Hitherto the preaching of the Gospel had been confined to Jews, to Jewish proselytes, and to Samaritans.  And I cannot forbear from setting down in this place an observation of Mr. Bryant, which appears to me to be perfectly well founded;—­“The Jews still remain:  but how seldom is it that we can make a single proselyte!  There is reason to think, that there were more converted by the apostles in one day than have since been won over in the last thousand years.” (Bryant on the Truth of the Christian Religion, p. 112.) It was not yet known to the apostles that they were at liberty to propose the religion to mankind at large.  That “mystery,” as Saint Paul calls it, (Eph. iii. 3—­6.) and as it then was, was revealed to Peter by an especial miracle.  It appears to have been (Benson, book ii. p. 236.) about seven years after Christ’s ascension that the Gospel was preached to the Gentiles of Cesarea.  A year after this a great multitude of Gentiles were converted at Antioch in Syria.  The expressions employed by the historian are these:—­“A great number believed, and turned to the Lord;” “much people was added unto the Lord;” “the apostles Barnabas and Paul taught much people.” (Acts xi. 21, 24, 26.) Upon Herod’s death, which happened in the next year, (Benson, book ii, p. 289.) it is observed, that “the word of God grew and multiplied.” (Acts xii. 24.) Three years from this time, upon the preaching of Paul at Iconium, the metropolis of Lycaonia, “a great multitude both of Jews and Greeks believed:”  (Acts xiv. 1.) and afterwards, in the course of this very progress, he is represented as “making many disciples” at Derbe, a principal city in the same district.  Three years (Benson’s History of Christ, book iii. p. 50.) after this, which brings us to sixteen after the ascension, the apostles wrote a public letter from Jerusalem to the Gentile converts in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia, with which letter Paul travelled through these countries, and found the churches “established in the faith, and increasing in number daily.” (Acts xvi. 5.) From Asia the apostle proceeded into Greece, where, soon after his arrival in Macedonia, we find him at Thessalonica:  in which city, “some of the Jews believed, and of the devout Greeks a great multitude.” (Acts xvii. 4.) We meet also here with an accidental hint of the general progress of the Christian mission, in the exclamation of the tumultuous Jews of Thessalonica, “that they who had turned the world upside down were come thither also.” (Acts xvii. 6.) At Berea, the next city at which Saint Paul arrives, the historian, who was present, inform us that “many of the Jews believed.” (Acts xvii. 12.) The next year and a half of Saint Paul’s ministry was spent at Corinth.  Of his success in that city we receive the following intimations; “that many of the Corinthians believed and were baptized;” and “that it was revealed to the Apostle by Christ, that be had much people in that city.” (Acts xviii, 8—­10.) Within less than a year after