tion to the lame, or life to the dead: would that conceit of his make the blind fee, the lame walk, or the dead revive? And if it did not, how could he persist in fuch an opinion, or, upon his perfifting, efcape being fhut up for a madman? But fuch a madness could not infect so many at once, as St. Paul fuppofes at Corinth to have been endowed with the gift of healing, or any other miraculous powers.One of the miracles which they pretended to was the fpeaking of languages they never had learned: and St. Paul fays, he poffeffed this gift more than them all, 1 Cor. xiv. 18. If this had been a delufion of fancy, if they had spoke only gibberish, or unmeaning founds, it would foon have appeared, when they came to make ufe of it where it was neceffary, viz. in converting of those who understood not any language they naturally fpoke. St. Paul particularly, who travelled fo far on that defign, and had fuch occafion to ufe it, muft foon have discovered, that this imaginary gift of the fpirit was no gift at all, but a ridiculous inftance of frenzy, which had poffeffed both him and them. But, if thofe he fpoke to in di

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vers tongues understood what he said, and were converted to Chrift by that means, how could it be a delufion? Of all the miracles recorded in fcripture, none are more clear from any poffible imputation of being the effect of an enthufiaftic imagination than this for how could any man think that he had it, who had it not; or, if he did think fo, not be undeceived when he came to put his gift to the proof? Accordingly, I do not find fuch a power to have been ever pretended to by any enthufiaft ancient or modern.

If then St. Paul, and the church of Corinth, were not deceived, in afcribing to themfelves this miraculous power, but really had it, there is the ftrongest reafon to think, that neither were they deceived in the other powers to which they pretended, as the fame fpirit which gave them that, equally could, and probably would, give them the others, to ferve the fame holy ends for which that was given. And, by confequence, St. Paul was no enthufiaft in what he wrote upon that head to the Corinthians, nor in other fimilar inftances where he afcribes to himself, or to the churches he founded, any fupernatural

graces and gifts. Indeed, they who would impute to imagination effects fuch as thofe which St. Paul imputes to the power of God attending his miffion, muft afcribe to imagination the fame omnipotence which he afcribes to God.

Having thus, I flatter myself, fatisfactorily fhewn, that St. Paul could not be an enthufiaft, who, by the force of an overheated imagination, imposed on himfelf; I am next to enquire, whether he was deceived by the fraud of others, and whether all that he faid of himself can be imputed to the power of that deceit ?But I need fay little to fhew the abfurdity of this fuppofition. It was morally impoffible for the difciples of Chrift to conceive fuch a thought, as that of turning his perfecutor into his apoftle, and to do this by a fraud, in the very inftant of his greatest fury against them and their Lord. But could they have been fo extravagant as to conceive fuch a thought, it was phyfically impoffible for them to execute it in the manner we find his converfion to have been effected. Could they produce a light in the air, which at mid-day was brighter than that of the fun? Could they make

Saul hear words from out of that light, Acts xxii. 9. which were not heard by the reit of the company? Could they make him blind for three days after that vifion, and then make fcales fall off from his eyes, and restore him to his fight by a word? Beyond difpute no fraud could do thefe things; but much lefs ftill could the fraud of others produce thofe miracles fubfequent to his converfion, in which he was not paffive, but active; which he did himfelf, and appeals to in his epiftles as proofs of his divine miffion. I fhall then take it for granted, that he was not deceived by the fraud of others, and that what he faid of himself cannot be imputed to the power of that deceit, no more than to wilful impofture, or to enthufiafm; and then it follows, that what he related to have been the caufe of his converfion, and to have happened in confequence of it, did all really happen; and therefore the christian religion is a divine revelation.

That this conclufion is fairly and undeniably drawn from the premises, I think must be owned, unless fome probable cause can be affigned to account for those facts fo authentically related in the Acts of the

Apoftles, and attefted in his epiftles by St. Paul himfelf, other than any of thofe which I have confidered; and this I am confident cannot be done. It muft be therefore accounted for by the power of God. That God fhould work miracles for the establishment of a most holy religion, which, from the infuperable difficulties that stood in the way of it, could not have established itfelf without fuch affiftance, is no way repugnant to human reafon: but that without any miracle fuch things fhould have happened, as no adequate natural caufes can be affigned for, is what human reason cannot believe.

To impute them to magic, or the power of dæmons, (which was the refource of the Heathens and Jews against the notoriety of the miracles performed by Chrift and his difciples) is by no means agreeable to the notions of thofe, who in this age difbelieve Christianity. It will therefore be needlefs to fhew the weaknefs of that fuppofition: but that fuppofition itself is no. inconfiderable argument of the truth of the facts. Next to the apoftles and evangelifts, the ftrongeft witneffes of the undeniable force of that truth, are Celfus