was between Libanus and Mount Hermon ; and .; though probably belonging to Syria, yet Arabiæ retro deputabatur (as Tertullian tells us ') was anciently reckoned to Arabia. Accordingly at this time it was under the government of Aretas,2 (fatherin-law to Herod Antipas, the tetrarch, whose daughter the said Herod had married, but afterwards turned off; which became the occasion of a war between those two princes,) king of Arabia Petræa, a prince tributary to the Roman empire. By him there was an vápɣns, or governor, who had jurisdiction over the whole Syria Damascena, placed over it, who kept constant residence in the city, as a place of very great importance. To him the Jews made their address, with crafty and cunning insinuations, persuading him to apprehend St. Paul, possibly under the notion of a spy, there being war at this time between the Romans and that king. Hereupon the gates were shut, and extraordinary guards set, and all engines that could be laid to take him. But the disciples, to prevent their cruel designs, at night put him into a basket, and let him down over the city wall. And the place, we are told, is still showed to travellers, not far from the gate, thence called St. Paul's gate at this day.

2. Having thus made his escape, he set forwards for Jerusalem, where when he arrived, he addressed himself to the church. But they, knowing the former temper and principles of the man, universally shunned his company; till Barnabas brought him to Peter, who was not yet cast into prison, and

1 Adv. Marc. lib. iii. c. 13, p. 404.

2 Vid. Joseph. Antiq. lib. xviii. c. 7, p. 626.

3 G. Sion. et J. Hesron. de Urb. Orient. c. 4, p. 11. 4 Acts, ix. 26; Gal. i. 18, 19.

to James, our Lord's brother, bishop of Jerusalem, acquainting them with the manner of his conversion; and by them he was familiarly entertained. Here he staid fifteen days, preaching Christ, and confuting the Hellenist Jews with a mighty courage and resolution. But snares were here again laid to entrap him; as malice can as well cease to be, as to be restless and active. Whereupon he was warned by God in a vision, that his testimony would not find acceptance in that place; that therefore he should leave it, and betake himself to the Gentiles. Accordingly, being conducted by the brethren to Cæsarea,' he set sail for Tarsus, his native city; from whence, not long after, he was fetched by Barnabas to Antioch, to assist him in propagating Christianity in that place: in which employment they continued there a whole. year. And now it was that the disciples of the religion were at this place first called Christians; according to the manner of all other institutions, who were wont to take their denominations from the first authors and founders of them. Before this they were usually styled Nazarenes,3 as being the disciples and followers of Jesus of Nazareth, a name by which the Jews in scorn call them to this day, with the same intent that the Gentiles of old used to call them Galileans. The name of Nazarenes was henceforward fixed upon those Jewish converts, who mixed the law and the gospel, and compounded a religion out of Judaism and Christianity. The fixing this honourable name upon the disciples of the crucified Jesus was done at

1 Acts, ix. 30.

2 Chap. xi. 26. * Ναζαραῖοι τὸ παλαιὸν ἡμεῖς οἱ νῦν χρισιανοί.—Euseb. de loc. Hebr. in voc. Našapéo.

Antioch, (as an ancient historian informs us1) about the beginning of Claudius's reign, ten years after Christ's ascension; nay, he further adds, that Euodius, lately ordained bishop of that place, was the person that imposed this name upon them, styling them Christians, who before were called Nazarenes and Galileans: Tῇ ἀυτῷ ̓επισκόπε Ευοδίε προσομιλήσαντος αὐτοῖς, καὶ ἐπιθήσαντος αὐτοῖς τὸ ὄνομα τῦτο. πρώην γᾶρ Ναζαραῖοι ἐκαλῶντο, και Γαλιλαῖοι έkaλõvτo oi xpısıavoì, as my author's words are. I may not omit, what a learned man has observed,2 that the word xonμarioai, used by St. Luke, (they were called,) implies the thing to have been done by some public and solemn act and declaration of the whole church; such being the use of the word in the imperial edicts and proclamations of those times, the emperors being said xonμarišεiv, “to style themselves," when they publicly proclaimed by what titles they would be called. When any province submitted itself to the Roman empire, the emperor was wont by public edict, χρηματίζειν ἑαυτὸν to entitle himself to the government and jurisdiction of it, and the people to several great privileges and immunities. In a grateful sense whereof, the people usually made this time the solemn date of their common epocha, or computation. Thus (as the forementioned historian informs us3) it was in the particular case of Antioch; and thence their public æra was called χρηματισμὸς τῶν ̓Αντιοχείων, "the ascription of the people at Antioch." Such being the general acceptation of the word, St. Luke, (who was himself a native of this city) makes

