A Roman proconsul was not very likely to be an enthusiast; but had he been one, he must have been bigotted 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,"-could any enthusiasm, either in Paul or the congregation 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 it 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, 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 worked to preserve him? On the contrary, when they saw the viper hang on his hand, they said among themselves, "No doubt, this man is a murderer, 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 the miracles told of St. Paul, can no more be ascribed to enthusiasm than to imposture.

But, moreover, the power of working miracles was not confined to St. Paul, it was also communi

cated to the churches he planted in different parts of

the world. In many parts of his First - Epistle he tells the Corinthians, 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 he said upon that head is to be ascribed to enthusiasm? If the Corinthians knew that they had among them no such miraculous powers, they must have regarded the author of that 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 meeting of his own sect, tell all the persons assembled there, that, "to some among them was given the gift of healing by the Spirit of God, to others the working of other miracles, to others divers kinds of tongues," they would undoubtedly account him a madman, because they pretend 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 own minds, that they spoke tongues they did not speak, or healed distempers they did not heal, or worked other miracles, when they worked none. it be 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

If

them, in an epistle written only to them, and for their own use, not to value themselves 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 language to one another? But if we suppose their pretension to all those gifts was an effect of enthusiasm, let us consider how it was possible 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 could he persist 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 power. One of the miracles which they pretended to, was the speaking of languages they never had learned. And St. Paul says, he possessed this gift more than them all. If this had been a delusion of fancy, if they had spoken only gibberish, or unmeaning sounds, it would soon have appeared when they came to make use of it where it was necessary, namely, in converting of those who understood not any language they 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 what he said, and were converted to 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 undeceived when he came to put his gift to the proof? Accordingly, I do not find such a power to have been ever pretended to by any enthusiast, ancient or modern.

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 consequence St. Paul was no enthusiast in what he wrote 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.

Having thus, I flatter myself, satisfactorily shown that St. Paul could not be an enthusiast, who by the force of an over-heated imagination imposed on himself, I am next to inquire whether he was deceived

1

by the fraud of others, and whether all that he said of himself can be imputed to the power of that de ceit ? 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 Apostle, 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 extravagant as to conceive such a thought, it was physically 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 brighter than that of the sun! Could they make Saul hear words from out of that light, 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 off from his eyes, and restore him to his sight by a word? Beyond dispute, 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. I shall then take it

for granted that he was not deceived by the fraud of others, and that what he said of himself cannot be imputed to the power of that deceit, no more than to wilful imposture, or to enthusiasm; and then it follows that what he related to have been the cause of his conversion, and to have happened in consequence of it, did all really happen, and therefore, the Christian Religion is a Divine Revelation.

That this conclusion is fairly and undeniably