The time of this tranquillity did not, however, continue long.  Herod Agrippa, who had lately acceded to the government of Judea, “stretched forth his hand to vex certain of the church.” (Acts xii. 1.) He began his cruelty by beheading one of the twelve original apostles, a kinsman and constant companion of the Founder of the religion.  Perceiving that this execution gratified the Jews, he proceeded to seize, in order to put to death, another of the number,—­and him, like the former, associated with Christ during his life, and eminently active in the service since his death.  This man was, however, delivered from prison, as the account states miraculously, (Acts xii. 3—­17.) and made his escape from Jerusalem.

These things are related, not in the general terms under which, in giving the outlines of the history, we have here mentioned them, but with the utmost particularity of names, persons, places, and circumstances; and, what is deserving of notice, without the smallest discoverable propensity in the historian, to magnify the fortitude, or exaggerate the sufferings, of his party.  When they fled for their lives, he tells us.  When the churches had rest, he remarks it.  When the people took their part, he does not leave it without notice.  When the apostles were carried a second time before the Sanhedrim, he is careful to observe that they were brought without violence.  When milder counsels were suggested, he gives us the author of the advice and the speech which contained it.  When, in consequence of this advice, the rulers contented themselves with threatening the apostles, and commanding them to be beaten with stripes, without urging at that time the persecution further, the historian candidly and distinctly records their forbearance.  When, therefore, in other instances, he states heavier persecutions, or actual martyrdoms, it is reasonable to believe that he states them because they were true, and not from any wish to aggravate, in his account, the sufferings which Christians sustained, or to extol, more than it deserved, their patience under them.

Our history now pursues a narrower path.  Leaving the rest of the apostles, and the original associates of Christ, engaged in the propagation of the new faith, (and who there is not the least reason to believe abated in their diligence or courage,) the narrative proceeds with the separate memoirs of that eminent teacher, whose extraordinary and sudden conversion to the religion, and corresponding change of conduct, had before been circumstantially described.  This person, in conjunction with another, who appeared among the earlier members of the society at Jerusalem, and amongst the immediate adherents of the twelve apostles, (Acts iv. 36.) set out from Antioch upon the express business of carrying the new religion through the various provinces of the Lesser Asia. (Acts xiii. 2.) During this expedition, we find that in almost every place to which they came, their persons