tihvavy of Che "theological Seminar jp 

PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY 



I 



PRESENTED BY 

The Estate of 
Rockv/ell S, Brank 



BS 2505 .L972 

Lyttelton, George Lyttelton, 

1709-1773. 
The conversion of St. Paul 



^ '? 



LORD LYTTE, 



S OF PB/S^ 



^ 



ON 



MAY 25 K^^^ 



THE CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 



IN A LETTER 



TO GILBERT WEST, ESQ, 



PUBLISHED BY THE 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

NEW YORK, 150 NASSAU-STREET : 
BOSTON, 23 CORNHILL. 



" It is stated by Eev. T. T. Biddolpli, that Lord 
Lyttclton and Ins friend Gilbert West, Esq., both 
men of acknowledged talents, had imbibed the prin- 
ciples of infidelity from a superficial view of the 
Scriptures. Fully persuaded that the Bible was an 
imposture, they were determined to expose the 
cheat. Lord Lyttelton chose the Conversion of 
Paul, and Mr. West the Resurrection of Christ, for 
the subject of hostile criticism. Both sat down to 
their respective tasks full of prejudice ; but the re- 
sult of their separate attempts was, that they were 
both converted by their efforts to overthrow the 
truth of Christianity. They came together not as 
they expected, to exult over an imposture exposed 
to ridicule, but to lament over their own folly, and 
to felicitate each other on their joint conviction that 
the Bible was the word of God. Their able inqui- 
ries have furnished two of the most valuable trea- 
tises in favor of revelation, one entitled ' Observa- 
tions on the Conversion of St. Paul/ and the other 
* Observations on the Resurrection of Christ.' " 



CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 



Sir — In a late conversation we had upon the 
subject of the Christian religion, I told you, 
that besides all the proofs of it which may be 
drawn from the prophecies of the Old Testa- 
ment, from the necessary connection it has with 
the whole system of the Jewish religion, from 
the miracles of Christ, and from the evidence 
given of his resurrection by all the other apos- 
tles, I thought the conversion and the apostle- 
ship of St. Paul alone, duly considered, was of 
itself a demonstration sufiicient to prove Chris- 
tianity to be a divine revelation. 

As you seemed to think that so compendious 
a proof might be of use to convince those unbe- 
lievers that will not attend to a longer series 
of arguments, I have thrown together the rea- 
sons upon which I support that proposition. 

In the 26th chapter of the Acts of the Apos- 
tles, written by a contemporary author, and a 



6 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

companion of St. Paul in preaching the gos- 
pel — as appears by tlie book itself, chap. 20 :6, 
13, 14; 27:1, etc. — St. Paul is said to liave 
given, himself, this account of liis conversion 
and preacliing, to king Agrippa and Festus the 
Roman governor : " My manner of life from my 
youth, which was, at the first, among mine own 
nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews ; wliich 
knew me from the beginning, if they would tes- 
tify, that after the straitest sect of our religion, 
I lived a Pharisee. And now I stand and am 
judged for the hope of the promise made by 
God unto our fathers ; unto which promise our 
twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and 
night, hope to come; for w^hich hope's sake, 
king Agrippa, I am accused by the Jews. Why 
should it be thought a thing incredible with 
you, that God should raise the dead ? I verily 
thought with myself, tliat I ought to do many 
things contrary to tlie name of Jesus of Naza- 
reth. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem, and 
many of the saints did I shut up in prison, hav- 
ing received authority from the chief priests; 
and when they were put to death, I gave my 
voice against them. And I punished them oft 
in every synagogue, and compelled them to 



HIS CONVERSION. 7 

blasplieme ; and being exceedingly mad against 
them, I persecuted them even unto strange cit- 
ies. Whereupon, as I went to Damascus with 
authority and commission from the chief priests, 
at mid-day, king, I saw in the way a light 
from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, 
shining round about me, and them which jour- 
neyed with me. And when we were all fallen 
to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto 
me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, 
Saul, why per secu test thou me ? It is hard for 
thee to kick against the pricks. And I said, 
Who art thou. Lord ? And he said, I am Jesus 
whom thou persecutest. But rise, stand upon 
thy feet ; for I have appeared unto thee for this 
purpose, to make thee a minister, and a witness 
both of those things which thou hast seen, and 
of those things in the which I will appear unto 
thee ; delivering thee from the people, and from 
the Gentiles, unto whom I now send thee, to 
open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness 
to light, and Irom the power of Satan unto God, 
that they may receive forgiveness of sins and 
inheritance among them which are sanctified 
by faith that is in me. Whereupon, king 
Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly 



8 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

vision ; but showed first unto them of Damas- 
cus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the 
coasts of Judea, and to the Gentiles, that they 
should repent and turn to God, and do works 
meet for repentance. For these causes the 
Jews caught me in the temple, and went about 
to kill me. Having therefore obtained help of 
God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both 
to small and great, saying none other things 
than those which Moses and the prophets did 
say should come : That Christ should suffer, 
and that he should be the first that should rise 
from the dead, and should show light to the 
people, and to the Gentiles. And as he thus 
spake for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, 
Paul, thou art beside thyself: much learning 
doth .make thee mad. But he said, I am not 
mad, most noble Festus, but speak forth the 
words of truth and soberness. For the king 
knoweth of these things, before whom also I 
speak freely ; for I am persuaded that none of 
these things are hidden from him; for this 
thing was not done in a corner. King Agrip- 
pa, believest thou the prophets ? I know tliat 
tliou believest. Tlien Agrippa said unto Paul, 
Almost thou persuadcst me to be a Christian. 



HIS CONVEHSION. 9 

And Paul said, I would to God, that not only 
thou, but also all that hear me this day, were 
both almost and altogether such as I am, ex- 
cept these bonds." In another chapter of the 
same book, he gives in substance the same ac- 
count to the Jews, adding these further par- 
ticulars : " And I said. What shall I do. Lord ? 
And the Lord said unto me, Arise, and go into 
Damascus ; and there it shall be told thee of all 
things which are appointed for thee to do. 
And when I could not see for the glory of that 
light, being led by the hand of them that were 
with me, I came into Damascus. And one 
Ananias, a devout man according to the law, 
having a good report of all the Jews that dwelt 
there, came unto me, and stood, and said unto 
me. Brother Saul, receive thy sight ; and the 
same hour I looked up upon him. And he said, 
The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that 
thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just 
One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth. 
For thou shalt be his witness imto all men, of 
what thou hast seen and heard. And now 
why tarriest thou? Arise, and be baptized, 
and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of 
the Lord." Acts 22 : 10-16. 



10 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

In the 9 til chapter of the same book, the au- 
thor of it relates the same story with some 
other circumstances not mentioned in these ac- 
counts ; as, that Saul in a vision saw Ananias 
before he came to him, coming in, and putting 
his hand on him, that he might recehN'e his sight. 
And that when Ananias had spoken to him, 
immediately there fell from his eyes as it had 
been scales. Acts 9 :12, 18. • 

And agreeably to all these accounts, St. Paul 
thus speaks of himself in the epistles he wrote 
to the several churches he planted ; the authen- 
ticity of which cannot be doubted without over- 
turning all rules by which the authority and 
genuineness of any writings can be proved or 
confirmed. 

To the Galatians he says, " I certify you, breth- 
ren, that the gospel which was preached by me 
is not after man. For I neither received it of 
man, neither was I tauglit it, but by the revela- 
tion of Jesus Christ. For ye have heard of my 
conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, 
how that beyond measure I persecuted the 
clmrch of God, and wasted it; and profited in 
the Jews' religion above many my equals in 
mine own nation, being more exceedingly zeal- 



HIS CONVERSION. 11 

ous of the traditions of my fathers. But when 
it pleased God, who separated me from my 
mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to 
reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him 
among the heathen, immediately I conferred not 
with flesh and blood," etc. Gal. 1 : 11-16. 

To the Philippians he says, " If any other 
man thinketh that he hath whereof he miglit 
trust in the flesh, I more: circumcised the 
eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe 
of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews ; as 
touching the law, a Pharisee ; concerning zeal, 
persecuting the church ; touching the righteous- 
ness which is in the law, blameless. But what 
things were gain to me, those I counted loss for 
Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things 
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge 
of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I have 
suffered the loss of all things, and do count 
them but dung, that I may win Christ." Phil. 
3:4-8. 

And in his epistle to Timothy he writes thus : 
" I thank Jesus Christ our Lord, who hath en- 
abled me, for that he counted me faithful, put- 
ting me into the ministry, who was before a" 
blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injiu*ious; 



12 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

but I obtained mercy, because I did it igno- 
rantly in unbelief.'' 1 Tim. 1 : 12, 13. 

In other epistles he calls himself " an apostle 
by the Avill of God, by the commandment of 
God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ ; and 
an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by 
Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised 
him from the dead." 2 Cor. 1:1; Col. 1:1; 
1 Tim. 1:1; Gal. 1:1. All which implies 
some miraculous call that made him an apos- 
tle. And to the Corinthians he says, after 
enumerating many appearances of Jesus after 
his resurrection, " And last of all he was seen 
of me also, as of one born out of due time.'' 
1 Cor. 15 : 8. 

Now, it must of necessity be, that the person 
attesting these things of himself, and of whom 
they are related in so authentic a manner, either 
was an impostor, who said what he knew to be 
false, with an intent to deceive ; or he was an 
ENTHUSIAST, who, by the force of an overheated 
imagination, imposed on himself; or he was 
DECEIVED by the fraud of others, and all tliat 
he said must be imputed to the power of that 
deceit ; or what he declared to have been the 
cause of his conversion, and to have happened 



NOT AN IMPOSTOR 13 



in consequence of it, did all really happen ; 

and therefo 

revelation. 



and therefore the Christian religion is a divine 



L PAUL NOT AN IMPOSTOR. 

Now, that he was not an impostor, who said 
what he knew to be false, with an intent to de- 
ceive, I shall endeavor to prove, by showing 
that he could have no rational motives to un- 
dertake such an imposture, nor could have pos- 
sibly carried it on with any success by the 
means we know he employed. 

First, then, the inducement to such an im- 
posture must have been one of these two: 
either the hope of advancing himself by it in his 
temporal interest, credit, or power ; or the 
gratijication of some of his passions under the au- 
thority of it, and by the means it afforded. 

Now, these were the circumstances in which 
St. Paul declared his conversion to the faith of 
Christ Jesus : that Jesus who called himself 
the Messiah, and Son of God, notwithstandino: 
the innocence and holiness of his life, notwith- 
standing the miracles by which he attested his 
mission, had been crucified by the Jews as an 
impostor and blasphemer ; which crucifixion not 



14 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

only must, humanly speaking, have intimidated 
others from following him, or espousing his 
doctrines, but served to confirm the Jews in 
their opinion that he could not be their prom- 
ised Messiah, who, according to all their preju- 
dices, was not to suffer in any manner, but to 
reign triumphant for ever here upon earth. 
His apostles, indeed, though at first they ap- 
peared to be terrified by the death of their 
Master, and disappointed in all their hopes, 
yet had surprisingly recovered their spirits 
again, and publicly taught in his name, declar- 
ing him to be risen from the grave, and con- 
firming that miracle by many they worked, or 
pretended to work, themselves. But the chief 
priests and rulers among the Jevrs were so far 
from being converted, either by their words or 
their works, that they had began a severe per- 
secution against them, put some to death, im- 
prisoned others, and were going on with im- 
placable rage against tlie whole sect. In all 
these severities St. Paul concurred, being him- 
self a Pliariscc, " bred up at the feet of Gama- 
liel," Acts 7 : 9, 22, 23, one of the cliief of that 
sect. Nor was he content, in the heat of his 
zeal, wdth persecuting the Christians wiio were 



NOT AN IMPOSTOR. 15 

at Jerusalem, but " breathing out threatenings 
and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, 
went unto the high-priest, and desired of him 
letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if 
he found any of this way, whether they were 
men or women, he might bring them bound to 
Jerusalem." Acts 9:1, 2. His request Av^as 
complied with, and he " went to Damascus 
with authority and commission from the chief 
priests." Acts 26 : 12. At this instant of time, 
and under these circumstances, did he become 
a disciple of Christ. What could be his mo- 
tive to take such a part ? Was it the hope of 
increasing his wealth? The certain conse- 
quence of his taking that part was not only 
the loss of all that he had, but of all hopes of 
acquiring more. Those whom he left were the 
disposers of wealth, of dignity, of power, in 
Judea ; those whom he went to, were indigent 
men, oppressed and kept down from all means 
of improving their fortunes. They among 
them who had more than the rest, shared what 
they had with their brethren ; but with this 
assistance the whole community was liardly 
supplied with the necessaries of life. And 
even in churches he afterwards planted him- 



16 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

self, which were much more wealthy than that 
of Jerusalem, so far was St. Paul from avail- 
ing himself of their charity, or the veneration 
they had for him, in order to draw that wealth 
to himself, that he often refused to take any 
part of it for the necessaries of life. 

Thus he tells the Corinthians : " Even unto 
this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, 
and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no 
certain dwelling-place ; and labor, working with 
our own hands." 1 Cor. 4:11. 

In another epistle he writes to them, " Be- 
hold, the third time I am ready to come to you ; 
and I will not be burdensome to you, for I 
seek not yours, but you ; for the children ought 
not to lay up for the parents, but the parents 
for the children." 2 Cor. 12 : 14. 

