This representation did not fail to enrage the multitude against Paul; they seized him, dragged him out of the temple, beat him, and were upon the point of putting him to death, when he was rescued out of their hands by Lysias, a Roman tribune, and the principal military officer then at Jerusalem. Lysias instantly bound Paul with two chains, concluding that he had been guilty of some heinous crime; but the uproar was so great, that he could not learn who he was, or what he had done, and therefore he committed him to custody, that he might afterwards enquire into the nature of his offence. As he was conducting him to the castle Antonia (1), Paul obtained permission from him to address the people: he began by stating to them his former attachment to the Law of Moses (m), and his zealous persecution of the Christians; he then proceeded to relate the circumstances of his miraculous conversion; and when he asserted that he was commissioned by God himself to announce salvation to the Gentiles through faith in the Messiah, they interrupted him with violent exclamations, showed the strongest marks of indignation, and declared that he was not worthy to live. Lysias, observing the fury of the multitude, commanded that Paul should be carried into the castle, and examined by scourging. While the soldiers were binding him with thongs for that purpose, he informed the centurion who attended that he was a Roman citizen. The centurion went to the tribune, and advised him to be cautious in what he did to his prisoner, as he was a citizen of Rome. This intelligence alarmed Lysias, who had already

(1) This castle was built by Herod the Great, and called Antonia from his friend Mark Antony; it was afterwards made a garrison or the Romans, when Judæa became a Roman province.

(m) Acts, c. 22.

violated the privileges of a Roman citizen by binding Paul (n); and he immediately desisted from his design of examining him by torture.

The next morning he "loosed him from his bands," and brought him before the Sanhedrim or Jewish council (♥); but great altercation and confusion arising, Lysias, fearing lest Paul should be pulled to pieces, again interposed with his soldiers, and conducted him back to the castle. While Paul was asleep that night, Jesus appeared to him and said, "Be of good cheer, Paul; for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome (p)." The next day Lysias was informed that more than forty persons had entered into a conspiracy to assassinate Paul, and therefore he sent him the following evening under a strong guard to Cæsarea, where Felix the Roman governor resided. Lysias wrote a letter to Felix, explaining the circumstances which originally induced him to apprehend Paul, and now to send him to Cæsarea. Five days after (q),

Ananias the high priest, with the elders, and a certain orator or advocate, named Tertullus, went to Cæsarea for the purpose of accusing Paul before Felix. Tertullus stated the charges against him, and Paul made his defence. Felix having heard both of them, said that he would enquire more fully into the business when Lysias should come to Cæsarea; and in the mean time he commanded the centurion to keep Paul as a prisoner at large, and to allow his friends to have access to him.

(n) Though a Roman citizen might not be bound with thongs, by way of punishment, or in order to be scourged, yet he might be chained to a soldier, or kept in custody, if he were suspected of being guilty of any crime.

(0) Acts, c. 22. (p) Acts, c. 23. v. 11.
(9) Acts, c. 24.

It does not appear that Felix ever took any farther step in this trial; but not long after, he and his wife Drusilla (r), who was a Jewess, sent for Paul, to hear him "concerning the faith in Christ." Paul knew the characters of the persons before whom he was to speak, and enlarged upon such points as were likely to affect them: "and as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee." Felix was a man of profligate life and corrupt principles; and this discourse of the Apostle, though it caused a temporary remorse of conscience, and excited some dread of future punishment, made no lasting impression upon his mind; on the contrary, he frequently sent for Paul afterwards, not for the purpose of hearing the great truths of the Gospel explained and enforced, but with the hope that he would offer him money for his release.

At the end of two years Felix resigned the government of Judæa to Portius Festus, and with a view of gratifying the Jews, he left Paul a prisoner at Cæsarea. Three days after Festus landed at Cæsarea (s) he went up to Jerusalem; and the high priest and the principal Jews, still retaining their malice, requested their new governor to send for Paul from Cæsarea. Their intention was to have murdered him upon the road; but Festus refused to send for him, stating that he should shortly return to Cæsarea, and that he would try him there. In about ten days Festus went to Cæsarea, and the day after his arrival, Paul was brought before him, and the Jews, who had come from (r) Drusilla was the daughter of the elder Agrippa, and sister to King Agrippa and Bernice, before whom Paul afterwards pleaded.

(s) Acts, c. 25.

Jerusalem for that purpose, "laid many and grievous complaints against him, which they could not prove." Paul defended himself by declaring, in a few simple words, that he had been guilty of no offence, either against the Law of Moses, or the authority of Cæsar; but Festus, wishing to ingratiate himself with the Jews, asked Paul whether he were willing to be tried at Jerusalem? He again asserted his innocence, and availing himself of his privilege as a Roman citizen, appealed to the emperor himself; and Festus, after some deliberation, informed him that he should be sent to the emperor, as he desired.

Not long after, king Agrippa, with his sister Bernice, came to congratulate Festus upon his accession to the government of Judæa. Festus acquainted him with all the circumstances relative to Paul; and Agrippa, expressing a desire to hear Paul, Festus promised that he should hear him the next day. Accordingly on the following morning Paul was brought in bonds before Agrippa, Bernice, the military officers, and principal persons of the city. Festus represented to the assembly that the Jews had laid very heavy charges against Paul, declaring that he was not worthy to live; that he had himself found no guilt of that description in him, but upon his appealing to Cæsar, he had determined to send him immediately to Rome; and that he had now brought him before them, and especially before Agrippa, that after examination he might be enabled to state to the emperor, as it was his duty to do, the nature of the crimes alleged against him. Then Agrippa (t), who is said to have been well acquainted both with the Jewish and Roman laws, told Paul, that he was permitted to speak for himself. In the course of his defence, Paul argued so forcibly in (t) Acts, c. 26.

support of the Gospel, and justified his own conduct in so satisfactory a manner, that Agrippa acknowledged himself almost persuaded to be a Christian, and declared that Paul might have been set at liberty, if he had not appealed unto Cæsar. After an appeal was made to the emperor, the judge, from whom the appeal was made, could neither condemn nor release the prisoner.

61.

St. Paul (u), and several other prisoners, 60. were delivered to Julius, a centurion, to be conveyed to Rome (x). St. Luke has recorded the circumstances of this voyage; it was long and dangerous, and the vessel was wrecked upon the Isle of Melita (y). No lives, however, were lost; and Paul, upon his arrival at Rome, was committed to the care of the captain of the guard. The Scriptures do not inform us whether he was ever tried before Nero, who was at this time emperor of Rome; and the learned (z) are much divided in their opinion upon that point. I am inclined to think, from the silence of St. Luke, that Paul was not now brought to any trial at Rome. St. Luke only says, "Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him. And Paul dwelt two whole years (a) in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, preaching the

(u) There is no account of any epistle written by St. Paul during his long imprisonment in Judæa. This was not owing to any strictness in his confinement, for Felix "commanded a centurion to keep Paul, and to let him have liberty; and that he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto him." Acts, c. 24. v. 23.

(x) Acts, c. 27.

(y) Acts, c. 28. Vide Mr. Bryant's Essay.

(2) Vide Lardner, vol. 6. p. 249.

(a) During St. Paul's imprisonment at Rome, he wrote his Epistles to the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and to Philemon; and it is probable that he wrote his Epistle to the Hebrews soon after his release.