Acts 28:31

31. — with all confidence.] With all freedom or openness. Bp. Pearce.

— no man forbidding him.] Hence it appears, that there was no edict of Nero, or of any preceding Roman emperor, against the Christians, till that which took place in the tenth year of Nero, the year following that in which St. Paul was released from imprisonment. Dr. Whitby.

During this residence at Rome, St. Paul wrote his Epistles to the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and to Philemon; and it is probable that he wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews soon after his release. Bp. Tomline.

The scriptural history ends with this release of St. Paul from his two years’ imprisonment at Rome, and no ancient author has left us any particulars of the remaining part of this Apostle’s life. It seems probable that, immediately after he recovered his liberty, he went to Jerusalem; and that afterwards, he travelled through Asia Minor, Creta, Macedonia, and Greece, confirming his converts, and regulating the affairs of the different churches, which he had planted in those countries. Whether at this time he also preached the Gospel in Spain, as some have supposed, is very uncertain. It was the unanimous tradition of the church, that St. Paul returned to Rome, that he underwent a second imprisonment there, and at last was put to death by the emperor Nero. The Roman historians, Tacitus and Suetonius, have mentioned a dreadful fire which happened at Rome in the time of Nero. It was believed, though probably without any reason, that the emperor himself was the author of that fire; but, to remove the odium from himself, he chose to attribute it to the Christians; and, to give some colour to that unjust imputation, he persecuted them with the utmost cruelty. In this persecution, St. Peter and St. Paul suffered martyrdom, probably in the year 65: and, if we may credit Sulpitius Severus, a writer of the fifth century, the former was crucified, and the latter beheaded. Bp. Tomline.

In all the several stages of the propagation of Christianity, the history is without a parallel; for it should be remembered, that it treats of the establishment of a system, the very basis of which was a supernatural character ascribed to a particular person; of a doctrine, the truth whereof depended entirely upon the truth of a matter of fact then recent. To establish a new religion, even amongst a few people, or in one single nation, is a thing in itself exceedingly difficult. To reform some corruptions which may have spread in a religion, or to make new regulations in it, is not perhaps so hard, when the main and principal part of that religion is preserved entire and unshaken; and yet this very often cannot be accomplished, without an extraordinary concurrence of circumstances, and may be attempted a thousand times without success. But to introduce a new faith, a new way of thinking and acting, and to persuade many nations to quit the religion, in which their ancestors had lived and died, which had been delivered down to them from time immemorial, to make them forsake and despise the deities which they had been accustomed to reverence and worship; this is a work of still greater difficulty. The resistance of education, worldly policy, and superstition, is almost invincible. Archdeacon Paley, Dr. Jortin.

We find, in the Acts of the Apostles, and in their Epistles, that the number of converts to the Christian religion began to increase considerably, almost immediately after our Saviour’s ascension, and continued in-

creasing to an astonishing degree through every age, till the final establishment of Christianity by Constantine. The first assembly, which we meet with, of Christ’s disciples, and that a few days after His removal from the world, consisted of 120, chap. i. 15. About a week after this, 3,000 were added in one day, chap. ii. 41. And the number of Christians publicly baptized, and publicly associating together, were very soon increased to 5,000, chap. iv. 4. In a few years after this, the converts were described as increasing in great numbers, in great multitudes, and even in myriads, tens of thousands, chap. xxi. 20: and multitudes both of men and women continued to be added daily; so that within about thirty years after our Lord’s death, the Gospel was spread, not only throughout almost all parts of the Roman empire, but even to Parthia and India. It appears from the Epistles written to several churches by the Apostles, that there were large congregations of Christians, both at Rome and in all the principal cities of Greece and Asia. This account is confirmed by contemporary Roman historians; and Pliny, about eighty years after the ascension, complains that the superstition, as he calls it, had seized not cities only, but the lesser towns also, and the open country; that the Pagan temples were almost deserted, the sacred solemnities suspended, and scarce any purchaser to be found for the victims. About twenty years after this, Justin Martyr, a Christian writer, declares, that there was no nation of men, whether Greeks or barbarians, not excepting even those savages that wandered in clans from one region to another, and had no fixed habitation, who had not learned to offer prayers and thanksgivings to the Father and Maker of all, in the name of Jesus, who was crucified. And thus the Church of Christ went on increasing more and more, till, under Constantine, the empire became Christian; at which time there is every reason to believe that the Christians were more numerous and more powerful than the Pagans. Now, in what manner can we account for this wonderful and unexampled progress of the Christian religion?

