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pelled by Barnabas. Hence he departed to Cæsarea and Tarsus, in which place of his birth he remained from A.d. 37 to a.d. 43. Barnabas brought him from Tarsus to Antioch, where he remained a year (Acts xi. 20-26); and, A.D. 44, was deputed, with his fellow-labourer, to carry a contribution from the Christians at Antioch to their poor brethren at Jerusalem, during a famine. The church at Antioch was directed, by the Holy Ghost, to separate Paul and Barnabas for the ministry, that they might extend the word of truth. They went to Seleucia, and thence to Cyprus. At Paphos they were obstructed by a magician, or sorcerer, Bar-Jesus, who tried to hinder the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, from embracing the Christian faith. But Saul deprived this man of his sight for a season, which produced the conversion of the proconsul; and it is thought, that on this occasion Saul changed his name to Paul, after Paulus, the new convert. Paul went next to Perga in Pamphylia, and Antioch in Pisidia, where the Jews opposed his preaching; in consequence of which, with Barnabas, he turned to the Gentiles in Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. At Lystra they cured a cripple; and the idolators would have offered sacrifices to them as gods, but they desired the Lystrians to turn from these vanities to the living God. From Lystra they made a tour round the cities of Southern Asia to Antioch in Syria; but we know only generally, that from A.D. 45 to A.D. 50 the ministerial labours of St. Paul were continued. A dispute arising in the church respecting the necessity of retaining the legal ordinances, the matter was referred to a council at Jerusalem, to which Paul and Barnabas were deputed. Here it was decreed, that the converted Gentiles should not Judaize; only keeping themselves from idolatry, fornication, and eating strangled things or blood, Acts xv.

Peter, after this, lived with the Gentiles at Antioch; but afterwards deserted them, fearing those of the circumcision; for which Paul openly rebuked him (Gal. ii. 11-16), a.d. 51.

Paul and Barnabas proposed to visit the churches they had planted; but a violent difference arose respecting John, or Mark, whom Barnabas proposed as a companion; but Paul refused to take him, as he had left him in Pamphylia. This occasioned their separation, Barnabas sailing with Mark to Cyprus ;

while Paul, with Silas, after making a circuit of Syria and Cilicia (Acts xv. 36), went on to Derbe and Lystra. Here they found Timothy, a youth religiously educated by a Jewish mother, though having a Gentile father; whom Paul caused to be circumcised, for fear of the Jews, and then carried in his company through Asia Minor.

At Troas, a man of Macedonia, in a vision, invited Paul to come over thither. The associates accordingly sailed for Europe, and arriving at Neapolis, came to Philippi, where, in a neighbouring pooεvxn, by a river-side, Paul baptised Lydia of Thyatira, who received them into her house. He likewise exorcised the spirit of divination from a damsel; on which account her masters, seeing their profits gone, had the missionaries cast into prison. But at midnight, they were delivered, during an earthquake, by an angel; and converted the keeper, whose whole household they baptised.

The magistrates, having beaten them (though Roman citizens) with rods, besought them to leave the city; and passing through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where Paul preached Jesus Christ three Sabbaths in the synagogue. A tumult being raised, the believing brethren conducted Paul and Silas to Beroa, where they found many inquiring minds, who searched the Scriptures, to see if they accorded with the new doctrines; but the Jews of Thessalonica following them, compelled the two preachers to withdraw to Athens. Here they had the pride and learning of an inquisitive people to contend with; but Paul reasoned with them, at the Areopagus, on "the unknown God," to whom they had built an altar.

Timothy was now sent back to Thessalonica, to comfort the persecuted Christians. Paul proceeded to Corinth, where he abode with Aquila, and worked at his trade of tent-making; but baptised Stephanas, Crispus, and Gaius, 1 Cor. i. 14, 16, 17, Acts xviii. 5, 1 Thess. iii. 6, 9, a.d. 52. He was joined here by Silas and Timothy, and wrote his first and second Epistles to the Thessalonians. The Jews at Corinth brought Paul before Gallio, a Gentile judge, who thought it no business of his to decide upon questions of the Jewish law. Paul shaved his head at Cenchrea, the sea-port of Corinth, having a vow of Nazariteship; and

went by Ephesus and Cæsarea to Jerusalem, that he might be present at the feast of Pentecost. He returned to Ephesus by Antioch, Galatia, and Phrygia, and abode here three years, from A.D. 54 to A.D. 57, Acts xix. 1-3.

Paul is thought to have now written his Epistle to the Galatians, with his own hand (Gal. vi. 11), a.d. 56; but some place it earlier, and some date it from Rome. It was more than fourteen years after his conversion, Gal. ii. 1. He wrote from Ephesus his first Epistle to the Corinthians, chiding them on account of their divisions. At Ephesus stood the famous Temple of Diana; and as Paul's preaching injured the craft of those who lived by idolatry, an insurrection was raised by Demetrius, who made silver models of the temple; but the town-clerk appeased the tumult; and Paul returned into Macedonia, purposing to go as far as Rome. Titus joined him here, and reported the good effect his first Epistle to the Corinthians had produced, which induced him to indite the second, whereof Titus was the bearer. Paul travelled through Achaia into Corinth, where he remained a year and a half, and whence he wrote his Epistle to the Romans, promising to see them shortly, for the Gospel had reached Rome before Paul's arrival. This letter was probably carried by Phoebe, deaconess of the church at Cenchrea, near Corinth, whom Paul recommends to the Roman disciples.

