Page:History of Joseph and his brethren.pdf/18

 THE

LIFE OF St. PAUL.

Saint Paul, though not one of the twelve, yet for his great eminence in the ministery of the gespel, 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 alloted 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 ancieents, yet at the came time he was brought up to a manual trabe, 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 handycraft trade, as Rabbie Judab, the baker ; Rabbie Jochanan, the Shoemaker, &c.