no thought beforehand what ye fhall fpeak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever fhall be given you in that hour, that speak ye; for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost. St Luke faith, xxi. 12-15. But before all these they shall lay their hands on you, and perfecute you, delivering you up to the Synagogue, and into prifons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's fake. And it fhall turn to you for a teftimony. Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before, what ye fhall answer. For I will give you a mouth and wifdom, which all your adverfaries fhall not be able to gainfay nor refift.' We need look no farther than the Acts of the Apostles for the completion of thefe particulars. There are inftances enow of the sufferings of fome Christians, and of the death of others. Some are delivered to councils,' as Peter and John, iv. 5, &c. Some are brought before rulers and kings,' as Paul before Gallio, xxviii. 12. Felix, xxiv. Feftus and Agrippa, xxv. Some have a mouth and wisdom which all their adverfaries were notable to gainsay nor refift,' as it is faid of Stephen, vi. 18. that they were not able to refift the wisdom and the spirit by which he fpake,' and Paul made even Felix to trembles xxiv. 25. and the gofpel ftill prevailed against all oppofition and perfecution whatever. Some are imprisoned, as Peter and John, iv. 3. Some are beaten, as Paul and Silas, xvi. 23. Some are put to death,' as Stephen, vii. 59 and James the brother of John, xii. 2. But if we would look farther, we have a more melancholy proof of the truth of this prediction, in the perfecutions under Nero, in which (besides numberlefs other Chriftians) fell thofe two great champions of our faith, St Peter and St Paul. And it was nominis prælium, as Tertullian calleth it; it was a war against the very name. Though a man was poffeffed of every human virtue, yet it was crime enough if he was a Chriftian; so true were our Saviour's words, that they should be hated of all nations for his name's fake.' S But they were not only to be hated of all nations, but were also to be betrayed by apoftates and traitors of their own brethren, ver. 10. And then shall many be offended, s Eufeb. Ecclef. Hift. Lib. 2. Cap. 25. and 6 and shall betray one another, and fhall hate one another.' By reafon of perfecution many fhall be offended,' and apostatize from the faith; as particularly thofe mentioned by St Paul in his fecond Epiftle to Timothy, i. 15. Phygelles and Hermogenes, who with many others in Afia turned away from him,' and, vi. 10. Demas who forfook him, having loved this prefent world.' But they fhall not only apoftatize from the faith, but also fhall betray one another, and fhall hate one another. To il luftrate this point we need only cite a fentence out of Tacitus fpeaking of the perfecution under Nero. At first, fays he, feveral were feized who confeffed, and then by their difcovery a great multitude of others were convicted and barbarously executed. False teachers too, and falfe prophets were to infeft the church, ver. 11. "And many falfe prophets fhall rife, and fhall deceive many.' Such particularly was Simon Magus, and his followers the Gnoftics were very numerous. Such alfo were the Judaizing teachers, falfe apoftles, as they are called by St Paul, 2 Cor. xi. 13. deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Chrift." Such alfo were Hymeneus and Philetus,' of whom the apoftle complains, 2 Tim, ii. 17, 18. that they affirmed the te urrection to be part already, and overthrew the faith of fome.' 1 The genuine fruit and effect of thofe evils was lukewarmnefs and coolness among Chriftians, ver. 12. · And becaufe iniquity thall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. By reafon of thefe trials and perfecutions from without, and these apoftafies and falfe prophets from within, the love of many to Christ and his doctrine, and alfo their love to one another, fhall wax cold. Some fhall openly defert the faith, (as ver. 10), others fhall corrupt it, (as ver. 11.), and others again (as here) fhall grow indifferent to it. And (not to mention other inftances) who can hear St Paul complaining at Rome, 2 Tim. iv. 16. that at his firft anfwer no man ftood with him, but all men forfook him;' who can hear the divine author of the Epistle to the Hebrews exhorting them, x. 25. not to forfake " Primo correpti qui fatebantur, deinde indicio eorum multitudo ingens convicti funt. Et pereuntibus addita ludibria, &c. Tacit. Annal. Lib. 15. p. 128. Edit. Lipfii. forfake the affembling of themselves together, as the manner of fome is; and not conclude the event to have fufficiently justified our Saviour's prediction? But he that fhall endure unto the end;' ver. 13. but he who shall not be terrified by thefe trials and perfecu tions; he who fhall neither apoftatize from the faith himfelf, nor be feduced by others; he who fhall not be afhamed to profefs his faith in Chrift, and his love to the brethren; the fame shall be faved,' faved both here and hereafter. There shall not an hair of your head perifh," as it is in St Luke: xxi. 18. and indeed it is very remarkable and was certainly a moft fignal act of providence, that none of the Chriftians perished in the deftruction of Jerufalem. So true and prophetic alfo was that affertion of St Peter upon this fame occafion, 2 Pet. ii. 9. • The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations.' The But notwithstanding the perfecutions and calamities of the Christians, there was to be an universal publication of the Gofpel before the destruction of Jerufalem, ver. 14. And this gospel of the kingdom' (this gofpel of the kingdom of God) fhall be preached in all the world, for a witnefs unto all nations, and then shall the end come;' and