the profession of their ancestors; if, I say, he can do all this, he is a hero. On the contrary, none but a wretch can embark in such an undertaking, if he be destitute of the dispositions necessary to success. When such a man forsakes his former profession of religion, there is reason to suppose that human motives have done what love of truth could not do; and that he embraceth his new religion, not because it appears to him more worthy of his attention and respect, but because it is more suitable to his interest. Now to embrace a religion for worldly interest is almost the highest pitch of wickedness. Our maxim admits of very few exceptions, and most proselytes are either men of eminent virtue or abandoned wretches; and as we are happy to acknowledge there are several of the first kind in this age, so with sorrow we are obliged to allow, that there are a great number of the latter. Let St. Paul be judged by the utmost rigour of this maxim. He was a hero in christianity. The principle that engaged him to embrace the gospel, diffused itself through all his life, and every one of his actions verified the sincerity of his conversion.

St. Paul was born for great things; he it was whom God chose for an apostle to the gentiles. He did not stop in the porch of the Lord's house, he quickly passed into the holy place; he was only a very short time a catechumen in the school of Christ; he soon became a master, a minister, an apostle; and in all these eminent offices he carried virtue to a higher pitch than it had ever been carried before him, and perhaps beyond what it will be ever practised after 49

VOL. IV.

him. In effect, what qualities ought a minister of the gospel to possess which St. Paul did not possess in the highest degree? Is it assiduity? "Ye rememer, brethren," said he, "our labour and travel, for labouring night and day we preached unto you the gospel of God," 1 Thess. ii. 9. Is it gentleness? "We were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children. You know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children, that ye would walk worthy of God," chap. ii. 7, 11, 12. Is it prudence? "Unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are without law as without law, that I might gain them that are without law. I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some," 2 Cor. ix. 20, 22. Is it charity? "I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren," Rom. ix. 3. "I will very gladly spend and be spent for you," 2 Cor. xii. 15. Is it courage? He resisted St. Peter, and "withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed," Gal. ii. 11. "He reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come," before Felix and Drusilla, Acts xxiv. 25. Is it disinterestedness in regard to the world? "We sought not glory of men, neither of you, nor yet of others. We speak the gospel not as pleasing men, but God which trieth our hearts," 1 Thess. ii. 6, 4. Is it zeal? His spirit was stirred in him at Athens, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry, Acts xvii. 16. Then, like the prophet of old, he became "very jealous for the Lord of hosts," 1 Kings xix. 10. Is it to support the honour of his

ministry? "Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ," 1 Cor. iv. 1. "We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us," 2 Cor. v. 20. "It were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void,” 1 Cor. ix. 15. Jesus Christ was the model, by which St. Paul formed himself: "be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ," chap. xi. 1. When students turn their attention to the christian ministry, models of such as have distinguished themselves in this office are proposed to their imitation. The imagination of one, the judgment of another, the gravity of a third, and the learning of a fourth are set before them, and from good originals very often we receive bad copies. St. Paul chose his pattern. His master, his model, his original, his all was Jesus Christ, and he copied every stroke of his original, "be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ."

But, though it is always commendable to discharge this holy office well, yet it is particularly so in some circumstances; and our apostle was in such, for he officiated when the whole world was enraged against christians. Consider him then on the stage of martyrdom. What would now be our glory was then his disgrace; assiduity, gentleness, zeal, and all the other virtues just now mentioned, drew upon him the most envenomed jealousy, accusations the most atrocious, and persecutions the most cruel. It was in this light, God set the ministry before him at first, “I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake," Acts ix. 16. Shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake! What a motive

to engage a man to undertake an office! Now-a-days, in order to give a great idea of a church, it is said, it hath such and such advantages, so much in cash, so much in small tithes, and so much in great tithes. St. Paul saw the ministry only as a path full of thorns and briars, and he experienced, through all the course of his life, the truth of that idea which was given him of his office. Hear the catalogue of his sufferings. "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 have I been in the deep. In journeyings 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," 2 Cor. xi. 2427. Good God! What a salary for a minister, hunger, thirst, fastings, nakedness, peril, persecution, death! In our case, we can die but once, and virtue considers the proximity of the crown of righteousness, which, being suspended immediately over the head of the martyr, supports him under the pains of martyrdom; but the ministry of St. Paul was a perpetual martyrdom, his life was a continual death. "I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death, For we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men," 1 Cor. iv. 9.

Here we finish the eulogium of our apostle, and,

by uniting the parts of this slight sketch, we obtain a just portrait of the man. Do you know a greater than St. Paul? Can you conceive virtue in a more eminent degree? Behold a man fired with zeal, making what he thought the cause of God his own cause, God's enemies his enemies, the interest of God the interest of himself. Behold a man, who turns his attention to truth, and, the moment he discovers it, embraces, and openly avows it. Behold a man who, not content to be an ordinary christian, and to save himself alone, aspiring at the glory of carrying through the whole world, for public advantage, that light which had illuminated himself. Behold a man preaching, writing; what am I saying? Behold a man suffering, dying, and sealing with his own blood the truths he taught. An ardent zealot, a sincere convert, an accomplished minister, a bleeding martyr, learned in his errors, and, if I may be allowed to speak so, regular in his mistakes, and virtuous even in his crimes. Shew me in the modern or primitive church a greater character than St. Paul. Let any man produce a christian who had more reason to be satisfied with himself, and who had more right to pretend that he had discharged all his duties. Yet this very man, this Paul, forgat those things which were behind! This very Paul was pressing forward! This is the man who feared he should be a cast-away! And you smoking flax, you bruised reed, you who have hardly taken root in the christian soil, you who have hardly a spark of love to God, do you think your piety sufficient? Are you the man to leave off endeavouring to make new advances ?