To the Thessalonians he says, "As we were 
allowed of God to be put in trust with the gos- 
pel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but 
God, which trieth our hearts. For neither at 
any time used we flattering words, nor a cloak 
of covetousness ; God is witness ; nor of men 
sought we glor}^, neither of you, nor yet of 
others, when we might have been burdensome, 
as the apostles of Christ. For ye remember, 



NOT AN IMPOSTOR. 17 

brethren, our labor and travail: for laboring- 
night and day, because we would not be charge- 
able to any of you, we preached unto you the 
gospel of God." And again in another letter 
to them he repeats the same testimony of his 
disinterestedness : " Neither did we oat any 
man's bread for naught, but wrought with labor 
and travail day and niglit, that we might not 
be chargeable to any of you." 2 Thess. 3 :8. 
And when Jie took his farewell of the church 
of Ephesus, to whom he foretold that they 
should see him no more, he gives this testimony 
of himself, and appeals to them for the truth of 
it : *' I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or 
apparel. Yea, you j^ourselves know, that these 
hands have ministered unto my necessities, and 
to tliem that were with me." Acts 20 : 33, 34. 
It is then evident, both from the state of the 
church when St. Paul first came into it, and 
from his behavior afterwards, that he had no 
thoughts of increasing his wealth by becoming 
a Christian ; whereas, by continuing to be their 
enemy, he had almost certain hopes of making 
his fortune by the favor of those who were at 
the head of tlie Jewish state, to whom nothing 
could more recommend him than the zeal that 

Conv, Paul. O 



18 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

he showed in that persecution. As to credit or 
reputation, that too lay all on the side he for- 
sook. The sect he embraced was under the 
greatest and most universal contempt of any- 
then in the world. The chiefs and leaders of 
it were men of the lowest birth, education, and 
rank. They had no one advantage of parts, or 
learning, or other human endowments to recom- 
mend them. The doctrines they taught were 
contrary to those which they who were account- 
ed the wisest and most knowing of their nation 
professed. The wonderful works that they did 
were either imputed to magic or to imposture. 
The very author and head of their faith had 
been condemned as a criminal, and died on the 
cross between two thieves. Could the disciple 
of Gamaliel think he should gain any credit or 
reputation 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 honor? No ; he knew very 
well that the preaching Christ crucified was a 
stumbling-block to the Jews, and to the Greeks 
foolishness. 1 Cor. 1 : 23. He afterwards 
found by experience, that in all parts of the 
world, contempt was the pprtion of whoever 



NOT AN IMPOSTOR. 19 

engaged in preaching a mystery so unpalatable 
to the world, to all its passions and pleasures, 
and so irreconcilable to the pride of human 
reason. " We are made/"' says he to the Corin- 
thians, " as the filth of the world, the off-scour- 
ing of all things unto this day." 1 Cor. 4 : 13. 
Yet he went on as zealously as he set out, and 
was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Cer- 
tainly then, the desire of glory, the ambition 
of making to himself a great name, was not 
his motive to embrace Christianity. Was it 
tlien the love of power? Power over whom? 
over a flock of sheep driven to the slaughter, 
whose Shepherd himself had been murdered a 
little before? All he could hope from that 
power was to be marked out in a particular 
manner for the same knife which he had seen 
so bloodily drawn against them.. Could he ex- 
pect more mercy from the chief priests and the 
rulers, than they had shown to Jesus himself ? 
Would not their anger be probably fiercer 
against the deserter and betrayer of their cause, 
than against any other of the apostles? Was 
power over so mean and despised a set of men 
worth encounter in 2; so much dano-cr ? But still 
it may be said, there are some natures so fond 



20 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

of power that tliey will court it at any risk, and 
be pleased with it even over the meanest. Let 
us see then what power St. Paul assumed over 
the Christians. Did he pretend to any superi- 
ority over the other apostles? No ; he declared 
himself the least of them, and less than the 
least of all saints. Ephes. 3 : 8 ; 1 Cor. 15:9. 
Even in the churches he planted himself, he 
never pretended to any primacy or power above 
the other apostles ; nor would he be regarded 
any otherwise by them, than as the instrument 
to them of the grace of God, and preacher of 
the gospel, not as the head of a sect. To the 
Corinthians he writes in these words: "Now 
this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of 
Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I 
of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul cruci- 
fied for you? Or were ye baptized in the name 
of Paul?" 1 Cor. 1 :12, 13. And in another 
place, " Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, 
but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the 
Lord gave to every man?'' 1 Cor. 3 : 5. "For 
we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the 
Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' 
sake." 2 Cor. 4 : 5. 
All the authority he exercised over them was 



NOT AN IMPOSTOR. 21 

purely of a spiritual nature, tending to their 
instruction and edification, witliout any mixture 
of that civil dominion in which alone an im- 
postor can find his account. Such was the 
dominion acquired and exercised through the 
pretence of divine inspiration, by many ancient 
legislators, by Minos, Rhadamanthus, Tripto- 
lemus, Lycurgus, Numa, Zaleucus, Zoroaster, 
Xamolxis, nay, even by Pythagoras, who join- 
ed legislation to his philosophy, and like the 
others pretended to miracles and revelations 
from God, to give a more venerable sanction 
to the laws he prescribed. Such, in latter times, 
was attained by Odin among the Goths, by Mo- 
hammed among the Arabians, by Mango Copac 
among the Peruvians, by the Sofi family among 
the Persians, and that of the Xeriffs among the 
Moors. To such a dominion did also aspire 
the many false Messiahs among the Jews. In 
short, a spiritual authority was only desired as 
a foundation for temporal power, or as the sup- 
port of it, by all these pretenders to divine 
inspiration, and others whom history mentions 
in diflferent ages and countries to have used the 
same arts. But St. Paul innovated nothing in 
government or civil affairs ; he meddled not 



22 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

with legislation ; he formed no commonweal tlis ; 
he raised no seditions ; he affected no temporal 
power. Obedience to their rulers, Romans 13, 
was the doctrine he tanglit to tlie churclies he 
planted; and what he taught he practised him- 
self: nor did he use anv of those sootliini]: arts 
by wliich ambitious and cunning men recom- 
mend themselves to the favor of those whom 
they endeavor to subject to their power. What- 
ever was wrong in the disciples under his care 
he freely reproved, as it became a teacher from 
God, of which numberless instances are to be 
found in all his epistles. And he was as care- 
ful of them when he had left them, as while he 
resided among them, which an impostor would 
hardly have been, whose ends were centred all 
in himself. This is the manner in which he 
writes to the Philippians: "Wherefore, my 
beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not in my 
presence only, but now much more in my ab- 
sence, work out your own salvation with fear 
and trembling." Phil. 2 : 12. And a little after 
he adds the cause why he interested himself so 
much in tlieir conduct, " That ye may be blame- 
less and harmless, the sons of God in the midst 
of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom 



NOT AN IMPOSTOR. 23 

ye sliinc as liglits in the world, holding forth 
the word of life ; that I may rejoice in the day 
of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither 
labored in vain. Yea, and if I be offered upon 
the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and 
rejoice with you all." Phil. 2 : 15-17. Are 
tliose the words of an impostor, desiring noth- 
ing but temporal power? No; they are evi- 
dently written by one who looked beyond the 
bounds of this life. But it may be said that he 
affected at least an absolute spiritual power 
over the churches he formed. I answer, he 
preached Christ Jesus, and not himself. Christ 
was the head, he only the minister ; and for 
such only he gave himself to them. He called 
those who assisted him in preaching the gospel, 
his fellow-laborers and fellow-servants. 

So far was he from taking any advantage of 
a higher education, superior learning, and more 
use of the world, to claim to himself any suprem- 
acy above the other apostles, that he made light 
of all these attainments, and declared that he 
came not with excellency of speech, or of wis- 
dom, but determined to know nothing among 
those he converted, save Jesus Christ and him 
crucified. And the reason he gave for it was, 



24 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

tliat their faith should not stand in the wisdom 
of men, but in the power of God. 1 Cor. 2:1, 
2-5. Now this conduct put him quite on a 
level with the other apostles, who knew Jesus 
Christ as well as he, and had the power of God 
going along with their preaching in an equal 
degree of virtue and grace. But an impostor, 
whose aim had been power, would have acted 
a contrary part ; he would have availed him- 
self of all those advantages, he would have 
extolled them as highly as possible, he would 
have set up himself by virtue of them as head 
of that sect to which he acceded, or at least of 
the proselytes made by himself. This is no 
more than what was done by every philosoplier 
who formed a scliool ; much more was it natural 
in one who propagated a ncAv religion. 

We see that the bisliops of Rome have claim- 
ed to themselves a primacy, or ratlier a mon- 
arcliy over the whole Cliristian church. If St. 
Paul had been actuated by the same lust of 
dominion, it was much easier for him to have 
succeeded in sucli an attempt. It was much 
easier to make himself head of a few poor me- 
chanics and fishermen, whose superior he had 
always been in the eyes of the world, than for 



NOT AN IMPOSTOR. 25 

tliG bishops of Rome to reduce those of RavGn- 
na or Milan, and other great metropolitans, to 
their obedience. Besides the opposition they 
met with from such potent antagonists, they 
were obliged to support their pretensions in 
direct contradiction to those very Scriptures 
which they were forced to ground them upon, 
and to the indisputable practice of the whole 
Christian church for many centuries. These 
were such difficulties as required the utmost 
abilities and skill to surmount. But the first 
preachers of the gospel had easier means to 
corrupt a faith not yet fully known, and which 
in many places could only be known by what 
they severally published themselves. It was 
necessary, indeed, while they continued to- 
gether, and taught the same people, that they 
should agree, otherwise the credit of their sect 
would have been overthrown ; but when they 
separated, and formed different churches in dis- 
tant countries, the same necessity no longer 
remained. 

It was in the power of St. Paul to model 
most of the churches he formed, so as to favor 
his own ambition ; for he preached the gospel 
in parts of the world where no other apostles 



26 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

liad been, wliere Christ was not named till ho 
broiiglit the knowledge of him, avoiding to build 
upon another man's foundation. Rom. 15 : 20. 
Now, had he been an impostor, wouLd he havo 
confined himself to just the same gospel as was 
delivered by the other apostles, where he had 
such a latitude to preach what he pleased with- 
out contradiction ? Would ho not have twisted 
and warped the doctrines of Christ to his own 
ends, to the particular use and expediency of 
liis own followers, and to the peculiar support 
and increase of his own power ? That this was 
not done by St. Paul, or by any other of the 
apostles in so many various parts of the world 
as they travelled into, and in churches absolute- 
ly under their own direction — that the gospel 
preached by them all should be one and the 
same, the doctrines agreeing in every particu- 
lar, without any one of them attributing more 
to himself than he did to the others, or estab- 
lishing any thing even in point of order or dis- 
cipline different from the rest, or more advan- 
tageous to his own interest, credit, or power, 
is a most strong and convincing proof of their 
not being impostors, but acting entirely by di- 
vine inspiration. 



NOT AN IMPOSTOR. 27 

If any one imagines that he sees any differ- 
ence between the doctrines of St. James and 
St. Paul concerning justification by faith or by 
works, let him read Mr. Locke's excellent com- 
ment upon the epistles of the latter ; or let him 
only consider these Avords in the first epistle to 
tlie Corinthians, chap. 9 : 27 : " But I keep under 
my body, and bring it into subjection ; lest that 
by any means, when I have preached to others, 
I myself should be a castaway." 

If St. Paul had believed or taught that faith 
without works was sufficient to save a disciple 
of Christ, to what purpose did he keep under his 
body, since his salvation was not to depend upon 
that being subjected to the power of his reason, 
but merely upon tlie faith he professed ? His 
faith was firm, and so strongly founded upon 
the most certain conviction, that he had no rea- 
son to doubt its continuance ; how could he 
then think it possible, that while he retained 
Wi^i saving faith,\\Q, might nevertheless if a cast- 
away ? Or if he had supposed that his election 
and calling: was of such a nature as that it irre- 
sistibly impelled him to good, and restrained 
him from evil, liow could he express any fear, 
lest the lusts of his body should prevent his 



28 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

salvation? Can such an apprehension be mado 
to agree with the notion of absolute predestina- 
tion, as destroying the motive to good works, 
by some ascribed to St. Paul? He- could have 
no doubt that the grace of God had been given 
to him in the most extraordinary manner ; yet 
we see that he felt the necessity of continual 
watchfulness, lest he should fall, through the 
natural prevalence of bodily appetites, if not 
duly restrained by his own voluntary care. This 
single passage is a full answer, out of the mouth 
of St. Paul himself, to all the charges that have 
been made of his depreciating good works in 
what he has said concerning grace, election, and 
justification. 

If, then, it appears that St. Paul had nothing 
to gain by taking this part, let us consider, on 
the other hand, wuat he gave up, and what 
HE HAD REASON TO FEAR. Hc gavo up a fortune, 
which he was then in a fair way of advancing : 
he gave up that reputation wliicli lie had ac- 
quired by tlie labors and studies of his whole 
life, and by a behavior which had been blame- 
less, " toucliing tlie righteousness which is in the 
law." Phil. 3 ; G. He gave up his friends, his 



NOT AN IMPOSTOR. 29 

relations, and family, from whom lie estranged 
and banished himself for life ; he gave up that 
religion which he had profited in above many his 
equals in his own nation, and those traditions of 
his fathers whiclf he had been more exceedingly 
zealous of. Gal. 1 : 14. How hard this sacrifice 
was to a man of his warm temper, and above all 
men, to a Jew, is worth consideration. That 
nation is known to have been more tenacious of 
their religious opinions than any other upon 
the face of the earth. The strictest and proud- 
est sect among them was that of the Pharisees, 
under whose discipline St. Paul was bred. The 
departing, therefore, so suddenly from tlieir fa- 
vorite tenets, renouncing their pride, and from 
their disciple becoming their adversary, was a 
most difficult efi'ort for one to make so nursed 
up in the esteem of them, and whose early 
prejudices were so strongly confirmed by all 
the power of habit, all the authority of exam- 
ple, and all the allurements of honor and inter- 
est. These were the sacrifices he had to make 
in becoming a Christian ; let us now see what 
inconveniences he had to fear : the implacable 
venQ:eance of those he deserted; that sort of 
contempt which is hardest to bear, the contempt 



30 COKVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

of those whose good opinion he had most eager- 
ly sought, and all those other complicated evils 
which he describes in his second epistle to the 
Corinthians, chapter 11 — evils, the least of 
which were enough to have frighted any im- 
postor even from the most hopeful and profit- 
able cheat. But where the advantage proposed 
bears no proportion to the dangers incurred, or 
the mischiefs endured, he must be absolutely 
out of his senses who will either eno^ao-e in an 
imposture, or, being engaged, persevere. 

Upon the whole, then, I think I have proved 
that the desire of wealth, or fame, or of power, 
could be no motive to make St. Paul a convert 
to Christ; but that, on the contrary, he must 
have been checked by that desire, as well as by 
the just apprehension of many inevitable and 
insupportable evils, from taking a part so con- 
tradictory to his past life, to all the principles 
he had imbibed, and all the habits he had con- 
tracted. 

It only remains to be inquired, whether the 

GRATIFICATION OF ANY OTHER PASSION undcr the 

authority of that religion, or by the means it 
afforded, could be his inducement. That there 



NOT AN IMPOSTOR. 31 

have been some impostors wlio have pretended 
to revelations from God merely to give loose 
to irregular passions, and set themselves free 
from all restraints of government, law, or mo- 
rality, both ancient and modern history shows. 
But the doctrine preached by St. Paul is abso- 
lutely contrary to all such designs. His writ- 
ings" breathe nothing but the strictest moral- 
ity, obedience to magistrates, order, and gov- 
ernment, with the utmost abhorrence of all 
licentiousness, idleness, or loose behavior under 
the cloak of religion. We nowhere read in 
his works, that saints are above moral ordi- 
nances; that dominion or property is founded 
in grace ; that there is no difference in moral 
actions ; that any impulses of the mind are to 
direct us against the light of our reason, and 
the laws of nature ; or any of those wicked ten- 
ets, from which the peace of society has been 
disturbed, and the rules of morality have been 
broken by men pretending to act under the 
sanction of a divine revelation. Nor does any 
part of his life, either before or after his "con- 
version to Christianity, bear any mark of a 
libertine disposition. As among the Jews, so 
* See particularly Rom. 11 and 13, and Col. 3. 



