111.] APPEARS AT JERUSALEM. 181 enterprize the governor of the city, appointed under king Aretas, and he put his whole garrison in requisition to seek and to apprehend Paul: it was only by the expedient of letting him down at night in a basket by the city walls that he was enabled to effect his escape. This event took place three years after his conversion; and then, for the first time, in the character of a Christian, he appeared at Jerusalem. The brethren, in the first instance, were incredulous as to the fact of his conversion : they could not believe that he who had so wasted the Church of Christ, had now become a disciple; but being introduced by Barnabas, who gave his testimony not only to the fact, but also to the boldness with which he had preached Christ at Damascus, they received him amongst them, and it is said "he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem." His whole continuance on this occasion did not exceed fifteen days, and during that time he only became personally acquainted with Peter and James. He took several opportunities of disputing against the Hellenistic Jews, and the subject of the debate was his favourite theme-" the name of the Lord Jesus." The same offensive doctrine produced a second conspiracy against his life; and the brethren, having knowledge of it, conducted the apostle to Cæsarea, and from thence he went away to his native city Tarsus. It seems most probable that 182 HIS PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY. [LECT. he effected this journey by land, for he intimates that he visited at this time the churches of Judea, which were in Christ, to whom he was not personally known; only they had heard that he which once persecuted them, now preached the faith in which they stood. He farther informs us that he went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia; that is, in prosecuting his journey homewards he passed through Syria, and thus arrived at Tarsus. At this period the churches are said to have had rest through all Judea and Galilee and Samaria; that is, during the time Paul was on his journey to Tarsus, the persecution (begun about the matter of Stephen) ended. This event took place in the last year but one of the reign of the emperor Caligula, which answers nearly to the year 39. Paul had now been four years called to be an apostle. What has just been related has reference to the thirtieth verse of the ninth chapter of the Acts, where it is said, "the brethren brought Paul down to Cæsarea and sent him forth to Tarsus." In the eleventh chapter and the twenty-fifth verse, we find that Barnabas departed from Antioch "to Tarsus, for to seek Saul;" from which we infer that he had remained in his native country ever since his arrival from Cæsarea : this comprised a space of about two years; whence it will appear that before the apostle entered upon NAME OF THE FIRST CHRISTIANS. 183 III.] his public ministry, he spent nearly seven years in suitable preparation. He was not indeed inactive in his Master's service during that period, for he was pressed with zeal to convince the Jews ; but it is sufficiently intimated, that the preaching of the Gospel is not to be taken in hand unadvisedly, nor by any sudden calls or imaginary inspirations; for although Paul was called by a miraculous conversion, and told of the mission reserved for him, he does not appear in the Church as a teacher and apostle until many years of preparatory exercise, much of which time was evidently spent in the study of the Scriptures. Barnabás conducted the apostle to Antioch, and there they assembled themselves with the Church, and taught much people for the space of a whole year. The disciples were now for the first time (without any farther distinction of Jew and Gentile) called Christians. This honourable name, which has been long effaced in those regions where it originated, has descended as an inheritance upon the nations of the west; but it may be very doubtful whether the apostles would have allowed the name to many who now claim it, or rather who use it as a political expedient for the maintenance of despotic rule, or to subserve the schemes of private interest. It is, however, my brethren, a name we all bear, and we should feel some resentment 184 QUALITIES OF THE FIRST CHRISTIANS. [LECT. against any one who presumed to deny it to us. I would fain hope that such resentment would be honest; but had we been at Antioch in those days, and seen what it really was that constituted a Christian, perhaps some amongst us would ingenuously confess that the distinction hardly belonged to us. To be a Christian at Antioch was to have put away the pride of human nature before God, was to have renounced all dependence upon the righteousness of the law, and to have received Christ in simplicity as the only means of salvation it was to live a life of purity, and to be employed in doing good unto all men, especially those of the household of faith. The history of the formation of the Church at Antioch is short but forcible when some of the dispersed believers were come thither, they spake unto Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus, and the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord. And when Barnabas arrived, and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. This is the whole account, my brethren. These were the men who were first called Christians; they believed in the Lord Jesus through the grace of God; they turned unto the Lord, and with purpose of heart they clave unto Him. This, then, is to be a Christian in the 111.] THE APOSTLES TEACH ALL NATIONS. 185 primitive sense. They surely were not troubled with ceremonies, or Church authority, or wonders, or saints, or images, or clouds of incense, or long processions, or hosts of angels and departed spirits; the first Christians believed in the Lord Jesus, turned unto the Lord, and clave to Him with full purpose of heart. If, therefore, we have these characteristics, shall we not be owned as Christians by Him who knoweth the heart? And oh that we had them really, and could say, with unfeigned lips, we are turned to the Lord! According to the traditional accounts of ecclesiastical writers, the apostles, after this general title of Christians was adopted, went into different parts of the world to make known the Gospel. Although this agrees well with the extensive commission given them by our Lord, when he commanded them to " go and teach all nations," we must receive the detailed and marvellous accounts of uninspired writers with great caution. That Peter, after he had been miraculously delivered from prison, and had gone (as it is written) "to another place," came to Rome to oppose the wicked heresies of Simon Magus, is no longer seriously maintained by any man of competent learning and judgment 1; it is indeed 'The use which Justin Martyr makes of the inscription discovered in the Island of the Tyber (see Burgess's Topography and Antiquities of Rome, Vol. II. p. 241, note 76,) shows how |