presenting some circumstances, or using some phrase or expression not then in use. The plea of forgery, therefore, in later ages, cannot be allowed; and if Saint Luke had published such a history at so early a period, when some of the apostles, or many other persons concerned in the transactions which he has recorded, were alive, and his account had not been true, he would only have exposed himself to an easy confutation, and to certain infamy.

perfect unison with the history, and tend to confirm it; for the doctrines and principles are every where the same. The Gospels close with references to the facts recorded in the Acts, particularly the promise of the Holy Spirit, which we know from the Acts was poured out by Christ upon his disciples after his ascension; and the Epistles, generally, plainly suppose that those facts had actually occurred, which the history relates. So that the history of the Acts is one of the most important parts of sacred history; for, without Since, therefore, the Acts of the Apostles are in themit, neither the Gospels nor the Epistles could have been so selves consistent and uniform; the incidental relations agreeclearly understood; but by the aid of this book the whole able to the best ancient historians that have come down to us; scheme of the Christian revelation is set before us in a clear and the main facts supported and confirmed by the other and easy view. Lastly, the incidental circumstances, men- books of the New Testament, as well as by the unanimous tioned by Saint Luke, correspond so exactly, and without testimony of so many of the ancient fathers, we are justly any previous view to such a correspondence (in cases, too, authorized to conclude, that, if any history of former times where it could not possibly have been premeditated and pre- deserves credit, the Acts of the Apostles ought to be received contrived) with the accounts that occur in the Epistles, and and credited; and if the history of the Acts of the Apostles with those of the best ancient historians, both Jews and is true, Christianity cannot be false; for a doctrine so good Heathens, that no person who had forged such a history, in in itself, so admirably adapted to the fallen state of man, later ages, could have had the same external confirmation; and attended with so many miraculous and divine testimobut he must have betrayed himself, by alluding to some cus-nies, has all the possible marks of a true revelation.2 toms or opinions which have since sprung up, or by misre

CHAPTER III.

ON THE EPISTOLARY OR DOCTRINAL WRITINGS OF THE

NEW TESTAMENT, PARTICULARLY

THOSE OF SAINT PAUL.

SECTION I.

ACCOUNT OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.

I. The Birth and Education of Paul.-His Persecution of the Disciples of Christ, and his Conversion.-Observations upon it.-II. His subsequent Travels and Labours, to his second Visit to Jerusalem.-III. His third Visit to Jerusalem, and subsequent Labours, to his fourth Visit to Jerusalem.—IV. His Journeys and Labours, to his fifth Visit to Jerusalem.—V. To his first Imprisonment at Rome.-VI. His subsequent Journeys, second Imprisonment, and Martyrdom.—VII. Character of Paul.—VIII. Observations on the Style of his Writings.

I. SAUL, also called PAUL (by which name this illustrious apostle was generally known after his preaching among the Gentiles, especially among the Greeks and Romans), was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a descendant of the patriarch Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin,3 and a native of Tarsus, then the chief city of Cilicia. By birth he was a citizen of Rome, a distinguished honour and privilege, which had been conferred on some of his ancestors for services rendered to the commonwealth during the wars.' His father was a Pharisee, and he himself was educated in the most rigid principles of that sect. His sister's son and some others of his relations were Christians, and had embraced the Gospel before his conversion. That he was early educated in Greek literature at Tarsus, may be inferred from that place being celebrated for polite learnings and eloquence, and also The subject of these coincidences has already been noticed in Vol. I. pp. 49-51. supra. Dr. Paley's Hore Paulina amplifies the argument above suggested, and is indispensably necessary to a critical study of the

Epistles.

Dr. Benson's Hist. of Christianity, vol. ii. pp. 333-341.
Phil. iii. 5. 2 Cor. xi. 22. Acts xvi. 37, 38.