32 CONVERSIOK OF ST. PAUL. 

among the Christians, his conversation and man- 
ners were blameless. Hear the appeal that he 
makes to the Thessalonians upon his doctrine 
and behavior among them : " Our exhortation 
was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in 
guile. Ye are witnesses, and God also, how 
holily and justly and unblamably we behaved 
ourselves among you that believe.""^ 1 Thess. 
2 : 3, 10. And to the Corinthians he says, " Wc 
have wronged no man, we have corrupted no 
man, we have defrauded no man." 2 Cor. 7 : 2. 
See also 2 Cor. 1:12; 4:2. 

It was not, then, the desire of gratifying any 
irregular passion, that could induce St. Paul to 

■^ If St. Paul had held any secret doctrines, or esoteric, as 
the philosophers called them, tvc should have probably 
found them in the letters he wrote to Timothy, Titus, and 
Philemon, his bosom-friends and disciples. But both the 
theological and moral doctrines are exactly the same in 
them, as those he wrote to the churches. A very strong pre- 
sumptive proof of his being no impostor. Surely, had ho 
been one, he would have given some hints in these private 
letters of the cheat they were carrying on, and some secret 
directions to turn it to some worldly purposes of one kind 
or another. But no such thing is to be found in any one 
of them. The same disinterested, holy, and divine spirit 
breathes in all these, as in the other more public epistles. 



KOT AN IMPOSTOR. 33 

turn Christian, any more than the hope of ad- 
vancing himself either in wealth, or reputation, 
or power. But still it is possible, some men 
may say — and I would leave no imaginable ob- 
jection unanswered — that though St. Paul could 
have no selfish or interested view in undertak- 
ing such an imposture, yet, for the sake of its 
moral doctrines, he might be inclined to sup- 
port the Christian faith, and make use of some 
PIOUS FRAUDS to advance a religion which, 
though erroneous and false in its theological 
tenets, and in the fact upon which it is ground- 
ed, was, in its precepts and influence, beneficial 
to mankind. 

Now, admit that some good men in the hea- 
then world have both pretended to divine rev- 
elations, and introduced or supported religions 
they knew to be false, under a notion of public 
utility. But besides that this practice was 
built upon maxims disclaimed by the Jews, 
who, looking upon truth, not utility, to be the 
basis of their religion, abhorred all such frauds, 
and thought them injurious to the honor of 
God, the .circumstances they acted in were dif- 
ferent from those of St. Paul. 

The first reformers of savage, uncivilized na- 

Conv. Paul. 3 



34 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

tions had no other way to tame those barbar- 
ous people, and to bring them to submit to 
order and government, but by the reverence 
which they acquired from this pretence. The 
fraud was therefore alike beneficial both to the 
deceiver and the deceived. And in all other 
instances vrhich can be given of good men act- 
ing this part, they not only did it to serve good 
ends, but were secure of its doing no harm. 
Thus, when Lycurgus persuaded the Spartans, 
or Numa the Romans, that the laws of the one 
were inspired by Apollo, or those of the other 
by Egeria ; when they taught their people to 
put great faith in oracles, or in augury, no tem- 
poral mischief, cither to them or their people, 
could attend the reception of that belief. It 
drew on no persecutions, no enmity with the 
world. But at that time, when St. Paul under- 
took the preaching of the gospel, to persuade 
any man to bo a Christian, was to persuade 
him to expose himself to all the calamities hu- 
man nature could suffer. This St. Paul knevv^ ; 
this he not only expected, but warned those he 
taught to look for it too. 1 Thess. 3 : .4 ; 2 Cor. 
G : 4, 5 ; Eph. G : 10-lG ; Phil. 1 : 28-30. Tlic 
only support tliat lie had himself, or gave to 



NOT AN IMPOSTOR. 3& 

them, was, that "if they suffered with Christ, 
they should bo also glorified together J^ And 
that "he reckoned that the sufferings of the 
present time were not worthy to be compared 
with that glory. '^ Eom. 8: lY, 18. So likewise 
he writes to the Thessalonians, "We ourselves 
glory in you in the churches of God, for your 
patience and faith in all your persecutions and 
tribulations that ye endure ; which is a mani- 
fest token of the righteous judgment of God, 
tliat ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom 
of God, for which ye also suffer: seeing it is a 
righteous thing with God to recompense," or re- 
pay, " tribulation to them that trouble you ; and 
to you who are troubled rest with us, when the 
Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with 
his mighty angels," etc. 2 Thess. 1 : 4-7. And 
to the Corinthians he says, " If in this life only 
we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most 
miserable." How much reason he had to say 
this, the hatred, the contempt, the torments, the 
deaths endured by the Christians in that age, 
and long afterwards, abundantly prove. Who- 
ever professed the gospel under these circum- 
stances, witliout an entire conviction of its be- 
ing a divine revelation, must have been mad; 



36 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

and if lie made others profess it by fraud or 
deceit, he must have been worse than mad — he 
must have been the most hardened villain that 
ever breathed. Could any man wlio had in 
his nature the least spark of humanity, subject 
his fellow-creatures to so many miseries ; or 
could one that had in his mind the least ray of 
reason, expose himself to share them with those 
he deceived, in order to advance a religion 
which he knew to be false, merely for the sake 
of its moral doctrines? Such an extravagance 
is too absurd to be supposed ; and I dwell too 
long on a notion that, upon a little reflection, 
confutes itself. 

I would only add to the other proofs I have 
given, that St. Paul could have no rational mo- 
tive to become a disciple of Christ unless he 
sincerely believed in him, this observation : tliat 
whereas it may be objected to the other apos- 
tles, by those who are resolved not to credit 
their testimony, that having been deeply en- 
gaged with Jesus during his life, they were 
obliged to continue the same professions after 
his death, for the support of their own credit, and 
from having gone too far to go back ; this can 
by no means be said of St. Paul. On the con- 



NOT AN IMPOSTOR. 37 

trary, 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 Christ Jesus. If they were 
engaged on one side, he was as strongly en- 
gaged on the other ; if shame withheld them 
from changing sides, much more ought it to 
have stopped him, who being of a higher edu- 
cation and rank in life a great deal than they, 
had more credit to lose, and must be supposed 
to have been vastly more sensible to that sort 
of shame. The only difference was, that they, 
by quitting their Master after his death, might 
have preserved themselves ; whereas he, by 
quitting the Jews, and taking up the cross of 
Christ, certainly brought on his own destruc- 
tion. 

As therefore no rational motive appears for 
St. Paul's embracing the faith of Christ with- 
out having been really convinced of the truth 
of it, but on the contrary, every thing con- 
curred to deter him from acting that part, one 
might very justly conclude, that when a man of 
his understanding embraced that faith, he Avas 
in reality convinced of the truth of it; and 
that, by consequence, he was not an impostor, 



38 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

who said what he knew to be false with an 
intent to deceive. 

But that no shadow of doubt njay remain 
upon the impossibility of his having been such 
an impostor ; that it may not be said, " The 
minds of men arc sometimes so capricious tliat 
they will act without any rational motives, they 
know not why, and so perhaps might St. Paul ;" 
I shall next endeavor to prove, that if he had 
been so unaccountably wild and absurd as to 
undertake an imposture so unprofitable and 
dangerous both to himself and those he deceived 
by it, he could not possibly have carried .it 
ON WITH ANY SUCCESS by the means that we 
know he employed. 

First, then, let me observe, that if his con- 
version, and the part that he acted in conse- 
quence of it, was an imposture, it was such an 
imposture as could not he carried on by one man 
alone. The faith he professed, and which he 
became an apostle of, was not his invention. 
He was not the author or beginner of it, and 
therefore it was not in his power to draw the 
doctrines of it out of his own imagination. 
With Jesus, who was the Author and Head of 



NOT AN IMPOSTOR. 39 

it, he liad never had any communication before 
his death, nor with his apostles after his death-, 
except as their persecutor. As he took on him- 
self the office and character of an apostle, it 
was absolutely necessary for him to have a 
precise and perfect knowledge of all the facts 
contained in the gospel, several of which had 
only passed between Jesus himself and his 
twelve apostles, and others more privately still, 
so that they could be known but to very few, 
being not yet made public by any writings ; 
otherwise he would have exposed himself to 
ridicule among those who preached that gos- 
pel with more knowledge than he ; and as the 
testimony they bore would have been different 
in point of fact, and many of their doctrines 
and interpretations of Scripture repugnant to 
his, from their entire disagreement with those 
Jewish opinions in which he was bred up, 
either they must have been forced to ruin his 
credit, or he would have ruined theirs. Some 
general notices he might have gained of these 
matters from the Christians he persecuted, but 
not exact or extensive enough to qualify him 
for an apostle, whom the least error in these 
points would have disgraced, and who must 



40 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL." 

liavG been ruined by it in all his pretensions to 
that inspiration from whence the apostolical 
authority was chiefly derived. 

It was therefore impossible for him to act 
this part but in confederacy, at least, with the 
apostles. Such a confederacy was still more 
necessary for him, as the undertaking to preach 
the gospel did not only require an exact and 
particular knowledge of all it contained, but 
an apparent power of working miracles j for 
to such a power all the apostles appealed in 
proof of their mission, and of the doctrines 
they preached. He was, therefore,. to learn of 
them by what secret arts they so imposed on 
the senses of men, if this power was a cheat. 
But how could he gain these men to become 
his confederates? Was it by furiously perse- 
cuting them and their brethren, as we find that 
he did, to the very moment of his conversion? 
Would they venture to trust their capital ene- 
my with all the secrets of their imposture, with 
those upon which all their hopes and credit 
depended? Would they put it in his power to 
take away not only their lives, but the honor 
of their sect, which they preferred to their 
lives, by so ill-placed a confidence? Would 



NOT AN IMPOSTOR. 41 

men, so secret as not to be drawn by the most 
severe persecutions to say one word which 
could convict them of being impostors, confess 
themselves such to their persecutor, in hopes of 
his being their accomplice ? This is still more 
impossible than that he should attempt to en- 
gage in their fraud without their consent and 
assistance. 

We must suppose then, that till he came to 
Damascus, he had no communication with the 
apostles, acted in no concert with them, and 
learnt nothing from them except the doctrines 
which they had publicly taught to all the world. 
When he came there, he told the Jews, to whom 
lie brought letters from the high-priest and the 
synagogue against the Christians, of his having 
seen in the way a great light from heaven, and 
heard Jesus Christ reproaching him with his 
persecution, and commanding him to go into 
the city, where it should be told him what he 
was to do. But to account for his choosins: 
this method of declaring himself a convert to 
Christ, we must suppose that all those who 
were with him when he pretended he had this 
vision, were his accomplices ; otherwise the 
story he told could have gained no belief, being 



42 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

contradicted by them whose testimony wsls nec- 
essary to vouch for the truth of it. And yet 
how can we suppose that all these men should 
be willing to join in this imposture ? ,They were 
probably officers of justice, or soldiers, who 
had been employed often before in executing 
the orders of the high-priest and the rulers 
against the Christians. Or, if they were cho- 
sen particularly for this expedition, they must 
have been chosen by them as men they could 
trust for their zeal in that cause. What should 
induce them to the betraying of that business 
they were employed in? Does it even appear 
that thev had anv connection with the man thcv 
so lied for, before or after this time, or any 
reward from him for it? This is, therefore, a 
difficulty in the first outset of this imposture 
not to be overcome. 

But further, he was to be instructed by one 
at Damascus. That instructor, therefore, must 
have been his accomplice, though they appeared 
to be absolute strangers to one another ; and 
though he was a man of an excellent character, 
'•who had a good report of all the Jews that 
dwelt at Damascus," and so was very unlikely 
to have engaged in such an imposture. Xotwith- 



KOT AN IMPOSTOR. 43 

standing these improbabilities, this man, I say, 
must have been his confidant and accomplice in 
carrying on this fraud, and the whole matter 
must have been previously agreed on between 
them. But here, again, the same objection oc- 
curs. How could this man venture to act sucli 
a dangerous part, without the consent of the 
other disciples, especially of the apostles ; or 
by what means could he obtain their consent? 
xVnd how absurdly did they contrive their busi- 
ness, to make the conversion of Saul the effect 
of a miracle, which all those who were with him 
must certify did never happen. How much 
easier would it have been to have made him be 
present at some pretended miracle wrought by 
the disciples, or by Ananias himself, wlien none 
were able to discover the fraud, and have im- 
puted his conversion to that, or to the arguments 
used by some of his prisoners whom he might 
have discoursed with, and questioned about 
their faith, and the grounds of it, in order to 
color his intended conversion. 

As this was the safest, so it was the most 
natural method of bringing about such a change, 
instead of ascribing it to an event which lay so 
open to detection. For, to use the words of St. 



44 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

l^aul to Agrippa, " this thing was not clone in a 
corner," Acts 26, but in the eye of the world, and 
subject immediately to the examination of those 
who Avould. be the most strict in searching into 
the truth of it, the Jews at Damascus. Had 
they been able to bring any shadow of proof 
to convict him of fraud in this affair, his whole 
scheme of imposture must have been nipt in the 
bud. Nor were they, at Jerusalem, whose com- 
mission he bore, less concerned to discover so 
provoking a cheat. But we find that, many 
years afterwards, when they had all the time 
and means they could desire to make the strict- 
est inquiry, he was bold enough to appeal to 
Agrippa, in the presence of Festus, Acts 26, 
upon his knowledge of the truth of his story ; 
Avho did not contradict him, though he had cer- 
tainly heard all that the Jews could allege 
against the credit of it in any particular — a 
very remarkable proof, both of the notoriety of 
the fact, and the integrity of the man who, 
with so fearless a confidence, could call ujwn 
a king to give testimony for him, even while he 
was sitting in judgment upon him. 

