have held this place 
 from its superior celebrity. I have supposed St. 
 Peter to have gone to Egypt, accompanied by St. 
 Mark, somewhere about the year 58; and perhaps 
 it was then, that the latter was sent to preach at 
 Alexandria. We need not however suppose, that 
 the gospel had not been heard of in Egypt till that 
 time. Some Egyptian Jews were among the mul- 
 titudes who were present at Jerusalem, when the 
 Holy Ghost first came upon the apostles ; and they 
 may have carried back the new doctrines to their 
 brethren at home. It seems certain, that the gospel 
 spread rapidly in Alexandria : and Eusebius° might 
 be quoted in jiroof of this assertion ; though the 
 passage, to which I allude, contains perhaps a re- 
 
 ** These were Rome, Alex- Justinian, 
 andria, Antioch, Jerusalem. oH.E. II. 17. See Bamp- 
 
 Constantinople was added by ton Lectures, note 32. 
 
300 Tlierupeuhe. i.ect. x. 
 
 A. D. markable instance of false reasoning and historical 
 incorrectness. 
 
 It was the opinion of Ensebius, (and in this he 
 has been followed by other writers.) that the per- 
 sons, who are described by Philo Judaeus under the 
 name of Therapeutce , were Christians in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Alexandria, who were converted by St. 
 Mark. Other writers have identified the Thera- 
 peutae with the Essenes, of whom they suppose 
 them to have been a branch ; and have distinguished 
 them by the name of Contemplative Essenes. But 
 we may say of these two opinions, that the former 
 is undoubtedly incorrect, and the latter is probably 
 so. The Essenes were a Jewish sect, and were 
 found only in Palestine : but Philo by no means 
 says, that the Therapeutae were Jews ; and though 
 they were most numerous in Egypt, they were to be 
 met with in every quarter of the world. They were 
 most conspicuous for habits of great austerity and 
 self-mortification ; and Eusebius, who knew that 
 many Christians led an ascetic life in his own day, 
 and particularly in Egypt, was led incautiously to 
 conclude, that the Therapeutae of Philo were Chris- 
 tians. It is not improbable, that the religion and 
 literature of the Alexandrian Jews had some share 
 in forming the mystical system of the Therapeutae ; 
 but there is no reason whatever for connecting their 
 opinions with the early propagation of the gospel. 
 It is most likely that they were in existence before 
 any apostle or evangelist visited Egypt : and they 
 may be traced to that eclectic school of philosophy, 
 which I have already mentioned as having long 
 been gaining ground in Alexandria, and which I 
 
LECT. X. St. Mark at Alexandria. 301 
 
 also stated to be the immediate parent of Gnosti- A. D. 
 cism. Though I entirely agree with those persons, ^^- 
 who suppose Philo to have made no allusion what- 
 ever to the Christians, I would by no means assert, 
 that many of the Therapeutae did not embrace 
 Christianity, as soon as it was offered to them. 
 There was much in their habits and principles, which 
 prepared the way for the reception of the gospel. 
 Monachism certainly took its rise in Egypt : and 
 though the name of monies was of much later intro- 
 duction, there is evidence of some Christians bear- 
 ing the name of ascetics from the earliest times i'. 
 The Egyptian Therapeutse may have been the be- 
 ginners of this system : and if the picture drawn 
 of them by Philo be accurate, it is almost impos- 
 sible to conceive, that they could hear the doctrines 
 of the gospel without being affected by them. It is 
 not the province of history to indulge in conjecture, 
 or we might reasonably conclude, that St. Mark 
 himself came in contact with the Therapeutae, and 
 brought many of them over to believe in Christ. 
 The fact of his preaching in Alexandria, as I have 
 already stated, is supported by such a concurrence 
 of evidence, that it can hardly be doubted : but be- 
 yond this we know little concerning him. Even 
 the time of his first visiting Egypt is involved in 
 uncertainty. Eusebius would seem to place it in 
 the first year of the reign of Claudius ^ ; but it is 
 much more probable that his visit was later, and he 
 perhaps went there for the first time at the begin- 
 ning of the reign of Nero. He is said to have 
 preached first in the neighbourhood of Cyrene, and 
 afterwards to have gone to Egypt. In both places 
 
 P See Suicer v. uoK^Trjs. q In Chron. 
 
302 Death of St. Mark. lect. x. 
 
 A. D. he met with great success ; and the Alexandrian 
 ^^- church, as I have already stated, has always consi- 
 dered him as its founder. He is sometimes called 
 the first bishop of that see : but other writers, who 
 probably looked upon him as an apostle rather than 
 as an ordinary pastor, have begun the succession of 
 Alexandrian bishops with the person who succeeded 
 him. This is very generally said to have been 
 Annianus, and the date of his appointment is fixed 
 in the year 62, or in the eighth year of Nero. It is 
 possible, that he may have been appointed, when St. 
 Mark left Alexandria to visit some other country : 
 but it is generally supposed, that St. Mark died in 
 that year ; and there are accounts, which speak 
 with some detail of his having suffered martyr- 
 dom •■. All this, however, is extremely uncertain ; 
 and ecclesiastical history allows us to say little more, 
 than that the personal history of St. Mark ends in 
 the year 62, and that in this same year the church 
 of Alexandria was committed to the care of An- 
 nianus. 
 
 We must now turn from the Christians in that 
 part of the world to an affair of still greater im- 
 portance, to the first scene in that series of tra- 
 gedies which henceforward were exhibited at Rome. 
 I have already lamented, that the ecclesiastical his- 
 tory of this period consists only of a few uncon- 
 nected incidents : and the order of time requires us 
 now to follow the two great apostles, St. Peter and 
 St. Paul, to the close of their eventful lives. 
 
 When St. Paul was released in 58, he probably 
 travelled, as I have conjectured, through Greece and 
 
 '■ For all these traditions of Tillemont, Meniolres, tit. St. 
 St. Mark's visiting Egypt, see Marc. 
 
LECT. X. State ofJudcBa. 303 
 
 Asia Minor to Jerusalem. A period of eight years A. D. 
 may then be allowed for his visiting Sjjain, or any ^^- 
 other countries. If we take the words of Eusebius 
 literally, that all the apostles were present at Jeru- 
 salem in the year 62, when a successor was chosen 
 to James, we might suppose that St. Paul had again 
 visited that city : nor is it at all improbable, that 
 he made several journeys to Jerusalem between his 
 release from imprisonment at Rome and his death. 
 The calamities of Judaea were now hastening to their 
 catastrophe. Albinus, as I have stated, succeeded 
 Festus as Procurator in 62 ; and though avaricious 
 and rapacious, he contrived not to exasperate the 
 Jews to any flagrant acts of opposition. In 65 he 
 was succeeded by Gessius Florus ; and this man, 
 according to Josephus, made even the government 
 of Albinus to be remembered with regret*. The 
 following year, which was the twelfth of Nero, is 
 always mentioned as that, in which the Jewish war 
 broke out ; though it is difficult to say when a storm 
 begins, which has long been heard at a distance. 
 From this time the opposition to the Roman arms 
 in Jerusalem was open and unceasing ; and it is con- 
 soling to the ecclesiastical historian, that he is not 
 obliged to dwell in detail upon this succession of 
 horrors. It is impossible, however, to suppose, that 
 the Christians were unconcerned spectators of the 
 Jewish war ; and if we were supplied with mate- 
 rials, we might perhaps have many interesting anec- 
 dotes to relate, in which the Christians were actors 
 or sufferers. Some of them, who were still zealous 
 for their ancient institutions, and who united faith 
 in Christ with obedience to the Law, may have been 
 
 •^ Antiq. XX. 11,1. 
 
304 St. Mattheiv\s Gospel. i-ECT. x. 
 
 A. D. found in the ranks of the patriots or rebels, by which- 
 66. ever name we may call them ; and at the beginning 
 of the insurrection, Christian blood may have been 
 shed in Jerusalem. We have the assurance, how- 
 ever, of our Saviour himself, that this calamity, if it 
 took place at all, did not last long^ The picture, 
 which he drew of this appalling warfare in the 
 spirit of prophecy, may be taken as an historical 
 document ; to every part and every line of which, 
 the narrative of Josephus is a commentary and illus- 
 tration. Our Saviour's mysterious warnings were 
 perhaps not understood, or not fully believed, at the 
 time, by his doubting disciples ; but when the hor- 
 rors, which he predicted, were rapidly and fearfully 
 coming to pass, the advice, which he gave, would 
 also flash upon their minds. It was not long before 
 this period, that I conceive St. Matthew to have pub- 
 lished his Gospel. I am aware, that a much earlier 
 date is assigned to it by some critics " : but Ire- 
 naeus, who is the earliest writer upon the subject, 
 says expressly, that Matthew wrote his Gospel, while 
 Peter and Paul were preaching at Rome, and found- 
 ing the church there" : and I have shewn, that this 
 expression, if taken literally, cannot be applied to 
 an earlier period than the year 58. Most of the 
 ancient authorities support this date, rather than the 
 earlier one, which modern critics have assigned to 
 St. Matthew's Gospel : and if he did not publish it 
 till the beginning of the reign of Nero, we may ac- 
 count for his recording in such detail the predictions 
 of our Saviour concerning the siege and destruction 
 of Jerusalem. The inspired evangelist could discern 
 
 t Matt. xxiv. 22. u See the authorities in Lardner. 
 
 '' III. I. p. 174. 
 
LECT. X. Siege of Jerusalem. 305 
 
 the signs of the times ; and he wished to remind his A. D. 
 Christian countrymen, that they were to save them- ^^- 
 selves by a timely flight. The interest, with which 
 St. Matthew's Gospel was read, will appear much 
 greater, if we suppose it to have been written, when 
 wars and rumours of wars, when famines and pes- 
 tilences and earthquakes, which were to be the he- 
 ginning of sorrows, were already actually felt : and 
 those impressive words, whoso readeth let him un- 
 derstand, were well calculated to persuade every be- 
 liever in Christ, that the evil was near, even at the 
 doors. We know from history, that the salutary 
 warning was not thrown away. Whether our Sa- 
 viour meant his words to be taken literally, that not 
 a hair of their head should perish -, (Luke xxi. 18.) 
 and whether, as some writers have asserted, not a 
 single Christian perished in the siege of Jerusalem, 
 may perhaps be doubted : but the prophetic exhor- 
 tation, Ltet them which are in Judcea flee to the 
 mountains ; and let them which are in the midst of 
 it depart out, was certainly followed by a great mul- 
 titude of Christians. Josephus himself informs us, 
 that after the defeat of Cestius Gallus, which hap- 
 pened in ^^, and which committed the Jews be- 
 yond the power of conciliation, many of the most 
 considerable of the people forsook the city J". He of 
 course does not mention the Christians : but it was 
 probably at this time, if not before, that many of 
 them had begun to flee to the moimtaiyis : and we 
 are told by Eusebius^ and Epiphanius'*, that they 
 retired to a city called Pella, on the eastern side of 
 
 y De Bel. Jud. II. 20, i. XXX. 2. p. 126. See Baierus, 
 
 2 H. E. III. 5. de migratione Christianorum 
 
 a Haer. XXIX. 7. p. 123. in Pellam. 
 
306 St. Paul at Rome. lect. x. 
 
 A. D. the Jordan. There can be no doubt that Symeon, 
 ^^- who was now bishop of Jerusalem, was one of the 
 fugitives. We shall have occasion to consider here- 
 after the Jewish Christians at Pella : and for the 
 present it will be sufficient to state, what is asserted 
 by some writers, and is not in itself improbable, that 
 many of the Jews were induced to embrace the gos- 
 pel, upon seeing the evident interference of Provi- 
 dence in the preservation of the Christians. 
 
 It might seem almost certain, that St. Paul did 
 not visit Jerusalem after the year ^^. His presence 
 could be of no use in the devoted city, which was 
 now deserted by all those, for whom he felt most 
 anxious : and it is generally supposed, that in the 
 year 67 he went for the second time to Rome. He 
 certainly approached this city from the East. He 
 had been not long before at Miletus'^ and Troas'^, 
 and perhaps at Corinth '' ; so that we might not un- 
 reasonably conclude, that in this which was his last 
 journey, he had again visited his churches in Asia 
 Minor, and in Greece. If this were so, he did not 
 go to Rome as a prisoner, though he was perhaps 
 put into prison not long after his arrival : and though 
 we are not informed of any circumstances which led 
 to his apprehension, and in fact we know nothing 
 of his personal history at this eventful crisis, there 
 is too certain evidence of the Roman church being 
 at this time in a state of severe trial. 
 
 ^ J) It was in the middle of the year 64, that ten out 
 64. of the fourteen regions, into which Rome was di- 
 vided, were almost entirely destroyed by fire : and 
 Nero, as is well known, was more than suspected of 
 
 ^ 2 Tim. iv'. 2o. <^ iv. 13. ^ iv. 20. 
 
i,ECT. X. Hurning of Home. 307 
 
 having caused the terrible disaster. It was in vain, A. D. 
 that he had recourse to acts of popular liberality, ^^- 
 or that he made a show of propitiating the gods by- 
 public expiations : the general voice still accused him 
 of the deed, and he sought to exculpate himself by- 
 finding other objects for their suspicion and their 
 revenge. \X. is now for the first time, that the name 
 of Christian occurs in the pages of 7''acitus ^ : and 
 the reader is astonished to find, that the emperor 
 Nero and the followers of Christ were accused of 
 the same crime. It is plain that Tacitus, though 
 grossly prejudiced against the Christians, did not in 
 this instance believe them to be guilty ; and their 
 innocence of this atrocious act seems to have been 
 generally allowed : but still the punishments, which 
 they suffered, are not stated to have been unpopular; 
 and their inhuman treatment might seem to have 
 rather furnished am^usement to the citizens of Rome. 
 The cause and the progress of this feeling of anti- 
 pathy are not exactly developed by any historian. 
 We have not hitherto seen any regular system of 
 persecution on the part of the people or the govern- 
 ment. In the year 46 St. Paul was imprisoned at 
 Philippi, for introducing customs which were con- 
 trary to those of Rome : and in 52 the silversmiths 
 of Ephesus were able to raise a tumult against him, 
 because the gospel interfered with their private gains. 
 We may suppose that feelings such as these, parti- 
 cularly the last, were not confined to Philippi or 
 Ephesus ; and while the gospel continued to spread, 
 it may have met with many similar attacks, which 
 have not been recorded. But still there is no evi- 
 dence of the Roman government having shewn any 
 e Annal. XV. 44. 
 
 X 2 
 
308 Calumnies against lect. x. 
 
 A. D. hostility to the Christians till the reign of Nero : 
 and this emperor has always enjoyed the " bad pre- 
 eminence" of being the first who set on foot a regu- 
 lar persecution. But this was perhaps owing to 
 the instigation of those about him, rather than to 
 any feelings or principles of his own. When St. Paul 
 was imprisoned for the first time in the year 5Q, 
 there is no evidence of the emperor being at all pre- 
 judiced against him or his opinions ; and it would 
 rather appear that during those two years the gospel 
 met with little opposition in Rome. In the interval 
 between his release in 58, and the burning of the 
 city in 64, something seems to have happened, which 
 had made the Christians to be objects of more gene- 
 ral dislike. We know indeed, that when St. Paul 
 arrived there in 5Q, he was told that the Christians 
 were evej^y where spoken agairist^ : but it was the 
 Jews who made this remark ; and perhaps they 
 spared no pains in imparting their own prejudices 
 to their heathen neighbours. Still, however, the 
 government or the people of Rome would require 
 other and more tangible grounds of dislike, than 
 those which were connected with the Law of Moses. 
 These were perhaps furnished by persons interested, 
 like Demetrius, in the expensive pageantry of hea- 
 then superstition : and if the gospel continued to 
 make much progress in Rome, it would be opposed 
 by persons who were neither few nor without in- 
 fluence at court, the priests and soothsayers, who, 
 while they complained of the temples losing their 
 votaries, were really in dread of their own revenues 
 being materially diminished. Other and very power- 
 ful causes may be found in the calumnies, which are 
 f Acts xxviii. 22. 
 
LECT. X. the Christians. 309 
 
 known to have been spread at this time against the A. D. 
 Christians. They were accused of Atheism, which ^^- 
 was perhaps not unnatural, since they held in ab- 
 horrence the numerous deities of Pagan superstition ; 
 and this was a charge, which the interested persons 
 alluded to above would be most industrious to spread. 
 But their moral as well as their religious principles 
 were assailed by the most malignant rumours. The 
 horrid and disgusting crimes, with which the poets 
 have connected the names of (Edipus and Thyestes* 
 became almost jn'overbial as being practised by the 
 Christians. Their love-feasts, and perhaps the cele- 
 bration of the eucharist, may have given some coun- 
 tenance to these reports : but it would hardly be 
 credited, if we did not find the early apologists re- 
 futing the imputation, that they were charged, not 
 only with promiscuous intercourse with their mothers 
 and sisters, but with serving up the flesh of newborn 
 infants at their mysterious banquets. An addiction 
 to magic might seem a trifling charge after others 
 of such an atrocious character : and it could hardly 
 have been this, which made the Christians so unpo- 
 pular, when persons of every rank, and even the 
 emperor himself, were known to indulge in this su- 
 perstition. When Tacitus is describing their perse- 
 cution under Nero, he states that they were con- 
 victed of hating the whole human race ; a charge, 
 which perhaps arose from their withdrawing them- 
 selves from many occupations and employments, 
 which brought them in contact with heathenism. 
 It was perhaps the same principle, which caused 
 them to be reproached as indolent and useless mem- 
 bers of society ; and this alone, without the other 
 and more flagrant criminalities, would be sufficient 
 
 X 3 
 
310 Christians confounded with Gnostics, lect. x. 
 
 A. D. to make the people of Rome indifferent, if not will- 
 "^- ing spectators of their sufferings^. 
 
 The reader will perhaps feel surprise, that such 
 improbable calumnies should have been believed ; 
 and that the lives of the Christians did not imme- 
 diately refute them. This is perhaps to be explained 
 by a recurrence to what I have already stated of 
 Simon Magus and the Gnostics. That impostor was 
 at Rome in the reign of Claudius, and perhaps re- 
 turned to it again after the release of St. Paul from 
 his imprisonment. There is reason to think, that 
 Gnosticism was by this time beginning to take deep 
 root : and though the Fathers have j)erhaps been 
 too vehement in vilifying the Gnostics, there is evi- 
 dence that nearly all the crimes, of which the Chris- 
 tians were accused, were committed in some degree 
 by the Gnostics. They were notoriously addicted to 
 magic ; and though one division of them practised 
 great austerities, there were others who plunged 
 without restraint into the grossest and most licen- 
 tious profligacy. Unhappily the Gnostics had in- 
 troduced the name of Christ into their absurd and 
 fabulous theology : and it was perhaps the rapid 
 success of the gospel, which led them to borrow, 
 though in a distorted form, the rites and ceremonies 
 of the Christians. Hence the heathen at Rome, who 
 were not careful to make distinctions in " foreign 
 " superstitions," and who for a long time confounded 
 the Christians with the Jews, committed a similar 
 error with respect to the Christians and the Gnos- 
 tics. In this way Christianity was brought into dis- 
 credit by the immoralities of persons, who were not 
 
 S For the calumnies against my Bampton Lectures, note 
 the Christians, I may refer to 63. 
 
LECT. X. Persecution under Nero. 311 
 
 really Christians : and when Nero was seeking for A. D. 
 some other channel, into which he might turn the 
 popular suspicions against himself, it was perhaps 
 suggested to him by those who were interested in 
 pagan worship, that the people would willingly listen 
 to any calumny against the Christians '\ They were 
 accordingly accused of having set fire to the city. 
 The emperor's gardens were used as a circus for the 
 occasion ; and the remorseless tyrant disgraced him- 
 self and human nature by taking part in the games, 
 while the Christians were tortured by new and bar- 
 barous inventions to furnish amusement for the popu- 
 lace of Rome. Humanity shudders to hear of these 
 innocent victims being enclosed in the skins of beasts, 
 that they might be torn in pieces by dogs ; or covered 
 with pitch and other inflammable materials, that 
 they might serve as torches to dispel the darkness 
 of the night '. We have no means of estimating the 
 number of these early martyrs. Tacitus, who was 
 then a boy about seven years of age, and was per- 
 haps taken to see the spectacle, sjieaks of the suffer- 
 ers as a great multitude : and his narrative, beside 
 giving an authentic account of this first jDersecution, 
 is also a convincing proof of the progress which 
 Christianity had made at Rome. 
 
