164 hOU.^ PAULl-^TiE 



ed not set the city in an uproar, and assaulted the house of 

 Jason, where Paul and his companions lodged ; that the 

 consequence of this outrage was, that " the brethren imme- 

 diately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea." 

 Acts 17 : 1-10. From the mention of his preaching three 

 Sabbath-days in the Jewish synagogue, and from the want 

 of any further specification of his ministry, it has usually 

 Dccn taken for granted that Paul did not continue at Thes- 

 salonica more than three weeks. This, however, is inferred 

 without necessity. It appears to have been St. Paul's prac- 

 tice, in almost every place that he came to, upon his first 

 arrival to repair to the synagogue. He thought himself 

 bound to propose the gospel to the Jews first, agreeably to 

 what he declared at Antioch in Pisidia : " It Avas necessary 

 that the word of God should first have been spoken to you." 

 Acts 13 : 46. If the Jews rejected his ministry, he quitted 

 the synagogue and betook himself to a Gentile audience. 

 At Corinth, upon his first coming there, he reasoned in the 

 synagogue every Sabbath; "but when the Jews opposed 

 themselves, and blasphemed," he departed thence, expressly 

 telling them, " From henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles ;" 

 and he remained in that city "a year and six months." 

 Acts 18 : 6-11. At Ephesus, in hke manner, for the space oi 

 three months he went into the synagogue ; but " when divers 

 were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way 

 before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated 

 the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus. 

 And this continued by the space of two years." Acts 19:9, 

 10. Upon inspecting the history, I see nothing in it which 

 negatives the supposition that St. Paul pursued the same 

 plan at Thessalonica which he adopted in other places ; and 

 that, though he resorted to the synagogue only three Sabbath- 

 days, yet he remained in the city and in the exercise of his 

 ministry among the Gentile citizens much longer ; and until 

 the success of his preaching had provoked the Jews to excite 

 the tumult and insurrection by which he was driven away 



