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whether agreeable or contrary to the preachers whom they hear; and, finding a passage or two which speaks, as they think, a contrary language, they stop and go no further, concluding that the preacher is wrong; these Bereans compared Scripture with Scripture, examined each passage in its connexion, gave to its words their obvious meaning, and kept steadily in view the analogy of faith. They avoided rashness of decision on the one hand, and credulity of reception on the other, in any of their decisions.

They were not satisfied with the ordinary daily reading of the Scriptures to their families, to which their standing, as members of the Jewish Church, obligated them; but they embraced every leisure moment which they enjoyed to employ in this work. They not only searched individually, but compared the result of their individual examinations, in social meetings. They took nothing for granted, received nothing upon the mere testimony of the apostles. They used the intelligent nature with which God had blessed them, to examine his own word. Their previous views, their habits, their occupations, the opinion of others, the risk of being

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abused and slandered for attending to these men "who turned the world upside down," did not deter them from searching the Scriptures whether these things were so. In thus doing, the Spirit of God has eulogized them.

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Thirdly, They were more noble than those of Thessalonica.

"There is," says Whitby," a peculiar "spirit and propriety in this expression, as "the Jews boasted they were free and no"ble by virtue of their descent from Abra"ham and other patriarchs. These Be

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reans, imitating the rational faith of their "great progenitor, were his more genuine offspring." Two leading ideas are included in the eulogy which the Spirit of God pronounces here upon the Bereans.

(1.) They were more open to conviction, than the Thessalonican Jews; "wil"ling to hear reason, to admit the force of it, "and to subscribe to that which appeared to "them to be truth, though it was contrary to "their former sentiments"."

(2.) They conducted themselves with more candour towards those who were not d Henty on the text.

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of their mind; regarding them as entitled to respect and to attention, reluctant to condemn them because they were opposed, and disposed to give them full justice so far as they could, though it might be at the expense of their former prejudices.

To understand more fully the noble spirit of these Berean Jews, it ought to be remembered, that "this sect," to which the apostles belonged, was every where spoken against; that it was proscribed by the chief priests and rulers at Jerusalem, and that its triumph was connected with the destruction of the Jewish polity and worship. They who are in the habit of contemplating the influence of political and religious attachment will readily perceive the propriety of the praise which is given to the Bereans. In them we have a rare, but most sublime instance of men rising above the prejudices of education, the force of habit, the bigotry of sect, the current of opposition; and upon principles of sound wisdom, as well as religious equity, rendering to men that which is their due; hearing them advance doctrines contrary to their own; and examining those

doctrines by the test to which their advocates have referred them for trial.

This conduct, the Holy Spirit informs us, the Jews at Thessalonica did not display. This brings me,

II. To unfold the causes of their rejection of the doctrine of the apostles.

They did so immediately, giving themselves no time to think, or examine, or deliberate, or judge. Although they professed to believe the Scriptures, they did not resort to those Scriptures for their own information. They had been, no doubt, instructed in the religion of the Jews, as it was then regarded by the multitude. The prevalent mistakes of their countrymen had been embraced by them. They had much zeal for the law, but scarcely any for the They knew little of

real honour of God.

the meaning of their ceremonies, though they were slaves to them. The whole of their worship had degenerated into a senseless superstition. The more circumscribed their information concerning the substance of the Scriptures, the more determined was their attachment to the external ritual, pre

scribed in the law given by Moses. They acted under the influence of prejudice, pride, presumption, and sin.

1. Prejudice is a judgment which the mind forms upon a subject, without suitable examination, or whilst it is partially inclined to one side of a question which the subject originates. Under its influence no man can become really wise or great. He will remain ignorant of many things truly useful, and display some of the most humiliating defects of human character. Its effects in religion are injurious to a person's comfort, if he be a believer, and to his hopes of future happiness, if he be an unbeliever. Many are the examples which the Scriptures, especially the history of Christ and his apostles, afford us, of its deleterious effects upon the best interests of men. Guided by its dictates, the Jews of Thessalonica would not search their own Scriptures to ascertain the correctness of the apostles' doctrines; and cherishing the mistaken view of the perpetuity of the legal dispensation, they rejected the claims of the Gospel.

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