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ST.
PAUL'S
DIVINE
COMMISSION
'DISC.
Gal.
i.
13.
I
persecuted
the
church
of
God
and
wasted
it.
Acts
xxvi.
11.
And
being exceedingly mad
against
them,
I
persecuted
them
even
unto
strange
cities.
1
Tim.
-
i.
13.
Who was before
a
blasphemer,
and
a
persecutor,
and
injurious.
-This_
was
sufficiently witnessed. by
his,
own
countrymen the Jews.
It
bath been
sometimes said by unbelievers,-
that
tes-
timonies
of
the
resurrection
of
Christ
came only from
his friends, and
that
you have none
of
the
heathens or
professed Jews,
bear
witness to
it
Here
is
a.
professed
Jew,
and
.a
violent
enemy
to
christianity,
who bears
strong and constant
witness to
it.
But
it
could never
be supposed
that
he should
continue an
enemy and an
unbeliever:
of
christianity,
after
he believed
that
Christ
was
risen from the
dead,
and thereby
so
evidently
proved
that
he
was
the
true
Messiah.
4.
He spent
his
whole
life
afterwards
with
much zeal
and
fatigue,
in
publishing this truth,
that
Jesus
was
risen
from the dead, and the doctrines
which
depend
on
it.
He
preached
this gospel to a
multitude of
towns
and
cities among the heathens,
who
were
utter
unbelievers,
besides
his
vindicating
this
doctrine
always
among
the
unbelieving Jews.
5.
He
exposed himself
to
perpetual
dangers
and
dif-
ficulties,
and to many persecutions,
by affirming
it,
and
even
to
death itself
;
and
that
without
any hope of riches.
honours, or
pleasures
in this world
;
Acts xx. 23, 24.
The.Holy Ghost
witnesseth in every
city,
saying,
that
bonds
and
afflictions abide
me.
But
none
of
these
things
move
me,
neither
count
I
my
life dear unto
myself,
so
that
I
might
finish
my
course
with
joy;
and
the
ministry'
which
I
have received
of
the
Lord
Jesus,
to
testify
the
gospel
of
the
grace
of
God.
Now
put
all these things
together, and can it
be:
sup-
posed
that any
man,
a
wise,
an ingenious, and
learned
man, faithful
and
sincere, an enemy
to
christianity, and
of
the name
of
Christ, should
be so
effectually
con-
vinced of
the
truth of
the
doctrine
of
Christ, and
of
the
facts which
support
it,
as
to spend his
life
in
preaching
this gospel,
and
to die for
it,
if
he had
not
abundant
ground
to
believe it., And
if Paul
believed it
with such evidence,
we
may
venture
to believe
it
too.