ignorant of the gospel of Chrift, even after I had opportunity of informing myself of it; "difobedient" to it, after I knew it, "deceiv“ed” in thinking ftill that I was to be juftified by the works of righteousness, enjoined by the law of Mofes, "ferving divers lufts "and pleasures" particularly those that follow," living in malice and envy" against all the difciples, "hateful" to them, and because hating them;" being, as he fays, "a blafphemer, and a perfecutor, and injurious ;" breathing out nothing but "threatenings against them; making, havock of them ; and entering into every houfe haled "men and women out of them, and commit"ted them to prifon; being exceedingly mad 66 against them; perfecuting them to strange « cities, and to the death; and even compel ling them to blafpheme; but after that "the kindness and love of God our Saviour "towards man appeared (to me), not by the "works of righteoufnefs (which I did as a pharifee), but according to his mercy he faved us (me) by the wathing of regenera"tion",-regeneration being fignified by the washing of baptifm, alluding particularly to Ananias's words, " Arife, and wash away thy "fins',". - «and by the renewing of the Holy i 1 Tim. i. 13. I *Acts viii. 3. ix. 1, 2. xxii. 4. xxvI. II. Ibid.xxii. 16. "Ghoft, "Ghost, which" (as foon as I was baptized)" he shed on me abundantly"-a phrase that I think always denotes the immediate communication of the Holy Ghost"and filled me with his gifts:" the proof that he had renewed me, or made a new creature of me. So that the fenfe upon the whole, is as Seneca fays in another case "; Faciet nos moderatiores refpectus noftri, fi "confuluerimus nos:" and not unlike what Pliny fays, on a like occafion with Seneca, Cogita illum puerum effe, & te fuiffe." The whole feems to be very near what St. Paul undoubtedly fays of himfelf": "And I thank Jefus Christ our Lord, who hath "enabled me, for that he counted me faith- · "ful, putting me into the ministry; who was "before a blafphemer, and a perfecutor, and injurious. But I obtained mercy because I "did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace "of our Lord was exceeding abundant, with "faith and love which is in Chrift Jefus. This " is a faithful faying-that Chrift Jefus came "into the world to fave finners, of whom I “am chief.” · If this be not the sense of this place, I must own that the connexion of St. Paul's thoughts here does not appear to me; confidering that he is writing to Titus, what he fhould teach the Cretans. I do not apprehend, that it is any objection to this interpretation, that Paul fays, "He "had always lived in all good confcience® for the meaning there is, that he had acted according to his full perfuafion, fince his feeing the glory of Chrift in the road to Damafcus; as he had not acted against the full and clear convictions of his confcience, before; even while he perfecuted all of this way (though he had been wanting in a due attention to the evidence of the christian religion), referring to the speech he had made the day before, in which he had fhewed, that, inftead of being a profligate Egyptian as the chief captain had imagined, or of being guilty of teaching the Jews, which were among the Gentiles, against the people and the law, and the temple, and polluted it, of which the Jews of Afia accused him; he had been not only" as touching the law blame 66 lefs," but highly, nay madly zealous: and that it was on nothing but the highest evidence, that he at last became a chriftian. Nor is this interpretation contrary to the character he gives of himself, Phil. iii. 6. 2 Tim. i. 3. For not to go about to explain those texts now, and, to fhew in particular, that they do not contradict this. interpretation, I will obferve only these two • Acts xxiii. 1. P Ibid. xxii. things; things; first, that all the lufts he here speaks of, were such as confifted with being thought blameless, according to the law: or, in other words, were such as might be committed by those that worshiped one God, and outwardly appeared to live confcientioufly, or conforma bly to the law. And secondly, that notwithstanding the character he gives of himself" here, he fays, in a place I just now quoted, that he was "a blafphemer, and a perfecutor, and injurious;" and elsewhere that he was, on this account, not only "lefs "than the least of all the apostles, not worἐσ thy to be called one, and less than the "leaft of all faints; but the chiefeft of fin"ners." 46 And I the rather apprehend the Holy Ghost fell down immediately on St. Paul, as he did on the other apoftles, for these reasons; (1.) that he might thereby point him out as an apostle, and fet him on a level with the other apostles in this refpect; fince he says, he was "not one whit behind the very chiefest of " them ;" and in all refpects feems to have the preference to them. (2). We find no trace of any objection to St. Paul, on the account of the Holy Ghoft's being imparted to him by another, and particularly by a disciple, as we find there was an account of his being thought to have received his doctrine and apoftlefhip from the Jewish apoftles; of his not being. uniform in his teaching the gofpel of the Gentiles; of his rude fpeech, and mean and contemptible appearance: and there is little doubt to be made, but we should have met with this objection to him, as well as the others, if there had been any ground for fuch an objection: fince, if he had received the Holy Ghost from another, and especially from Ananias a difciple, it would have fet him. below the other apoftles, on whom the Holy Ghoft fell without the intervention of hands.. (3) Because, if the Holy Ghoft did not defcend on him without the intervention of hands, the Holy Ghost must have been imparted to him by the laying on of the hands of Ananias, who was but a difciple. And we are fo far from having any instance of a difciple's conferring the Holy Ghost, that we find Philip, who was himfelf "full of the Holy Ghost," a deacon, and an evange lift a; and, in all probability, an elder (or one of the hundred and twenty on whom the Holy Ghoft first fell) could not impart it b. 66 And as St. Paul feems to me to affert expreffly in this text, that the Holy Ghost fell down on him in the fame manner as it did on b Acts viii. 12- -20. |