u Matt. xxi. 41, 43; Chap. xiii. 46, 47; xviii. 6; xxii. 21; || xxvi. 17, 18; Rom. xi. 11.- - Chap. iv. 31; Eph. vi. 19.

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will; not understand―The words seem to denote a within the first ten years of the reign of Nero, bejudicial blindness, consequent upon a wilful and ob- || fore his cruelty against Christians broke out. Obstinate resistance of the truth. See notes on Isa. vi. || serve, reader, that Rome heathen of old was far less 9, 10; Matt. xiii. 14; John xii. 40. We may observe || cruel, and much more courteous to the preachers of here, that this passage of Isaiah is quoted oftener in the gospel, than Rome antichristian has since been. the New Testament than any other taken from the Then an apostle might preach two years together, Old; namely, no fewer than six times: (see the mar- without molestation, in his own hired house, to ali gin:) and yet in such a variety of expressions, as comers: but now a minister of God must there have plainly proves that the apostles did not confine themno public or private place of meeting to worship God selves exactly, either to the words of the original according to his word and will, without danger of Hebrew or of the Greek version. an inquisition! As the apostle's house was open to Verses 28, 29. Be it known, therefore, &c.-Hav- every comer, it is not to be doubted that many reing reproved the unbelieving and disobedient among sorted to him daily; some out of curiosity to hear his hearers, he assured them that the salvation of and see the chief of a sect which was now become God, which they despised and seemed to fortify so numerous, and was said to be endued with exthemselves against, was sent unto the Gentiles- traordinary powers, and others from an honest incliNamely, more especially from that time; and that nation seriously to inquire into the strange things they would hear and embrace it, and so inherit the which he spake concerning Jesus of Nazareth, and blessings which these Jews rejected. His words to examine the evidence which he offered in supimply, that he would, from that day forward, turn to port of them. Now to all these the apostle willingly the Gentiles; and would seek, in their faith and preached, bearing witness to Christ at Rome, even obedience, his consolation under that grief which as formerly in Jerusalem. And though Luke has the infidelity of his brethren gave him. Before this, not mentioned it, Paul himself hath told us, that his it must be observed, no apostle had been at Rome. testimony concerning Jesus was well received, and St. Paul was the first. And when he had said these that he made many converts in Rome, among whom words—The last, it seems, that he now uttered among were some even of the emperor's domestics, whose them; the Jews departed-Out of the place, not be- || salutation he sent to the Philippians, chap. iv. 22. ing prevailed upon to receive Jesus as the Messiah;|| Further, he says, that the brethren in Rome, encourand had great reasoning—Greek, ovšnτnow, disputa- || aged by his example, perhaps also strengthened by tions; among themselves-Some thinking there was the gift of the Spirit, which he imparted to them, considerable weight in what Paul had urged to de- according to his promise, (Rom. i. 11,) preached the fend the gospel, while others, still retaining their gospel more openly and boldly than they would sinful and inveterate prejudices against it, were en- otherwise have done, Phil. i. 14, 15. Such was the raged, and spake of him and his arguments with victory of the word of God and such progress had the great contempt and indignation. gospel made by the end of these two years, in the Verses 30, 31. And Paul dwelt two whole years parts of the world which lay west of Jerusalem, by at Rome, in his own hired house-Before he was the ministry of Paul among the Gentiles. How far heard by Cesar, or his deputy, upon his appeal; and eastward the other apostles had carried it, in the same eceived all that came to him-Whether Jews or time, history does not inform us. As Luke conGentiles. Preaching the kingdom of God—As es- cludes his history with Paul's abode at Rome before tablished in the person of his beloved Son; and his journey into Spain, we may infer that he wrote teaching those things which concerned the Lord Je- || both his gospel and the Acts while the apostle was sus-And the religion he had instituted in the || still living, of whose actions he was himself an eyeworld; with all confidence-All freedom of speech; witness, and by whom, it is very probable, this book no man forbidding him-Neither emperor, nor sen- was revised, as the ancients also say his gospel was. ate, nor magistrate, nor soldier, nor priest, nor peo- || During this, his first confinement at Rome, the aposple, though in a heathen city, devoted to idolatry, in || tle wrote four epistles, which still remain; namely, the least hindering or forbidding him. It appears, one to the Ephesians, another to the Philippians, a from this passage, that the persecution against the third to the Colossians, and a fourth to Philemon: Christians at Rome was not then begun: the Ro- and after his release, he wrote his epistle to the Hemans had not yet made any laws against the disci-brews. In the epistles to the Philippians, Colossians, ples of Jesus; for what is here related happened || and Philemon, Timothy joined Paul. But he is not

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The death and

CHAPTER XXVIII.