But to return to Ananias. Is it not strange, 
if this story had been an imposture, and he had 



NOT AN IMPOSTOR. 45 

"been joined with Paul in carrying it on, that, 
after their meeting at Damascus, we never 
should hear of their consorting togetlier, or 
acting in concert ; or that the former drew 
any benefit from the friendship of the latter, 
when he became so considerable among the 
Christians? Did Ananias engage and continue 
in such a dangerous fraud without any hopes 
or desire of private advantage? Or was it 
safe for Paul to shake him off, and risk his re- 
sentment? There is, I think, no other way to 
get over this difficulty but by supposing that 
Ananias happened to die soon after the other's 
conversion. Let us, then, take that for granted, 
without any authority either of history or tra- 
dition, and let us see in what manner this won- 
drous imposture was carried on by Paul him- 
self. His first care ought to have been to get 
himself owned and received as an apostle by 
the apostles. Till this was done, the bottom he 
stood upon was very narrow, nor could he have 
any probable means of supporting himself in 
any esteem or credit among the disciples. In- 
truders into impostures run double risks ; they 
are in danger of being detected, not only by 
those upon whom they attempt to practise their 



46 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

clieats, but also by those wliose society tlicy 
force themselves into, who must always be jeal- 
ous of such an intrusion, and much more from 
one who had always before behaved as their 
enemy. Therefore, to gain the apostles, and 
bring them to admit him into a participation 
of all their mysteries, all their designs, and all 
their authority, was absolutely necessary at 
this time to Paul. The least delay was of dan- 
gerous consequence, and might expose him to 
such inconveniences as he never afterwards 
could overcome. But instead of attending to 
this necessity, he went into Arabia, and then 
returned again to Damascus ; nor did he go to 
Jerusalem till three years were passed. Gal. 
1:17,18. 

Now, this conduct may be accounted for, if 
it be true that, as he declares in his epistle to 
the Galatians, he " neither received the gospel 
of any man, neither was he taught it, but by the 
revelation of Jesus Christ." Gal. 1:12. Under 
such a Master, and with the assistance of his 
divine power, he might go on boldly without 
any human associates ; but an impostor so left 
to himself, so deprived of all help, all support, 
all recommendation, could not have succeeded. 



NOT A^ IMPOSTOR. 47 

Further, wo find that, at Antioch, he was not 
afraid to withstand Peter to his face, and even 
to reprove him before all the disciples, because 
he was to be blamed. Gal. 2:11-14. If he was 
an impostor, how could he venture so to offend 
that apostle, whom it so highly concerned him 
to agree with and please ? Accomplices in a 
fraud are obliged to show greater regard to each 
otlier; such freedom belongs to truth alone. 

But let us consider what difficulties he 

HAD TO ENCOUNTER AMONG THE GeNTILES thcm- 

sclvQS, in the enterprise he undertook of going 
to them, making himself their apostle, and con- 
verting them to the religion of Christ. As this 
undertaking was the distinguishing part of his 
apostolical functions, that which, in the lan- 
guage of his epistles, he was particularly called 
to, or which, to speak like an unbeliever, he 
chose and assigned to himself, it deserves a 
particular consideration. But I shall only 
touch the principal points of it as concisely as 
I can, because you have in a great measure ex- 
hausted the subject in your late excellent book 
on the resurrection, where vou discourse with 
such strength of reason and eloquence upon the 



48 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

difficulties tliat opposed the propagation of tlio 
Christian religion in all parts of the world. 

Now, in this enterprise, St. Paul was to con- 
tend, 1. With the policy and power of the mag- 
istrate. 2. With the interest, credit, and craft 
of the priests. 3. With the prejudice and pas- 
sions of the people. 4. With the wisdom and 
pride of the philosophers. 

That in all heathen countries the established 
religion was interwoven with their civil con- 
stitution, and supported hy the magistrate as an 
essential part of the government, whoever has 
any acquaintance with antiquity cannot but 
know. They tolerated, indeed, many different 
worships, though not with so entire a latitude 
as some people suppose, as they suffered men 
to discourse very freely concerning religion, 
provided they would submit to an exterior 
conformity with established rites ; nay, accord- 
ing to the genius of paganism, which allowed 
an intercommunity of worship, they in most 
places admitted, without any great difficulty, 
new gods and new rites ; but tliey nowhere 
endured any attempt to overturn the establish- 
ed religion, or any direct opposition made to it, 
esteeming that an unpardonable offence, not to 



NOT AN IMPOSTOR. 49 

the gods alone, but to the state. This was so 
universal a notion, and so constant a maxim of 
heathen policy, that when the Christian relig- 
ion set itself up in opposition to all other re- 
ligions, admitted no intercommunity with them, 
but declared that the gods of the Gentiles were 
7iot to be worshipped, nor any society suflfered be- 
tween them and tlie only trice God — when this 
new doctrine began to be propagated, and made 
such a progress as to fall under the notice of 
the magistrate, the civil power was every- 
where armed with all its terrors against it. 
When, therefore, St. Paul undertook the con- 
version of the Gentiles, he knew very well that 
the most severe persecutions must be the con- 
sequence of any success in his design. 

2. This danger was rendered more certain 
by the opposition he was to expect from the 
interest, credit, and craft oftJie priests. How gain- 
ful a trade they, with all their inferior depend- 
ents, made of those superstitions which he 
proposed to destroy ; how much credit they 
had with the people, as well as the state, by 
the means of them ; and how much craft they 
employed in carrying on their impostures, all 
history shows. St. Paul could not doubt that 

C V. Paul. 4 



50 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

all these men -would exert their utmost abilities 
to stop the spreading of the doctrines he preach- 
ed — doctrines which struck at the root of their 
power and gain, and were much more terrible 
to them than those of the most atheistical sect 
of philosophers; because the latter contented 
themselves with denying their principles, but 
at the same time declared for supporting their 
practices, as useful cheats, or at least acquiesced 
in them as establishments authorized by the 
sanction of law. Whatever, therefore, their 
cunning could do to support their own worship, 
whatever aid they could draw from the magis- 
trate, whatever zeal they could raise in the 
people, St. Paul was to contend with, unsup- 
ported by any human assistance. And, 

3. This he was to do in direct opposition to 
all the prejudices and passions of the people. 

Now, had he confined his preaching to Judca 
alone, this difficulty would not have occurred 
in near so great a degree. The people were 
there so moved with the miracles the apostles 
had wrought, as well as by the memory of those 
done by Jesus, that, in spite of their rulers, they 
began to be favorably disposed towards them ; 
and we even find that the high-priest, and the 



NOT AN IMPOSTOR. 51 

council, liacl more than once been withheld 
from treating the apostles with so much sever- 
ity as they desired to do, for fear of the people. 
Acts"' 4: 21, and 5:26. But in the people 
among the Gentiles no such dispositions could 
be expected : their prejudices were violent, not 
only in favor of their own superstitions, but 
in a particular manner against any doctrines 
taught by a Jew. As from their aversion to 
all idolatry, and irreconcilable separation from 
all other religions, the Jews were accused of 
hating mankind, so were they hated by all 
other nations ; nor were they hated alone, but 
despised. To what a degree that contempt was 
carried, appears as well by the mention made 
of them in heathen authors, as by the complaints 
Josephus makes of the unreasonableness and 
injustice of it in his apology. What authority 
then could St. Paul flatter himself that his 
preaching would carry along with it, among 
people to whom he was at once both the object 
of national hatred, and national scorn? But 
besides this popular prejudice against a Jew, 
the doctrines he taught were such as shocked 
all their most ingrafted religious opinions. 
They agreed to no principles of which he could 



53 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

avail himself to procure their assent to the 
other parts of the gospel he preached. To con- 
vert the Jews to Christ Jesus, he was able to 
argue from their own scriptures, upon the au- 
thority of books which they owned to contain 
divine revelations, and from which he could 
clearly convince them that Jesus was tlie very 
Christ. Acts 9 : 22. But all these ideas were 
new to the Gentiles : they expected no Christ, 
they allowed no such scriptures, they were to 
be taught the Old Testament as well as the 
New. How was this to be done by a man not 
even authorized by his own nation ; opposed 
by those who were greatest, and thought wisest, 
among them ; either quite single, or only at- 
tended by one or two more under the same 
disadvantages, and even of less consideration 
than he? 

The light of nature, indeed, without express 
revelations, might have conducted the Gentiles 
to the knowledge of one God, the Creator of all 
things ; and to that light St. Paul might appeal, 
as we find that he did. Acts 14:17; 17:27, 
28. But clear as it was, they had almost put it 
out by their superstitions, " having changed the 
glory of the incorruptible God into an image 



IfOT AN IMPOSTOR. 53 

made like to corruptible man, and to birds and 
four-footed beasts, and creeping things, and serv- 
inor the creature more than the Creator." Rom. 
1 : 23, 25. And to this idolatry they were strong- 
ly attached, not by their prejudices alone, but by 
their passions, which were flattered and gratified 
in it, as they believed that their deities would 
be rendered propitious, nijt by yirtue and holi- 
ness, but by offerings and incense and outward 
rites — writes which dazzled their senses by mag- 
nificent shows, and allured them by pleasures 
often of a very impure and immoral nature. 
Instead of all this, the gospel proposed to 
tlicra no other terms of acceptance with God 
but a worship of him in spirit and in truths sin- 
cere repentance, and perfect submission to the 
divine laws, the strictest purity of life and 
manners, and the renouncing of all those lusts 
in which they had formerly walked. How un- 
palatable a doctrine was this to men so given 
up to the power of those lusts, as the whole 
heathen world was at that time ! If their phi- 
losophers could be brought to approve it, there 
could be no hope that the people would relish 
it, or exchange the ease and indulgence which 
those religions in which they were bred allow- 



54 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

cd to their appetites, for one so liarsli and se- 
vere. But might not St. Paul, in order to gain 
them, rehix that severity ? He might liave done 
so, no doubt, and probably woiild, if he had 
been an impostor ; but it appears by all his 
epistles that he preached it as purely, and en- 
joined it as strongly, as Jesus himself. 

But supposing they might be persuaded to 
quit their habitual sensuality for the purity of 
the gospel, and to forsake their idolatries, whicli 
St. Panl reckons among the works of the flesh, 
Gal. 5 : 19, 20, for spiritual worship of the one 
invisible God; how were they disposed to receive 
the doctrine of the salvation of man by the 
cross of Jesus Christ? Could they, who were 
bred in notions so contrary to that " great mys- 
tery," to tlmt "hidden wisdom of God, which 
none of the princes of this world knew," 1 Cor. 
2 : 7, 8, incline to receive it against the instruc- 
tions of all their teachers, and the exauiple of all 
their superiors? Could tlicy, whose gods had 
almost all been powerful kings, and mighty con- 
querors — they, who at that very time paid divine 
honors to the euipcrors of Rome, whose only ti- 
tle to deification was the imperial power — could 
they, I say, reconcile their ideas to a crucified 



NOT AN IMPOSTOR. 55 

Son of God^ to a Redeemer of mankind em the cross? 
Would tliey look there for Him " who is the im- 
age of the invisible God, the first-born of every 
creature; by whom and for whom were all 
things created, that are in heaven, and that are 
in earth, whether they be thrones, or dominions, 
or principalities, or powers?" Col. 1 : 15, 16. 
Xo ; most surely the " natural man," to speak in 
the words of St Paul, " received not these things, 
for they are foolishness to him ; neither could 
he know them, because they are spiritually 
discerned." 1 Cor. 2 : 14, I may therefore 
conclude, that in the enterprise of converting 
the- Gentiles, St. Paul was to contend not only 
with the policy and power of the magistrates, 
and with the interest, credit, and craft of the 
priests, but also with the prejudices and pas- 
sions of the people. 

4. I am next to show that he was to expect 
no less opposition from the ivisdom, and pride of 
the philosophers. And though some may imagine, 
that men who pretended to be raised and re- 
fined above vulgar prejudices and vulgar pas- 
sions, would have been helpful to him in his 
design, it will be found upon examination, that 
in stead o assisting or befriending the gospel, 



56 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

they "were its worst and , most irreconcilable 
enemies. For they had prejudices of their own 
still more repugnant to the doctrines of Christ 
than those of the vulgar, more deeply rooted, 
and more obstinately fixed in their minds. The 
wisdom upon which they yalued themselves 
chiefly consisted in vain metaphysical specula- 
tions, in logical subtleties, in endless disputes, 
in high-flown conceits of the perfection and self- 
sufficiency of human wisdom, in dogmatical pos- 
itiveness about doubtful opinions, or sceptical 
doubts about the most clear and certain truths. 
It must appear, at first sight, that nothing could 
be more contradictory to the first principles of 
the Christian religion, than those of the atheis- 
tical, or sceptical sects which at that time pre- 
vailed very much both among the Greeks and 
the Romans ; nor shall we find that the theisti- 
cal were much less at enmity with it, when we 
consider the doctrines they held upon the na- 
ture of God and the soul. 

But I will not enlarge on a subject which the 
most learned Mr. Warburton handled so well. 
Div. Leg. 1:3. If it were necessary to enter 
particularly into this argument, I could easily 
prove that there was not one of all the difiTcrent 



NOT AN IMPOSTOR. 57 

philosopliical sects then upon earth, not even 
the Platonics themselves, who are thought to 
favor it most, that did not maintain some opin- 
ions fundamentally contrary to those of the 
gospel. And in this they all agreed, to ex- 
plode as most unphilosophical, and contrary to 
every notion that any among them maintained, 
that great article of the Christian religion up- 
on which the foundations of it are laid, and 
without which St. Paul declares to his prose- 
lytes, '-their faith would be vain," 1 Cor. 15 : 17, 
20 : the resurrection of the dead with their bod- 
ies, of which resurrection Christ was the first- 
born. Col. 1:18. Besides the contrariety of 
their tenets to those of the gospel, the pride 
that was common to all the philosophers was 
of itself an almost invincible obstacle against 
the admission of the evangelical doctrines cal- 
culated to humble that pride, and teach them, 
that " professing themselves to be wise, they be- 
came fools." Rom. 1 : 22. This pride was no 
less intractable, no less averse to the instruc- 
tions of Christ, or of his apostles, than that of 
the scribes and Pharisees. St. Paul was there- 
fore to contend, in his enterprise of converting 
the Gentiles, with all the opposition that could 



58 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

be made to it by all the different sects of phi- 
losophers. And how formidable an opposition 
this was, let those consider who are acquainted 
from history with the great credit those sects 
had obtained at that time in the world — a credit 
even superior to that of the priests. Whoever 
pretended to learning or virtue was their dis- 
ciple ; tlie greatest magistrates, generals, kings, 
ranged themselves under their discipline, were 
trained up in their schools, and professed the 
opinions they taught. 

