ST. PAUL PREACHES AT ATHENS-CHAP. XII.

247

Julian Pe.

25 Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though Athens. riod, 4762. Volgar Æra, If those hypotheses will not please, the last is perhaps more 51.

plausible, that the universe originated from the eternal laws of
motion and matter. Such are the inconsistencies to which men
are compelled to have recourse, when they forsake the fountain
of living waters, and hew out to themselves the broken cisterns
of false philosophy and science. If there are laws to matter, who
is the lawgiver? As every house is builded by some man, so He
who built all things is God: this is the only rational conclusion
of Scripture and commun sense, which have never yet been at
variance.

Setting aside, therefore, all ideas of the eternity of matter,
wbether in its present or in any other state, we reccive the losser
difficulty-tbat God reigned alone supreme before the borders of
the world stood, or the innumerable company of angels were
gathered together.

The Christian, then, who believes that a period has been when the Omnipotent alone existed, will not shrink from the questions of the boldest inquirer (c). He will not shrink from the question-If the world were made by a Deity, why was it not made by him sooner? or since it was unmade, why did He make it at all ? Cur mundi ædificator repente extiterit innumerabilia ante sæcula dormierit (d)? How came this builder and architect of the world, to start up on a sudden, after he had slept for infinite ages, and bethink himself of making a world ? Was something wanting to his happiness? Was he completely happy without this new world, then “wanting nothing," he made superfluous things(e)?

To these, and all such questions, we may answer-Although God was perfectly happy in himself, he created the world from bis overflowing goodness, that other beings, from the archangel to the lowest scale of created life, might be happy likewise. He created all things for his own glory, and of that glory the happiness of sentient beings is permitted to form a part; if they bad not been created, the sum of happiness would bave been diminished. To the question if God's goodness were the cause of his making the world, why was it not made sooner? we might with equal propriety inquiré, why was not the world an eternal emanation from an eternal cause? why was it not self-existent? As far as our faculties can comprehend God, we shall find that there is as great an impossibility that the world should be eternal, as that two and two should make five. If it was created, it must have had a beginning. Time, which is well defined by Locke to be only a measured portion of eternity, began at the commencement of the world ; before which there was no sooner or later, which are indeed but terms to express the sucoession of ideas in the minds of tipite beings. With the Deity is neither change, contingency, nor succession. To him the world was equally present, whether made or unmade. Space is the theatre, and eternity the duration of his agency in the universe; neither may we comprehend if any other causes may influence the divine will, than those which bave been revealed to us. In this stage of our existence we are enabled to discover, both from revelation and reason, that the visible world was commanded to exist, and it existed. The curiosity of presumption which proposes the inquiry, for what reason the world was created a millenary earlier or later, cannot be satisfied with any answers of speculative philosophy

Wher, however, we have established the certainty of the croation of the world; we are taught that the world itself is one great delusion, thal matter does not exist.

Julian Pe. he needed any thing ; seeing he giveth to all, life, and Athens. riod, 4762. breath, and all things; Vulgar Æra, 51.

“ The existence of bodies," says Berkeloy, "out of the mind perceiving them, is not only impossible, and a contradiction in terms, but were it possible, and even real, it were impossible we should ever know it.” Or, in other words, when I am not in London, London does not exist. Religion, affection, law, duty, science, and all the arts of life, are founded on facts; but of the certainty that any one single fact has taken place, wbich the mind has not perceived, we have no demonstration, and consequently our belief in their reality may be erroneous.

“ Thus the wisdom of pbilosophy is set in opposition to the common sense of mankind. Philosophy pretends to demon. strate that there can be no material world ; that every object is merely a sensation in the mind, or an image of those sensations in the memory, and imagination; having, like pain and joy, no existence, unless thought of. Common sense can conceive no otherwise of this opinion than a kind of metaphysical lunacy, and concludes that too much learning is apt to make men mad (f )," &c. &c. It is, indeed, with some difficulty that men of sober judgment, unsophisticated by the delusions of these grave absurdities, can believe that men of talent and learning have been thus misled.

The arguments by which the system of Berkeley is defended are to be found in Reid's Inquiry into the Human Mind; Beattie on the Immutability of Truth; the Philosophical Essays of Dugald Stewart, with the Notes and Illustrations, p. 518, 549. Ist edit. 4to. and the Appendix to part second of Doddridge's Lectures, edited by Kippis. The subject is too extensive to be entered upon largely in this place. I shall content myself with mentioning the quibble upon which the whole controversy hinges.

All our knowledge, says Berkeley, is gained by the senses : but by the senses, we have knowledge of nothing, but our sensations: but our sensations are qualities of the mind, and have no resemblance therefore to any thing inanimate.

Tbis system consounds two things, which are entirely distinct from each other : sensation and perception. Extension, figure, motion, are ideas of sensation, or they are not. If they are sensations only, Berkeley cannot be refuted, though he may be rejected: if they are however ideas, accompanying sensations, as Hutchicson describes them, and Reid asserts, the ideal system is the dream of a visionary.

