SERGIUS PAULUS, Proconsul or Governor of the Island of Cyprus, who was converted by St. Paul, in the Year of Acts xiii. 7.Christ 44 or 45. This Proconsul, who was otherwise a Man of Prudence, had a Magician about him, whom he took for a Man enlightened and favoured of God. Having heard of the Arrival of Paul and Barnabas in the Isle of Cyprus, he sent for them, and desired to hear the Word of God. But Elymas did what he could to hinder him from it. Then Paul, fill’d with the Holy Ghost, said to him; O full of all Subtilty and all Mischief, thou Child of the Devil, thou Enemy of all Righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right Ways of the Lord? And now behold, the Hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the Sun for a Season. And he immediately became blind. When Sergius Paulus beheld this, he embraced the Christian Faith, and admired the Doctrine of the Lord. Some believe1 Sergius Paulus to be the same whom the Church at Narbonne honours as its first Bishop; but the more knowing think, that this Bishop must be later than Sergius Paulus by above two Centuries. Others think2, St. Paul did not bear this Name till after the Conversion of Sergius Paulus, and that he took it up as a Trophy of the Victory he had obtain’d upon this Occasion, over the Prince of Darkness. But this Opinion is not universally follow’d, tho’ St. Luke does not give him the Name of Paul till after this Event.
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