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"were with him stood fpeechlefs, hearing a "voice" (either not so distinctly as to understand it, or else not understanding the Hebrew language, in which it was spoken; in which fenfe Paul fays they heard not the voice, and in which fenfe axe is taken f; but indiftinct and confufed found, or in a language they did not understand); but " seeing no "man, though they faw the light or the "glory;" a plain proof that there was no perfon there to be feen; which feems to me to be the very reason why St. Luke fays, Paul's companions, though they heard a voice, faw no man.'

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And it is yet the lefs likely that Saul faw Chrift; fince, in all those places where this ftory is told, Saul feems, the very moment he faw the light, to have been struck blind by it, and in that inftant to have fallen to the ground, and to have continued blind for three days *.

And though Ananias fays, that it was "the "Lord Jefus that appeared to him in the "way;" and though Barnabas fays, that Saul "had feen the Lord in the way," yet that is not to be understood of Chrift's perfon, but of his glory; which is the only thing

d Acts xxvi. 14.
f See I Cor. xiv. 2.

Ibid. ix. 7.
Ibid. viii. 9.

e Ibid. xxii. 9.
8 Acts xxii. 9.
i Ibid. xxii. II.

1 Ibid. ix. 17, 27.

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that Saul is very particularly mentioned to have feen, and under the defcription of a bright light. Thus "the nobles faw God "the God of Ifrael, in the mount, feeing his "glory "though" they faw no manner of fimilitude there". So that, on the whole, Saul cannot be fuppofed to have seen the Lord. And yet, feeing the Lord was effential to an apostle, in the nature of his office; he being to teftify, as an eye and ear witness, that Chrift was rifen. And agreeable thereto St. Paul fays, "Am not I an apostle? have not I feen the Lord?" " And last of all (he fays), he (that is, Chrift) was feen of te me, as of one born out of due time 9."

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And though Saul heard the Lord, yet the Lord revealed nothing to him at that time; but that he fhould go to Damafcus; where "it fhould be told him what he should do";" or, as he himself is reported to have related its, where it fhall be told thee of all things which fhall be appointed for thee to "do," that is, of as much as was neceffary for him to hear from Ananias at that time. For what Ananias faid to him appears to be very thort and general, and carries nothing in it that can be supposed to conftitute him

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Exod. xxiv. 10. 12% • See the Second Effay. ¶ Chap. xv. 8, 9.

Ibid. xxii. 10.

n Deut. ii. 12.
Pi Cor. ix. i.

Acts ix. 6.

Ibid. ix, 17. xxii. 14, 15, 16. N 2

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an apoftle. It was indeed revealed to Ananias, that "Saul fhould bear Chrift's name "to the Gentiles," that is, fome time or other; and he tells Saul, that God had chofen him, in order to his receiving great vifions and difcoveries of God's will", and particularly that "he fhould fee that juft-one, and hear the "voice of his mouth." And if Ananias related to him, that Chrift had faid, that he (Saul) "fhould bear Chrift's name to the "Gentiles" (which Luke does not say that Ananias did), yet this could not make him an apostle: nor indeed any thing elfe (as his cafe was circumftanced) but a revelation of the gofpel he was to preach, and a miffion of him to preach it. Now we do not find that Ananias revealed any doctrine to him, much lefs the gospel which he was to preach to the Gentiles nay, we are fure Ananias did not reveal it to him; fince he declares, he received it not of man, nor from any of the apostles; much less from Ananias, a difciple: but by the (immediate) "revelation of Jefus "Chrift" and declares ", that he was not "an apostle of men;" not fent by Peter, or any of the apostles; as Timothy, Titus, and others were by him; who were " apostles? or meffengers of him and the churches,

ú Acts xxii. 14.
▾ Gal. i. I.

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(ἀπόςολον ἐκκλησιῶν *), and (Απόςολῶ ὑμῶν»): nor " by man” (2); not by the miniftry of any man, as Matthias was; nor confequently by the ministry of Ananias.

Nay farther, if he had been made an apoftle by Ananias, he had been inferior to Matthias; who, though he was in fome sense conftituted an apoftle by men, yet had eleven apostles amongst thofe who, in fome fort, conftituted him one: whereas, if St. Paul had been made an apostle by Ananias, he had been made an apostle by one that was no more than a disciple. But St. Paul, as he adds a, was made an apostle apostle" by Jefus Christ," (that is,) immediately, or perfonally, as the other eleven apoftles were: without the inftrumentality of any man (for he was "in "nothing one whit behind the chiefeft apo

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ftles"); and "by God the Father, who raised ❝ him from the dead." And the Holy Ghost fays, "Separate me Barnabas and Saul for "the work whereunto I have called them," that is, whereunto I have already called them (meaning the time of the preceding vision he had of Christ in the temple); not whereunto I only now publicly call them by the ministry of the prophets; as I hope to fhew. more fully afterwards. And fo Ananias tells

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him, "The God of our fathers has chofen "thee "." And agreeably hereunto Paul always fpeaks of himself, as receiving his apostleship from God, or Chrift, or both. Paul lays the greatest ftrefs on his receiving the apostleship from God, or Chrift, or both, it being a matter effential to his being an apostle, and being at the fame time a matter that admitted of fome doubt; he having been a perfecuter near two years after Chrift's death; and being was it objected to him by his adverfaries, that he was only an apostle of man, or by men; as may be plainly collected from feveral paffages of his epiftle to the Galatians.

However, though Saul could not be faid to be an apostle, on any thing that came within the compass of this tranfaction: yet on feeing this glory, in the road to Damascus; and on receiving these notifications from Ananias, in that city; and being filled with the Holy Ghoft; he preaches there, and in Arabia, and then again at Damafcus, and afterwards goes to Jerufalem, three years after his conversion: where at firft the apoftles and brethren were fo far from receiving him as fuch, that "they "would not believe him to be a difciple." Is

d

A is xxii. 14.

Rom. ii. 5. 1 Cor. i. 1. 2 Cor. i. 1. Eph. i. I. Col. 1 1. 1 Tim. i. I.

e Acts ix. 26.

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