then fhall the deftruction of Jerufalem and the end of the Jewish polity come to pafs; when all nations fhall be or may be convinced of the crying fin of the Jews in crucifying the Lord of glory, and of the juftice of God's judgments upon them for it. Acts of the Apostles contain only a fmall part of the hiftory of a fmall part of the Apoftles; and yet even in that history we fee, the gofpel was widely diffemi nated, and had taken root in the most confiderable parts of the Roman empire. As early as in the reign of Nero, the Chriftians were grown fo numerous at Rome, as to raise the jealousy of the government, and the first general perfecution was commenced against them under pretence of their having fet fire to the city, of which the emperor himself was really guilty, but willing to transfer the blame and odium upon the poor innocent Chriftians. Clement, who was a contemporary and fel * Tacit. Annal. Lib. Is low low-labourer with St Paul, fays of him in particular, that he was a preacher both in the eaft and in the west, that he taught the whole world righteousness, and travelled as far as to the utmost borders of the weft: and if fuch were the labours of one apostle, though the chiefeft of the apostles, what were the united labours of them all? It appears indeed from the writers of the history of the church, that before the deftruction of Jerufalem the gof•pel was not only preached in the leffer Afia, and Greece, and Italy, the great theatres of action then in the world; but was likewise propagated as far northward as Scythia, as far fouthward as Ethiopia, as far eastward as Parthia and India, as far weftward as Spain and Britain. Our ancestors of this ifland feem to have lain as remote from the scene of our Saviour's actions as almost any nation, and were a rough inhofpitable people, as unlikely to receive fo civilized an inftitution as any people whatever. But yet there is a fome probability, that the gofpel was preached here by St Simon the apoftle; there is much greater probability, that it was preached here by St Paul; and there is abfolute certainty, that Chriftianity was planted in this country, in the days of the apoftles, before the deAtruction of Jerufalem. Agreeably to this b Eufebius informs us, that the apoftles preached the gospel in all the world; and fome of them paffed beyond the ocean to the Britannic ifles. Theodoret likewife affirms, that the apostles had induced every nation and kind of men to embrace the gospel, and among the converted nations he reckons pavticularly the Britons. St Paul himfelf in his Epiftle to the Coloffians, i. 6, 23. fpeaketh of the gofpel's Z c being Η κηρυξ γενόμενος εν τε τη ανατολη και εν τη δύσει, δικαιοσυνην διδαξας ότ λον τον κόσμον, και επί το τέρμα της δυσίως ελθών. Praeco fa&tus in oriente ac occidente.-totum mundum docens juftitiam, et ad occidentis terminum veniens. Clem. Epift. ad Corinth. I. Chap. 5. z Britannos hofpitibus feros. Hor. Od. III. IV. 33. a See Stillingfleet's Origines Britannicae. Cap. 1, Collier's Ecclef. Hift. Book 1. Ufferii Britann. Ecclef. Antiquitates, Cap. 1, &c. De Ο ὑπερ τον ωκεανον παρέλθειν επι τας καλεμένας Βρετανικας νησάς.-trans oceanum evafiffe, ad eas infulas quae Britannicae vocantur. monf. Evangel. Lib. 3. Cap. 5. p. 112. Edit. Paris, 1628. και c Theod. Serm. 9. Tom. 4. p. 610. Edit. Paris 1642. Kai & μτον Ρωμαϊκή αλλα και -Βρεττανίας-και απαξαπλως παν είνα yevos avec www-x. T. x. neque folum Romanos--fed et-Britannos atque, ut femel dicam,omne hominum genus nationefque omnes,&c. being come into all the world, and preached to every creature under heaven :' and in his Epistle to the Romans, x. 18. very elegantly applies to the lights of the church what the Pfalmift faid of the lights of heaven, their found went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.' But how improbable, and in all human appearance impoffible was it, that a few poor fishermen and fuch inferior illiterate perfons fhould propagate and eftablish a new religion, in fo fhort a fpace of time, throughout the world? Doubtless it was not man's but God's work, and from the fame divine spirit proceeded both the prophecy and the completion! We have deduced the prophecies as low as to the fiege of Jerufalem; and now let us ftop to make a few short reflections upon what hath been said. The firft reflection that naturally occurs, is the ftrange and furprifing manner in which thefe prophecies have been fulfilled, and the great argument that may thence be drawn from the truth of our Saviour's divine miffion: but we fhall have fitter opportunity for inlarging upon this hereafter. Another reflection we may make on the fincerity and ingenuity of Chrift, and the courage and conftancy of his difciples. Had Jefus been an impoftor, he would, like all other impoftors, have fed his followers with fair hopes and promifes: but on the contrary we fee, that he denounced perfecution to be the lot of his difciples, he pointeth out to them the difficulties they muft encounter, the fiery trials they muft undergo; and yet they did not therefore ftagger in their faith, they did not therefore, like faint-hearted foldiers, forfake their colours and defert his fervice. One hardly knoweth whom to admire most, him for dealing fo plainly with them, or them for adhering fo fteadily to him. Such inftances are rarely found of opennefs on one fide, and of fidelity on the other. A third reflection we may make on the fudden and amazing progrefs of the Gofpel, that it fhould fpread fo far and fo wide before the deftruction of Jerufalem. The greatnefs of the work that was wrought, the meanness of the inftruments which wrought it, and the fhort time that it was wrought in, must force all confidering men to fay, Pfal. cxviii. 23. This is the Lord's doing, it is marvellous |