 If the Fathers may be believed, we are also in 
 possession of the fact, that the Gnostics, who were 
 in one sense the cause of these sufferings by being 
 confounded with the Christians, contrived themselves 
 
 ^ It is expressly said by vol. I. p.m. 
 Melito, a writer of the second i Concerning these torture.*, 
 
 century, that Nero and Do- see a work written by Gallo- 
 
 mitian were prejudiced against nius, Antwerp 1668: and by 
 
 the Christians vtto tiuuv /3aa-- Sagittarius, Jena 1673. 
 ndvQiV dv6pa>7ra>v. Reliq. Sacr. 
 
 X 4> 
 
312 Persecution under Nero. lect. x. 
 
 A. D. to escape. Nothing is said by Tacitus of the Chris- 
 tians being required, as a test of their belief, to join 
 in some act of heathen worship : but we know that 
 this was the established practice in later persecu- 
 tions, and it is highly probable, that the alternative 
 was offered them on this occasion. The notion in- 
 deed rests on more than conjecture, if it was now 
 that Simon Magus instructed his followers, that there 
 was no harm in saving their lives by worshipping 
 an idol*^. We are assured, that this convenient doc- 
 trine was a characteristic of the Simonians and other 
 Gnostics : and though it is not certain, whether Si- 
 mon himself was at this time living or no, we may 
 conclude, that his followers escaped death by a com- 
 promise which every Christian looked upon with 
 abhorrence '. 
 
 The extent and the duration of this first perse- 
 cution of Nero have led to much discussion. Sul- 
 pitius Severus is the earliest writer, who speaks in 
 positive terms of the emperor having issued edicts 
 by which the profession of Christianity was forbid- 
 den in all the provinces of the empire. The mar- 
 tyrologies supply accounts of persons having suffered 
 in Tuscany, at Milan, and other places, in conse- 
 quence of these decrees. Evidence has been adduced 
 of the persecution having extended into Spain ^ : 
 but every authority, which has been alleged, parti- 
 cularly the last, is attended with circumstances of 
 suspicion ; and criticism is compelled to acknow- 
 
 ^ Origen. cont. Cels. VI. 1 1. ccxxxviii. n. 9. Ferreras, Hist. 
 
 p. 638. generale d' Espagne, torn. I. p. 
 
 ^ Bampton Lectures, note 192. Mosheim, de rebus ante 
 
 64. Const. Cent I. §. 35. not. n. 
 
 "" See Gruter, Inscript. p. 
 
LECT. X. St. Paul arrives at Rome. 313 
 
 ledge, that there are no sufficient grounds for ex- a. D. 
 tending these early martyrdoms beyond the precincts ^^- 
 of the city°. It was not the interest of Nero to 
 keep the question of the burning of Rome a long 
 time in agitation : and as soon as the emperor and 
 his subjects had sufficiently amused themselves with 
 the shrieks and sufferings of the Christians, it is pro- 
 bable that this public persecution of them ceased. 
 The discovery, however, had now been made, that 
 the Christians were not likely to resist : many per- 
 sons, as I have already stated, were interested in 
 suppressing them ; and the concluding history of St. 
 Paul is a sufficient proof, that the machinations of 
 their enemies were occasionally successful. 
 
 I have mentioned, that St. Paul is supposed to A. D, 
 have gone to Rome for the second time in the year ^7 08. 
 67 ; but there is no reason for concluding that he 
 did not arrive there a year or two earlier^. He 
 appears to have been at liberty on his journey to 
 that city : and it was perhaps the suffering state of 
 the Roman church, which caused him again to visit 
 it. The Gnostic heresy was also beginning to be 
 more than ever formidable to the Christians; not 
 only from their being confounded together by the 
 heathen, and the innocent party made to suffer for 
 the guilty ; but St. Paul foresaw that the subtlety 
 of the Gnostics would soon succeed in drawing away 
 many from the church. This had apparently been 
 
 ^ See Balduin, Comm. ad. Masson's Hist. critique de la rep. 
 
 edict, imp. i}i Chi'istia7ios, p. 2y. des lettres, torn. VIII. p. 74. 
 
 Launoy, Diss, qiia Sulpitii Se- torn. IX. p. 172. Tillemont, 
 
 veri locus vindicatur, sect. I. p. Hist, des Empereurs, torn. I. p. 
 
 T39. torn. II. part. I. Dodwell, 564. Baratier, de Success. Rom. 
 
 Diss. Cyprian. XI. §. 13. p. 59. Pont. c. V. p. 60. 
 
 o See a letter of Vignoles in 
 
314 St. Paul ill Rome. lect. x. 
 
 A. D. the case to a considerable degree in Asia Minor be- 
 ' ^p- fore this journey of St. Paul to Rome. His friend 
 Timothy was still left at the head of the Ephesian 
 converts ; and he had many enemies to contend with, 
 who either openly attacked, or secretly undermined 
 the faith of his flock. St. Paul would probably find 
 the Roman church but partially recovered from the 
 effects of Nero's persecution. The fiery trial had, 
 however, purified it ; and the constancy of those 
 who survived would be likely to attract new con- 
 verts, while the Gnostics, who had saved themselves 
 by a shameful dissimulation, would be obliged for 
 a time to carry on the deception, and to keep their 
 principles concealed. I have conjectured, that the 
 Roman church had been committed to the care of 
 Linus at the time of St. Paul's first imjjrisonment. 
 We know nothing of his conduct or his adventures 
 during the perilous time of the persecution ; but he 
 certainly survived it, and was in Rome at least some 
 time after the arrival of St. Paul''. The names of 
 Eubulus^i and Pudens*" are also preserved, as con- 
 nected with the Roman church ; and traditions are 
 still extant, which would assign to them a high place 
 in the catalogue of Saints. All these accounts, how- 
 ever, are to be received with suspicion ; and the 
 fact of their being mentioned by St. Paul is per- 
 haps the only authentic evidence in their favour. 
 St. Paul had other companions with him at first, 
 whose names are not now mentioned for the first 
 time. Erastus and Trophimus had staid behind on 
 the journey : but Titus, Tychicus, Demas, and Luke 
 were with him at Rome. The cause of his being 
 
 P 2 Tim. iv. 21. •■ lb. Mai, 19. Baron. An- 
 
 '1 Bolland. Feb. 28. nal. ad an. 44. §. 61. 
 
LECT. X. St. Paul in Rome. 315 
 
 put a second time in confinement is not authentically a. D. 
 stated. There are accounts, which trace it to the_^7— 68. 
 resentment of Nero at having one of his mistresses 
 converted by the preaching of the apostle^: accord- 
 ing to other and less credible authority, it vras the 
 conversion of Proculus, one of his cupbearers, w^hich 
 drove him to this act of injustice*. Such particu- 
 lars as these must be received vrith great caution. 
 If St. Paul came to Rome in the year 67, the empe- 
 ror was probably absent. He was certainly in 
 Achaia in that year, and did not return to Italy till 
 the January of 68". Helius was appointed governor 
 of Rome during his absence : and according to some 
 accounts it was under this officer that the apostle 
 was put to death. We may perhaps conclude, that 
 it was the boldness and the success of his preaching, 
 which caused him to be thrown into prison : and 
 whether this step was taken by order of the empe- 
 ror or his deputy, the enemies of the Christians 
 seem to have succeeded in raising a warm persecu- 
 tion. During his former imprisonment, it was the 
 interest of the Jews to keep him in confinement, and 
 to hinder him from making his defence. But his 
 opponents were now of a different kind ; and their 
 ferocious master had given them a taste for blood. 
 The apostle was called to make a public defence ^^, 
 and for that time he escaped : but he was only re- 
 served for a protracted imprisonment, and his doom 
 was probably determined. Some time after his de- 
 fence, he M^'ote to Timothy, and his letter bears the 
 
 s Chrysost. contra vitup. vii. doubtedly fictitious. 
 monast. lib. I. Ambros. in Aux- u See Brotier, Supplement. 
 
 ent. ad Tac. An. XVI. 
 
 t This rests only on the Acts ^ 2 Tim. iv. i6. 
 of Linus, a work which is un- 
 
316 St. Paul hi prisoti. lect. x. 
 
 A. D. marks of a man who was not only prepared, but ex- 
 67 — 08. pected speedily to suffer. He entreated Timothy to 
 come to him before winter ; and history has not in- 
 formed us, whether the two friends met again in this 
 world. The work of persecution had evidently 
 waxed hot in Rome. Most of the apostle's compa- 
 nions had left him. We need not suppose that all 
 of them were merely actuated by motives of fear. 
 They may have felt, that there was no good in ex- 
 posing themselves uselessly to danger ; and at the 
 present crisis their exertions might be more success- 
 ful in less troubled quarters. Demas is certainly 
 spoken of by the apostle as having forsaken him 
 from worldly motives^ : but the journey of Crescens 
 to Galatia, and of Titus to Dalmatia, would perhaps 
 have been undertaken under any circumstances. 
 We have heard nothing of Dalmatia in the previous 
 history of the gospel. St. Paul may have visited it 
 in the interval between his two imprisonments ; or 
 Christianity may have reached it from the neigh- 
 bouring country of Macedonia. The Dalmatians 
 were now visited by Titus, who, when we last heard 
 of him, was acting under St. Paul as head of the 
 churches in Crete. Whether this island was an- 
 other of the places, which St. Paul had lately visited, 
 is a doubtful point. If he did, he probably took 
 Titus with him in his voyage to Rome ; and we 
 may hope that the state of the Cretan churches \a as 
 such; that their bishop could leave them for a while 
 without anxiety. This is the last authentic event 
 in the history of Titus. He is said to have re- 
 
 * He is said to have become bably a calumny. See Bamp- 
 a priest in a heathen temple at ton Lectures, note 79 
 Thessalonica; but it is pro- 
 
LECT. X. St. Paul in prison. 317 
 
 turned again to Crete, and to have died there, which a. D. 
 is not improbable y : but many marvellous stories 67—68. 
 are added, which are wholly undeserving of credit. 
 I have already alluded to the doubt, whether Cres- 
 cens went to Galatia or to Gaul. It would be in- 
 teresting, if the latter reading could be established ; 
 since we should then know upon authority which 
 could not be disputed, that Christianity had at this 
 time made its way into Gaul : but on the whole 
 there seems more reason for concluding, that the 
 journey of Crescens was made to the Christians 
 of Galatia. Luke still continued the faithful com- 
 panion of St. Paul, as he had been in his former im- 
 prisonment. We are not told, whether he was him- 
 self at present in the same condition : but the con- 
 finement of the apostle seems to have been of a very 
 different nature from the gentle restraint which he 
 had experienced ten years before. Onesiphorus, who 
 followed him to Rome, had great difficulty in find- 
 ing him ^ : and if the tradition could be depended 
 upon, which points to the Mamertine prison at the 
 foot of the Capitol, his condition was probably one 
 of extreme wretchedness. 
 
 The fact of St. Peter being also at Rome at this 
 time is one, which has led to much controversy : but 
 the ancient testimony appears to me so strong and 
 so unanimous, that I cannot entertain a doubt, that 
 St. Peter as well as St. Paul suffered martyrdom at 
 Rome. Some writers have asserted, that the two 
 apostles reached the city together, and for some time 
 assisted each other in preaching the gospel. But 
 there are difficulties in such a statement, which can 
 hardly be surmounted : and it seems to me impos- 
 y See BoUand. ad Jun. 4. z 2 Tim. i. 17. 
 
318 St. Peter and St. Paul lect. x. 
 
 A. D. sible to suppose, that St. Peter was at Rome, when 
 Gy— ()8. g^ Paul wrote his second Epistle to Timothy. I 
 should therefore conclude, that he arrived in Rome 
 after St. Paul, and not till the latter had been thrown 
 into prison. According to the conjecture which I 
 have hazarded, St. Peter had visited Rome about the 
 year 58, or a little later ; and we know nothing cer- 
 tain of his proceedings since that time. There seems 
 good evidence for saying, that he was once at least at 
 Corinth % and that his visit was subsequent to that 
 of St. Paul. If his first Epistle was written from 
 Babylon in Egypt, he also preached in that coun- 
 try : but it is by no means demonstrated, that he 
 did not write it in the neighbourhood of the cele- 
 brated Babylon on the Euphrates. If the persons 
 addressed in his first Epistle were the inhabitants of 
 countries, which he had himself visited, we may ex- 
 tend his travels to nearly the whole of Asia Minor'' ; 
 and this is perhaps the nearest approximation which 
 we can make to the personal history of St. Peter. 
 I should conclude, that his second Epistle was not 
 written from Rome ; but as it was certainly written 
 not long before his deaths he probably composed it, 
 when he had decided upon the journey to Rome, 
 which he knew would be his last. Most writers 
 have placed the combat between Simon Magus and 
 St. Peter about this period. I have stated, that on 
 the whole I should be inclined to believe the meet- 
 ing to have taken place, and that the result was in 
 some manner disadvantageous to Simon Magus : 
 but the affair may have happened in a former visit 
 of St. Peter to Rome ; and there is little reason to 
 
 a Dionysius Corinth, apud ^ See i Pet. i. i. 
 Eus. H. E. II. 25. c 2 Pet. i. 14. 
 
LECT. X. in 'prison at Rome. 319 
 
 suppose, that the apostle's imprisonment was owing a. D. 
 to the resentment of Nero for the defeat of Simon ^7 — 68. 
 Magus. It is singular, that another celebrated im- 
 postor was probably in Rome at this same period. 
 This was Apollonius of Tyana, whom I have already- 
 mentioned as having perhaps visited Ejihesus dur- 
 ing some part of St. Paul's residence there. I also 
 stated, that his biographer Philostratus evidently 
 wished to set up Apollonius as a rival to Jesus 
 Christ ; and the incredible miracles, which are as- 
 cribed to him, are no small proof of the fame which 
 had then been obtained by the Christian miracles. 
 Apollonius is said to have performed some of these 
 wonders during this visit to Rome ; and it is to be 
 regretted that we know nothing of so interesting a 
 scene, as the meeting between the two apostles and 
 this celebrated impostor. 
 
 We cannot however tell, whether either of the 
 two apostles was then in possession of his liberty. 
 I have conjectured, that St. Paul was imprisoned 
 previous to the arrival of St. Peter : and it was per- 
 haps not long, before the latter shared the same 
 fate. Tradition has assigned to both the apostles 
 the same miserable confinement in the Mamertine 
 prisons ; and some particulars are added, (which 
 partake too much of the marvellous,) of their having 
 converted the two jailors to embrace Christianity**. 
 It might be expected that this part of the history of 
 St. Peter would be embellished by Roman writers ; 
 and though few stories have been oftener repeated 
 than that of his escaping from prison, and being in- 
 duced to return by an apparition of his heavenly 
 Master, it can hardly be said to rest upon sufficient 
 
 ^ See Baronius ad an. 68. No. 23. 
 
320 Death of St Peter and St. Paul. lect. x. 
 
 A. D. authority. In these cases it is extremely difficult, if 
 67 — 68. j^Q^ impossible, to separate truth from fiction; and 
 there is perhaps danger of our going too far on the 
 side of scepticism. On the whole, I should be in- 
 clined to listen to the tradition of the two apostles 
 having suffered martyrdom on the same day ; and 
 though there is this material difference in the ac- 
 counts, that some suppose a year to have intervened 
 between the two events, yet the coincidence of their 
 suffering on the same day is still noticed in almost 
 every tradition upon the subject. The weight of 
 evidence is certainly in favour of their having suf- 
 fered on the same day, and in the same year : and 
 though the precise date is by no means settled by 
 chronologists, we are perhaps not far from the 
 truth, if we say generally, that their martyrdom 
 took place in the year 67 or 68. I should also be 
 inclined to believe, that St, Paul was beheaded ; a 
 distinction which was perhaps observed in consider- 
 ation of his being a Roman citizen ; while St. Peter, 
 who had not the same privilege to plead, was sen- 
 tenced to the more ignominious punishment of cru- 
 cifixion. It is the respectable testimony of Origen, 
 which adds the interesting fact, that he was cruci- 
 fied with his head downwards in pursuance of his 
 own request *' : and Clement of Alexandria, a still 
 earlier writer, speaks of St. Peter seeing his wife 
 led out to martyrdom, and encouraging her to bear 
 the trial K It will perhaps be thought, that such 
 legends as these should be carefully distinguished 
 from authentic history : but it should be added, that 
 the authority of Clement and Origen is to be distin- 
 
 e Apud Eus. H. E. III. 1. Ub. 30. 
 
i.ECT. X. Persecution under Nero. 321 
 
 guished with equal carefulness from that of spurious A. D. 
 acts and Roman martyrologies. On the same prin- '' ""• 
 ciple I cannot but consider the evidence as most re- 
 spectable, which states St. Paul to have been buried 
 without the walls on the road to Ostia, and St. Peter 
 on the hill of the Vatican^. That their tombs were 
 shewn in these two places as early as the second 
 century, is not a matter of speculation, but of his- 
 tory : and it will hardly be said, that superstition 
 and credulity had combined at that time to counte- 
 nance similar deceptions. 
 
 The martyrdom of the two great apostles has led 
 me into details, which are perhaps more suited for 
 biography than for history : but though we should 
 wish to know the general state of the Roman church 
 at that period, and the circumstances which led to 
 the death of the apostles, we have few or no mate- 
 rials for drawing the melancholy picture. If we 
 could trust the legendary tales of later writers, we 
 might record the names of other persons who were 
 put to death at this time by Nero for professing 
 Christianity. There is still the same uncertainty 
 as before concerning the extent of the persecution ; 
 and it is again said to have been felt in the pro- 
 vinces, as well as in the capital. Of this, however, 
 there is very little evidence ; and since Nero himself 
 died in the June of 68, and the last year of his 
 reign was disturbed by insurrections in Spain and 
 Gaul, we may perhaps conclude, that the death of the 
 two apostles was not only the most remarkable, but 
 the closing scene of this eventful tragedy. There is 
 some reason to think, that Linus, to whom the Roman 
 church had been committed for some years, received 
 g Apud Eus. //. E. II. 25. 
 Y 
 
322 Linus. Anencletus. lect. x. 
 
 A. D. his crown of martyrdom in the same persecution, 
 67—68. g^^j before St. Peter and St. Paul. His history, and 
 particularly the chronological part of it, is involved, 
 as I have observed, in great obscurity. According 
 to some authors he did not suffer till after the reign 
 of Nero : but if we are to believe in any sense, that 
 his two immediate successors were appointed by St. 
 Peter and St. Paul, we can hardly doubt that Linus 
 was put to death before the two apostles. Pearson 
 gives reasons for fixing his martyrdom in the year 
 67 : and it seems nearly certain that the person, 
 who succeeded him as head of the Roman church, 
 was Anencletus. If we suppose Linus to have suf- 
 fered soon after the date of St. Paul's second Epistle 
 to Timothy, it is very possible for Anencletus to 
 have been appointed by St. Peter who arrived soon 
 after, with the concurrence of St. Paul who was then 
 in prison. Pearson supposes, that Anencletus sur- 
 vived but a short time, and that he died in 69 ; and 
 though the generality of writers have assigned a 
 longer period to his ministry, there are perhaps 
 fewer difficulties in adopting the shorter chronology. 
 There is certainly some evidence, that Clement, who 
 is called the third bishop of Rome, received his ap- 
 pointment from St. Peter '^ : but this can hardly be 
 taken to mean, that St. Peter survived Anencletus 
 as well as Linus. We know from St. Paul's own 
 words, that Clement was his fellow-labourer as early 
 as the year 58 ; and if he M^as by birth a Roman, as 
 some authors have asserted, it is not unlikely, that 
 the two apostles named him as a fit person to suc- 
 ceed Anencletus, in case he should be suddenly cut 
 off. Though it is perhaj^s impossible to reconcile 
 li Tertul. de Prcescript. 32. p. 213. Const. Apost. VII. 46. 
 
i.ECT. X. Clement. 323 
 
 all the traditions upon the subject, we may at least A. D. 
 infer from them the great anxiety of St. Peter and ^ 
 St. Paul not to leave the Christians of Rome, as 
 sheep without a shepherd \ They knew that their 
 own course was shortly to be finished, and that 
 many churches, which they had planted and watered, 
 would soon be deprived of their superintendence. 
 They had the satisfaction of leaving that of Rome 
 in zealous and faithful hands : and without aiming 
 at greater accuracy, we may perhaps assert, that 
 when the two apostles were martyred, Anencletus 
 was at the head of the Roman church, and the per- 
 son next in authority to him was Clement ^. 
 
 i Chrysostom gives this as 2 Tim. Horn. X. 
 
 the reason for St. Paul calling k Poj- t]^e succession of Cle- 
 
 Timothy and others to Rome ment, see Tillemont, Memoires, 
 
 shortly before his death. In torn. II, p. 480. 
 
