power of Christ, cast out an evil spirit from a damsel, who was a diviner; her masters, who saw that the hope of their gain was gone, seized Paul and Silas, drew them to the market-place, and virulently accused them to the magistrates. Their accusations, seconded by the clamours of the multitude, induced the magistrates to break through all ordinary forms of justice. Their clothes were torn off, and they were severely beaten with many stripes, and then thrust into the inner prison, where their feet were made fast in the stocks. Bruised, and cov. ered with their blood, they fainted not; but prayed to him, who was able to save them; and sang the praises of God, till the children of guilt heard with astonishment the resigned and joyful melody of their triumphant fellow-prisoners. At that moment God shook the foundations of the prison, threw open every bolted door, and struck the shakles from every hand. In this lofty style did the Lord claim his prisoners. The magistrates heard his voice, trembled, and obeyed. The gaoler and his household became Christ's freemen, and Paul and Silas were conducted out of the city with an honourable attestation of their innocence, and an acknowledgment of the injurious treatment which they had received. At Thessalonica also, Paul had an open door to the Gentiles, and some Jews were obedient to the faith; but others excited a tumult, which obliged him to flee to Berea, where he met with Jews of a noble cast of character, who received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether the things which Paul preached were as he reported them. But the active malice of the Jews of Thessalonica pursued him to Berea; and as the thunder strikes the tallest cedars, the brethren kindly conducted the intrepid Paul to Athens, while Silas and Timotheus, as men of less notoriety, were privately detained, to confirm and water the word which Paul had preached. While he waited at, Athens the coming of his fellow-labourers, his spirit was stirred with godly sorrow and indignation, at the gross idolatry of that seat of reason and philosophy. He, therefore, not only disputed with the Jews and devout proselytes in the sy. nagogue, but also openly in the Forum with the Epicurean and Stoick philosophers. These proud men, while they affected to treat him as a babbler, apprehended him, and brought him to a trial before the Areopagus, as a setter forth of strange Gods. His defence on this occasion was admirable. First charging them with excessive superstition, he substantiated the charge by remarking, that he had seen an altar inscribed TO THE UNKNOWN GOD; and then declaring himself the minister of this God unknown, he asserted his eternal power and godhead, pointed out the folly of their idolatry, intimated that though God winked at the times of their ignorance, yet that this was a season of light when he peremptorily commanded all men to repent, and concluded with preaching Christ, his resurrection, and the eternal judgment, which he was to administer. Though this admirable discourse, of which we have only a rough outline, was treated with derision, yet the justice of that celebrated court acquitted Paul; and one of his judges, and some others, gladly received the doctrine of the TILL THEN UNKNOWN GOD. At Corinth, the capital of Achaia, Paul planted a noble church, in the midst of much opposition from Jews and Gentiles, and the Lord Jesus saw fit to encourage him in a vision of the night, saying, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee; for I have much people in the place. And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God. From Corinth he went to Ephesus, whence, after a short stay, he took ship for Cesaria, and then proceeded to Jerusalem for the fourth time, in the year of Christ 54. How gracious is our Lord to his suffering disciples; and what need is there, that the best of men should, from time to time, receive those spiritual succours, without which they would become weary in well-doing! A future reward, however great, if not recommended by present anticipations of felicity, would hardly operate on the impatient and fretful spirits of mankind. But till we can drink at the fountain head, our Master kindly opens for us springs in the desert. kneeled down and prayed with them all. And they all we sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and hissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spoke, that they should see his face no more. Affecting spectacle! Hated or despised by the world, the man of God, even in this life, has his peculiar comforts and friends: friends endeared by principles of truth and virtue, which the world know not; and by common hopes and joys, desires and affections, the grand objects of which are invisible and eternal. After Paul had saluted the Church, and kept the feast, probably that of the Pentecost, at Jerusalem, he spent some time at Antioch, preached the word in Phrygia and Galatia, and at last came to Ephesus, where the Holy Ghost was given by the imposition of his hands. Here he laboured with equal diligence When Paul