just, innocent person, yet that God, according to his own predictions, had raised him up from the dead; that through him they preached forgiveness of sins, and that by him alone it was that men, if ever, must be justified and acquitted from that guilt and condemnation which all the pompous ceremonies and ministries of the Mosaic law could never do away; that therefore they should do well to take heed, lest by their opposing this way of salvation, they should bring upon themselves that prophetical curse which God had threatened to the Jews of old, for their great contumacy and neglect. This sermon wanted not its due effects. The proselyte Jews desired the apostles to discourse again to them of this matter the next Sabbath-day; the apostles also persuading them to continue firm in the belief of these things. The day was no sooner come, but the whole city, almost, flocked to be their auditors; which when the Jews saw, actuated by a spirit of envy, they began to blaspheme, and to contradict the apostles; who, nothing daunted, told them, that our Lord had charged them first to preach the gospel to the Jews, which since they so obstinately rejected, they were now to address themselves to the Gentiles; who hearing this, exceedingly rejoiced at the good news, and magnified the word of God; and as many of them as were thus prepared and disposed towards eternal life, heartily closed with it and embraced it. The apostles preaching not there only, but through the whole country round about. The Jews, more exasperated than before, resolved to be rid of their company, and to that end persuaded some of the more devout and honourable women to deal with their husbands, persons of prime rank and quality in

the city, by whose means they were driven out of those parts. Whereat St Paul and Barnabas shaking off the dust of their feet, as a testimony against their ingratitude and infidelity, departed from them.

5. The next place they went to was Iconium; where at first they found kind entertainment and good success; God setting a seal to their doctrine by the testimony of his miracles.' But here the Jewish malice began again to ferment, exciting the people to sedition, and mutiny against them. Insomuch, that hearing of a design to stone them, they seasonably withdrew to Lystra; where they first made their way by a miraculous cure. For St. Paul seeing an impotent cripple, that had been lame from his mother's womb, cured him with the speaking of a word. The people who beheld the miracle, had so much natural logic as to infer that there was a divinity in the thing; though mistaking the author, they applied it to the instruments, crying out, that the gods in human shape were come down from heaven. Paul, as being chief speaker, they termed Mercury, the god of speech and eloquence; Barnabas, by reason of his age and gravity, they called Jupiter, the father of their gods; accordingly the Syriac interpreter here renders Jupiter, "the Lord, or sovereign of the gods." The fame of this being spread over the city, the priest of Jupiter brought oxen dressed up with garlands, after the Gentile rites, to the house where the apostles were, to do sacrifice to them. Which they no sooner understood, but in detestation of those undue honours offered them; they rent

1 Acts, xiv. 1.

their clothes, and told them that they were men of the same make and temper, of the same passions and infirmities with themselves; that the design of their preaching was to convert them from these vain idolatries and superstitions to the worship of the true God, the great Parent of the world; who though heretofore he had left men to themselves, to go on in their own ways of idolatrous worship, yet had he given sufficient evidence of himself in the constant returns of a gracious and benign providence, in crowning the year with fruitful seasons, and other acts of common kindness and bounty to mankind.

6. A short discourse; but very rational and convictive, which it may not be amiss a little more particularly to consider, and the method which the apostle uses to convince these blind idolaters. He proves divine honours to be due to God alone, as the sovereign Being of the world; and that there is such a supreme infinite Being he argues from his works both of creation and providence. Creation: "He is the living God that made heaven and earth, the sea, and all things that are therein." Providence: " He left not himself without witness,' in that he did good, and gave rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." Than which no argument can be more apt and proper to work upon the minds of men. That which may be known of God is manifest to

1 Καί τοι νὴ τὸν Δία και τὲς θεὸς, ἓν τῶν γεγονότων ἀπήρε κει πρὸς τὸ αἰδεῖσθαι τῆς προνοίας, τῷ γ εαἰδήμονι κι ἐκ εὐχαρισῷ καὶ μὴ τοινῦν τὰ μεγάλα, αὐτὸ τῦτο τὸ ἐκ πόας γαλα γεινᾶσθαι, καὶ ἐκ γάλακτος τυρὸν, καὶ ἐκ δέρματος ἔρια· τίς ἐσιν ὁ πεποιηκὼς ταῦτα, ἢ ἐπινενοηκώς ; ὁ δὲ εἷς φησιν· ὢ μεγάλης ἀναισχυντίας, καὶ ἀναισθησίας.—Arrian. Dissert. lib. i. c. 16, p. 126.

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the Gentiles, for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, even his eternal power and godhead, are clearly seen and understood by the things that are made.' It being impossible impartially to survey the several parts of the creation, and not see in every place evident footsteps of an infinite wisdom, power, and goodness. Who can look up unto the heavens, and not there discern an Almighty wisdom beautifully garnishing those upper regions, distinguishing the circuits, and perpetuating the motions of the heavenly lights? Placing the sun in the middle of the heavens, that he might equally dispense and communicate his light and heat to all parts of the world, and not burn the earth with the too near approach of his scorching beams: by which means the creatures are refreshed and cheered, the earth impregnated with fruits and flowers by the benign influence of a vital heat; and the vicissitudes and seasons of the year regularly distinguished by their constant and orderly revolutions. Whence are the great orbs of heaven kept in continual motion, always going in the same tract, but because there is a superior power that keeps these great wheels a-going? Who is it 'that poises the balancings of the clouds; that divides a water-course for the overflowing of waters, and a way for the lightning of the thunder? Who can bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Or who can bring forth Mazaroth in his season, or guide Arcturus with his sons?" Do these come by chance? Or by the secret appointment of infinite wisdom? Who can consider the admirable thinness and purity of the air; its immediate subserviency to the great ends of the crea

tion, its being the treasury of vital breath to all living creatures, without which the next moment must put a period to our days, and not reflect upon that Divine wisdom that contrived it? If we come down upon the earth, there we discover a divine Providence, supporting it with the pillars of an invisible power, 'stretching the north over the empty space, and hanging the earth upon nothing;' filling it with great variety of admirable and useful creatures, and maintaining them all according to their kinds at his own cost and charges. It is he that clothes the grass with a delightful verdure; that crowns the year with his loving-kindness,' and 'makes the valleys stand thick with corn;' that causes the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man; that he may bring forth food out of the earth, and wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart;' that beautifies the lilies that neither toil nor spin, and that with a glory that outshines Solomon in all his pomp and grandeur. From land let us ship our observations to sea, and there we may descry the wise effects of infinite understanding: a wide ocean fitly disposed for the mutual commerce and correspondence of one part of mankind with another; filled with great and admirable fishes, and enriched with the treasures of the deep. What but an Almighty arm can shut in the sea with doors, bind it by a perpetual decree that it cannot pass, and tie up its wild raging waves with no stronger cordage than ropes of sand? Who but he commands the storm, and stills the tempest? and brings the mariner, when at his wit's end in the midst of the greatest dangers, to his desired haven? They that