Deity did not exist,-for the reference is not to, religion, not to the will of the Deity,-such morality would be acceptable to society, because to society it is profitable. But how can action be pleasing to God in which there is no purpose of blessing him? How can any conduct be acceptable to God, to whom it renders no homage, to whom it gives no glory? Scripture abounds with every motive to obedience, both rational and spiritual. But it would achieve but half its work, had it stopped there. As peaceable creatures, we require not only inducements to obedience, but a heart, and a power, and a will to obey; assistance is as necessary as motives; power as indispensable as precept;-all which requisites are not only promised by the word, but conferred by the Spirit of God. CHAP. VI. The Disinterestedness of Saint Paul. THE perfection of the Christian character does not so much consist in this excellence, or that talent, or the other virtue; in the performance of some right action, or the abstinence from some wrong one, as in the determination of the whole soal for God. This generous surrender of self, whether of the sensual or of the intellectual self is the unequivocal test of a heart consecrated by man to his Maker. He has no bye-ends, no secret reserves. His intention single, his way is straight forward; he keeps his end in view without deflection, and he pursues it without weariness. Saint Paul and his associates were the first moral instructors who preached not themselves. Perhaps there is scarcely a more striking proof of the grandeur of his spirit, than his indifference to popularity. This is an elevation of character, which not only no Pagan sage has reached, but which not every Christian teacher has been found to attain. This successful apostle was so far from placing himself at the head of a sect, that he took pains to avoid it. In some subsequent instructors, this vanity was probably the first seed of heresy; the sound of Ebionites and Marcionites would as much gratify the ear of the founders, as bringing over proselytes to their opinions would delight their feelings. Paul would have rejected with horror any such distinction. He who earnestly sought to glorify his Master, would naturally abase himself. With a holy indignation he asks, 'What then is Paul, and what is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed?' He points out to them the littleness of such exclusive fondness in men, who had such great objects in view-overvalue not Paul or Apollos as yours, for all things are yours.' It is impossible not to stop a moment, in order to notice the fine structure of the period to which these words are an introduction. It would be difficult to find a more finished climax: Let no man glory in men; for all things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas; or the world, or life, or death; or things present or things to come; all are yours, and your are Christ's and Christ is God's.* Knowing the proneness of human nature to this party spirit, he takes pains to prevent excessive individual attachments. There is no instance of a man so distinguished, so little distinguishing himself. He chooses to merge himself in the general cause, to sink himself in the mass of faithful ministers.-This is particularly evident in the beginning of many of his Epistles, by his humility in attaching, to his own, some name of far inferior note, as his associate in the work;- Paul and Sosthenes'-' Paul and Sylvanus'-Timotheus our brother;'-and in writing to the Thessalonians, he connects both the latter names with his own. He laboured to make the people bear in mind that the apostles were the disseminators, not the authors, of the faith which they preached. Miraculous as his conversion had been, superior as were his endowments, favoured as he was by Divine inspiration, he not only did not assume, but he rejected, any distinction, and only included himself among the teachers of their common Christianity. Thus he bequeathed to his successors a standing pattern of humility, and of the duty of ascribing their talents, their application, and their success, to him, from whom whatever advantages they possess, are derived. Saint Paul did not rank, on the one hand, with those liberal modern philosophers, who assert that virtue is its own reward; nor on the other, with those abstracted mystics, who profess an unnatural disinterestedness, and a superhuman disdain of any recompence but that which they find in the pure love of God. He was not above accepting heaven, not for any works of righte ousness which he had done, but as the free gift of God through the righteousness that had been wrought for him. He was not too proud and independent to confess, that the nearness of heavenly glory was with him a most animating principle. This hope cheered his fainting spirit; this prospect not only regulated, but almost annihilated his sense of suffering. Invisible things were made so clear to the eye of faith; remote things were brought so near to one, who always kept up in his mind a comparative estimate of the brevity of