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"governor of Syrla" being used after the name of Cyrenius as his addition or title. And this title belonging to him at the time of writing the account, was naturally enough subjoined to his name, though acquired after the transaction which the account describes. A modern writer who was not very exact in the choice of his expressions, in relating the affairs of the East Indies, might easily say, that such a thing was done by Governor Hastings; though, in truth, the thing had been done by him before his advancement to the station from which he received the name of governor. And this, as we contend, is precisely the inaccuracy which has produced the difficulty in Saint Luke.

III. Acts v. 36. "For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered and brought to nought."

Josephus has preserved the account of an impostor of the name of Theudas, who created some disturbances, and was slain; but according to the date assigned to this man's appearance (in which, however, it is very possible that Josephus may have been mistaken, *) it must have been, at least, seven years after Gamaliel's speech, of which this text is a part, was delivered. It has been replied to the objection, that there might be two impostors At any rate, it appears from the form of the of this name: and it has been observed, in order expression, that he had two taxings or enrolments to give a general probability to the solution, that in contemplation. And if Cyrenius had been the same thing appears to have happened in other sent upon this business into Judea, before he be-instances of the same kind. It is proved from Jocame governor of Syria (against which supposi-sephus, that there were not fewer than four pertion there is no proof, but rather external evidence of an enrolment going on about this time under some person or other,*) then the census, on all hands acknowledged to have been made by him in the beginning of his government, would form a second, so as to occasion the other to be called the first.

II. Another chronological objection arises upon a date assigned in the beginning of the third chapter of Saint Luke.t "Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar,"-Jesus began to be about thirty years of age: for, supposing Jesus to have been born, as Saint Matthew, and Saint Luke also himself, relate, in the time of Herod, he must, according to the dates given in Josephus and by the Roman historians, have been at least thirty-one years of age in the fifteenth year of Tiberius. If he was born, as Saint Matthew's narrative intimates, one or two years before Herod's death, he would have been thirty-two or thirty-three years old at that time.

This is the difficulty: the solution turns upon an alteration in the construction of the Greek. Saint Luke's words in the original are allowed, by the general opinion of learned men, to signify, not "that Jesus began to be about thirty years of age," but "that he was about thirty years of age when he began his ministry." This construction being admitted, the adverb "about" gives us all the latitude we want, and more, especially when applied, as it is in the present instance, to a decimal number; for such numbers, even without this qualifying addition, are often used in a laxer sense, than is here contended for.

before," which it has been strongly contended that the Greek idiom allows of, the whole difficulty vanishes: for then the passage would be,-" Now this taxing was made before Cyrenius was governor of Syria:" which corresponds with the chronology. But I rather choose to argue, that however the word "first" be rendered, to give it a meaning at all, it militates with the objection. In this I think there can be no mistake.

*Josephus (Antiq. xvii. c. 2. sect. 6.) has this remarkable passage: "When therefore the whole Jewish nation took an oath to be faithful to Cæsar, and the interests of the king." This transaction corresponds in the course of the history with the time of Christ's birth. What is called a census, and which we render taxing, was delivering upon oath an account of their property. This might be accompanied with an oath of delity, or might be mistaken by Josephus for it. † Lardner, pårt i. vol. ii. p. 76,

I Livy, speaking of the peace which the conduct of Romulus had procured to the state, during the whole 2 Y

sons of the name of Simon within forty years, and not fewer than three of the name of Judas within ten years, who were all leaders of insurrections: and it is likewise recorded by the historian, that, upon the death of Herod the Great, (which agrees very well with the time of the commotion referred to by Gamaliel, and with his manner of stating that time, "before these days,") there were innumerable disturbances in Judea. Archbishop Usher was of opinion, that one of the three Judases above-mentioned was Gamaliel's Theudas; § and that with a less variation of the name than we actually find in the Gospels, where one of the twelve apostles is called, by Luke, Judas; and by Mark, Thaddeus. Origen, however he came at his information, appears to have believed that there was an impostor of the name of Theudas before the nativity of Christ. ¶

IV. Matt. xxiii. 34. " Wherefore, behold I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city; that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, sor of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar."

There is a Zacharias, whose death is related in the second book of Chronicles, ** in a manner which perfectly supports our Saviour's allusion. But this Zacharias was the son of Jehoiada.

