the ark.

the world exhibited, was the universal assemblage of the inhabitants of the earth and air to Noah when entering Moved by Heaven, they forgot all their antipathies and their discords, and all concurred in avouching Noah as their saviour, and the founder of a new world. This is but a feeble type; yet it is the only one all history affords of this universal suffrage in acknowledging Jesus of Nazareth as God's own Son, and our only Saviour.

These sacred historians, then, had no model which they could imitate; no lesson, nor instructions in their plan from all that had gone before them. Moses himself failed to instruct them. No age, no history, no people set them an example. Their success in this cannot be attributed to any other cause, than to the supernatural qualifications which they possessed, than to the all-creating energies of that Spirit which brought all things to their remembrance, and to that unparalleled character which is the subject of their memoirs.

Touching their own character, too, it may be observed, that they exhibit themselves to be the most artless, the least accomplished, and the most faithful historians that ever wrote. They are the least indebted to human accomplish ments of all writers whose works survived one century and yet they have excelled all others in the essential attri butes of a historian. Their honesty and fidelity constitute the most prominent trait which arrests the reader's attention, whether he thinks of them as men or as biographers They seem always so completely absent to themselves and each other; so regardless of their own reputation; so entirely absorbed in their Master's praise, that they tell their own faults, and expose each other's weaknesses, without ever seeming to think, or to care what opinion the reader would form of them, or of any thing they record. They seem to have no feelings in common with other writers They are so full of facts; so enamoured with the wordsand deeds of their Master, that to record these was all they aimed at, was all they deemed necessary. To conclude, in the words of Doctor Macknight: "Through the whole of their histories, they have not pronounced one encomi um upon Jesus or upon any of his friends; nor thrown out One reflection upon any of his enemics, although much of both kinds might have been, and no doubt would have been done by them, had they been governed either by a spirit of imposture or enthusiasm. Christ's life is not praised by them, his death is not lamented, his friends are not commended, his enemies are not reproached; but every thing is told naked and unadorned, just as it happened.

and all who read are left to judge and make reflections for themselves. So deeply are they impressed with the dignity and importance of their subject."

INTRODUCTION TO THE

ACTS OF APOSTLES.

THIS book has been sometimes titled "The Gospel of the Holy Spirit;" because it is the only book which gives us an account of his descent and splendid operations in the confirmation of the mission of the Apostles. It has also been styled "The Gospel of the Gentiles;" because it is the only source of information on their calling, and fellow. ship with the Jews, in the blessings of the reign of Messiah the Great King. In most of the Greek copies of the New Testament it is called "The Acts or Transactions of the Apostles;" because it exhibits their labors in planting Christianity in the world. This name, however, does not fully comport with the contents of the book. It is not the Acts of the Apostles, but Acts of Apostles; because only a few transactions of a few Apostles are mentioned in it. By Chrysostom, one of the Greek Fathers, it is named, "The Book, the Demonstration of the Resurrection."

It does not appear that Luke designed to write what night be called an ecclesiastical history of his own times, nor an account of the labors of all the Apostles, nor even of all the labors of any one of them, during the time em. braced in his narrative. If he had designed such a thing, he fell far short of it: for of the Apostles, except Peter and Paul, he says but little; and even of the last mentioned, though more minute in his history, he narrates, comparatively, but a few great transactions. Though somewhat particular in detailing his journies by land, and voyages by sea, yet he omits several of his voyages, and is altogether silent on the incidents of his journey into Arabia. Nor does he appear to have designed to write a history of the foundation of the Christian communities in the different countries of the world in which he labored, during the thirty years embraced in his history: for he says nothing of the foundation of the first Christian community in the city of Rome, in Babylon, in Egypt, and in many

other places of note alluded to in the Epistles. Nor can it be gathered from his narrative that he intended merely to relate such things as he was an eye-witness of, or a party concerned in; for he is not full in recording even these, and tells of many other things of which he was not an eye-witness. What, then, was his design?

There are two things on which he fixes the attention of his reader with more than ordinary care. The first of these is the opening of the Reign of Heaven amongst the Jews on Pentecost, and the wonderful displays of heavenly influences attendant on that glorious event. He narrates no more of the history of the first congregation in Jerusa lem than is necessary to give a correct view of the commencement of Messiah's reign over the literal descendants of Abrahain. This occupies about one-fourth of his whole narrative.

