Thus earnestly did these two apostles instruct and warn a declining church. But grace has its seasons! God will not always strive with man; yet the use of the epistles will remain, till time shall be no more.

SECTION II.

Judea and Galilee.

THE holy land was divided into three provinces, JUDEA, GALILEE, and SAMARIA. This last was in a situation so peculiar, as to deserve to be considered distinctly. And of the churches of the two former I have not much more to say, than that their state, by fair analogy, may be estimated from that of the mother church. Indeed a strong foundation had been laid for their conversion by the ministry of John the Baptist, and by that of our Lord in the days of his flesh. The angel Gabriel had foretold of the son of Zacharias, "that "many of the children of Israel he should turn to the "Lord their God."* Repentance was his theme, and by this he prepared the way of the Lord. Jesus himself condescended in his subordinate capacity of prophet and teacher to pursue the same method, though no regular churches were yet formed. He promised that the gift of the Holy Ghost should be vouchsafed to his disciples, and we have several intimations,† that a greater degree of success, of purity, of knowledge, and of glory, should attend his religion after he should leave this world than during his personal ministry.‡

Judea and Galilee being thus prepared for the gospel, the blessed tidings began to be spread through them, and to be attended with rapid success, soon after the first persecution which arose about Stephen. Those who had felt the flame of divine love in Jerusalem,

* Luke i. 2.

John xiv. and xvi.

Let this account once for all, for the much greater use which I make of the Acts and of the Epistles, than of the four Gospels. These last are indeed inestimable; but their uses are of another kind, and fall not within the plan of this work.

VOL. I.

7

being obliged to flee, preached through these regions, and many thousands were converted, as we have seen. The mother church, no doubt, was the most numerous, but various churches in the country must have contributed to make up the sum. The small size of Palestine may tempt some to wonder, if many thousands became christians, how the main body of the nation could yet remain in infidelity. The amazing populousness and fertility of the country accounts for this. The number of populous towns, in Galilee particularly, is astonishing, as appears from Josephus' narrative of the Jewish war. The single town of Gadara, near the lake of Gennezaret, by no means a town of the first magnitude, maintained two thousand swine.* If then the importance of regions be measured by the number of inhabitants, rather than by the extent of ground, this small country might vie perhaps with modern Russia.

Of these churches the first instruments were not the apostles themselves, though they doubtless visited them afterwards, and confirmed them. James the son of Zebedee would not confine his labours to Jerusalem, till the time of his martyrdom, no more than the rest of the twelve, if perhaps we except James, the son of Alpheus, who was the first standing pastor of Jerusalem.

These churches most probably followed the example of the parent church, both in its first love and comfortable progress, and also in its unhappy declension. Peter's activity in establishing them was very conspicuous. "The Lord wrought effectually" in him for the conversion of the Jews all along. He passed through all quarters, and visited the places most remote from the capital, such as Lydda, Saron, and Joppa.‡ In all these places the Spirit of God accompanied his work. It was in this last city that the Lord by him raised Tabitha from the dead. I should scarce have mentioned this miracle, in a work which professes all along to record the ordinary, not the extraordinary operations of the Holy Ghost, were not the woman distinguished by "her good works "and alms-deeds which she did." All the widows

stood by Peter weeping, and shewing the "coats and garments which she had made, while she was with "them." Thus had this woman's faith evidenced itself by good works, and the spirit of piety and of prayer had gone hand in hand with that of industrious beneficence. Hail, Tabitha! thou hast the highest glory, and of the most solid kind, which is attainable on earth. But the reader sees how simple and low christian exploits must appear in the eyes of worldly men. They are not like the swelling deeds of heroes and statesmen, which have hitherto, for the most part, monopolized the historic page. But the persons who are influenced by the Spirit of Christ, with Tabitha, will yet know with whom they would wish to be numbered. The female sex, almost excluded from civil history, will appear perhaps more conspicuous in ecclesiastical. Less immersed in secular concerns, and less haughty and independent in spirit, they seem, in all ages, to have had their full proportion, or more than the other sex, of the grace of the gospel.

