the beams of divine joy and comfort from the he saw, that all his prisoners were escaped, souls of pious men. Their minds were all he was going to put a period to his life, which serenity; and at midnight they prayed, and being observed by Paul, he hastily called sung praises to God so loud, that they were out, Do thyself no harm, for we are all heard in every part of the prison. Nor here." The keeper was as much surprised were their prayers offered to the throne of at this as he had been before terrified at the grace in vain an earthquake shook the thoughts of their escape, and calling for a foundations of the prison, opened the doors, light, he went immediately into the presence loosed the chains, and set the prisoners at of Paul and Silas, fell down at their feet, liberty. took them from the dungeon, brought them This convulsion of nature roused the jailer to his own house, washed their stripes, and from his sleep; and concluding, from what then besought them to instruct him in the knowledge of that God who was so mighty to save. Paul readily granted his request, telling him, that if he believed in Jesus Christ, he and his whole house might be saved. Accordingly, the jailer, with all his family, were, after a competent instruction, baptized, and received as members of the Christian church. How happy a change does the doctrine of the gospel make in the minds of men! How does it smooth the roughest tempers, and instil in their minds the sweetest principles of civility and goodnature! He, who but a few moments before tyrannized over Paul and Silas with the most cruel usage, now treated them with the greatest respect, and showed them the highest marks of kindness. Early the next morning the magistrates (either having heard what had happened, or reflecting on what they had done as too harsh and unjustifiable) sent their sergeant to the jailer, with orders immediately to discharge Paul and Silas. The jailer joyfully deliv ered the message, and bade them depart in peace; but Paul, in order to make the magistrates sensible what injury they had done them, and how unjustly they had punished deliver him up to an incensed multitude. them without examination or trial, refused But in this they were disappointed, he with to accept of their discharge, alleging, "that they were not only innocent persons, but denizens of Rome; that, as they had been illegally scourged and committed to prison, their delivery should be as public as was the injury, and attended with a solemn retraction of what they had done.” his companions being removed thence by the Christians, and concealed in some other part of the city. This disappointment increased their rage, and they determined to be revenged on Jason, who had concealed them. Accordingly they seized him, with some others of the brethren, and carried them before the The magistrates were greatly terrified at magistrates of the city, accused them with this message, well knowing how dangerous it disturbing the peace of the empire, and was to provoke the formidable power of the setting up Jesus as a king, in derogation of Romans, who never suffered any freeman to the emperor's dignity and authority. In be beaten uncondemned. They therefore consequence of this accusation, both the went to the prison, and very submissively people and magistrates became their enemies ; entreated them to depart without any further and though Jason was only accused of hardisturbance. This small recompense for the cruel usage they had received was accepted by the meek followers of the blessed Jesus: they accordingly left the prison, and retired to the house of Lydia, in which were a great number of converts. To those they related all that had passed, and after some conference with them, they took their leave and departed. boring Paul and his companions, yet the magistrates could not be prevailed on to dismiss Jason and his brethren till they had given security for their future appearance. As soon as the tumult was over, those Thessalonians who had been converted sent away Paul and his companions, by night, to Beræa, a city about fifty miles to the south of Thessalonica. Here also Paul's great From Philippi, Paul and his companions love for his countrymen the Jews, and his travelled toward the west, till they arrived at earnest wishes for their salvation, excited him Thessalonica,* the metropolis of Macedonia, to preach to them in particular. Accordingly, Here Paul preached in the synagogues of he entered into their synagogue, and exthe Jews three sabbath days successively, proving, from the predictions of the Old Testament, that the Messiah was to suffer, and to rise again; and that the blessed Jesus was the Messiah spoken of by the prophets. Some of his hearers, among whom were several women of rank and quality, kelieved, and were converted to the faith, out the greater part of the Jews disapproved of his doctrine. plained the gospel to them, proving, from the scriptures of the Old Testament, the truth of the doctrine he advanced. The Jews here were of a more ingenuous and candid temper than those of Thessalonica; and as they heard him, with great reverence and attention, expound the Scriptures, so they searched diligently, whether his proofs were proper and pertinent, and consonant to the sense of the text to which he referred. During their stay at Thessalonica, they Having done this, and found every thing lodged in the house of a certain Christian agreeable to what Paul had advanced, many named Jason, who entertained them very of them believed; and some Gentiles (among courteously. But the Jews, in general, whom were several women of quality) followwere so incensed against them, that they ing their example, became obedient to the would not suffer them to continue at rest. faith. The news of this remarkable success They refused to embrace the gospel them- being carried to Thessalonica, the Jews of selves, and therefore envied its success, and that place were so incensed, that great numdetermined to oppose its progress. Accord-bers of them went to Berea, and raised ingly they gathered together a great number of lewd and wicked people, who beset the house of Jason, intending to take Paul, and * Thessalonica was anciently called Thesma, from the sea to which it adjoins. It is the opinion of some that it received the latter name in memory of the victory which Philip King of Macedon obtained over the Thessalonians; but tumults in that city; in consequence of which Paul, to avoid their fury, was obliged to leave the place, but Silas and Timothy, who, others think it took its name from Thessalonica, the wife of Cassander, and daughter of Philip. It is at present called Salonichi, has a safe harbor for the benefit of commerce, and is an archbishop's see of the Grecian church. them, that they had an altar inscribed, “to the unknown God."