4 Acts xxi. 25. 29. xxiii. 27.

Dr. Lardner has shown that this is the most probable opinion. Works, 8vo. vol. i. pp. 227-229.; 4to. vol. i. pp. 124, 125. Such also is the opinion of John Arntzenius, who has written an elegant dissertation on Saint Paul's citizenship. (See his Dissertationes Binæ, p. 195. Utrecht, 1725.) It is not an improbable conjecture that the cloak and parchments, which St. Paul charged Timothy to bring to him (2 Tim. iv. 13.), were the Roman toga and the certificates of his citizenship, which might be of service to him in his approaching trial before the emperor. Shuuleworth's Paraphrastic Translation of the Apostolical Epistles, p. 369.

Acts xxiii. 6. xxvi. 5. Phil. iii. 5.

Acts xxiii. 16-22. Rom. xvi. 7. 11. 21.

Strabo the geographer, who lived in the same age as St. Paul, characterizes the inhabitants of Tarsus, as cherishing such a passion for philosophy and all the branches of polite literature, that they greatly excelled even Athens and Alexandria, and every other place where there were schools and academies for philosophy and literature. He adds, that the natives of Tarsus were in the practice of going abroad to other cities to perfect themselves. (Lib. xiv. vol. ii. pp. 960, 961. edit. Oxon.) This circumstance accounts for Saint Paul's going to Jerusalem, to finish his studies under Gamaliel

from his quotations of several Greek poets. 10 From Tarsus, Saul removed to Jerusalem, where he made considerable proficiency in the study of the law, and the Jewish traditions, under Gamaliel, a celebrated teacher of that day." He ap pears to have been a person of great natural abilities, of quick apprehension, strong passions, and firm resolution; and was thus qualified for signal service, as a teacher of whatever principles he might embrace. He was also blameless in his life, and strictly faithful to the dictates of his conscience, according to the knowledge which he possessed: this is evident from his appeals to the Jews, and from the undissembled satisfaction he expresses on a serious comparison and recollection of his former and later conduct. (Acts xxiii. 1. xxvi. 4, 5. Phil. iii. 6. 1 Tim. i. 13. 2 Tim. i. 3.) His parents completed his education by having him taught the art of tent-making,12 in conformity with the practice of the Jews, with whom it was customary to teach youth of the highest birth some mechanical employment, by which, in cases of necessity, they might maintain themselves without being burthensome to others: and his occupation appears subsequently to have had some influence upon his style.13 For some time after the appearance of Christianity in the world, he was a bitter enemy and a furious opposer of all who professed that faith; and when the protomartyr Stephen

quence was employed in sudden and unpremeditated harangues; and Saint Paul, long accustomed to compositions of this sort, transferred the style and manner from speaking to writing. (Dr. Powell's Discourses, p. 250.) This circumstance will account for the abruptness and other peculiarities in the apostle's letters which are more fully considered in the close of this section.

10 Thus, in Acts xvii. 28. he cites a verse from Aratus; in 1 Cor. xv. 33. he quotes another from Menander; and in Tit. i. 12. a verse from Epimenides. See an illustration of this last passage, supra, Vol. I. p. 81. 11 Acts xxii. 3. xxvi. 5. Gal. i. 14.

12 Michaelis makes St. Paul to have been a maker of mechanical instruments (vol. iv. pp. 183-186.); but all commentators are of opinion that he was a manufacturer of tents, for which, in the East, there was always a considerable demand.

13 To a man employed in making tents, the ideas of camps, arms, armour, warfare, military pay, would be familiar; and St. Paul introduces these and their concomitants so frequently, that his language seems to have been such as might rather have been expected from a soldier, than from one who lived in quiet times, and was a preacher of the gospel of peace. Pow

• In every ancient seat of learning eloquence held a principal rank; and each species of it was denominated from the place where it was most practised, or in the greatest perfection. Thus we read of the chaste Attic eloquence, and of the florid Asiatic; and Tarsus also gave name to its peculiar mode, which, however, is least known, because, from the very nature of it, its productions were not likely to remain. The Tarsic eló-ell's Discourses, p. 254. VOL. II. 2 $

18.40.

was stoned, Saul was not only consenting to his death, but
actually took care of the clothes of the witnesses who had
stoned him.