this afflicted life, and the duration of eternal happiness; faith so made the future present; love so made the labour light; the earnest of the Spirit was given him in such a measure;—that mortality seemed, even here, to be swallowed up of life. His full belief in the immediate presence of God in that world in which he was assured, that light, purity, holiness, and happiness would be enjoyed in their most consummate perfection, not only sustained his hope, but exhilirated his heart. If it does not support us under our inferior trials in the same manner, it is because we have rather a nominal than a practical faith, rather an assenting than an obeying conviction; it is because our eyes are not fixed on the same objects, nor our hearts warmed with the same affections; it is because our attention is directed so sparingly to that Being, and that state, to 1 Corinth. iii. 22. which his was supremely devoted. Ought we, flock; the agriculturist by the profits of his to complain, that we enjoy not the same sup- plough. ports, nor the same consolations, while we do not put ourselves in the same way to obtain them? But though Paul was no disciple of that metaphysical theology, which makes such untaught distinctions, as to separate our love of God from any regard to our own beatitude; though he might have been considered a selfish man, by either of the classes to whom allusion has been made, yet true disinterestedness was eminently his characteristic. Another instance of a human being so entirely devoid of selfishness, one who never took his own ease, or advantage, or safety, or credit, into the account, cannot be found. If he considered his own sufferings, he considered them for the sake of his friends. Whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation.' The only joy he seemed to derive, when he was 'pressed out of measure, above strength,' was, that others might be comforted and encouraged by his sufferings. So also of his consolations; the principal joy which he derived from them was, that others might be animated by them. This anxiety for the proficiency of his converts, in preference to his own safety; his disposition to regard every object in due subjection to the great design of his ministry; his humble, vigilant care, while exulting in the hope of an eternal crown, that he might not himself be cast away;'-form, in combination with the rest of his conduct, a character which we must allow has not only no superior, but no parallel. The union of generosity and self-denial, and without the one the other is imperfect, was peculiarly exemplified in our apostle.-His highminded independence on man had nothing of the monkish pride of poverty, for he knew how to abound;' nor was it the worldly pusillanimous dread of it, for he knew how to want.' In vindicating the right of the ecclesiastical body to an equitable provision, as a just requital of their labours, he nobly renounces all claim to any participation for himself. I have used none of these things! This wise and dignified ab stinence in the original formation of a church, which must be founded, before provision can be made for its continuance, while it maintained the dignity of his own disinterestedness, enabled him with the better grace, and more powerful effect, to plead the legitimate claims of her ministers; and to insist, that it was the duty of the people to supply their temporal things to those from whom they received ther spiritual things. While he himself refused to claim them, lest it should be made a pretence for hindering the Gospel, he yet looked forward with an eye of kindness and justice, in thus stipulating, as it were, for the comfort of the Christian ministers to the end of the world. He strengthens his argument by an allusion to a humane practice in the old law, by which even the ox was allowed to participate in that plenty which his labour assisted to procure; then, by a sudden generous interjection, Doth God take care for oxen ?' he intimates that this provision of mercy for the beast, was emblematical of this justice, for it scarcely amounted to mercy,-which ought to secure to every minister a fair remuneration for the sacrifice he has made of case and profit, by addicting himself to the service of the altar. After, however, having declared that he renounced all reward for himself, fearing that this assurance might be construed into an insinua. tion of his wish to receive the emolument which he pretended to refuse, with a noble disdain of so mean an expedient, he protests that it would be better for him to die of want, rather than, by receiving pecuniary recompence, to rob himself of his honest claim to the consciousness of disinterested services. Saint Paul's conduct in these instances affords something of the same fine climax in action, with that which Jesus expressed in words, when he sent to the Baptist the proofs of his divinity. After enumerating his miracles of love, he closes with declaring, as the highest possible instance of that love, that the Gospel was preached-but to what class? to the poor! From the words of Christ, turn to the life of Paul. The persecution of his enemies, the fatigue of his travels, the falsehood of his brethren, the labour of instructing so many nations, of converting so many cities, of founding so many churches,-what is his relaxation from such labours, what his refreshment from such perils, what his descent from such heights?