came on his journey as and success for two years, and wrought far as Tyre, he found certain discigreat miracles, so that from his body ples, who said to him, through the spiwere brought unto the sick handkerchiefs rit, that he should not go up to Jerusaand aprons, and the diseases departed lem. At Cesarea, Agabus, a prophet, from them, and the evil spirits went out took Paul's girdle, and bound his own of them And many, who used curious hands and feet, and said, thus saith the arts, brought their books together, and Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jeruburned them before all men; and they salem bind the man that owneth this gir counted the price of them, and found it dle, and shall deliver him into the hands fifty thousand pieces of silver. So of the Gentiles. Then Luke and other mightily grew the word of God and pre- companions of his travels, as well as vailed. About this time, Paul purposed, the Christians of the place, besought in the spirit, when he had passed him not to go up to Jerusalem. But through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Paul answered, What mean ye, to weep Jerusalem, saying, After I have been and break mine heart? for I am ready, there, I must also see Rome. A clear not to be bound only, but also to die at indication this, that all the troubles Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord Jewhich befel him at Jerusalem, were sus. And when he would not be perby the appointment of Providence, and suaded, we ceased, saying, The will of that the Apostle himself had, if not a the Lord be done! It has been before full and explicit, yet an obscure inti- observed, that Paul had an intimation mation of them, in which he joyfully from the spirit of what he was to sufacquiesced. fer at Jerusalem. It was now repeated, that this champion of the faith might be completely armed for the fight; and that the Disciples might be prepared for a dispensation so afflictive, might accept it as the holy will of Christ, and trust his wisdom and power to make Paul's chains useful and glorious to the Church. evidently construed it saying, The will of the Lord be done! For they were convinced Paul well knew and humbly obeyed the voice of the great Shepherd. At his command, he had quitted Jerusalem hastily on his first visit; and in the three following, his stay was short and his ministry private. More than 25 years had elapsed from the death of Jesus. Stephen, His departure from Ephesus was hastened by the tumult raised by Demetrius the silversmith: he then made a progress through Macedonia and Greece, and took a most affectionate leave of the brethren at Philippi, where he restored to life a young man who had fallen from a window, while he was preaching. Determining to be at Jerusalem by the next Pentecost, he assembled at Miletus the elders of Ephesus, and probably of other Asiatic churches; and delivered one of the most solemn, affectionate, and impressive charges ever uttered by the lips of man, and which no minister can read too frequently or too seriously. And when he had spoken, he So they James, and many others, had sealed the truth with their blood; time had been given for the ry of persecution to cool, and in 15 years, Titus was to fill their city with slaughter, and level its bulwarks with the ground. What then could be so consonant to the long suffering of Christ, as to give a loud and public testimony to the high priest, the Roman governors, and King Agrippa? Or who was so fit to bear it as this wonderful man, who was the ablest defender of the faith, which he once persecuted? He seems to have perfectly entered into the views of his divine Master; and though willing to die, if such were the will of Christ, entertained a confident expectation of deliverance, and that he should be honoured to preach Christ at Rome also. With a mind thus armed, he entered Jerusalem, and with Luke and others, went to James, the Lord's brother, and all the elders were present. And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry. And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe, and they are all zealous of the Law. And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews, which are among the Gentiles, to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs. What is it therefore? The multitude must needs come together, for they will hear that thou art come. Do therefore this, that we say to thee; we have four men which have a vow on them. Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges that they may shave their heads; and all may know that those things whereof they were informed concerning thee, are no thing, but that thou thyself walkest orderly, and keepest the law. As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded, that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication. Upon this passage, it were unnecessary to remark, if the compliance of St. Paul with this request were not construed by some into a reprehensible dissimulation. But without insisting on the risk men of modern times incur in censuring Apostles, who had more wisdom and piety than we can flatter ourselves to be possessed of, let it be remembered how accurately Jesus himself conformed to the ceremonial law of Moses, neglecting nothing but the frivolous traditions with which it was obscured. Could the Apostles have a better example? Were they likely to convert the Jews by pouring contempt on divine institutions, which were evidently to continue as long as their polity existed? They knew them to be shadows, which were passing away; but the time was not yet come, and it was not for them to anticipate the dispensations of Providence. Self-acquaintance and charity taught them to bear with the prejudices of the flock. The request was reasonable, nor was Paul to blame in complying with it. He had resisted the attempt to subjugate the Gentiles to the ceretaught that circumcision was necessary monial law and opposed the Jews, who to salvation. But in condescension to the prejudices of the weak, none surpassed him. To use or disuse these ceremonies, to himself was indifferent, but where the edification of others was at stake, it became important. He made himself all things to all men, and would gladly desist from the use of meat, while he lived, rather than offend a weak brother. While he steadily refused to circumcise Titus, who was a Gentile, he was the first to propose the circumcision of Timothy, who was of Jewish extraction, and from his knowledge of the Scriptures, a proper instrument for the conversion of the Jews. No doubt he had himself strictly observed the law, and might fairly adopt the measure proposed, to satisfy the scruples of weak brethren, whose ears had been abused by the misconstructions of zealots. Let the censures of these great men rather learn to suspect themselves, and let them shun those controversies, whereby they stab the vitals of religion, while they contend for some trivial circumstance. But though Paul's condescension ful ly satisfied the Church, it could not silence the malice of the Synagogue. Some Asiatic Jews seized him in the temple, and accused him of teaching against the people, the law, and that holy place, as well as of polluting it by introducing some Greeks. He was immediately dragged out of the temple, and beaten, and would probably have been stoned on the spot, had not the captain of the temple ran down from his station in the castle of Antonia, and rcscued him out of their hands. But so violent was the tumult, that when they came to the steps of the fortress, Paul was obliged to be borne by the soldiers. When he had gained the top of the stairs, he requested permission to address the multitude. And when they heard him speak to them in Hebrew, they gave patient attention to his defence, in which he detailed the leading events of his life, particularly his conversion and appointment to be an Apostle; but when he related his vision in the temple, and the words of Christ, I will send thee far hence unto the Gen. tiles, their prejudices were inflamed to madness, and they exclaimed, Away with such a fellow from the earth! it is not fit that he should live! And as they now threatened violence, Paul was carried into the castle, by the command of the chief captain, who being prejudiced against his prisoner, ordered him to be bound, and a confession to be extorted from him, by beating him with rods. But from this torture, alike repugnant to reason and humanity, Paul sheltered himself, by pleading that he was a Roman citizen. (To be continued in our next.) CRITICAL REMARKS ON EPHES. V. 18. BY THE LATE DR. POWELL. A DIFFICULTY arises from the word aria, here rendered excess. St. Paul was not accustomed to write with so little meaning as appears in this translation. Many passages in his Epistles are obscure; but the obscurity proceeds from an abundance, not from a want of matter. His ideas seem sometimes to crowd upon him faster than he can exChrist. Observ. No. 8. press them with regularity or ease; but we find not in his writings any of those wire-drawn discourses, in which a multitude of words is employed to conceal a deficiency of sense. It is, therefore, reasonable to believe, that the word here used has a proper meaning, and it well becomes us to search for it. Its most usual acceptation, for waste, riot, or extravagance, does not agree with this passage. Some indeed of these faults often accompany the other; but they are not the principal reasons against it; nor has the observation, thus understood, any evident connection with what precedes or follows it. But there is another use of the word, which, though less common, would naturally occur to the Apostle, and which makes his sentiment clear and important, and connected. St. Paul was a Roman citizen, and frequently borrowed both his notions and expressions from the laws of his country. Now when a man's follies or vices were such as rendered him either wholly inattentive to his own affairs, or incapable of conducting them, the Roman laws treated him as an infant or an ideot, and the prætor appointed him a guardian, with full authority to manage all business for him, and without whose consent his