If this religion had set out with flattering the corrupt passions of mankind, and held up to them the prospect of power, wealth, rank, or pleasure, as the rewards of their conversion; if it had soothed their vices, humoured their prejudices, and encouraged their ancient superstitions; if the persons who taught it had been men of brilliant talents, or commanding eloquence; if they had first proposed it in times of darkness and ignorance, and among savage and barbarous nations; if they had been seconded by all the influence and authority of the great potentates of the earth, or propagated their doctrines at the head of a victorious army; one might have seen some reason for their extraordinary success. But it is well known that the very reverse of all this was the real truth of the case. It is well known, that the first preachers of the Gospel declared open war against all the follies, the vices, the interests, the inveterate prejudices and favourite superstitions of the world: that they were (with few exceptions) men of no abilities, no learning, no artificial rhetorick or powers of persuasion; that their doctrines were promulgated in an enlightened age, and to the most polished nations, and had all the wit and learning and eloquence and philosophy of the world to contend with; and that, instead of being aided by the authority and influence of the civil powers, they were opposed, and harassed, and persecuted by them, even to death, with the most unrelenting cruelty; and all those

who embraced their doctrines were exposed to the same hardships and sufferings.

Is it then credible, that, under these circumstances, the new religion should have spread, merely by the natural powers of its first propagators, in so short a space, over so large a part of the then known world, without any superior assistance or co-operation? Did any thing of the kind ever happen in the world before or

since? It is plainly unprecedented and impossible. As therefore all human means of success were against them, what else but supernatural means were left for them? It is clear almost to demonstration, that they must have been endowed with those miraculous powers, and favoured with that Divine assistance, to which they pretended, and which of course proved them to be the messengers of heaven. Bp. Portsus.

The following Chapters from the Acts of the Apostles are appointed for Proper Lessons, or as Portions of Scripture for Epistles, on Sundays and Holydays:

CHAP. VERSK. I… 1—12, Ascension-Day,…Epistle. I…15—26, St. Matthias,…ditto. II… 1—12, Whit-Sunday,…ditto. II…22—47, Easter-Day,…Evening. III… St. Peter,…Morning. III… Monday in Easter-week,…Evening. IV… St. Peter,…ditto. V…12—17, St. Bartholomew,…Epistle. VI… 8 and ) St. Stephen,…Morning. VII.tover.30,) VII… 30—55, Ditto,…Evening. VII… 55—60, Ditto,…Epistle. VIII…14—18, Tuesday in Whitsun-week, .ditto. IX… 1—23, Conversion of St. Paul,…ditto. CHAP. VERSK. X…34—44, Monday in Easter-week,…Epistle. X…34—48, Whit-Sunday…Morning. X…34—48, Monday in Whitsun-week,…Epistle. XI…22—30, St. Barnabas,…ditto. XI.. 27. and ) St. James,…ditto. XII. to ver. 3.) XII… 1—20, St. Michael,…Morning. XII…13—20, St. Peter,…Epistle. XIII…26—42 Tuesday in Easter-week,…ditto. XIV… St. Barnabas,…Morning. XV… 1—36, Ditto,…Evening. XIX… 1—21, Whit-Sunday,…ditto. XXII… 1—22, Conversion of St. Paul,…Morning. XXVI… Ditto,…Evening. # GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO # ST. PAUL’S EPISTLES.