-Working with his own hands for his daily bread, and for the relief of the poor. The profane critic may call this the art of sinking, the Christian will deem it the noblest point of elevation. Might not the apostle well say, 'Be ye followers of me, as I am of Christ?' How has the world stood in just admiration of the generous conduct of Cincinnatus! Tired with the fatigues of war, and satiated with the glories of conquest, he very rationally, and (as he refused all reward) it must be owned very disinterestedly, withdrew to his country house, from which he had been reluctantly torn. He withdrew to enjoy, in the bosom of his family, the advantages of agriculture and the pleasures of retirement. To such a retreat would Paul have flown with delight, had he not known that, for him it was not a duty. He, unlike the Dictator, had no intervals of unmolested claim; it was not in the quiet of repose, but in the very midst of perils and of persecutions, that he laboured for his own support. In a long expostulatory argument, illustrated It cannot be denied, that his whole consistent by a variety of analogous instances, he shows practice furnished this sure criterion of a faiththe propriety of a provision being made for those ful minister,-that he enjoined no self-denial, who dedicated themselves to the spiritual in- preached no mortification, recommended no exstruction of others :-the warrior engaged in the ertion to others, of which he gave not himself a defence of his country is supported at the public shining example. While he pointed out to his expense; the planter by the produce of his vine-associates the duty of approving themselves yard; the feeder of a flock by the milk of his ministers of God in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses,' he was not himself lying on a bed of roses; he was not making light of sorrows, of which he was not personally partaking; he did not deal out orders for the patient endurance of sufferings the bitterness of which he had not tasted. He had largely shared in the stripes and imprisonments which it was possible some of his followers might be speedily called to endure. At the same time, he furnishes them with cautions drawn from his own invariable prudence, when he exhorted them to give no offence. This was not altogether to avoid personal discredit, though that should be carefully guarded against, so much as to preserve the character of religion itself from the obloquy she would sustain from the faults of her disciples. His great object why the ministry should not be blamed, was because he knew how ineffectual all teach ing would be rendered, if the teacher committed the faults he reprehended, or even exercised a religious vocation in an imprudent manner. In another place, after recapitulating some of the hardships which himself and his companions were suffering, up to the very moment when he was describing them,-their hunger and thirst, their nakedness and buffeting, deprived of domestic comforts, destitute of a settled home; having shown what was their treatment, he proceeds to show what was their temper under it: -Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, we entreat. This is indeed practical Christianity! After enumerating the trials to which they may be exposed, he sets over against them a catalogue of the qualities by which they should be distinguished, pureness, knowledge, kindness; thus encouraging them to patience by the integrity of their motives; and to the adornment of their calling, by the skilfulness and affection with which they exercised it He tempers their sorrows and difficulties, by interspersing with the recital those Divine consolations, from which alone genuine cheerfulness can be derived. In this enumeration he had not to rack his invention for precedents; he had only to make a transcript of the state of his own mind, and the tenor of his own practice, to give them a complete delineation of the ministerial character. While he encourages them to perseverance by the success which might attend their labours, he prepares them also to expect reproach; mingling good and evil report as the probable lot of every devoted servant of Christ. When he was setting out from Ephesus for Jerusalem, bound in the spirit, not knowing the things that should befal him,' the indefinite yet certain anticipation of calamity which he expressed, might have been interpreted into the pusillanimous forebodings of his own apprehensive mind: he guards against this suspicion by informing us, it was by the unerring inspiration of the Holy Ghost, he was assured, that bonds and afflictions awaited him in every city;' so that he knew infallibly, wherever he went, it was only a change of place, not of peril. Yet was