He was conveyed a sleeping-place to have,
Near to the borders of his father’s grave.
Upright he was, and just in all his ways;
Pray now observe the number of his days,
He was, when he dropt off this earthly stage,
One hundred and forty-seven years of age.
THE
LIFE OF ST. PAUL.
Saint Paul, though not one of the twelve, yet for his great eminence in the ministry of the gospel, had the honour to be styled an apostle, particularly above all the rest that were not of the number, and hath justly the next place to St. Peter allotted to him, both in regard they were so conversant in their lives, and inseparable in their deaths. He was born at Tarsus, not only of Jewish parents, but originally descended from an ancient Jewish family of the tribe of Benjamin in Judea, where he had his education, which was a flourishing Academy, whose scholars (as Strabo testifies) excelled those of Alexandria, and even Athens itself. In the schools of this city, he was brought up from his childhood, and became an excellent proficient in all the polite learning of the ancients, yet at the same time he was brought up to a manual trade, as even the most learned of their Rabbins were, for enabling them to get a livelihood if occasion required it; it being a maxim (especially amongst the Jews,) that he who teacheth not his son a trade, teacheth him to be a thief; for learning of old was not made an instrument to get a maintenance by, but for the better polishing the mind; so that the learned among the Jews were frequently denominated (as Drusius observes,) from some one or other handy-craft trade, as Rabbie Judah, the baker; Rabbie Jochanan, the Shoemaker, &c.
Having at Tarsus attained to a great perfection in the liberal arts and sciences. He was sent to Jerusalem to be instructed in the knowledge of the laws; and for the better accomplishing him in that study, was put under the tuition of Raban Gamaliel the son of Simon, (the same probably that took up our Saviour in his arms.) He was an eminent doctor of the law, one of the families of the schools at Jerusalem, and a person of principal note and authority in the Jewish Sanhedrim, in which that grave and prudent speech, mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, which he made on behalf of the apostles and their doctrine, took great effect. At the feet of this great doctor St. Paul was brought up, as he himself testifies; and by his instructions he soon advanced to that degree, that he gained himself a reputation above all his fellow scholars. Moreover he was a strict professor of the sect of the Pharisees, which of all others amongst the Jews, was the severest and most magisterial; and the professors thereof, generally great applauders of themselves for their sanctity, despising and censuring all others as reprobates, and unworthy of their society, and presuming (as Josephus writes) to govern even princes themselves. With the fiery genius of this sect, our apostle was too deeply infected, which made him a most zealous persecutor of the Saints; so that when the blood of the martyr Stephen was shed, I (saith he with sorrow after his conversion) was standing by, consented to his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him. Nay, of all the apparators, and inquisitors, employed by the Sanhedrim, to execute their warrants; upon those upstart heretics, as they called them, who preached against the law of Moses, and the tradition of the fathers; he was the man that strove to be the forwardest. In this zeal to execute his office, as he was on his way to Damascus, with some other, of his fellow officers, breathing out vengeance and destruction against the poor Christians, their was on a sudden a most glorious light shot full upon him, and the rest that were with him, so that they fell to the ground in great amazement, and at the same time a voice from heaven was directed to him, saying, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” to which, amazed as he was, he answered, Lord who art thou? the voice replying, that it was Jesus whom he persecuted, and that it was hard for him to kick against the pricks. He again desired further instructions; Lord, said he, what wilt thou have me to do; upon which he was bid to rise, and go to Damascus, and there expect what should be further revealed to him; rising from the ground he found his sight gone. In this plight being led to Damascus, he was there three days fasting, and probably then he saw that celestial vision mentioned by him, wherein he heard and saw things past utterance, and those divine revelations, which gave him occasion to say, that the gospel he preached, he was not taught by man, but had it revealed to him by Jesus Christ. The three days being expired, Ananias, a devout man, and one of the seventy disciples came to him, according to the command he had received from our Lord, who appeared to him, to go and enquire for one Saul of Tarsus, and having laid his hands on him, told him his message, upon which his sight was restored to him, and the gift of the Holy Ghost conferred on him; presently after he was baptized, and made a member of the church, to the great joy of the rest of the disciples, that he should become not only a professor, but a preacher of that faith, which he so lately was a bitter persecutor of. His stay at this time at Damascus was not long, for being warned away by a vision from heaven, he took a journey into Arabia, where he preached the gospel for three years, and then returned to Damascus, where the unconverted Jews eagerly sought his ruin, endeavouring to seize him, but he escaped through the help of the disciples, and the rest of his friends who were zealous for his safety.