some have imagined, is very uncertain. It was the unanimous tradition of the church, that St. Paul returned to Rome; that he underwent a second imprisonment there (f), and at last was put to death by the emperor Nero. Tacitus (g) and Suetonius (h) have mentioned a dreadful fire which happened at Rome in the time of Nero. It was believed, though probably without any reason, that the emperor himself was the author of that fire; but to remove the odium from himself he chose to attribute it to the Christians; and to give some colour to that unjust imputation, he persecuted them with the utmost cruelty. In this persecution Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom, probably in the year 65; and if we may credit Sulpitius Severus, a writer of the fifth century, the former was crucified, and the latter beheaded (i).

VIII. ST.

Spain probably arose from the following passage in his Epistle to the Romans, "Whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you," but we have no certain information whether he ever went into Spain or not. It seems, however, clear, that in the year 58 he intended to go thither; but it should be remembered that this was five years before his release from imprisonment. (f) St. Paul wrote his second Epistle to Timothy during his second imprisonment at Rome.

(g) Tac. Ann. lib. 15, cap. 44.

(h) Suet. Nero. cap. 38. (i) Lib. 2. cap. 41.

VIII. ST. PAUL was a person of great natural abilities, of quick apprehension, strong passions, firm resolution, and irreproachable life: he was conversant with Grecian (k) and Jewish literature; and gave early proofs of an active and zealous disposition. If we may be allowed to consider his character, independent of his supernatural endowments, we may pronounce that he was well qualified to have risen to distinction and eminence, and that he was by nature peculiarly adapted to the high office to which it pleased God to call him. As a minister of the Gospel, he displayed the most unwearied perseverance and undaunted courage. He was deterred by no difficulty or danger, and endured a great variety of persecutions with patience and cheerfulness. He gloried in being

thought

(k) St. Paul is the only writer of the New Testament who has quoted any Greek profane author: the apophthegm in the fifteenth chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians,

Φθείρουσιν ήθη χρησθ' όμιλίαι κακαι,

is an iambic from Menander; and the character of the Cretans, in the first chapter of the Epistle to Titus, Κρητες άει ψενσται, κακα θηρία, γαστερες άργαι,

is an hexameter from Epimenides. St. Paul also quoted Aratus in his speech at Athens, as recorded by St. Luke in the seventeenth chapter of the Acts:

Τα γαρ και γεγος εσμεν.

thought worthy of suffering for the name of Jesus, and continued with unabated zeal to maintain the truth of Christianity against its bitterest and most powerful enemies. He was the principal instrument under Providence of spreading the Gospel among the Gentiles; and we have seen that his labours lasted through many years, and reached over a considerable extent of country. Though emphatically styled the great Apostle of the Gentiles, he began his ministry in almost every city, by preaching in the synagogue of the Jews (1); and though he owed by far the greater part of his persecutions to the opposition and malice of that proud and obstinate people, whose resentment he particularly incurred by maintaining that the Gentiles were to be admitted to an indiscriminate participation of the benefits of the new dispensation (m), yet it rarely happened in any place, that some of the Jews did not yield to his arguments, and embrace the Gospel. He watched with paternal care over the churches which he had founded, and was always ready to strengthen the faith, and regulate the conduct of his converts,

by

(1) The Jews were at this time so dispersed throughout the world, that there was scarcely any considerable city in which they had not a synagogue.

(m) Vide Paley's Hora Paul. c. 8. n. I.

by such directions and advice as stances might require.

The exertions of St. Paul in

their circum

the cause of

Christianity were not confined to personal instruction: he also wrote fourteen Epistles to individuals or churches, which are now extant, and form a part of our canon. In these letters of the Apostle, there are those obscurities and difficulties which belong to epistolary writing. Many circumstances are mentioned with brevity, and many opinions and facts are barely alluded to, as being well known to the persons. whom he addresses, but which it is very difficult at this distant period to discover and ascertain. He does not formally announce the subjects which he means to discuss; he enters upon them abruptly, and makes frequent transitions without any intimation or notice; he answers objections without stating them, and abounds in parentheses, which are not always easily discerned. Perspicuity, indeed, and a strict adherence to the rules of composition, were scarcely compatible with the fervour of his imagination and the rapidity of his thoughts. "He is," says Mr. Locke, "full of the matter he treats; and writes with warmth, which usually neglects method, and those partitions and pauses, which men educated in the schools of rhetoricians

usually observe." There is, however, a real connection and coherence in all his writings; and his reasoning, although it may sometimes seem to be desultory, will always be found to be correct and convincing (n). Instead of the beauties which arise from a nice arrangement of words, an harmonious cadence of periods, and an artificial structure of sentences, we have a style at once concise and highly figurative, and a striking peculiarity and uncommon energy of language. Whenever he speaks of the doctrines and excellency of the Christian religion, enlarges upon the nature and attributes of the Deity, or terrifies with the dread of divine judginents, his style rises with the subject; and while our minds are impressed with the justness and the dignity of the sentiments, we cannot

but

(n)St. Paul, I am apt to believe," says Dr. Paley, "has been sometimes accused of inconclusive reasoning, by our mistaking that for reasoning, which was only intended for illustration. He is not to be read as a man, whose own persuasion of the truth of what he taught always or solely depended upon the views, under which he represents it in his writings. Taking for granted the certainty of his doctrine, as resting upon the Revelation that had been imparted to him, he exhibits it frequently to the conception of his readers under images and allegories, in which, if any analogy may be perceived, or even sometimes a poetic resemblance be found, it is all perhaps that is required." Hore Paul. p. 210.