any mark of a libertine disposition. As among the Jews, so among the Christians, his conversation and manners were blameless. It has been sometimes objected to the other aposA. D. 34. After this event, Saul took an active part in the tles, by those who were resolved not to credit their testimony, persecution of the Christians, not only at Jerusalem, but also that having been deeply engaged with Jesus during his life, throughout Judæa (Acts viii. 3. xxii. 4. xxvi. 10, 11.); and they were obliged, for the support of their own credit, and procured letters of commission from the high-priest and from having gone too far to return, to continue the same proelders, or sanhedrin, to the synagogue of the Jews at Da- fessions after his death; but this can by no means be said of mascus, empowering him to bring to Jerusalem any Chris-Saint Paul. On the contrary, whatever force there may be tians, whether men or women, whom he might find there. in such a mode of reasoning, it all tends to convince us, that He also obtained letters to the governor of Damascus, we Saint Paul_must_naturally have continued a Jew, and an may presume, to permit them to be removed from his juris- enemy to Christ Jesus. If they were engaged on one side, diction. (Acts ix. 2. xxii. 5. xxvi. 12.) While Saul was he was as strongly engaged on the other. If shame withheld on his journey thither for this purpose, his miraculous con- them from changing sides, much more ought it to have 36 version took place, A. D. 35, in the manner recorded in the stopped him; who, from his superior education, must have ninth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, and to which been vastly more sensible to that kind of shame, than the Saint Paul himself has numerous references in his Epistles. mean and illiterate fishermen of Galilee. The only other The conversion of such a man, at such a time and by such difference was, that they, by quitting their master after his means, furnishes one of the most complete proofs that have death, might have preserved themselves; whereas he, by ever been given of the divine origin of Christianity. That Saul, quitting the Jews, and taking up the cross of Christ, cerwho possessed such distinguished talents and acquirements, tainly brought on his own destruction. from being a zealous persecutor of the disciples of Christ, became all at once a disciple himself, is a fact, which cannot be controverted without overturning the credit of all history. He must, therefore, have been converted in the miraculous manner in which he himself declares that he was converted, and of course the Christian revelation must be from God; or he must have been either an impostor, an enthusiast, or a dupe to the fraud of others. There is no other alternative possible.