actions had no legal efficacy. The Latin word by which the lawyers denoted a person of this character, was prodigus; and they who have written the Roman history in Greek, or have translated the Roman laws into that language, constantly use for the person alos, and for the character alia. Its full import, therefore, is, such a mixture of wickedness and folly, as makes a man unfit to conduct himself, and requires him to be put under the guidance and authority of another; and in this technical sense, which, in the language of people not accustomed to the same laws, cannot be expressed by any single word, the term seems to be applied by the Apostle. An immoderate use of wine, he would say, destroys a man's understanding, degrades him from the rank of reasonable beings, and deprives him of the valuable privilege of self-govern ment. 3 R ABSTRACTS OF SERMONS. Proverbs xiv. 9.-Fools make a mock at sin. SIN is the greatest of all evils: its venom is deadly; working the utter destruction of the whole man, both body and soul: it is the disgrace of our nature, the bane of our happiness, and the ruin of our future hopes. It deprives us of communion with God, separates us from the society of the blessed, and urges us on to the regions of eternal misery. Yet, strange to tell! there are persons in the world who "make a mock at sin," both in themselves and others; who can be entertained with the jests of scorners, the blasphemies of the profane, the boasts of the licentious, and the quarrels of the froward. They are not afraid of giving drink to their neighbour; but can rejoice in seeing him degrade himself by intoxica tion below the state of a brute. The falls of professed Christians are particularly gratifying to such men; to behold a fellow creature turning aside to perdition, is to them a matter of merriment. Those who can thus rejoice at iniquity in others, are, doubtless, equally disposed to make light of it in themselves. But surely they are fools in the strongest sense of the word, who can thus act. Whatever may be their reputation for wisdom among men, they know nothing of the majesty of God; the glory and excellency of his character, law, and government; the evil of sin; the necessity and value of a Saviour; the beauty of holiness; the vanity of this world, and the importance of the next. In short, they are totally ignorant of the things which belong to their peace, and prefer a short scene of guilty enjoyment to a far more exceed ing and eternal weight of glory. Let such thoughtless mortals be warned of their guilt and danger. Let them learn from the fall of man, the cross of Christ, the miseries of this life, and the still greater miseries reserved for the ungodly; what an evil and bitter thing sin is, and be excited to flee from and to abhor it; and let all of us beware of making light of sin, either in ourselves or others, whatever captivating and illusive appearances it may assume. Let us watch against what may be termed small deviations from duty, and pray to God to prevent us from dishonouring him in any instance. Thus may we hope to escape those rocks on which multitudes of careless sinners have been shipwrecked and lost. Proverbs xiv. 32.-The wicked is driven away in his wickedness, but the righteous hath hope in his death. THOSE who have seen a malefactor with his hands pinioned and his looks full of dismay, forced away to that death which his crimes have merited, may form some idea of the situation of an irreligious person in his last moments, when upon the point of being torn from every object in which his soul delighted. Some, indeed, appear to die tranquilly, who are destitute of the hope of the Gospel, and lovers of this world more than lovers of God; but this apparent resignation arises either from an assumed fortitude, which makes a virtue of necessity; from a self-righteous, and therefore a delusive confidence; from ignorance and stupidity; or from that carnal security which often accompanies a fruitless profession of religion. Very contrary is the end of the righteous. Having fled to the Lord Jesus Christ as their hope and refuge; and by becoming interested in his righteousness, being freed from guilty fears; and having their affections supremely placed on things above; to them to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Hence they are enabled to triumph in the moment of dissolution, and to depart with a hope full of immortality. Some of them, indeed, through the power of temptation or corruption, from bodily weakness or defective views of the Gospel, may be all their life time subject to bondage through the fear of death, and they may undergo many sharp conflicts on its approach; yet have they hope in their latter end-a hope which they would not exchange for worlds, and a prevailing relish and desire for the happiness of heaven, which makes them willing to depart and to be with Christ. Accordingly they for the most part finish their course with joy, and are thus made conquerors over their last enemy. Let this prospect excite the worldly and irreligious to renounce their idols, and to |