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SECTION VII.

The Converfion of St. Paul* furnishes a Proof of the Divine Origin of the Christian Religion.

THE

HE converfion of fuch a man, at fuch a time, and by fuch means, furnishes one of the most complete proofs that have ever been given, of the divine origin of the christian religion. That Saul, a zealous perfecutor of the difciples of Chrift, became all at once a difciple himself, is a fact which cannot be controverted, without overturning the credit of all history. He must therefore have been converted in the miraculous manner, in which he himself said he was, and of course the christian religion be a divine revelation; or he must have been either an impoftor, or enthusiast, or a dupe to the fraud of others. There is not another alternative poffible.

If Paul was an impoftor, who declared what he knew to be false, with an intent to deceive, he must have been induced to act that part from fome motive. But the only conceivable motives for religious impofture are, either the hope of advancing one's temporal intereft, reputation, or power, or the profpect of gratifying fome paffion or appetite, under the authority of the new religion.

The celebrated Lord Lyttleton, in his Obfervations on the Converfion of St. Paul, has endeavoured to prove, that nothing but the actual appearance of one from heaven was able to produce convic-tion in fo bitter an enemy to Chrift and his gospel. The following is an abridgement of his arguments.

That neither of thefe could be St. Paul's motives for profeffing the faith of Chrift crucified, is evident from the ftate of Judaism and chriftianity, at the period of his forfaking the former, and embracing the latter. Those whom he left, were the difpofers of wealth, of dignity, and power in Judea; thofe to whom he went, were indigent men, oppreffed, and deprived of all means of acquiring riches. The certain confequence, therefore, of his embracing chriftianity, was the lofs, not only of all that he poffeffed, but of all hopes of acquiring more; whereas, by continuing to perfecute the chriftians, he had almost certain hopes of making his fortune, by the favour of thofe who were at the head of the Jewish ftate, to whom nothing could more recommend him, than the zeal he showed in that perfecution. As to credit, or reputation, could the difciple of Gamaliel think he should gain either, by becoming a teacher in a college of fishermen? Could he flatter himself that either in, or out of Judea, the doctrines he taught could do him any honour? No; he knew very well that the preaching of Chrift crucified was a fumbling block to the Jews, and to the Greeks, foolishness. 1 Cor. iv. 23. He afterwards found by experience, that in all parts of the world, contempt was the portion of whoever engaged in preaching a mystery fo unpalatable to the world, to all its paffions and pleasures, and fo irreconcileable to the pride of human reafon. See 1 Cor. iv. 13. Yet he went on as zealously as he fet out, and was not afhamed of the gospel of Chrift. Certain then the deûre of glory, the ambition of making to himself a great name, was not his motive to embrace christianity. Was it then the love of power? Power! Over whom? Over a flock

of sheep, driven to the flaughter, whose shepherd himself had been murdered a little before. Could he expect more mercy from the chief priests and the rulers, than they had fhewn to Jefus himself? Would not their anger be probably fiercer against the deferter and betrayer of their cause, than against any other of the apoftles? Was power over so mean and despised a people, worth attempting with fo much danger? So far was Paul from affuming any au thority over the other apoftles, that he declared himfelf the least of them, and less than the leaft of all faints. Eph. iri. 8. 1. Cor. xv. 9.

It cannot be alleged, that St. Paul commenced a teacher of christianity, with a view of gratifying fome li-centious paffion, under the authority of that new religion. His writings breathe nothing but the ftricteft morality, obedience to magiftrates, order, and government, with the urmost abhorrence of all licentioufnefs, idlenefs, or loofe behaviour, under the cloak of religion. We no where read in his works, that faints are above moral ordinances ;that dominion is founded on grace; that there is no dif. ference in moral actions; that any impulses of the mind' are to direct us against the light of our reafon, and the laws of nature, or any of those wicked tenets, from which the peace of society has been difturbed, and the rules of morality have been broken by men, pretending to act un-der the fanction of divine revelation. Nor does any part of his life, either before, or after his converfion to christianity, bear any mark of a libertine difpofition; as: among the Jews, fo among the chriftians, his conversation. and manners were blameless.

It has fometimes been objected to the other apoftles, by

thofe who were refolved not to credit their testimony, that having been deeply engaged with Jefus during his life, they were obliged to continue the fame profeffions after his death, for the fupport of their own credit, and from having gone too far to go back; but this can by no means be faid of St. Paul. On the contrary, whatever force there may be in that way of reasoning, it all tends to convince us that St. Paul must have naturally continued a Jew, and an enemy of Jefus Chrift. If they were engaged on one fide, he was as ftrongly engaged on the other; if fhame withheld them from changing fides, muchmore ought it to have deterred him, who from his fuperiour abilities and reputation, muft have been vaftly more fufceptible of that kind of fhame, than the mean and illiterate fishermen of Galilee. The only other difference was, that they by quitting their mafter after his death might have preferved themfelves, whereas he by quitting the Jews, and taking up the cross of Chrift, certainly brought on his own deftruction.

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As St. Paul was not an impoftor, so it is evident he was not an enthufiaft. Great heat of temper, melancholy, ignorance, credulity, and vanity are the ingredients of which enthusiasm is generally compofed; but from all thefe, except the first, the apostle appears to have been wholly free. That he had great fervour of zeal, both when a Jew, and when a chriftian, in maintaining what he thought to be right, cannot be denied ; but he was at all times fo much mafter of his temper, as in matters of indifference," to become all things to all men," I Cor. ix. 20. bending his notions and manners to theirs, so far as his duty to God would permit ; a conduct neither compatible

with the stiffness of a bigot, nor the violent impulses of fanatical delufion. His zeal was eager and warm, but tempered with prudence, and even with the civilities and decorums of life, as appears by his behaviour to Agrippa, Feftus, and Felix, not the blind, inconfiderate, indecent zeal of an enthusiast.

That St. Paul was not melancholy, is plain from his conduct in embracing every method, which prudence could fuggeft, to efcape danger, and shun perfecution, when he could do it without betraying the duty of his office, or the honour of his God. A melancholy enthusiast courts perfecution, and when he cannot obtain it, afflicts himself with abfurd penances; but the holiness of St. Paul confifted only in the fimplicity of a godly life, and in the unwearied performance of those apostolic duties, to which he was called.

As to ignorance, which is another ground of enthufiafm, St. Paul was so far from it, that he appears to have been mafter, not of the Jewish learning only, but also of the Greek philosophy, and even to have been very converfant with the Greek poets.

That the apostle was not credulous, is plain, from his having refifted all the evidence of all the miracles performed on earth by Christ, as well as those that were afterwards worked by the apoftles; to the fame of which, as he lived in Jerufalem, he could not poffibly have been a ftranger. This evinces that his mind, far from being difpofed to a credulous faith, or a too eafy reception of any miracle, worked in proof of the chriftian religion, appears to have been barred against it by the moft obftinate preju dices, as much as any man's could poffibly be; and hence

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