rity, it was not lawful to revile him, God himself having commanded, that no man should speak evil of the ruler of the people." The apostle, who, as he never laid aside the innocency of the dove, so knew how, when occasion was, to make use of the wisdom of the serpent; perceiving the council to consist partly of Sadducees and partly of Pharisees, openly told them that he was a Pharisee, and the son of a Pharisee; and that the main thing he was questioned for, was his belief of a future resurrection. This quickly divided the council; the Pharisees being zealous patrons of that article, and the Sadducees as stifly denying that there is either angel (that is, of a spiritual and immortal nature, really subsisting of itself; for otherwise they cannot be supposed to have utterly denied all sorts of angels, seeing they owned the Pentateuch, wherein there is frequent

quasi excusaret Paulus quod sibi in istis malis constituto non satis in mentem venisset, quicum sibi res esset. Verum latentior sensus suberat, non esse eum sacerdotem, aut principem senatûs, qui eas dignitates pretio comparâsset. Didicerat enim hoc à Gamaliele Paulus; Judicem qui honoris consequendi causâ pecunias dederit, reverà neque judicem esse, neque honorandum, sed asini habendum loco, ut est in Titulo Talmudico de Synedrio."-Grot. in loc.

It is plain from the general tendency of Paul's doctrine and behaviour, that if he refused to own Ananias as high-priest, he did so not from his own private opinions of his demerits, but from the certainty that the law was against his holding that office; and it is scarcely to be believed, that if he thus solemnly disputed his authority he would have so suddenly softened his rebuke. The more probable supposition is, that Paul's long absence from Jerusalem, the changes which had taken place in the high offices of the nation, together with the confusion that prevailed in the assembly described, did really prevent him from knowing the person of the high-priest, who it is to be remembered was not clad as if he had been ministeriug in the temple. -ED.

mention of them) or spirit, or that human souls do exist in a separate state, and consequently that there is no resurrection. Presently the doctors of the law, who were Pharisees, stood up to acquit him, affirming he had done nothing amiss; that it was possible he had received some intimation from heaven by an angel, or the revelation of the Holy Spirit; and if so, then in opposing his doctrine, they might fight against God himself.

9. Great were the dissensions in the council about this matter, insomuch that the governor fearing St. Paul would be torn in pieces, commanded the soldiers to take him from the bar, and return him back into the castle. That night, to comfort him after all his frights and fears, God was pleased to appear to him in a vision, encouraging him to constancy and resolution, assuring him, that as he had borne witness to his cause at Jerusalem, so, in despite of all his enemies, he should live to bear his testimony even at Rome itself. The next morning the Jews, who could as well cease to be as to be mischievous and malicious, finding that these dilatory proceedings were not like to do the work, resolved upon a quicker dispatch. To which end above forty of them entered into a wicked confederacy, which they ratified by oath and execration, never to eat or drink till they had killed him; and having acquainted the Sanhedrim with their design, they entreated them to importune the governor, that he might again, the next day, be brought down before them, under pretence of a more strict trial of his case, and that they themselves would lie in ambush by the way, and not fail to dispatch him. But that Divine Providence which peculiarly superintends the safety of good men,

'disappoints the devices of the crafty.' The design was discovered to St. Paul by a nephew of his, and by him imparted to the governor, who immediately commanded two parties of foot and horse to be ready by nine of the clock that night, and provision to be made for St. Paul's carriage to Felix, the Roman governor of that province: to whom also he wrote, signifying whom he had sent, how the Jews had used him; and that his enemies also should appear before him to manage the charge and accusation. Accordingly he was, by night, conducted to Antipatris, and afterwards to Cæsarea, where the letters being delivered to Felix, the apostle was presented to him; and finding that he belonged to the province of Cilicia, he told him, that as soon as his accusers were arrived he should have a hearing; commanding him in the mean time to be secured in the place called Herod's Hall.

SECTION VI.

Of St. Paul, from his first trial before Felix till his coming to Rome.

NOT many days after, down comes Ananias' the high-priest, with some others of the Sanhedrim, to Cæsarea, accompanied with Tertullus, their advocate, who, in a short, but neat speech, set off with all the flattering and insinuative arts of eloquence,

1 Acts, xxiv.

began to implead our apostle, charging him with sedition, heresy, and the profanation of the temple, and adding, that they would have saved the governor the trouble of this hearing, by judging him according to their own law, had not Lysias the commander violently taken him from them, and sent both him and them down thither. To all which the Jews that were with him gave in their vote and testimony. St. Paul having leave from Felix to defend himself; and having told him how much he was satisfied in having to plead before one who, for so many years had been governor of that nation, distinctly answered to the several parts of the charge.

2. And first, for sedition: he point-blank denied it, affirming that they found him behaving himself quietly and peaceably in the temple, not so much as disputing there, nor stiring up the people either in the synagogues, or any other place of the city. And though this was plausibly pretended by them, yet were they never able to make it good. As for the charge of heresy, that he was a ring-leader of the sect of the Nazarenes, he ingenuously acknowledged that after the way which they counted heresy, so he worshipped God; the same way in substance wherein all the patriarchs of the Jewish nation had worshipped God before bim, taking nothing into his creed, but what the authentic writers of the Jews themselves did own and justify; that he firmly believed what the better of themselves were ready to grant, another life, and a future resurrection; in the hope and expectation whereof he was careful to live unblamable, and conscientiously to do his duty both to God and men. As for the third part of the charge, his profaning of the temple, he shows how little foundation there was

for it; that the design of his coming to Jerusalem was to bring charitable contributions to his distressed brethren; that he was indeed in the temple, but not as some Asiatic Jews falsely suggested, either with tumult or with multitude; but only purifying himself according to the rites and customs of the Mosaic law; and that if any would affirm the contrary, they should now come into open court and make it good. Nay, that he appealed to those of the Sanhedrim that were there present, whether he had not been acquitted by their own great council at Jerusalem, where nothing of moment had been laid to his charge, except by them of the Sadducean party, who quarrelled with him only for asserting the doctrine of the resurrection. Felix having thus heard both parties argue, refused to make any final determination in the case, till he had more fully advised about it, and spoken with Lysias, commander of the garrison, who was best able to give an account of the sedition and the tumult; commanding, in the mean time, that St. Paul should be under guard; but yet in so free a custody that none of his friends should be hindered from visiting him, or performing any office of kindness and friendship to him.

3. It was not long after this before his wife, Drusilla, (a Jewess, daughter of the elder Herod; and whom Tacitus, I fear by a mistake for his former wife, Drusilla, daughter to Juba, king of Mauritania, makes niece to Anthony and Cleopatra,) came to him to Cæsarea. Who being present, he sent for St. Paul to appear before them, and gave him leave to discourse concerning the doctrine of Christianity. In his discourse he took occasion particularly to insist upon the great obligation which the laws of