In his Epistle to the Ephesians he calls himself "less than the least of all saints." And to the 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." In his Epistle

to Timothy he says, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom 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."

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." But the

occasion which drew from him these words must be considered. A false teacher, by faction and calumny, had brought his apostleship in question among the Corinthians. Against such an attack, not to have asserted his apostolical 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 success and efficacy of his ministry among them depended. But how did he do it? 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 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 labours and sufferings 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." Could he say less than this? Is not such boasting humility 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. 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, &c. caught up into the third heaven." 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." 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 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 allay, "that he might not be above measure exalted through the abundance of his revelations." 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 favour? 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 before. But he 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.

Nor does he take any merit to himself, even from the success of those apostolical labours which he principally boasts of in this Epistle. For in a former one to the same church, be writes thus, "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the So then, neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase." And in another place of the same

ye

increase.

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By the grace of God I am what

Epistle he says, I am; and his grace which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”

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 colour of vanity, or that vanity in particular which so strongly appears in all

enthusiasts, of setting their imaginary gifts above those virtues which make the essence of true religion, and the real excellence of a good man, or, in the Scripture phrase, of a saint. In his First Epistle to the Corinthians he has these words: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, 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." Is this the language of enthusiasm? Did ever enthusiast prefer that universal benevolence which comprehends all moral virtues, and which (as appears by the following 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 supernatural graces and gifts which he imagined he had acquired, nay, even to the merit of martyrdom? Is it not the genius of enthusiasm to set moral virtues infinitely 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 candour, moderation, and peace? Certainly neither the temper, nor the opinions of a man subject to fauatic 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 oceur 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 suspicion; I shall endeavour 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 consequential effects of it, or to some other circumstances to which he bears testimony in his epistles.

The power of imagination in enthusiastical 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 bring the Christians which were there bound to Jerusalem, an authority solicited by himself, and granted to him at his own earnest desire, his mind was strongly possessed 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 consciousness of his past conduct towards them, the pride of supporting a part he had voluntarily engaged in, and the credit he found it had procured him among the chief-priests and rulers, whose commission he bore.