"as ye all are this day." Acts, chap. xxii.

ver 3.

The epiftle as follows: "I profited in "the Jews religion above many my equals "in mine own nation, being more exceed

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ingly zealous of the traditions of my fa"thers." Chap. i. ver. 14.

2. St. Paul, before his converfion, had been a fierce perfecutor of the new sect. "As for Saul, he made havoc of the "church; entering into every house, and "haling men and women, committed them "to prifon." Acts, chap. viii. ver. 3.

This is the history of St. Paul, as delivered in the Acts; in the recital of his own history in the epistle, "Ye have heard,' fays he, "of my conversation in times past "in the Jews religion, how that beyond "measure I perfecuted the church of God.” Chap. i. ver. 13.

3. St. Paul was miraculously converted on his way to Damascus. "And as he jour"neyed hecame near to Damafcus: and fud"denly there shined round about hima light "from heaven; and he fell to the earth, and "heard a voice faying unto him, Saul, Saul,

"why perfecuteft thou me? And he said, "Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord faid, "I am Jefus, whom thou perfecuteft: it is "hard for thee to kick against the pricks. "And he, trembling and astonished, said "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Acts, chap. ix. ver. 3-6. With these compare the epiftle, chap. i. ver. 15—17: "When it pleased God, who separated me "from my mother's womb, and called me grace to reveal his fon in me, that. "I might preach him among the heathen; "immediately I conferred not with flesh

"by his

and blood, neither went I up to Jerufa"lem, to them that were apoftles before 66 me; but I went into Arabia, and re"turned again unto Damafcus."

In this quotation from the epiftle, I defire it to be remarked how incidentally it appears, that the affair paffed at Damafcus. In what may be called the direct part of the account, no mention is made of the place of his converfion at all; a cafual expreffion at the end, and an expreffion brought in for a different purpose, alone fixes it to have been at Damascus: "I returned again to Damafcus."

cus." Nothing can be more like fimplicity and undefignednefs than this is. It alfo draws the agreement between the two quotations fomewhat clofer, to obferve that they both ftate St. Paul to have preached the gofpel immediately upon his call: " And ftraightway he preached Chrift in the fynagogues, that he is the fon of God." Acts, chap. ix. ver. 20. "When it pleafed "God to reveal his fon in me, that I might preach him among the heathen, imme

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diately I conferred not with flesh and "blood." Gal. chap. i. ver. 15.

4. The course of the apostle's travels after his converfion was this: He went from Damascus to Jerufalem, and from Jerufalem into Syria and Cilicia. "At Damafcus the difciples took him by night, and let him down by the wall in a basket; and when Saul was come to Jerufalem, he affayed to join himself to the difciples." (Acts, chap. ix. ver. 25). Afterwards, "when the brethren knew the confpiracy formed against him at Jerufalem, they brought him down to Cæfarea, and fent him forth to Tarfus, a city in Cilicia" (chap. ix.

M 3

ver.

ver. 30). In the epiftle, St. Paul gives the following brief account of his proceedings within the fame period: "After three "years I went up to Jerufalem to see Peter, "and abode with him fifteen days; after"wards I came into the regions of Syria and "Cilicia.' The history had told us that Paul paffed from Cæfarea to Tarsus: if he took this journey by land, it would carry him through Syria into Cilicia; and he would come, after his vifit at Jerufalem, "" into the

regions of Syria and Cilicia," in the very order in which he mentions them in the epiftle. This fuppofition of his going from Cæfarea to Tarfus by land, clears up also another point. It accounts for what St. Paul fays in the fame place concerning the churches of Judea: "Afterwards I came "into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and "was unknown by face unto the churches “of Judea, which were in Christ: but they "had heard only that he which perfecuted

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us in times paft, now preacheth the faith, "which once he destroyed; and they glori"fied God in me." Upon which paffage I obferve, firft, that what is here said of the

churches

churches of Judea, is spoken in connection with his journey into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. Secondly, that the paffage itself has little fignificancy, and that the connection is inexplicable, unless St. Paul went through Judea * (though probably by a hafty journey) at the time that he came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. Suppofe him to have paffed by land from Cæfarea to Tarfus, all this, as hath been ob ferved, would be precifely true.

5. Barnabas was with St. Paul at Antioch. "Then departed Barnabas to Tarfus, for to "feek Saul; and when he had found him, แ he brought him unto Antioch. And it

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came to pass that a whole year they affem"bled themselves with the church." Acts, chap. xi. ver. 25, 26. Again, and upon another occafion," they (Pauland Barnabas)

* Dr. Doddridge thought that the Cæfarea here mentioned was not the celebrated city of that name upon the Mediterranean sea, but Cæfarea Philippi, near the borders of Syria, which lies in a much more direct line from Jerufalem to Tarfus than the other. The objection to this, Dr. Benfon remarks, is, that Cæfarea, without any addition, ufually denotes Cæfarea Paleftinæ.