† These superstitious practices greatly af flicted Paul, in consequence of which he lic places, without names on them, and others to unknown gods, is evident from the testimony of Laertlus, who informs us that when a great plague raged at Athens, and several means had been attempted for the removal of it, they were advised by Epimedes, the philosopher, to build an altar, and dedicate it to the proper and peculiar god to whom sacrifices were due; and the Athenians, not knowing by what name to call † That the Athenians had altars in their pub-him, erected an altar with this inscription: "To * Athens was once the most celebrated city for learning of any in the world. It was situated on a gulf of the Ægean Sea, which comes up to the isthmus of the Peloponnese, or Morea, in that district of Grecce called Attica, and was the parent of that dialect which was esteemed the purest and finest Greek. Cicero calls it the fountain whence civility, learning, and laws were derived to other nations. exerted all his endeavors to convert the peo- | common parent; and in the course of his ple. He disputed on the sabbath day in the providence he has so ordered it, that either synagogues of the Jews; and at other times by nature or revelation we should use such took all opportunities of preaching to the Athenians the coming of the Messiah to save the world. This doctrine was equally new and strange to the Athenians; and though they did not persecute Paul as the Jews had done, yet his preaching Jesus was considered, by the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, as a fabulous legend. The generality of the people, however, considered it as a discovery of some new gods, which they had not yet placed in their temples; and though they were not unwilling to receive any new deities, yet, as the Areopagus† was to judge of all gods, to whom public worship might be allowed, they took him before the members of that court to give an account of his doctrine. Paul, being placed before the judges of this high assembly, explained the nature of the doctrine he taught in a very grave and elegant speech, the substance of which was to this effect: "Ye men of Athens, I am here brought as a prisoner into your supreme tribunal, as one who sets forth strange doctrines; and yet, from the observations I have made since I arrived in your city, I find you so much attached to superstition, that you know not what you worship, nay, that you even have such a number of idols, that you cannot find names for them; for one of your altars has upon it an inscription to the unknown God. That the true God of heaven and earth is, in a great measure, unknown to you is very evident, and that is the Being whose works I now publish to you. By him was all nature created; and as he fills immensity with his presence, so he cannot be circumscribed by temples made with hands. Our worship, as men, can add nothing to his perfections; for all we have, and all we enjoy, is the unmerited gift of his inexhaustible bounty. When he created us out of nothing, he appointed that we should consider ourselves as children of the same the gods of Asia, Europe, and Africa, to the strange and unknown god;" by which, as some imagine, they intended the God of the Jews, who had given such wonderful deliverances to his own people. * The Epicureans among the Greeks and Romans were much the same as the Sadducees among the Jews; for both denied a divine providence and a future state. means as may, in the end, lead us to the knowledge of himself, and promote our eternal happiness, for he is everywhere present, and none of our thoughts can be hidden from him. Nay, be not surprised, for one of your own poets has expressly declared, that we are the offspring of the Supreme Being, and therefore, we are not to form carnal notions of his perfection, as if he could be represented in a human shape. It is true, God, in his infinite mercy, drew a veil over those ages of ignorance; but now he hath made his will known, and, therefore, those who have been long slaves to their lusts and passions are commanded to turn from the evil of their ways, in order to obtain the divine favor. And this is the more necessary, because he hath fixed, by an unalterable decree, that when the universal frame of nature shall be dissolved, he will raise mankind from the grave, and reward or punish them according to their works here below. As a proof of this he has already raised up Christ from the dead, and, as he has become the first-fruits of those who still sleep, so he has ordered that by him all mankind shall be judged. Such is the doctrine I deliver unto you, and I leave you to judge whether or not I have acted as an imposter." That part of Paul's discourse in which he mentioned the resurrection gave great offence to some of the philosophers, who mocked and derided him; while others, more modest, but not satisfied with the proofs he had given, gravely said, "We would hear thee again of this matter." After this, Paul left the court, but not without some success, for a few of his auditors (among whom were Dionysius, one of the senators, and Damaris, a lady of considerable rank) believed his doctrine, and attended his instructions. Thus boldly did this intrepid servant and soldier of Jesus Christ assert the cause of his divine