and renounced the aid of learning in religion. The apostle means totally the reverse of this. It was the vain and false traditions, glosses and corruptions of the Jewish doctors; the wild speculations, the childish disputes, the false and proud philosophy of the Grecian Sophists and the Asiatic Gnostics which he exposed and condemned. It was the insufficiency of unassisted reason, and the presumptuous folly of rejecting divine instruction, which he perpetually laboured to expose. For this purpose it is that he warns Timothy and Titus against those fables and endless genealogies, which ministered only disputes;* against "those profane and vain babblings and toppositions of science, falsely so called, which caused many to err from the faith.”—Such only is the import of all passages, similar to the following, which is, perhaps, the fullest on this subject.

"Christ sent me (‡ says the apostle) not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel; not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect, for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish, foolishness; but to us who are saved, it is the power of God: for it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise, where is the scribe, where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? for after (in the wisdom of God) the world, by wisdom, knew not God, it pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified-unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, the power of God, and the wisdom of God because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, § have called you; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and the weak things of the world to confound the mighty; and base things of the world, and things that are despised, hath he chosen; yea,

*1 Tim. i. 4. † 1 Tim. vi. 20, 21; vide also, Titus iii. 9. 1 Cor. i. 17. § This important alteration in the translation, I adopt from Dr. Macknight, who has to my mind, fully evinced its propriety.

and things that are not, to bring to nought things that are; that no flesh should glory in his presence."

Bold and overstrained as this passage might seem, when we do not attend to its occasion and its context, it will, I think, appear founded on certain fact, and perfectly consistent with reason, when we reflect on the ill-success of both Jews and Greeks in religious inquiries, on the violent opposition they made to Christianity, on the natural weakness, and even ignorance of the first teachers of the Gospel, on their success in overcoming the opposition of the Jewish Rabbies and the Greek philosophers by the exhibition of plain and uncontrolled miracles, with the clear discovery they made of the undoubted, but neglected and forgotten truths of natural religion to mankind, as well as of the more peculiar doctrines of the Christian scheme.

Persecution from external enemies was not, however, the only source of embarrassment to the apostle. The opposition he encountered from mistaken zealots, or false teachers, even in the churches which he himself had planted at the hazard of his life, was another subject of constant anxiety. And a great part of his epistles are occupied in exposing and confuting the false doctrines, which these his opponents had introduced; in vindicating his character, from the misrepresentations and calumnies, with which they had loaded it; rebuking the misconduct of those, whom they had seduced; commanding the infliction of public censure and punishment on the most gross offenders; and threatening the obstinate and contumacious with still greater punishments, which he would himself inflict by the miraculous and apostolical power, with which he was invested.

Such topics as these, it would surely have been unnatural, nay almost impossible to treat of, without a considerable degree of warmth and earnestness. We cannot wonder at the apostle being obliged, frequently to recall to the recollection of his converts his own preaching and miracles, his labours and his sufferings; at his appealing to them with the greatest earnestness, in attestation of his integrity and affection towards them; at his urging and entreating them to adhere to that faith, which he had taught; at his describing the misconduct and unworthy views of the false teachers, in the strongest colours, and pointing out, in

VOL. I.

K

the most forcible manner, the dangers they incurred by following them.

If the conviction the apostle entertained of the divine origin of the doctrines he inculcated, was firm; if his sense of their importance was exalted; if he was fully conscious of having taught and acted with singleness of heart; if he considered the guilt of wilfully apostatizing from the truth in Christ, as great and hazardous, he could not but speak freely and boldly and urgently, when opposed by error and calumny; when the interests of the Gospel, and the virtue and happiness of those churches, which were most dear to him, were at stake. Since then a sincere teacher of divine truths, however sober and genuine his inspiration is supposed, must have entertained these feelings, and expressed them with freedom and earnestness; surely such feelings, and such a mode of expressing them, is no proof of weakness and fanaticism.

In considering the effect which the general persecuted state of the church, as well as the personal opposition particularly offered to the apostles, must have produced in their feelings and writings, it is necessary to remark, that such persecution and opposition contribute materially to confirm the certainty of a divine interposition at the first promulgation of Christianity. Because no human means existed to overpower such persecution, and no human artifice could have escaped detection, when, into that very society which was formed as infidels suppose merely by such artifice, discord and controversy so early crept, inducing some of its chief leaders to oppose and question each other's opinions and pretensions; a contest which, if these claims had not on the part of the apostle been founded on truth, would undoubtedly have exposed the fallacy by which they were supported. It is also necessary further to remark, that the same circumstances give the adversary to Christianity every advantage he could desire, for detecting enthusiasm in the writings and conduct of its first teachers, if it had really existed. Because external persecution and internal controversy were, of all imaginable circumstances, the most directly calculated to rouse and to inflame the smallest sparks of enthusiasm into extravagance and violence. If then, notwithstanding this powerful bias, we discover in the writings of the apostles clear traces of

sound judgment and steady self-command, we may without hesitation conclude, that the sobriety, as well as the sincerity of their mind, has sustained the severest trial and been established by the fullest proof.

This conclusion applies with peculiar force to the writings of St. Paul. Because his natural temper was certainly warm, his train of ideas rapid, his turn of style bold and emphatic, and his education such as was calculated to strengthen his impression of the importance of religion. A mind such as this, controlled and directed by a superintending inspiration, was an admirable instrument for the laborious task of spreading the Gospel through the wide extent of the heathen world, in despite of all opposition. But such a mind uncontrolled, and undirected by the Spirit of God, if once infected by enthusiasm, would have exhibited it in all its extravagance, especially when agitated and irritated by such malignant persecution from open enemies and insidious opposition from false friends, as he emphatically describes in the passage, in which he compares his own claims to the gratitude and confidence of the Corinthians with those, which the false teachers who opposed him advanced, *" Wherein soever any is bold, I am bold also. Are they Hebrews? so am I; are they Israelites ? so am I; are they the seed of Abraham? so am I; are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool,” [I am conscious of the apparent impropriety of boasting of myself to which I am driven,] "I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck: a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not ?"

* 2 Cor. xi. 21-29.

Under such circumstances as these, operating on a mind of such quick sensibility as St. Paul's, we cannot wonder at his warmth and vehemence. But as all these circumstances were calculated to call forth and inflame the spirit of fanaticism, had it at all existed in the apostle, we must allow, that his sobriety of mind was submitted to the most severe and decisive trial, which the most scrutinizing adversary can desire. Under such circumstances, it was not possible but that his epistles should have exhibited traces of vehemence and self-commendation, and sometimes even of warm resentment, which prejudiced and worldly readers, who regard all religion with indifference, and treat every thing like religious controversy with contempt, would readily pronounce enthusiastic. But they ought not to be thus stigmatized, till it be considered whether this vehemence and selfcommendation and indignant warmth, occasioned by gross injuries and calumnies, ever hurried the apostle to transgress the bounds of reason and propriety; or whether they were not softened and controlled by such tenderness, humility and watchful attention to the peace and improvement of the Christian church, as was every way worthy of an inspired apostle, teaching the word of truth, and pursuing no other object than the interests of religion. That the zeal of the apostle was thus directed and controlled, it shall be the subject of the next section, by direct arguments, to evince.

SECTION III.

St. Paul's Epistles exhibit such marks of sober Judgment, and even of refined Address, as are directly contrary to the spirit of Enthusiasm.

THE first character which I shall take notice of, as distinguishing St. Paul's writings from the composition of weak and extravagant fanatics, is the strict attention to propriety, and even the refined address which he displays, in adapting his epistles to the situations and tempers of the different churches and individuals, for whom he designed them, as well as to the