The word properties is generally used to express with greater accuracy the idea we may form of the creation of the world from nothing. Matter, says Locke, is the adherence of certain qualities in some unknown substratum. The idea of this imagined substratum is now exploded. If we define matter to be the adherence of properties, we may understand in what inanner a visible creation might be formed, wbere no material substance had hitherto existed. God commanded this union of properties to take place. Extension, solidity, and motion, were combined with colour, variety, and order. As modern chemistry can dissolvo water into its component airs, and the hardest substances into gases invisible to the human eye, and by otbor processes can change that which was before invisible to the eye, and imperceptible to the touch, into hard, solid (9) and tangible bodies ; so, to compare great things with small, it is easily conceivable that Omnipotence might call every object of our senses to life, without previous material, as the chemist presents to the two senses of sight and touch an object bitherto imperccplible to

ST. PAUL PREACHES AT ATHENS--CHAP. XII.

249

Julian Pe- 26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men, for Athens. riod, 4762. Valgar Æra,

to dwell on all the face of the earth ; and hath determined 51, the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habi

tation ;

27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply 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".

both. As a rustic could not comprehend bow the man of science
could perform this apparent miracle, neither can the most stu-
dious researches of the learned penetrate the veil which con-
ceals the wisdom of Omnipotence. There is however some slight
analogy between the manner in which the limited skill of an
educated man can astonish an ignorant mind, and that incom-
prehepsible wisdom, before which the genius of Newton, and
the sagacity of Aristotle, are more inforior than the prattlings
of an infant to the sublimest efforts of these lofty intellects.

(a) See Horpe's Critical Introduct. vol. i. p. 241 ; but on the subject of
the altar erected at Athens to the unknown God, see Wolfius, Curæ Philo-
log. in loc. Witsius, Meletem Leidens. DeVit. Pauli, p. 84. Whitby, and
the references in Kuinoel, where the quotations from Lucian, Philos-
tratus, Diogenes, Laertius, and Jerome, who all mention this altar, are
collected. (6) Stillingfleet's Origines Sacræ, b. iii. chap. 2. sec. 2.
p. 266. fol. edit. (c) Cudworth's Intellectual System, b. i. ch. 2. sec. 19.
(d) Velleius ap. Cicer. de natura Deorum, lib. i. cap. 9. (e) undèv
ελλείπων κεναΐς έμελλεν επιχειρείν πραξέσι-ap. Cudworth, where
see much more on this intereresting subject, b.i. ch. 5. (1) Vide Reid
on the Human Mind, ch. v. sec. 7. On the Existence of the Material
World. Reid has written an admirable book. He does not think it ne-
cessary to be a Sceptic, to prove bis right to the title of philosopher.
(9) Hardness is the property which resists the touch with greater
power. Solidity, that by which one body excludes another from the
place it occupies. Gold and water are equally solid : though gold is
harder than water. Vide Locke. (h) Vide the quotations from Hutche-
sonCrouzaz, (the man who was so unjustly ridiculed by Pope)-Bax-
ter's Immateriality of the Soul, and from D'Alembert's Elemens de la
Philosophie, article Metaphysique ; with the subsequent observations of
Mr. Dugald Stewart, in note F. to the Pbilosophical Essays, p. 552.

31 Bishop Barrington suggests that this quotation might have
been made, with a slight variation, from the beautiful hymn of
Cleanthes to the Supreme Boing, and not, as is generally sup-
posed, from Aratus. He refers to H. Steph. Poesis Philosoph.
p. 19. and Fabricii Bibl. Græc. vol. ii. p. 397. See also Cud-
wortb's Intellec. System, vol. i. 4to. edit. (Birch's), p. 432. The
passage is from the fourth line-

Κυδίς αθανάτων, πολυώνυμε, παγκρατές αιεί
Ζεύς, φύσεως αρχηγέ νόμο μετά πάντα κυβερνών
Χαίρε. Σε γάρ πάσι θέμις θνητοίσι προσαυδάν.
'Εκ σου γαρ γένος εσμεν, ήχο μίμημα λαχόντες

Μούνoν, όσα ζώει τε και έρπει θνήτ' επί γαίαν.
Duport, the once celebralcd Greck professor, who translated
the Psalms into Greek verso, has translated this hymn into very
elegant Latin verse. I subjoin his version of the above lincs.

Magne Pater Divum, cui nomina mulla sed una,
Omnipotens semper virtus, tu Jupiter autor
Naturæ, certà qui singula lege gubernas,

Julian Pe- 29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we Athens. riod, 4762. ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or Vulgar Æra, 51. silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.

30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at ; but now commandeth all men every where to repent :

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.

32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the
dead, some mocked ; and others said, We will hear thee
again of this matter.
33 So Paul departed from among

them.
34 Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed :
among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a
woman named Damaris, and others with them.

SECTION XIII.
From Athens St. Paul proceeds to Corinth, where he is

reduced to labour for his Support-Silas and Timothy
join him at Corinth.