2. As St. Paul was not an impostor, so it is manifest that he was not an enthusiast. Heat of temper, melancholy, ignorance, and vanity, are the ingredients of which enthu siasm is composed; but from all these, except the first, the apostle appears to have been wholly free. That he had great fervour of zeal, both when a Jew and when a Christian, in maintaining what he thought to be right, cannot be denied ; but he was at all times so much master of his temper, as, in matters of indifference, to "become all things to all 1. If he was an impostor, he must have declared what he men," with the most pliant condescension, bending his noknew to be false, and he must have been influenced to such a tions and manners to theirs, as far as his duty to God would conduct by some motive or other. But the only conceivable permit; a conduct compatible neither with the stiffness of a motives for religious imposture are the hopes of advancing bigot, nor with the violent impulses of fanatical delusion. one's temporal interest, credit, or power; or the prospect of That he was not melancholy, is evident from his conduct in gratifying some passion or appetite under the authority of the embracing every method which prudence could suggest to new religion. Now, that none of these motives could influence escape danger and shun persecution; when he could do it Saint Paul to profess the faith of Christ crucified, is manifest without betraying the duty of his office or the honour of his from the state of Judaism and Christianity, at the period God. A melancholy enthusiast courts persecution; and when he renounced the former, and embraced the latter faith. when he cannot obtain it, afflicts himself with absurd penThose whom he left were the disposers of wealth, of dignity, ances; but the holiness of Saint Paul consisted only in the and of power, in Judæa; those to whom he went were indi- simplicity of a godly life, and in the unwearied performance gent men, oppressed, and kept from all means of improving of his apostolical duties. That he was ignorant, no man their fortunes. The certain consequence, therefore, of his will allege who is not grossly ignorant himself; for he aptaking the part of Christianity was the loss not only of all pears to have been master not only of the Jewish learning, but that he possessed, but of all hopes of acquiring more also of the Greek philosophy, and to have been very conversant whereas, by continuing to persecute the Christians, he had even with the Greek poets. That he was not credulous, is hopes, rising almost to a certainty, of making his fortune by clear from his having resisted the evidence of all the mirathe favour of those who were at the head of the Jewish state, cles performed on earth by Christ, as well as those that were to whom nothing could so much recommend him as the zeal afterwards wrought by the apostles; to the fame of which, which he had shown in that persecution. As to credit, or as he lived at Jerusalem, he could not possibly have been a reputation, could the scholar of Gamaliel hope to gain stranger. And that he was as free from vanity as any man either by becoming a teacher in a college of fishermen! that ever lived, may be gathered from all that we see in his Could he flatter himself that the doctrines which he taught writings, or know of his life. He represents himself as the would, either in or out of Judæa, do him honour, when he least of the apostles, and not meet to be called an apostle. knew that "they were to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to He says that he is the chief of sinners; and he prefers, in the the Greeks foolishness!" Was it then the love of power strongest terms, universal benevolence to faith, prophecy, that induced him to make this great change? Power! over miracles, and all the gifts and graces with which he could whom? Over a flock of sheep whom he himself had assisted be endowed. Is this the language of vanity or enthusiasm ? to destroy, and whose very Shepherd had lately been mur- Did ever fanatic prefer virtue to his own religious opinions, dered! Perhaps it was with the view of gratifying some to illuminations of the spirit, and even to the merit of marlicentious passion, under the authority of the new religion, tyrdom? It is therefore in vain for the enemies of Christithat he commenced a teacher of that religion! This cannot anity to attempt to resolve this miraculous conversion of be alleged for his writings breathe nothing but the strictest Saint Paul into the effects of enthusiasm. The power of morality, obedience to magistrates, order, and government, imagination in enthusiastical minds is, unquestionably, very with the utmost abhorrence of all licentiousness, idleness, or strong; but it always acts in conformity to the opinions imloose behaviour, under the cloak of religion. We nowhere printed upon it at the time of its working, and can no more find in his works, that saints are above moral ordinances; act against them than a rapid river can carry a vessel against that dominion is founded in grace; that monarchy is despot- the current of its own stream. Now, nothing can be more cerism which ought to be abolished; that the fortunes of the rich tain than that, when Saul departed from Jerusalem for Damasought to be divided among the poor; that there is no differ-cus, armed with authority from the chief priests to bring the ence in moral actions; that any impulses of the mind are to Christians, who were there, bound to Jerusalem, whether they direct us against the light of our reason, and the laws of na- were men or women (Acts ix. 2.), an authority solicited by ture; or any of those wicked tenets by which the peace of himself and granted to him at his own express desire,-his society has been often disturbed, and the rules of morality mind was most strongly possessed with an opinion against often broken, by men pretending to act under the sanction of Christ and his followers. To give those opinions a more 'divine revelation. He makes no distinctions, like the impos-active force, his passions at that time concurred, being intor of Arabia, in favour of himself: nor does any part of his life, either before or after his conversion to Christianity, bear See particularly I Cor. xv. 9. Gal. i. 13. 1 Tim. i. 12, 13. Various opi. nions have been entertained by learned men respecting the date of St. Paul's conversion. The date assigned in the text is that adopted by Bp Pearson. Dr. Lardner fixes that event to the end of 36, or early in 37

Works, 8vo. vol. vi. pp. 236–239.; 4to. vol. iii. pp. 252, 253.

flamed in the highest degree by the irritating consciousness of his past conduct towards them, the pride of supporting a part in which he had voluntary engaged, and the credit Which he found it procured him among the chief priests and rulers, whose commission he bore. If, in such a state and temper of mind, an enthusiastical man had imagined that he

