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shewed before of the coming of the Just one, of whom they were the betrayers and murderers?" (Acts vii. 53.)

How is it, that these things, which require some degree of close inspection into Holy Writ, were known to, and thoroughly understood by, their countryman, the fisherman of Galilee? But, above all, how is it, that they were known to Saul of Tarsus! Saul the Pharisee! Saul, who had been the most rigid and zealous observer of all their laws and customs, until a new light broke upon him? How was it that he, who, "after the strictest sect of his religion, lived a Pharisee,"-who was expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews; submitted to "stand and be judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto his Father? What was it which prompted him to deny the righteousness which is by works of his own law-a law, in which he was so well versed, to which he was attached with the most inveterate prejudice and bigotry, and by the most powerful ties of national and historical pride; to disparage the righteousness of this law; and proclaim the forgotten law of his first ancestor Abraham-the law of righteousness imputed to faith, which worketh by love? How came it, that Saul, a Pharisee! set forth this doctrine; brought it to light from the depth of two thousand years of darkness, and proclaimed it to the wonder and indignation of his offended countrymen? Was there any

human inducement, which could have worked in him this surprising change? He had not, like Peter, been associated with Christ on earth. He had no previous convictions. So much the reverse, that the pretensions of the crucified Jesus, as a prophet sent by God, were an abomination in his sight; insomuch, that "he verily thought that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth." "He shut up many saints in prison; and, when they were put to death, he gave his vote against them." "He punished them oft in every syna. gogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and, being exceedingly mad against them, he persecuted them even unto strange cities." (Acts xxvi. 6-11.)

How came this man, who was the most zealous of all enthusiasts for the law, and the traditions of his sect and nation, suddenly to appear before his own countrymen, preaching, with all the energy and conviction in a new cause, which he had before shewn in the old," Christ crucified-Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God! Christ to the Jews a stumbling-block; and to the Greeks foolishness?" (1 Cor. i. 23, 24.)

What was his inducement, thus to incur the contempt of the learned; and the vindictive fury of the people and their rulers? Were the bonds, imprisonments, stripes and persecutions, which he had himself so abundantly inflicted on others, and which he knew he should undergo in his own person; were

these the temptations which led him to abandon all his former convictions, and his strongest prejudices? Such a change, in such a man, could have been effected by no other means than those, which he avowed-namely, a conversion effected by a miracle

the adoption of a commission directly appointed by the voice of God our Saviour himself. His eyes and his ears, his heart and his understanding, were opened to that mid-day light and voice, which sent him, "to open (on his part) the eyes of the Gentiles; to turn them from darkness to light; and from the power of Satan to God." That they might receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith." (Acts xxvi. 18.)

SECTION XXXIV.

The secondary causes assigned to the extension of Christianity, inapplicable to the conversion of St. Paul, and to the Apostolic Church.—Crowning test of Abraham's faith.

The elegant but insidious historian of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, has assigned five secondary causes as sufficient, humanly speaking, to account for the propagation and extension of the Christian religion. They are,

1. The inflexible and intolerant zeal of the Christians.

II. The doctrine of a future life.

III. The miraculous powers ascribed to the primitive church.

IV. The pure and austere morals of the Chris

tians.

V. The union and discipline of the Christian republic, which gradually formed an independent

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and increasing state in the heart of the Roman empire." (Decline and Fall, &c. c. xv.)

It was evidently the object of this learned writer, to shew, if possible, that the power of Christianity may be accounted for by the circumstances of the time; and the natural desires and motives, which influence the human mind, in a progressive state of civilization. But could Mr. Gibbon, with all his research, ingenuity, and cold philosophy, assign one cause, not for the propagation, but for the origin of the Christian religion?

The proud historian condescends to notice Christianity, when it has become the state religion of Imperial Rome; when he finds it enthroned at Constantinople. But he is silent at the period when it exhibited its greatest marvel, in the Roman province of Judæa, under Augustus and Tiberius. We ask not for five causes: but, we repeat, could his utmost skill have discovered one plausible cause arising from human motives and human actions, which could account for the conversion and subsequent ministry, sufferings, and doctrines of the persecuting Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus? Could he have found one probable human cause, to explain how he, who had so implicitly confided in the fleshly ordinances of his law, suddenly relinquished all pretensions to their efficacy? "If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh," (says St. Paul) "I more." "Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel,

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