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A

SECOND COURSE OF LECTURES

ON THE

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES,

PREACHED IN THE

PARISH CHURCH OF ST. BOTOLPH, BISHOPSGATE,

IN LENT, 1828.

LECTURES

ON

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.

LECTURE VII.

EPHES. iii. 8.

Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.

IN

my last course of Lent Lectures upon the Acts of the Apostles, I considered the principal transactions of those holy men for the space of about eleven years, from the ascension of Jesus Christ, to the persecution begun by Herod; at the same time giving a general sketch of the formation and constitution of the primitive Church of Christ; the model and pattern, by which, as far as circumstances will permit, all the branches of his universal Church ought to be framed and

governed. The remaining portion of the history, which is almost entirely confined to the personal ministry of St. Paul, will form the subject of my present course; although I shall not preclude myself from reverting to such topics, as were incidentally handled before, by way of connecting one set of observations with the other, and of enlarging and retouching the portrait, already drawn, of the Church in its infant state.

I will commence with an observation upon the credibility of the sacred historian, whose narrative is under our consideration. St. Luke relates, in the Acts of the Apostles, a series of transactions, which happened in his own time: and, therefore, when he wrote, a great number of persons must have been living, who were able at once to confirm, or to deny, the truth of his relations. He is very particular in mentioning the names of places, where the various incidents which he records, occurred, and of the persons concerned in them. Many of those very persons were alive, when his history was written, and could be immediately appealed to for testimony. Some of them were men of high rank and station, who had constantly about them many witnesses of their proceedings; and of the occurrences themselves, some were of so striking and remarkable

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