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saw a vision from heaven, denouncing the anger of God | returned to Damascus, A. D. 38. (Gal. i. 18.), and boldly. 3. against the Christians, and commanding him to persecute preached the Gospel to the Jews, who, rejecting his testi-% 40. them without any mercy, it might be accounted for by the natu- mony, as an apostate, conspired to kill him; but, the plot ral power of enthusiasm. But that, in the very instant of his being communicated to Saul, he escaped from Damascus being engaged in the fiercest and hottest persecution against privately by night, and went up to Jerusalem for the first them, no circumstance having occurred to change his opi- time since his conversion. After some hesitation on the nions or alter the bent of his disposition, he should at once part of the Christians in that city, he was acknowledged to imagine himself called by a heavenly vision to be the apostle be a disciple: he remained at Jerusalem only fifteen days, of Christ, whom, but a moment before, he deemed an impos- during which his boldness in preaching the Gospel so irritated tor and a blasphemer, that had been justly put to death upon the Hellenistic Jews, that they conspired against him; which the cross;-this is in itself wholly incredible, and so far when the brethren knew, they brought him down to Cæsarea from being a probable effect of enthusiasm, that just a con- Philippi, and sent him forth to Tarsus. (Acts ix. 28-30.) trary effect must have been naturally produced by that cause. A. D. 39. While Saul was in Cilicia, he had those divine But, still further to show that this vision could not be a phan- visions and revelations of which he speaks in 2 Cor. xii. ; tom of Saint Paul's own creating, let it be observed, that he on which occasion there was given him a thorn in the flesh was not alone when he saw it; there were many others in (supposed to have been some paralytic affection of the councompany, whose minds were no better disposed than his to tenance and voice), lest he should have been exalted above the Christian faith. Could it be possible, that the minds of measure, through the abundance of the revelations. all these men should be so strangely affected, as to make them believe that they saw a great light shining about them, above the brightness of the sun at noon-day, and heard the sound of a voice from heaven, though not the words which it spake (Acts xxi. 6. 9.), when in reality they neither saw nor heard any such thing? Could they be so infatuated with the conceit of their own fancies, as to fall down from their horses, together with Saul (Acts xxvi. 14.), and be speechless through fear, when nothing extraordinary had happened either to him or to them; especially considering that this apparition did not appear in the night, when the senses are more easily imposed upon, but at mid-day? If a sudden frenzy had seized upon Paul, from any distemper of body or mind, can we suppose his whole company,-men of different constitutions and understandings,-to have been at once affected in the same manner with him, so that not the distemper alone, but also the effects of it, would exactly agree? If all had gone mad together, would not the frenzy of some have taken a different turn, and presented to them different objects? This supposition is so contrary to nature and all possibility, that unbelief must find some other solution, or give up the point.

3. Having shown that Saint Paul was neither an impostor nor an enthusiast, it remains only that we inquire whether he was deceived by the fraud of others? This inquiry, indeed, may be despatched in a very few words. For who was or were to deceive him? A few illiterate fishermen of Galilee. It was morally impossible for such men to conceive the thought of turning the most enlightened of their opponents, and the most cruel of their persecutors, into an apostle, and to do this by fraud in the very instant of his greatest fury against them and their Lord. But could they have been so extravagant as to conceive such a thought, it was physically impossible for them to execute it in the manner in which we find his conversion to have been effected. Could they produce a light in the air, which at mid-day was brighter than the sun? Could they make Saul hear words from out of that light, which were not heard by the rest of the company? Could they make him blind for three days after that vision, and then make scales fall off from his eyes, and restore him to sight by a word? Or could they make him and those who travelled with him believe, that all these things had happened, if they had not happened? Most unquestionably no fraud was equal to all this.

Since, then, Saint Paul was neither an impostor nor an enthusiast, nor deceived by the fraud of others, it follows that his conversion was miraculous, and that the Christian religion is a divine revelation.'

II. Shortly after his baptism, and the descent of the Holy Spirit upon him, Saul went into Arabia (Gal. i. 17.); and during his residence in that country he was fully instructed, as we may reasonably think, by special revelation, and by diligent study of the Old Testament, in the doctrines and duties of the Gospel. Three years after his conversion he

(from which the above remarks are abridged);-a treatise to which it has See Lord Lyttleton's Observations on the Conversion of Saint Paul been truly said, "infidelity has never been able to fabricate a specious

answer."