ST. PAUL, the principal particulars of whose life are recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, and are frequently alluded to by himself in his Epistles, was a person of great natural abilities, of quick apprehension, strong passions, firm resolution, and irreproachable life: he was conversant with Grecian and Jewish literature; and he gave early proofs of an active and zealous disposition. If we may be allowed to consider his character, independent of his supernatural endowments, we may pronounce that he was well qualified to have risen to distinction and eminence, and that he was by nature peculiarly adapted to the high office to which it pleased God to call him. As a minister of the Gospel he displayed the most unwearied perseverance and undaunted courage. He was deterred by no difficulty or danger, and he endured a great variety of persecutions with patience and cheerfulness. He gloried in being thought worthy of suffering for the name of Jesus, and continued with unabated zeal to maintain the truth of Christianity against its bitterest and most powerful enemies. He was the principal instrument under Providence of spreading the Gospel among the Gentiles; and it appears from the Acts of the Apostles, that his labours lasted many years, and reached over a considerable extent of country. Though he is emphatically styled the great Apostle of the Gentiles, he began his ministry in almost every city by preaching in the synagogue of the Jews; and though he owed by far the greater part of his persecutions to the opposition and malice of that proud and obstinate people, whose resentment he particularly incurred by maintaining that the Gentiles were to be admitted to an indiscriminate participation of the benefits of the new dispensation, yet it rarely happened in any place, that some of the Jews did not yield to his arguments, and embrace the Gospel. He watched with paternal care over the churches which he had founded, and was always ready to strengthen the faith, and regulate the conduct, of his converts by such directions and advice as their circumstances might require.

The exertions of St. Paul in the cause of Christianity were not confined to personal instruction; he also wrote fourteen Epistles to individuals or churches, which are now extant, and form a part of our canon. In these letters of the Apostle, there are those obscurities and difficulties which belong to epistolary writing. Many circumstances are mentioned with brevity, and many opinions and facts are barely alluded to, as being well known to the persons whom he addresses, but which it is very difficult at this distant period to discover and ascertain. He does not formally announce the subjects which he means to discuss; he enters upon them abruptly, and makes frequent transitions without any intimations or notice; he answers objections without stating them, and abounds in parentheses, which are not always easily discerned. Perspicuity, indeed, and a strict adherence to the rules of composition, were scarcely compatible with the fervour of his imagination, and the rapidity of his thoughts. “He is,” says Mr. Locke, “full of the matter he treats; and writes with warmth, which usually neglects method, and those partitions and pauses, which men educated in the schools of rhetoricians usually observe.” There is however a real connexion and coherence in all his writings; and his reasoning, although it may sometimes seem to be desultory, will always be found to be correct and convincing. Instead of the beauties which arise from a nice arrangement of words, an harmonious cadence of periods, and an artificial structure of sentences, we have a style at once concise and highly figurative, and a striking peculiarity and uncommon energy of language. When he speaks of the doctrines and excellency of the Christian religion, enlarges upon the nature and attributes of the Deity, or terrifies with the dread of Divine judgments, his style rises with the subject; and while our minds are impressed with the justness and the dignity of the sentiments, we cannot but admire the force and sublimity of the expressions. Though he never departs from the authority of the Apostolick character, yet the sensibility of his own heart frequently leads him to appeal to the feelings and affections of those to whom he writes; and the zeal of his temper is so constantly apparent throughout his Epistles, that no one can read them with attention, without catching some portion of that fire by which he was animated. Bp. Tomline.

