inflict on themselves. His holinefs only confifted in the fimplicity of a good life, and the unwearied performance of thofe apoftolical duties to which he was called. The fufferings he met with on that account he cheerfully bore and even rejoiced in them for the love of Chrift Jefus, 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 inftances of his having used the best methods that prudence could fuggeft, to efcape danger, and fhun perfecution, whenever it could be done without betraying the duty of his office, or the honour of God.*

* A remarkable instance of this appears in his conduct among the Athenians. There was at Athens a law which made it capital to introduce or teach any new gods in their state (1). Therefore when Paul was preaching Jesus and the resurrection to the Athenians, some of them carried him. before the court of Areopagus, (the ordinary judge of criminal matters, and in a particular manner entrusted 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 life, and an enthusiast would have lost his life without trying to save it by innocent means. St. Paul did neither the one nor the other; he availed himself of an altar which he had found in the city, inscribed to the unknown God, and pleaded that he did not propose to them the worship of any new god, but only explained to them one whom their govern

Compare with this the conduct of Francis of Affifi, of Ignatius Loyola, and other enthufiafts fainted by Rome, it will be found the reverfe of St. Paul's. "He wifhed indeed to die, and be with Christ;" but fuch 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 bleffed abodes which had been fhewn to him even in this life. Upon the whole, neither in his actions, nor in the inftructions he gave to thofe under his charge, is there any tincture of melancholy, which yet is fo effential a characteristic of enthufiafm, that I have scarce ever heard of any enthusiast ancient or modern, in whom fome very evident marks of it did not ap

pear.

As to ignorance, which is another ground of enthusiasm, St. Paul was fo far from it,

ment had already received; whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, bim declare I unto you. By this he avoided the law, and escaped being condemned by the Areopagus, without departing in the least from the truth of the gospel, or violating the honour of God. An admirable proof in my opinion, of the good sense with which he acted, and one that shews there was no mixture of fanaticism in his religion!

(1) Acts xvii. & Josephus contra Apion, lib. ii. ch. 7.

that he appears to have been mafter not of the Jewish learning alone, but of the Greek. And this is one reason why he is lefs liable to the imputation of having been an enthusiast than the other apostles, tho' none of them were fuch no more than he, as may by other arguments be invincibly proved.

I have mentioned credulity as another characteristic aud caufe of enthusiasm, which that it was not in St. Paul the hiftory of his life undeniably fhews. For, on the contrary, he feems to have been flow and hard of belief in the extremeft degree, 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 Jerufalem, nor to that fignal one done after his refurrection, 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 confequence of it by Peter, in prefence of the high priest, the rulers, elders and fcribes, that Christ was raised, from the dead, Acts iii. He muft alfo have known, that when all the apostles had been fhut up in the common prifon, and the high priest, the council, and all the fenate

of the children of Ifrael had fent their officers to bring them before them, the officers came and found them not in prison, but returned, and made this report: "The prifon truly found we fhut with all fafety, and the keepers standing without before the doors, but when we had opened we found no man within." And that the council was immediately told, that the men they had put in prifon were standing in the temple, and teaching the people. And that being brought from thence before the council, they had spoke these memorable words, We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raifed up Jefus, whom ye flew and banged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and Saviour, for to give repentance to Ifrael, and forgiveness of fins. And we are his witneffes of these things, and fo is also the Holy Ghost, whom God has given to them that obey him. A&ts v. 18, 21, 22, 23, 25, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32. All this he refiited, and was confenting to the murder of Stephen, who preached the fame thing, and evidenced it by miracles, Acts viii. 1. So that his mind, far from being difpofed to a credulous faith, or a too easy recep

tion of any miracle worked in proof of the christian religion, appears to have been barred against it by the moft obftinate prejudices, as much as any man's could poffibly be; and from hence we may fairly conclude, that nothing less than the irrefiftible evidence of his own fenfes, clear from all poffibility of doubt, could have overcome his unbelief.

Vanity or felf-conceit is another circumftance that for the most part prevails in the character of an enthufiaft. It leads men of a warm temper, and religious turn, to think themselves worthy of the special regard, and extraordinary favours of God; and the breath of that infpiration to which they pretend is often no more than the wind of this vanity, which puffs them up to fuch extravagant imaginations. This ftrongly appears in the writings and lives of fome enthufiaftical heretics, in the Myftics both ancient and modern, in many founders of Orders and Saints both male and female, among the Papifts, in feveral Proteftant fectaries of the laft age. All the divine communications, illuminations, and ecftacies to which they have pretended,