teach it in calm and frigid language, and never betray any marks of zeal and earneftnefs? furely not. So far then from confidering the warmth of St. Paul as a decifive proof of delufion and fanaticism, we. must admit it to have been the natural confequence of the reality and truth of his divine miffion: had no traces of such zeal and warmth appeared, we could not but pronounce him infincere and hypocritical.

The only cause of our hesitating a moment to admit this conclufion, is undoubtedly found in our proneness to judge concerning the feelings of the first teachers and believers of Christianity, by the feelings of even the most fincerely religious at the present day, which, it must be confeffed, rarely exhibit fuch warmth as animated St. Paul; but a moments reflection will expofe the fallacy of fuch reafoning, and convince us that, removed as we are by a period of near one thousand eight hundred years from the first origin of the gospel, we may feel but very weakly the great importance of various circumstances attending it, which could not but make a deep impreffion on the primitive converts. Never having ourselves witneffed or joined the abfurd, impure, and bloody rites of idolatrous worship, we are not accustomed to receive with fufficient gratitude that rational and fimple religion, which teaches that God. is a Spirit, and must be worshipped in fpirit and in truth. Never having laboured under the burthen of Jewish ceremonies, we feel but faintly the comforts

of

of that law of liberty which the gofpel reveals. Never having felt the tormenting doubts and fears of thofe, who fhrink from death as the ftroke of annihilation, or the commencement of mifery, we value not as we ought the gracious terms of forgiveness, and the hopes of a happy immortality, which our Redeemer and Lord holds out to every fincere peni

tent.

1

Even the miracles of the gospel affect us very faintly, in comparison of the deep and awful impreffion which they must have made on the apostles, and their first converts; with us they are the objects of reafon and reflection; with them they were the object of sense and fight, the constant subject of aftonishment and praife. Can we wonder then if the apostle speaks of the gofpel, its evidence, its doctrines, and its effects, with a warmth and vehe.. mence, which, however it may exceed the religious zeal which fuch fubjects now excite, is really no more than what their exalted nature, and their ftupendous importance, deferves? No-he only speaks the language of nature and truth, when he defcribes the change wrought in the conduct and hopes of himself, and every convert, by receiving the gospel, in the most bold and glowing terms; when he calls it, paffing from flavery to freedom, from fin to righteousness, from death to life, a total change of vital principles, even a new creation. Having established the refurrection of Chrift by the fulleft proofs, and

thence

d

e

thence inferred the certainty of a general refurrection, and the power of Christ to pardon the penitent, how natural and just that bold apostrophe—“ & Oh! death "where is thy fting! oh! grave where is thy "victory!" When reflecting on his own bigotted attachment to the Jewish law, in which he had fo long prided himself, he is led to compare it with his prefent well-grounded faith in the gospel, he exclaims not lefs justly than emphatically- " but what "things were gain to me, those I counted lofs for "Christ; yea, doubtless, and I count all things but "lofs for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ "Jefus, my Lord, for whom I have fuffered the lofs ❝ of all things, and do count them but drofs, that I 66 may win Chrift." When he has described the connection of the Chriftian and Jewish difpenfation, and fhewn, that even the rejection of the Jews was a regular part of the divine economy for establishing the evidence, and extending the bleffings of the gofpel to all the world; how naturally, as well as eloquently, does he exclaim-Oh! the depth "of the riches both of the wifdom and know

ledge of God; how unsearchable are his judg66 ments, and his ways paft finding out!"

The strong language in which the apostle defcribes the depravity and blindness of the Heathens, the glorious titles he applies to the Chriftians, as

d

1 Cor. xv. 55. • Phil. iii. 7 and 8.

f Rom. xi. 33.

"the"

"the called,"-" the chofen,"-"the faints,"" the "redeemed of God," must appear perfectly just and rational, when we confider the real difference of character, opinions and hopes, between these two defcriptions of men, and the divine interference from which that difference arofe. Hence, we fee how naturally the apostle commences his epiftles, "eleven out of "thirteen of them, fays a judicious writer, begin with "exclamations of joy, praise and thanksgiving; as "foon as he thought of a Christian church planted

66

any where, and especially by himself, there seems to "have a been a flow of moft lively affection ac66 companying the idea, in which all fenfibility of his own temporal affections, and of theirs, was fwal"lowed up, and the fullness of his heart was com"pelled to vent itself in fuch chearful, exalted and "devout language ;" and the fame character prevails throughout all the epiftles. Wherever he thinks of the mercy of God, in revealing the gofpel, of the bleffings bestowed by it, and the change it produces in men's principles and conduct, he is hurried away to an impetuous and exalted ftrain of thought and expreffion, which, if fuperficially viewed, may appear the effect of enthusiasm; but when compared with the fituation in which the apoftle was placed, and the objects which engaged and filled his attention, evidently refult from fincerity and piety, and are perfectly confiftent with truth and foberness.

Another

g

Another natural and powerful cause of warmth and irregularity in St. Paul's writings, may be found in the fevere fufferings which he had himself sustained, and was constantly expofed to, for the gofpel, as well as in the perfecuted and distressed state of the churches, and the individuals whom he addressed; the recollection of paft dangers, the profpect of still greater, perpetually threatening him and all his followers, could not but produce a degree of agitation and fufpence, of ftrong hopes and anxious fears, totally inconsistent with that deliberate compofure of mind, which attends the author who fits and writes at eafe. We may without hesitation pronounce, that studied accuracy, a calm and guarded ftile, regular tranfitions, and strict method, would have been wholly incongruous and unnatural in fuch a state of feeling, as the apoftle's must have been when he wrote, immediately after having with difficulty escaped violent death, or when he was in * bonds, chained to a foldier who kept him, and hourly expected to be dragged to trial, and perhaps. condemned to crucifixion; when a 'principal fubject of his letters was to comfort those to whom he wrote for the lofs of their dearest friends, butchered by

h

i

* Ephef. iv. 1. Acts xxviii. 16 and 30. vi. 20. 2 Tim. i. 15 and 16. and iii. 11. and iv. 16. Phil. i. 13 and 14-29

and 30.

As in the epistle to the Theffalonians, ch. iii. 4. iv. 13.

the