masters, whose object it was to get money by her pretended predictions. The historian, entertaining the same opinion on this subject as the pagans, adopts their language, i. e. he speaks of her as possessed; but no well-informed Jew, as the writer of this history must have been, could suppose that the heathen dæmons had a power of foretelling future events; for that power is expressly appropriated to Jehovah in the Jewish Scriptures.

17. The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, these men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation.

For mad persons to utter what is true and rational, is no unusual thing, especially if they have intervals of sanity, as this woman probably had, when they may acquire the knowledge of what is passing around them. We are not, therefore, to be surprised, that she was so well acquainted with the pretensions and true character of these preachers.

18. And this she did many days; but Paul, being grieved, turned, and said to the spirit, I command thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her. And he came out the same hour, "that moment.”

Her disorder was madness, but being supposed to be possessed by the spirit of a dæmon by the spectators, and probably by the apostle himself, he addresses the spirit by which she was animated, and commands him to come out of her. When her madness was cured, the people would no longer suppose her to be inspired.

REFLECTIONS.

1. THE practice of these pious women, in assembling together every sabbath-day to worship the Divine Being, redounded much to their honour, and deserves our imitation. It was a public acknowledgment of the true God in the midst of idolaters; it was, therefore, a profession of the truth, where there was the strongest temptation to deny it; it was a noble instance of firmness in a good cause, and well calculated to awaken the attention of spectators, and to reclaim them from their errors: it was a practice, also, which had a happy tendency to relieve their minds from anxiety, while living among strangers, at a distance from their native country, and to inspire their hearts with the most exalted hopes, and purest affections. Justly did Providence honour such worshippers, by hastening Paul through the provinces of lesser Asia, to communicate to them, without delay, the invaluable treasure of the gospel; and well had they prepared their minds by these devout exercises for discerning the evidences of its divine origin, and for feeling its purifying influence! Let Christians of the present day imitate their example, and be assured that, although they may not be distinguished by supernatural benefits,

their conduct will be attended with an abundant reward of religious improvement and comfort at present, and be honoured with the divine approbation at the last day: "Wherefore," as this apostle writes to these Philippians, in the epistle which he afterwards addressed to them, "be careful for nothing, but in every thing, by prayer and suppplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God."

2. The image of a man imploring assistance, is a just emblem of the state of the ancient heathen world. Even those countries where knowledge and civilization were most advanced, were sunk, in regard to religion, into the grossest errors and most abject superstition; not only mistaking the ravings of insanity for the inspired dictates of divine wisdom, but imagining that the most important events were predicted by the situation of the stars, by the flight of birds, and the entrails of a beast; not only mistaking the object of worship, but supposing him the patron of vice, and seeking his favour by vicious practices. What a perversion of religion! How wretched a condition! How loudly did it call for assistance! Let us bless God, who had compassion upon his creatures, and sent them the aid which they needed. Let us remember with gratitude and pleasure, the event which is here recorded, the landing of the apostle in Europe, and the first communication of the gospel to the inhabitants of this quarter of the globe. It was the prelude to the downfall of superstition and vice: it was the commencement of a new æra of virtue and happiness to an extensive portion of the human race.

SECTION XXVI.

Paul and Silas being imprisoned at Philippi, are miraculously set at liberty, and honourably dismissed.

ACTS xvi. 19-40.

19. AND when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the market-place unto the rulers;

20. And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city.

21. And teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.

In the nineteenth verse they are said to be brought to the rulers, but in the twentieth, to the magistrates; the same persons, however, are probably intended in both places, unless, indeed, as some suppose, the first words have been added to the text. As Philippi was a

Roman colony, the military commander might be the civil officer. The market-place among the Greeks and Romans, was the place where courts of justice held their sittings, as well as where other public business was transacted. Paul and Silas were selected, when Luke and Timothy were in company, as being the most distinguished and obnoxious persons.

22. And the multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates rent off their clothes, i. e. the clothes of the persons accused, as was usual with the Romans, and commanded to beat them, i. e. to beat them with rods.

23. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the gaoler to keep them safely;

24. Who, having received such a charge thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.

These severities were inflicted without examination, and even without inquiring who they were; but these illustrious preachers of the gospel were far from being discouraged by such treatment.

25. And at midnight, when they were not likely to be heard or to disturb any one, Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them, "were listening to them."

26. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.

The bands of the other prisoners were loosed, as well as those of Paul and Silas, which shows that the earthquake was supernatural. An ordinary earthquake would not have produced such an effect.

27.

And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.

28. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm; for we are all here.

29. Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,

30. And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? "to be safe?"

31. And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be safe, and thy house..

In asking this question, "What shall I do to be saved ?" or, to be safe, the gaoler, who had probably never heard of a future life of happiness or misery, as preached by the apostles, referred entirely to his personal security, about which he was naturally alarmed, in consequence of the earthquake which had shaken the house to its foundations, and opened the doors of the prison. The answer of Paul and Silas, therefore, assuring him, that if he would believe in Christ he should be safe, and his house, must refer to the same subject. In the circumstances in which the parties were placed, this was the natural and obvious meaning of the question and reply, and the interpretation is confirmed by the language of the apostles on a variety of occasions. To deliverance from Jewish superstition and heathen idolatry, by embracing Christianity, they uniformly apply the term salvation, or being saved. Thus we are told, that God will have all men to be saved and brought to the knowledge of the truth, where the latter expression explains what is meant by the former. The principal idea included in this salvation, was evidently a deliverance from ignorance, superstition, and false worship; but it seems, also, to have been connected with a deliverance from temporal calamities; for with such calamities, we know that the Jews were threatened, and actually visited, for their rejection of the gospel, while those who embraced it, were preserved safe. On this ground, the apostle Peter, Acts ii. 40, exhorts his countrymen to save themselves from this untoward generation. To similar evils the heathen world might likewise be exposed, if they acted in like manner with evils of this nature, the gaoler was evidently threatened, when, on account of his severity to the preachers of the gospel, his house was shaken from the foundations. They might, therefore, with propriety, tell him, that if he believed in Christ, both he and his family would escape danger. This, indeed, was not the whole or principal benefit which he would derive from his faith; but it was all about which he inquired.

I have dwelt the longer upon this passage, because the interpretation given, is unusual, and may probably to some appear harsh; but I am persuaded, that a proper consideration of the occasion, and of the usual language of the apostles, will reconcile the mind of the attentive inquirer to it.

32. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.

33. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.

34. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.

His joy arose from the assurance which had been given him of security, and from the happy prospects which he had been taught to entertain.

35. And when it was day, the magistrates sent the sergeants, "the lictors," saying, Let those men go. They imagine, that the punishment already inflicted, is sufficient to deter them from pursuing the same course of life, and are now very willing to let them depart.

36. And the keeper of the prison told this saying, "this message," to Paul; The magistrates have sent to let you go; now, therefore, depart, and go in peace.

37. But Paul said to them, They have beaten us openly, uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison; and now do they thrust us out privately? Nay, verily, but let them come themselves and fetch us out.

The Roman law strictly forbade the beating of Roman citizens with rods; that ignominious punishment being thought only suitable to a slave. The magistrates, therefore, had been guilty of a great offence, in ordering it to be inflicted on Paul and Silas, who were entitled to that privilege; and their offence was aggravated by inflicting the punishment without sufficient grounds, and without a trial. It was necessary to exact from them some acknowledgment for their error, as the means of preventing the like arbitrary proceedings and similar outrages in future. Besides, the infliction of the most ignominious punishment publicly upon these strangers, was a great reflection upon their character, and tended to obstruct the success of their mission. To have left the prison privately, would have confirmed the suspicións which had been thus excited in the minds of the people. On this account, Paul insisted upon the magistrates coming themselves to release them, that their innocence might be rendered as public as their punishment.

38. And the officers told these words unto the magistrates, and they feared, when they heard that they were Romans.

39. And they came and besought them, and brought them out, and desired them to depart out of the city.

40. And they went out of the prison, and entered into the house of Lydia, and when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them, "exhorted them," and departed.