There is also Zacharias the prophet; who was

§ Annals, p. 797.

reign of his successor (Numa), has these words;tt--" Ab
illo enim profectis viribus datis tantum valuit, ut, in
quadraginta deinde annos, tutam pacem haberet :" yet
afterward, in the same chapter, "Romulus (he says)
septem et triginta regnavit annos. Numa tres et qua-
draginta."
*Michaelis's Introduction to the New Testament
(Marsh's Translation,) vol. i. p. 61.
↑ Lardner, part i. vol. ii. p. 922.
↑ Antiq. I. xvii. c. 12. sect. 4.
Lake vi. 16. Mark iii. 18.
Orig. cont. Cels. p. 44.
**"And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah, the
son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the
people, and said unto them. Thus saith God, Why
transgress ye the commandments of the Lord, that ye
cannot prosper? Because ye have forsaken the Lord, he
hath also forsaken you. And they conspired against
him, and stoned him with stones, at the commandment of
the king, in the court of the house of the Lord!--2 Chron.
xxiv. 20, 21.

ft Liv. Hist. c. 1. sect. 16.
30*

the son of Barachiah, and is so described in the superscription of his prophecy, but of whose death we have no account.

I have little doubt, but that the first Zacharias was the person spoken of by our Saviour; and that the name of the father has been since added, or changed, by some one, who took it from the title of the prophecy, which happened to be better known to him than the history in the Chroni

cles.

There is likewise a Zacharias, the son of Baruch, related by Josephus to have been slain in the temple a few years before the destruction of Jerusalem. It has been insinuated, that the words put into our Saviour's mouth contain a reference to this transaction, and were composed by some writer, who either confounded the time of the transaction with our Saviour's age, or inadvertently overlooked the anachronism.

are too close and numerous to be accounted for by accidental concurrences of fiction, must necessarily have truth for their foundation.

This argument appeared to my mind of so much value (especially for its assuming nothing beside the existence of the books,) that I have pursued it through Saint Paul's thirteen episties, in a work published by me four years ago, under the title of Hore Pauline, I am sensible how feebly any argument which depends upon an induction of particulars, is represented without examples. On which account, I wished to have abridged my own volume, in the manner in which I have treated Dr. Lardner's in the preceding chapter. But, upon making the attempt, I did not find it in my power to render the articles intelligible by fewer words than I have there used. I must be content, therefore, to refer the reader to the work itself. And I would particularly invite Now suppose it to have been so; suppose these his attention to the observations which are made words to have been suggested by the transaction in it upon the first three epistles. I persuade related in Josephus, and to have been falsely as-myself that he will find the proofs, both of agreecribed to Christ; and observe what extraordinary ment and undesignedness, supplied by these episcoincidences (accidentally, as it must in that case tles, sufficient to support the conclusion which is have been) attend the forger's mistake. there maintained, in favour both of the genuineFirst, that we have a Zacharias in the book ofness of the writings and the truth of the narraChronicles, whose death, and the manner of it, corresponds with the allusion.

tive.

It remains only, in this place, to point out how the argument bears upon the general question of the Christian history.

Secondly, that although the name of this person's father be erroneously put down in the Gospel, yet we have a way of accounting for the error, First, Saint Paul in these letters affirms in by showing another Zacharias in the Jewish unequivocal terms, his own performance of miraScriptures, much better known than the former, cles, and, what ought particularly to be rememwhose patronymic was actually that which ap-bered, "That miracles were the signs of an pears in the text.

Every one who thinks upon this subject, wilt find these to be circumstances which could not have met together in a mistake, which did not proceed from the circumstances themselves.

I have noticed, I think, all the difficulties of this kind. They are few: some of them admit of a clear, others of a probable solution. The reader will compare them with the number, the variety, the closeness, and the satisfactoriness, of the instances which are to be set against them; and he will remember the scantiness, in many cases, of our intelligence, and that difficulties always attend imperfect information.

CHAPTER VII.

Undesigned Coincidences.

apostle."* If this testimony come from Saint Paul's own hand, it is invaluable. And that it does so, the argument before us fixes in my mind a firm assurance.

Secondly, it shows that the series of action represented in the epistles of Saint Paul, was real; which alone lays a foundation for the proposition which forms the subject of the first part of our present work, viz. that the original witnesses of the Christian history devoted themselves to lives of toil, suffering, and danger, in consequence of their belief of the truth of that history, and for the sake of communicating the knowledge of it to others.

