enormities committed by this false prophet under
the mask of religion, which is another characteris-
tic difference between him and St, Paul ; nor the
ambiguous answers, cunning evasions, and jug-
gUng artifices which he made use of, in all which
it is easy to see the evident marks of an impos-
ture, as well as in the objects he plainly appears
to have had in view. That which I chiefly insist
upon is, the strong confederacy with which he took
care to support his pretension to miraculous pow-
ers, and the apt disposition in those he imposed
upon to concur and assist in deceiving them-
selves — advantages entirely wanting to the apos-
tle of Christ.

From all this it may be concluded, that no hu-
man means employed by St. Paul, in his design of
converting the Gentiles, were, or could be ade-
quate to the great difficulties he had to contend
with, or to the success that we know attended his
work ; and we can in reason ascribe that success
to no other cause but the power of God going
along with, and aiding his ministry, because/ no
other was equal to the effect.



CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 187

II. PAUL NOT AN ENTHUSIAST.

Having then shown that St. Paul had no rational
motives to become an apostle of Christ, without be-
ing liimself convinced of the truth of that gospel he
preached ; and that, had he engaged in such an
imposture without any rational motives, he would
have had no jpossihh imans to carry it on with any
success; having also brought reasons of a very
strong nature to make it appear that the success
he undoubtedly had in preaching the gospel, was
an effect of the divine power attending his minis-
try, 1 might rest all my proof of the Christian relig-
ion being a divine revelation, upon the arguments
drawn from this head alone. But to consider this
subject in all possible lights, I shall pursue the
proposition which I set out with, through each of
its several parts ; and having proved, as I hope, to
the conviction of any impartial man, that St. Paul
was not an impostor, who said what he knew to
be false, with an intent to deceive, I come next to
consider whether he was an enthusiast, who, by
the force of an overheated imagination, imposed
upon himself.

Now, these are the ingredients of which enthusi-
asm is generally composed : great heat of temper,
melancholy, ignorance, credidity, and vanity, or self-
conceit. That the first of these qualities was in
St. Paul, may be concluded from that fervor of



188 COj!TVERSION of ST. PAUL.

zeal with which he acted, both as a Jew and Chris-
tian, in maintaining that which he thought to be
right ; and hence, I suppose, as well as from the
impossibility of his having been an impostor, some
unbelievers have chosen to consider him as an en-
thusiast. But this quahty alone will not be suffi-
cient to prove him to have been so, in the opinion
of any reasonable man. The same temper has
been common to others who undoubtedly were not
enthusiasts — to the Gracchi, to Cato, to Brutus, to
many more among the best and wisest of men.
Nor does it appear that this disposition had such a
mastery over the mind of St. Paul that he was not
able, at all times, to rule and control it by the dic-
tates of reason. On the contrary, he was so much
the master of it, as, in matters of an indifferent
nature, " to become all things to all men," 1 Cor.
9 : 20-22 ; bending his notions and manners to
theirs, so far as his duty to God would permit,
with the most pliant condescension — a conduct
neither compatible with the stiffness of a bigot,
nor the violent impulses of fanatical delusions.
His zeal was eager and warm, but tempered with
prudence, and even with the civilities and deco-
rums of life, as appears by his behavior to Agrippa,
Festus, and Felix ; not the blind, inconsiderate,
indecent zeal of an enthusiast.

Let us now see if any one of those other quali-



CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 189.

ties which I have laid down as disposing the mind
to enthusiasm, and as being characteristical of it,
belong to St. Paul. First, as to melaiicholy, which,
of all dispositions of body or mind, is most prone
to fanaticism ; it neither appears by his writings,
nor by any thing told of him in the Acts of the
Apostles, nor by any other evidence, that St. Paul
was inclined to it more than other men. Though
he was full of remorse for his former ignorant \)QX-
secution of the church of Christ, we read of no
gloomy penances, no extravagant mortification,
such as the Brahmins, the Jaugues, the monks of
La Trappe, and other melancholy enthusiasts in-
flict on themselves. His holiness only consisted
in the simplicity of a good life, and the unwearied
performance of those apostolical duties to which he
was called. The sufferings he met with on that
account he cheerfully bore, and even rejoiced in
them for the love of Jesus Christ ; but he brought
none on himself ; we find, on the contrary, that he
pleaded the privilege of a Roman citizen to avoid
being whipped. I could mention more instances
of his having used the best methods that prudence
could suggest, to escape danger and shun persecu-
tion,, whenever it could be done without betraying
the duty of his' office or the honor of God.