this conviction so far from arresting his purpose, so far from inclining him to hesitate, or not to persist in the path of duty because it was the path of danger, that his mighty faith converted duty into choice, elevated duty into joy. Hear his triumphant proclamation: But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear, so that I may finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God.' It is not the nature of Christianity to convert a man of sense into a driveller; if it make him self-abased in the sight of God, and in his own eyes, it does not oblige him to a renunciation of his just claims in civil society, nor to a base abjection in the sight of men. He is not desirous of honours which do not belong to him, but he does not despise those to which he has a lawful claim. The character of Paul, like the religion he taught, is manly, rational, ingenuous. This combination of dignity with humility, he uniformly presents to us. He always humbles, but never disparages himself. He, who on one occasion was the least of all saints,' was, on another, not a whit behind the chiefest of them.' He that was 'not worthy to be called an apostle,' would yet magnify his apostleship. He who would patiently endure injury and reproach, yet refused to be scourged contrary to law. He, who was illegally imprisoned at Philippi, accepted not the deliverance till the magis. trates themselves came in person to release him, a resolution not only due to his own innocence, but probably intended also to render the magistrates afraid of proceeding unjustly against other Christians. He, who could submit to live by the labour of his own hands, and to receive charity in his sickness, would vindicate his civil title to respect, and not only urge his right of Roman citizenship, but press his peculiar ground of superiority over the officer who would have contended with him, by declaring that his own freedom was not a purchase, but an inheritance. He who determined to know nothing but 'Jesus Christ, and him crucified,' could assert, when it became proper, his liberal education under a master in Israel. He, who was now lying at the foot of the cross, avowed that he had been bred at the feet of Gamaliel. He who was beating down the pride of 'gifts' in the assuming Corinthians, scrupled not to declare his own superiority in this very article, yet with an exclu sive ascription of the gift to the Giver. I thank my God, that I speak with more tongues than you all.'* To those who understand what Bishop Horseley calls the paradoxes of Christianity,' it will be perfectly intelligible, that one, who was so feelingly alive to the perception of sin, as to deplore that when he would do good, evil was present with him,' could also, in the integrity of his heart, boldly appeal to the Thessalonians for the purity of his own conduct, and that of his companions-you know how holily, and justly, and unblameably we have lived among you.' He was aware that contentions about practices and opinions comparatively insignificant, were generally the most vehemently and uncharitably carried on by men who are the most cold and indifferent in the defence of truths of the most * Acts, ch. 16. awful moment. Inflexible himself in every thing which was of vital importance, yet accommodating in trivial matters, about which men of narrow views pertinaciously contend, he shaped the course of his usefulness to the winding current of life, and the flexure of circumstances; and was ever on the watch to see how, by giving way in things indifferent, he might gain men to the great cause which he lived only to pro mote. does Saint Paul exhibit at once in his writings and his life!-In his writings he declares, in one short sentence, of all such principles, their condemnation is just.' In his life he suffered evil to extremity, that good might be produced; but never, under the most alluring pretence, did evil, or connived at it. He drew in no convert, by displaying only the pleasant side of Chris tianity. To bring forward the doctrine of the cross was his first object; though, since his time, to keep them out of sight has sometimes been thought a more prudent measure. But the Never was any sentiment more completely perverted, than that which is so expressive of the condescension that distinguishes his charac-political wisdom of the Jesuitical missionaries ter, I am all things to all men. The Latitu- failed as completely as the simple integrity of dinarian in principle or in morals, who would the apostle succeeded. not consider Paul's authority as paramount on any other occasion, eagerly pleads this text to justify his own accommodation to every thing that is tempting in interest, or seductive in appetite. This sentiment, which proceeded from a candour the most amiable, was, in the apostle, always governed by an integrity the most unbending. His arguments, it is true, were powerful, his motives attractive; but he never shrunk from the avowal, that they were drawn wholly from things unseen, future, eternal. To you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with his holy angels.' 