assuring them they should all escape. When they had finished their repast, they lightened the ship of those goods which still remained on board, and endeavoured to put into a small creek they had discovered at a little distance; but falling into a place where two seas met, the ship ran aground, the forepart remaining immovable, but the after part was demolished by the waves: awakened with the danger they were in, the soldiers were desirous of killing the prisoners, lest any of them should make their escape: but the centurion willing to save Paul, refused his consent, commanding that every one should shift for himself in the best method he could. Accordingly, some by swimming, and others by broken pieces of the ship, they all, to the number two hundred threescore, and sixteen, got to shore in safety.

Agreeable to St. Paul's prediction, the country on which they were cast, was an island called Melita, now Malta, situated in the Lybian sea, between Syracuse and Africa. Here they met with great civility from a barbarous set of people, and the plain acknowledgments of a divine justice written on the naked and uninstructed minds of men; they treated them with great humanity, entertaining them with all the necessary accommodations: but while St. Paul was laying a few sticks on the fire, a viper enlivened by the heat, came from amongst the wood and fastened on his hand. On seeing this, the inhabitants of the island concluded, that he certainly was some notorious murderer, whom the divine vengeance, though it suffered him to escape the sea, had reserved for a more public and solemn execution: but when they saw him shake off the venomous creature into the fire, and no manner of harm ensue, they changed their sentiments, and cried out, that he was a God: so easily are light and credulous minds transported from one extreme to another according to the difference of occurrences.

The residence of Publius, the governor of the island

was not far from the place were they were shipwrecked: he entertained this unfortunate company with great hospitality for three days; in acknowledgment of which St. Paul by his prayers, and the imposition of his hands, recovered his father from a fever and bloody-flux; and restored several others of the inhabitants, afflicted with different diseases, to their former health and strength; in consequence of which, they not only shewed him the greatest marks of their esteem, but furnished both him and his company with all the necessaries proper for the rest of their voyage.

After three months stay in this island, the centurion with his charge went on board the Castor and Pollux, a ship of Alexandria, bound to Italy. They put in at Syracuse, where they tarried three days, sailed from thence to Regium, and so to Puteoli, where they landed; and finding some Christians there, staid at their request a week with them, and then set forward on their journey to Rome. The Christians of this city, hearing of the apostle's coming, went to meet him as far as the Three Taverns, about thirty miles from Rome, and others as far as the Apii Forum, fifty-one miles distant from the capital: they kindly embraced each other, and the liberty he saw the Christians enjoy at Rome, greatly tended to enliven the spirits of the apostle. By these Christians he was conducted in a kind of triumph into the city, where, at their arri val, the rest of the prisoners were delivered to the captain of the guard, and by him disposed in the common prison; but St. Paul, probably by the intercession of Julius, was permitted to reside in a private house, with only one soldier to guard him.

St. Paul arriving at Rome, he sent, after he had been there three days, for the heads of the Jewish consistory in that city, and related to them the cause of his coming, in the following manner: "Though I have been guilty of no violence of the laws of our religion, yet I was delivered by the Jews at Jerusalem

to the Roman governors, who more than once would have acquitted me as innocent of any capital offence; but by the perverseness of my persecutors, I was obliged to appeal unto Cæsar; not that I had any thing to accuse my nation of: I had therefore recourse to this method, merely to prove mine own innocency, and confute the allegations of my enemies."

A popular prejudice being thus removed he added, "That the true cause of his sufferings was what their own religion had taught him, the belief and expectation of a future resurrection." This speech gained greatly on their affections, and they answered, That they had received no advice concerning him, nor had any of the Jews that came from Judea brought any charge against him; but, at the same time, they desired to know what he had to say in support of the religion he embraced, it being every where decried both by Jew and Gentile. Accordingly, upon a day appointed, he discoursed with them from morning to night concerning the religion and doctrine of the holy JESUS; proving, from the promises and predictions of the Old Testament, that he was the true Messiah; but his discourse had different effects on different hearers, some being convinced, and others persisting in their infidelity; and as they were departing in some discontent at each other, the apostle told them, it was too plain that God had accomplished upon them the prophetical curse, of being left to their own wilful hardinesss and impenitency to be blind at noon-day, and to run themselves headlong into the irrecoverable ruin. That since this was the case, they must expect that he would henceforth preach to the Gentiles, who would very readily embrace the glad-tidings of the gospel, which they so scornfully rejected.

During two whole years, Paul dwelt at Rome, in a house he had hired for his own use; wherein he constantly employed himself in preaching and writing for the good of the church. He preached daily without

interruption, and with remarkable success; so that his imprisonment contributed greatly to the propagation of the gospel, and rendered him famous even in the emperor's court, where he converted several to the faith of CHRIST.

Besides others of the apostle's converts at Rome, there was one Onesimus, who had formerly been a servant to Philemon, a person of distinction in Colosse, but had run away from his master, and taken with him some things of value. Having rambled as far as Rome, he was now converted by St. Paul, and by him returned to his master, with a short recommendatory letter, earnestly desiring him to pardon him; and, notwithstanding his former faults, to treat him kindly, and use him as a brother, promising withal, that, if he had wronged or owed him any thing, he himself would repay it for him.

St. Paul's Epistle on this subject may be considered as a master-piece of eloquence, in the persuasive way; for the apostle has herein had recourse to all the considerations, which friendship, religion, piety and tenderness, can inspire, to reconcile a master to his servant; and yet some of the ancients were of opinion, that it did not deserve a place in the canon of Scripture, because it was written on a particular occasion, and with a design not so much to instruct Christians in general, as to recommend a poor fugitive servant : but though the subject of this Epistle be a private affair, yet it contains, amongst others, the following general instruction: First, that no Christian, though of the meanest condition, is to be contemned. Secondly, That Christianity does not impair the power of masters over their servants. Thirdly, that servants ought to make satisfaction for any wrong or injury done tɔ their masters, Fourthly, That masters ought to be reconciled to their servants, upon their repentance and acknowledgment of their faults, And, Fifthly, That there is at all times, a love and affection due from a VOL. f. D d

master to a servant. Who, therefore, would refuse to number an Epistle so profitable, and so instructive, with the rest of the works of this learned apostle?

The Philippians hearing of St. Paul's imprisonment at Rome, and not knowing what straits he might be reduced to, raised a contribution for him, and sent it by Epaphroditus their bishop, by whom he returned an Epistle to them, wherein he gives some account of the state of his affairs at Rome; gratefully acknowledges their kindness to him; warns them against the dangerous opinions which the Judaizing teachers began to vent amongst them; and advises them to live in continual obedience to CHRIST; to avoid disputations, delight in prayer, be courageous under affliction, united in love, and clothed with humility, in imitation of the blessed JESUS, who so far humbled himself, as to become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, for the sins of men.

The apostle had lived three years at Ephesus, preaching the gospel to the numerous inhabitants of that city, and was therefore well acquainted with the state and condition of the place; so that taking the opportunity of Tychicus's going thither he wrote his Epistle to the Ephesians, wherein he endeavours to countermine the principles and practices both of the Jews and Gentiles; to confirm them in the belief and practice of the Christian doctrine; and to instruct them fully in the great mysteries of the gospel; that redemption and justification by the death of CHRIST; their gratuitous election: their union with the Jews in the body, of which CHRIST is the head, and the glorious exaltation of that head above all creatures both spiritual and temporal; together with many excellent moral precepts, both as to the general duties of religion, and the duties of their particular relations in

life.

Though St. Paul himself had never been at Colosse,