Page:Life and voyages of the Apostle Paul.pdf/24

Rh nine months, after which he repaired to Sicily, Greece, and Crete. He afterwards went to Rome, where, with Peter, he was cast into prison, in the general persecution raised against the Christians, under pretence that they had set fire to the city. It is uncertain how long he remained in prison, nor do we know whether he was scourged before his execution; but authorities agree that he was beheaded three miles from Rome, and was buried in the Via Ostiensis, ahout two miles from Rome, where, about the year 317, Constantine the Great built a stately church over his grave, and adorned it with a hundred marble columns, and beautified it with the most exquisite workmanship.

St. Paul seems, indeed, to have been eminently fitted for the apostleship of the Gentiles, to contend with and confute the grave and the wise, the acute and the subtle, the sage and the learned of the heathen world, and to wound them with arrows from their own quiver. He seldom, indeed, made use of learning and philosophy, it being more agreeable to the designs of the gospel, to confound the wisdom and learning of the world by the plain doctrine of the cross.

What he taught to others he practised himself; his “conversation was in heaven,” and his desires were “to depart, and to be with Christ:” and hence it is very probable, that he always led a single life, though some of the ancients rank him among the married apostles.

His kindness and charity were remarkable; he had a compassionate tenderness for the poor, and a quick sense of the wants of others. To what church soever he came, it was always one of his first cares to make provision for the poor, and to stir up the bounty of the rich and wealthy: nay, he worked often with his own hands, not only to maintain himself, but also to help and relieve the poor. But his charity to the souls of men was infinitely greater, fearing no dangers, refusing no labours, going through good and evil report, that he might gain men over to the knowledge of the truth, and bring them out of the crooked paths, and place them in the straight way that leadeth to life eternal.