There exists something in the way of a divine nature which the
religious try to please and the philosophers try to understand[24].'
Close parallels to St. Paul's language in his two recorded speeches at
Lystra and at Athens, can be found in the writings of the contemporary
Stoic philosopher Seneca[25], and in the so-called 'Letters of
Heracleitus' written by some philosophic student nearly contemporary
with St. Paul at Ephesus[26]. In exposing the folly of idolaters he
was only doing what a contemporary philosopher was doing also, and
repeating ideas which he might have learnt almost as readily in the
schools of his native city Tarsus--which Strabo speaks of as the most
philosophical place in the world, and the place where philosophy was
most of all an indigenous plant[27]--as at the {30} feet of Gamaliel in
Jerusalem. Certainly Paul the apostle to the Gentiles was also Saul of
Tarsus and the citizen of the Roman Empire in whose mind the idea and
sentiment of the empire lay already side by side with the idea of the
catholic church.

Such a statement as has just been given of the relation of the Roman
organization to the Church is undoubtedly true. And it is also
indisputable that St. Paul was in fact the pioneer in using the empire
for the purposes of the Church. But it is more questionable to what
extent the idea of the empire as the handmaid of the Church was
consciously and deliberately, or only unconsciously or instinctively,
present to his mind; and in particular it is questionable how far the
peculiar exaltation of the epistles of the first captivity is due to
St. Paul's realization that in getting to Rome, the capital and centre
of the Empire, he had reached a goal which was {31} also a fresh and
unique starting-point for the evangelization of the world.

To some extent this must certainly have been the case[28]. While he is
at Ephesus[29] preaching, he already has Rome in view, and a sense of
unaccomplished purpose till he has visited it, 'I must also see Rome.'
When a little later he writes to the Romans, the name of Rome is a name
both of attraction and of awe. He is eager to go to Rome, but he seems
to fear it at the same time. So much as in him lies, he is ready to
preach the gospel to them also that are at Rome. Even in face of all
that that imperial name means, he is not ashamed of the Gospel[30].

Later the divine vision at Jerusalem assures him that, as he has borne
witness concerning Christ a