tion, you will find it in the persuasion, that they were the bearers of a divine message, the preachers of the most important and salutary truth. Read the epistles which, with the affection of parents, they address to their children in Christ, at Philippi and Thessalonica,and you will there see this short history illustrated; the motives of their conduct and principles by which they are animated; and both will unite to increase your admiration of their characters. Let those who have a like well-founded persuasion of being engaged in promoting the glory of God and the best interests of mankind, display the same zeal, and they need not doubt of the same happy issue.

3. Let us observe the honourable mark of distinction which is bestowed upon those who cherish a spirit of inquiry; they are reckoned more noble than those of a contrary disposition. They discover a greater love of truth, more candour, more humility, more wisdom than other men. Those who call in question old opinions, and attend to such as are new, are condemned by some persons as manifesting an indifference to the truth, as men who will soon destroy the foundations of true religion; but not in this light were such men regarded by the sacred historians; he commends their spirit and records its success.

SECTION XXVIII.

Paul, preaching at Athens, is brought to the Areopagus.

ACTS xvii. 16-34.

16. Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, 1. e. for Silas and Timothy, his spirit was stirred in him, "he was provoked," when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry, "full of images."

This account of Athens is confirmed by the testimony of contemporary historians and poets: one of the former asserts, that there was no place in which more images were to be seen than Athens; and one of the latter, that it was at Athens more easy to find a god than a man. What provoked Paul was, to find a city, so celebrated for its wisdom, so much addicted to idolatry.

17. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, i. e. with proselyte Gentiles, and in the market daily with them that met with them.

The market-place in Greece, and the forum at Rome, were the places where courts of justice were holden, and where persons assembled for conversation. This was, therefore, the best place for the apostle to attempt to gain the attention of the Gentiles.

18. Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics, encountered him, and some said, What will this babbler say, "What does he mean ?" "others said," He seemeth to be a setter

other some,

forth of strange gods, " of new gods," because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection.

The principles of these two leading sects of philosophy were sufficiently from each other, as well as from those of the apostle. The Epicureans believed, that there were gods, but maintained that the world was made by chance, and that they did not exercise any providence over it; that man's chief good consisted in the enjoyment of pleasure, and that there was no life after the present.

The Stoics, on the contrary, asserted, that pain was no evil; that virtue was its own reward, and vice its own punishment; that all things were subject to a blind and irresistible necessity. About a future state the Stoics spoke doubtfully, although they appear to have had some expectation of it.

Because the chief subject of Paul's discourse with them was Jesus and the resurrection, they supposed the resurrection to be some new god, which he wished to introduce to their acquaintance.

19. And they took him and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is?

20. For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears; we would know, therefore, what these things

mean.

21. For all the Athenians and strangers which were there, spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.

Areopagus was a building at Athens, in which a court, called the court of Areopagus, was holden; a superior tribunal amongst the Athenians, instituted for the purposes of presiding over the laws, and over manners; of taking care, in particular, that no innovations were made in the established religion.* On this account, some have supposed, that Paul was brought into this court in order to be formally tried on the charge of introducing new gods; but the historian plainly intimates that their object in bringing him thither was nothing more than curiosity, that they might have a better opportunity than they could enjoy in the marketplace, of hearing the new and strange doctrine which he professed to teach.

The account here given of the manner in which the principal inhabitants of Athens, and the foreigners who came to visit them,

spent their time, accords very well with the character of a polished, inquisitive, and wealthy people, such as we know the Athenians to have been: it corresponds, likewise, with what is said of them by some of their own writers.*

22. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' Hill, "of Areopagus," and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive you altogether much given to religious worship.

In this manner, I conceive, the passage may be best rendered, which makes the apostle's language far more agreeable to that decorum which, we may suppose, he would be careful to observe in addressing such an audience, than that which he is made to speak in our translation, where he is supposed to say, "Ye are in all things too superstitious," a charge which would disgust his hearers at the outset, and prevent them from paying further attention to his discourse.t

23. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, "the objects of your worship," I found an altar with this inscription, to an unknown God. Whom, therefore, ye ignorantly worship, "worship without knowing him," him declare I unto you.