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burial of St. Paul. mentioned in the inscription of the epistle to the || numbers Gaul (that is, France) and Britain among Ephesians, though it was written about the same the disciples of the tent-maker. But in what order time with the others, and sent along with the epistle he took these places, or how long he remained in to the Colossians. From this circumstance we may any of them, cannot be determined. We are told, infer, that the letters to the Philippians, the Colos- however, that about A. D. 65, or 67, (for chronolosians, and Philemon, were written a little before the gers differ,) he returned to Rome, where, some say letter to the Ephesians, and while Timothy was at he met with Peter, who was thrown into a prison, Rome; but that after they were finished, and before with other Christians, on pretence of being concernthe letter to the Ephesians was begun, he left the ed in the burning of the city. Chrysostom tells us, city to go to Philippi, agreeably to the apostle's pro- that he here converted one of Nero's concubines, mise to the Philippians to send Timothy to them soon, ||which so incensed that cruel prince, that he put him (chap. ii. 19,) and to what he tells the Hebrews, that to death; probably after an imprisonment, in which Timothy was actually sent away, chap. xiii. 23. the second epistle to Timothy was written. How The letter to the Ephesians, being written soon after long Paul continued in prison, at this time, we know that to the Colossians, and while the matter, and not; but from his being twice brought before the form, and very expressions of that letter were fresh emperor, or his prefect, it may be presumed that he in the apostle's mind, the two resemble each other so was imprisoned a year or more before he was conmuch, that they have been termed twin epistles, and|| demned. throw light on each other. For which reason the The danger to which Paul was exposed, by this apostle very properly ordered the Colossians to cause second imprisonment, appeared so great to his astheir epistle to be read in the church of the Laodi-sistants, that most of them fled from the city. Luke ceans, to which it is supposed the Ephesians, agree- || alone remained with him: and even he was so intiably to the directions given them by Tychicus, sent midated, that he durst not stand by him when he a copy of their epistle. If this conjecture be right, made his first answer, 2 Tim. iv. 11, 16. From this the epistle to the Ephesians is the letter from Lao-epistle we learn, also, that although the apostle's asdicea, which the Colossians were ordered to read in their church, Col. iv. 16.

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sistants, terrified with the danger that threatened him, forsook him and fled, he was not altogether without consolation. For the brethren of Rome came to him privately, and ministered to him, as we learn from his salutation to Timothy, 2 Tim. iv. 21.

It must now be observed, that Paul, during his two years' confinement at Rome, having preached the gospel with great success, and edified the churches f Greece and Asia by the divinely-inspired letters which he wrote during that period, was at length released, probably in the spring of A. D. 65, answering|| to the ninth year of Nero. Luke, indeed, has not directly mentioned Paul's release; but by limiting his confinement to two years, he has intimated that he was then set at liberty. His confinement at Rome issued thus favourably through the goodness of his cause, and through the intercession of some powerful friends in Cesar's family, who had embraced the Christian faith, and who were greatly interested in the fortune of one who was so strong a pillar of the new religion which they had espoused.

It is universally agreed, among all ancient writers, who mention his death, that he was beheaded at Aquæ Salviæ, three miles from Rome; for, being free of that city, he could not be crucified, as Peter was, according to the tradition of the Latin Church, on the very same day. It is said, and there is great reason to believe it, that this glorious confessor gave his head to the fatal stroke with the greatest cheerfulness, and also that he was buried in the Via Ostiensis, two miles from Rome, where Constantine the Great erected a church to his memory, A. D. 318, which was successively repaired and beautified by Theodosius the Great, and the Empress Placidia. But his most glorious monument remains in his imSome have questioned whether he ever returned mortal writings, which come next under our consiinto the east again, which yet, from Philem., verse deration: and the author of this work will esteem it 22, and Heb. xiii. 23, he seems to have expected. || one of the greatest honours which can be conferred Clemens Romanus (ad Cor. epist. i. cap. 5) expressly upon him, and the most important service his pen tells us, that he preached in the west, and that to its can perform for the church of Christ, to be, in any utmost bounds, which must at least include Spain, measure, instrumental in illustrating them, and renwhither he intended to go, Rom. xv. 24, 25. Theo- dering them more edifying than they had been bedoret adds, that he went to the islands of the sea, and || fore to the reader.

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