Master among the great, the wise, and the learned; and thus did he reason, with the †The Areopagus was a celebrated court or senate, where justice was administered to all ranks' of people by judges learned in the law. It was situated on Mars' hill, an eminence without the city, and many of the inhabitants of Athens spent much of their time in it, disputing with each other on speculative points, and asking news concerning the progress of the Roman arms in different parts of the world. most distinguished strength and eloquence, Rome. Paul, having instructed these two on the nature of God, and the manner in which he has commanded his creatures to worship him even in spirit and in truth. During Paul's stay at Athens, Timothy and Silas (according to the orders they had received) came to him from Thessalonica, with an account that the Christians there had been under persecution from their fellowcitizens ever since his departure. This gave great uneasiness to Paul, and at first inclined him to visit them in person, in order to confirm them in the faith they had embraced. But reflecting on the consequences that might ensue if he went himself, he sent Timothy and Silas to comfort them, and put them in mind of what he had before told them, namely, that persecution would be the constant attendant on their profession. After the departure of Timothy and Silas, Paul left Athens, and went to Corinth, where he met with a certain Jew, named Aquila, lately come from Italy, with Priscilla his wife, because Claudius had made an edict for banishing all the Jews from in the Christian faith, took up his lodgings with them (and made their house his principal place of residence) during his stay at Corinth. Every Sabbath day he preached in the synagogues, laboring to convince both Jews and Greeks that Jesus was the true Messiah. A short time after Paul had been at Corinth, Timothy and Silas arrived thither from Thessalonica, with the joyful news of the steadfast adherence of the Christians in that city to the truth of the gospel. This was a matter of great consolation to Paul, who thereupon wrote his first epistle to the Thessalonians. In this epistle he highly applauds their courage and zeal in the belief of the Christian religion, and exhorts them to a noble constancy and perseverance amidst their afflictions: he commends them for their charity to the believers in Macedonia, and gives them many instructions concerning conversation, and leading a good life: he exhorts them to the practice of all purity and holiness; to avoid idleness; to ticoes. : * The large and wealthy city of Corinth was for philosophy or science; but its wealth attractthe metropolis of Achaia, and situated upon the ed to it the arts, which assisted to enrich and agisthmus of the same name, which joins the Pelo-grandize it, till it became one of the very finest Its situation was cities in all Greece. The Corinthian order of ponnesus to the continent. highly favorable for that commerce which ulti-architecture took its name from that rich and mately rendered it one of the most wealthy and flowery style which prevailed in its sumptuous luxurious cities of the world. For, being be- edifices, its temples, palaces, theatres, and portween two ports, the one of which was open to the eastern and the other to the western navigator, while its geographical situation placed it, as it were, in the centre of the civilized world, it became the point where the merchants from the three quarters of the globe met and exchanged their treasures. It was also celebrated for the Isthmian games, to which the apostle makes some striking and remarkably appropriate allusion, in his Epistles to the Corinthians. Nor should it be unnoticed that in the centre of the city there stood a famous temple of Venus in which a thousand priestesses of the goddess ministered to licentiousness, under the patronage of religion. From such various causes, Corinth had an influx of foreigners of all descriptions, who carried the rich es and the vices of all nations into a city in which the merchant, the warrior, and the seaman could enjoy them for his money. Devoted to traffic, and to the enjoyment of the wealth which that traffic secured, the Corinthians were exempt from the influence of that thirst for conquest and military glory by which their neighbors were actuated; hence they were seldom engaged in any war, except for the defence of their country, or in behalf of the liberties of Greece: yet Corinth furnished many brave and experienced commanders to other Grecian States, among whom it was common to prefer a Corinthian general to one of their own or any other State. As might be expected, Corinth was not remarkably distinguished The Corinthians having ill-treated the Roman ambassadors, their city fell a prey to the Romans, with all its treasures and works of art, and was totally destroyed by Mummius. It lay a long while desolate, till it was rebuilt by Julius Cæsar, by whom it was peopled with a colony of Romans; and, favored by its admirable situation, it was soon restored to a most flourishing condition. "The ancient manners," says Hug, abundantly returned: Acro-Corinth was again the Isthmian Dione, and an intemperate life was commonly called the Corinthian mode of life. Among all the cities that ever existed this was accounted the most voluptuous; and the satirist could only jocularly seem to be at a loss whether, in this respect, he should give the preference to Corinth or to Athens." Corinth still exists as an inhabited town, under the name of Corantho. It is a long, straggling place, which is well paved, and can boast of "some tolerably good buildings, with a castle of some strength, which is kept in a good state of defence. There are still some considerable ruins, to attest the ancient consequence of Corinth, and the taste and elegance of its public buildings. The extensive view from the summit of the high mountain which commands the town, and which was the Acropolis (Acro-Corinth) of the ancient city, is pronounced by travellers to be one of the finest in the world. |