many sick persons, who were healed in answer to his prayers. These acceptable services procured him much favour from the inhabitants; and when, after three months stay, he was about to depart, they furnished him liberally with necessary provisions for his voyage.

A. D. 61.] They sailed from thence in a ship of Alexandria that had wintered in the island, and stopping three days at Syracuse in Sicily, soon after arrived at Rhegium, and from thence, in two days, at Puteoli, near Naples, where they disembarked, and continued a week, at the request of the Christians of the place. From Puteoli to Rome their journey lay about one hundred miles by land.

The disciples at Rome having heard of Paul's approach, several of them met him at a place called Appii Forum, and another party at the Three Taverns; the former place being about fifty, and the other thirty miles from the city. At the sight of these believers, whom he had loved unseen, we are told he thanked God and took courage. Even the apostle Paul, though habitually flaming with zeal and love, was not always in the same frame. We learn from his own account of himself, that he had sometimes sharp exercises of mind; and perhaps this was such a time, when his thoughts were much engaged on what awaited him upon his arrival at Rome, and his appearance before the cruel and capricious Nero. The Lord has so constituted his body, the church, that the different members are needful and helpful to each other, and the stronger are often indebted to the weaker. St. Paul himself was revived and animated at this juncture by sight of those who were, in every respect, inferior

1.

It rejoiced him to see that Christ his Lord rshipped at Rome also; and, being in the presence

of those with whom he could open his mind, and freely confer upon the glorious truths that filled his heart, he forgot at once the fatigue he had lately suffered, and the future difficulties he had reason to expect.

Upon their arrival at Rome, the centurion delivered up the prisoners to the proper officer; but Paul had the favour allowed him to live in a house which he hired, under the guard of one soldier. Here he immediately discovered his usual activity of spirit in his Master's cause; and, without losing time, sent on the third day for the principal persons of the Jews (according to his general custom of making the first declarations of the Gospel to them), and acquainted them with the cause of his prosecution and appeal. He assured them that he had no intention, in vindicating himself, to lay any thing to the charge of his own people; adding, that, not for any singularities of his own, or for any offence against the law of Moses, but for the hope of Israel, he was bound with the chain he then wore, They answered, that they had received no information concerning him from Judea, but that they understood the sect to which he professed an attachment was every where spoken against; they therefore desired to hear his sentiments, and appointed a day for the purpose, when many of them came to him, and he spent the whole day, from morning till evening, in proving, confirming, and explaining, the nature and necessity of the Gospel and kingdom of Christ, from the books of Moses and the prophets. His discourse had good effect upon

iAmong the Romans, the prisoner was always chained to the soldier or soldiers who guarded him. St. Paul speaks of his chain, both to friends and enemies, with an indifference that shows how well content he was to wear it for his Master's sake. See Ephes. vi. 20.; 2 Tim. i. 16.

some, but others believed not, and they departed with considerable disagreement among themselves; the apostle taking leave of them with that solemn warning, which our Lord had often used in the course of his ministry, from the prophecy of Isaiah, denouncing incurable and judicial blindness and hardness of heart upon those who wilfully rejected the proposal of the truth.

He remained a prisoner in his own hired house for the space of two years, having an unrestrained liberty to receive all who came to him, and to preach the glad tidings of salvation by Christ; which, we learn from his epistles', he did with so much success, that his imprisonment evidently contributed to the furtherance of the Gospel, enlarged the number of believers, and animated the zeal and confidence of those who had already received faith and grace.

A. D. 63.] The history of St. Luke ends here, which I have followed more closely than I at first designed; partly because the facts he has recorded suggest many reflections which have, more or less, a reference to our main design, and partly from a reluctance to leave the only sure and incontestable history by which our researches into the establishment and state of the primitive church can be guided. For though some monuments of the early ages of Christianity, which are still extant, have a great share of merit, and will afford us materials to make good our plan, yet they must be selected with caution; for it would be a want of ingenuousness not to acknowledge, that there are great mixtures and blemishes to be found in the writings of those who lived nearest to the apostles' times. And in the most 1 Philip. i. 12.

Isa. vi. 9, 10.

ancient historical remains several things have a place, which show that a spirit of credulity and superstition had very early and extensive influence; the evident traces of which have given too fair an occasion to some persons, of more learning than candour, to attempt to bring the whole of those records into disrepute. But where the characteristic genius and native tendency of the Gospel are rightly understood, and carefully attended to, a mind, not under the power of bias and prejudice, will be furnished with sufficient data, whereby to distinguish what is genuine and worthy of credit, from the spurious and uncertain additions which have been incautiously received.

I shall be brief in deducing our history from this period to the close of the first century. St. Paul, after more than two years' confinement at Rome, having not yet finished his appointed measure of service, was providentially preserved from the designs of all his enemies, and set at liberty. We are told by some, that, in pursuance of the design he had long before expressed, he went into Spain, and from thence to Gaul, now called France: nor have endeavours been wanting to prove that he preached the Gospel even in the British isles. That he, at some time, accomplished his desire of visiting Spain, is not improbable; but we have no certain evidence that he did so. Much less is there any ground for supposing that he was either in France or Britain. From his own writings, however, we have good reason to believe, that, upon his dismission from Rome, he revisited the churches of Syria, and some other parts of Asia; for, in his epistle to the Hebrews, he mentions his purpose of sceing them, in company with his beloved Timothy; and, writing to Philemon, who lived at Colosse, he requests him to prepare him a lodging,

VOL. III.

for that he hoped to be with him shortly. And it was probably in this progress that he preached in Crete, and committed the churches he gathered there to the care of Titus; for we have no account in the Acts of his having visited that island before, except the little time he touched there in his passage to Rome, which seems not to have been sufficient for so great a work. How he was employed afterwards we know not, but it is generally agreed, that, towards the latter part of Nero's reign, he returned to Rome, and there received the crown of martyrdom.

In the accounts preserved of the rest of the apostles, we likewise meet with great uncertainty; nor can any thing be determined to satisfaction, concerning either the seat of their labours, or the time or manner of their deaths. I shall therefore wave a particular detail of what is not supported by sufficient proof. I only observe, concerning St. Peter, that the assertion of his having been bishop of Rome, on which (and not on the true rock) the whole system of the papacy is built, is not only inconsistent with what is recorded of him in the Acts, and the silence of St. Paul concerning him, in the epistles he wrote from thence--but is so far without foundation in ecclesiastical history, that it still remains a point of dubious controversy, whether he ever saw Rome in his life. If he did, it was probably towards the close of it; and the most received opinion is, that he suffered martyrdom there at the same time with St. Paul; that Peter was crucified, and that Paul had the favour of being beheaded, in consideration that he was a Roman citizen.

The Christians, though generally despised, and often insulted, for their profession, had not hitherto been subject to a direct and capital persecution; but Nero,