Paul's commission.
Acts xxvi. 17, 18. Unto whom now I send thee, to open then eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the poiver of Sata?i unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them ivhich are sanctified by faith that is in me.
NEVER was there a more glorious triumph of Divine grace than in the conversion of St. Paul. How active and inveterate an enemy he was to Christ,
previous to his conversion, is well known
Had he only been arrested in his career, and humbled, it would have been a signal victory : but to change the whole current of his affections, and to turn against Satan those weapons, which through the instrumen- tality of this fiery bigot, he had been using to destroy the Church, this was indeed to " beat the sword into a plough-share, and the spear into a pruning-hook," and to display, in the brightest colours, the power and grace of Christ. We do not wonder, that when the Christians, whom he had so cruelly persecuted, heard of " his preaching the faith which he had just before laboured to destroy," " they glorified God in him."
The call of this man to the apostleship, and the particular commission given him, are the points con- tained in our text. But as St. Paul's ministry differs from ours only in the extent of his commission, and not in the subject of his ministrations, we shall wave any particular notice of him, and state to you the immediate and ultimate, objects of our labours —
I. The immediate objects of our labours —
That there is some considerable difference between the Gentiles and ourselves, we willingly concede. The darkness among them was more entire, their superstitions more absurd, their impieties more gross. But when we have made all due allowance on these heads, we must still say, that the points of resemblance