ACTS ix. 13. Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem:

14. And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.

15. But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:

16. For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.

17. And Ananias went his way, and entered inte the house (v. 11.), and putting his hands on him, said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest recover thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.

18. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales; and he recovered sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.

19. And when he had received meat, he was strengthened, i. e. restored to his usual strength.

The parallels in his own narrative of this miraculous event, on two different occasions afterwards, will be found below, A. xxii. 4.......16., and xxvi. 9...18. And for the correspondency betwixt the apostle's history given in this part of the ACTs and various particulars of it recorded in his own epistles, HORA PAULINÆ, pp. 81...85. may be advantageously consulted.

A. ix. 19. Then was Saul some days (not many) with the disciples which were at Damascus.

20. And straightway he preached Jesus (see NOTE)

in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God, in other words, the Messiah that was to come.

ACTS ix. 21. But all that heard him were amazed, and said, Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests?

22. But Saul increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this person (Jesus of Nazareth) is indeed the

Messiah.

All circumstances considered, here seems the place in order of time to introduce what by Luke on his plan of brevity is here passed over in silence, the journey into Arabia; of which we should have known nothing, had not the apostle been led himself to record it by a peculiar occasion, and for the purpose of giving strength to his argument, that his was a divine commission, and dependent on no human authority.

GALAT. i. 15... 17., and see H. P. 81, 2.

15. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace,

16. To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood :

17. Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.

This seclusion seems to have lasted during a great part at least of the three years mentioned in GALAT.i. 18. as quoted below.

ACTS ix. 23. And after that many days (the same with those three years, H. P. 82. Note) were thus fulfilled, the Jews (at Damascus) took counsel to kill him:

24. But their laying await was known of Saul. And they watched the gates day and night to kill him. 25. Then the disciples took him by night, and let him down by the wall in a basket.

For the account of this deliverance as related in 2 CORINTH. XI. 32, 33. and its correspondency with that here given, vide H. P. 56.

And now before resuming the direct history of the ACTS, let the following brief narrative come in as its parallel.

GALAT. i. 18. Then after three years (i. e. from his conversion) I went up to Jerusalem, to become acquainted with Peter, to visit and converse with him; and I abode with him accordingly, but only for fifteen days.

(The shortness of that stay is accounted for below, A. ix. 29, 30., and vide H. P. 97.)

19. But other of the apostles saw I none, at that time, save James the Lord's brother.

ACTs ix. 26. And when Saul was come from Damascus to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples generally but they were all afraid of him at the first, and could not believe that he was indeed a disciple.

27. But Barnabas (who seems therefore to have had some previous acquaintance with Saul) took him by the hand, and brought him to the apostles (Peter and James

the Less), and declared unto them (on his own conviction) how Saul had seen the Lord on that journey, and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.

ACTS ix. 28. And Saul after this was with the disciples, coming in and going out, at Jerusalem.

29. And he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and disputed against the Grecians in particular,

these were foreign Jews who spoke the Greek language and not the Hebrew of that day; and from Damascus probably at this time, some of those who had taken counsel to destroy him there, suprà, v. 23. — but they now showed increased perverseness and actually went about to slay him :

30. Which wicked design of the Grecians when the brethren knew, they brought him down to Cæsarea, and sent him forth (by sea) to Tarsus.

-In that city, and in Cilicia generally, he would immediately devote himself to the planting of those churches which we find him afterwards (A. xv. 41.) confirming.

During this short stay of Saul at Jerusalem, he was also warned in a vision not to remain unprofitably there, for that he was designed to occupy another and distant field of apostolic labour.

A. xxii. 17. And it came to pass that when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance;

18. And saw the Lord saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem: for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me.

21. And he said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee far hence, among the Gentiles.

ACTS ix. 31. Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, being edified accordingly; and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied and increased in numbers.

"This rest synchronises with the attempt of Caligula to place his statue in the temple of Jerusalem; the threat of which outrage produced amongst the Jews a consternation that, for a season, diverted their attention from every other object." - Paley's Evidences of Christianity, ed. 1825. pp. 294. and 42.

A. xi. 19. Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, had travelled as far as Phenice and Cyprus and Antioch,

Antioch, the capital of Syria, ranking as a city next after Rome and Alexandria, and here first mentioned, is ere long to become the metropolis of Gentile Christianity,

and they preached the word to none but to the Jews only for some time at the first.

But the surprising conversion of the devout Cornelius and his family by the apostle Peter (A. ch. x.), with the miraculous instruction stated as the all-sufficient plea for his conduct (xi. 1...18.), might in the mean while have become known to those pious missionaries. Suppose that to have taken place; and every thing in this stage as in others will proceed naturally along in gradual advancement.

20. And some of them were men of Cyprus and of Cyrene (in Libya), which when they were come to An