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defire (roovn); who are diftinguished from the Jews and profelytes, to whom Paul and Barnabas fpoke the day before; faying, "Ye “men of Ifrael, and ye that fear God, give audience". From thence they go to Iconium, where they convert idolatrous Gentiles"; and fpeak to an affembly compofed of none elfe at Lyftra. And when they return, from converting them, to the church at Antioch in Syria, they rehearsed all that God had done "with them, and how he had opened a door "of faith to the Gentiles "." Nothing can be plainer, than that by Gentiles here idolatrous Gentiles are meant; fince the door of faith had been opened to the profelyted Gen-, tiles long before, by Peter and others, in those places of the Acts I just now quoted, about the year 41, and fo on to the time of this commiffion.

And indeed, Gentiles are fet in oppofition to profelytes of the gate: and in other texts of the Acts, as well as in thefe places which I have juft now quoted, fignifies idolatrous Gentiles; unless there is fomething in the text or context that particularly reftrains the meaning of the word to the profelytes of the gate; and of which there are not a great many inftances. Nor can it be fuppofed, that Gentiles in fcripture generally fignify any

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others than idolatrous Gentiles; confidering the characters that are generally given of the Gentiles, and the oppofite characters that are given of the profelytes of the gate. The Gentiles are defcribed, as "being carried away or led after dumb idols a, in dark"nefs " (which the profelyted Gentiles, who had the knowledge of the law, could not be faid to be); without God, without hope, "under the power of the wicked one, and to "work all manner of uncleannefs with gree"dinefs." Whereas the profelytes of the gate are faid to be "of clean hands, and a 86 pure heart;" and "the Gentiles on whom "God's name is called ;" and "devout men; fearing and worshiping God; working righteoufnefs; and, religious profelytes f." 2. That Paul is now commiffioned to go to the idolatrous Gentiles, may appear from the phrase used Acts xiii. 2. and a paffage Acts xv. 38, which may help us to explain that phrafe. In the former place the Spirit fays Separate me Barnabas and Saul to the work "(eis To plov) to which I have called them." This plainly fhew it was a peculiar business, in which they had not been engaged hitherto. True, fay fome: they were to go and preach.

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e

1 Cor. xii. 2. 1 Theff. i. 9. b Acts xxvi. 18.

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Eph. ii. 2, 12. iv. 17, 19.

d Pfal. xxiv. 4.

e Amos ix. II.

f Acts x. 2. xiii. 26. xvi. 14. xviii. 7. xiii. 43.

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the gofpel farther than they had yet: Neither of them had been hitherto any farther than Syria and Cilicia, fay they: now they were to go to Cyprus, to Pamphylia, Pifidia, and Lycaonia; the three laft being provinces of the Leffer Afia. But it plainly appears, that the work to which Saul and Barnabas were fent did not begin, in Saul's opinion, in Cyprus or Pamphylia; for he would not take Mark in the fecond apoftolical journey he made, because he had "departed "from them, from Pamphylia, and went not "with them to the work" (eis To plov ); which I think can only be thus explained, "That

they had not preached to any affembly of "idolatrous Gentiles, nor publicly and ex"plicitly offered their commiffion to preach "to them, till they came to Antioch, a town "of Pifidia, the province beyond Pamphylia;" where they presently after began this work, and on the immediate view and diflike of which Mark feems to have left them. This obfervation points out to us very plainly, that the work to which Saul and Barnabas was separated, and to which Mark would not go, was the preaching to the idolatrous Gentiles; that was then immediately to begin at Antioch in Pifidia, probably by the fame direction that would not fuffer Paul to preach in Afia or Bithynia h.

• Acts xv. 38.

Ibid. xvi. 6, 7.

Now

Now if this appears upon the whole to have been the first time of Saul's being fent to the idolatrous Gentiles, it must be the time of his commencing an apostle. For he was only the apoftle of the Gentiles, as I have endeavoured to prove in the Second Effay.

3. Thus I hope I have made it appear, that at this time Saul was firft ordered to depart to the Gentiles; and I think it is more than probable that he at this time alfo "re❝ceived immediately from Christ the reve"lation of the gospel, that he was forthwith "to preach to them :" or, in the phrafeology of fcripture, that he had "the word of wif "dom committed to him."

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For firft he tells the Galatians in the most exprefs terms, that "he received not the gofpel he preached from man; nor was he taught it, but by the revelation of Jefus "Chrifti." And there is no other account, that feems to bid fo fair to be the account of the precife time when Chrift revealed it to him, as this; fince he is here first sent by Chrift to the Gentiles. Now as he could never be fent, without having the meffage that he was to carry delivered to him, either fome time before, or at that very time, or fome time after; fo it does not seem congruous to the Divine Wisdom, to have delivered it

before it was to be carried; or to fend Paul then, and not deliver him the errand he was to go upon till fome time after. And therefore we may fully conclude, not only from the wisdom of God, but from the beauty and propriety that appear in all the Divine tranfactions of which any particular accounts are given us, that Chrift acquainted Saul with the meffage he was to carry to the Gentiles, at the very time that Chrift told him that he (Chrift) would then fend him (Saul) to them. And thus the word went forth out of Sion" (not from the road to Damafcus) not only to the Jews, but also the Gentiles; according to the prediction in Pfalm xi. 3. "Many people fhall go and fay, Come ye, and let us go

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up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house "of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us “of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Sion fhall go forth the law, and "the word of the Lord from Jerufalem."

2. I am the more confirmed in my opinion, that this was the precife time when Chrift immediately revealed the gospel to Saul, that he was to preach to the Gentiles; from his acquainting the Corinthians, that " he had a great revelation made to him" at a time that agrees with the very time I am speaking of; and from faying feveral things of it, which feem to point out that

this