preached the word of God to both Jews and Gentiles. After this they travelled nearly the whole length of the island, till they came to Paphos, which was situated upon the western extremity, a place famed for its temple and obscene worship of the Paphian Venus. This was the residence of Sergius Paulus, the Roman Proconsul, who, hearing of the arrival of Barnabas and Saul, sent for them, desiring to hear from their mouths the word of God. Here the apostles were withstood by Elymas, a noted magician, who sought to turn away the deputy from the faith. Saul, however, detected his malicious intention; and, as Peter had formerly done in the awful instance of Ananias and Sapphira, so Saul by his apostolic power, denounced upon Elymas the impending judgment of God for his iniquity. Scarcely had he uttered the words when the sorcerer was struck with a total blindness, insomuch that he went about seeking some one to lead him by the hand. The Lord was pleased by means of this judgment upon Elymas, to awaken the attention of the Proconsul to the things which concerned his everlasting peace, for "when he saw what was done, he believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord."

On this occasion, we find the first intimation of the change of the name of the great apostle of the Gentiles from Saul to Paul. Various conjectures for this have been offered by the learned. By some it is supposed that the latter title was given him because he had been the means of converting Sergius Paulus to the Christian faith; as Scipio obtained the appellation of Africanus from the circumstance of his having conquered Africa. Others, however, and among them ranks the judicious Benson, account for it, by supposing that at the time of his circumcision he received the two names of Saul and

Acts xiii. 5-12.

Paul-the latter as his Roman name, (for he was born a freeman of Rome) and the former as his Jewish name, for he was a Jew, or as he calls himself, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. As, therefore, he had been called Saul, while he continued among the Jews, and as he was henceforward to execute his ministry among the Romans he adopted his Roman name. And the same reason hath been assigned, for changing the name of his companion Silas into that of Silvanus. Paul and Barnabas quitting Paphos sailed to Perga, a town in Pamphilia,* not far from the coast of Asia Minor, from whence they passed on to

ANTIOCH IN PISIDIA. And here we may remark, that, in executing their mission among the Gentiles, it was the invariable practice of these apostles, on their arrival at any city or town, where they had not previously been, in the first place to inquire whether there were any Jewish synagogue in it, and if they found one, they' attended its worship on the ensuing Sabbath. Such was the ease at Iconium, Acts xiv. 1.-at Thessalonica, ch. xvii. 1.-at Corinth, ch. xviii. 4.-at Ephesus, ch. xix. 8. and other places, and such was the case at Antioch in Pisidia, where "they went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down." This manner of proceeding does not appear to have been arbitrary or capricious, but conformable to the revealed will of their divine master, who, in the commission which he gave to his apostles to preach the gospel to every creature, commanded them "to begin at Jerusalem," the place where he was crucified. This was altogether in unison with the nature and with the properties of the grace revealed in the gospel itself-which "Grand as the bosom whence it flowed, and kind as the heart that gave it vent,-outshines the thoughts of shallow man." So we find Peter

Acts xiii. 14, &c.

reminding the Jews that unto them first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, had sent him to bless them, in turning away every one of them from his iniquities.* And the conduct of Paul at Antioch was strictly conformable to this. He first addressed himself to the Jews, briefly glancing at their history from the period of the Exodus of their fathers from Egypt till the times of David, that eminent type of the Messiah; and from the mention of whom he is naturally led to speak of David's Sonthe Saviour promised unto Israel. This, he proceeds to prove, was none other than Jesus of Nazareth, of whose character John the Baptist had spoken in the most exalted terms-whom the Jewish rulers had put to death, but whom God had raised again the third day, and of whose resurrection the apostles were witnesses. The important inference which the apostle deduced from these facts and doctrines is, that "through this man, Christ Jesus, is preached the forgiveness of sins, and that by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses;" and he enforced the whole by the most awful denunciations against those who should despise his doctrine and reject his testimony.

Many of the Jews had no ear to give to this doctrine; but to the Gentiles it was indeed glad tidings of great joy; and even some of the Jews and religious proselytes took part with the apostles, who exhorted them to continue in the grace of God.

The Gentiles having thus tasted that the Lord is gracious, expressed their earnest desire that the apostles would again preach to them on the following Sabbath; to which Paul and Barnabas consenting, almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God. To those who know any thing of the value of the gospel

• Acts iii. 26.

to human happiness, one can scarcely imagine a more interesting spectacle, than the bare idea of such a multitude flocking around these inspired teachers to receive from their lips the words of eternal life. Vastly different however, was its effect upon the unbelieving Jews;→ they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which the apostles taught, contradicting and blaspheming." Paul and Barnabas, however, animated with that fortitude which became them as the ambassadors of the Most High, thus solemnly warned them; "It was necessary that the word of God should be first spoken unto you, but seeing ye put it from you, and thereby declare yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles; for so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, (by the prophet Isaiah) I have set thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation to the ends of the earth." This intelligence, that such things had been prophesied concerning them many ages ago, and that the Lord had commanded his apostles to receive them as subjects of his kingdom, without subjecting them to the law of Moses, was most acceptable to the poor Gentiles, who rejoiced in it as those that find great spoil; and they glorified the word of the Lord. Thus " as many of them as were ordained to eternal life believed; the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region, and the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit."* A persecution was, however, raised against the apostles by the unbelieving Jews, who stirred up the devout and honourable women and the chief men of the city, who speedily succeeded in causing them to be expelled out of their coasts. They therefore shook off the dust of their feet as a testimony against them, and came to

Acts xiii. 16-58.

ICONIUM, which was then the chief city of Lycaonia, and even to this day subsists as a considerable town under the name of Cogni, situated at the foot of Mount Taurus. Here also they found a synagogue of the Jews, in which they preached the gospel with such success that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed their testimony. From the number of those who in Iconium are said to have believed, we may infer that it was a great and populous city, as well as perceive the reason of the apostles' conduct in prolonging their stay in it to establish the disciples in the faith, and to comfort them under the persecution which the unbelieving Jews raised against them. But when matters arrived at such a crisis, that the city became divided, one part holding with the Jews and the other with the apostles, the latter, having received intimation that an assault was about to be made upon them to use them cruelly and stone them, they prudently withdrew and fled to

LYSTRA and DERBE, two other cities of Lycaonia, in which they preached the gospel. At the former of these places, the apostles met with one who had all his days been a cripple, having never walked; and Paul by a word restored him to the perfect use of his limbs, so that he leaped for joy. This extraordinary cure, performed so instantaneously, excited a kind of ecstasy and surprise in the minds of the spectators, who shouted aloud in the language of the Cappadocians, that the gods were come down in the similitude of mortal men. And they named Barnabas Jupiter, and Paul Mercury, because he was the chief speaker. The next thing was to make pre-, paration for sacrificing oxen to them, and crowning them with garlands, as was customary with their heathen deities. But the apostles were very differently minded from Herod, (who received the blasphemous adulations