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Some have conceived that he was rapt into the third heaven, and learned the Gospel by revelation, as 2 Cor. 12. in those three days that he was blind after the sight of this glorious light, and whilst he fasted and prayed, Act. 9. 9. And from this conceit hath another grown, as a supporter of that that bred it, namely that he was not converted till seven years after our Saviours Ascension. This latter opinion was first invented, that his writing of the second Epistle to the Corinthians might be brought within the compass of about fourteen years after his conversion; for so long a time and no more he setteth betwixt his rapture and that Epistle, 2 Cor. 12. 2. and it was also originially grounded upon this supposition, that his rapture was in the time of that his blindness. Two surmises probable and plausible enough to behold at distance, but approaching nearer to them they will lose of their beauty, and upon serious weighing they will prove but a shadow. The question how he came to the knowledge of the Gospel so soon, in so much that he so soon preached it, very likely gave the first occasion of the first opinion, namely of his rapture in his three days blindness.
A question to which an answer may be easily given, and yet no such consequence con∣cluded upon it. 1. It is true indeed, that he received not the knowledge of the Gospel of man, nor was he taught it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ, as himself saith, Gal. 1. 12. yet might he have such a revelation, without any such rapture: For there were three other special ways whereby God used to reveal himself and his will to his Pro∣phets and Servants, and those were by dreams, by visions and by a suddain and immedi∣ate suggestion or revelation, which is called telling in the ear, as 1 Sam. 9. 15, 17. 2 King. 20. 4. And as for raptures they were the most extraordinary and the least familiar of all other: And how easily might Paul be taught the mistery of the Gospel by some of the other means, especially since the Text hath expresly told that he had his visions? Acts 9. 12. 2. Paul himself telleth of an extasie or rapture that he was in, as he was praying in the Temple at Jerusalem, Acts 22. 17. Now that that was in the second year of Claudius (as shall be shewed by and by) when he went to carry the almes of the Disciples to Jerusalem, Acts 11. 30. it may be confidently concluded upon, because that God in that his rapture telleth him that he must thence forward go far away to preach unto the Gentiles, Acts 22. 21. and when he returneth from Jerusalem to Antioch, he is sent by the Church upon that imployment, by a special charge of the Holy Ghost, Acts 13. 2. And that from that time to the time of his writing the second Epistle to the Corinthians, were about fourteen years as himself summeth it, we shall evidence by some particulars, before we part from this Subject. Thus then in the first place we see that neither his rapture was at the time of his conversion, nor that his conversion is to be cast six or seven years forward that it may be within fourteen of that Epistle in regard of his rapture. But not to intricate our selves any more in the variety of opinions, that have fixed some one time, some another to the conversion of this Apostle, the next, readiest and surest way that I have found to resolve upon this doubtful question and to determine this scruple, is to go by these collections and degrees.
I. That the famine prophecied of by Agabus, and which is said to have fallen out in the time of Claudius the Emperour, Acts 11. 28. fell out and came to pass in his second year: And for this we have the testimony of a Roman Historian, even Dion Cassius who under the Consulship of Claudius II. and Caius Largus which was in the second year of Claudius his reign speaketh of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which his translater hath rendred fames in∣gens, Dion. lib. 60. Now although it might seem that that famine only referred to the City of Rome, and was caused there through the unnavigableness of the River Tiber, which should have brought in Provisions; because he saith, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c. that Claudius provided not only for the present famine, but also for future times, by mending the Haven and clearing the River: yet Suetonius writing the very same story, ascribeth the cause of the famine, not to the fault of the River or Haven, but to a constant steri∣lity or barrenness, and so inlargeth the extent of it further than Rome: Arctiore autem annona ob assiduas sterilitates, &c. In Claud. cap. 18. Josephus, Antiq. lib. 20. ca. 2. speak∣eth of this great famine in Judea, and relateth how Helena the Queen dowager of the Adiabeni, and Izates her son then reigning, she being at Jerusalem in her own person and he in his own kingdom, did bring in provisions in an exceeding plenty to the Jews at Jerusalem for their sustenance in the famine, for they were both converted to the Jews Religion and Izates circumcised. Eusebius hereupon hath set this famine in