 Y 2 
 
LECTURE XI. 
 
 A. D. V\ E are now arrived at a period in the history of 
 ^^' the church, which may perhaps be called the most 
 critical since the ascension of Jesus Christ into 
 heaven. The apostles were then left to themselves : 
 they were to preach the gospel to every creature ; 
 and the Master, who had given them this command, 
 had now departed from them. Their situation was 
 sufficiently trying, and their task, according to 
 human ideas, was hopeless. But w^e are now ar- 
 rived at a period, when the apostles themselves were 
 almOwSt all withdrawn by death from their earthly 
 labours. The martyrdom of St. Peter and St. Paul 
 would itself form a memorable epoch in the history 
 of the church : but there is reason to believe, that 
 at the same period very few of the other apostles 
 were living. St. John certainly survived to the end 
 of the century : and it has been thought that the 
 Epistle of St. Jude was not written till after the 
 death of nearly all the apostles. 
 
 It has perhaps often created surprise, that we 
 know so little of the history of these persons. The 
 Acts of the Ajyostles, as they are called, might with 
 equal propriety be termed the first part of the life of 
 St. Paul. The same work has also supplied us with 
 a few events in the history of St. Peter ; and some- 
 thing more may be collected of this apostle from 
 
LECT. XI. History of the Apostles. 325 
 
 credible ecclesiastical traditions : but with these two A. D. 
 exceptions, to which must be added the account of ^ 
 St. James's martyrdom in the year 44, we know very 
 little of the personal history of all the other apo- 
 stles. If we could admit the evidence of suppositi- 
 tious acts and martyrologies, the ignorance, of which 
 I have complained, would in a great measure be re- 
 moved : and it might be rash to assert that these 
 works, which though of a doubtful, are frequently 
 of an early date, have not been the means of pre- 
 serving traditions, which are really founded on 
 truth. This, however, only brings us back to the 
 same uncertainty as before ; and the alternative is 
 offered of either knowing nothing, or not knowing 
 what to believe. The most ancient, and perhaps 
 the most credible tradition, is that preserved by Eu- 
 sebius upon the authority of Origen. This writer, 
 who lived in the third century, beside speaking of 
 Peter, and Paul, and John, mentions also Thomas 
 and Andrew. He says, that Thomas preached in 
 Parthia, and Andrew in Scythia^. The statement 
 of Thomas having preached in Parthia is repeated 
 by other writers'' : and the different nations which 
 were subject to the Persian, or as it was then called, 
 the Parthian dominion, are said to have had the 
 benefit of his preaching. He is reported to have 
 visited Ethiopia ; by which we are perhaps to un- 
 derstand the eastern part of Arabia : and more than 
 one ancient writer has stated that he travelled into 
 India ^. This latter tradition has appeared to re- 
 
 a Eus. H. E. III. I. Serm. IX. 
 
 b Sophron. apud Hieron. de c Greg. Naz. Horn, ad Arian. 
 Script. Theodoret. de Leg. Nicephor. II. 40. 
 
 Y 3 
 
326 Sf. Thomas. lect. xi. 
 
 A. D. ceive some support in modern times by the interest- 
 ^^- ing researches, which have brought to light some 
 Christian inhabitants on the coast of Malabar ; and 
 we are told that these persons appeal to the apostle 
 Thomas as their founder. There are, however, rea- 
 sons to doubt the accuracy of this tradition. Theo- 
 doret ^ speaks of Thomas, a disciple of Manes, who 
 carried his Master's doctrines into India ; and since 
 the religion of Christ always formed part of Mani- 
 cheism, it is possible, that this Thomas may have 
 been confounded with the apostle. There is also 
 evidence of another Thomas having been sent about 
 the year 800 by the patriarch of Babylon to carry 
 the gospel into India *^: and since the Christians, 
 who have lately been discovered in that country, 
 are Nestorians, it is not improbable, that the Nesto- 
 rian patriarchs of Babylon were the original founders 
 of their church. There is therefore very little evi- 
 dence of the apostle Thomas having penetrated as 
 far as India, if we take that term in its literal sig- 
 nification : but the tradition, which Origen had heard 
 in the third century, may perhaps incline us to be- 
 lieve, that the gospel was carried by this apostle 
 into the interior of Asia. On the same principle I 
 would admit the still earlier tradition, preserved by 
 Clement of Alexandria^, that Thomas the apostle 
 did not suffer martyrdom : and the stories, which 
 are told of his being put to death and buried in 
 India, do not rest on any authority. Rufinus, who 
 wrote at the end of the fourtli century, states posi- 
 tively that his body was at Edessa, a city on the 
 
 d Haer. F'ab. I. 26. I'Eglise, torn. I. p. 240. 
 
 ^ he Seur, Histoire de ^ Strom, l^''. p. 595. 
 
LECT. XI. Letter of Ahgarus. 327 
 
 east bank of the Euphrates =; and this is another A. D. 
 confirmation of his having preached in Parthia. 70- 
 
 The mention of Edessa may bring to our recol- 
 lection the story of Abgarus, a king who lived in 
 that city, being cured of a disorder, and many of 
 his subjects being converted, by Thaddaeus, one of 
 the seventy disciples, who was despatched for that 
 purpose by St. Thomas. The story is rendered more 
 incredible by its being added, that Abgarus had 
 written a letter to our Saviour, and had received an 
 answer, in which it was promised, that after the 
 ascension of Jesus into heaven he would send a per- 
 son to cure the king of his disorder. The letter and 
 the answer have been preserved by different writers, 
 though the copies present considerable variations : 
 and some persons, even in modern times, have been 
 inclined to receive them as genuine. They are men- 
 tioned by no writer earlier than Eusebius ; and it is 
 perhaps owing to his giving them a place in his his- 
 tory, that they found in ancient times so many de- 
 fenders. Eusebius states positively, that he ex- 
 tracted his account from the archives of Edessa, 
 having translated the original document from the 
 language of the country into Greek*'. I am un- 
 willing to believe, that Eusebius did not in this in- 
 stance adhere strictly to truth : but it seems impos- 
 sible not to add, that his judgment and sagacity 
 were on this occasion deficient, and that the people 
 of Edessa had deposited a forgery in their archives. 
 The circumstances of the story would lead us to be- 
 lieve, that the cure of Abgarus happened very soon 
 after the ascension of Jesus Christ : but- I omitted 
 
 g Hist. Eccles. II. 5 See VI. 18. 
 also SocrateS;, IV. 18. Sozom. h H. E. I. 13. 
 
 Y 4 
 
328 St. Andrew. lect. xi. 
 
 A. ]). all mention of such an event in its proper place, 
 /^*' because I cannot but look upon the whole of this 
 correspondence as a fiction' : and I should not have 
 alluded to it now, if it had not been connected with 
 the history of the apostle Thomas : and again I 
 would observe, that the tradition of his having 
 preached beyond the Euphrates, and of his body 
 being interred at Edessa, receives some confirmation 
 from this otherwise improbable story. Christianity 
 undoubtedly flourished at Edessa in very early times. 
 This city was a kind of metropolis of the Christians 
 in that part of Asia : and if the old Syriac version 
 of the New Testament was made in the first cen- 
 tury, as some critics have sui)posed, the conjecture is 
 not improbable, that the translation was made at 
 Edessa^. 
 
 The tradition quoted above from Origen men- 
 tions also, that St. Andrew preached the gospel in 
 Scythia ; and I should be inclined to receive the 
 statement as true, though the expression is a vague 
 one, and the ancients would have spoken of any 
 part of the north of Europe as Scythia. Other 
 writers have stated with more exactness, that he 
 preached in the country called Sogdiana, and in the 
 neighbourhood of Cholcis upon the Euxine^ A 
 church is also said to have been founded by him at 
 Byzantium : but there is no evidence of any au- 
 thority, which should incline us to believe if". 
 There is perhaps more room for discussion, whether 
 
 i See Ittigius, Diss. I. de sect. 8. 
 
 Pseudepigraphis, ^.gy.Vrithis, ' Sophron. apud Hieron. dc 
 
 Introd. in led. N. T. p. ii. Script. 
 
 Larduer, vol. VI. p. 596. Jones m Nicephor. II. 39. See Til- 
 
 on the Canon, vol. II. p. i. lemont;, Me'moires, torn. I. p. 
 
 ^ Michaelis Inlrod. c. \'II. 1056. 
 
LECT. XI. St. Matthew. 329 
 
 he did not latterly alter the direction of his travels, A. D, 
 and visit different parts of Greece. The testimony, ^ 
 though not very early, is at least respectable, for 
 his having preached in Epirus and Achaia" : and 
 there is a constant tradition of his having been cru- 
 cified at Patrae in Achaia, of which place he was 
 bishop, by order of the proconsuP. The Greeks of 
 Constantinople certainly believed that his body was 
 removed to that city from Patrae about the year 
 357 : and this is at least a proof that the tradition 
 of his having preached in Achaia was cuiTent in the 
 fourth century. 
 
 It might perhaps be thought, that Origen had 
 not met with a tradition concerning any other of 
 the apostles, or he would have mentioned it together 
 with those which relate to Thomas and Andrew. 
 We in fact have little ancient evidence concerning 
 any of these persons : and it is only the peculiar in- 
 terest which attaches to their history, that would 
 justify our paying attention to so many uncertain 
 traditions. Among the other apostles, the evange- 
 list St. Matthew may perhaps claim a prominent 
 place in our investigations : but it is only from 
 writers of the fourth and fifth centuries that we 
 hear of his preaching in Ethiopia p: and it is doubt- 
 ful whether they intended the country of that name 
 in Africa or Asia. Eusebius had heard of his tra- 
 velling beyond Judaea'i, but he does not name any 
 particular country : and he adds, that it was just 
 before his setting out on this journey, that he un- 
 
 n Theodoret. in Pscthn. cxvi. P Rufinus X. 9. Socrates I. 
 
 Greg. Naz. Oral. XXV. Hie- 19. 
 
 ron. Epist. CXLVIII. q H. E. III. 24. 
 o Nicephor. II, 39. 
 
330 St. 3Iatt/ieiv's Gospel. lect. xi. 
 
 A. D. dertook to write his gospel for the use of his coun- 
 70- trymen. I have already expressed my opinion, 
 that St. Matthew's Gospel was published when the 
 troubles in Judaea were becoming more alarming, 
 and not long before the commencement of the war. 
 The notion of its being written in Hebrew, or at 
 least in the language of Palestine, is supported by 
 the authority of Papias^, who though confessedly a 
 man of not much judgment, might almost from his 
 date have conversed with some of the apostles. That 
 one at least of the three Gospels should have been 
 translated very early into Syriac, if it was not ori- 
 ginally written in that language, is certainly not im- 
 probable : and tradition might lead us to think, that 
 St. Matthew's Gospel had been thus translated. Still 
 however it is a remarkable fact, that not one of the 
 Fathers has spoken of having seen this translation. 
 Pantaenus, who lived in the second century, is said 
 to have found a copy of it in India, which had been 
 left in that country by the apostle Bartholomew^. 
 But though Eusebius apparently believed this tradi- 
 tion, he has not mentioned the authority on which 
 it rests ; and the improbability of a Hebrew or Sy- 
 riac copy of this Gospel being of any use in India 
 will perhaps incline us to reject it altogether. Jerom 
 certainly speaks of having seen a copy of this 
 Hebrew Gospel in the library of Caesarea, and of 
 possessing another himself* : but it seems almost 
 certain, that he confounded the Gospel of St. Mat- 
 thew with a spurious work entitled the Gospel of 
 the Hebrews. If there was any good evidence of 
 the Hebrew copy having been in existence, we might 
 
 r Apud Eus. H. E. III. ult. t Catal. in Mat. In Pela- 
 
 s Eus. H. E. V. lo. gian. III. i. 
 
LEG T. XT. St. Bartholomew. 331 
 
 perhaps believe, that St. Matthew had himself writ- A. D. 
 ten in both languages : but though other persons '^^' 
 are mentioned as having translated it into Greek, 
 there is no evidence but that of conjecture, which 
 would incline us to adopt such a notion. Clement 
 of Alexandria has preserved a tradition, that St. 
 Matthew led a life of great abstemiousness " : and 
 he also quotes an earlier writer, who says that he 
 did not meet his death by martyrdom''. 
 
 In this account of St. Matthew, I have mentioned 
 incidentally, that the apostle Bartholomew is said 
 to have preached in India ; and if Eusebius gave 
 this anecdote on the authority of Pantienus himself, 
 it is certainly entitled to some credit ; since Pantae- 
 nus visited the same country after an interval of 
 not more than one hundred years : but the evidence 
 of later writers would rather incline us to under- 
 stand by India the country to the south of Persia, 
 and perhaps Arabia Felix y. The manner as well 
 as the date of this apostle's death, though many dif- 
 ferent statements are given in the martyrologies, 
 must for this very account be looked upon as alto- 
 gether uncertain. 
 
 There is, however, scarcely any room for doubt, 
 that Philip the apostle lived for some time, and 
 finally died, at Hierapolis in Phrygia, where his 
 body was interred. The fact is expressly asserted 
 by Papias'-, who lived early enough to have con- 
 versed with St. John, if not with Philip himself; 
 and what enhances his testimony still further, he 
 was himself bishop of Hierapolis. We have also 
 
 " Peedag. II. i. p. 174. x Strom. IV. p. 595. >' See Ruti- 
 nus, X. 9, Socrates, I. 19. z Eug. jj^ £ m ^9. 
 
332 Sf. Philip. lect. xi. 
 
 A. D. evidence to the same point from Polycrates bishop 
 ^^^- of Ephesns, who lived at the end of the second cen- 
 tury; and he tells us, that two unmarried daughters 
 of this apostle, who lived to a great age, were also 
 buried at Hierapolis^. The existence of these daugh- 
 ters is attested by Papias, who speaks of having 
 conversed with them ; and by Clement of Alexan- 
 dria^, who may be called a contemporary of Poly- 
 crates : but when he speaks of Philip having had 
 other daughters who were married, we may perhaps 
 correct his statement by the more detailed account 
 of Polycrates, who says that there was one married 
 daughter, who was buried in his own city of Ephe- 
 sus. It was perhaps in consequence of the mention 
 of these daughters, that Philip the apostle has been 
 confounded with Philip the deacon, who is said by 
 St. Luke to have resided at Caz-sarea with his four 
 daughters who were virgins*^: but it is not difficult 
 to distinguish between them : both appear to have 
 been married and to have had daughters ; but the 
 number of their children is different ; and while 
 Philip the deacon had his ordinary residence at Cae- 
 sarea in Palestine, his namesake the apostle at least 
 ended his days at Hierapolis in Phrygia. We may 
 therefore assume, that this part of Asia Minor was 
 the scene of Philip's preaching ; and there is reason 
 to think that he lived till a late period in the first 
 century'*. The tradition of his having travelled into 
 
 « Eus. H. E. III. 31. V. 24. apostle with the deacon. (Eus. 
 
 ^ Strom. III. p. 535. I omit H. E. III. 31.) 
 the testimonj' of Proculus, who c Acts xxi. 8, 9. 
 
 lived in the third century, be- ^ Polycrates (apud Eus. V. 
 
 cause by speaking of ''four 24.) quotes the apostles John 
 
 " daughters who prophesied," and Philip as his authorities for 
 
 he seems to have confounded the the time of observina: Easter, 
 
LECT. XI. St. Jucle. 333 
 
 Gaul, and even into Britain, has perhaps already A. D. 
 obtained from me more notice than it seems to de- ^ 
 
 serve. 
 
 If we omit for the present the remaining history of 
 St. John, our knowledge of the other apostles, James 
 the son of Alphseus, Simon*", Jude, and Matthias, is 
 reduced almost to nothing. I have already express- 
 ed my opinion, that James the son of Alphaeus was a 
 different person from James the brother of our Lord, 
 who was the first bishop of Jerusalem; and we know 
 nothing certain concerning his history ^ But when 
 Jude is described as the brother of James ^, I con- 
 ceive that the bishop of Jerusalem is intended ; and 
 we may therefore assume, that Jude the apostle was 
 one of the brothers, or rather the cousins, of our Lord. 
 We know further on the authority of Hegesippus, 
 who wrote at the latter end of the second century, 
 that Jude was married and left descendants^, some 
 of whom we shall speak of again, when we come to 
 the persecution in the time of Domitian. It is there- 
 fore most probable, that Jude was one of the persons 
 alluded to by St. Paul, when he asserted his right 
 to lead about a wife, as ivell as other apostles, and 
 
 Irenseus says (apud Eus. V. ^ Simon is said to have 
 
 24.) that Polycarp, who fol- preached in Egypt, Cyrene, and 
 
 lowed the same custom, was Mauritania, by the Pseudo-Do- 
 
 guided by John and the other rotheus and Nicephorus Callist. 
 
 apostles with whom he had con- II. 40. The tradition is reject- 
 
 versed. If we compare these ed by Baronius, ad an. XLIV. 
 
 two passages together, it is not 38. and by Schelstrate, Eccles. 
 
 improbable, that Polycarp, who Afric. Diss. I. c. i. 
 
 was bishop of Smyrna, may ^ See Tillemont, Memoires, 
 
 have conversed with Philip at torn. I. p. i 125. 
 
 Hierapolis: and if Polycarp was & Luke vi. 16. Acts i. 13. 
 
 not converted till the year 81, Jude r. 
 
 the apostle Philip must at least ^ Apud Eus. H. E. I. 7. III. 
 
 have lived till that time. 19, 20. 
 
834 St. Jude's Epistle. lect. xi. 
 
 A. U. the brethren of our LordK Jude was therefore en- 
 7^- gaged ill preaching the gospel about the year 52 : 
 but St. Paul says nothing of the countries, in which 
 he travelled. His descendants seem to have conti- 
 nued to reside in Judaea. His brother, as we have 
 seen, was bishop of Jerusalem, till the year 62 : and 
 upon the death of James, another brother, Syineon, 
 succeeded to that office. All this might perhaps in- 
 cline us to think, that Jude did not absent himself 
 for a long time from his native country ; and this 
 notion is confirmed by his styling himself in his 
 Epistle the brother of James, an expression which 
 was most likely to be used in a country where James 
 was known. Some persons have assigned a late date 
 to the Epistle of Jude, and have supposed it not to 
 have been written till after the death of most of the 
 apostles. There is, however, but little evidence of 
 this. Its resemblance to some parts of the second 
 Epistle of Peter can hardly fail to strike every 
 reader ; and one of the writers must either have 
 seen the composition of the other, or they must have 
 been together for some time, and become accustomed 
 to each other's style. We learn from the Epistle of 
 St. Jude, what I have already mentioned more than 
 once, that the apostles were in the habit of fre- 
 quently predicting to their hearers the evils which 
 would befall the church from the Gnostics ^. It is 
 in speaking of these calamitous times, that St. Peter 
 and St. Jude so closely resemble each other ; and 
 upon the whole I should be inclined to assign to the 
 two Epistles nearly the same date, and to think that 
 they were written between the martyrdom of James, 
 and the destruction of Jerusalem. 
 
 i I Cor. ix. 5. k Vcr. 17. 
 