'If we suffer with Christ, we shall be also glorified together.'-The sufferings of the present world are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed.' And in this view he is not afraid to speak of suffering, as a favour connected with faith. It is given unto them, in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe, but also to suffer for his sake. How powerful must have been the convictions of his faith, and the integrity of his heart, which could not only conquer prejudice the most inveterate, but could lead him to renounce every tion,-objects which were likely to have taken deep hold on a temper so fervent, a genius so active! He knew that the cause he was embracing would defeat all such expectations. He possibly might have advanced his fortune, certainly his reputation, under his Jewish masters, had he pursued those practices in which he was so hotly engaged, when he was so exceedingly mad against the Church of God. To what purpose did he make use of this maxim? That he might by all means save some.' Let those who justify its adoption by the sanction of Paul, employ it to the same end to which he employed it. But is it not frequently carried to a conceding length, to which he would never have carried it, to answer any pur pose; and is not the end itself often such as he would not have sought, even by the best means? To the perversion of this sentiment the fashionable doctrine of expediency may be imputed,-prospect of riches and power, fame and distinca doctrine not more corrupt in its principle, and dangerous in its results, than opposite to the whole bent and current of the apostles' views, as developed in his writings and in his practice. That hollow maxim, of doing evil that good may come, had indeed been adopted by some of the wisest Pagan legislators. Not only the pru. dent Numa pretended to Divine communications with his inspiring goddess, in order that his laws might be received with more reverence; What was the use which, in his new characeven the open hearted conqueror of Carthage ter, he made of his natural advantages? It was used to enter the Capitol alone, under pretence the same which he made of his supernatural of consulting the gods, that whatever enterprises graces. Did the one induce intellectual pride? he wished to recommend to the people, they Did the other inspire spiritual self-sufficiency? might believe them to be directed and approved Was it his aim to exalt the accomplished preachby their deities.-But nothing impedes the er? Was it not his only endeavour to magnify march of truth more than the offered assistance the crucified Saviour? He sought no civil of falseheod. Nothing is more injurious to a power, courted no ecclesiastical supremacy. He good cause than the attempt to help it forward conferred honour on Episcopacy by ordaining with fictitious or even doubtful additions. Some bishops, but took no rank himself. He interof the best cases,-cases corroborated by a thou-meddled with no party. All his interference sand indubitable facts,-have been injured for with governments was to teach the people to a time, by the detection of petty instances of obey them. misrepresentation, or mistake, or aggravation in ill-judging advocates. He had nothing to bias him at the time of his conversion, any more than afterwards. He emAfter the example of the illustrious Romans braced Christianity when at the height of its above recited, but with far less excuse, even discredit: in defending it, he was neither influ some weak Christians, in the second century, enced by the obstinacy of supporting a preconfancying that deceit might succeed where truth ceived opinion, nor the private motive of perhad failed, attempted by forgery to supply the sonal attachment. As he had not been a foldeficiencies of Scripture. Spurious Sybilline lower nor an acquaintance of Jesus, he had verses, under the reign of one of the Antonines, never been buoyed up with the hope of a place were imposed by fraud upon folly, as prophecies in his expected temporal kingdom. Had this of Christ, pretending to be as old as the Deluge. been the case, mere pride and pertinacity in so The attempt to mend perfection never answers. strong a character might have led him to adhere To these political impostures what a contrast to the falling cause, lest by deserting it he might be accused of disappointment in his hopes, or, pusillanimity in his temper. Was it probable then, that on any lower principle he would encounter every hazard, sacrifice every hope, annihilate every possibility of preferment, for the cause of a man, after his ignominious death, whom he had so fiercely opposed, when the danger was less alarming, and the hope less uncertain. His strong faith was fortified by those trials which would have subdued a weak one. His zeal increased with the darkness of his earthly prospects. What were his inducements? The glory of God. What was his reward? Bonds and imprisonment. When arrived at any fresh scene of peril, did he smooth his language to secure his safety?