A remarkable instance of this appears in his con-
duct among the Athenians. There was at Athens



190 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL,

a law which made it a capital offence to introduce
or teach any new gods in their state. Acts It,
and Joscphus cont, Apion, 1. 2 : c. 7. Therefore,
when Paul was preaching Jesus and the resurrection
to the Athenians, some of them carried him before
the court of Areopagus — the ordinary judges of
criminal matters, and in a particular manner in-
trusted with the care of religion — as having broken
this law, and being "a setter forth of strange
gods." Now, in this case, an impostor would have
retracted his doctrine to save his hfe, and an en-
thusiast would have lost his life without trjang to
save it by innocent means. St. Paul did neither
the one nor the other ; he availed himself of an
altar wliich he had found in the city, inscribed to
the unknown God, and pleaded that he did not pro-
pose to them the worship of any new God, but
only explain to them one whom their government
had already received : " Whom therefore ye igno-
rantly worship, him declare I unto you." By tliis
he avoided the law, and escaped being condemned
by the Areopagus without departiug in the least
from the truth of the gospel, or violatiug the honor
of God. An admirable proof, in my opinion, of the
good sense with which he acted, and one that
shows there was no mixture of fanaticism in his
religion.

Compare with this the conduct of Francis of



CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 191

Assisi, of Ignatius Loyola, and other enthusiasts
sainted by Rome, it will be found the reverse of
St. Paul's. " He wished indeed to die and be with
Christ ;" but such a wish is no proof of melancholy,
or of enthusiasm ; it only proves his conviction of
the divine truths he preached, and of the happiness
laid up for him in those blessed abodes which had
been shown to him even in this life. Upon the
whole, neither in his actions, nor in the instructions
he gave to those under his charge, is there any
tincture of melancholy ; which yet is so essential
a characteristic of enthusiasm, that I have scarce
ever heard of any enthusiast, ancient or modern,
in whom some very evident marks of it did not
appear.

As to ignorance, which is another ground of en-
thusiasm, St. Paul was so far from it, that he
appears to have been master not of the Jewish
learning alone, but of the Greek. And this is one
reason why he is less liable to the imputation of
having been an enthusiast than the other apostles,
though none of them were such any more than he,
as may by other arguments be invincibly proved.

I have mentioned credulity as another character-
istic and cause of enthusiasm, which, that it was
not in St. Paul, the history of his life undeniably
shows. For on the contrary, he seems to have
been slow and hard of belief in the extremest de-



192. CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL.

gree, having paid no regard to all the miracles
done by our Saviour, the fame of which he could
not be a stranger to, as he lived in Jerusalem, nor
to that signal one done after his resurrection, and
in his name, by Peter and John, upon the lame
man at the beautiful gate of the temple ; nor to the
evidence given in consequence of it by Peter, in
presence of the high-priest, the rulers, elders, and
scribes, that " Christ was raised from the dead."
Acts 3. He must also have known that when all
the apostles had been shut up in the common
prison, and the high-priest, the council, and all the
senate of the children of Israel, had sent their
officers to bring them before them, the officers
came and found them not in prison, but returned
and made this report: "The prison truly found
we shut with all safety, and the keepers standing
without before the doors ; but when we had open-
ed, we found no man within," And that the coun-
cil was immediately told, that " the men they had
put into prison were standing in the temple, and
teaching the people." And that being brought
from thence before the council, they had spoken
these memorable words : " We ought to obey God
rather than men. The God of our fathers raised
up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.
Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a
Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to



CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 193

Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we arc his
witnesses of these things ; and so is also the Holy
Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey
him." Acts 5 : 18-32. All this he resisted, and
was consenting to the murder of Stephen, who
preached the same tiling, and evinced it by mira-
cles. Acts 8:1. So that his mind, far from being
disposed to a credulous faith, or a too easy recep-
tion of any miracle worked in proof of the Chris-
tian rehgion, appears to have been barred against
it by the most obstinate prejudices, as much as
any man's could possibly be ; and from hence we
may fairly conclude, that nothing less than the
irresistible evidence of his own senses, clear from all
possibihty of doubt, could have overcome his un-
belief.