Thirdly, it proves that Luke, or whoever was the author of the Acts of the Apostles (for the argument does not depend upon the name of the author, though I know no reason for questioning it,) was well acquainted with Saint Paul's history; and that he probably was, what he professes himself to be, a companion of Saint Paul's travels; which, if true, establishes, in a considerable deBETWEEN the letters which bear the name of gree, the credit even of his Gospel, because it Saint Paul in our collection, and his history in shows, that the writer, from his time, situation, the Acts of the Apostles, there exist many notes and connexions, possessed opportunities of inof correspondency. The simple perusal of the forming himself truly concerning the transactions writings is sufficient to prove, that neither the his- which he relates. I have little difficulty in aptory was taken from the letters, nor the letters plying to the Gospel of Saint Luke what is from the history. And the undesignedness of proved concerning the Acts of the Apostles, conthe agreements (which undesignedness is gather-sidering them as two parts of the same history; ed from their latency, their minuteness, their obliquity, the suitableness of the circumstances in which they consist, to the places in which those circumstances occur, and the circuitous references by which they are traced out) demonstrates that they have not been produced by meditation, or by any fraudulent contrivance. But coincidences, from which these causes are excluded, and which

for, though there are instances of second parts being forgeries, I know none where the second part is genuine, and the first not so.

I will only observe, as a sequel of the argument, though not noticed in my work, the remarkable similitude between the style of Saint John's Gos

Rom. xv. 18, 19. 2 Cor. xii. 12.

pel, and of Saint John's Epistle. The style of the resurrection, no such discussion is necessary, Saint John's is not at all the style of Saint Paul's because no such doubt can be entertained. The Epistles, though both are very singular; nor is it only points which can enter into our consideration the style of Saint James's or of Saint Peter's are, whether the apostles knowingly published a Epistle: but it bears a resemblance to the style of falsehood, or whether they were themselves dethe Gospel inscribed with Saint John's name, so ceived; whether either of these suppositions be far as that resemblance can be expected to appear, possible. The first, I think, is pretty generally which is not in simple narrative, so much as in given up. The nature of the undertaking, and of reflections, and in the representation of discourses. the men; the extreme unlikelihood that such men Writings, so circumstanced, prove themselves, should engage in such a measure as a scheme; and one another, to be genuine. This corres- their personal toils, and dangers, and sufferings, pondency is the more valuable, as the epistle in the cause; their appropriation of their whole itself asserts, in Saint John's manner indeed, but time to the object; the warm, and seemingly unin terms sufficiently explicit, the writer's personal affected, zeal and earnestness with which they knowledge of Christ's history; "That which was profess their sincerity; exempt their memory from from the beginning, which we have heard, which the suspicion of imposture. The solution more we have seen with our eyes, which we have look-deserving of notice, is that which would resolve ed upon, and our hands have handled, of the word the conduct of the apostles into enthusiasm ; of life; that which we have seen and heard, de-which would class the evidence of Christ's resurclare we unto you."* Who would not desire-rection with the numerous stories that are extant who perceives not the value of an account, delivered by a writer so well informed as this?

CHAPTER VIII.

of the apparitions of dead men. There are circumstances in the narrative, as it is preserved in our histories, which destroy this comparison entirely. It was not one person, but many, who saw him; they saw him not only separately but together, not only by night but by day, not at a distance but near, not once but several times; they not only saw him, but touched him, conversed with him, ate with him, examined his person to satisfy their doubts. These particulars are decisive: but they stand, I do admit, upon the credit of our records. I would answer, therefore, the insinuation of enthusiasm, by a circumstance which arises out of the nature of the thing; and the reality of which must be confessed by all who allow, what I believe is not denied, that the resurrection of Christ, whether true or false, was asserted by his disciples from the beginning; and that circumstance is, the non-production of the dead body. It is related in the history, what indeed the story of the resurrection necessarily implies, that the corpse was missing out of the sepulchre: it is related also in the history, that the Jews reported that the followers of Christ had stolon it away. And this account, though loaded with great improbabilities, such as the situation of the disciples, their fears for their own safety at the time, the unlikelihood of their expecting to succeed, the difficulty of actual success,† and the inevitable consequence of detection and failure, was, nevertheless, the most credible account that could be given of the matter. But it proceeds entirely upon the supposition of fraud, as all the old objections did. What account can be given of the body, upon the supposition of enthusiasm? It is impossible our Lord's followers could believe that he was risen from the dead, if his corpse