-Did he soften an unpalatable truth to attract upon false grounds? Did he practise any artifice to swell the catalogue of his proselytes? Did he take advantage of ignorance and idolatry, when acclamations met him? Did he court popularity when he refused divine honours? Did he not prefer his Master's crown of thorns to the garlands with which the priests of Jupiter would have crowned him? Is it not observable, that this offer of deification disturbed the serenity of his spirit more than all his injuries had done? Two remarks arise out of this circumstance. How little is popular acclamation any proof of the comparative excellence of the objects of acclaim; and how little is genuine grandeur of soul elated by it! Jesus, after all his miraculous deeds, as full of mercy as of power,-deeds repeatedly performed in his own country, and before the same spectators-never had divine honours paid him. While, for a single cure, Paul and his companions were instantly deified, though they rejected the homage with a holy indignation. Nothing could more fully prove their deep humility than that they bore the abuse and ill-treatment of the people with meekness; but when they would have worshipped them, they rent their clothes.' manifest in the juxta-position of things. In opening his Epistle to his converts at Rome, among whom were many Jews for whose benefit he wrote, he paints the moral character of the Pagan capital in the darkest colours. The fidelity of his gloomy picture is corroborated by an almost contemporary historian, who, though a Pagan and a countryman, paints it in still blacker shades, and without the decorum observed by Saint Paul. The representation here made of Roman vice, would be in itself sufficiently pleasing to the Jews; and it would be more so, when we observe, what is most worthy of observation, the nature of the charges brought against the Romans. As if the wisdom of God had been desirous of vindicating itself by the lips of Paul in the eyes of his own countrymen the Jews, the vices charged upon the Romans are exactly those which stand in opposition to the spirit of some one injunction of the Decalogue. Now, though the heathen writers were unacquainted with this code, yet the spontaneous breach of its statutes proved most clearly these statutes to have been suggested by the most correct foreknowledge of the evil propensities of our common nature. The universal violation of the law, even by those who knew it not, manifested the omniscience of the Lawgiver. And, let it be further remarked in this connection, that no exceptions could be taken against the justice of God, for animadverting on the breach of a law, which was not known: inasmuch as, so faithful was the law of Mount Sinai to the law of conscience, the revealed to the natural code of morals, that the Romans in offending one had offended both; in breaking unwittingly the Decalogue, they had knowingly rebelled against the law of conscience; they had sinned against the light of nature; they had stifled the suggestions of their better judgment; they had consciously abused natural mercies; they had confounded the distinctions of good and evil, of which they were not insensible. In fine, no principle short of the faith de-Their conscience bore them witness' that they scribed by our apostle in the eleventh of Hebrews, could have enabled him to sustain with such heroic firmness, the diversified sufferings alluded to in the twelfth of the second of Corinthians. Nothing short of that Divine support could have produced a disinterestedness so pure, a devotedness so sublime. The afflictions of the saints serve to prove the distinguished character of God's favour. The grace so eminently afforded to this apostle neither exempted him from sorrow, nor suffering, nor dangers, nor calumny, nor poverty, nor a violent death. That its results were in the opposite direction shows at once the intrinsic nature of the Divine favour, and the spirit in which it is received and acted upon by sincere Christians. CHAP. VII. violated many obvious duties, so that even these were without excuse.' The unconverted Jews would, doubtless, then feel no small pleasure in contemplating this hideous portrait of human crimes as without excuse, and would naturally be tempted, with their usual self-complacency, to turn it to their own advantage, and boastfully to thank God that they were not like other men, or even like these Romans. To check this unbecoming exultation, the apostle, with admirable dexterity, in the very next chapter t begins to pull down their high conceits. He presents them with a frightful picture of themselves, drawn from the life, and aggravated by a display of that superior light and knowledge which rendered their immorali ties far more inexcusable. To the catalogue of the vices which he had reprehended in the others, he adds that of self-sufficiency, arrogance, and harsh judgment, which formed so Saint Paul's prudence in his conduct towards distinguished a feature in the Pharisaic charac the Jews. THE judgment of Saint Paul is remarkably ter. Paul in this point shows the equity of |