1 Joan. Antiochen. in Chronol. MS. à Selden, cit. de Synedr. lib. i. c. 8, p. 226. Vid. Suid. in voc. Nalapałos.

2 Greg. not. et obs. cap. 36. 3 J. Antioch. Chron. lib. ix.

use of it to express that solemn declaration whereby the disciples of the religion entitled themselves to the name of Christians.

3. It happened, about this time, that a terrible famine, foretold by Agabus,' afflicted several parts of the Roman empire, but especially Judæa; the consideration whereof made the Christians at Antioch compassionate the case of their suffering brethren, and they accordingly raised considerable contributions for their relief and succour, which they sent to Jerusalem by Barnabas and Paul; who having dispatched their errand in that city, went back to Antioch; where, while they were joining in the public exercises of their religion, it was revealed to them by the Holy Ghost, that they should set apart Paul and Barnabas to preach the gospel in other places; which was done accordingly, and they, by prayer, fasting, and imposition of hands, were immediately deputed for that service. Hence they departed to Seleucia, and thence sailed to Cyprus, where at Salamis, a great city in that island, they preached in the synagogues of the Jews. Hence they removed to Paphos, the residence of Sergius Paulus, the proconsul of the island, a man of great wisdom and prudence, but miserably seduced by the wicked artifices of Bar-Jesus, a Jewish impostor, who calling himself Elymas, or the magician, vehemently opposed the apostles, and kept the proconsul from embracing of the faith. Nay, one who pretends to be ancient enough to know it,3 seems to intimate, that he not only spake, but wrote against St. Paul's doctrine, and the faith of

3

Acts, xi. 27.

2 Acts, xii. 2. 3 Dionys. Areop. de divin. nomin. c. 8. p. 623.

Christ. However, the proconsul calls for the apostles, and St. Paul first takes Elymas to task; and having severely checked him for his malicious opposing of the truth, told him, that the divine vengeance was now ready to seize upon him. Upon which he was immediately struck blind. The vengeance of God observing herein a kind of just proportion, that he should be punished with the loss of his bodily eyes, who had so wilfully and maliciously shut the eyes of his mind against the light of the gospel, and had endeavoured to keep not only himself, but others under so much blindness and darkness. This miracle turned the scale with the proconsul, and quickly brought him over a convert to the faith.

4. After this success in Cyprus, he went to Perga, in Pamphylia,' where taking Titus along with him in the room of Mark, who was returned to Jerusalem, they went to Antioch, the metropolis of Pisidia: where entering into the Jewish synagogue on the Sabbath-day, after some sections of the law were read, they were invited by the rulers of the synagogue to discourse a little to the people; which St. Paul did in a large and eloquent sermon, wherein he put them in mind of the many great and particular blessings which God had heaped upon the Jews, from the first originals of that nation; that he had crowned them all with the sending of his Son to be the Messiah and the Saviour; that though the Jews had ignorantly crucified this

1 Acts, xiii. 13, 14.

2 The Antioch here mentioned is distinguished as the metropolis of Pisidia, to prevent its being confounded with the city of the same name in Syria, where the believers were first called Christians. Pisidia was a province of Asia Minor.-ED.