Compare with this the conduct of Francis of Affifi, or Ignatius Loyola, and other enthu fiafts fainted by Rome, it will be found the reverfe of St. Paul's. He wished indeed to die,

and be with Christ,' but fuch a wifh is no proof of melancholy, or enthufiasm; it only proves his conviction of the Divine truths he preached, and of the happiness laid up for him in those bleffed abodes which had been fhewn to him even in this life. Upon the whole, neither in his actions, nor in the inftructions he gave to thofe under his charge, is there any tincture of melancholy, which

retracted his doctrine to fave his life, and an enthusiast would have loft his life without trying to fave 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, infcribed To the Unknown God, and pleaded that he did not propofe to them the worship of any new god, but only explained to them one whom their government had already received; Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. By this he avoided the law, and efcaped being condemned by the Areopagus, without departing in the leaft from the truth of the Gofpel, or violating the honour of God. An admirable proof, in my opinion, of the good fenfe with which he acted, and one that fhews there was no mixture of fanaticism in his religion.

yet is fo effential a characteristick of enthufiafm, that I have scarce ever heard of any enthufiaft, ancient or modern, in whom fome very evident marks of it did not appear.

As to ignorance, which is another ground of enthusiasm, St. Paul was fo far from it, that he 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 imputation of having been an enthufiaft than the other Apostles, though none of them were fuch any more than he, as may by other arguments be invincibly proved.

I have mentioned credulity as another cha racteristick and caufe of enthusiasm, which, that it was not in St. Paul, the history of his life undeniably fhews. For, on the contrary, he feems to have been flow and hard óf belief in the extremeft 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 Jerufalem, nor to that fignal one done after his refurrection, and in his name, by Peter and John, upon

*Acts iii.

the

the lame man at the beautiful gate of the temple; nor to the evidence given in confequence of it by Peter, in presence of the high-priest*, the rulers, elders, and scribes, that Chrift was raised from the dead. He must also have known, that when all the Apoftles had been but up in the common prison, and the high-priest, the council, and all the fenate of the children of Ifrael bad fent their officers to bring them before them, the officers came and found them not in prison, but returned and made this report: The prifon truly found we

fbut with all fafety, and the keepers standing • without before the doors, but when we had opened we found no man within.' And that the council was immediately told, that the men they had put in prison were standing in the temple, and teaching the people. And that being brought from thence before the council, they had spoke these memorable words, We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jefus, whom ye flew and banged on a tree. Him bath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Ifrael, and for

* Acts v. 18, 21, 22, 23, 25, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32.

a principal fource 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 Epiftles there is not one word that favours of vanity, nor is any action recorded of him, in which the leaft mark of it appears.

ト

In his Epistle to the Ephefians he calls himself less than the least of all faints*. And to the Corinthians he fays, he is the leaft of the Apostles, and not meet to be called an Apoftle, because he had perfecuted the church of Godt. In his Epiftle to Timothy he fays, This is a faithful faying, and worthy of all acceptation, That Chrift Jefus came into the world to fave finners, of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me firft Jefus Chrift might fhew forth all long-fuffering, for a pattern < to them which fhould hereafter believe in him to life everlasting.'

It is true indeed, that in another epistle he tells the Corinthians, That he was not a whit

Eph. iii. 8.

+ Cor. xv. 9.

1 Tim.

i. 15, 16,

behind the very chiefeft of the Apostles, 2 Cor. xi. 5. But the occafion which drew from him these words must be confidered.. A false teacher by faction and calumny had brought his apostleship to be in queftion among the Corinthians. Against fuch an attack not to have afferted his apoftolical dignity, would have been a betraying of the office and duty committed to him by God. He was therefore constrained to do himself justice, and not let down that character, upon the authority of which the whole fuccefs and efficacy of his miniftry among them depended. But how did he do it? Not with that wantonnefs which a vain man indulges, when he can get any opportunity of commending himfelf; not with a pompous detail of all the amazing miracles which he had performed in different parts of the world, though he had fo fair an occafion of doing it, but with a modest and simple expofition of his abundant labours and sufferings in preaching the Gofpel, and barely reminding them, that the figns of an apostle had been wrought among them, in all patience, in figns and wonders, < and mighty deeds. Could he fay less 2 Cor. xii, 12.

than