LECT. xr. Propagation of the Gospel. 335 
 
 In bringing together these brief accounts of some A. D. 
 of the apostles, I have noticed only the earliest tra- ^ 
 ditions, and those which are reported by writers of 
 established credit. They present us, after all, with 
 a very faint outline of the history of these extraor- 
 dinary men : and of Simon the zealot, and Matthias, 
 we cannot collect any authentic anecdote. I have 
 said, that there are reasons for thinking that few of 
 the apostles survived St. Peter and St. Paul : and if 
 we look from the date of their martyrdom to the 
 end of the century, we have a period of at least 
 thirty years, which must have been eventful in the 
 infancy of the church, but which in the pages of 
 ecclesiastical history is little more than a blank. It 
 may seem strange that the first thirty years, which 
 followed the ascension of our Lord, should have 
 occupied us so long ; and that an equal space of time 
 at the end of the century is dismissed so rapidly. 
 The fact is to be lamented, but cannot be avoided. 
 We may, however, form some idea of the interest, 
 which the gospel must have excited during this ob- 
 scure period, if we consider what had been already 
 effected by the preaching of the apostles. 
 
 The Christian reader will not need to be re- 
 minded, that the predictions of our Saviour are to 
 be received as historical documents ; and when he 
 said in his prophecy concerning the destruction of 
 Jerusalem, The gospel must first he iniblished among 
 all nations^^ we may be sure that in some sense or 
 other the declaration came to pass. It would be 
 trifling to suppose, that every individual nation was 
 literally to be included : but we should certainly ex- 
 pect, that the gospel had spread widely throughout 
 
 ' iMark xiii. lo. Matt. xxiv. 14. 
 
336 Propagation of the Gospel, lect. xi. 
 
 A. D. the world before the destruction of Jerusalem. It 
 ' ' would not be difficult to prove, that such had been 
 the case. When St. Paul wrote to the Romans in 
 the year 52, he applied to the circulation of the gos- 
 pel those words of the Psalmist, Their sound hath 
 gone out into all the earth, and their words unto the 
 ends of the world™ : and when he was imprisoned 
 at Rome six years later, and wrote to the Colossians, 
 he reminds them of the truth of the gospel, which 
 is come unto you, as it is in all the ivorhV^ ; and 
 again, ivhich ye have heard, and ivhich has been 
 preached to every creature which is under heaven^. 
 We are not to be told, that St. Paul wrote this un- 
 advisedly. Several years were wanting of the time, 
 which our Saviour had fixed for the difi'usion of the 
 gospel through the world, and St. Paul tells us, that 
 the work was already done. Neither are we with- 
 out materials for proving this assertion in detail. At 
 the first of the two periods mentioned above, St. 
 Paul said of himself, that he had fully pi'eached the 
 gospel of Chi'ist from Jerusalem round about mito 
 Illyricum'P : and at the latter period he had ex- 
 tended his progress to Rome. This takes in the 
 whole of Palestine, with part of Syria, including the 
 cajjital : the sea-coast of Asia Minor on the south 
 and west, with great part of the interior, and the 
 islands of Cyprus and Crete ; Macedonia in its widest 
 signification, Attica, the Peloponnesus, and Rome. 
 These countries, and certainly the most civilized 
 parts of them, were visited by St. Paul before the 
 year 58 : and his life was perhajjs lengthened six 
 or eight years after this ; during which time we 
 may feel certain, that he made his former travels 
 
 m Rom. X. i8. n Col. i. 6. o lb. 23. P Kom. xv. 19. 
 
LECT. XI. Labours of the Apostles. 337 
 
 still more complete, if he did not also add to them a. D. 
 much new country, and penetrate to the west of 70. 
 Europe. Such was the success of one only of the 
 apostles in the space of about twenty years ; and 
 we know that several other persons were engaged 
 for the same or a longer period in similar labours, 
 We may feel confident, that Egypt was visited by 
 Mark ; and there are good grounds for saying, that 
 Thomas preached in Parthia, i. e. in the countries 
 to the east of the Euphrates ; and Andrew in Scy- 
 thia. It is perhaps unnecessary to say more. Go ye 
 into all the world, and preach the gospel to every 
 creature, were among the last words of our Saviour, 
 while on earth ; and there is no need of further evi- 
 dence to shew, that the command was obeyed. We 
 need not believe, as some ancient writers have as- 
 serted, that the world was divided among the apo- 
 stles by lot ; and some of them undoubtedly visited 
 the churches, which others had planted. We also 
 know nothing of their ever having met together to 
 compare their respective travels, or to discuss any 
 questions of religion. It is said, as I have stated, 
 that the surviving apostles assembled at Jerusalem 
 in 62 to elect a successor to James ; but the evi- 
 dence is not such as to command assent. 
 
 It is perhaps unnecessary to refute at any length 
 the notion of what is called the Apostles' Creed being 
 formed by each of the apostles contributing a sen- 
 tence, or at least agreeing upon the whole. The idea 
 is as old as the fourth century 'J, and is not therefore 
 
 q See Rufinus Je ;S'^m6. Ve- Dissertations, see NatalisAlex- 
 
 nant. Fortunat. XI, i. Hieron. ander, Seec. I. Diss. XL G. 
 
 Epist. LXI. 9. Fulgent, cont. Vossius de 3 SijinboHs. Tille- 
 
 Fabian. fr. 36. p. 652. Leo, mont, M^wowt^', torn. I. p. 978, 
 
 £/;i*<. XXVIL p. Formodern 1175. Buddeus, Ixagoge ad 
 
 Z 
 
338 Apostles' Creed. lect. xi. 
 
 A. D. to be treated as a modern superstition. Still, how- 
 "^^^ ever, we could not admit the fact upon any princi- 
 ples of criticism or history ; though there is positive 
 evidence, that creeds were used in the second cen- 
 tury ; and though these creeds contain nearly all 
 the clauses, which are now found in the Apostles' 
 Creed ''. It might be proved, that in the time of the 
 apostles some articles of faith were propounded to 
 the converts, before they were baptized. In the 
 nature of things it could not be otherwise. These 
 creeds were perhaps short and simple, because the 
 pride or ingenuity of man had not yet learnt to dis- 
 tort words from their obvious meaning : but if we 
 seek a reason for subsequent creeds being longer and 
 more minute, we shall find it in the successive growth 
 of different heresies. It would not be difficult to 
 shew, that some form or other of the Gnostic philo- 
 sophy led to the insertion of nearly all the clauses, 
 which gradually composed the Apostles' Creed ; and 
 though this alone would refute the notion of the 
 Creed being drawn up so early as by the apostles 
 themselves, it at least shews, that there was a need 
 of many of the clauses at a time which almost coin- 
 cides with the apostolic age. 
 
 It is now time, that we should turn from the per- 
 sonal history of the apostles, to that of the Church : 
 but unfortunately the same want of materials, which 
 we met with in the former, is experienced also in 
 the latter, when we come to the time that most «^f 
 the apostles were withdrawn. We left the Roman 
 
 Theologiam, II. 2, 2. p. 441. which were insisted upon by 
 
 Walchius, I?it rod. in lib. si/mbol. the apostles in the instruction 
 
 I. 2. p. 87. of catechumens, may be in- 
 
 ^SeeBuW, Judicium Ecclesia; ferred from i Cor. xv. 3, 4. 
 
 CalholiccE. Some of the points^ Heb. vi. i, 2. 
 
LECT. XI. Vespasian. Titus. 339 
 
 church encountering its first persecution, which had a. D. 
 perhaps continued at intervals for three or four years, 70. 
 and in which the two great apostles, St. Peter and 
 St. Paul, were martyred. The death of Nero, which 
 happened in the June of 68, probably put an end to 
 these cruelties, if they had not terminated before: 
 and while his three successors won and lost the em- 
 pire in the space of eighteen months, the minds of 
 all parties must have been too much engaged to 
 attend to the Christians. Eusebius assures us, that 
 they were not persecuted during the reign of Vespa- 
 sian^; and his words may also be extended through 
 the short reign of Titus ; which carries us down to A. D. 
 the year 81. Baronius is inclined to suppose, that '^ ^^" 
 some Christians were put to death during the time 
 of Vespasian : and the fact is not improbable, though 
 perhaps he trusts to uncertain authorities in record- 
 ing the names of these early martyrs ^ We have 
 the authority of Suetonius for saying, that no case 
 occurred of an innocent person being punished un- 
 der this emperor, except when he was absent and 
 uninformed of it, or at least when he was deceived 
 into giving his consent". These expressions do not 
 preclude the notion of some Christians being put to 
 death, though Vespasian himself is acquitted : but 
 Dio distinctly frees the reign of Titus from this re- 
 proach, when he says, that not only did he never 
 order the execution of a senator, but no other per- 
 son suffered death during his reign ; and as to the 
 charge of irreligion, he never passed sentence in such 
 cases himself, nor suffered them to be heard by 
 others". It is well known, that the charge of irre- 
 
 s H. E. III. 17. <> Vespas. 15. 
 
 t Ad an. 80. n. 2, 3. " In Tito, 19. p. 1092. 
 
 z 2 
 
340 Vespasian persecutes lect. xi. 
 
 A. I), ligion, crimen impietatis, was commonly alleged 
 _Z?!z?ll against the Christians in those days: and the his- 
 torian perhaps had these unhappy persons in his 
 view, when he said that such causes were not heard 
 during the reign of Titus. 
 
 It would be interesting to know, how far this 
 emperor and his father were influenced in their con- 
 duct toward the Christians, by what they had seen 
 or heard of them during their campaigns in Judiea. 
 The story of the miracles performed by Vespasian 
 at Alexandria, a year or two before the taking of 
 Jerusalam, is well known to the readers of Tacitus^: 
 and it is almost impossible not to think, that the 
 emperor or his followers had heard of the miracles 
 of Jesus, and wished to imitate them. We are in- 
 formed by the same writer^, that the Jews were at 
 this time impressed with the notion, that a person 
 was soon to arise in Judasa, who would have the 
 government of the world ; and it was not the hea- 
 then author only, who pronounced this expectation 
 to be fulfilled, when Vespasian was saluted as em- 
 peror for the first time in Judaja. Josephvis had the 
 servility, not to say the impiety, to make the same 
 reference to Vespasian, though at the same time he 
 professes himself aware, that this expectation was 
 founded on a prophecy in the scriptures'^. These 
 instances of flattery are a proof, that Vespasian him- 
 self had heard of such a prediction : and Eusebius 
 has preserved the curious fact, that when Jerusalem 
 was taken, the emperor ordered an inquiry to be 
 made after all the descendants of David, that the 
 Jews might not have any person of the royal race 
 
 y Hist. IV. 8i. nius, rexpas. 4. 
 
 z lb. V. 13. See also Sueto- " De Bel. Jud. VI. 5, 4. 
 
LECT. XI. the Descendants of David . 341 
 
 remaining''. There can be little doubt, that this A. D. 
 
 measure resulted from the jealousy or the fears of .^ ! 
 
 Vespasian, who did not find all the Jews so flatter- 
 ing as Josephus, in applying their national predic- 
 tion to himself : but when Eusebius adds, that a 
 very great persecution of the Jews was the conse- 
 quence of this inquiry, we are not perhajDs to sup- 
 pose, that these numerous sufferers were all descend- 
 ants of David ; but that many of the Jews were 
 punished for looking to the line of David, rather 
 than to Vespasian, for a fulfilment of the prophecy. 
 We know, that a few years later the descendants of 
 Jude the apostle were exposed to a similar molesta- 
 tion, as being of the race of David. Jude himself 
 may have been alive at the taking of Jerusalem, but 
 was perhaps travelling in a distant country, and so 
 escaped the search which M^as made by Vespasian. 
 His brother Symeon, however, was bishop of Jeru- 
 salem, and continued so for many years after ; so 
 that if the fact preserved by Eusebius is true, Symeon 
 contrived to elude the inquisitors, though perhaps 
 he was put to some inconvenience : and unless the 
 flight of the Christians to Pella placed them out of 
 the notice of the emperor, they were not likely to 
 escape, when inquiry was made after all persons, 
 who expected a deliverer of the line of David. This 
 might lead us to think, that Vespasian and his son 
 could not fail to have made some inquiries into the 
 history of Jesus Christ : and Eusebius might seem 
 to contradict his former statement, that the Chris- 
 tians did not suffer during the reign of Vespasian. 
 In this instance, however, they only suffered in com- 
 mon with the Jews : and Eusebius was perhaps 
 b H. E. III. 12. 
 z 3 
 
342 Clement Bisliop of Rome. lect. xi. 
 
 A. D. looking more to the Christians in Rome, who were 
 70—83. immediately under the eye of the emperor. We may 
 therefore assume, that during the reigns of Vespa- 
 sian and Titus, i. e. from the year 70 to 81, the 
 Roman church enjoyed comparative rest : and during 
 this period, if the chronology of Pearson is correct, 
 it was under the guidance of Clement, who had been 
 the fellow-labourer of St. Paul. That Clement was 
 the third bishoj) of Rome, appears to be supported 
 by as strong traditional evidence, as any fact in ec- 
 clesiastical history : but the date of his accession, 
 and consequently of his death, has given rise to much 
 discussion. Pearson supposed, that Anencletus 
 died in 69, when he was succeeded by Clement, who 
 held the bishopric till 83. Others, however, place 
 the accession of Clement as late as 93, and his death 
 in 102 : and where the difference of opinion is so 
 wide, I would do little more than mention the two 
 extremes, except to observe, that a person, who was 
 named by St. Paul as his fellow-labourer in the year 
 58, must have died at a very advanced age, if he 
 continued bishop of Rome till the year 102. 
 
 Whatever may be decided concerning this point, 
 the history of Clement belongs to the first century 
 of the church : and he deserves particular mention, 
 as being the author of the only Christian writing 
 now extant, which was composed in the first cen- 
 tury, beside the books of the New Testament. 
 Works have come down to us, which bear the names 
 of the apostle Barnabas, and of Hernias, who is per- 
 haps intended to be the person mentioned by St. 
 Paul in his Epistle to the Romans*^. If these 
 writings were genuine, they might perhaps be older 
 
 <■ xvi. 14. 
 
LECT. XI. Epistle of Clement. 343 
 
 than the Epistle of Clement, and on that account A. D. 
 alone would be entitled to respect. I cannot how- 70 — 83. 
 ever hesitate to say, that the one is not the work of 
 the apostle Barnabas, and that neither of them 
 can be assigned to the apostolic age. It can be 
 proved, that they were in existence in the second 
 century, and as such they are curious and interest- 
 ing documents : but this excludes them from our 
 present consideration; and their subject-matter is 
 not such as to invite much inquiry into their age or 
 their authors. The Epistle of Clement is however 
 undoubtedly a genuine work : and though it is 
 greatly to be wished, that more copies should be 
 discovered, our own country is to be congratulated, 
 that it possesses the only copy now known to be in 
 existence '^. The uncertainty of the time of Cle- 
 ment's accession must necessarily affect the date of 
 his Epistle. It seems to speak of some afflictions, 
 which had lately been troubling the Roman church, 
 but which were now past : and this would lead us 
 to fix it soon after the reign of Nero, or several 
 years later, when Domitian's persecution had ceased. 
 There may, however, have been other though slighter 
 persecutions than these, which history has not re- 
 corded, and to which Clement may allude. Though 
 the date of the Epistle, and of the facts connected 
 with it, must thus continue uncertain, it acquaints 
 us with an interesting event in another church, 
 which was one of the most considerable of those 
 planted by St. Paul. It appears, that the church of 
 
 d It was sent by Cyril, pa- end of what is called the Alex- 
 
 triarch of Alexandria, and after- andrian MS. of the Old and 
 
 wards of Constantinople, to New Testament, and is now 
 
 Charles the First. It is at the in the British Museum. 
 
 z 4 
 
344 Epistle of Clement. lect. xi. 
 
 A. D. Corinth had been suffering to a great extent by in- 
 ;0 83. ^^j.jj^j dissensions ; and this letter was written in 
 the name of the Roman church to exhort the Corin- 
 thians to peace. Eusebius informs us, that Hege- 
 sippus, who wrote in the second century, mentioned 
 these dissensions in his ecclesiastical history® ; but 
 no particulars are known concerning them. It is 
 pleasing to meet with this truly charitable inter- 
 course between two distant churches ; and it is to be 
 hoped, that the exhortation produced the desired 
 effect. We know, that about a century later the 
 Christians of Corinth were in the habit of reading 
 this Epistle in their churches on Sunday^; which 
 might at least lead us to think, that it was well re- 
 ceived. It was written, as I have stated, in the 
 name of the Roman church, though the name of 
 Clement has always been affixed to it, and it was 
 probably his composition. In ancient times it was 
 treated with a veneration, which was only inferior 
 to that, which was paid to the canonical scriptures. 
 Not only the church of Corinth, where the original 
 copy was probably preserved, but according to Eu- 
 sebius, both in his own day and a long time before, 
 very many churches were accustomed to have it 
 publicly reads'. We do not know what distinction 
 was made between the reading of such works as 
 this, and the canonical scriptures ; but we can only 
 account for the Epistle of Clement not forming part 
 of the New Testament, from the extraordinary care 
 which was taken in the earliest times to arrange 
 the canon. It was most probably composed before 
 some of the writings of St. John, and by a man, 
 
 c II. E. III. 16. f Ens. U. E. IV. 23. g lb. III. 16. 
 
LECT. XI. Writings of Clement. 345 
 
 who unquestionably had received spiritual gifts from ^ jy. 
 the apostles : it might almost be called the work of 70 — 83. 
 an inspired author : all which may explain, why the 
 early Christians treated it with such respect ; and 
 yet it shews, that something was wanting to put it 
 on a level with the canonical scriptures. 
 
 Eusebius informs us, that another Epistle was ex- 
 tant in his day, which was said to be the work of 
 Clement, but it was not universally acknowledged, 
 like the former ^\ A small fragment of a second 
 Epistle has come down to us ; but the genuineness 
 of it is generally given up by the learned. Epipha- 
 nius also speaks of some Epistles of Clement, which 
 were read in the churches, but had been corrupted 
 by the heretics ' : and these are perhaps the only 
 writings, which antiquity allows us, with any show 
 of probability, to ascribe to Clement. The Recog- 
 nitions and Homilies, which bear his name ; and 
 the Constitutions and Canons of the Apostles, which 
 have sometimes been ascribed to him, are such pal- 
 pable forgeries, if they were really meant to deceive, 
 that it would be a waste of critical labour to prove 
 that they were not written by Clement. They are 
 not without their use, as speaking the sentiments of 
 the times, in which they were really composed : but 
 they have no connexion with the ecclesiastical his- 
 tory of the first century, except as preserving a few 
 traditions, which may perhaps have been founded 
 upon truth. 
 
 Nothing certain is known of the history of Cle- 
 ment, subsequent to his writing his Epistle. Those, 
 who adopt the longer system of chronology, suppose 
 him to have lived through the persecution of Domi- 
 
 h Eiis. H, E. III. 38. i Haer. XXX. 15. p. 139. 
 
346 Christians at Pella. lect. xi. 
 
 A. D. tian, and to have died in the year 102, which was 
 70—83. the fifth year of Trajan : and Baronius has re- 
 ceived as authentic the story of his having been 
 banished by the latter emperor to the Tauric Cher- 
 sonesus, and afterwards drowned by his orders. 
 There is, however, no authentic evidence of Clement 
 having suffered martyrdom ; and there is much 
 more reason to suppose, that he died peaceably **. 
 His successor in the bishopric of Rome was Eva- 
 restus. 
 
 A. D. In whatever year we place the death of Clement, 
 bb 100. jjg witnessed an event, which must have been watched 
 by Christians with peculiar interest, the final de- 
 struction of Jerusalem. I have already stated it 
 not to be my intention, as indeed my subject does 
 not require me, to describe the horrors of that pro- 
 tracted catastrophe. I have mentioned the se- 
 cession of the Christians to Pella, which perhaps 
 took place about the year GQ : but though this town 
 has been particularly named, it is impossible to con- 
 ceive, that it contained all the Christians, who were 
 before living in Jerusalem. It is probable, that Sy- 
 meon, who was their bishop, and the leading mem- 
 bers of the church, found an asylum in Pella : but 
 many other towns in Batanaea and Decapolis, and 
 the whole trans-Jordanic district, may have received 
 some of the fugitives. The providential escape of 
 these men, while the rest of their countrymen were 
 dying by thousands, must have produced a great im- 
 pression upon the inhabitants of those towns ; and 
 if we had any historical details of this interesting 
 period, we should perhaps read of Christianity 
 having made great progress in the country about 
 k See Rondinini, de S. Clemente, Romae, 1706. 
 