Of the History of the Resurrection. THE history of the resurrection of Christ is a part of the evidence of Christianity: but I do not know, whether the proper strength of this passage of the Christian history, or wherein its peculiar value, as a head of evidence, consists, be generally understood. It is not that, as a miracle, the resurrection ought to be accounted a more decisive proof of supernatural agency than other miracles are; it is not that, as it stands in the Gospels, it is better attested than some others; it is not, for either of these reasons, that more weight belongs to it than to other miracles, but for the following, viz. That it is completely certain that the apostles of Christ, and the first teachers of Christianity, asserted the fact. And this would have been certain, if the four Gospels had been lost, or never written. Every piece of Scripture recognises the resurrection. Every epistle of every apostle, every author contemporary with the apostles, of the age immediately succeeding the apostles, every writing from that age to the present, genuine or spurious, on the side of Christianity or against it, concur in representing the resurrection of Christ as an article of his history, received without doubt or disagreement by all who call themselves Christians, as alleged from the beginning by the propagators of the institution, and alleged as the centre of their testimony. Nothing, I apprehend, which a man does not himself see or hear, can be more certain to him than this point. I do not mean, that nothing can be more certain than monly reported amongst the Jews until this day," chap. that Christ rose from the dead; but that nothingxxviii. 15. The evangelist may be thought good aucan be more certain, than that his apostles, and thority as to this point, even by those who do not admit the first teachers of Christianity, gave out that he is evidence in every other point: and this point is suf did so. In the other parts of the gospel narrative, into prove that the body was missing. It has been rightly, I think, observed by Dr. Townsa question may be made, whether the things re-hend, (Dis. upon the Res. p. 126,) that the story of the lated of Christ be the very things which the apos-guards carried collusion upon the face of it :- His disties and first teachers of the religion delivered con- ciples came by night and stole him away, while we slept." "Men in their circumstances would not have made crning him? And this question depends a good such an acknowledgment of their negligence, without deal upon the evidence we possess of the genuine-previous assurances of protection and impunity. ness, or rather, perhaps, of the antiquity, credit, and reception, of the books. On the subject of

* Chap. i. ver. 1-3.

And this saving (Saint Matthew writes) is com

"Especially at the full moon, the city full of people, many probably passing the whole night, as Jesus and his disciples had done, in the open air, the sepulchre so near the city as to be now enclosed within the walls." -Priestley on the Resurr. p. 24.

into any order; that it was at this time even understood that a new religion (in the sense which that term conveys to us) was to be set up in the world, or how the professors of that religion were to be distinguished from the rest of mankind. The death of Christ had left, we may suppose, the generality of his disciples in great doubt, both as to what they were to do, and concerning what was to follow.

was lying before them. No enthusiasm ever reached to such a pitch of extravagancy as that: a spirit may be an illusion; a body is a real thing, an object of sense, in which there can be no mistake. All accounts of spectres leave the body in the grave. And, although the body of Christ might be removed by fraud, and for the purposes of fraud, yet, without any such intention, and by sincere but deluded men (which is the representation of the apostolic character we are now exa- This meeting was holden, as we have already mining,) no such attempt could be made. The pre-said, a few days after Christ's ascension: for, ten sence and the absence of the dead body are alike inconsistent with the hypothesis of enthusiasm; for, if present, it must have cured their enthusiasm at once; if absent, fraud, not enthusiasm, must have carried it away.

days after that event was the day of Pentecost, when, as our history relates,* upon a signal display of Divine agency attending the persons of the apostles, there were added to the society "about three thousand souls." But here, it is not, I think, to be taken, that these three thousand were all converted by this single miracle; but rather that many, who before were believers in Christ, became now professors of Christianity; that is to say, when they found that a religion was to be established, a society formed and set up in the name of Christ, governed by his laws, avowing their belief in his mission, united amongst themselves, and separated from the rest of the world by visible distinctions; in pursuance of their former conviction, and by virtue of what they had heard and seen and known of Christ's history, they publicly became members of it.