Vanity or self-conceit is another circumstance that,
for the most part, prevails in the character of an
enthusiast. It leads men of a warm temper, and
religious turn, to think themselves worthy of the
special regard and extraordinary favors of God ;
and the breath of that inspiration to which they
pretend is often no more than the wind of this
vanity, which puffs them up to such extravagant
imaginations. This strongly appears in the writ-
ings and lives of some enthusiastical heretics ; in
the Mystics, both ancient and modern ; in many
founders of orders and saints, both male and fe-

Infidelity. 13



194 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL.-

male, among the Papists, in several Protestant
sectaries of the last age, and even in some at the
present time.* All the divine communications,
illuminations, and ecstacies to which they have
pretended, evidently sprung from much self-con-
ceit, working together with the vapors of melan-
choly upon a warm imagination. And this is one
reason, besides the contagious nature of melan-
choly, or fear, that makes enthusiasm so very
catching among weak minds. Such are most
strongly disposed to vanity ; and when they see
others pretend to extraordinary gifts, are apt to
flatter themselves that they may partake of them
as well as those whose merit they think no more
than their own. Vanity, therefore, may justly be
deemed a principal source of enthusiasm. But that
St. Paul was as free from it as any man, I think
may be gathered from all that we see in his writ-
ings, or know of his life. Throughout his epistles
there is not one word that savors of vanity ; nor
is any action recorded of him in which the least
mark of it appears.

In liis epistle to the Ephesians, he calls himself

* See the account of Montanus and his followers, the writ-
ings of the counterfeit Dionysius the Areopagite, Santa
Theresa, St. Catherine of Sienna, Madame Bourignon, the
lives of St. Francis of Assisi, and Ignatius Loyola ; see also
an account of the lives of George Fox, and of Rice Evans.



CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 195

" less than the least of all saints." Eph. 3 : 8.
And to the Corinthians he says, he is "the least
of the apostles, and not meet to be called an apos-
tle, because he had persecuted the church of God."
1 Cor, 15 : 9. In his epistle to Timothy he says,
" This is a faithful saying; and worthy of all accep-
tation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners ; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for
this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus
Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a
pattern to them which should hereafter believe on
him to Ufe everlasting." 1 Tim. 1 : 15, 16.

It is true, indeed, that in another epistle he tells
the Corinthians that he "was not a whit behind
the very chiefest apostles." 2 Corinthians, 11 : 5.
But the occasion which lirew from him these words
must be considered. A false teacher by faction
and calumny had brought his apostleship to be in
question among the Corinthians. Against such an
attack, not to have asserted his apostolical dignity,
would have been a betraying of the office and duty
committed to him by God. He was therefore con-
strained to do himself justice, and not let down
that character, upoa the authority of which the
whole success and efficacy of his ministry among
them depended. But how did he do it ? Not with
that wantonness which a vain man indulges when
he can get any opportunity of commending himself:



196 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL.

not with a pompous detail of all the amazing mira-
cles which he had performed in different parts of
the world, though he had so fair an occasion of
doing it ; but with a modest and simple exposition
of his abundant labors and suffering in preaching
the gospel, and barely reminding them, that "the
signs of an apostle had been wrought ammig the,m
in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty
deeds." 2 Cor. 12 : 12. Could he say less than
this? Is not such boasting humility itself^ And
yet for this he makes many apologies, expressing
the greatest uneasiness in being obliged to sjicak
thus of himself, even in his own vindication. 2 Cor.
11 : 1-16 ; 19-30. When, in the same epistle, and
for the same purpose, he mentions the vision he
had of heaven, how modestly docs he do it. Not
in his own name, but in the third person : " I knew
a man in Christ, etc., caught up into the third
heaven." 2 Cor. 12 : 2. And immediately after
he adds, "But now I forbear, lest any man should
think of me above that which he seeth me to be,
or that he heareth of me." 2 Cor. 12 : 6. How con-
trary is this to a spirit of vanity ; how different
from the practice of enthusiastic pretenders to rap-
tures and visions, who never think they can dwell
long enough upon those subjects, but fill whole
volumes with their accounts of them. Yet St. Paul
is not satisfied with th's forbearance ; he adds the



CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 197

confession of some infirmity, which he tells the
Corinthians was given to him as an alloy, that he
"might not be above measure exalted through the
abundance of his revelations." 2 Cor. 12 : t. I
would also observe, that he says this rapture, or
vision of paradise, happened to him above fourteen
years before. Now, had it been the effect of a mere
enthusiastical fancy, c^n it be supposed that in so
long a period of time he would not have had many
more raptures of the same kind? would not his
imagination have been perpetually carrying him to
heaven, as we find St. Theresa, St. Bridget, and»
St. Catharine were carried by theirs ? And if van-
ity had been predominant in him, would he have
remained fourteen years in absolute silence upon
so great a mark of the divine favor ? No ; we
should certainly have seen his epistles filled with
nothing else but long accounts of these visions,
conferences with angels, with Christ, with God Al-
mighty, mystical unions with God, and all that we
read in the works of those sainted enthusiasts
whom I have mentioned before. But he only
mentions this vision in answer to the false teacher
who had disputed his apostolical pov/er, and com-
prehends it all in three sentences, with many ex-
cuses for being compelled to make any mention of
it at all. 2 Cor. 12 : 1-11. Nor does he take any
merit to himself, even from the success of those



198 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL.

apostolical labors wliich he principally boasts of in
his epistle. For in a former one to the same church
he writes thus : ''Who then is Paul, and who is
Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even
as the Lord gave to every man ? I have planted,
Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So
then, neither is he that planteth any thing, neither
he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase."
And in another place of the same epistle he says,
"By the grace of God I am w^hat I am : and his
grace which was bestowed upon me w^as not in
•vain ; but I labored more abundantly than the}^ all :
yet not I, hut the grace of God ichich was with nieP
1 Cor. 15 : 10.

I think it needless to give more instances of the
modesty of St. Paul. Certain I am not one can be
given that bears any color of vanity, or that vanity
in particular which so strongly appears in all enthu-
siasts, of setting their imaginary gifts above those
virtues w^hich make the essence of true religion,
and the real excellency of a good man, or in the
Scripture phrase, of a saint. In his first epistle to
the Corinthians he has these words: "Though I
speak wnth the tongues of men and of angels, and
have not charity, I am become as sounding brass,
or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift
of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all
knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I



CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 199

could remove mountains, and have not charity, I
am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor, and tiiough I give my body to be
burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me noth-
ing." 1 Cor. 13 : 2-4. Is this the language of
enthusiasm ? Did ever enthusiast prefer that uni-
versal benevolence which comprehends- all moral
virtues, and which, as appears by the following
verses, is meant by charity here ; did ever enthu-
siast, I say, prefer thaf benevolence to faith and to
miracles, to those religious opinions which he had
embraced, and to those supernatural graces and
gifts which he imagined he had acquired, nay, even
to the merit of martyrdom ? Is it not the genius
of enthusiasm to set moral virtues infinitely below
the merit of faith ; and of all moral virtues, to value
that least which is most particularly enforced by
St. Paul, a spirit of candor, moderation, and peace ?
Certainly neither the temper, nor the opinions of a
man subject to fanatical delusions, are to be found
in this passage ; but it may be justly concluded,
that he who could esteem the value of charity so
much above miraculous gifts, could not have pre-
tended to any such gifts, if he had them not in
reality.

Since, then, it is manifest from the foregoing ex-
amination, that in St. Paul's disposition and charac-



200 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL/

ter those qualities do not occur which seem to be
necessary to form an enthusiast, it must be reason-
able to conclude he was none. But allowing, for
argument's sake, that all those qualities were to
be found in him, or that the heat of his temper
alone could be a sufficient foundation to support
such a suspicion, I shall endeavor to prove that he
COULD NOT HAVE IMPOSED ON HIMSELF by any power of
enthusiasm, either in regard to the miracle that
caused his conversion, or to the consequential
effects of it, or to some other circumstances which
he bears testimony to in his epistles.