Any one, who reads the Apostolical Epistles, particularly those of St. Paul, with any care and attention, will find the constant method of the writers to have been, first to explain the particular point debated in the Church, or amongst persons they wrote to, and which was the occasion of their writing; and in the next place, to give them such exhortations to every Christian duty and virtue as would be at all times, and in every Church in every age, necessary and of absolute importance; having a special eye to the particular virtues those disputes might most probably tempt them to the neglect of. Now the former part of these epistolary writings cannot be rightly understood any other way, than by attending carefully to the state of the questions handled and determined. And therefore the errors and vain disputes, that are to be seen in many writings of these latter ages of Christianity concerning faith and works, justification and sanctification, election and reprobation, and such like, that have confounded, vexed, and distracted the minds of many Christians, have all arisen from this one grand mistake, of applying certain particular phrases, or passages in these writings, to themselves, or to any other particular persons, which plainly appear to have referred to the then condition, not of particular persons,

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

but of whole Churches, of the Jewish or Gentile part. It is this mistake that has troubled the hearts, and so diverted the minds of many otherwise good men, from attending to the more excellent parts of these writings, the moral and weighty exhortations given to Christians; and by puzzling them about former controversies, that do very little, if at all, concern us now, have turned off their thoughts from the great matters of the law, which are most easy to be understood, and of infinite obligation to be put in practice. Pyle.

Besides those causes of obscurity, which are common to St. Paul, with most of the other penmen of the several books of the New Testament, we may add those that are peculiarly his, and owing to his style and temper. He was, as it is visible, a man of quick thought, and warm temper, mighty well versed in the writings of the Old Testament, and full of the doctrines of the New. All this put together, suggested matter to him in abundance, on those subjects which came in his way: so that one may consider him, when he was writing, as beset with a crowd of thoughts all striving for utterance. In this posture of his mind it was impossible for him to keep that slow pace, and observe minutely that order and method of ranging all he said, from which results an easy and obvious perspicuity. To this his copiousness and vehemence, may be imputed those many large parentheses, which a careful reader may observe in his Epistles. Upon this account also it is that he often breaks off in the middle of an argument, to let in some new thoughts suggested by his own words; which having pursued and explained, as far as conduced to his present purpose, he re-assumes the thread of his discourse, and goes on with it, without taking any notice, that he returns again to what he had been before saying; though sometimes it be so far off, that it may well have slipped out of his mind, and requires a very attentive reader to observe, and so bring the disjointed members together, as to make up the connexion, and see how the scattered parts of the discourse hang together in a coherent, well agreeing sense, that makes it all of a piece.

Besides the disturbance in reading St. Paul’s Epistles, from the copiousness and vivacity of his thoughts, which may obscure his method, and often hide his sense from an unwary or over-hasty reader; the frequent changing of the personage he speaks in, renders the sense very uncertain, and is apt to mislead one that has not some clue to guide him; sometimes by the pronoun “I,” he means himself; sometimes any Christian; sometimes a Jew, sometimes any man, &c. If speaking of himself in the first person singular has so various meanings, his use of the first person plural is with a far greater latitude, sometimes designing himself alone, sometimes those with himself, whom he makes partners to the Epistles; sometimes with himself comprehending the other Apostles, or preachers of the Gospel, or Christians: nay sometimes he in that way speaks of the converted Jews, other times of the converted Gentiles, and sometimes of others in a more or less extended sense, every one of which varies the meaning of the place, and makes it to be differently understood.

In the current also of his discourse, he sometimes drops in the objections of others, and his answers to them, without any change in the scheme of his language, that might give notice of any other speaking, besides himself. This requires great attention to observe; and yet, if it be neglected or overlooked, will make the reader very much mistake and misunderstand his meaning, and render the sense very perplexed.

These are intrinsic difficulties arising from the text itself, whereof there might be a great many other named, as the uncertainty, sometimes, who are the persons he speaks to, or the opinions or practices, which he has in his eye, sometimes in alluding to them, sometimes in exhortations and reproofs. But those above mentioned being the chief, it may suffice to have opened our eyes a little upon them, which, well examined, may contribute towards our discovery of the rest. Locke.

Of the fourteen Epistles ascribed to St. Paul in our canon, the thirteen first have, in all ages of the Church, been universally acknowledged to have been written by that Apostle. Some doubts have been entertained, as we shall see hereafter, concerning the Epistle to the Hebrews. As the testimonies in favour of the genuineness of these thirteen Epistles are nearly the same, it may be advisable to state them at once; and this the rather, because the style of these different Epistles is so exactly the same, and of so peculiar a kind, that whatever proves any one of them to be genuine, may be considered as a proof of the genuineness of them all.