Paul did not imagine, I suppose, that by an unknown God, Jehovah, or the true God was intended: but he took advantage of this singular inscription to make them acquainted with the nature and attributes of the Supreme Being; avoiding the offence which professedly preaching to them a new god might produce. He would have an additional motive for this mode of address, if what Josephus asserts be true, viz. that it was death by the Athenian law to propose to the people a new object of worship. That the Athenians worshipped some deity under the character of the unknown God, we know on the authority of heathen writers, whose testimony in this instance, as well as in many others, coincides with, and confirms the account given by the sacred historian.

24. God that made the world, and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;

25. Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all, life, and breath, and all things:

26. And hath made of one blood "one nature," all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; "hath determined

* See Pearce.

† Wakefield and Lardner, Vol. I. p. 191.

the times and bounds of their habitation;" i. e. where and in what age they should live.

27. That they should seek the Lord, if haply, "if possibly," they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:

28. For in him we live, and move, and have our being, as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.'

This is a passage from Aratus, a poet of Cilicia, Paul's native country.

29. Forasmuch, then, as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think, that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art or man's device, as mankind had long thought.

30. And the times of this ignorance God winked at, "overlooked," i. e. made no extraordinary exertions for their instruction, but now commandeth all men every where to repent, i. e. to forsake their idolatry.

31. Because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

This was a proof of his intentions respecting Jesus, who was to be the judge, and likewise respecting those who were to be judged, inasmuch as his resurrection was a proof of the possibility of theirs. The apostle was proceeding to say more on the subject of Jesus, and the Christian religion; but his audience would hear him no longer.

32. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, " "began to laugh."

This doctrine, in the apprehension of some, had so little foundation, that it was a subject of ridicule, rather than of serious refutation by argument.

And others said, We will hear thee again of this

matter.

33.

34.

So Paul departed from among them.

Nevertheless certain men clave unto him, and believed, among the which was Dionysius the Areo

pagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

Dionysius was called an Areopagite, because he was one of the judges of the court holden in the place where they were now assembled, and must have been, as the judges were in general, of a very respectable character.

REFLECTIONS.

1. In the conduct of Paul at Athens, and in the account which the historian has given of his reception, we see fresh proofs of the truth of our religion. In this seat of learning and of the arts, where the human mind was improved to the highest degree, where lived the first masters of philosophy and eloquence, to which foreigners resorted from all countries for instruction, and which had conquered the world, if not by arms, yet by the more powerful influence of manners and science-in this enlightened and illustrious city the apostle is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; he ventures to preach it in the places of public resort, and wherever he can find an audience; he has the resolution to defend it against the attacks of the ablest reasoners and the acutest philosophers; and this when alone, and a stranger, unprotected, unaccompanied by a single individual. What confidence in the truth of the gospel! What zeal for communicating its discoveries to the world! Surely such confidence and such zeal must have some solid foundation, something better than the fictions of his own mind, or the unauthenticated reports of other persons.

The historian, who mentions his preaching at Athens, does not scruple, we see, to record his reception there, although by no means the most favourable. He informs us that this distinguished advocate of Christianity was denominated by the most contemptuous appellations; that the principal doctrine which he professed to teach could not be heard without laughter, and that he made but few proselytes in this renowned city. How confidently, then, may we rely upon his narrative, when he relates the success of the gospel in other places, and the respect paid to its teachers.

2.

We learn from this story what is the substance of the gospel: not such doctrines as many Christians would now expect to find: not such as are to be found in modern creeds, the atonement of Christ, or the deity of his person, but Jesus and the resurrection; a restoration to life of the individual who has died, never to die any more. This is the interesting truth, which, next to the divine mission of our Master, holds the most conspicuous place in the Christian revelation. This is the doctrine, to communicate which, he was sent into the world, and to establish which, he died, and was raised again. Let this doctrine, Christians, hold the first place in your regards, notwithstanding the ridicule which it once received from the philosophers of Athens, and the opposition which it still experiences from modern unbelievers.