While he follows the order of the commission, beginning at Jerusalem, proceeding to Samaria, and thence to the uttermost parts of the earth, in giving a brief account of the establishment of Christianity; the second object, which seems pre-eminently to engross his attention, is the commencement of the reign of Messiah over the Gentiles. Hence we find the calling of the Gentiles, and all the events connected with it more fully and circumstantially related than any thing else. Of the occurrences in Jerusalem, at the time of the meeting of the Apostles, and of the labors of Paul in all his journeys, those things are particu larly told which concerned this event. These considerations suggest to us that, while Luke designed to give a brief account how the Apostles executed their commission in general in Judea and Samaria, his grand design in writing was to establish in the minds of all Christians of that age, with a reference also to future times, the just claims and inalienable rights of the Gentiles to be considered and treated as God's people; to become members of the Christian communities, on the same footing with the Jews. Doubtless this was his grand or chief design in writing this his tory. The plan he pursued was not to settle the controversy by argument, as Paul does in some of his epistles, but by recording what God had done for this people, by simply showing that he had done every thing for them which he had done for the Jews, and had made no difference between Jews and Gentiles under the Reign of his Son.

Admitting this to have been his chief design in writing his narrative, how suitably does it account for his minuteness in describing the conversion of Saul, and his call to

preach to the Gentiles; the story of Cornelius and Peter; the debates at Jerusalem; the separating Paul and Barnabas to their mission; the decrees of the Apostles and elders; together with his frequent accounts of Paul's speeches to, and interviews with the Gentiles; and of the success attendant on the labors of Paul and Barnabas among them. This view of his design in writing this book also accounts for his having omitted to inform us of the travels and labors of the other Apostles, and of the congregations which they planted in different places, with many other things which could not be accounted for, upon the supposition of his intending to write a history of the acts of the Apostles, during the period from the ascension of the Messiah till Paul arrives a prisoner at Rome.

It is nevertheless true, that in accomplishing his design he is obliged to give us a very general and comprehensive view of the introduction of christianity throughout the whole world. So that still his history is, in a certain sense, an ecclesiastic one, the oldest and most authentic in the world. As the four preceding histories constitute rather memoirs than biography, so this is rather a mere sketch of what happened during the labors of the Apostles, than a history of the transactions of any one of them.

Of the New Testament historians Luke is the most eminent. He gives us one continued history from the commencement of the Christian era down to A. D. 63 or 64. He records in his testimony concerning Jesus, and in his Acts of Apostles, all the grand and important events and transactions connected with the establishment of the Chris tian religion in Asia, Africa, and Europe. This book is the grand link which connects the previous histories with the apostolic epistles, and constitutes a key to the right interpretation of them, without which they would have been, in a great measure, unintelligible. An accurate acquaintance with the history of the people which composed most of the congregations to which the Apostles addressed letters, with the time and circumstances of their conversion, and with their customs and questions found in this book, greatly facilitates our proficiency in the knowledge of those letters, which explain the meaning and bearings of that one glorious fact, on which the Christian superstructure is reared.

From it alone we learn by what means that great moral and religious revolution was accomplished, which eventu. ated in the destruction of polytheism and idolatry in the best portions of the world; which desolated so many Pagan temples and caused millions of altars to moulder down to

dust, notwithstanding the wisdom and learning of philos ophers, the sword of the civil magistrate, and the supersti tion of the common people, were allied in maintaining them, and in suppressing this "wicked and odious heresy,' as the Romans called it.

From it we also learn what true Christianity is, and how far the modern exhibitions of it have degenerated from the ancient and apostolic order of things; we discover what was the spirit and temper of the first Christians, and the character and design of their religious meetings. In a word, as Dr. Adam Clarke observes, "in the book of Acts we see how the church of Christ was formed and settled. The Apostles simply proclaim the truth of God relative to the passion, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ; and God accompanies their testimony with the demonstration of the Spirit. What was the consequence? Thous ands acknowledge the truth, embrace christianity, and openly profess it at the most imminent risk of their lives. The change is not a change of merely one religious sentiment or mode of worship for another, but a change of tempers, passions, prospects, and moral conduct. All beore was earthly, or animal, or devilish, or all these toether: but now all is holy, spiritual, and divine-the cavenly influence becomes extended, and nations are born unto God. And how was all this brought about? Not by might nor power; not by the sword, nor by secular authority; not through worldly motives and prospects; not by pious frauds or cunning craftiness; not by the force of persuasive eloquence: in a word, by nothing but the sole influence of truth itself, attested to the heart by the power of the Holy Spirit. Wherever religious frauds and secular influence have been used to found or support a church, professing itself to be Christian, there, we may rest assured, is the fullest evidence that that church is wholly antichristian: and where such a church, possessing secular power, has endeavored to support itself by persecution, and persecution unto privation of goods, of liberty, and of life, it not only shows itself to be antichristian, but also diabolic. The religion of Christ stands in no need either of human cunning or power. It is the religion of God, and is to be propagated by his power: this the book of the Acts fully shows; and in it we find the true model, after which every church should be builded. As far as any church can show that it has followed this model, so far it is holy and apostolic. And when all churches or congregations of people, professing christianity, shall be founded and regulated ac cording to the doctrine and discipline laid down in the