uttering the name of Jehovah, and always spake of it as unutterable and incomprehensible. And as considerable intercourse had taken place between the Jews and Greeks for many centuries, it is highly probable that the latter should have obtained some indistinct and imperfect knowledge of the Jewish belief. St. Paul shows, even from their own altar, that he was "no setter forth of strange gods," but of that very God, whose right worship they had debased: he did not propose the worship of any new God, but the same Divinity they had already received. Thus he eluded condemnation, without departing in the least from the truth of the Gospel, or violating the honour of his God; an admirable proof of the good sense with which he acted, and of their being no mixture of fanaticism in his religion'. St. Paul's judgment is also manifest in the selection of topics for this animated discourse. He does not address the Athenian philosophers as he had done the Jews, and infer that they ought to believe in Christ because He had been foretold by the prophets; for they knew nothing of the prophets, or at least had no reverence for their writings, and did not believe them true'; but he insisted on some of the perfections of that God whom they knew, - the God of Creation, and the God of Providence ; and proved, by an appeal to His works and to

s Biscoe.

9

Lord Lyttelton.

1

Brewster.

the confessions of their own poets, that He is the Maker, Supporter, and Governor of the world. He affirmed that God had long “winked at the times of their ignorance" of Him, and suffered them to follow their own devices; but that repentance was now universally and indispensably required by "that Man whom He hath ordained.” He further enforced the duty by the awful consideration of a day of future retribution and general judgment, "whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead." It is supposed that there was scarcely any place in which St. Paul met with so little success as amongst the accomplished scholars and acute philosophers of Athens'. "When they heard of the resurrection from the dead some mocked," probably the Epicureans, who, in their principles, disbelieved a resurrection and a future judgment'; others, perhaps, the disciples of Plato, and the graver part of the audience, "deferred their opinion to another occasion "." Two only converts are named, one of them "a woman, named Damasis," and the other a member of that body who sat in the court of the Areopagus 3. SECT. CCXVII.-Paul writes his First Epistle to the Thessalonians.-1 Thess. i. ii. iii. iv. v.

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THE postscript affixed to the First Epistle to the Thessalonians dates it from Athens, in

which case, as it is inscribed also by Timothy and Silas, we must suppose that they rejoined Paul here, as they had been desired to do. It is thought, indeed, that they did so, and went back again to Thessalonica, because in this Epistle it is said, "We thought it good to be left at Athens alone; and sent Timotheus, our brother, and minister of God, and our fellowlabourer in the Gospel of Christ, to establish you" but he must afterwards have returned back again; for it is further said, "Now when Timotheus came from you unto us," and on his return found St. Paul at Corinth; so that, perhaps, the Epistle was not written, as it is said, at Athens, but somewhat later'. It is generally believed, however, that this Epistle to the Thessalonians was the first of all St. Paul's Epistles; but it is not known by whom it was sent to Thessalonica. The Church there consisted chiefly of Gentile converts. St. Paul, therefore, assures the Thessalonians, that they were elected or made the people of God, by faith in Christ alone, because the Judaizing teachers denied the election of the Gentiles to be the people of God, so long as they refused to subject themselves to the Law of Moses. This expression of election, unlearned and unstable men have wrested to their own and others' destruction;" but the Bishop Tomline.

" Dr. Lightfoot.

7

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controversy concerning particular election was not known in the primitive Church. St. Paul acknowledges to them as Gentiles the great reputation they had acquired, "by turning from idols to serve the living God;" he exhorts to purity, justice, love, and quietness, and dissuades them against excessive grief for their deceased friends, saying, Sorrow not like the Pagans, which have no hope; whence he takes occasion to allude to the last judgment, intending by this to give them an assurance, that they have the best consolation for the death of their Christian brethren, in Christ's glorious appearance, and our future resurrection'. SECT. CCXVIII.-Paul, at Corinth, is encouraged by the Lord in a Vision.-Acts xviii. 1-18.

CORINTH was a large and wealthy city, the metropolis of Achaia, and was the residence at this time of the Proconsul. Its situation was peculiarly favourable for that commerce, which rendered it one of the most wealthy and luxurious cities of the world. It was commodiously situated, not only for trade, but for the command of all Greece, lying at the bottom of the isthmus that joins the Morea, (anciently called the Peloponnesus,) to the main land'; and, being between two ports, the one of which was open to the eastern, and the other to the

Dr. Macknight.

1

Pyle.

• Dr. Jortin.

2 Dr. Wells.

western navigator, it was placed, as it were, in the centre of the civilized world, and became the point where the merchants from the four quarters of the globe met and exchanged their treasures. The games here celebrated were eminently known as the Isthmian, to which St. Paul makes some striking and remarkably appropriate allusions in his Epistles to the Church here. In this city also resided several orators and philosophers; but the people were more notorious for their love of luxury, than for any pride of worldly wisdom. This flourish

ing city, which so abounded in all magnificence, (for its temples, palaces, theatres, and porticos, were sumptuous; and the Corinthian order of architecture took its name from the rich and flowery style which pervaded them,) was infamous, even to a proverb, for its general spirit of dissipation. It might seem, therefore, an unlikely place for the reception of the Gospel; but the Apostles considered themselves to be sent every where to "preach to every creature," depending upon God to make His word effectual. In his ministry here Paul had been assisted by Silas and Timotheus; but he also met with a certain Jew, named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Rome, with his wife Priscilla. This man and his wife became of great service to St. Paul; and in his Epistle to the Romans, he speaks of 3 Pictorial Bible. 4 Dean Stanhope.

5 Dr. Robinson.