believers have chosen to consider him as an enthu siast. But this quality alone will not be sufficient to prove him to have been so, in the opinion of any reasonable 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," bending his notions and manners to theirs, so far as his duty to God would permit, with the most pliant condescen→ sion; a conduct neither compatible with the stiffness of a bigot, nor the violent impulses of fanatic delusions. His zeal was eager and warm, but tempered with prudence, and even with the civilities and decorums of life, as appears by his behaviour to Agrippa, Festus, 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 characteristical of it, belong to St. Paul. First, as to melancholy, which of all dispositions of body or mind is most prone to enthusiasm, it neither appears by his writings, nor by any thing told of him in the Acts 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

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penances, no extravagant mortifications, such as the Bramins, Jaugues, the monks of La Trappe, 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 Christ Jesus, 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 suggest, to escape danger, and shun persecution, whenever it could be done without betraying the duty of his office, or the honour of God.*

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Compare with this the conduct of Francis of

* A remarkable instance of this appears in his conduct among the Athenians. There was at Athens a law, which made it ca pital to introduce or teach any new gods in their state. Therefore, when Paul was preaching Jesus and the resurrection to the Athenians, some of them carried him before the court of Areopagus, 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 wonld have retracted his doctrine to save his life, and an enthusiast 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 he did not propose 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 escaped being condemned by the Areopagus, without departing in the least from the truth of the Gospel, or violating the honour of God. admirable proof, in my opinion, of the good sense with which he acted, and one that shows there was no mixture of fanaticism in his religion.

An

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Assisi, of Ignatius Loyola, and other enthusiasts 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 essential a characteristic of enthusiasm, that I have scarcely 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 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 enthusiast than the other apostles, though none of them were such any more than he, as may, by other arguments, be invincibly proved.

I have mentioned credulity as another characteristic 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 evidence given in

consequence of it by Peter, in presence of the highpriest, the rulers, elders, and scribes, that " Christ was raised from the dead." 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 children 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 all safety, 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 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 hanged 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.” All this he resisted, and was consenting to the murder of Stephen, who preached the same thing, and evidenced it by miracles. 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 prejudices, as much as any man's could possibly be; and hence we may fairly conclude, that nothing less than the irresisti

ble 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 character of an enthusiast. It leads men of a warm temper, and religious turn, to think themselves worthy of the special regard, and extraordinary favours of God; and the breath of that inspiration 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, amongst the Papists. All the divine communications, illuminations, and ecstasies, to which they have pretended, evidently sprung from much self-conceit, working together with the vapours 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 savours of vanity, nor is any action recorded of him, in which the least mark of it appears.