He now retraced his steps into Macedonia, and, halting at Philippi, came to Troas. As he preached here, on the first day of the week (the Christian Sabbath being already a holy ordinance), Eutychus, overcome with sleep, fell from a third loft, and was taken up as dead; but the apostle restored him to life. Paul went on foot to Assos, and embarked at Mitylene. Hence he sailed by Chios, Samos, Trogyllium, and so reached Miletus, where the bishops and elders of Ephesus met him. He addressed them affectionately; and, bidding them farewell, sailed to Tyre, from whence he proceeded by Cæsarea to Jerusalem. At Cæsarea, Agabus, a prophet, took Paul's girdle, saying, as he bound himself, Thus shall the Jews do at Jerusalem to the owner of this girdle. But Paul would not be dissuaded from his purpose, saying he was ready to die for the sake of the Lord Jesus.

James told Paul that a prejudice had been excited against

him among the Jews, by reason of his intercourse with the Gentiles, and advised him to make a demonstration of Judaism, by joining some Jews in the temple who had a Nazarite vow, and defraying their expenses. This measure of expedience, however, failed to save him from the fury of some Asian Jews; but from their violence he was rescued by Lysias, the governor of the Roman garrison, who permitted him to address the people from the stairs leading from the temple to that fort or prætorium. He here related the circumstances of his conversion, and mission to preach to the Gentiles; but no sooner had he touched this grating chord, than the Jews cried out, Away with him! away with him! Lysias secured him in the garrison; and was binding in order to scourge him, when Paul remonstrated against his being punished unheard, as contrary to his right of Roman citizenship.

Being now unbound, and brought before the chief-priests, he defended himself, when the high-priest commanded some one to smite him on the mouth; but Paul pleaded again his privilege, adding, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall; for which words he apologised, as soon as he knew that the order came from the high-priest; but seeing that some were Pharisees and some Sadducees, it occurred to him to divide them, by declaring himself to be a Pharisee, and charged for the hope of the resurrection. This caused a dispute, in which Paul was hurried back by Lysias into the castle. Forty Jews now bound themselves not to eat till they had assassinated Paul; but warned of this vow by his nephew, he communicated it to Lysias, who sent him, under a strong guard, to Cæsarea, to be judged by Felix, the Roman governor. His accusers followed, with Tertullus, a hireling orator, who delivered a flourishing speech. But Paul, in his second reply, made Felix tremble, and postpone the decision till a more convenient season. Expecting that Paul would purchase his liberty, Felix confined him for two years, till Porcius Festus came into Felix' room. And this man, willing to ingratiate himself with the Jews, proposed that his trial should proceed; but Paul appealed unto Cæsar himself, and to Cæsar it was determined to send him. This was in the year 62, when Nero sat on the throne. But Herod Agrippa the Second (the son of

Agrippa the First, who had put James to death, and had himself died miserably A.D. 44), having been made king of Judæa by Claudius, came to Cæsarea, and desired to see Paul, by whose eloquence he was almost persuaded to be a Christian. Paul was sent by sea to Myra in Lycia, whence he re-embarked in another ship belonging to Alexandria and bound to Italy. Arriving late in the year at the Four Havens in Crete, the master refused to comply with the counsel of Paul,—which was, to winter there. He put out to sea, but was tossed in a tempest; and at length the vessel was wrecked in a creek in Melita, now Malta, Acts xxviii. Here he shook the viper into the fire, which had coiled itself round his arm; and wrought some miracles of healing. After three months, they came, by Syracuse and Rhegium, through the Straits of Messina, to Puteoli; and Paul thence proceeded by land, through Appii Forum and the Three Taverns (on the Via Appia), to Rome. Here he was suffered to dwell in a hired lodging, but chained to a soldier for security; and thus he remained for two years, preaching the kingdom of God, and the advent of the Messiah. To this chain he makes frequent allusion (Acts xxviii. 20), and thus fixes the date of his Epistles to the Ephesians, to Philemon, and 2d to Timothy,—Ephes. iii. 1, iv. 1, Philemon ver. 10, 13, 2 Tim. i. 16, ii. 9. In Rome he converted some persons even of Nero's court, Philip. i. iv. The Philippians despatched their bishop, Epaphroditus, with money for Paul's assistance; and by him, on his return, the Epistle to that church

was sent.

Onesimus, a slave of Philemon, having run away from his master at Colosse, found out Paul in Rome, and was serviceable to him. After his conversion, St. Paul sent him back to his master, bearing the Epistle to Philemon, A.D. 62. By the same hand he despatched his Epistle to the Colossians, whom he only knew by the report of Epaphras, his fellow-prisoner. He was released from prison A.D. 63, and wrote his Epistle to the Hebrews, the genuineness of which was at first doubted. Some of the Fathers say that Paul passed through Italy into Spain, and afterwards into Macedonia, Greece, Asia, Crete,* and returned

* Bishop Burgess extends the mission to Britain but his reasons are ingenious probabilities.

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