All these sects made it a maxim not to dis- 
turb the popular worship, or established relig- 
ion ; but under those limitations they taught 
very freely whatever they pleased ; and no re- 
ligious opinions were more warmly supported, 
than those they delivered were by their follow- 
ers. The Christian religion at once overturned 
their several systems, taught a morality more 
perfect than theirs, and established it upon 
liigher and much stronger foundations ; morti- 
fied their pride, confounded their learning, dis- 
covered their ignorance, ruined their credit. 
Against such an enemy, what would they not 
do? Would not tliey exert the wliole power of 
their rhetoric, the whole art of their logic, their 



NOT AN IMPOSTOR. 59 

influence over the people, tlieir interest with tho 
great, to discredit a novelty so alarming to them 
all? If St. Paul had had nothing to trust to but 
his own natural faculties, his own understand- 
ing, knowledge, and eloquence, could he have 
hoped to be singly a match for all theirs united 
against him? Could a teacher unheard of be- 
fore, from an obscure and unlearned part of the 
world, have withstood the authority of Plato, 
Aristotle, Epicurus, Zeno, Arcesilaus, Carnea- 
des, and all the great names which held the 
first rank of human wisdom? He might as well 
have attempted alone, or with the help of Bar- 
nabas and Silas and Timotheus and Titus, to 
have erected a monarchy upon the ruins of all 
the several states then in the world, as to have 
erected Christianity upon the destruction of all 
the several sects of philosophy which reigned 
in the minds of the Gentiles among whom he 
preached, particularly the Greeks and the Po- 
mans. 

Having thus proved, as I think, that in tho 
work of converting the Gentiles, St. Paul could 
have no assistance ; but was sure, on the con- 
trary, of the utmost repugnance and opposition 
to it imaginable from the magistrates, from the 



GO CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

priests, from the people, and from the philoso- 
phers ; it necessarily follows, that to succeed 
in that work, he must have called in some ex- 
traordinary aid, some stronger power than that 
of reason and argument. Accordingly we find 
lie tells the Corinthians, that " his speech and 
preaching was not with enticing words of man's 
vrisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit, and 
of power." 1 Cor. 2 : 4. And to the Thessalo- 
nians he says, " Our gospel came not unto you 
in word only, but also in power, and in the 
Holy Ghost." 1 Thess. 1 : 5. It was to the effi- 
cacy of the divine power that he ascribed all his 
success in those countries, and wherever else he 
planted the gospel of Christ. If that power 
really went with him, it would enable him to 
overcome all those difficulties that obstructed 
his enterprise ; but then he was not an impostor. 

Our inquiry, therefore, must be, whether, suj> 
posing him to have been an impostor, he could, 
by PRETENDING TO MIRACLES, havo ovcrcomc all 
those difficulties, and carried on his work with 
success? Now, to give miracles, falsely pre- 
tended to, any reputation, two circumstances 
are principally necessary : an apt disposition in 



NOT AN IMPOSTOR. 61 

tliose whom tlicy are designed to impose upon, 
and a powerful confederacy to carry on and abet 
the cheat. Both these circumstances, or at 
least one of them, have always accompanied 
all the false miracles, ancient and modern, 
whicli have obtained any credit among man- 
kind. To both these was owing the general 
faith of the heathen world in oracles, auspices, 
auguries, and other impostures, by which the 
priests, combined with the magistrates, sup- 
ported the national worship and deluded a peo- 
ple prepossessed in their favor, and willing to 
be deceived. Both the same causes likewise 
cooperate in the belief that is given to Popish 
miracles among those of their own church. But 
neither of these assisted St. Paul. What pre- 
possession could there have been in the minds 
of the Gentiles, either in favor of him or the 
doctrines he taught? Or, rather, what prepos- 
sessions could be stronger than those which 
they undoubtedly had against both? If he 
had remained in Judea, it miuht have been sue:- 
gested by unbelievers, that the Jews were a crcd- 
uloiis people, apt to seek after miracles, and to 
afford them an easy belief; and that the fame 
of those said to be done by Jesus himself, and 



62 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

by liis apostles, before Paul declared his con- 
version, had predisposed their minds, and 
warmed their imaginations, to the admission 
of others supposed to be wrought by the same 
power. 

The signal miracle of the apostles speaking 
with tongues on the day of Pentecost, had 
made three thousand converts ; that of healing 
the lame man at the gate of the temple, five 
thousand more. Acts 2 : 41 ; 4:4. Nay, such 
was the faith of the multitude, that they brought 
forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on 
beds and couches, " that at the least the shadow 
of Peter passing by might overshadow some 
of them." Acts 5:15. Here was therefore a 
good foundation laid for Paul to proceed upon 
in pretending to similar miraculous works ; 
thougli the priests and the rulers were hardened 
against them, the people were inclined to give 
credit to them, and there was reason to hope 
for success among them both at Jerusalem and 
in all the reG:ions bclonsrino: to the Jews. But 
no such dispositions Avere to be found in the 
Gentiles. There was among them no matter 
prej)arcd for imposture to work upon, no know- 
ledge of Christ, no thought of his power, or of 



NOT AN IMPOSTOR. 63 

the power of those who came in his name. 
Thus when, at Lystra, St. Paul healed the man 
who was a cripple from his birth, Acts 14, so 
far were the people there from supposing that 
he could be able to do such a thing as an apos- 
tle of Christ, or by any virtue derived from him, 
that they took Paul and Barnabas to be gods of 
their own, come down "in the likeness of men,'' 
and would have sacrificed to them as such. 

Now, I ask, did the citizens of Lystra concur 
in this matter to the deceiving of themselves ? 
"Were their imaginations overheated with any 
conceits of a miraculous power belonging to Paul, 
which could dispose them to think he worked 
such a miracle when he did not ? As the con- 
trary is evident, so in all other places to which 
he carried the gospel, it may be proved to 
demonstration, that he could find no disposition, 
no aptness, no bias to aid his imposture, if the 
miracles by which he everywhere confirmed 
his preaching, had not been true. 

On the other hand, let us examine whether, 
without the advantage of such an assistance, 
there was any confederacy strong enough to 
impose his false miracles upon the Gentiles, 
who were both unprepared and indisposed to 



6i CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

receive them. The contrary is apparent. Ho 
was in no combination with their priests or 
their magistrates ; no sect or party among them 
gave him any help; all eyes were open and 
watchful to detect his impostures ; all hands 
ready to punish him as soon as detected. Had 
he remained in Judea, he would, at least, have 
liad many confederates, all the apostles, all the 
disciples of Christ, at that time pretty numer- 
ous ; but in preaching to the Gentiles, he was 
often alone, rarely with more than two or three 
companions or followers. Was this a confed- 
eracy powerful enough to carry on such a 
cheat, in so many different parts of the world, 
against the united opposition of the magistrates, 
priests, philosophers, people, all combined to 
detect and expose their frauds ? 

Let it be also considered, that those upon 
whom they practised these arts were not a 
gross or ignorant people, apt to mistake any 
uncommon operations of nature, or juggling 
tricks, for miraculous acts. The churches 
planted by St. Paul were in the most enlight- 
ened parts of the world : among the Greeks of 
Asia and Europe, among the Romans, in the 
midst of science, philosophy, freedom of thought; 



NOT AN IMPOSTOR. 65 

and ill an age more inquisitively curious into 
the powers of nature, and less inclined to credit 
religious frauds, than any before it. Nor were 
they only the lowest of the people that he con- 
verted. Sergius Paulus, the proconsul of 
Paphos ; Erastus, chamberlain of Corinth ; 
and Dionysius the Areopagite, were his prose- 
lytes. 

Upon the whole, it appears beyond contra- 
diction, that his pretensions to miracles was 
not assisted by the disposition of those whom he 
designed to convert by those means, nor by any 
powerful confederacy to carry on and abet the 
cheat, without both which concurring circum- 
stances, or one at least, no such pretension was 
ever- supported with any success. 

Both these circumstances concurred even in 
the late famous miracles supposed to be done 
at Abbe Paris^s tomb. They had not indeed 
the support of the government, and for that 
reason appear to deserve more attention than 
other Popish miracles ; but they wei'c supported 
by all the Jansenists, a very powerful and 
numerous party in France, made up partly of 
wise and able men, partly of bigots and enthu- 
siasts. All these confederated together to give 

Ciinv. Paul. 5 



66 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

credit to miracles, said to be worked in behalf 
of their party ; and those who believed them 
were strongly disposed to that belief. And yet, 
with these advantages, how easily were they 
suppressed ! Only by walling up that part of 
the church where the tomb of the saint who 
was supposed to work them, was placed ! Soon 
after this was done, a paper was fixed on the 
wall with this inscription : 

" De par Ic roy defense a Dieu 
De faire miracle en ce lieu :" 

^' By command of the king, God is forbidden to 
work any more works here." The pasquinade 
was a witty one, but the event turned the point 
of it against the party by which it was made ; 
for if God had really worked any miracles 
there, could tliis absurd prohibition have taken 
effect ? Would he have suffered his purpose to 
be defeated by building a wall ? When all tlie 
apostles were shut up in prison to hinder their 
working of miracles, the angel of the Lord 
opened the prison doors, and let them out. 
Acts 5 : 16-26. But the power of Abbe Paris 
could neither throw down the wall that ex- 
cluded his votaries, nor operate through tliat 
impediment. And yet his miracles arc often 



NOT AN IMPOSTOR. 67 

compared with, and opposed by mibelieyers to 
those of Christ and his apostles, which is the 
reason of my having taken this particular notice 
of them here But to go back to the times 
nearer to St. Paul's. 

There is in Lucian an account of a very ex- 
traordinary and successful imposture carried on 
in his days, by one Alexander of Pontus, who 
introduced a new god into that country, whose 
prophet he called himself, and in whose name 
he pretended to miracles, and delivered oracles, 
by which he acquired great wealth and power. 
All the arts by which this cheat was managed 
are laid open by Lucian, and nothing can better 
point out the difference between imposture and 
truth, than to observe the different conduct of 
this man and St. Paul. Alexander made no 
alteration in the religion established in Pontus 
before ; he only grafted his own upon it ; and 
spared no pains to interest in the success of it 
the whole heathen priesthood, not only in Pontus, 
but all over the world, sending great numbers 
of those who came to consult him to other 
oracles, that were at that time in the highest 
vogue ; by which means he engaged them all 
to support the reputation of his, and abet his 



G8 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

imposture. He spoke with the greatest respect 
of all the sects of philosophy, except the Epicu- 
reans, who from their principles he was sure 
would deride and oppose his fraud ; for though 
they presumed not to innovate, and overturn 
established religions, yet they very freely attack- 
ed and exposed all innovations that were intro- 
duced under the name of religion, and had not 
the authority of a legal establishment. To get 
the better of their opposition, as well as that 
of tlie Christians, he called in the aid of perse- 
cution and force, exciting the people against 
them, and answering objections with stones. 

That he might be sure to get money enough, 
he delivered this oracle in the name of his god : 
/ command you to grace with gifts my pi'ophct and 
minister : for I have no regard for riches myself 
hut the greatest for my prophet. And he shared 
the gains that he made, which were immense, 
among an infinite number of associates and 
instruments, whom he employed in carrying on 
and supporting his fraud. When any declared 
themselves to be his enemies, against whom he 
durst not proceed by open force, he endeavored 
to gain them by blandislmicnts ; and liaving 
got them into his power, to destroy them by 



NOT AN IMPOSTOR. 69 

secret ways ; which arts he practised against 
Lucian himself. Others he kept in awe and 
dependence upon him, by detaining in his own 
hands the written questions they had proposed 
to his god upon state affairs ; and as these 
generally came from men of the greatest power 
and rank, his being possessed of them was of 
infinite service to him, and made him master 
of all their credit, and of no little part of 
their wealth. 

He obtained the protection and friendship of 
Rutilianus, a great Roman general, by flattering 
him with promises of a very long life, and ex- 
altation to deity after his death ; and at last 
having quite turned his head, enjoined him by 
an oracle to marry his daughter, whom he pre- 
tended to have had by the moon : which com- 
mand Rutiliauus obeyed, and by his alliance 
secured this impostor from any danger of pun- 
ishment ; the Roman governor of Bithynia and 
Pontus excusing himself on that account from 
doing justice upon him, when Lucian and 
several others offered themselves to be his 
accusers. 

He never quitted that ignorant and barbarous 
country, which he had made choice of at first 



70 CONYERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

as the fittest place to play his tricks in undis- 
covered ; but residing liimself among those su- 
perstitious and credulous people, extended his 
fame to a great distance by the emissaries which 
he employed all over the world, especially at 
Rome, who did not pretend themselves to work 
any miracles, but only promulgated his, and 
gave him intelligence of all that it was useful 
for him to know. 

These were the methods by which this 
remarkable fraud was conducted, every one of 
which is directly opposite to all those used by 
St. Paul in preaching the gospel ; and yet such 
methods alone could give success to a cheat of 
this kind. I will not mention the many de- 
baucheries and wicked enormities committed 
by this false prophet under the mask of religion, 
which is another characteristic difference be- 
tween him and St. Paul ; nor the ambiguous 
answers, cunning evasions, and juggling arti- 
fices which he made use of, in all which it is 
easy to see the evident marks of an imposture, 
as well as in the objects he plainly appears to 
have had in view. That which I chiefly insist 
upon is, the strong confederacy with which lie 
took care to support his pretension to niiracu- 



NOT AN ENTHUSIAST. 71 

lous powers, and the apt disposition in those he 
imposed upon to concur and assist in deceiving- 
themselves ; advantages entirely wanting to the 
apostle of Christ. 

From all this it may bo concluded, that no 
human means employed by St. Paul, in his 
design of converting the Gentiles, were, or 
could be adequate to the great* difficulties he 
had to contend with, or to the success that we 
know attended his work ; and we can in reason 
ascribe that success to no other cause but the 
power of God going along with, and aiding his 
ministry, because no other was equal to the 
effect. 

II. PAUL NOT AN ENTHUSIAST. 

Having then shown that St. Paul had no 
rational motives to become an apostle of 
Christ, without being himself convinced of the 
truth of that gospel he preached ; and that, 
bad he engaged in such an imposture without 
any rational motives, he would have had no 
possible means to carry it on with any success ; 
having also brought reasons of a very strong 
nature to make it appear that the success he 
undoubtedly had in preaching the gospel, was 
an effect of the divine power attending his 



72 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

ministry, I miglit rest all my proof of tlio 
Christian religion being a divine revelation, 
upon the arguments drawn from this head alone. 
But to consider this subject in all possible lights, 
I shall pursue the proposition which I set out 
with, througli each of its several parts ; and 
having proved, as I hope, to the conviction of 
any impartial hian, that St. Paul was not au 
impostor, who said what he knew to be false, 
with an intent to deceive, I come next to con- 
sider whether he was an enthusiast y^\\Oj by tho 
force of an overheated imagination, imposed 
upon himself. 