Clement of Rome, and Polycarp, both quote the first Epistle to the Corinthians; and Ignatius and Polycarp both quote the Epistle to the Ephesians; and Polycarp also quotes the Epistle to the Philippians. Besides these quotations, all the thirteen Epistles, except the short one to Philemon, are plainly referred to by one or more of the apostolical Fathers, although they do not expressly say that they were written by St. Paul. Justin Martyr does not quote by name any one of St. Paul’s Epistles; but there are passages in his remaining works, which may be considered as allusions to seven of them; namely, to the Epistle to the Romans, to the first of the Corinthians, to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and the second to the Thessalonians. Athenagoras quotes the first Epistle to the Corinthians. Theophilus of Antioch refers to the Romans, to the first and second to the Corinthians, to the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, first to Timothy and Titus. All the thirteen Epistles, except that to Philemon, are quoted by Ireneus, Clement of Alexandria, and Cyprian; and all, without any exception, are quoted by Tertullian, Origen, Dionysius of Alexandria, Eusebius, Athanasius, Epiphanius, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, and St. Chrysostom.

These writers reach from the days of the Apostles to the end of the fourth century, and are amply sufficient to establish the genuineness of these Epistles. It is unnecessary to enumerate writers of a later date.

The brevity of the Epistle to Philemon, and the private nature of its subject, account for its not being quoted so early or so frequently as the other Epistles of St. Paul. It appears from the above statement, that Tertullian is the earliest author who mentions this Epistle; but he tells us, that it was received by Marcion, who lived in the beginning of the second century. It was also inserted in every catalogue of the books of the New Testament; and, short as it is, it bears strong internal marks of being the genuine production of St. Paul.

TO ST. PAUL’S EPISTLES.

It may be here observed, that these Epistles are not placed in our Bibles in the order in which they were written. The Epistle to whole Churches are placed before those which are addressed to particular persons. The Epistle to the Romans is placed first, probably because, when the Gospel was propagated, Rome was the mistress of the world. The Epistle to the Corinthians was placed next, because Corinth was at that time the capital of Greece. Then comes the Epistle to the Galatians, who were not the inhabitants of a single city, but of a country in Asia Minor, in which several churches had been founded. This is followed by the Epistle to the Ephesians, Ephesus being the principal city of Asia Minor. Philippi was a Roman colony, which might, perhaps, cause the Epistle to the Philippians to be placed before those to the Colossians, and Thessalonians, whose cities were not distinguished by any particular circumstance. The Epistles to Timothy have the precedence among those which are written to individuals, because there are two of them; or because they are the longest; or, because Timothy was a frequent and favourite companion of St. Paul. Then follows the Epistle to Titus, who was a preacher of the Gospel; and the last of these Epistles is that to Philemon, who was probably a private Christian. The Epistle to the Hebrews seems to have been placed the last of all St. Paul’s Epistles, because, as was just now observed, some doubts were at first entertained whether it were really written by that Apostle. Bp. Tomline.

Some difference of opinion has prevailed respecting the years, wherein the Epistles of St. Paul were written: the following synopsis is according to the dates printed to each Epistle in the authorized editions of our Bibles, agreeably to the computation of Bp. Lloyd. The places, from which the several Epistles are supposed to have been written, are annexed.

Year of our Lord. First Epistle to the Thessalonians, ) from Corinth,…54 Second ditto,… Epistle to the Galatians,… from Corinth or Macedonia,…58 First to the Corinthians,… from Ephesus,…59 Second ditto, … from Macedonia,…60 Romans, … from Corinth,…60 Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, ) from Rome,…64 Hebrews,… from Rome,…64 First to Timothy,… from Macedonia,…65 Titus,… from Greece or Macedonia,…68 Second to Timothy,… from Rome,…66