St. Paul equally from the charges of enthusiasm and imposture, there feems to be no poffibility of distinguishing vice from virtue, or falfhood from truth.

The conclufion of the fecond epiftle to the Corinthians exhibits most strongly the forbearance and affection, united at the fame time with firmness and zeal, which the apostle displayed, even towards those who still continued to despise his authority and reject his commands. "We do all things, dearly beloved, "for your edifying; for I fear least when I come I "fhall not find you fuch as I would, and that I "should be found unto you fuch as ye would not; " left there be debates, envyings, wraths, ftrifes, "back-bitings, whisperings, fwellings, tumults-left "when I come again, my God will humble me

among you, and that I fhall bewail many which "have finned already, and have not repented of "the uncleannefs, and fornication, and lafciviouf"nefs, which they have committed." He then reminds them of the admonition contained in his first epistle; he repeats this in his fecond with folemnity, “as if, fays he, I were present with you the second "time." He declares, that if he comes again "he "will not spare ;" but previous to the infliction of any final cenfure or punishment, " every word fhould "be established by two or three witnesses ;" he prays to God that they may do no evil, wishing not for an opportunity of displaying his power, by in

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2 Cor. xii. 19. to the end of the epistle.

flicting

flicting any fupernatural punishment, but that by their doing right he might be as if he had no supernatural power; "for we can do nothing, fays the "apostle, against the truth, but for the truth; for we

are glad when we are weak, and ye are ftrong; " and this alfo we wifh, even your perfection; "therefore I write these things being abfent, left be"ing present I should use sharpness, according to "the power which the Lord hath given me, to edi "fication, and not to deftruction: finally, brethren "farewell-be perfect, be of good comfort, be of "one

one mind, live in peace, and the God of love and 86 peace fhall be with you.'

From an exactly fimilar temper proceeds the apoftle's direction to the Theffalonians, after having cenfured the disorderly conduct of fome individuals in their church." If any man obey not our word by "this epistle, note that man, and have no company "with him, that he may be ashamed; yet count "him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a "brother." Thus conftantly does this truly inspired teacher unite the most fervent love for virtue and religion, with the tendereft pity for offenders, and foften the severity of rebuke with the mildness of parental affection; anxious not to reproach, but to reform—not to wound and torture, but to probe and heal the cancred heart of guilt; his zeal inspires sentiments of humility and mercy, and cloathes them with the artlefs language of fobernefs and truth,

equally

equally remote from the cunning of imposture, and the violence of fanaticism.

The last characters which I fhall notice, as pervading the entire of St. Paul's epiftles, and distinguishing them from the incoherent effufions of wild fanaticifm, are copiousness of argument, a clofe and connected train of reafoning, and confiftency of doctrines. That these characters really belong to them, Mr. Locke, who ftudied them with peculiar attention, and who was furely a competent judge of conclufive reasoning, abundantly teftifies; while at the fame time he notices thofe circumstances which prevent this close coherence and confiftency from being fo clearly seen by careless readers. "The "utmost, says he, ought to be done to obferve and

trace out St. Paul's reasoning; to follow the thread "of his difcourfe in each of his epiftles; to fhew "how it goes on, still directed to the fame view, "and pertinently drawing the several incidents to"wards the fame point; to understand him right "his inferences fhould be ftrictly obferved, and it "fhould be carefully examined from what they are "drawn, and what they tend to; he is certainly a "coherent, argumentative, pertinent writer, and care, "I think, fhould be taken in expounding him, to

fhew that he is fo. But though I fay that he has weighty aims in his epiftles, which he steadily keeps in eye, and drives at in all that he says,

d Locke's Preface to the epiftles, p. 105, of the folio edit. vol. iii.

1

yet I do not say that he puts his difcourfes into "artificial method, or leads his reader into a diftinc"tion of his arguments, or gives them notice of new matter by rhetorical or ftudied tranfitions. He "has no ornaments borrowed from the Greek elo

quence-no_notions of their philofophy mixed with his doctrine to fet it off; the enticing "words of man's wisdom, whereby he means all the "ftudied rules of the Grecian fchools, which made "them fuch mafters in the art of fpeaking, he, "as he fays himself, (1 Cor. ii. 4.) wholly neglect"ed; the reason whereof he gives in the next verse, "and in other places. But though politeness of language, delicacy of ftyle, fineness of expreffion, laboured periods, artificial tranfitions, and a very methodical arranging of the parts, with "fuch other embellishments as make a discourse enter "the mind fmoothly, and ftrike the fancy at first

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e

hearing, have little or no place in his ftyle; yet "coherence of discourse, and a direct tendency of "all the parts of it to the argument in hand, are "most eminently to be found in him; this I take to "be his character, and doubt not but he will be "found to be fo upon diligent examination.”

Confistency of doctrines, however varied his ex

e Here Locke evidently means, artificial politenefs, ftudied delicacy, and an affected fineness of expreffion; for that politeness, delicacy and eloquence, are confpicuous in the writings of St. Paul, is moft evident; and I trust the reader has even in this work met with fufficient examples to prove it fatisfactorily.

preffion,

preffion, is another character, the very opposite of rambling fanaticifm, which the fame clofe fearcher into the human mind pronounces to belong to St. Paul. "He that reads him, fays he, with the at"tention I propofe, will eafily observe, that as he "was full of the doctrine of the gofpel, fo it lay all "clear and in order, open to his view. When he gave his thoughts utterance upon any point, the 66 matter flowed like a torrent; but then it is plain, "it is a matter he is perfectly master of. He fully

poffeffed the entire revelation he had received from "God; had thoroughly digested it; all the parts "were formed in his mind into one well-compacted, "harmonious body, fo that he was no way at an

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uncertainty, nor ever the least at a loss concern"ing any branch of it. One may fee his thoughts "were all of a piece in all his epiftles; his notions

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were at all times uniform and constantly the same, "though his expreffions very various. In them, he "seems to take great liberty."

Such is the character of St. Paul's writings, by a man of the most unshackled mind, and the strongest judgment. If this character is well founded, it is not poffible the apostle could have been in any degree tinctured with enthusiasm; strong coherence of reasoning, and uniform confistency of doctrine, are, as it were, the very criterions of fobriety of understanding. But though these characters are moft directly

f Locke's Preface to the epiftles, p. 106.

P 2

decifive