Now, these are the ingredients of which 
enthusiasm is generally composed : great heat of 
temper J melancholy, ignorancey credulity, and vanity 
or self-conceit. That the first of these qualities 
was in St. Paul, may be concluded from that 
fervor of zeal with which ho acted, both as a 
Jew and Christian, in maintaining that which 
he thought to be right ; and hence, I suppose, 
as well as from the impossibility of his having 
been an impostor, some unbelievers have chosen 
to consider him as an enthusiast. But this 
quality alone will not bo sufficient to prove 
him to have been so in the opinion of any rca- 



NOT AN ENTHUSIAST. 73 

sonablc man. The same temper has been 
common to others who undoubtedly were not 
enthusiasts ; to the Gracchi, to Cato, to Brutus, 
to many more among the best and wisest of 
men. Nor does it appear that this disposition 
had such a mastery over the mind of St. Paul 
that he was not able, at all times, to rule and 
control it by the dictates of reason. On the 
contrary, he was so much the master of it, as, 
in matters of an indifferent nature, "to become 
all things to all men," 1 Cor. 9 : 20-22 ; bend- 
ing his notions and manners to theirs, so far as 
his duty to God would permit, with the most 
pliant condescension ; a conduct neither com- 
patible with the stiffness of a bigot, nor the 
violent impulses of fanatical delusions. His 
zeal was eager and warm, but tempered with 
prudence, and even with the civilities and 
decorums of life, as appears by his behavior to 
Agrippa, Eestus, and Felix ; not the blind, 
inconsiderate, indecent zeal of an enthusiast. 

Let us now see if any one of those other 
qualities which I have laid down as disposing 
the mind to enthusiasm, and as being charac- 
teristical of it, belong to St. Paul. First, as 
to melancholy, which, of all dispositions of body 



74 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

or mind, is most prone to enthusiasm ; it neither 
appears by his writings, nor by any thing told 
of him in the xlcts of the Apostles, nor by any 
other evidence, that St. Paul was inclined to it 
more than other men. Though he was full of 
remorse for his former ignorant persecution of 
the church of Christ, we read of no gloomy 
penances, no extravagant mortification, such as 
the Brahmins, the Jaugues, the monks of La 
Trappc, and other melancholy enthusiasts inflict 
on themselves. His holiness only consisted in 
the simplicity of a good life, and the unwearied 
performance of those apostolical duties to which 
he was called. The sufferings he met with on 
that account he cheerfully bore, and even 
rejoiced in them for the love of Jesus Christ; 
but he brought none on himself; we find, on 
the contrary, that he pleaded the privilege of 
a Roman citizen to avoid being whipped. I 
could mention more instances of his having 
used the best methods that prudence could sug- 
gest, to escape danger and shun persecution, 
whenever it could be done without betraying 
the duty of his office or the honor of God. 

A remarkable instance of this appears in his 
conduct among the Athenians. There was at 



NOT AN ENTHUSIAST. 75 

Athens a law which made it a capital offence 
to introduce or teach any new gods in their 
state. Acts 17, and Josephus cont. Apion, 1. 
2 : c. 7. Therefore, when Paul was preaching 
Jesus and tJie resurrection to the Athenians, some 
of them carried him before the court of Areop- 
agus — the ordinary judges of criminal matters, 
and in a particular manner intrusted with the 
care of religion — as having broken this law, 
and being" a setter forth of strange gods." Now, 
in this case, an impostor would have retracted 
liis doctrine to save his life, and an entkusiast 
would have lost his life without trying to save 
it by innocent means. St. Paul did neither 
the one nor the other ; he availed himself of an 
altar which he had found in the city, inscribed 
to the unknown God, and pleaded that lie did 
not propose to them the worship of any new 
God, but only explain to them one whom their 
government had already received : " Whom 
therefore yo ignorantly worship, him declare I 
unto you." By this he avoided the law, and 
escaped being condemned by the Areopagus 
without departing in the least from the truth 
of the gospel, or violating the honor of God. 
An admirable proof, in my opinion, of the good 



76 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

sense with which he acted, and one that shows 
there was no mixture of fanaticism in his 
religion. 

Compare with this the conduct of Francis 
of Assisi, of Ignatius Loyola, and other enthu- 
siasts sainted by Rome, it will be found the 
reverse of St. Paul's. " He wished indeed to 
die and be with Christ ;" but such a wish is no 
proof of melancholy, or of enthusiasm ; it only 
proves his conviction of the divine truths he 
preached, and of the happiness laid up for him 
in those blessed abodes which had been shown 
to him even in this life. Upon the whole, 
neither in his actions, nor in the instructions 
he gave to those under his charge, is there any 
tincture of melancholy ; which yet is so essen- 
tial a characteristic of enthusiasm, that I have 
scarce ever heard of any enthusiast, ancient or 
modern, in whom some very evident marks of 
it did not appear. 

As to ignorance, which is another ground of 
enthusiasm, St. Paul was so far from it, that ho 
appears to have been master not of the Jewish 
learning alone, but of the Greek. And this is 
one reason why he is less liable to the imputa- 
tion of having been an enthusiast than the 



NOT AN ENTHUSIAST. 77 

otlicr apostles, though none of them were such 
any moi:^ than he, as may by other arguments 
be invincibly proved. 

I have mentioned credulity as another char- 
acteristic and cause of enthusiasm, which, that 
it was not in St. Paul, the history of his life 
undeniably shows. For on the contrary, he 
seems to have been slow and hard of belief in 
the extremest degree, having paid no regard to 
all the miracles done by our Saviour, the fame 
of which he could not be a stranger to, as he 
lived in Jerusalem, nor to that signal one done 
after his resurrection, and in his name, by 
Peter and John, upon the lame man at the 
beautiful gate of the temple ; nor to the evi- 
dence given in consequence of it by Peter, in 
presence of the high-priest, the rulers, elders, 
and scribes, that " Christ was raised from the 
dead." Acts 3. He must also have known 
that when all the apostles had been shut up 
in the common prison, and the high^priest, the 
council, and all the senate of the cliildren of 
Israel, had sent their officers to bring them 
before them, the officers came and found them 
not in prison, but returned and made this 
report : " The prison truly found we shut with 



78 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

all safety, and tlie keepers standing without 
before the doors; but when we had op.ened,we 
found no man within.'' And that tlie council 
was immediately told, that " the men they had 
put into prison were standing in the temple, 
and teaching the people." And that being 
brought from thence before the council, they 
had spoken these memorable words, " We ought 
to obey God rather than men. The God of 
our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and 
hanG:ed on a tree. Him hath God exalted with 
his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for 
to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness 
of sins. And we are his witnesses of these 
things ; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom 
God hath given to them that obey him." Acts 
5 : 18-32. All this he resisted, and was con- 
senting to the murder of Stephen, wlio preaclied 
the same thing, and evinced it by miracles. 
Acts 8:1. So that his mind, far from being 
disposed to a credulous faith, or a too easy 
reception of any miracle worked in proof of 
the Christian religion, appears to have been 
barred against it by the most obstinate preju- 
dices, as much as any man's could possibly be ; 
and from hence avc may fairly conclude, that 



NOT AN ENTHUSIAST. 79 

nothing less than the irresistible evidence of 
his own senses, clear from all possibility of 
doubt, could have overcome his unbelief. 

Vanity or self-conceit is another circumstance 
that, for the most part, prevails in the charac- 
ter of an enthusiast. It leads men of a warm 
temper, and religious turn, to think themselves 
worthy of tlie special regard and extraordinary 
favors of God ; and the breath of that inspira- 
tion to which they pretend is often no more 
than the wind of this vanity, which puffs them 
up to such extravagant imaginations. This 
strongly appears in the writings and lives of 
some enthusiastical heretics ; in the mystics, 
both ancient and modern ; in many founders 
of orders and saints, both male and female, 
among the Papists, in several Protestant sec- 
taries of the last age, and even in some at 
the present time.* All the divine communica- 
tions, illuminations, and ecstacies to which they 
have pretended, evidently sprung from much 

* Sec the account of Montaniis and his followei-s, the 
writings of the counterfeit Dionysius the Areopagite, 
Santa Theresa, St. Catherine of Sienna, IMadame Bourignon, 
the lives of St. Francis of Assisi, and Ignatius Loyola ; 
see also an account of the lives of George Fox, and of 
Rice Evans. 



80 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

sclf-conccit, working together with the vapors 
of melancholy upon a warm imagination. And 
this is one reason, besides the contagious nature 
of melancholy, or fear, that makes enthusiasm 
so very catching among weak minds. Such 
are most strongly disposed to vanity ; and when 
they see others pretend to extraordinary gifts, 
are apt to flatter themselves that they may 
partake of them as well as those whose merit 
they think no more than their own. Vanity, 
therefore, may justly be deemed a principal 
source of enthusiasm. But that St. Paul was 
as free from it as any man, I think may be 
gathered from all that we see in his writings, 
or know of his life. Throughout his epistles 
there is not one word that savors of vanity ; 
nor is any action recorded of him in which the 
least mark of it appears. 

In his epistle to the Ephesians, he calls him- 
self" less than the least of all saints.'' Eph. 
3 : 8. And to tlie Corinthians he says, he is 
" the least of the apostles, and not meet to be 
called an apostle, because he had persecuted 
the church of God." 1 Cor. 15:0. In his 
epistle to Timotliy he says, " This is a faithful 
saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that 



NOT AN ENTHUSIAST. 81 

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sin- 
ners ; of ivhom I am chief, Howbeit for this 
cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus 
Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for 
a pattern to them which should hereafter 
believe on him to life everlasting." 1 Tim. 
1:15,16. 

It is true, indeed, that in another epistle he 
tells the Corinthians that he "was not a whit 
behind the very chiefest of the apostles." 2 
Cor. 11:5. But the occasion which drew from 
him these words must be considered. A false 
teacher by faction and calumny had brought his 
apostleship to be in question among the Corin- 
thians. Against such an attack, not to have 
asserted his apostolical dignity, would have 
been a betraying of the ofi&ce and duty com- 
mitted to him by God. He was therefore con- 
strained to do himself justice, and not let down, 
that character, upon the authority of which 
the whole success and efficacy of his ministry 
among them depended. But how did he do 
it ? Not with that wantonness which a vain 
man indulges when he can get any opportunity 
of commending himself : not with a pompous 
detail of all the amazing miracles which he had 

Conv. PauL O 



82 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

performed in different parts of the world, 
though he had so fair an occasion of doing it ; 
but with a modest and simple exposition of his 
abundant labors and suffering in preaching the 
gospel, and barely reminding them, that " the 
signs of an apostle had been wrought among 
them in all patience, in signs, and wonders, 
and mighty deeds." 2 Cor. 12 : 12. Could he 
say less than this ? Is not such boasting humil- 
ity itself ? And yet for this he makes many 
apologies, expressing the greatest uneasiness in 
being obliged to speak thus of himself, even in 
his own vindication. 2 Cor. 11 : 1-16 ; 19-30. 
"When, in the same epistle, and for the same 
purpose, he mentions the vision he had of 
heaven, how modestly does he do it. Not in 
his own name, but in the third person : " I knew 
a man in Christ, etc., caught up into the third 
heaven." 2 Cor. 12:2. And immediately after 
he adds, " But now I forbear, lest any man 
should think of me above that which he seeth 
me to be, or that he heareth of me." 2 Cor. 
12 : 6. How contrary is this to a spirit of 
vanity ; how different from the practice of 
enthusiastic pretenders to raptures and visions, 
who never think they can dwell long enough 



NOT AN ENTHUSIAST. 83 

upon those subjects, but fill whole volumes with 
their accounts of them. Yet St. Paul is not 
satisfied with this forbearance; he adds the 
confession of some infirmity, which he tells the 
Corinthians was given to him as an alloy, that he 
" mio'ht not be above measure exalted through 
the abundance of his revelations." 2 Cor. 12 : 7 
I would also observe, that he says this rapture, 
or vision of paradise, happened to him above 
fourteen years before. Now, had it been the 
effect of a mere enthusiastical fancy, can it be 
supposed that in so long a period of time he 
would not have had many more raptures of the 
same kind ? would not his imagination have 
been perpetually carrying him to heaven, as we 
find St. Theresa, St. Bridget, and St. Catharine 
were carried by theirs? And if vanity had 
been predominant in him, would he have 
remained fourteen years in absolute silence 
upon so great a mark of the divine favor ? No ; 
we should certainly have seen his epistles filled 
with nothing else but long accounts of these 
visions, conferences with angels, with Christ, 
with God Almighty, mystical unions with God, 
and all that we read in the works of those 
sainted enthusiasts whom I have mentioned 



84 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

before. But lie only mentions this vision in 
answer to the false teacher who had disputed 
his apostolical power, and comprehends it all 
in three sentences, with many excuses for being 
compelled to make any mention of it at all. 
2 Cor. 12 : 1-11. Nor does he take any merit 
to himself, even from the success of those apos- 
tolical labors wliich he principally boasts of in 
his epistle. For in a former one to the same 
church he writes thus : " Who then is Paul, and 
who is Apollos, but ministers by whom yc 
believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? 
I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave 
the increase. So then, neither is he that 
planteth any things neither he that watereth, but 
God that giveth the increase." And in another 
place of the same epistle he says, '' Bj the grace 
of God I am what I am : and his grace which 
was bestowed upon me was not in vain ; but I 
labored more abundantly than they all : yd 
not /, hut the grace of God which was with ??w?." 
1 Cor. 15 : 10. 

I think it needless to give more instances of 
the modesty of St. Paul. Certain I am not 
one can be given that bears any color of vanity, 
or that vanity in particular which so strongly 



NOT AN ENTHUSIAST. 85 

appears in all enthusiasts, of setting tlieir im- 
aginary gifts above those virtues which make 
the essence of true religion, and the real excel- 
lency of a good man, or in the Scripture phrase, 
of a saint. In his first epistle to the Corin- 
tliians he has these words : " Though I speak 
w^ith tlic tongues of men and of angels, and 
liave not charity, I am become as sounding 
brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I 
liave the gift of prophecy, and understand all 
mysteries and all knowledge, and thougli I 
liavo all faith, so that I could remove moun- 
tains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And 
though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, 
and though I give my body to be burned, and 
have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." 
1 Cor. 13 : 2-4. Is this the language of enthu- 
siasm? Did ever enthusiast prefer that univer- 
sal benevolence which comprehends all moral 
virtues, and which, as appears by the follow- 
ing verses, is meant by charity here ; did ever 
enthusiast, I say, prefer that benevolence to 
faith and to miracles^ to those religious opinions 
which he had embraced, and to those supernatu- 
ral graces and gifts which he imagined he liad 
acquired, nay, even to the merit of martyrdom ? 



86 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

Is it not the genius of enthusiasm to set moral 
virtues infinitel}^ below the merit of faith ; and 
of all moral virtues, to value that least which is 
most particularly enforced by St. Paul, a spirit 
of candor, moderation, and peace? Certainly 
neither the temper, nor the opinions of a man 
subject to fanatical delusions, are to be found 
in this passage ; but it may be justly concluded, 
that he who could esteem the value of charity 
so much above miraculous gifts, could not have 
pretended to any such gifts, if he had them not 
in reality. 

