152 HOUiE PAULINA\ 



temple was the article they chose to rely upon. This, there- 

 fore, became the immediate subject of Tertullus' oration 

 before Felix, and of Paul's defence. But that he all along 

 considered his ministry among the Gentiles as the actual 

 source of the enmity that had been exercised against him, 

 and in particular, as the cause of the insurrection in which 

 his person had been seized, is apparent from the conclusion 

 of his discourse before Agrippa : "I have appeared untc 

 thee," says he, describing what passed upon his journey to 

 Damascus, " for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a 

 witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of 

 those things in the which I will appear unto thee ; deliver- 

 ing thee from the people and from the Gentiles, unto whom 

 now I send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from 

 darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, 

 that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance 

 among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. 

 Whereupon, king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the 

 heavenly vision ; but showed first unto them of Damascus, 

 and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judea, 

 and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn 

 to God, and do works meet for repentance. For these causes 

 the Jews caught me in the temple, and went about to kill 

 me." The seizing, therefore, of St. Paul's person, from 

 which he was never discharged till his final liberation at 

 Rome, and of which, therefore, his imprisonment at Rome 

 w as the continuation and efiect, was not in consequence of 

 any general persecution set on foot against Christianity ; nor 

 did it befall him simply as professing or teaching Christ's 

 religion, which James and the elders at Jerusalem did as 

 well as he, and yet, for any thing that appears, remained at 

 that time unmolested ; but it was distinctly and specifically 

 brought upon him by his activity in preaching to the Gen- 

 tiles, and by his placing them upon a level with the once- 

 favored and still self-flattered posterity of Abraham. How 

 well St. Paul's letters, purporting to be written during this 