LECT. XI. Nazarenes and Ebionites. 347 
 
 Pella. The secession of the Christians continued at A. D. 
 least till the destruction of Jerusalem in the year ~ 
 72 : some time after which (so great is the attach- 
 ment of all men to their native country and their 
 accustomed residence,) they returned in considerable 
 numbers, and took possession of the ruins, which 
 Titus had left to mark the greatness of his con- 
 quest. There can be no doubt, that Symeon ac- 
 companied those of his flock, who returned to Jeru- 
 salem : and the church of Jewish Christians once 
 more was seen to flourish in the place, which had 
 been the first to receive, and the first to persecute 
 the gospel. 
 
 There is, however, reason to fear, that this sojourn 
 of the Christians in Pella, and the neighbouring 
 towns, was productive of a consequence, which for 
 some centuries inflicted evil upon the church. Epi- 
 phanius is very minute in asserting, that the Naza- 
 renes and Ebionites took their rise soon after the 
 destruction of Jerusalem ; and that the founders of 
 these sects were to be traced to the Christians, who 
 fled to the neighbourhood of Pella. It might be 
 wished, that a chronological fact of this importance 
 had come down to us upon better authority than 
 that of Epiphanius^: but in this instance he is so 
 precise in his details, and he was so evidently follow- 
 ing some written authority, that I should be in- 
 clined on the whole to receive his testimony as true. 
 I am aware, that many writers have placed the 
 Ebionites in the second century : and the whole of 
 
 1 Theodoret quotes Euse- mentioned in the History of 
 
 bins as saying that the Naza- Eusehius ; and he places the 
 
 renes began in the reign of Ebionites in the reign of Tra- 
 
 Domitian. Hser. Fab. II. 2. p. jan. III. 27. 
 219. They are, however, not 
 
348 Nazarenes. lect. xi. 
 
 A. D. this subject has been so perplexed by the different 
 "" views which have been taken of the tenets of the 
 Nazarenes, that it is hopeless to attempt to bring 
 so many disputes to a decision. I cannot, however, 
 help concluding, that Epiphanius has preserved the 
 true account : and assuming, on his authority, that 
 the Nazarenes and Ebionites appeared at the end of 
 the first century, I shall endeavour to give some de- 
 scription of these two sects. 
 
 There can be no doubt, that the Ebionites were 
 looked upon as heretics by all the Fathers : and it 
 is also plain, that they spoke of them as a branch 
 of the Gnostics : a remark, which is of essential use 
 in investigating this branch of ecclesiastical history. 
 Epiphanius also considered the Nazarenes as here- 
 tics, and as resembling the Ebionites in some points, 
 though at first their tenets were much less objec- 
 tionable : and this perhaps is a correct state of the 
 case, as far as concerns the origin of these sects. 
 We know, that the Naxarene was a name given 
 in contempt to our Saviour ; and that his followers 
 were called Nazarenes in reproach long after they 
 had been known among themselves by the name of 
 Christians "^"^ It by no means follows, if human na- 
 ture has been the same in all ages, that the party, to 
 whom the epithet was applied, looked upon it as a 
 reproach : but still it is much more likely, that the 
 Christians of Judaea, than those of Greece or Italy, 
 should have been known by a title, which was taken 
 from a Jewish town. We have also seen in the 
 course of these Lectures, (and the Acts of the Apo- 
 stles are alone sufficient to prove it ",) that many 
 thousands of the Jewish Christians continued for 
 "1 Acts xxiv. 5. n See xxi. 20. 
 
LECT. XI. Na%arenes. 349 
 
 several years to retain their attachment to the Law A. D. 
 of Moses. It is plain, that some entirely mistook 
 the nature of the Christian covenant ; and not only 
 fell under the heavy censure of St. Paul, but unless 
 they were persuaded by his arguments, shut them- 
 selves out from those benefits, which they thought 
 to enjoy in conjunction with their privileges as 
 Jews. Others, however, though they retained the 
 Mosaic ceremonies, looked upon them merely as 
 ceremonies, and never thought of obtaining justifi- 
 cation except throvigh faith in Christ. Perhaps very 
 few of the descendants of Abraham went further 
 than this. St. Paul undoubtedly saw no harm in 
 professing occasionally the habits of a Jew. The 
 same expediency would lead the other apostles to 
 adopt a similar compliance : and if we may argue 
 from what took place in Jerusalem, when St. Paul 
 arrived there in 53, neither James nor the elders of 
 his church bad ceased to conform in some points to 
 the ceremonies of the Law. Such was the state of 
 the Jewish Christians, when they fled to Pella be- 
 fore the destruction of Jerusalem : and thus far we 
 have implicitly followed history : but it is not un- 
 natural to conjecture, that the final subversion of 
 the city, and the dispersion of the Jews as a people, 
 may have produced a decided effect upon these Ju- 
 daizing Christians. They had been unable to forget, 
 that the Father of their Redeemer had been known 
 for ages as exclusively the God of Abraham ; and 
 they had not been taught to tear themselves from 
 the harmless though peculiar customs, which had 
 come to them from their ancestors. But the visions 
 of the past or the future, in which these men might 
 sometimes indulge, were dispelled, and apparently 
 
350 Na%arenes. i.ect. xi. 
 
 A. D. for ever, when Jerusalem was levelled with the dust, 
 • and their existence as a nation had ceased. It is 
 true, that the Jews from that time to the present 
 have cherished a firm belief, that they shall at length 
 be restored to their country : and their bitter anti- 
 pathy to the Christians has perhaps strengthened 
 this expectation : but to those, who witnessed the 
 catastrophe, and had already admitted the great 
 truth, that Jews and Gentiles were equal in the 
 sight of God, the destruction of the Jewish polity 
 was perhaps taken as a sign, that Judaisnj was now 
 to cease. We might expect, that from this time the 
 Judaizing Christians rapidly decreased : and the ac- 
 count preserved by Epiphanius becomes highly pro- 
 bable, that this was the period when the sect or 
 heresy of the Nazarenes began to appear. The 
 Jewish Christians, who had now shaken off the yoke 
 of the ceremonial law, would be apt to speak slight- 
 ingly of those, who still adhered to it. With the 
 usual zeal of persons who have changed their sen- 
 timents, they may have refused the name of Chris- 
 tians to those who still united the Gospel with the 
 Law: and if the term Nazarene was applied by the 
 more numerous party as a reproach, it would be sure 
 to be received by the minority as a title of distinc- 
 tion. There is reason to think, that at first there 
 was no other peculiarity in the tenets of the Naza- 
 renes, except that they adhered to the Mosaic Law. 
 Epiphanius, who lived in the fourth century, is the 
 earliest writer that speaks of the Nazarenes as he- 
 retics : and it is plain from his account, that they 
 were not many in number. They appear to have 
 been confined principally to the country, where they 
 first appeared : and if in course of time they became 
 
LECT. XI. Ehionites. 351 
 
 heretical, it was perhaps from the principle which a. D. 
 leads a persecuted party to carry their sentiments ^^ ^^^- 
 further than they originally intended. They have 
 been described as holding a low opinion concerning 
 the divinity of Christ : and if the charge be true, 
 we may perhaps trace it in part to the Ebionites 
 having arisen about the same time and in the same 
 country. 
 
 The appearance of the Ebionites is another in- 
 teresting fact, which probably ought to fill up a 
 blank in the last thirty years of the first century. 
 Epiphanius, as I have stated, places their rise in 
 the country near to Pella, which was occupied by 
 the Christians from Jerusalem. It has been dis- 
 puted whether there ever was a person called Ebion, 
 from whom they received their name : but it is 
 agreed on all hands, that Ebion was a Jewish word, 
 which signified poor. It is impossible not to con- 
 nect the Ebionites in many respects with the Jews : 
 but at the same time they held opinions, from which 
 an orthodox 3ew would have started with horror. 
 It is sufficient to mention, that they treated the 
 writings of the prophets with contempt, and denied 
 their inspiration. So also, while we find that the 
 name of Jesus held a conspicuous place in their 
 creed, we find them also believing him to be born of 
 human parents, and maintaining that Christ was an 
 emanation from God, which descended upon Jesus 
 at his baptism. All these peculiarities are explained, 
 when it is stated that the Ebionites were a branch 
 of the Gnostics. 
 
 It was in this obscure period of the first century, 
 that Gnosticism, which had begun with Simon Ma- 
 gus, was making a rapid progress, and was coming 
 
352 Gnostics. Carpocrates. i.ect. xi. 
 
 A. D. closer into contact with the believers in the gospel. 
 QQ 100. J mean^ ^g j have already stated, that Simon Magus 
 was the first Gnostic, who introduced the name of 
 Christ into his philosophical system. His imme- 
 diate successor was Menander, who like himself was 
 a native of Samaria, and must have spread his doc- 
 trines in the latter part of the first century. These 
 men, and the persons who followed them, maintained 
 the irrational notion, that the body of Jesus was a 
 phantom ; that he was not really born ; and conse- 
 quently, that he was not nailed to the cross or died. 
 Strange as it may appear, this belief spread very 
 widely in the second century, and many Christians 
 were persuaded to embrace it. But according to 
 another and perhaps less absurd form of Gnosticism, 
 Jesus had a real body, inasmuch as he was born of 
 human parents ; and Christ, who was an emanation 
 from God, was united to Jesus at his baptism. The 
 professors of the former opinion were called Do- 
 cetae ; and the earliest Gnostics appear to have been 
 of that description. It is not easy to say when the 
 theory of the Docetae concerning Jesus was succeeded 
 by the other, which I have mentioned : but it is 
 most probable, that the publication of the three first 
 Gospels was instrumental in producing the change ; 
 and that the Gnostics, who visited Judaea, could not 
 resist the evidence of Jesus having had a real and 
 substantial human body. The first persons, who 
 are mentioned as maintaining this form of Gnosti- 
 cism, were Carpocrates and Cerinthus : and though 
 many critics have assigned them to the second cen- 
 tury, there is jjerhaps more probability in placing 
 them at the end of the first. Carpocrates was a 
 Greek, and apparently a student in the Alexandrian 
 
LECT. XI. Cerinthians. 353 
 
 school of Platonism : Cerinthus was a Jew, or at A. D, 
 least had adopted in great measure the peculiar rites 
 of Judaism : and this perhaps, rather than any 
 striking difference in their doctrines, was the cause 
 of their being named as the heads of parties. Both 
 of them are represented as grossly immoral in their 
 principles and practice : and Cerinthus displayed 
 the same love of sensuality in his doctrine of a mil- 
 lennium. There is reason to think, that Cerinthus 
 was one of the first Gnostics, who succeeded in in- 
 ducing the Christians to forsake their faith : and 
 we shall see presently, that there is evidence of his 
 having been the cause of St. John publishing some 
 of his writings. 
 
 It may have been the success of Carpocrates and 
 Cerinthus, which led some persons in the neighbour- 
 hood of Pella to embrace the heresy described above, 
 as that of the E^bionites. The fugitives from Jeru- 
 salem, as I have already observed, could not fail to 
 give a wider circulation to the gospel in that coun- 
 try: and while some became true disciples of Jesus, 
 others, as is the case in the spreading of new opin- 
 ions, may have imperfectly learnt, or ignorantly 
 perverted, the real doctrines of Christianity. It will 
 be remembered also, that the native inhabitants of 
 this country were not properly Jews ; though the 
 vicinity of that peculiar people could not fail to have 
 imparted to them some Jewish jiotions and customs. 
 The Ebionites, as they are represented by the ear- 
 liest writers, exactly answer to this compound of 
 imperfect Christianity and imperfect Judaism. If 
 they followed Cerinthus, it was merely in believing 
 Jesus to have been born of human parents, and to 
 have been united to Christ who descended upon him 
 
 A a 
 
354 Ehionites. lect. xi. 
 
 A. D. at his baptism : but their philosophical opinions, if 
 0()-100. ^^ term can be applied to them, were less irrational, 
 and more consistent with the Jewish scriptures : 
 and with respect to practice, the first Ebionites seem 
 rather to have erred on the side of austerity than of 
 indulgence. It should not be omitted, that eccle- 
 siastical writers have mentioned two divisions of 
 the Ebionites : one which believed Jesus to have 
 been born of human parents ; the other which ad- 
 mitted his miraculous conception. The latter have 
 been identified by some writers with the Nazarenes : 
 but if, as is stated of the Ebionites, they paid no 
 regard to the Jewish prophets ; and if they believed 
 Jesus and Christ to be two separate persons, it is 
 evidently impossible to say, that they agreed with 
 the Nazarenes. If conjecture may be indulged con- 
 cerning their origin, they seem to have been an offset 
 from that strange mixture of opinions, which were 
 now inundating the world under the name of Gnos- 
 ticism. While the philosophers of this school were 
 penetrating, as they thought, the depths of physics 
 and metaphysics, it was natural that the poorer 
 classes should not escape the contagion. It is among 
 persons of this rank, that a system of austerity ge- 
 nerally finds proselytes : and Ebionite, as I have 
 stated, signified poor. In later times the orthodox 
 Christians reproached them for their name^ as im- 
 plying the poverty , of their doctrines concerning 
 Christ's divinity : but I should rather infer, that 
 their name originally was descriptive of their rank ; 
 and that if it had not been for the baneful influence 
 of Gnosticism, they would probably have been found 
 among the strictest professors of the gospel. The 
 departure of the Christians from Pella, when they 
 
LECT. XI. Ehionites. S55 
 
 went to reinstate themselves in the ruins of Jeru- A. D. 
 salem, would be the cause of many imperfect con- ^" ^^^' 
 verts being left behind ; and the field was perhaps 
 more open for the Gnostics, when the bishop and 
 the leading members of his church were no longer 
 on the spot to check their efforts. All this may 
 confirm the tradition preserved by Epiphanius, that 
 the Nazarenes and Ebionites appeared in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Pella soon after the destruction of Jeru- 
 salem : and what has been said of the doctrines of 
 the Gnostics, may prepare us for what will be con- 
 sidered in the remaining Lecture, the history of the 
 last years of the apostle St. John °. 
 
 ° For the subject of the refer to my Bampton Lectures, 
 Ebionites, Nazarenes, Cerin- notes 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 
 thus, and Carpocrates, 1 may 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84. 
 
 A a 2 
 
LECTURE XII. 
 
 A. D. 1 HE church, as I have stated, appears to have 
 ___J_1 suffered no systematic persecution during the reigns 
 of Vespasian and Titus : and if we may judge from 
 the regular succession of bishops in different cities, 
 the affairs of the Christians were now considerably 
 organized, and an uniform system of church govern- 
 ment was already adopted. The four cities, which 
 afterwards became the principal episcopal sees, have 
 preserved the names of their bishops; and the persons, 
 who held this office during the first century, are not 
 reported to have met with much molestation. If 
 these bishoprics were mentioned in the order of their 
 foundation, Jerusalem and Antioch would be named 
 first ; and Alexandria might perhaps contest prece- 
 dence with Rome, if the point was to be settled by 
 the date of their being visited by an apostle. 
 
 Concerning the bishops of Rome in the first cen- 
 tury I have already spoken, when treating of Cle- 
 ment ; and I observed, that according to different 
 chronologists, he either filled this see to the end of 
 the century, or died in the year 83. His two im- 
 mediate successors were Evarestus and Alexander. 
 
 I have also spoken of Symeon, who was chosen 
 bishop of Jerusalem upon the martyrdom of James 
 in 62; and he met his own death at such an ad- 
 
LECT. XII. Ignatius. 357 
 
 vanced age, that the history of that event belongs a. D. 
 to the following century. ^^ — ^^• 
 
 The see of Antioch, which, as we have seen, had 
 been intrusted in the first instance to Evodius, is 
 supposed to have become vacant about the year 70. 
 There are traditions, which represent Evodius to 
 have been martyred ; and Josephus speaks of a dis- 
 turbance in Antioch about that period, which was 
 the cause of many Jews being put to death ^. Ba- 
 ronius supposes, that Evodius may have been of 
 this number : but history tells us nothing of any 
 persecution at Antioch about this time, which was 
 directed specially against the Christians. There 
 seems, however, to be but one opinion, that the suc- 
 cessor of Evodius was the celebrated Ignatius : and 
 his history, like that of Symeon, belongs rather to 
 the next than to the present century. Since we 
 know so little of the early years of his ministry, the 
 date of his accession would not be of much import- 
 ance, if some ancient writers had not stated that he 
 was appointed by the apostles, and even by St. Peter 
 or St. Paul ^\ That Ignatius may have been per- 
 sonally acquainted with some of the apostles, is not 
 only probable, but the fact can hardly have been 
 otherwise : but there is a difficulty in supposing any 
 of them, and particularly St. Peter, to have appointed 
 him bishop of Antioch, if he did not svicceed Evo- 
 dius till the year 68 or 70. If we suppose him to 
 have been appointed by St. Peter, we can hardly 
 help placing his accession a few years earlier : or 
 perhaps the tradition should refer to St. John, who 
 
 aDe Bel. Jud. VII. 3,3. XLII. Theodoret. Dial. I. 
 
 ^ See Origen. in Luc. Horn. Const. Apost. VII. 46. et not. 
 VI. p. 938. Chrysost. Oral. Coteler. ad I. 
 
 A a 3 
 
358 Alexandrian Church. lect. xii. 
 
 A.D. certainly lived several years later, and who may be 
 '^o- supposed to have exercised still greater influence, 
 when he was almost the only surviving apostle. It 
 is however possible, that later writers may have 
 confounded the appointment of Ignatius to the bishop- 
 ric with his first ordination to the ministry : and it 
 is higlily probable, that some one of the apostles, per- 
 haps St. Peter or St. Paul, may in the first instance 
 have laid his hands upon Ignatius : and we cannot 
 wonder, that ecclesiastical tradition should have pre- 
 served the names of the persons, who received this 
 distinction, since it is certain that imposition of 
 hands by an apostle conveyed much more than the 
 ordinary operation of the Holy Spirit, and imparted 
 different degrees of preternatural power. We may 
 therefore assume, that Ignatius was one of the per- 
 sons, who carried on this power into the second cen- 
 tury : and the remark, which has been made con- 
 cerning his apostolical ordination, may perhaps be 
 applied to other persons, who are said to have re- 
 ceived their bishoprics from one of the apostles. 
 
 I have stated, that Annianvis was placed over the 
 church of Alexandria about the year 62 : and if his- 
 tory has correctly assigned twenty- two years to his 
 holding that oflfice, we may perhaps suppose, that 
 the progress of the gospel was not much checked 
 during that period : and we shall see hereafter that 
 in some points of view the church of Alexandria be- 
 came more flourishing than any other. Abilius, who 
 succeeded Annianus, survived the reign of Domitian, 
 which in other places is known to have been hostile 
 to the Christians ; and Cerdo was made bishop of 
 Alexandria about the year 97. 
 
 It would neither be desirable nor practicable to 
 
LECT. XII. Limits of' bishoprics. 359 
 
 pursue these details in many other churches : and a. D. 
 it is only the celebrity of the four great sees, Jeru- ^^ — ^^- 
 salem, Antioch, Rome, and Alexandria, which has 
 preserved the succession of their bishops, and in- 
 duced me to trace them to the close of the first cen- 
 tury. It is probable, that the limits of even these 
 bishoprics did not extend at present much beyond 
 their respective towns. The word, which was used 
 for some centuries to express a bishopric, is that 
 from which the term parish is derived ; and the 
 •ndpoiKoi, or inhabitants of each town or city, if they 
 were sufficiently numerous, had their own bishop or 
 head ^. The head of the Roman church had per- 
 haps no jurisdiction beyond the walls of the capital 
 at the time which we are now considering. The 
 limits of the Alexandrian church are still more un- 
 certain. The bishop of Jerusalem had perhaps au- 
 thority over the different churches of Judaea, not only 
 from the superior sanctity of the mother city, but 
 because he succeeded to the apostles, who had been 
 in the habit of visiting the whole of Judaea and Gali- 
 lee. Antioch, as the capital of Syria, was also likely 
 to give more extensive authority to the bishop of 
 that see. It was evidently the system of St. Paul, 
 as I have frequently shewn, to place every congre- 
 gation under its own spiritual ruler. So long as he 
 lived, he never considered himself to be freed from 
 providing for the churches which he had planted : 
 but this did not hinder him, if it did not require 
 him, to appoint some one person to manage each 
 particular church. Where the place was of import- 
 ance, like Ephesus, the church would naturally be 
 independent, and subject only to himself, or the 
 
 c Bingham IX. 2, i. 
 