Since, then, it is manifest from the foregoing 
examination, that in St. Paul's disposition and 
character those qualities do not occur which 
seem to be necessary to form an enthusiast, it 
must be reasonable to conclude he was none. 
But allowing, for argument's sake, that all 
those qualities were to be found in him, or 
that the heat of his temper alone could be a 
sufficient foundation to support such a sus- 
picion, I shall endeavor to prove that he 

COULD NOT HAVE IMPOSED ON HIMSELF by any 

power of enthusiasm, either in regard to the 
miracle that caused his conversion, or to the 



NOT AN ENTHUSIAST. 87 

consequential effects of it, or to some other 
circumstances whicli he bears testimony to in 
his epistles. 

The power of imagination in cnthusiastical 
minds is no doubt very strong, but it always 
acts in conformity to the opinions imprinted 
upon it at the time of its working, and can 
no more act against them, than a rapid river 
can carry a boat against the current of its own 
stream. Now, nothing can be more certain 
than that, when Saul set out for Damascus, 
with an authority from the chief priests "to 
brinor the Christians which were there, bound to 
Jerusalem," Acts 9 : 2, an authority solicited 
by himself, and granted to him at his own 
earnest desire, his mind was strongly |X)ssessed 
with opinions against Christ and his followers. 
To give those opinions a more active force, his 
passions at that time concurred, being inflamed 
in the highest degree by the irritating con- 
sciousness of his past conduct towards them, 
the pride of supporting a part he had volun- 
tarily engaged in, and the credit he found it 
procured him among the chief priests and 
rulers, whose commission he bore. 

If in such a state and temper of mind, an 



88 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

cntliusiastical man had imagined he saw a 
vision from heaven denouncing the anger of- 
God against the Christians, and commanding 
liim to persecute them without any mercy, it 
might be accounted for by the natural power 
of enthusiasm. But that, in the very instant 
of his being engaged in the liercest and hottest 
persecution against them, no circumstance hav- 
ing happened to change his opinions, or alter 
the bent of his disposition, he should at once 
imagine himself called by a heavenly vision to 
be the apostle of Christ, whom but a momxCnt 
before he deemed an impostor and a blasphemer, 
that had been justly put to death on the cross, 
is in itself wholly incredible, and so far from 
being a probable effect of enthusiasm, that just 
the contrary effect must have been naturally 
produced by that cause. The warmth of his 
temper carried him violently another way ; 
and whatever delusions his imagination could 
raise to impose on his reason, must have been 
raised at that time agreeable to the notions 
imprinted upon it, and by which it was heated 
to a degree of enthusiasm not in direct con- 
tradiction to all those notions, while they re- 
mained in their full force. 



NOT AN ENTHUSIAST. 89 

This is SO clear a proposition, that I might 
rest the whole argument entirely upon it ; but 
still further to show that this vision could not 
be a phantom of St. Paul's own creating, I beg 
leave to observe, that he was not alone when 
he saw it ; there were many others in company, 
whose minds were no better disposed than his 
to the Christian faith. Could it be possible, 
that the imaginations of all these men should 
at the same time be so strangely affected as to 
make them believe that they saw a great light 
shining about them, above the brightness of tJie sun 
at noonday, and heard the sound of a voice from 
heaven, though not the words which it spoke. Acts 
9 : 3 ; 22 : 9, when in reality they neither saw 
nor heard any such thing? Could they be so 
infatuated with this conceit of their fancy as to 
fall down together with Saul, and be speechless 
through fear, Acts 26 : 14 ; 9:7, when nothing 
had happened extraordinary either to them or 
to him ? Especially, considering that this ajv 
parition did not happen in the night, when the 
senses are more easily imposed upon, but at 
mid-day. If a sudden frenzy had seized upon 
Saul, from any distemper of body or mind, can 
we suppose his whole company, men of different 



90 CONVEUSION OF ST. PAUL. 

constitutions and understandings, to have been 
at once affected in the same manner with him, 
so that not the distemper alone, but the effects of 
it should exactly agree ? If all had gone mad 
together, would not the frenzy of some have ta- 
ken a different turn, and presented to them dif- 
ferent objects ? This supposition is so contrary 
to nature and all possibility, that unbelief must 
find some other solution, or give up the point. 
I shall suppose then, in order to try to ac- 
count for this vision without a miracle, that as 
Saul and his company were journeying along 
in their way to Damascus, an extraordinary 
meteor did really happen, which cast a great 
light, as some meteors will do, at which they, 
being affrighted, fell to the ground in the man- 
ner related. This might be possible ; and fear, 
grounded on ignorance of such phenomena, 
might make them imagine it to be a vision of 
God. Nay, even the voice or sound they heard 
in tlie air, might be an explosion attending 
this meteor ; or at least there are those who 
vrould rather recur to such a supposition as 
this, however incredible, than acknowledge tlie 
miracle. But how will this account for tlio 
distinct words heard by St. Paul, to which ho 



NOT AN ENTHUSIAST. 91 

made answer? How will it account for what 
followed upon it when he came to Damascus, 
agreeably to the sense of those words which 
he heard? How came Ananias to go to him 
there, and say he was " chosen by God to know 
his will, and see that Just One, and hear the 
voice of his mouth ?'' Acts 22 : 14 ; 26 : 16. 
Or why did he propose to him to he baptized ? 
What connection was there between the meteor 
which Saul had seen, and these words of Ana- 
nias ? Will it be said that Ananias was skilful 
enouQ:h to take advantao^e of the fright he was 
in at that appearance, in order to make him a 
Christian? But could Ananias inspire him with 
the vision in which he saw him before he came ? 
If that vision was the effect of imagination, how 
was it verified so exactly in fact ? Acts 9. But 
allowing that he dreamt by chance of Ananias' 
coming, and that Ananias came by chance too ; 
or, if you please, that having heard of his dream, 
he came to take advantage of that as well as of 
the meteor which Saul had seen ; will this get 
over the difficulty ? No, there was more to be 
done. Saul was struck blind, and had been so 
for three days. Now, had this blindness been 
natural from the effects of a meteor or lightning 



92 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

upon him, it would not have been possible for 
Ananias to heal it, as we find that he did, mere- 
ly by putting his hands on him and speaking a 
few words. Acts 9 : 17, 18 ; 22 : 13. This un- 
doubtedly surpassed tlie power of nature ; and 
if this was a miracle, it proves the other to 
have been a miracle too, and a miracle done by 
the same Jesus Christ. For Ananias, when he 
healed Saul, spoke to him thus : " Brother Saul, 
tlie Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee 
in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that 
thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled 
with the Holy Ghost." Acts 9 : 17. And that 
he saw Christ both now and after this time, 
appears not only by what he relates. Acts 
22 : 17, 18, but by other passages in his epistles. 
1 Cor. 9:1; 15:8. From him, as he asserts 
in many places of his epistles, he learned the 
gospel by immediate revelation, and by him 
he was sent to the Gentiles. Acts 22 : 10, 21. 
Among those Gentiles, '' from Jerusalem, and 
round about to Illyricum, he preached the gos- 
pel of Clirist, with miglity signs and wonders, 
wrought by the Spirit of God," to make them 
obedient to his preaching, as he himself testifies 
in his epistle to the Komaus, Rom. 15 : 19 ; and 




NOT AN ENTHUSIAST. 93 

of Avliicli a particular account is given to us in 
the Acts of the Apostles : signs and wonders, 
indeed, above any power of nature to work, or 
of imposture to counterfeit, or of enthusiasm 
to imagine. Now, does not such a series of mi- 
raculous acts, all consequential and dependent 
upon the first revelation, put the truth of that 
revelation beyond all possibility of doubt or 
deceit? And if he could so have imposed on 
himself as to think that he worked them when 
he did not — which supposition cannot be admit- 
ted, if he was not at that time quite out of his 
senses — how could so distempered an enthusiast 
make such a progress, as we know that he did, 
in convertino^ the ^entile world? If the diffi- 
culties which have been shown to have obstruct- 
ed that work, were such as the ablest impostor 
could not overcome, how much more insur- 
mountable were they to a madman ? 

It is a much harder task for unbelievers to 
account for the success of St. Paul, in preach- 
ing the gospel, upon the supposition of his hav- 
ing been an enthusiast, than of his having been 
an impostor. Neither of these suppositions can 
ever account for it ; but the impossibility is 
more glaringly strong in this case than in the 



94 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

other. I could enter into a particular exam- 
ination of all the miracles recorded in the Acts 
to have been done by St. Paul, and show that 
they were not of a nature in which enthusiasm, 
cither in him, or the persons he worked them 
upon, or the spectators, could have any part. 
I will mention only a few. When he told Ely- 
mas the sorcerer, at Paphos, before the Roman 
deputy, that " the hand of God was upon him, 
and he should be blind, not seeing the sun for 
a season ; and immediately there fell on him a 
mist and a darkness, and he went about seek- 
ing some to lead him by the hand," Acts 13; had 
enthusiasm in the doer or sufferer any share in 
this act? If Paul, as an enthusiast, had thrown 
out this menace, and the effect had not followed, 
instead of converting the deputy, as we are 
told that he did, he would have drawn on him- 
self his rage and contempt. But the effect upon 
Elymas could not be caused by enthusiasm in 
Paul, much less can it be imputed to an entlm- 
siastic belief in that person himself, of his 
being struck blind when he was not, by these 
words of a man whose preaching he strenuously 
and bitterly opposed. Nor can we ascribe the 
conversion of Scrgius, which happened upon it, 



NOT AN ENTHUSIAST. 95 

to any enthusiasm. A Roman proconsul was 
not very likely to be an enthusiast ; but had 
he been one, he must have been bigoted to his 
own gods, and so much the less inclined to 
believe any miraculous power in St. Paul. 
When, at Troas, a young man named Eutychus, 
fell down from a high window, while Paul was 
preaching, and was taken up dead, Acts 20 : 9, 
could any enthusiasm, either in Paul or the con- 
gregation there present, make them believe, 
that by that apostle's falling upon him, and 
embracing him, he was restored to life ? Or 
could he who was so restored contribute any 
thing to himself, by any power of his own 
imagination? When, in the isle of Melita, 
where St. Paul was shipwrecked, there came a 
viper and fastened on his hand, which he shook 
off, and felt no harm. Acts 28, was that an 
effect of enthusiasm? An enthusiast might 
perhaps have been mad enough to hope for 
safety against the bite of a viper without any 
remedy being applied to it ; but would that 
hope have prevented his death ? Or were the 
barbarous islanders, to whom this apostle was 
an absolute stranger, prepared by enthusiasm 
to expect and believe that any miracle would be 



96 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

worked to preserve him? On the contrary, when 
they saw the viper hang to his hand, they said 
among themselves, " No doubt this man is a mur- 
derer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet 
vengeance suffereth not to live." I will add no 
more instances : these are sufficient to show that 
tlie miracles told of St. Paul can no more be 
ascribed to enthusiasm than to imposture. 

But moreover; the power of working mira- 
cles was not confined to St. Paul ; it was also 
communicated to the churches he planted in 
different parts of the world. In many parts 
of his first epistle he tells the Corinthians, 1 
Cor. 12:4, 5, that they had among them many 
miraculous graces and gifts, and gives them 
directions for the more orderly use of them in 
their assemblies. Now, I ask whether all 
that he said uiK)n that head is to be ascribed to 
enthusiasm? If the Corinthians knew that 
they had among them no such miraculous pow- 
ers, they must have regarded the author of -tliat 
epistle as a man out of his senses, instead of 
revering him as an apostle of God. 

If, for instance, a Quaker should, in a meet- 
ing of liis own sect, tell all the persons assem- 
bled there, that to some among them was given 



NOT AN ENTHUSIAST. 97 

the gift of healing by the Spirit of God, to 
others the working of other miracles, to others 
divers kinds of tongues, they would undoubt- 
edly account him a madman, because they pre- 
tend to no such gifts. If indeed they were 
only told by him that they were inspired by the 
Spirit of God in a certain ineffable manner, 
which they alone could understand^ but which 
did not discover itself by any outward distinct 
operations or signs, they might mistake the 
impulse of enthusiasm for the inspiration of 
the Holy ^Ghost ; but they could not believe, 
against the conviction of their oimi minds, that they 
spoke tongues they did -not speak, or healed 
distempers they did not heal, or worked other 
miracles when they worked none. If it bo said 
the Corinthians might pretend to these powers^ 
though the Quakers do not, I ask whether, in 
that pretension, they were impostors, or only 
enthusiasts? If they were impostors, and St. 
Paul was also such, how ridiculous was it for 
him to advise them, in an epistle writ only to 
them, and for their own use, not to value them- 
selves too highly upon those gifts, to pray for 
one rather than another, and prefer charity to 
them all ! Do associates in fraud talk such a 

O.uv Paul. 7 



98 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

language to one another ? But if we suppose 
tiieir pretension to all those gifts was an effect 
of enthusiasm, let us consider how it was pos- 
sible that he and they could be so cheated by 
that enthusiasm, as to imagine they had such 
powers when they had not. 

