teresting will they be to us, unless we reflect their images on our hearts.

"And may the Almighty God, who by his Son Jesus Christ gave to the Apostles many excellent gifts and graces, and commanded them to feed the flock entrusted to their care, give his grace to all spiritual pastors, diligently to preach his holy word, and the people obediently to follow the same, that they may receive the crown of everlasting glory through Jesus Christ our Lord." Amen.

' Collect for St. Peter's Day.

LECTURE X.

ACTS IX. 1-31.

The Conversion of St. Paul-His preaching at, and escape from, Damascus, &c. Damascus Arabia DamascusJerusalem-Cæsarea-Tarsus. A.D. 35-37.

A TRANSITION from the gloom and melancholy of a dungeon to the cheering and brilliant rays of the sun, is but a faint representation of that change which takes place in the heart of man, when it passes from a full conviction of sin, to a participation of those great and precious promises delivered by the Gospel of Christ. A more striking instance of this truth will hardly be found, than that which is now presented to us in the conversion of St. Paul.

We have seen him, and in this history continue to behold him, "breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord." Unappeased with persecution, at the distance of a whole year, as some suppose, after the death of Stephen, he solicits a commission from the Jewish rulers to pursue the unhappy Christian fugitives to

66

the city of Damascus, where many of them had found a shelter. Time, with the grace of God, will soothe, and finally subdue, the most inveterate enmities. But if God's grace be wanting, not one year, nor many years, will make any impression. In St. Paul's case, his offence was repeatedly and deliberately committed. Beyond measure,” says he, "I persecuted the Church of God, and wasted it." "I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme, and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities." But what the natural man could not perform, was effected by the wonderful and miraculous operations of the Spirit of God. 66 By the grace of God," he says again, "I am what I am 1." What St. Paul's sensations were on this happy change of his condition, will be best understood from his own language. The extreme warmth and piety of his effusions, the zealous solicitude for the salvation of others, the calm confidence of his own expectations, the firmness of his faith, the eloquence of his preaching, the candour and liberality of his mind, and the intrepidity of his conduct, are circumstances that bespeak, not less the inspiration of the Apostle, than the eminence of the man. Read St. Luke's account of him, and you will be lost in reverence and admiration. Peruse his own public and familiar epistles, and your breast will be animated by a spark of his

11 Cor. xv. 10.

fire; your devotion will kindle in his very words, and exclaim, "I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me1!"

the

The narrative of St. Paul's conversion leaves behind it the most extraordinary impressions. It differs from that of all other men, as it arose from an instantaneous supernatural impulse, attended with external circumstances of much efficacy and weight. It was a miracle of the mind; and intended to shew that some greater work was to be done by him than by the other Apostles. And as an evidence of this, they had no connexion with him; they were at a distance from him; for many years, most of them never saw him; and and yet doctrines which they all taught were the same, with this difference in the mode of communication, that St. Paul was the first who preached them to the Gentiles, that is, to such nations as were not of the original stock of Abraham. "When it pleased God," said he, "who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood 2," with those who had been in the ministry before me. Surely this must be thought an irrefragable evidence of the truth of Christianity, as nothing short of an immediate revelation could have produced so wonderful a combination of events. God, of his boundless mercy and goodness, that he might manifest in him an

1 Phil. iv. 13.

N

2 Gal. i. 15, 16,

illustrious instance of his clemency, and might reveal the knowledge of his Son by a more extensive diffusion of his doctrines, converts him by a miracle; and of an enemy and destroyer of the Church, makes him an herald of the Gospel, an assiduous and zealous propagator of the Christian faith.

Behold him on his way to Damascus with his bloody commission in his hand; a commission not given him to execute as a minister of public justice, but sought for and obtained by him with eager solicitude. Often, when we least expect it, grace is at hand, and the over-powering goodness of God melts the most obdurate heart. At mid-day, in the height and splendour of the sun, this eminent and conspicuous character was surprised by a still more bright and luminous appearance; "suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven," emblematic of that light which was about to penetrate his soul; a light, which, as it were, diffused itself from the body of his Saviour, who was, and is, "the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world 1." Prostrate on the ground he heard these words, "Saul, Saul why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." "I am thy Saviour, who have done, and suffered, so many and so great things for thee; I am he whom thou now grievously distressest in the persons of my faithful servants and followers. But