The power of imagination in enthusiastical minds
is no doubt very strong, but it always acts in con-
formity to the opinions imprinted upon it at the
time of its working, and can no more act against
them, than a rapid river can carry a boat against
the current of its own stream. Now, nothing can
be more certain than that, when Saul set out for
Damascus, with an authority from the chief priests
"to bring the Christians which were there, bound
to Jerusalem," Acts 9 : 2, an authority soHcited by
himself, and granted to him at his own earnest de-
sire, his mind was strongly possessed with opinions
against Christ and liis followers. To give those
opinions a more active force, his passions at that
time concurred, being inflamed in the highest de-
gree by the irritating consciousness of his past con-



CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 201

duct towards them, the pride of supporting a part
he had voluntarily engaged in, and the credit he
found it procured him among the chief priests and
rulers, whose commission he bore.

If in such a state and temper of mind, an enthu-
siastical man had imagmed he saw a vision from
heaven denouncing the anger of God against the
Christians, and commanding him to persecute them
without any mercy, it might be accounted for by
the natural power of enthusiasm. But that, in the
very instant of his being engaged in the fiercest
and hottest persecution against them, no circum-
stance having happened to change his opinions, or
alter the bent of his disposition, he should at once
imagine hunself called by a heavenly vision to be
the apostle of Christ, whom but a moment before
he deemed an impostor and a blasphemer, that had
been justly put to death on the cross, is in itself
wholly incredible, and so far from being a probable
effect of enthusiasm, that just the contrary effect
must have been naturally produced by that cause.
The warmth of Jiis temper carried him violently
another way ; and whatever delusions his imagina-
tion could raise to impose on his reason, must have
been raised at that time agreeable to the notions
imprinted upon it, and by which it was heated to a
degree of enthusiasm not in direct contradiction to all
those notions, while they remained in their full force.



202 CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL.

This is so clear a proposition, that I might rest
the whole argument entirely upon it ; but still
further to show that this vision could not be a
phantom of St. Paul's own creatmg, I beg leave to
observe, that he was not alone when he saw it;
there were many others in company^ whose minds
were no better disposed than his to the Christian
faith. Could it be possible, that the imaginations
of all these men should at the same time be so
strangely affected as to make them believe that
they saw a great light shining about them, above the
brightness of the sun at noonday, and heard the sound
of a voice from heaven, though not the words which it
spoke, Acts 9:3; 22 : 9 ; when in reality they neither
saw nor heard any such thing ? Could they be so
infatuated with this conceit of their fancy as to fall
down together with Saul, and be speechless through
fear. Acts 26 : 14 ; 9 : 1 ; when nothing had happened
extraordinary either to them or to him ? Especially,
considering that this apparition did not happen in
the night, when the senses are more easily im-
posed upon, but at mid-day. If. a sudden frenzy
had seized upon Saul,' from any distemper of body
or mind, can we suppose his whole company, men
of different constitutions and understandings, to
have been at' once affected in the same manner
with him, so that not the distemper alone, but the
effects of it should exactly agree ? If all had gone



CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 203

mad together, would not the frenzy of some have
taken a different turn, and presented to them dif-
ferent objects ? This supposition is so contrary to
nature and all possibility, that unbelief must find
some other solution, or give up the point.

I shall suppose then, in order to try to account
for this vision without a miracle, that as Saul and
his company wxre journeying along hi their way
to Damascus, an extraordinary meteor did really
happen, which cast a great light, as some meteors
will do, at which they, being affrighted, fell to the
ground in the manner related. This might be pos-
sible ; and fear, grounded on ignorance of such
phenomena, might make them imagine it to be a
vision of God. Nay, even the voice or sound they
heard in the ah*, might be an explosion attending
this meteor ; or at least there are those who would
rather recur to such a supposition as this however
incredible, than acknowledge the miracle. But how