the mind of every candid and rational man, through all future generations.

4. Let all persecutors take a lesson of caution from the example of Saul. No one could be more confident that he was doing right than he yet he found himself mistaken. How humbling must it be to human pride, to be compelled to applaud those who were once so severely condemned; how painful to the conscience of a virtuous man, to consider himself as an active agent in injuring and depreciating the friends of truth, the greatest benefactors of mankind, the favourite servants and messengers of the Most High! Let others, who are now zealous and active in opposing what they call error, and who scruple not to have recourse to violence for this purpose, beware, lest they be found one day guilty of a like mistake, and, therefore, suffer the same shame and remorse.

SECTION XIV.

Paul having provoked the enmity of the Jews, goes first to Jerusalem, and then to Tarsus.

ACTS ix. 19-31.

BEFORE I enter upon this history it is necessary that I observe, that there is a chasm here in the life of Paul, of no less than three years, of which time Luke takes no notice, but which is mentioned by the apostle in his Epistle to the Galatians, chap. i. 16, &c. where, speaking of his conversion, he says, "Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood, neither went I up to Jerusalem, to them which were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. Then, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter." These three years some suppose him to have spent in preaching the gospel to the Arabians. But, as this is no where mentioned, either by himself, or by Luke, I think it more probable, that the time was employed in acquiring a knowledge of the principal facts and doctrines of the gospel of Christ, which, he tells us, he received by immediate revelation from the Lord Jesus Christ, in reading the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, and particularly in studying the prophecies which relate to the Messiah, and in receiving miraculous gifts, with which he was endued in as extraordinary a degree as any of the apostles. Being thus qualified for his office, without any communication with the apostles, he returned to Damascus, and began to preach the gospel in that city. Here it is that Luke takes up his history again.*

19. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus.

* Lardner, article Paul, Vol. VI. p. 254, &c.

20. And straightway he preached Jesus in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.

Some of the best manuscripts and versions* read Jesus instead of Christ, in this verse, and the sense seems to require this reading. For, to preach Christ to be the Son of God would, in the apprehension of the Jews, be quite superfluous; for Christ and the Son of God signified the same thing, and were only different names for the Messiah. Thus John the evangelist says, that he wrote his gospel, that they might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Moreover, by the Son of God, the apostle did not mean a being derived in an ineffable manner from the Father, but merely a highly-favoured messenger, one who was entrusted with a more important commission than any preceding prophet.

21. But all that heard him were amazed, and said, Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name, "which were called after this name," in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests?

So extraordinary a change appeared incredible to them, and their incredulity would have discouraged a mind of less firmness than Paul's; but he was continually acquiring fresh confidence, arising from stronger convictions of the truth.

22. But Saul increased the more in strength, "was continually more confirmed," i. e. in the faith, and confounded the Jews that dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ, "the Christ."

He silenced the Jews and put them to shame, by the arguments which he produced to prove that Jesus was the Messiah.

It is here that some persons place Paul's Journey to Arabia,† and suppose that the preceding verses relate to his preaching at Damascus, immediately after his conversion. But it is not likely that a proselyte to the Christian religion, such as he was, would begin to preach so soon after he became one, without any preparation, or that, if he did preach, he would procure to himself any attention. His retirement, therefore, probably took place immediately after his call from heaven, and the circumstances which are here related, may very well be supposed to have happened after his return from Arabia. But, however this matter be determined, the omission of this journey by Luke, while it is mentioned by Paul, is one of those variations which tends to confirm rather than to destroy the authority of the history; since it shows that it was not written in concert by Luke and Paul. Each of them, therefore, may be regarded as independent evidences for the facts wherein they concur.

* Griesbach adopts Incovy. + See Paley's Hora Paulinæ, p. 160, Note.

VOL. III.

23. And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him;

That is, after he had spent some time at Damascus, and had met with considerable success in making proselytes. In so doing, they paid involuntary homage to his talents and his zeal; for unless both had been conspicuous, their fury would not have impelled them to so desperate a measure.

24. (But their lying in wait was known of Saul and they watched the gates, day and night, to kill him. 25. Then the disciples took him by night, and let him down by the wall in a basket.

Paul gives the following account of this event in 2 Cor. xi. 32, 33. "In Damascus, the governor under Aretas the king, kept the city with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me and through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands." This Aretas was king of Arabia, and at this time had possession of Damascus, where the Jews prevailed upon the deputy-governor to grant them the assistance of the garrison to apprehend Paul. But, having intelligence of their design, he escaped from their hands.

26. And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple.

It may seem strange that the disciples at Jerusalem should not have heard of the conversion of Paul by this time. But this is accounted for by the violent persecution which happened, not only in Judæa, but also in other places, after the death of Stephen, which prevented the Christians at Damascus from having any communication with those at Jerusalem; by Paul's retired manner of life in Arabia, and by his having but lately begun to preach at Damascus. It is probable too, that the high-priest would not be forward to publish the defection of so active an agent a Paul.

27. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.

Hence it has been inferred that Barnabas was an old acquaintance of Paul; but no intimation of this is given in the history, which probably would have been the case had it been true. When Paul returned to Jerusalem, the persecution had not ceased; the apostles and other Christians were, therefore, concealed, and it was difficult for a stranger to gain access to them, especially for one of so suspicious a character as Paul. But happening to meet

with Barnabas, and informing him of the circumstances of his conversion, he communicated them to the rest, and thus procured him admittance into their company. Paul tells us, however, in the passage before referred to, in the Epistle to the Galatians, that he only saw Peter and James: "Other of the apostles," says he, 68 saw I none." They might possibly be absent from Jerusalem. After he had seen them, he was received by the brethren in general. 28. And he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem.

29. And he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and disputed against the Grecians:

These are supposed to be proselytes to the Jewish religion from the heathens of Asia, who were in general called Greeks or Grecians; and they seemed to have possessed the genuine zeal of proselytes, by the account here given of them.*

But they went about to slay him.

30. Which, when the brethren knew, they brought him down to Cæsarea, and sent him forth to Tarsus.

Tarsus was the chief city of Cilicia, and Paul's native place. Here he had not been since he went up to Jerusalem, to study the law under Gamaliel. He probably travelled hither by land; for he tells us that after his visit to Jerusalem, he went into the parts of Syria and Cilicia. In this journey, he probably met with some of those dangers which he describes in his epistles, and of which we have no account in this history. The Cæsarea here spoken of was not the maritime town of that name, so often mentioned in the book of Acts, but Cæsarea Philippi, which lay to the north of Judæa, and which must be in his way to Tarsus by land.

31. Then had the churches rest throughout all Judæa, and Galilee, and Samaria, and were edified, "increased," and, walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Spirt, were multiplied.

This period of peace is said, with great probability, to have been occasioned by an order given by Caligula to Petronius, governor of Syria, to set up a statue of the emperor in the temple of Jerusalem, in order to have divine honours paid to it; which was deemed so great a profanation, and was so highly offensive to the Jews, as to divert their attention from the persecution of Christians to a concern for the security of their own religion. The Christians increased in numbers during the late persecution, as appears from the churches which were established in different parts of the country, and they continued to increase during this period of rest, and enjoyed, at the same time, great comfort from the miraculous powers which they possessed, and from the knowledge of true religion which they acquired.

* Lardner, Vol. VI. pp. 262, 264, Note. ↑ Doddridge. ‡ Lardner and Doddridge.

REFLECTIONS.

1. We have here decisive and satisfactory proof of the sincerity of Paul's conversion to the Christian faith. He is not satisfied with the bare profession of Christianity, but resolves to teach it to others. He undertakes the office of an apostle in this cause, not hastily, not in a moment of rashness, but after due deliberation and reflection; not in a foreign country, where his history was not known, but in the very place where he had before persecuted the church, or where he intended to persecute, where he had reason to suppose that the story of his conversion would be well known, and where it was most likely to be controverted and exploded, if a forgery; and where he might probably have been confronted with the companions of his journey. These were the places which the apostle chose as the first scene of his ministry; a scene where he must expect to encounter the bitter reproaches and violent animosity of his former associates and patrons, and where his life would be perpetually in danger. Would he have exposed himself to so much suffering for the sake of a falsehood? If he were not fully convinced of the truth of what he related, would he have published it in a place where the falsehood was most likely to be detected and exposed?

2. We see also a striking proof of his benevolence. He was conscious, no doubt, that his former conduct had done much harm, not only to those who were the objects of his persecution, but also to their enemies, by inflaming their zeal and confirming their prejudices. He is resolved, therefore, to proclaim the truth in the very place where his errors had been made public, that he may thus prevent, or at least lessen, the mischief which his former conduct was calculated to produce; that those may be benefitted by his recantation who had been injured by his mistakes. He, no doubt, thought, and there was good reason to believe, that his appearance at Jerusalem as a Christian, where he had been once so zealous an opposer of Christianity, would attract the attention of other zealots, lead them to inquire into the ground of the change, and, at least, moderate their zeal, if not produce a similar change. To accomplish so important an object, therefore, he is willing to appear in the humiliating character of a rash and mistaken man, among his former acquaintance and friends, and to risk the dangers which might arise from the same zeal by which he was once animated.

3. We see that the gospel of Christ spreads under all circumstances; which is a plain proof that it is founded in truth. Persecution proved favourable to its advancement, by dispersing into various distant places the professors of this religion, who carried it with them where it was not before known. And when tranquillity returned, the fortitude and patience of the first Christians, in the profession of the truth in the hour of danger, could not fail to make a strong impression in its favour on the minds of those who had