 A a 4 
 
360 Churches of Asia Minor, lect. xii. 
 
 A. J), deputy whom he appointed. In other places, as in 
 81 96. Qrete, the nature of the country would point out 
 the expediency of one person being left, like Titus, 
 to manage the different chvu'ches. Thus the diocese 
 of a bishop, if we use the modern expression, or his 
 parishy if we adopt the more ancient, was sometimes 
 extended over a district, but was more generally con- 
 fined to a single town. We have the evidence of 
 St. John, that the churches of Asia Minor had each 
 their respective bishop at the end of the first cen- 
 tury : and though the point is not certain, it is pos- 
 sible, that Ephesus was a kind of metropolis of the 
 seven churches which he mentions. Of these there 
 are only two, Ephesus and Laodicea, which are 
 known to have existed before the death of St. Paul. 
 The time of the gospel being first established in 
 Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardes, and Philadel- 
 phia, is not recorded. St. Paul may easily have 
 visited them : but thus much is certain, that before 
 the end of the first century, the Christians were 
 numerous in all of them. The name of Polycarp, 
 who about this time was bishop of Smyrna, will be- 
 come better known to us in the history of the second 
 century ; and there is the best authority for saying, 
 that he received his appointment, or at least his or- 
 dination, from some one or more of the apostles. 
 
 The prosperity of the churches in Asia Minor 
 need not surprise us, if we could be certain, that the 
 Christians at Ephesus were all this time superin- 
 tended by Timothy. The favourite disciple and fel- 
 low-labourer of St. Paul would not forget the in- 
 junction which he had received, to keep the flock 
 committed to his trust : and though we have no 
 authentic account of him subsequent to the martyr- 
 
LECT. XII. St. John at Ephesus. 361 
 
 dom of St. Paul, tradition speaks confidently of his A. D. 
 having been bishop of Ephesus, and continvied in 
 that office till nearly the end of the century. There 
 are also strong grounds for believing, that the latter 
 days of St. John vrere spent in the neighbourhood 
 of Ephesus. His death appears to have nearly coin- 
 cided with the end of the first century, and he vras 
 probably for some years the last surviving apostle. 
 Later vv^riters would represent him as bishop of 
 Ephesus : but it is perhaps more correct to state, 
 that none of the apostles could properly be called 
 bishops of any particular see. The care of many 
 churches devolved upon them, as was the case with 
 St. Paul : and if St. John resided principally at Ephe- 
 sus, the neighbouring cities had perhaps the advan- 
 tage of his spiritual counsel and assistance. The 
 time of St. John's arrival in that country is very 
 uncertain. We know nothing of him from the New 
 Testament subsequent to the year 46, when he at- 
 tended the council at Jerusalem : but it might be 
 conjectured, that he had not visited Ephesus, or cer- 
 tainly had not taken up his abode there, at the time 
 of St. Paul leaving it in 52. Epiphanius describes 
 him as advanced in years, when he settled in Asia 
 Minor '^ : and this appears on the whole to be most 
 probable. The accounts, which represent the Virgin 
 Mary as attending him to Ephesus, are of a late 
 date : and it is difficult to say, whether the notion 
 had any other foundation, than the fact of Jesus 
 having committed his mother to the care of his 
 favourite disciple. There certainly was a tradition 
 in the fifth century, that the Virgin Mary died at 
 
 ^ Haer. LI. 2. p. 423. 
 
362 St. John. lect. xii. 
 
 A, D. Ephesus^ : but again we are completely at a loss 
 81 — 96. as to the date of this event: and the age of the 
 Virgin would make it more probable, that she died 
 before the time of St. John visiting Ephesus. 
 
 We know little or nothing of the countries, in 
 which he preached the gospel : though it cannot be 
 doubted, that like the other apostles, he was actively 
 engaged ; and St. Paul must have had good reasons 
 for coupling him with Peter and James, as pillars 
 of the church^. Augustin and some other writers 
 have quoted the first Epistle of St. John, as addressed 
 to the ParthiansS; and hence it has been supposed, 
 that he preached to that people : but the evidence 
 is hardly sufficient to persuade us of the fact ; and 
 we find ourselves late in the reign of Domitian, be- 
 fore we know any thing certain concerning him ; 
 and at that time we see him connected with the 
 churches of Asia Minor. 
 
 Though the New Testament is silent as to the 
 cause, as well as the time, of his settling in that 
 country, we are perhaps not without materials for 
 understanding why his presence there was peculiarly 
 necessary. I have often had occasion to allude to 
 the Gnostic doctrines : and I have also observed, 
 that the last thirty years of the first century form 
 a period, of which we know very little. It is more 
 than probable, that Gnosticism spread rapidly during 
 these thirty years ; and toward the close of them, 
 it seems to have caused many Christians to fall from 
 the truth. The apostles foresaw this evil, and fre- 
 quently warned their converts, that it was about to 
 
 c Act. Concil. Ephes. ed. S Augustin. Qusest. Evang. 
 
 Labb. vol. III. p. 574. II. 19. Cassiodorus, vol. V. p. 
 
 f Gal. ii. 9. III. 
 
LECT. XII. Gnosticism. 363 
 
 come. St. Paul ^ St. Peter', St. James ^ and St. A. D. 
 Jude', all allude to a great falling away, or a sad 
 depravation of morals, in what they call the latter 
 times: and though this expression is obscure, and 
 has led to many interpretations, St. John seems to 
 fix the fulfilment of the predictions to his own day, 
 when he says, Little children, it is the last time: 
 and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, 
 even now are there many antichrists : whereby we 
 know that it is the last time '". It is plain, that when 
 this passage was written, there was a general expec- 
 tation of the appearance of antichrist : and St. John 
 leads us to what is perhaps the true interpretation, 
 that antichrist is not any one individual, but all per- 
 sons, who oppose or corrupt the gospel of Christ. 
 The antichrists alluded to by St. John were most 
 probably the Gnostics ; and though they had been 
 propagating their doctrines for a long time, it was 
 perhaps not till late in the first century, that they 
 began to be formidable to the church by seducing 
 its members. I have spoken of Carpocrates and 
 Cerinthus as leaders of the Gnostics in the first 
 century : and ecclesiastical tradition has connected 
 Cerinthus very closely with the personal history of 
 St. John '^. He seems to have had his residence for 
 
 li I Tim. iv. I. 2 Tim, iii. i. going to bathe, and seeing Ce- 
 
 See also 2 Thess. ii. 3. rinthus in the place, hurried 
 
 i 2 Pet. iii. 3. out of the bath without bathing, 
 
 '^ V. 3. and added. Let us run away, 
 
 * 18. lest even the bath should fall 
 
 "" 1 Johnii. 18. Concerning to pieces, while Cerinthus the 
 
 these passages, I would refer to enemy of truth is in it. III. 3, 
 
 my Bampton Lectures, note 60. 4, p. 1 77. Theodoret. Hair. Fnb. 
 
 1 Irenseus quotes Polycarp as IL3.P. 220. Epiphanius puts 
 
 having been heard to say, that the name of Ebion for Cerin- 
 
 John being at Ephesus, and thus, i/csr. XXX. 24. p. 148. 
 
364 Nicolaitans. lect. xii. 
 
 A. D. some time at Ephesus ; and he found the people in 
 • that country but too well disposed to embrace his 
 doctrines. He inculcated, as I have stated, the great- 
 est laxity of morals: and as if this universal in- 
 dulgence had not been sufficiently attractive, it vras 
 held by another branch of the Gnostics, that there 
 was no harm in partaking of a sacrifice, which had 
 been offered to an idol. The Gnostics had at first 
 followed the example of the Christians, and had 
 learnt to despise the absurdities and impieties of 
 pagan worship. But we havei seen, that in the time 
 of persecution, tlie Christians were required, as a 
 test of their opinions, to join in the public sacrifices. 
 Their refusal was punished by death ; and Simon 
 Magus has been accused of teaching his own disci- 
 ples, that compliance in this instance was not a sin°. 
 Whatever may be thought of this accusation, it is 
 certain, that toward the end of the century there 
 were some Gnostics, who did not scruple to eat th'mgs 
 sacrificed imto idols ; and these men were then known 
 by the name of Nicolaitans >'. The origin of the term 
 is uncertain ; and though Nicolas the deacon has 
 been mentioned as their founder, the evidence is ex- 
 tremely slight, which would convict that person 
 himself of any immoralities ^. 
 
 I should conjecture, that St. John came to Ephe- 
 sus, not only as the metropolis of Asia Minor, but 
 as the head quarters of Gnosticism ; and it is im- 
 possible to doubt, that the presence of an apostle 
 was successful for some time in checking the evil. 
 There were, however, enemies of a different kind 
 
 " Origen. cont. Cels VI. i i. V Rev. ii. 6, 15. 
 
 p. 638. Bainpton Lectures, q Bampton Lectures, p. 145, 
 
 note 64. ike. 
 
LECT. XII. Domitian. 365 
 
 which he had to encounter ; and while the Chris- A. D. 
 tians were exposed to trials from within and from ' 
 
 without, the Nicolaitans had an opportunity of prac- 
 tising those principles of compliance, which they 
 found so safe and convenient. 
 
 The name of Domitian is handed down, as that 
 of the second persecutor of the Christians after Nero ; 
 and though the greater part of his reign was marked 
 by cruelties, it seems to have been in his latter years, 
 that his attention was turned to the professors of 
 the gospel*'. Eusebius speaks of this persecution 
 forming a kind of sequel to the executions, banish- 
 ments, and confiscations, which Domitian had prac- 
 tised against numbers of people of rank^ : and the 
 statement may perhaps be taken, not only as mark- 
 ing the time, but as serving in some degree to ex- 
 plain the cause of the persecution. A mind, like 
 that of Nero or Domitian, was not likely, if left to 
 itself, to feel much solicitude about matters of reli- 
 gion. But we have seen that Nero found it conve- 
 nient to torture the Christians, that his own con- 
 duct might not be scrutinized. I have conjectured, 
 that this plan was suggested to him by persons in- 
 terested in hindering the pagan superstitions from 
 being subverted by Christianity : and it is probable, 
 that Domitian was influenced by arguments of a 
 similar kind. While his jealousies and suspicions 
 were causing Rome to be deluged with patrician 
 blood, it was desirable, that he should take some 
 steps to suppress the public indignation. An exhi- 
 bition of Christian victims in the amphitheatre would 
 
 f Concerning the date of Do- nard, ad Lact. De mort. Pers.c.^. 
 mitiaii's persecution, see Toi- *" H. E. III. 17. 
 
366 Domitiaii's persecution. lect. xti. 
 
 A. D. at any time appease the populace : and as soon as 
 81 — 96. \\^Q emperor allowed ihisjoreign superstition to be 
 attacked, he gained the favour of a large and influ- 
 ential body among his subjects. His persecution of 
 the Christians is indicated with sufficient plainness 
 by heathen historians. Suetonius* speaks of heavy 
 contributions being levied upon the Jews ; and those, 
 he adds, who professed that religion, but endea- 
 voured to conceal it, were compelled to pay the tax 
 which was imposed. There can be little doubt, that 
 these persons were Christians. For many years, as 
 I have already observed, they were confounded with 
 the Jews in the opinion of the heathen". The mis- 
 take was perhaps not unnatural ; and after the total 
 subversion of the Jewish nation, it was likely to 
 bring a still greater share of contempt upon the 
 Christians. The plan of taxing them as Jews was 
 sure to be a popular measure : and the persons, who 
 are said to have concealed their religion, were pro- 
 bably Christians, who asserted with truth that they 
 were not Jews, but were not believed by the officers 
 of government. Dio Cassius confirms the remark 
 which has just been made, when he is speaking of 
 Acilius Glabrio, who was put to death in the fif- 
 teenth year of Domitian. His crime, according to 
 this historian, was atheism ; which, as we have seen, 
 was equally alleged against Jews and Christians ; 
 and he states, that Glabrio, together with several 
 other persons, about this time had adopted Jewish 
 manners '''. We have another instance of this kind 
 
 t Domit. 12. religionis Mosaic(2 semper ha- 
 
 ^ SeeDamanndeChrisfianis bitis. Helmst. 1790. 
 
 ad Trajatiumusque a Ccrsaribus ^ LXVII. 14. p. 1 112. 
 
 et Senatu Romano pro cidtoribus 
 
LECT. XII. Charges against the Christians. 367 
 
 in the case of Flavius Clemens who was put to death A. D. 
 about the same time. This man was uncle to the 
 emperor, and had been consul in the preceding year; 
 but neither of these distinctions was sufficient to 
 protect him. He and his wife Domitilla were both 
 convicted of atheism : for which, according to the 
 words of Dio, many persons were condemned, who 
 had gone over to Judaism ; some of whom suffered 
 death, and some had their property confiscated. 
 Clemens himself was one of the former, and his wife 
 was banished. Suetonius, in giving an account of 
 the same tragedy, has mentioned another charge, 
 which was brought against the Christians. He 
 speaks of Clemens as a man whose indolence made 
 him contemptible y : and we know from later apolo- 
 gists, that one of the calumnies against the Chris- 
 tians was taken from their little attention to public 
 affairs^. The charge was perhaps in some respects 
 true : and when a man embraced the gospel, he 
 could hardly help abstaining from many acts, which 
 were connected with the rites and superstitions of 
 paganism. Clemens had probably given offence of 
 this kind during his consulate : and his relationship 
 to the emperor perhaps emboldened him to speak 
 his sentiments plainly. Enemies would not be 
 wanting, who urged Domitian to rid himself of such 
 a troublesome friend ; and hence the transition was 
 easy, to represent all the Christians as dangerous to 
 the state. Before this time, the sons of Clemens 
 had been destined by Domitian to succeed him in 
 the empire : and if the tyrant had been sooner cut 
 off, a Christian prince might have been seated upon 
 the throne of the Caesars at the end of the first cen- 
 y Dcmiit. 15. z Tertullian. Apol. 42. p. 33. 
 
368 DomitKui's persecution. lect. xii. 
 
 A. D. tiiry. This, however, was prevented by the whole 
 81 9b. family of Clemens being involved in his punishment : 
 andEusebius has preserved a curious anecdote, which 
 shews that jealousy and fear contributed to excite 
 Domitian to these acts of cruelty. He seems to 
 have heard of the notion, which was current among 
 Jews and Christians, of a kins^ who was to come 
 from the line of David : and like A'espasian, he or- 
 dered search to be made for any of Da^ id's descend- 
 ants'^. The Christians, as I have stated, had re- 
 turned to the ruins of Jerusalem : and it is probable, 
 that before the end of Domitian's reign they were 
 settled there in considerable numbers. We have 
 seen, however, that some heresies sprang up at the 
 same time ; and the churcli of Jerusalem was now 
 beginning to suffer from the errors of the Gnostics. 
 Some of these heretics gave information to the offi- 
 cers of Domitian, that there were some descendants 
 of Jude, the cousin of our Lord, who were sprung 
 from the line of David. The history states, that 
 they were brought into the presence of the emperor, 
 who examined them concerning their condition, and 
 their notions of Christ's kingdom. Their humble 
 circumstances were very apparent : and they satis- 
 lied the emperor, that the kingdom of Christ was 
 not of this world. It is added, indeed, that Domi- 
 tian was so struck by their defence, that he stopped 
 the persecution of the Christians by a public edict '\ 
 
 a Eus. //. E. III. 19, 20. It of Domitian by asserting that 
 is an ingenious conjecture of the Christ was already come. 
 Martin, that this was the rea- U])on this hypothesis the pas- 
 son, why Josephus introduced sage would of course be ad- 
 the controverted passage con- mitted as genuine, 
 cerning Jesus being the Christ. ^ The same is said by Ter- 
 He wished to remove the fear tullian^ Apol. c. 5. 
 
LECT. XII. Persecution under Dojnit'ian. 369 
 
 This, however, requires confirmation : and it seems A. D. 
 more probable, that the exiles were not recalled till ^^' 
 
 the following reign of Xerva : or at all events, the 
 death of Domitian followed so shortly after, that the 
 persecution may be said to have lasted to the end of 
 his reign. 
 
 We have no means of judging, whether this search 
 after the descendants of David was accompanied by 
 measures of cruelty against the Christians of Pales- 
 tine. There is, however, positive evidence, that the 
 example, which was set by the emperor in the ca- 
 pital, was followed in distant parts of the empire. 
 The Christians of Asia Minor were exposed to se- 
 vere trials. The usual alternative was offered them 
 of sacrificing to an idol, or submitting to torture : 
 and while their heathen enemies threatened them on 
 the one side, the Nicolaitans and different Gnostic 
 sects were tempting them on the other, by teaching 
 them that in such cases compliance was not a sin. 
 This convenient doctrine seduced not a few Chris- 
 tians from their faith : but many still stood firm ; 
 and St. John has recorded the name of Antipas, who 
 with several others received the crown of martyr- 
 dom at Pergamos'^. St. John was himself a witness, 
 and perhaps a partaker, of these sufferings : but 
 though there is no doubt as to the fact and the scene 
 of his banishment, there are some earlier events in 
 the story, which are not received with the same im- 
 plicit belief. It is sufficient to state, that he is re- 
 ported to have been sent to Rome by the proconsul 
 of Asia, where he was thrown into a vessel of boil- 
 ing oil, and came out unhurt. If local tradition 
 
 <^ Rev. ii. 13. 
 B b 
 
370 St.JoJin inPatmos. lect. xii. 
 
 A. D. might be allowed to have any weight, we might be- 
 lieve, that some such event befell St. John at Rome ; 
 and Tertullian, who wrote at the end of the second 
 century, does not appear to have entertained any 
 doubt of the facf^. The critical, and perhaps I may 
 add, the philosophical Mosheim did not think that 
 the story was to be treated with contempt <": and 
 perhaps we must rest satisfied with this conclusion ; 
 but, as I observed before, there can be no doubt, that 
 St. John was banished to Patmos, an island in the 
 iEgean, and not far from the coast of Asia Minor, 
 for the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus 
 Christ^. Later writers have asserted, that he was 
 condemned to work in the mines^: a punishment, 
 which we know to have been inflicted upon the 
 Christians : but the great age of St. John at this 
 time would perhaps have exempted him from such 
 labour. There were also traditions, that he con- 
 verted the inhabitants of the island to Christianity*^ : 
 a fact, which in itself is not improbable ; but which 
 does not rest on sufficient authority. That St. John 
 was now at a very advanced age, cannot be ques- 
 tioned. Though he is generally considered to have 
 been the youngest of our Saviovu''s disciples, he must 
 at least have been arrived at manhood, when he was 
 called to follow him : and the testimony of Irenaeus 
 seems in this instance indisputable, that St. John 
 saw the Aj)ocalypse at the end of the reign of Domi- 
 tian\ This emperor died in the year 96 ; which 
 
 <^' De Prgescript. c. 36. Hie- e Victorinus Pictaviensis in 
 
 ron. in Matt. xx. 23. Apoc. Primasius ib. 
 
 e See his Dissertation upon '1 IMetaphrast. in Joan.apud 
 
 this subject. O^cumenium. 
 
 'Rev.i. 9. i V. 30, 3. p. 330. 
 
LECT. XII. Apocalypse. 371 
 
 must have been almost the number of years that St. A. D, 
 John had lived, when he saw the Apocalypse. 81 9b. 
 