ACTS xviii. 1-5.
1 After these things, Paul departed from Athens, and Corinti.
came to Corinth :

2 And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla ; (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome 39:) and came unto them.

Rex salve. Te nempe licet mortalibus ægris
Canctis compellare ; omnes namque tua propago
Nos sumus, æternæ quasi imago vocis, et echo

Tantum, quotquot humi spirantes repimus.
32 Suetonius bas made mention (a) of this banishment, with-
out taking notice of the time of it. Neither Tacitus, Josephus,
nor Dionysius, say any thing of it. It is certain Claudius was
pot partial to the Jews; he would have driven (Dion. lib. 60.
p. 667.) them out in the beginning of his reign, had be not been
in fear of a disturbance, for they were very numerous.

The
edicts which he at first made in their favour, were the effect of
his esteem and gratitude to Agrippa. (Joseph. Antiq. lib. 15.
c. 4.) We cannot perceive, by any means, that they excited any
troubles in Rome during the reign of Claudius. There were
some under the government of Cumanus, in Judea (b), and, if
it were on that account that Claudius banished them, this ex.
pulsion will have been about the year 51. If they were banished
at the time the astrologers were, (Set. Calvisi ad An. Pear-
son Annal. Paul, p. 12.) it will have been in 52. But was
it not, perhaps, to appease (e) the Roman citizens, oppressed by
an extreme famine in Rome (d) in the year 51 ? Under similar
circumstances, the emperors obliged every foreigner to leave
Rome. If this conjecture be true, wc sball see the reason why
neither Josephus nor Tacitus have mentioned this expulsion of
the Jews. There was nothing that fixed any stigma upon them,

SILAS AND TIMOTHY JOIN ST. PAUL-CHAP. XII.

251

51.

Jalian Pe. 3 And because he was of the same craft, he abode with Corinth. riod, 4762, them, and wrought : for by their occupation they were Volgar Era,

tent-makers.

4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.

5 And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit 33, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ.

since it was common to all otber foreigners who dwelt in Rome.
However it may be, St. Paul camc to Corinth about the year 51:
and the proconsulship of Gallio (e), before whom the apostle
appeared, agrees with this period.

(a) Jadæos Impulsore Chresto assidae tumultantes Roma expulit Sue-
ton in Claudio, c. 26. If Suetonius here understood our Lord Jesus
Christ, he has committed a very gross error; but if he understood any
chief of the Jews, whom he named Chrestus, it is a person entirely un-
known to the historians. (6) Cumanus succeeded Tiberius Alexander
at the time of the death of Herod, king of Calchis.

This prince
died the eighth of Claudius. Joseph. Antiq. lib. xx. c. 3. or the War of
the Jews, lib. ii. c. 11. The troubles in Judea must have happened in
50 or 51. Joseph. Antiq. lib. xxii. c.5. But it is very hard to attribute
this expulsion of the Jews to the troubles of Judea. Josephus and Ta-
citus, who mention the distarbances, would have said what was the pu-
nishment of them. Tacit. Annal. lib. xii. c. 54. Moreover, Claudius, who
punished Cumanus, who sacrificed the tribune Celer to the Jews, would
he have banished them from Rome, for a matter which was of service to
them? (c) This is the opinion of H. de Valois. Auct. in Euseb. Hist.
Eccl. lib. ii. 2. 28. Augustus, says this author, had done the same, and
bis saccessors very often made use of the same practice, when Rome
was affected with a famine. (d) There was an excessive famine at Rome
in the year 51, insomuch that the people being very much pressed,
Claudius could scarcely save himself in his palace. (e) Art. xviii. v. 12.
Claudius banished Seneca, the brother of Gallio. He recalled Seneca as
soon as he married Agrippina, which was in the ninth year of bis reign.
Tacitus Ann. lib. xii. c. 8. It is very probable, indeed, that this was
not till after Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, Pears. Ann. p. 13.

33 The present reading of this passage in the Greek vulgate,
is συνείχετο τω πνεύματι. Griesbach admits into the text, in-
stead of τω πνεύματι, τώ λόγω, on the authority of the Alex-
andrian and other Mss. The passage, therefore, with this
reading, may mean, He was affected with the report which Silas
and Timothy had brought to bim from Macedonia. The Vul-
gate translates it, instabat verbo, pressed or urged the word.
The Jate Dr. Gosset would read dóyw, with Griesbach, and
translate the passage with Krebsius-magnà orationis vi dis-
putabat. Bishop Pearce would paraphrase the passage thus:--
" And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia,
Paul set himself together with them, wholly to the word ; i.e.
he was fully employed now that he had their assistance in
preaching the Gospel, (called word, in chap. iv. 4. xxvi. 6. 32.
and xvii. 11.) St. Luke seems to have intended to express here
something relating to St. Paul, which was the consequence of
the coming of Silas and Timotheus. We may therefore regard
both these interpretations as correct. He pressed, or urged
the word, aster the arrival of Silas and Timothy, to the Jews
in bis preaching; and in his great anxiety on their account, he
enforced it in bis Epistle to the Thessalonians.