Suppose that enthusiasm could make a man 
think that he was able, by a word or a touch, 
to give sight to the blind, motion to the lame, 
or life to the dead ; would that conceit of his 
make the blind see, the lame walk, or the dead 
revive? And if it did not, how coi^ld he per- 
sist in such an opinion ; or, upon his persisting, 
escape being shut up for a madman ? But such 
a madness could not infect so many at once, as 
St. Paul supposes at Corinth to have been 
endowed with the gift of healing or any other 
miraculous powers. One of the miracles which 
they pretended to was the speaking of lan- 
guages they never had learned ; and St. Paul 
says he possessed this gift more than they all. 
1 Cor. 14 : 18. If this had been a delusion of 
fancy, if they had spoke only gibberish, or un; 
meaning sounds, it would soon have appeared, 
when they came to make use of it where it was 
necessary, namely, in the converting of those 



NOT AN ENTHUSIAST. 99 

who understood not any language tlicy naturally 
spoke. St. Paul particularly, who travelled so 
far upon that design, and had such occasion to 
use it. must soon have discovered that this 
imaginary gift of- the Spirit was no gift at all, 
but a ridiculous instance of frenzy, which had 
possessed both him and them. But if those he 
spoke to in divers tongues understood wliat he 
said, and were converted • tg Christ by that 
means, how could it be a delusion ? Of all the 
miracles recorded in Scripture, none are more 
clear from any possible imputation of being the 
effect of an enthusiastic imagination than this ; 
for how could any man think that he had it, who 
had it not ; or if he did think so, not be unde- 
ceived when he came to put his gift to the proof? 
If, then, St. Paul and the church of Corinth 
were not deceived, in ascribing to themselves 
this miraculous power, but really had it, there 
is the strongest reason to think that neither 
"were they deceived in the other powers to 
which they pretended, as the same Spirit which 
gave them that equally, could and probably 
would give them the others to serve the same 
holy ends for which that was given. And by con- 
sequence, St. Paul was no enthusiast in what he 



100 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

Tvl'oto upon that head to the Corinthians, nor 
in other similar instances where he ascribes to 
himself, or to the churches he founded, any 
supernatural graces and gifts. Indeed, they 
who would impute to imagination effects such 
as those which St. Paul imputes to the power 
of God attending his mission, must ascribe to 
imagination the same omnipotence which he 
ascribes to God. ^ 

III. PAUL NOT DECEIVED BY THE FRAUD OF 
OTHERS. 

Having thus, I flatter myself, satisfactorily 
shown that St. Paul could not be an enthusiast, 
who, by the force of an overheated imagina- 
tion, imposed on himself, I am next to inquire 
whether he was deceived by the fraud of others, 
and whether all that he said of himself can be 
imputed to the power of that deceit? But I 
need say little to show the absurdity of this 
supposition. It was morally impossible for the 
disciples of Christ to conceive such a thought' 
as that of turning his persecutor into his apos- 
tle, and to do this by a fraud, in the very 
instant of his greatest fury against them and 
their Lord. But could they have been so ex- 
travagant as to conceive such a thought, it was 



CONCLUSION- 101 

pli3^sicall7 impossible for them to execute it in 
the manner we find his conversion to have been 
effected. Could they produce a light in the air, 
which at mid-day was brigliter than the sun ? 
Could they make Saul hear words from out of 
that light, Acts 22:9, which were not heard by 
the rest of the company? Could they make 
him blind for three days after that vision, and 
then make scales fall from off his eyes, and re- 
store him to his sight by a word ? Beyond dis- 
pute, no fraud could do these things ; but much 
less still, could the fraud of others produce 
those miracles, subsequent to his conversion, in 
which he was not passive, but active ; which 
he did himself, and appeals to in his epistles as 
proofs of his divine mission. 

CONCLUSION. - 

I shall then take it for granted, that he was 
not deceived by the. fraud of others, and tliat 
what he said of himself can no more be imputed 
to the power of that deceit, than to wilful im- 
posture, or to enthusiasm ; and then it follows, 
that what he related to have been the cause of 
his conversion, and to have happened in conse-^ 
quence of it, did all really happen ; and there- 
fore the Christian religion is a divine revelation. 



102 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

That tliis conclusion is fairly and undeniably 
drawn from the premises, I think must be 
owned, unless some probable cause can be 
assigned to account for those facts so authenti- 
cally related in the Acts of the Apostles, and 
attested in his epistles by St. Paul himself, 
other than any of those which 1 have consid- 
ered ; and this I am confident cannot be done. 
It must be therefore accounted for by the pow- 
er of God. That God should work miracles 
for the establishment of a most holy religion, 
which, from the insuperable difficulties that 
stood in the way of it, could not have estab- 
lished itself without such assistance, is no way 
repugnant to human reason ; but that Without 
any miracle, such things should have happened 
as no adequate natural causes can be assigned 
for, is what human reason cannot believe. 

To impute them to magic, or the power of 
demons — Avhicli was the resource of the heathens 
and Jews against the notoriety of the miracles 
performed by Christ and his disciples^is by ho 
means agreeable to the notions of those who, in 
this age, disbelieve Christianity. It will tliere- 
fore be needless to show the weakness of that 
supposition ; but tliat supposition itself is no in- 
considerable argument of the truth of the facts. 



CONCLUSION. 103 

Next to the apostles and evangelists, the strong- 
est witnesses of the undeniable force of that 
truth are Celsus and Julian, and other ancient 
opponents of the Christian religion, who were 
obliged to solve what they could not contradict, 
by such an irrational and absurd imagination. 
The dispute was not then between faith and 
reason, but between religion and superstition. 
Superstition ascribed to cabalistical names, or 
magical secrets, such operations as carried 'along 
with them evident marks of the divine power : 
religion ascribed them to God, and reason de- 
clared itself on that side of the question. Upon 
what grounds then can we now overturn that 
decision ? Upon what grounds can we reject the 
unquestionable testimony given by St. Paul, that 
he was called by God to be a disciple and apostle 
of Christ ? It has been shown, that we cannot 
impute it either to enthusiasm or fraud : how can 
we then resist the conviction of such a proof? 
Does the doctrine he preached contain any pre- 
cepts against the law of morality, that natural 
law written by God in the hearts of mankind? 
If it did, I confess that none of the arguments 
I have made use of could prove such a doctrine 
to come from him. But tins is so far from being 
the case, that even those who reject Christianity 



104 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

as a divine revelation, acknowledge tlie morals 
delivered by Christ and by liis apostles to be 
worthy of God. Is it then on account of the 
mysteries in the gospel that the facts are de- 
nied, though supported by evidence which in all 
other cases would be allowed to contain the 
clearest conviction, and cannot in this be reject- 
ed without reducing the mind to a state of ab- 
solute scepticism, and overturning those rules 
by which we judge of all evidence, and of the 
trutli or credibility of all other facts? But 
this is plainly to give up the use of our under- 
standing Avhere we are able to use it most 
properly, in order to apply it to things of which 
it is not a competent judge. The motives and 
reasons upon which divine wisdom may think 
proper to act, as well as the manner in which 
it acts, must often lie out of the reach of our 
understanding ; but the motives and reasons of 
human actions, and the manner in which tlicy 
are performed, are all in the sphere of human 
knowledge, and upon them we may judge, with 
a well-grounded contidence, wlien they are 
fairly proposed to our consideration. 

It is incomparably more probable that a rev- 
elation from God, concerning the ways of liis 
providence, should contain in it matters above 



CONCLUSION. 105 

the capacity of our minds to comprelicnd, than 
that St. Paul, or indeed any of the other apos- 
tles, should have acted, as we know that they 
did, upon any other foundations than certain 
knowledge of Christ's being risen from the 
dead ; or should have succeeded in the work 
they undertook, without the aid of miraculous 
powers. To the former of these propositions I 
may give my assent without any direct opposi- 
tion of reason to my faith ; but in admitting the 
latter, I must believe against all those proba- 
bilities that are the rational grounds of assent. 
Nor do they who reject the Christian religion 
because of the difficulties which occur in its 
mysteries, consider how far that objection will 
go against other systems, both of religion and 
of philosophy, which they themselves profess 
to admit. There are in deism itself, the most 
simple of all religious opinions, several difficul- 
ties, for which human reason can but ill account; 
which may therefore be not improperly styled 
articles of faith. Such is the origin of evil under 
the government of an all-good and all-power- 
ful God ; a question so hard, that the inability 
of solving it in a satisfactory manner to their 
apprehensions, has driven some of the greatest 
philosophers into the monstrous and senseless 



106 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

opinions of manicheism and atheism. Such is tho 
reconciling tlie prescience of God with the free- 
will of man, which, after much thought on the 
subject, Mr. Locke fairly confesses he could not 
do,* though he acknowledged both ; and what 
Mr. Locke could not do, in reasoning upon 
subjects of a metaphysical nature, I am apt to 
think few men, if any, can hope to perform. 

Such is also the creation of the world at any 
supposed time, or the eternal production of it from 
God : it being almost equally hard, according 
to mere philosophical notions, cither to admit 
that the goodness of God could remain unex- 
erted through all eternity before the time of 
such a creation, let it be set back ever so far, 
or to conceive an eternal production : which 
words, so applied, are inconsistent and contra- 
dictory terms — the solution commonly given by 
a comparison to the emanation of light from 
the sun not being adequate to it, or just ; for 
light is a quality inherent in fire, emanating 
from it, whereas matter is not a quality inher- 
ent in or emanating from the divine essence, 
but of a different substance and nature ; and 
if not independent and self-existing^ must have 
been created by a mere act of the divine will ; 
* See his letter tp Mr. Molyncux, p. 509, vol. 3 



CONCLUSION. 107 

and if created, then not eternal, the idea of 
creation implying a time when the substance cre- 
ated did not exist. But if, to get rid of this dif- 
ficulty, we have recourse, as many of the ancient 
philosophers had, to the independent existence of 
matter^ then we must admit two self-existing prin- 
ciples, which is quite inconsistent with genuine 
theism or natural reason. Nay, could that be 
admitted, it would not clear up the doubt, unless 
we suppose not only the eternal existence of 
matter, independent of God, but that it was 
from eternity in the order and beauty we see it 
in now, without any agency of the divine power ; 
otherwise the same difficulty will always occur, 
why it was not before put into . that order and 
state of perfection; or how the goodness of God 
could so long remain in a state of inaction, 
unexerted and unemployed. For were the time 
of such an exertion of it put back ever so far, 
if instead of five or six thousand years, we 
were to suppose millions of millions of ages to 
have passed since the world* was reduced out 
of a chaos, to a harmonious and regular form, 

* By the world I do not mean this earth alone, but the 
whole material universe, with all its inhabitants. Even 
created spirits fall under the same reasoning-; for they 
must also have had a beginning, and before that beginning 
an eternity must have preceded. 



108 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

still a -^'liole eternity must have preceded tliat 
date, during AvRicli the divine attributes did not 
exert themselves in that beneficent work, so 
suitable to them, tliat the conjectures of human 
reason can find no cause for its beim^ delayed. 
But because of these difficulties or any other 
that may occur in the -system of deism, no wise 
man will deny the being of God, or his infinite 
wisdom, goodness, and power, which are proved 
by such evidence as carries the clearest and 
strongest conviction, and cannot be refused 
without involving the mind in far greater diffi- 
culties, even in downright absurdities and im- 
possibilities. The only part, therefore, that can 
be taken, is to account in the best manner that 
oiH-'weak reason is able to do, for such seeming 
objections ; and where that fails, to acknow- 
ledge its weakness, and acquiesce under the cer- 
tainty that our very imperfect knowledge or 
judgment cannot be the measure of the divine 
wisdom, or the universal standard of truth. 
So likewise it is witli respect to the Christian 
religion. Some difficulties occur in that reve- 
lation which human reason can hardly clear ; 
but as the truth of it stands upon evidence so 
strong and convincing that it cannot be denied 
without much greater difficulties than those 



CONCLUSION. 103 

that attend the belief of it, as I have before 
endeavored to prove, T^'e ought not to reject it 
upon such objections, however mortifying they 
may be to our pride. That indeed would have 
all things made plain to us, but God has thought 
proper to proportion our knowledge to our 
wants, not our pride. All that concerns our 
duty is clear ; and as to other points, either of 
natural or revealed religion, if he ha^left some 
obscurities in them, is that any reasonable cause 
of complaint ? Not to rejoice in the benefit of 
what he has graciously allowed us to know, 
from a presumptuous disgust at our incapacity 
of knowing more, is as. absurd ^s it would be 
to refuse to walk because we cannot fly. 

From the arrogant ignorance of metaphysi- 
cal reasonings aiming at matters above our 
knowledge, arose all the speculative impiety, 
and many of the worst superstitions of the old 
heathen world, before the gospel was preached 
to bring men back again to the primitive faith ; 
and from the same source have since flowed 
some of the greatest corruptions of the evan- 
gelical truth, and the most inveterate prejudices 
against it : an effect just as natural as for our 
eyes to grow weak, and even blind, by being 



110 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

strained to look at objects too distant, or not 
made for them to see. 

Arc then our intellectual faculties of no use 
in religion? Yes, undoubtedly, of the most 
necessary use when rightly employed. The 
proper employment of them is to distinguish 
its genuine doctrines from others erroneously 
or corruptly ascribed to it ; to consider the im- 
portance^nd purport of them, with the connec- 
tion they bear to one another ; but, first of all, 
to examine, with the strictest attention, the 
evidence by which religion is proved, internal 
as well as external. If the external evidence 
be convincingly strong, and there is no internal 
proof of its falsehood, but much to support and 
confirm its truth, then surely no difficulties 
ought to prevent our giving a full assent and 
belief to it. It is our duty, indeed, to endeavor 
to find the best solutions we can to them ; but 
where no satisfactory ones are to be found, it is 
no less our duty to acquiesce with humility, and 
bel;eve that to be right which we know is above 
us, and belonging to a wisdom superior to ours. 

Nor let it be said that this will be an ariru- 
ment for admitting all doctrines, however ab- 
surd, tiiat may have been grafted upon i]\Q 



CONCLUSION. Ill 

Christian faitli : those which can phxinly bo 
proved not to belong to it, fall not under the 
reasoning I have laid down ; and certainly 
none do belong to it which contradict cither 
our clear, intuitive knowkdge, or the evident prin- 
ciples and dictates of reason. I speak only of 
difficulties which attend the belief of the gos- 
pel in some of its pure and essential doctrines, 
plainly and evidently delivered there, which 
being made known to us by a revelation sup- 
ported by proofs that our reason ought to admit, 
and not being such things as it can certainly 
know to be false, must be received by it as objects 
of faith, though they are such as it could not 
have discovered by any natural means, and such 
as are difficult to be conceived, or satisfacto- 
rily explained by its limited powers. If tho 
glorious light of the gospel be sometimes over- 
cast with clouds of doubt, so is the light of our 
reason too. But shall we deprive ourselves of 
the advantages of either, because those clouds 
cannot perhaps be entirely removed while we 
rei^ain in this mortal life ? Shall we obsti- 
nately and frowardly shut our eyes against that 
'• day-spring from on high that has visited us,'' 
because we are not, as yet, able to bear the 



112 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

full blaze of liis beams ? Indeed, not even in 
heaven itself, not in the highest state of per- 
fection to which a finite being can ever attain, 
will all the counsels of Providence, all the 
height and the depth of the infinite wisdom of 
God, be ever disclosed or understood. Faith 
even tlicn will be necessary, and there will be 
mysteries which cannot be penetrated by the 
most exalted archangel, and truths which can- 
not be known by him otherwise than from 
revelation, or believed upon any other ground 
of assent than a submissive confidence in the divine 
wisdom. What then, shall man presume that 
his weak and narrow understanding is sufficient 
to guide him into all truth, without any need 
of revelation or faith ? Shall he complain that 
the ways of God are not like his ways, and past 
his finding out ? True philosophy, as well as 
true Christianity, would teach us a wiser and 
modester part. It would teach us to be con- 
tent witliin those bounds which God has as- 
signed to us, " casting down imaginations, and 
every high thing that exalteth itself against 
the knowledge of God, and bringing into cap- 
tivity every thought to the obedience of Christ," 
2 Cor. 10:5. 



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