*

to have had by the Moon; which com mand Rutilianus obeyed, and by his alliance fecured this impoftor from any danger of punishment; the Roman gover nor of Bithynia and Pontus excufing himfelf on that account from doing juftice upon him, when Lucian and feveral others offered themselves to be his accufers.t

He never quitted that ignorant and barbarous country, which he had made choice of at firft as the fitteft to play his tricks in undifcovered; but refiding himself among thofe fuperftitious and credulous people, extended his fame to a great diftance by the emiffaries which he employed all over the world, especially at Rome, who did not pretend themselves to work any miracles, but only promulgated his, and gave him intelligence of all that it was useful for him to know.

These were the methods by which this remarkable fraud was conducted, every one of which is directly oppofite to all thofe ufed by St. Paul in preaching the gospel; fuch methods alone could give fuc

and

yet

• Ibid. 781.

† Pseudomant. Lucian. Vario. page 753.

Ibid. 762, 769.

cefs to a cheat of this kind. I will not mention the many debaucheries, and wicked enormities committed by this false prophet under the mask of religion, which is another characteristical difference between him and St. Paul; nor the ambiguous anfwers, cunning evafions, and juggling artifices which he made ufe of, in all which it is easy to see the evident marks of an imposture, as well as in the objects he plainly appears to have had in view.That which I chiefly infift upon is the ftrong confederacy with which he took care to fupport his pretenfion to miraculous, powers, and the apt difpofition in those he imposed upon to concur and affift in deceiving themselves; advantages entirely wanting to the apostle of Christ.

From all this I think it may be concluded, that no human means employed by St. Paul in his defign of converting the Gentiles, were or could be adequate to the great difficulties he had to contend with, or to the fuccefs that we knew attended his work; and we can in reafon afcribe that fuccefs to no other caufe, but the power of God going along with and

aiding his miniftry, becaufe no other was equal to the effect.

Having then fhewn that St. Paul had no rational motives to become an apostle of Chrift, without being himself convinced of the truth of that gofpel he preached, and that, had he engaged in fuch an imposture without any rational motives, he would have had no poffible means to carry it on with any fuccefs; having also brought reafons of a very strong nature, to make it appear, that the fuccefs he undoubtedly had in preaching the gospel was an effect of the divine power attending his ministry, I might reft all my proof of the christian religion being a divine revelation upon the arguments drawn from this head alone.But to confider this fubject in all poffible lights, I fhall purfue the propofition which I fet out with through each of its feveral parts; and having proved, as I hope, to the conviction of any impartial man, that St. Paul was not an impoftor, who faid what he knew to be falfe with an intent to deceive, I come next to confider whether he was an enthufiaft, who by the force of an overheated imagination impofed upon himfelf.

Now these are the ingredients of which enthusiasm is generally compofed; great heat of temper, melancholy, ignorance, credulity, and vanity or felf-conceit.That the first of thefe qualities was in St. Paul may be concluded from that fervour of zeal with which he acted both as Jew and Christian, in maintaining that which he thought to be right; and hence, I fuppofe, as well as from the impoffibility of his having been an impoftor, fome unbelievers have chofen to confider him as an enthufiaft. But this quality alone will not be fufficient to prove him to have been so, in the opinion of any reasonable man. The fame temper has been common to others, who undoubtedly were not enthufiafts, to the Gracchi, to Brutus, to many more among the best and wisest of men. Nor does it appear that this difpofition had fuch a mastery over the mind of St. Paul, that he was not able at all times to rule and controul it by the dictates of reafon. On the contrary he was fo much the mafter of it, as, in matters of an indifferent nature, to become all things to all men, 1 Cor. ix. 20, 21, 22. bending his notions and manners to theirs, so far as his duty

to God would permit, with the moft pliant condefcenfion; a conduct neither compatible with the stiffness of a bigot, nor the violent impulfes of fanatic delufions. His zeal was eager and warm, but tem-pered with prudence, and even with the civilities and decorums of life, as appears by his behaviour to Agrippa, Feftus, and Felix, not the blind, inconfiderate, indecent zeal of an enthusiast.

Let us now fee if any one of those other qualities which I have laid down, as dispofing the mind to enthusiasm, and as be ing characteristical of it, belong to St. Paul. First, as to melancholy, which of all difpofitions of body or mind is most prone to enthusiasm,* it neither appears by his writings, nor by any thing told of him in the Acts of the Apoftles, nor by any other evidence, that St. Paul was inclined to it more than other men. Though he was full of remorfe for his former ignorant perfecution of the church of Christ, we read of no gloomy penances, no extravagant mortifications, fuch as the Bramins, the Jaugues, the monks of La Trape, and other melancholy enthusiasts Josephus contra Apion. lib. ii. chap. 37.

*