"Lord L. had," says his biographer, "in the pride of juvenile confidence, with the help of corrupt conversation, entertained doubts of

the truth of Christianity: but he now" (in his maturer years) "thought the time come, when it was no longer fit to doubt or believe by chance, and applied himself seriously to the great question. His studies, BEING HONEST, ended in conviction. He found that religion was true." (Dr. Johnson's Lives of the Poets, vol. iii. p. 383.) Dr. Graves has some excellent observations on the conduct and writings of Saint Paul, in his Essay on the Character of the Apostles and Evangelists, pp. 115-124. 181-218. which show that he was in no respect influenced or directed by a spirit of enthusiasm

In the year 42, Saul, accompanied by Barnabas, proceeded to Antioch, where they taught with great success for one year. (Acts xi. 26.) During their abode in this city there came prophets from Jerusalem, one of whom, named Agabus, signified by the Spirit that there should be a dearth throughout the land of Judæa, which came to pass in the days of Claudius Cæsar, commencing in the fourth, but raging chiefly in the fifth and sixth years of that emperor. In order to relieve their suffering brethren in Judæa, a collection was made by the Christians at Antioch, each according to his ability; and was sent to the church at Jerusalem by the hands of Barnabas and Saul (Acts xi. 27-30.), a. D. 44. The trance or 8, 2 vision mentioned in Acts xxii. 17. is supposed to have taken place during this second visit to Jerusalem.

III. A. D. 44. Having discharged this trust, Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem to Antioch, taking with them Mark the nephew of Barnabas (afterwards the evangelist) as an assistant in their approaching mission to the Gentiles, to which Barnabas and Saul were soon after separated by the solemn and express appointment of the Holy Spirit.

A. D. 45. Being thus sent forth, they departed, with Marke as their minister, to Seleucia, a sea-port town near the mouth of the Orontes, twelve miles below Antioch, and about five from the sea; whence they sailed to Cyprus, the native country of Barnabas, and preached the word of God at Salamis, the nearest port to Syria, at first in the Jewish synagogues according to their custom. Thence they crossed to Paphos, the capital of the island, where Sergius Paulus, the Roman proconsul, resided. This magistrate, being desirous to hear the word of God, sent for the apostles; but Barjesus, a Jewish false prophet and sorcerer, opposed them, and sought to pervert the proconsul from the faith. But Saul, full of the Holy Spirit, struck the sorcerer with blindness, for a season, as a punishment for his wicked interference. This astonishing judgment, confirming the doctrine of the Lord, converted the proconsul to the faith. (Acts xiii. 1—12.) As Saint Luke, who has recorded the labours of the great apostle to the Gentiles, calls him no longer Saul, but Paul, learned men have conjectured that the change was made by Saul himself in honour of the proconsul, who was probably his first convert from among the idolatrous Gentiles, or, perhaps, the first Gentile of high rank who was converted.3"

Here

A. D. 46. "Paul and his company" sailed from Cyprus to
the coast of Asia Minor, and preached at Perga, a city of
Pamphylia, situate about twelve miles from the sea.
Mark separated from them, and returned to Jerusalem. Thence
they proceeded to Antioch, the capital of Pisidia, where,
notwithstanding the opposition of the Jews, Paul and Bar-
nabas converted great numbers, both of the proselyted and
of the idolatrous Gentiles; but, being driven thence by the
machinations of the unbelieving Jews, they proceeded to
Ieonium in Lycaonia. (xiii. 13-52.) Here they converted
many to the faith; but, being in danger of being stoned, they
proceeded to Lystra, where Paul, working a miracle on a
cripple, was at first considered as a god, but was afterwards
20.) He rose up, however, perfectly whole; and, quitting
dragged out of the city, stoned, and left for dead. (xiv. 1—
Lystra, on the following day, he proceeded to Derbe, and
preached the Gospel in Galatía and Phrygia, regions adjoin-

Acts ix. 23-25. Gal. i. 17, 18. 2 Cor. xi. 32, 33.

It was customary among the Romans to assume the name of a benefactor whom they highly esteemed. Thus the Jewish historian Josephus took the name of Flavius, in compliment to Vespasian, with whom he was in high favour. This circumstance sufficiently refutes the unfounded assertions of a late reviler of the Scriptures, who, wilfully disregarding ail positive evidence to the contrary, has asserted that Luke has compiled ha

narrative from two tales!!!

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