Felix commands that his own people should be allowed to come
and minister to him (xxiv. 23), and when the voyage is commenced it is
said that Julius, who had charge of Paul, treated him courteously, and,
gave him liberty to go to see his friends at Sidon (xxvii. 3). At Rome
he was allowed to live by himself with a single soldier to guard him
(xxviii. 16), and he continued for two years in his own hired house
(xxviii. 28). These circumstances are totally different from those under
which the Epistles of Ignatius are said to have been written.
"But the most powerful testimony," Dr. Lightfoot goes on to say, "is
derived from the representations of a heathen writer." [101:2] The case
of Peregrinus, to which he refers, seems to me even more unfortunate
than that of Paul. Of Peregrinus himself, historically, we really know
little or nothing, for the account of Lucian is scarcely received as
serious by anyone. [102:1] Lucian narrates that this Peregrinus Proteus,
a cynic philosopher, having been guilty of parricide and other crimes,
found it convenient to leave his own country. In the course of his
travels he fell in with Christians and learnt their doctrines, and,
according to Lucian, the Christians soon were mere children in his
hands, so that he became in his own person "prophet, high-priest, and
ruler of a synagogue," and further "they spoke of him as a god, used him
as a lawgiver, and elected him their chief man.
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