rage any poor defpairing finner among them to Lepent," Unto me," he could now fay, "who was once a perfecutor and injurious-Unto me, who am lefs than the leaft of all faints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles, the unfearchable riches of Chrift." "For this is a faithful faying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jefus Chrift came into the world to fave finners, of whom I am chief."

But there is alfo a bad ufe which may poffibly be made of this story of Paul's conversion. Weak men, I believe, have fometimes taken occafion from it to confirm themselves in their errors, and wicked men in their fins. Some enthufiafts, for instance, have been difpofed to fancy that they alfo may be converted like Paul by a voice from heaven, or at least by fome impreffion that would nearly amount to the fame thing. To fuch perfons I reply, what then, do you imagine the cafe of Paul to be quite a common one? Paul himfelf did not fo confider it. He often flood aftonished at the ftrangeness of it. ❝ I am as one," faid he, "born out of due time." He thus compares himself to a perfon, whofe birth had been quite out of the common courfe, and undoubtedly, both in the latenefs and in the manner of his converfion, his cafe is a direct exception to that of moft Chriftians, who were either to come after him or had gone before him. In fact, the converfion of Paul was neither more nor less than a miracle, and we might as well expect all the other kind of miracles which

were wrought on the bodies of men in the time of Chrift to be repeated in our days, as expe&t to fee miracles again wrought in order to the conversion of mens' fouls.

But wicked men, I alfo remarked, may perhaps take occafion from this ftory, to encourage themselves in their fins. "True, fay they, we cannot convert ourselves, it belongs to God alone to convert us; and we will therefore fit fill and wait, or in other words, we will continue in fin (for waiting is finning in the cafe of these people) until God fhall ftop us in our mad career, as he did Paul in his way to Damafcus. Where, fay they, is the use of diligence and labor, or of reading the fcriptures, or of any of the means of grace? God can fave us without these. We live in hopes, that he will convert us fome day or other, as he did Pual, while we are not thinking of it; and though to be fure we remain in the mean time in our fins, and in the gross neglect of the proper means of our falvation, yet we plead the great apostle Paul for our example." You plead the apoftle Paul's example, do you? or rather you plead the example of Paul before he was an apofle, and when he was yet unconverted. Well then, if you plead his example at all, you may as well plead it to the full extent to which this plea can be carried. Now Paul not only finned in the common way, and neglected the proper means of his falvation as you do, but he did what was fill worfe; he was even a blafphemer of Chrift,

and a perfecutor and injurious." Go then, I fay, fince you plead the example of Paul, and follow the example throughout. Go then, and blafpheme Chrift as he did. Go, perfecute the prefent followers of Jefus. Go and hunt them out as he did in every city, and bind them, both men and women, and then put them to death, Oh, no; you are afraid of venturing any fuch length in wickedness as this.—But Remember, my deluded reader, that your plea, if it will warrant you in any one trefpafs against God, will warrant you even in this. Remember, that whofoever at any time encourages himself, even in the fmalleft fin, either of omiffion or commiffion, by unconverted Paul's example, may, on the very fame principle, encourage himfelf even in the greateft. Be afraid, therefore, to tread on this dangerous ground. Let not fuch kind of arguments, as I have fuppofed you to ufe, be endured even for a moment, but confider them as the most complete perverfions of the gospel, and as fome of the worft temptations of the devil.

This leads me to addrefs to you another obfervation on the fame fubject. God was pleased to convert Paul, as I apprehend, not as your argument has fuppofed, becaufe he was a finner, but although he was a finner, Paul's fin did not invite God's grace, it only did not hinder it: nay, if his fin, which was great, already, had rifen to be fomewhat greater, we are not without reafon for fuppofing that the fame mercy would not have been extended to him.

"But

I obtained mercy," fays Paul," because I did it ignorantly and in unbelief," This obfervation of Paul feems to imply that if the crimes he committed had also been committed knowingly and wilfully, fuch would then have been the aggravation of them, that poffibly they would not have been pardoned.

And now, reader, you may trace in this refpect, perhaps, an important diftinction between his cafe and yours. Paul finned ignorantly, but you are for finning wilfully, for so your very argument fuppofes. Paul" obtained mercy because he did it in mere ignorance and unbelief;" you, perhaps, may not obtain mercy, because as to the evil you do, you do it not ignorantly but with your eyes open; nay let me add, that the very plea which you use of being encouraged in your floth or fin, by the free grace and mercy of the gofpel, is itself the greatest aggravation of your guilt the very excufe you use renders cafe dreadful, and who knows, whether if the fame excufe is perfifted in, your cafe may not thereby be rendered defperate !

your

To fum up all in a few words, the fair account of the whole matter feems to be this. Paul was a great opposer of the gospel, and therefore a great finner. His ignorance and unbelief, which led him into this oppofition, were undoubtedly criminal, for he might have known better if he would, nevertheless, they afforded fome small palliation of his guilt. God, on the whole, for the fake of his own purposes, and not

on account of any merit in Paul, for there is never any merit in man, was pleased to convert this perfecutor by the power of his grace, and to convert him even by a miracle, for God, as it evidently appears by the fucceeding part of Paul's hiftory, had great ends to fulfil by means of this extraordinary convert. One of thefe ends was, that a striking proof might thus be given of the truth of that new religion which the world in general, and which the Jews efpecially, were fo ill prepared to believe: and another end was, in order that a clear manifestation might be made of the fovereignty and power of God, and of the exceeding riches of his grace, which nothing, perhaps, would fhew forth more effectually than the converfion of this unworthy Jew into an apoftle. Thefe, as has been already obferved, feem to be some of the great points which the ftory of Paul's Converfion is calculated to prove. It is calculated to prove (let it be carefully remembered) that God fometimes may, and that he always can, convert even the moft notorious finners, and even in the very midft of their wickedness, but not that he always, no, nor even that he often will; ftill lefs does it prove, that God will convert any one again by a miracle. God works ordinarily by means, and he himfelf has exprefsly appointed, in the cafe of Christianity, what fhall be his means. These are the preaching of the gofpel, (for which end this very Paul was fent forth) the reading of the fcriptures, and the various other helps to falva