SECTION III.

Samaria.

THIS country lay in the midst between Judea and Galilee, though distinguished from them both in its polity and religion. The inhabitants possessed a large part of the district which had belonged to the ten tribes, whom the kings of Assyria had carried into captivity. These conquerors had filled their vacant place with various colonists, who mixed the worship of Jehovah with their idols, vainly boasted of their relation to Jacob,† professed to regard the law of Moses, and despised, or at least depreciated, the rest of the Old Testament. Our Saviour clearly decides the contest which for ages had been carried on between them and the

Jews, in favour of the latter.* But though the Samaritan was an idolater in his very foundation, yet in moral practice he appears not worse than the Jew. Both, indeed, were at this time extremely corrupted, and gloried in cherishing an enmity, which forbad them the exercise of common humanity to one another.

The divine Saviour pitied this people. He visited them himself,† and some sinners were converted. He made a second attempt, but the bigotry of the village to which he approached, prevented them from receiving him there, a circumstance which excited the fiery zeal of the two sons of Zebedee, and gave occasion to our Lord to say, "The Son of Man is not come to de"stroy men's lives, but to save them." He meekly bore the repulse, and went to another village. But the effusions of his kindness toward this unhappy people were now to appear in abundance.

The next person to Stephen among the seven deacons in zeal and activity, was Philip. Driven from Jerusalem by the persecution, he was directed to go to Samaria, perhaps the same as Sichar, where our Lord had conversed with the woman over Jacob's well. There he preached Christ, and the gospel entered the hearts of many, so "that there was great joy in that "city." The inhabitants appear to have been a very ignorant, simple people, but now that the Spirit of God was poured upon them, none received the gospel with more cordial pleasure. One effect immediately appeared, which indeed never fails to attend the hearty reception of the gospel. Superstition and diabolical delusions vanished. One Simon had deceived this people with sorceries, I dare not say with pretended sorceries:

shall see sufficient proof, before we have done with the apostolical history, that sorcery was a real thing. For a long time they had been infatuated, but Philip's doctrine expelled their regard for these things, and numbers of both sexes were baptized. Simon himself, though a stranger to the nature and power of Christ's religion, was yet convinced, that christianity in general Luke ix. 52. § Acts viii. 8

John iv. 22. † John iv.

was true; and this seems the just idea of a mere historical believer.

The apostles hearing of the happy reception which the gospel met with at Samaria, sent down Peter and John, who prayed on their behalf, that the Holy Ghost might be imparted through the imposition of hands. The Spirit was communicated, not only in extraordinary gifts, but also in an effusion of the same holy graces, which had appeared in Judea. The former were those alone, which attracted the attention of Simon. His avaricious heart immediately conceiving the prospect of vast wealth to be acquired, were he once possessed of the power, he offered them a sum of money for the communication of the secret. Peter, who saw at once his covetousness, and his ignorance, rebuked him in the severest manner, assured him that his heart was wrong altogether, and his state accursed, notwithstanding his baptism and profession of christianity. At the same time he exhorted him to repent and to seek the divine forgiveness. Here we see how singularly remote the religion of Jesus is from all worldly plans and schemes, and what an awful difference there ever is between a real and nominal christian. The conscience of Simon felt the reproof; he begged the apostle's prayers' but it does not appear that he prayed for himself. Peter and John preached through many Samaritan villages, and then returned to Jerusalem.

The Samaritans, a sort of half Jews, (for they were all circumcised) being favoured with the same spiritual blessings as the rest, the minds of christians were prepared to expect the extension of the same grace to uncircumcised idolaters. And among the wonders of divine love which we have reviewed, this is a pleasing. circumstance, that Jews and Samaritans, who for ages had disagreed in rites, were now united in Jesus, and while each felt the same obligations to grace, learnt mutual charity for the first time.