 Baronius represents his banishment in Patmos as 
 having lasted six years : but there is no evidence of 
 this ; and it may rather be inferred, that the perse- 
 cution, which sent him thither, did not take place 
 till late in the reign of Domitian. The only au- 
 thentic circumstance, which we know of his resi- 
 dence in the island, is his having the vision or reve- 
 lation, which he afterwards committed to writing. 
 He does not state, whether he wrote it at the time, 
 or whether he waited till his return from banisli- 
 , ment ; but perhaps the Revelation itself preceded 
 his release by only a short period. I have men- 
 tioned, that some ancient accounts make Domitian 
 himself to have rescinded his edicts of persecution : 
 in which case St. John may have returned from Pat- 
 mos before that emperor's reign was ended ; but it 
 is more generally sui)posed, that the exiles were not 
 suffered to return till the following reign of Nerva*^. 
 We have the evidence of Dio, that this emperor 
 caused all persons to be acquitted, who were accused 
 of impiety to the gods, and permitted those who 
 were banished to return to their homes. There can 
 be no doubt, that the Christians were included, if 
 not principally intended in this decree : and there- 
 fore St. John might have left Patmos at the end of 
 the year 96, if he had not been released before. 
 Here again we are left to vague and uncertain tra- 
 ditions concerning the remaining years of his life. 
 He seems certainly to have returned to Ephesus^ : 
 
 ^ This is said by Dio Cass. 1 Irenseus, II. 22, 5. p. 148. 
 
 LXVIII. I. p. 1 1 1 8. Lactan- QXqxw. k\Qy..Q,u'is dives sulve.tur, 
 tius, De mart. Pers. c. 3. P- 959• 
 
 B b 2 
 
372 St. John at Ephesus. lect. xii. 
 
 A. D. and writers of the second and third centuries speak 
 1)6 — 100. Qf jjjg tomb being seen in that city™ ; so that we 
 may at least conclude, that the latter years of his life 
 were passed in this part of Asia Minor. We have 
 his own evidence for saying, that he would find the 
 churches of that country in a suffering and afflicted 
 state : but the reign of Nerva afforded them protec- 
 tion from their open enemies ; and the aged apostle 
 was himself their best defender against the errors of 
 the Gnostics. The church of Ephesus seems to have 
 had the benefit of his special superintendence : but 
 a writer of the second century speaks of his taking 
 journeys into the neighbouring district, in some 
 cases to appoint bishops, and in others to settle the 
 whole constitution of the churches". The great age 
 of St. John might seem to have unfitted him for ac- 
 tive duties of this kind : but we can hardly doubt, 
 that his life was jDrolonged to this unusual period by 
 a special providence, which enabled him, though 
 now so old, still to continue his apostolical labours. 
 Among the bishops appointed by him at this time, 
 we may place Polycarp, who filled the see of Smyr- 
 na, if he had not held it before the banishment of 
 St. John : but though the date of his appointment is 
 uncertain, we have the positive testimony of Ire- 
 naeus", that the apostle and Polycarp were person- 
 ally known to each other. 
 
 The writings of St. John form the most interest- 
 ing part of his history, subsequent to his return from 
 banishment : but there are so many points of minute 
 criticism connected with this subject, that I must 
 
 «» Polycrates, opud Ens. H. Origen. apud Eus. H.E. III. i. 
 E. III. 3 I . V. 24. Dionys. Alex. n Clem. Alex. 1. c. 
 
 apiid Eus. 11. E. VII. 25. o Epist. ad Florin. 
 
LECT. XII. Gospel of St. John. 373 
 
 abstain from giving any thing but what appears the a. D. 
 most probable result. The Apocalypse, as I have 96 — 100. 
 stated, may have been committed to w^riting during 
 the residence of the apostle in Patmos, or shortly 
 after his return to Ephesus ; which would fix its 
 date to the year 96 or 97. Concerning the Gospel 
 of St. John, some have supposed it to have been 
 written before the destruction of Jerusalem : but on 
 the whole I cannot help agreeing with those, who 
 assign to it a much later date ; and perhaps it was 
 written, like the Apocalypse, after the return of St. 
 John from Patmos?. Irenajus, as being acquainted 
 with Polycarp, was not likely to be mistaken, when 
 he says, that it was written at Ephesus *i: and on 
 the same authority we are informed of the interest- 
 ing fact, that it was designed to root out the erro- 
 neous doctrine, which had been spread by Cerinthus, 
 and some time before by theNicolaitans^". Epipha- 
 nius, who did not live till the fourth century, has 
 added, that it was written to refute the Ebionites 
 in their notion of Christ^ : and perhaps without 
 weighing these statements separately, we may say 
 in general terms, that St. John published his Gospel 
 on account of the deep root, which the Gnostic doc- 
 trines were beginning to take in Asia Minor. This 
 will not enable us to fix the date of it with precision ; 
 but it greatly confirms the notion of its having been 
 composed toward the end of the century : and the 
 fact of St. John applying the term Logos to Christ, 
 without any explanation, shews that the application 
 had already been made ; and would lead us to assign 
 
 P This was the opinion of q Irenseus, III. iii. p. 174. 
 Mill, Fabricius, Le Clerc, •" lb. 1 1, 1. p. 188. 
 
 Jones. s Hjcr. LXIX. 23. p. 746. 
 
 Bb3 
 
374 Gospel of St. John. lect. xii. 
 
 A. D. it to a period considerably subsequent to the writ- 
 96—100. ^y^^g Qf St. Paul. The Gnostics, as I have already- 
 stated, made use of the name of Christ in their fan- 
 ciful system of philosophy. They made him to be 
 one of the later emanations from the Deity, and to 
 have been sent into the world to repair the evil, 
 vt^hich the Demiurgus, or creature jEon, had caused. 
 Thus, though they held him in a certain sense to be 
 the Son of God, and to have been sent by God into 
 the vrorld, they supposed him to have had a begin- 
 ning, and they had no notion of his atoning for our 
 sins by dying on the cross. I have mentioned, that 
 they either believed Jesus to be a phantom, or to 
 have been born in the ordinary way of human 
 parents ; and they maintained, that Christ was the 
 Spirit which descended upon Jesus at his baptism. 
 Thus among their other errors, they considered 
 Jesus and Christ to be two separate beings ; and it 
 was against all these errors together, that Irenaeus 
 conceived St. John to have directed his Gospel ; 
 which remarkably agrees with what we are told by 
 St. John himself, who says. These are written that 
 ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son 
 of God; and that believing ye might have life 
 through his name. 
 
 There are other traditions concerning the Gospel 
 of St. John ; such as, that the apostle wrote it in 
 confirmation of the other three Gospels, and to sup- 
 ply some points, which they had omitted^ It is 
 also said, that he was urged to the task by the 
 bishops of Asia Minor, who wished to have an anti- 
 dote to the poison of Cerinthus and his followers". 
 
 t See Clem. Alex, apud Eus. H. E. VI. 14. " Hieron. in Mat. 
 
LECT. XII. Doctrine of the Logos. 375 
 
 There is nothing improbable in any of these state- A. D. 
 ments, and the late date of the Gospel, as well as its 96 100. 
 reference to the Gnostic heresy, may perhaps be in- 
 ferred from the use of the term Logos, as applied to 
 Jesus Christ. This is known to have been the name 
 of one of the emanations in the Gnostic scheme ; 
 and there can be little doubt, that the term was bor- 
 rowed from the Platonic philosophy. It can be 
 proved from the writings of Philo, that the Alex- 
 andrian Jews had taken to ascribe many of the ope- 
 rations of God to his Logos, or Mind, or Reason : 
 and though they did not really make the Logos of 
 God a separate being from God, they adopted a 
 mystical phraseology, in which the Logos might 
 sometimes appear to be personified. The Gnostics 
 carried this system still further, and actually made 
 the Logos a distinct emanation from God. When 
 they also adopted Christ into their system, it was an 
 easy process to identify him with the Logos, which 
 they had already personified : and we may infer 
 from the opening of St. John's Gospel, that even the 
 orthodox Christians had taken to use the term Lo- 
 gos as an epithet of Jesus Christ. If considered as 
 a mere name, the application was harmless : but as 
 an identity of terms is likely to lead to an identity 
 of doctrine, there was a danger lest the Gnostic 
 notion of the Logos should be substituted for the 
 real notion of Jesus Christ. St. John, therefore, be- 
 gins with asserting, that the Logos of the Christians 
 had existed from all eternity, was himself God, and 
 was the Creator of the world ; all which points were 
 directly opposed to the system of the Gnostics : and 
 since the latest writings of St. Paul contain no 
 trace of the term Logos being then applied to 
 
 B b 4 
 
376 Ejy'istles of St. John. lect. xii. 
 
 A. D. Christ, we must allow some years to have elapsed 
 96 — lOO.befQi-e the opening of St. John's Gospel would have 
 been intellisible to his readers. 
 
 The same difference of opinion, which exists con- 
 cerning the date of St. John's Gospel, may be met 
 with also concerning his Epistles ; and I shall only 
 observe, that the allusions, which they contain to 
 the doctrines of the Docetse, seem rather to confirm 
 the notion that they were not written till toward 
 the end of the century. A tradition preserved by 
 Irenaeus, and which he had heard from Polycarp, 
 represents St. John as having come personally in 
 contact with Cerinthus^. A writer, who lived 
 about a century after the death of the apostle, had 
 heard of his restoring a person to life at Ephesus>' : 
 and a story is recorded by Jerom, which we might 
 wish to believe from its natural and affecting sim- 
 plicity, that the venerable apostle was at length so 
 weakened by age, that his disciples were obliged to 
 carry him to the religious meetings of the Chris- 
 tians : and when even his voice failed him, he con- 
 tinued to address them with what might be called 
 his dying words, " My dear children, love one an- 
 " other." These details may be excused concerning 
 the last of the apostles : and it is singular, that the 
 time of his death, which forms the termination of 
 the apostolic age, coincides very nearly with the 
 end of the first century. It is twice stated by Ire- 
 naeus, that St. John lived to the time of Trajan^: 
 and we can hardly doubt that in making this asser- 
 tion he followed the authority of Polycarp. Trajan 
 
 ^ See note n, p. 363. z II. 22, 5. p. 148. III. 3, 4. 
 
 > Apolloniiis apud Eus. V. p. 1 78. 
 18. 
 
LECT. XII. Nerva. 377 
 
 beffan his reign in the year 98 : and the words of A. D. 
 Irenseus would rather lead us to infer, that St. John;^^2I__ 
 did not live long after the beginning of it. The 
 accounts of later writers represent him as dying at 
 the age of one hundred, or a little more. 
 
 There is good reason to hope, that the few last 
 years of his life were spent in comparative peace, 
 without molestation from his heathen adversaries. 
 I have already mentioned that an edict of Nerva 
 allowed all exiles to return to their homes : and the 
 writer, who tells us this, expressly adds, that no per- 
 son was allowed to be charged with irreligion as a 
 crime, or of adopting Judaism^; and this, as I lately 
 observed, can only be taken as referring to the pro- 
 fession of Christianity. The reign of Nerva lasted 
 from the September of 96 to the January of 98 : and 
 though we know nothing of the affairs of the Chris- 
 tians in this short period, we may hope that under 
 the protection of the above-mentioned edict, they 
 escaped persecution, and their numbers continued 
 to increase. It is pleasing to end the ecclesiastical 
 history of the first century with the reign of an em- 
 peror like Nerva. We have no reason to think, that 
 personally he felt any inclination to Christianity : 
 but he probably saw the injustice of punishing men 
 for their opinions ; and having himself been banished 
 by Domitian, before he was taken into his favour, 
 he perhaps felt less inclined to listen to the advice 
 of those, who would have urged him to imitate the 
 tyrant. His edict would naturally lead to the 
 spreading of the gospel in the capital. Persons of 
 rank, such as the widow of Flavins Clemens, would 
 now have no fear of professing their opinions : and 
 a Dio 1. c. 
 
378 Gnosticism. lect. xii. 
 
 A. D. among the evils of the late persecution there would 
 96 — 100. be gui-e to be this benefit, that it purified the faith 
 of those, who still had courage to maintain their 
 sentiments. 
 
 If we seek for the time, when the church of Christ 
 existed in its greatest purity, we must perhaps go 
 back to those its earliest days, when tJie multitude of 
 them that believed were of one heart and of one 
 soul: but we must add with sorrow or with shame, 
 that these delightful days were few, and have never 
 since returned. Still, however, there is much in 
 the ecclesiastical history of the first century, upon 
 which we can look back with pleasure : and those 
 persons have either not studied, or have wilfully 
 perverted the documents which have come down to 
 us, who represent the faith of these primitive Chris- 
 tians as unsettled, or as differing from our own. I 
 have often spoken of the Gnostic philosophy, as a 
 dangerous enemy to the gospel. In the second cen- 
 tury the evil was widely and fatally experienced. I 
 have conjectured also, (and upon the authority of 
 the New Testament itself,) that it was beginning to 
 be felt, before the first century was closed : but I 
 should infer, that it was late in the first century, be- 
 fore this was the case. While the apostles were 
 alive, and particularly St. Paul, they made it their 
 great object to save their converts from this fatal con- 
 tagion ; and their unremitting exertion appears to 
 have kept it off for a considerable time. But even 
 while St. Paul was alive, we can find indications of 
 its ravages in the neighbourhood of Ephesus : and 
 we may suppose, what would be the consequence, 
 when the apostles one by one were removed from 
 their earthly labours. St. John, as I have often 
 
LECT. XII. Heresies. 379 
 
 mentioned, was the last who survived ; and it is 
 singular, that we find him ending his days in the 
 same place, which had been the longest residence of 
 St. Paul, and guarding his flock from the same evil, 
 which St. Paul had combated thirty years before. 
 I have little doubt, that this will lead us to the true 
 reason, why St. John fixed upon Ephesus as his re- 
 sidence in the latter years of his life. He felt it his 
 duty to fix himself in that spot, where his presence 
 was most needed : and though the Asiatic churches 
 were partly infected by Gnosticism, we may infer 
 that even in that district the progress of the evil 
 was arrested by the timely presence of St. John. 
 With the exception of the Gnostic errors, there is 
 no evidence of any heresy being introduced into the 
 church in the first century. While the apostles 
 were alive, it was perhaps hardly possible : and 
 though the Fathers have led us into the habit of 
 speaking of the Gnostics as heretics, we must care- 
 fully distinguish between the ancient and modern 
 use of the term heresy. When a Christian adopted 
 the Gnostic notion concerning Christ, he in fact 
 ceased to be a Christian : he perhaps retained the 
 name, but he gave up his hope of a resurrection, 
 and his faith in a Redeemer ; and I conceive that 
 St. John had these cases in view, when he said, that 
 already there were mcmy Antichrists ; and when he 
 added, They went out from us, hut they were not of 
 us : for if they had heeyi of us, they would have 
 continued with us: but they went out, that they 
 might he made manifest, that they were not all of 
 us^. It is therefore very essential to be remem- 
 
 ^ I John ii. 19. 
 
380 Igriatius, Polycarp. lect. xii. 
 
 bered, that ecclesiastical history speaks of no heresy, 
 i. e. of no division of opinion among genuine Chris- 
 tians, in the first century. I am now speaking of 
 matters which concern salvation, or which are held 
 by one party or the other to be necessary for belief. 
 There were doubtless many local customs, and reli- 
 gious ceremonies, which were observed in one coun- 
 try and not in another. The great division of 
 Jewish and Gentile Christians was likely to lead to 
 differences, which nothing perhaps but the presence 
 and authority of the apostles could have kept within 
 bounds. If the Jews had believed, that the Mosaic 
 ceremonies were necessary for salvation, this would 
 have been a heresy in the fullest and worst sense of 
 the term ; and whenever such a notion was started, 
 it was met by the ajjostles with the most decisive 
 opposition. But when the matter was put upon its 
 right footing, and the ceremonies of the Mosaic Law 
 were retained merely as national customs, then there 
 was no rupture of the bond of peace ; and Jews and 
 Gentiles held communion with each other, though 
 the former adhered to practices, which were looked 
 upon by the latter as wholly unnecessary. 
 
 Another pleasing subject of contemplation may 
 be found in the characters of those persons, who 
 were appointed by the apostles to succeed them. 
 The names of many of these apostolical pastors are 
 lost, and of some we know little : but Polycarp, 
 bishop of Smyrna, and Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, 
 were suited, as far as was possible, to repair the loss, 
 which the church sustained in the death of the 
 apostles. They form the connecting link between 
 the first and second centuries ; between the period, 
 when the church was administered by the inspired 
 
LECT. XII. Books of the Old Testament. 381 
 
 companions of Christ, and when it was left to ordi- 
 nary human wisdom, with only the remnant of that 
 miraculous aid, which God still thought fit on some 
 occasions to interpose. Both of these venerable 
 martyrs have left writings behind them ; but they 
 belong to the history of the second century ; and I 
 would again repeat, that beside the writings of the 
 New Testament, the Epistle of Clement is the only 
 genuine production of any Christian writer of the 
 first century. 
 
 With the exception of the writings of St. John, 
 the books of the New Testament were perhaps all in 
 circulation twenty or thirty years before the end of 
 the first century. No Epistle of St. Peter or St. 
 Paul could have been written after the year 68 ; and 
 the Epistle of St. James, who was martyred in 62, 
 must have been composed a few years earlier. The 
 Epistle of St. Jude, as I have already mentioned, 
 may have been written subsequent lo the death of 
 St. Peter and St. Paul ; but there is no reason for 
 placing it much later. The three first gospels were 
 perhaps all composed before the year 62 : and during 
 the last thirty years of the first century, there was 
 abundant time for all these writings to come into 
 general circulation. The quotations, which were 
 made from them by Clement and Ignatius, prove 
 the respect in which they were held : and it is plain, 
 that from the first they were considered to be as 
 much a part of inspired scripture as the books of the 
 Old Testament. Of the writings which I have 
 mentioned, the genuineness of none has been called 
 in question, except the Epistle to the Hebrews, the 
 Epistles of St. James and St. Jude, and the second 
 
382 Canon of the New Testament, lect. xii. 
 
 Epistle of St. Peter. With respect to these, there 
 can be little doubt as to their antiquity, or their 
 having been ascribed to their respective writers as 
 early as the first century : but they were not in such 
 general circulation as the other writings of the 
 apostles, and some doubts were entertained, in dis- 
 tant churches, as to their respective authors. At 
 length, however, they were received in every church, 
 and their genuineness has been proved by the same 
 tests which are applied to the writings of heathen 
 authors. It has been asserted, that what is called 
 the canon of scripture was settled by St, John : but 
 there is no good evidence of this : and the conjec- 
 ture probably rests merely on the fact of St. John 
 having survived all the other apostles*'. We have 
 seen, that all the canonical writings of the New 
 Testament, with the exception of those of St. John 
 himself, were in existence at least thirty years be- 
 fore the end of the first century : and reasons have 
 been given for concluding, that not only the Apo- 
 calypse, but the Gospel and Epistles of St, John, 
 were composed in the latter part of Domitian's reign. 
 We must recollect, that the difficulties, which now 
 attend the settling of the canon of the New Testa- 
 ment, did not exist in those days. The writings of 
 the apostles were circulated, when the apostles were 
 themselves living ; and if a spurious work had been 
 forged in any of their names, the attempt would im- 
 mediately have been exposed. The canon of the 
 New Testament was therefore settled, not by any 
 formal act of the whole body of believers, but by 
 
 b See Griesbach, Hist, textus Semler, Comm. Hist, de antiq. 
 Epist. Pauliti. sect. 2, §. 12. C/irisf. statu, torn. 1.y>- 3S — 39- 
 
LECT. XII. Apocryphal writings. 383 
 
 the notoriety of the drcumstances attending the 
 publication of each book. The history of the se- 
 cond century will bring us acquainted with many 
 spurious works, which were written in the names of 
 some of the apostles. It is possible, that this system 
 of forgery may have begun in the first century ; and 
 the charge has been brought expressly against Simon 
 Magus and his followers ^ : but the apostolical Fa- 
 thers, as they are justly termed, have not mentioned 
 by name any such apocryphal publications ^ : and 
 though some few may have been in existence before 
 the death of St. John, the consideration of them be- 
 longs more properly to the second century, when the 
 rapid progress of Gnosticism gave birth to a nu- 
 merous family of apocryphal gospels. 
 