But farther, if we admit, upon the concurrent testimony of all the histories, so much of the account as states that the religion of Jesus was set up at Jerusalem, and set up with asserting, in the very place in which he had been buried, and a few days after he had been buried, his resurrection out of the grave, it is evident that, if his body could have been found, the Jews would have produced it, as the shortest and completest answer possible to the whole story. The attempt of the apostles could not have survived this refutation a moment. If we also admit, upon the authority of Saint Matthew, that the Jews were advertised of the expectation of Christ's followers, and that they had taken due precaution We read in the fourth chapter of the Acts, in consequence of this notice, and that the body that, soon after this, "the number of the men," was in marked and public custody, the observa- i. e. the society openly professing their belief in tion receives more force still. For, notwithstand- Christ, " was about five thousand." So that here ing their precaution, and although, thus prepared is an increase of two thousand within a very short and forewarned; when the story of the resurrec- time. And it is probable that there were many, tion of Christ came forth, as it immediately did; both now and afterward, who, although they be when it was publicly asserted by his disciples, and lieved in Christ, did not think it necessary to made the ground and basis of their preaching in join themselves to this society; or who waited to his name, and collecting followers to his religion, see what was likely to become of it. Gamaliel the Jews had not the body to produce: but were whose advice to the Jewish council is recorded obliged to meet the testimony of the apostles by an Acts v. 34, appears to have been of this descrip answer, not containing indeed any impossibility tion; perhaps Nicodemus, and perhaps also Join itself, but absolutely inconsistent with the sup-seph of Arimathea. This class of men, their position of their integrity; that is, in other words, inconsistent with the supposition which would resolve their conduct into enthusiasm.

CHAPTER IX.

The Propagation of Christianity.

In this argument, the first consideration is the fact; in what degree, within what time, and to what extent, Christianity was actually propagated.

character and their rank, are likewise pointed out by Saint John, in the twelfth chapter of his Gospel: "Nevertheless, among the chief rulers also, many believed on him: but because of the Pharisees, they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God." Persons, such as these, might admit the miracles of Christ, without being immediately convinced that they were under obligation to make a public profession of Christianity, at the risk of all that was dear to them in life, and even of life itself.§

↑ Ver. 4.

The accounts of the matter, which can be col*Acts ii. I. ↑ Acts ii. 41. lected from our books, are as follow: A few days ed and opposed, Christianity, there were, in all probaBeside those who professed, and those who rejectafter Christ's disappearance out of the world, bility, multitudes between both, neither perfect Chris we find an assembly of disciples at Jerusalem, to tians, nor yet unbelievers. They had a favourable the number of " about one hundred and twenty;" opinion of the Gospel, but worldly considerations made which hundred and twenty were, probably, a lit-them unwilling to own it. There were many circumtle association of believers, met together, not merely as believers in Christ, but as personally connected with the apostles, and with one another. Whatever was the number of believers then in Jerusalem, we have no reason to be surprised that so small a company should assemble: for there is no proof, that the followers of Christ were yet formed into a society; that the society was reduced

*Acts i. 15.

stances which inclined them to think that Christianity was a Divine revelation, but there were many incon veniences which attended the open profession of it: and they could not find in themselves courage enough to bear them, to disoblige their friends and family, to ruin their fortunes, to lose their reputation, their liberty, and their life, for the sake of the new religion. Therefore they were willing to hope, that if they endeavoured to observe the great principles of morality, which Christ had represented as the principal part, the sum and substance, of religion; if they thought honourably of the gospel, if they offered no injury to the Christians, if they did them all the services that they could safely

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Christianity, however, proceeded to increase in Jerusalem by a progress equally rapid with its first success; for, in the next chapter of our history, we read that "believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.' And this enlargement of the new society appears in the first verse of the succeeding chapter, wherein we are told, that, "when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected:"+ and, afterward in the same chapter, it is declared expressly, that "the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and that a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith."

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were at liberty to propose the religion to mankind at large. That "mystery," as Saint Paul calls it,* and as it then was, was revealed to Peter by an especial miracle. It appears to have been about seven years after Christ's ascension, that the Gospel was preached to the Gentiles of Cesarea. A year after this, a great multitude of Gentiles were converted at Antioch in Syria. The expressions employed by the historian are these:-"A great number believed and turned to the Lord;" "much people was added unto the Lord;" "the apostles Barnabas and Paul taught much people." Upon Herod's death, which happened in the next year,§ it is observed, that "the word of God grew and multiplied." Three years from this time, upon This I call the first period in the propagation the preaching of Paul at Iconium, the metropolis of Christianity. It cominences with the ascension of Lycaonia, "a great multitude both of Jews and of Christ, and extends, as may be collected from Greeks believed:" and afterward, in the course incidental notes of time, to something more than of this very progress, he is represented as "making one year after that event. During which term, many disciples" at Derbe, a principal city in the the preaching of Christianity, so far as our docu- same district. Three years** after this, which ments inform us, was confined to the single city brings us to sixteen after the ascension, the aposof Jerusalem. And how did it succeed there? tles wrote a public letter from Jerusalem to the The first assembly which we meet with of Christ's Gentile converts in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia, disciples, and that a few days after his removal with which letter Paul travelled through these from the world, consisted of "one hundred and countries, and found the churches "established in twenty." About a week after this, "three thou- the faith, and increasing in number daily."++ From sand were added in one day ;" and the number of Asia the apostle proceeded into Greece, where Christians, publicly baptized, and publicly asso- soon after his arrival in Macedonia, we find him ciating together, was very soon increased to "five at Thessalonica; in which city, "some of the Jews thousand." Multitudes both of men and wo-believed, and of the devout Greeks a great multimen continued to be added ;"" disciples multiplied tude." We meet also here with an accidental greatly," and "many of the Jewish priesthood, as hint of the general progress of the Christian miswell as others, became obedient to the faith;" and sion, in the exclamation of the tumultuous Jews this within a space of less than two years from of Thessalonica, "that they, who had turned the the commencement of the institution. world upside down, were come thither also."§§ At Berea, the next city at which Paul arrives, the historian, who was present, informs us that "many of the Jews believed." The next year and a half of Saint Paul's ministry was spent at Corinth. Of his success in that city, we receive the following intimations; "that many of the Corinthians believed and were baptized;" and "that it was revealed to the apostle by Christ, that he had much people in that city."¶¶ Within less than a year after his departure from Corinth, and twentyfive*** years after the ascension, Saint Paul fixed his station at Ephesus, for the space of two years+++ and something more. The effect of his ministry in that city and neighbourhood drew from the historian a reflection, how “mightily grew the word of God and prevailed." And at the conclusion of this period, we find Demetrius at the head of a party, who were alarmed by the progress of the religion, complaining, that "not only at Ephesus, but also throughout all Asia (i. e. the province of Lydia, and the country adjoining to Ephesus,) this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people."$$$ Beside these accounts, there occurs, incidentally, mention of converts at Rome, Alexandria, Athens, Cyprus, Cyrene, Macedonia, Philippi.

By reason of a persecution raised against the church at Jerusalem, the converts were driven from that city, and dispersed throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria.§ Wherever they came, they brought their religion with them: for, our historian informs us, that "they, that were scattered abroad, went every where preaching the word." The effect of this preaching comes afterward to be noticed, where the historian is led, in the course of his narrative, to observe, that then i. e. about three years posterior to this,T) "the churches had rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified, and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied." This was the work of the second period, which comprises about four years.

Hitherto the preaching of the Gospel had been confined to Jews, to Jewish proselytes, and to Samaritans. And I cannot forbear from setting down in this place, an observation of Mr. Bryant, which appears to me to be perfectly well founded: -"the Jews still remain: but how seldom is it that we can make a single proselyte! There is reason to think, that there were more converted by the apostles in one day, than have since been won over in the last thousand years."

It was not yet known to the apostles, that they perform, they were willing to hope, that God would accept this, and that He would excuse and forgive the rest."-Jortin's Dis. on the Chris. Rel p. 91. ed. 4. Acts v. 14. † Acts vi. 1.

1 Vide Pearson's Antiq. 1. xviii. c. 7. Benson's History of Christ, book i. p. 148.

112.

Acts viii. 1. | Ver. 4. T Benson, book i. p. 207.
Bryant on the Truth of the Christian Religion, p.)

This is the third period in the propagation of Christianity, setting off in the seventh year after the ascension, and ending at the twenty-eighth. * Eph. iii. 3-6.

↑ Benson's History of Christ, book ii. p. 236.
1 Acts xi. 21, 24, 26. § Benson, book ii. p. 289.
Acts xiv. 1.

| Acts xii. 24.

** Benson, book iii. p. 50.
11 Acts xvii. 4. & Acts xvii. 6.
TT Acts xviii. 8-10.

tt Acts xvi. 5. Acts xvii. 12. *** Benson, book ini. p. 160. § Acts xix. 26.

ttt Acts xix. 10. 111 Acts xix. 20.

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