 I have already observed, that no heresy, (if we 
 use the term in its modern sense,) had arisen in the 
 church before the end of the first century. There 
 was great danger from the specious resemblance, 
 which some of the Gnostic doctrines were made to 
 bear to Christianity : but if a Christian openly pro- 
 fessed any of these doctrines, from that time he 
 ceased to be a Christian. The church is truly stated 
 by Hegesippus •'j who wrote his ecclesiastical history 
 in the second century, " to have continued a virgin 
 " till the time of Trajan :" that is, as Hegesippus 
 himself explains it, " it was not yet corrupted by 
 " vain doctrines :" or according to the comment of 
 Eusebius, who has preserved this passage in his own 
 history, " If there were any before that time, who 
 " endeavoured to corrupt the wholesome rule of the 
 
 c Constit. Apost. VI. 1 6. e Apud Eus. H. E. IV. 22. 
 
 ^ See Jones on the Canon, III. 32. 
 part I. c. 3. 
 
384 Gnostic doctrines a lect. xit. 
 
 " evangelical preaching, they lurked in darkness and 
 " obscurity." 
 
 But though the Gnostic doctrines did not gain 
 ground in the first century among any persons, who 
 were looked upon as true members of the church, 
 the very errors and absurdities of that system may 
 furnish a confirmation of the orthodox belief. The 
 earliest Gnostics, as we have seen, who were called 
 Docetae, believed the body of Jesus to have been a 
 phantom : it was either a mere optical illusion, or, 
 like the apparition of an angel, it was something 
 ethereal and impalpable, which had no connection 
 or affinity with matter. The Docetae must have 
 taken their notion of Jesus from the preaching of 
 the apostles : and this strange perversion of the 
 truth can only be explained by our supposing the 
 apostles to have spoken of Jesus, as a being more 
 than human. So also when other Gnostics, such 
 as the Cerinthians and Ebionites, less wild perhaps 
 though not less erroneous in their Creed, maintained 
 that Jesus and Christ were two separate beings ; 
 that Jesus was born of human parents, but that 
 Christ, an emanation from God, descended upon 
 Jesus, and was vmited to him, at his baptism, who 
 is there that does not recognise in this distorted 
 fable the evangelical narrative of the baptism of 
 Jesus, and the great truths, which the church has 
 always received, of the preexistent divinity and the 
 miraculous conception of Jesus Christ ? One divi- 
 sion of the Ebionites is expressly said to have be- 
 lieved in the miraculous conception * : and this mys- 
 
 f Origen. cont. Cels. V. 6i. p. 733. Eus. H. E. III. 27, p. 
 p. 624, 625. ?'6. 65. p. 628. In 121. 'HheoAoret. HfPr.Fnh. 11. 
 Mat. torn. XVI. 12. vol. III. 1. p. 218, 219. 
 
LECT. XII. confirmation of the Gospel. 385 
 
 terious doctrine perhaps never received a stronger 
 confirmation, than from the fact of its forming a 
 point of disagreement among persons, who were 
 really the greatest enemies to the Christian name. 
 We cannot account for these notions of the Cerin- 
 thians and Ebionites by any other supposition, than 
 its being a matter of public notoriety, that the 
 Christians spoke of their Master as a being, who 
 came down from heaven, and assumed the human 
 nature. The Gnostics would not have used the 
 name of Christ at all, if they had not already found 
 it widely spread : and though their system was em- 
 braced with all its errors by persons, who had not 
 yet heard the truth, we have no difficulty of recog- 
 nising, under the mask of fiction and extravagance, 
 the real doctrines which they perverted, and which 
 have been delivered for ever to the church in the 
 works of the apostles and evangelists. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 C c 
 
INDEX, 
 
 Abgarus, letter of, 327. 
 
 Abilius, 358. 
 
 Acts of Pilate, 32. 35. 
 
 the Apostles, 274. 
 
 tEohs, 77, 374. 
 
 Agabus, 138. 240. 
 
 Agrippa, see Herod. 
 
 • king, 153. 193. 246. 
 
 252. 258.259.280. 287. 290. 
 Agrippina, 258. 265. 
 Albinus, 287. 290. 303. 
 Alexander, 59. 
 Alexandria, 75.132, 293. 299. 
 
 302. 358. 
 Ananias of Damascus, 88, 116. 
 the high priest^ 245. 
 
 250- 251. 259. 
 Ananus, or Annas, 58, 287. 290. 
 Andrew, 328. 
 Anencletus, 322, 
 Angels, 77. 
 
 Annianus, 292. 302. 358. 
 Antichrists, 363. 
 Antioch, 121. 125. 133. 136, 
 
 150. 159. 194. 357. 
 Antipater, 5. 
 Apocalypse, 370. 373. 
 Apocryphal Gospels, 255, 383. 
 Apollonius of Tyana, 127. 207. 
 
 319- 
 Apollos, 198. 210. 
 Apostles, time of their leaving 
 
 Judaea, 146. 
 Apostles' Creedj 337. 
 Appia, 272. 
 Aquila, 1 85. 191 . 202. 228. 230. 
 
 232. 
 Arabia, 89. 1 15. 
 Archelaus, 9. to. 
 
 Archippus, 272. 
 Areopagus, 181. 
 Aretas, 86. 116. 125. 
 Aristarchus,i79. 227. 235. 246. 
 
 253. 260. 269. 
 Aristobulus, 4. 
 Ascetics, 301. 
 Asia Minor, 204. 360. 
 Asiarchs, 205. 
 Atheism, Christians accused of, 
 
 309- 
 Athens, 178, 180. 
 
 Babylon, 297, 318. 
 
 Baptism, 16. 50. 203. 215. 
 
 Barnabas, 44.55. 120. 133. 138. 
 147. 152. 161. 163. 
 
 Epistle of, 164. 342. 
 
 Barsabas, 43. 
 
 Bartholomew, 330. 
 
 Berenice, 260. 
 
 Beroea, 177. 
 
 Bishoprics, 359. 
 
 Bishops, 102. 150. 182. 211. 
 
 Blood, eating of, 156. 
 
 Britain, conversion of, 284. 
 
 Britannicus, 265. 
 I Brothers of our Lord, 42. 104. 
 j 106. 107. 
 
 Burrus, 261. 267. 
 
 Byzantium, 328. 
 ' Caesarea, 3.7. 13. 85. 112. 239. 
 253. 
 
 Caiaphas, 58. 128. 
 
 Caius, 190. 
 
 Caligula, 131. 132. 
 
 Calumnies against the Chris- 
 tians, 309. 
 
 Canon of Scripture, 382. 
 
 Carpocrates, 353. 
 Cerdo, 358. 
 
388 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Cerinthus, 353- 363- 373- 374- 
 
 376. 
 Chalcis, 139. 193. 246. 
 Christ worshipped, 45. 
 Christian, name of, 136. 
 Christians confounded with the 
 
 Jews, 366. 
 Cilicia, 135. 147. 158. 165. 
 Circumcision, 155. 
 Claudia, 286. 
 Claudius, emperor, 139. 141. 
 
 183. 258. _ 
 Claudius Lysias, 249. 
 Clemens, Flavins, 367. 377. 
 Clement, Bishop of Rome, 1 85. 
 
 322. 342. 
 his Epistle, 342. 344. 
 
 38i._ 
 Collections for the poor, 138. 
 
 219. 237. 
 ColossBe,churchof, 1 68, 197.270. 
 Community of goods, 54. 
 Conversion of Saul, 6 1 . 
 Corinth, 177. 183. 186. 190. 
 
 201, 210. 213.216. 225. 229. 
 
 234-. 344- 
 Cornelius, no. 114. 130. 182. 
 
 253; 
 
 Council at Jerusalem, 154. 
 Creed, Apostles', 337. 
 Crescens, 281. 316. 317. 
 Crete, 177. 210. 225. 316. 
 Crispus, 189. 
 Crucifixion, date of, i. 
 Cumanus, 194. 243. 
 Cuspius Fadus, 153. 
 Cyprus, 121. 125. 147. 163. 
 Dalmatia, 316. 
 Damascus, 86. 115. 
 David, descendants of, 340.368. 
 Deaconesses, 212. 
 Deacons, 61. 63. 96. 143. 
 Demas, 316. 
 Dionysius the Areopagite, 1 8 1 , 
 
 283. 
 Docetee, 376. 384. 
 Domitian, 343, 365. 370. 
 Domitilla, 367. 
 Dositheus, 79. 
 
 Drusilla, 252. 
 Easter, 235. 
 
 Ebionites, 347. 351. 353. 373. 
 Edessa, 327. 
 
 Egypt, gospel introduced into, 
 299. 
 
 Jews in, 51. 
 
 Egyptian impostor, 244. 249. 
 
 Elders, 97. 102. 143. 149. 21 1. 
 
 Eleazer, 244. 
 
 Emanations, 77. 
 
 Epaphras, 269. 270. 
 
 Epaphroditus, 273. 
 
 Ephesus, 177. 191. 197. 202. 
 
 204.219.227. 238. 249.270. 
 
 360. 372. 378. 
 Epistle of James, 289. 
 
 John, 362. 376. 
 
 Jude, 334. 
 
 Paul, to Colossians, 
 
 271. 
 
 first, 216. 227. 
 
 second, 227. 
 
 Corinthians, 
 Corinthians, 
 
 271. 
 
 216. 
 
 279. 
 
 -Ephesians, 
 
 - Galatians, 
 
 - Hebrews, 
 
 - Philemon, 
 
 271. 
 
 2 73- 
 
 229. 231. 234. 289. 
 
 Philippians, 
 Romans, 
 
 nians, first, 188. 
 
 nians, second, 190. 
 
 first, 226. 
 
 second, 315. 
 
 Thessalo- 
 Thessalo- 
 Timothy, 
 Timothy, 
 
 -Titus, 2 12. 
 Epistles of Peter, 298. 3 1 8. 334. 
 Erastus, 3 14. 
 Essenes, 21. 300. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Ethiopia, 83. 
 Eubulus, 3 1 4. 
 Eunuch, Ethiopian, 82. 
 Ev'arestus, 346. 356, 
 Evodius, 196. 357. 
 Exorcists, 207. 
 False Christs, 1 9. 244. 
 Famine in Judtea, 138. 142. 
 
 T58. 191. 
 Felix, 194. 243. 245. 251. 252. 
 
 259. 264. 
 Festus, 252.259.263.280.287. 
 Florus, Gessius, 303. 
 France, gospel introduced into, 
 
 281. 317. 
 Galatia, 167. 216. 231.3 16.3 17. 
 Galilaean, 137. 
 Galilee, 9. 93. 131. 258. 
 Gallio, 187. 190. 268. 
 Gallus, Cestius, 305. 
 Gamaliel, 56. 59. 67. 69. 
 Gaul, gospel introduced into, 
 
 281. 317. 
 Gentile converts, no 1 1 4. 1 1 8. 
 
 126. 148. 150. 154. 
 Gift of tongues, 46. 54. 
 Gifts, miraculous, 81. 98. 204. 
 
 240. 
 Gnosticism, 75. 176. 206. 211, 
 
 213. 214. 223. 226. 233.238. 
 
 271.289.310.311.313.334. 
 
 35i;362.373.378._ 
 Gnostics confoundedwith Chris- 
 tians, 3 I o. 
 Gospel, progress of the, 52. 73. 
 
 335- 
 Gospels, order of the, 254. 
 Grecians, 63. 
 Helena, 142. 
 Helius, 315. 
 Heresy, 137. 379. 
 Hermas, 342. 
 Herod Agrippa, 131. 13 2. 138. 
 
 141. 
 ■ Antipas, 9. 87. 125. 
 
 131. 369. 
 
 king of Chalcis, 139. 
 
 ^53- '93; _ 
 
 Philip, 9. 131. 
 
 Herod the Great, 5. 
 Herodias, 131. 
 Hierapolis, 168. 197. 331. 
 High priests, appointment of 
 the, 10. 129. 139. 153. 193. 
 
 245- 259- 
 Hyrcanus, 4. 
 Ignatius, 197. 357. 380. 
 Illyria, 229. 
 India, 325. 330. 
 Inspiration, 241. 256. 
 Intolerance of the Romans, 171. 
 Ishmael, 246. 259. 
 Izates, 142. 
 James, bishop of Jerusalem, 1 00. 
 
 120. 123.143.155.246.287. 
 
 son of Alphaeus, 105.333. 
 
 Zebedee, 140. 
 
 Jason, 179. 
 Jerusalem, church of, 103. 191. 
 243. 280. 287. 
 
 siege and taking of. 
 
 by Titus, 305. 346. 
 
 taken by Herod, 5. 
 
 ■Pompey,4. 
 
 Jesus, popularity of, 14. 27.57. 
 son of Damnaeus, 290. 
 
 Jewish war, 12. 19. 289. 303. 
 Jews in Alexandria, 76. 132, 
 
 375- 
 
 Antioch, 126. 357. 
 
 Rome, 9. 12. 35. 5 T. 
 
 172. 183. 230. 262. 
 — numbers of, every where. 
 
 5^- 
 John, surnamed Mark, 144. 148. 
 
 162. 275. 292. 
 the Baptist, 13. 87. 198. 
 
 203. 
 
 ■Evangelist, 153.361. 
 Gospel of, 
 
 373 
 
 Jonathan, 129. 130. 245, 
 Joseph of Arimathea, 286. 
 Josephus, 199. 
 Judas of Galilee, 11. 14. 153. 
 Jude the Apostle, 106. 333. 
 
 368. 
 Justin Martyr, 232. 
 
390 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Laodicea, i68. 197. 270. 360. 
 
 Lazarus, 147. 282. 
 
 Linus, 277. 314. 321. 
 
 Logos, 373. 375, 
 
 Lord's day, 237. 
 
 Luke, 42. 53. 92. 1 1 1. 169. 173. 
 
 179, 188. 213. 227. 236. 237. 
 
 246. 253. 260. 274. 281.314. 
 
 317- 
 
 Gospel of, 253. 257. 297. 
 
 Macedonia, 170. 179. 188, 213. 
 
 226. 236. 
 Magic^ 78. 207. 309. 
 Malta, 260. 
 
 JMamertine prisons, 317. 319- 
 Manes or Manicheeus, 78. 
 Mark, see John. 
 the Evangelist, 292. 299. 
 
 302. 
 
 Gospel of, 296. 
 Marriage, 214. 
 Marsus, 136. 139. 
 Mary Magdalen, 282. 
 
 the Virgin, 104. 361, 
 
 Matthew, 329. 
 
 Gospel of, 304. 330. 
 
 Matthias, 43. 333. 
 Menander, 352. 
 Milan, church of, 163. 312. 
 Miracles, 17. 20. 53. 80. 168. 
 Miraculous gifts, 81. 98. 204. 
 
 240. 358. 
 Monachism, 301. 
 Narbonne, 282. 
 Narcissus, 266. 
 Nazarene, 136. 348. 
 Nazarenes, 347. 354. 
 Nerva, 371. 377. 
 Nero, 252. 258. 265. 268. 307. 
 
 315- 321- 
 New Testament, books of the, 
 
 381. 
 Nicolaitans, 364. 369. 372. 
 Nicolas the deacon, 65. 364. 
 Nicopolis, 212. 
 Onesimus, 271. 
 Onesiphorus, 3i7' 
 Pallas, 243. 252. 
 Papias, 331. 
 
 Parishes, 359. 
 
 Paul a prisoner atC8esarea,253. 
 - Rome, 261. 
 
 306. 313. 
 
 — a tent maker, 1 74. 
 
 — conversion of, 61. 88. 
 journey of, first, 147. 
 
 second, 162. 
 
 third, 197. 
 
 — to Spain, 278. 
 
 280. 
 
 martyrdom of, 320. 
 
 Pella, 305. 341. 346. 353. 
 Pentecost, day of, 45. 
 Persecution by Domitian, 365. 
 
 371- 
 
 Nero, 307.31 2. 
 
 321. 
 Saul, 72. 91. 
 
 causes of, 307. 
 
 365. 
 Pergamos, 369. 
 Peter, 48, 94. 109. 117. 141. 
 
 153- 155- 294- 
 
 at Antioch, 119. 127. 
 
 143. 160. 195. 
 
 Rome, 143. 229. 275. 
 
 294. 317. 
 
 martyrdom of, 320. 
 
 Petronius, 132. 136. 
 Pharisees, 29. 58. 251. 
 Philemon, 271. 272. 
 Philip, Herod, 9. 131. 
 the apostle, 283. 285. 
 
 ;3i- 
 
 deacon, 74. 85. 1 13. 
 
 239- 253- 332. 
 Philippi, 170. 174. 235. 254. 
 
 273- 
 Philo Judseus, 153. 296. 
 Phoenicia, 1 24. 
 Phrygia, 168. 197. 
 Platonists, 76. 
 Pleroma, 78. 
 Polycarp, 360. 372, 380. 
 Pompey, 4. 86. 
 Pomponia Gryecina, 266. 
 Pontius Pilate, 13. 31. 57. 128. 
 Poppaea Sabina, 267. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 391 
 
 Presbyters, 97. 102. 
 President of Syria, 125. 128. 
 
 131- 
 Proculus, 315- 
 Procurator of Judaea, 3. 10. 12. 
 
 125. 153- 
 Prophet, 164. 
 Proselytes, 1 1 1 . 
 Publius, 261. 
 Pudens, 314. 
 Puteoli, 261. 
 
 Quadratus, 194. 243. 245. 252. 
 Quirinius, 1 1 . 
 Resurrection, 30. 36. 58. 63. 
 
 2 14. 
 Rome, burning of, 306. 
 church at, 229. 276. 
 
 294. 322. 339. 
 Rufus, 51. 230. 
 Sadducees, 30. 58. 63. 130. 
 
 25^- 
 Samaria, 6. 9. 39. 74. 84. 94. 
 Samuel, 68. 
 
 Sanhedrim, 29. 36. 56. 62. 
 Saul, called Paul, 149. 
 
 early history of, 68. 
 
 in Antioch, 138. 144. 150. 
 
 194. 
 
 Arabia, 89. 115. 117. 
 
 Damascus, 89. 115. 
 
 Sejanus, 2. 12. 36. 
 
 Seneca, 187. 267. 
 
 Sergius Paulus, 147. 
 
 Seventy disciples, 40. 42. 
 
 Sicarii, 19. 244. 
 
 Silas, 158. 164. 171. 174. 177. 
 
 T78. 188. 191. 197. 298. 
 Simon Magus, 75. 78. 176. 185. 
 
 206. 231. 270, 289. 294. 
 
 312. 318. 352. 364. 383. 
 
 of Cyrene, 51. 230. 
 
 the Cananite, 333. 
 
 Smyrna, 372. 
 
 Sosthenes, 189. 
 
 Spain, gospel introduced into, 
 
 140. 148. 278. 280. 312. 
 Stephanas, 188. 
 Stephen, 6(>. 
 
 Sunday, 237. 
 Symeon, 59. 
 
 bishop of Jerusalem, 
 
 290. 341. 357. 
 Synagogues, 66. 
 Syria, 135. 
 
 presidents of, 3 . 1 2 5 . 128. 
 
 Syriac Version, 328. 
 Tabernacles, feast of, 62. 66. 
 Tacitus, 307. 311. 
 Tarsus, 68. 123. 134. 
 Temple, 40. 47. 249. 
 Thaddseus, 327. 
 Thebuthis, 291. 
 Thecla, 148. 
 Theophilus, 256. 
 
 - high priest, 130. 
 
 Therapeutae, 22. 300. 
 Thessalonica, 174. 
 Theudas, 14. 153. 
 Thomas, 325. 
 Tiberius, i. 12. 32. 
 
 Alexander, 153. 193. 
 
 Timothy, 165. 173. 179. li 
 
 191. 197. 216. 222. 227. 
 
 235- 238. 247. 270. 279. 
 
 314. 315. 360. 
 Titus, 152. 154. 166. 210. 225. 
 
 227, 314. 316. 
 emperor, 339. 
 
 Torpetes, 266. 
 
 Tower of Antonia, 249. 
 
 Trachonitis, 6. 258. 
 
 Trajan, 376. 
 
 Tribute, Jewish, 4. 10. 11. 14. 
 
 Troas, 169. 225. 236. 237. 
 
 Trophimus, 247. 249. 253. 282. 
 
 3H- 
 Tychicus, 270. 271. 314. 
 Tyre, 239. 
 Valerius Gratus, 13. 
 Varus, 10. 
 Vespasian, 339. 340. 
 Vitellius, 125. 128. 130. 132. 
 Vow, 248. 
 
 Zacchseus, 44. 182. 185. 
 Zealots, 1 1 . 
 
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