SESS many and high requisites, to which she can make out no fair title. It would, however, be entirely superfluous to insist on her incompetency to the proper execution of such a work, on her deficiencies in ancient learning, Biblical criticism, and deep theological knowledge; because the sagacity of the reader would not fail to be beforehand with her avowal, in detecting them. It may, however, serve as some apology for the boldness of the present undertaking, that these volumes are not of a critical, but of a practical nature.

On the doctrinal portion, more especially, of Saint Paul's Epistles, such a multitude of admirable discourses have been composed, that to have attempted to add to their number, without reaching their excellence, would have been as unnecessary as it might have been presumptuous. On the practical part, also, much has been ably and usefully written. Dissertations, commentaries, treatises, and sermons, however, though of superior merit, have not worn out the subject; and elucidations of his writings, whether they relate to doctrine or to practice, cannot, in any point of view, be undertaken without exhibiting new proofs of those inestimable treasures they contain. They are a golden mine, in which the diligent workman, the deeper he digs, the more he will discover; the farther he examines, the more he will find. Rich veins, hitherto unheeded, will overpay his labours, will continue to pour out upon him their fresh abundance of precious ore. Even the present explorer, who had no skill to penetrate his depths, has been sometimes surprised at the opulence which lay upon the surface, and of which she had not before, perhaps, fully estimated the value.

There are, it is true, passages in the works of this great Apostle, (but they are of rare occurrence, and bear no proportion to such as are obvious,) which have been interpreted in a different and even contradictory manner by men, who, agreeing in the grand essentials of Christianity, may be allowed to differ on a few abstruse points, without any impeachment of the piety on either side. If one must be mistaken, both may be sincere. If either be wrong, both doubtless desire to be right; and, happily for mankind, we shall all be ultimately tried by a Judge, who is a searcher of the thoughts and intents of the heart; in whose sight the reciprocal exercise of Christian charity may be more acceptable than that entire uniformity of sentiment which would supersede the occasion of its exercise. What I know not, teach Thou me, is a petition which even the wisest are not too wise to offer; and they who have preferred it with the most effect, are, of all others, the persons who will judge the most tenderly of the different views, or unintentional misconceptions, of the opposite party.

That conquest in debate over a Christian adversary, which is achieved at the expense of the Christian temper, will always be dearly purchased; and, though a triumph so obtained may discomfit the opponent, it will afford no moral triumph to the conqueror.

Waving, therefore, both from disinclination and inability, whatever passages may be considered as controversial, the writer has confined herself to endeavour, though, it must be confessed, imperfectly and superficially, to bring forward St. Paul's character as a model for our general imitation, and his practical writings as a store-house for our general instruction; avoiding whatever might be considered as a ground for the discussion of any point not immediately tending to practical utility.

It may be objected to her plan, that it is not reasonable to propose for general imitation, a character so highly gifted, so peculiarly circumstanced, an inspired Apostle,-a devoted Martyr. But it is the principal design of these pages,-a design which it may be thought is too frequently avowed in them,-to show that our common actions are to be performed, and our common trials sustained, in somewhat of the same spirit and temper with those high duties and those unparalleled sufferings to which Saint Paul was called out; and that every Christian, in his measure and degree, should exhibit somewhat of the dispositions inculcated by that religion, of which the Apostle Paul was the brightest human example, as well as the most illustrious human teacher.

The writer is persuaded, that many read the Epistles of Saint Paul with deep reverence for the sta tion they hold in the Inspired Oracles, without considering that they are at the same time supremely excellent for their unequalled applicableness to life and manners; that many, while they highly respect the writer, think him too high for ordinary use. It has, therefore, been her particular object, in the present work, not indeed to diminish the dignity of the Apostle, but to diminish, in one sense, the distance at which we are apt to hold so exalted a model; to draw him into a more intimate connexion with ourselves; to let him down, as it were, not to our level, but to our familiarity. To induce us to resort to him, not only on the great demands and trying occurrences of life, but to bring both the wri. tings and the conduct of this distinguished Saint to mix with our common concerns; to incorporate the doctrines which he teaches, the principles which he exhibits, and the precepts which he enjoins, into our ordinary habits, into our every day practice; to consider him not only as the writer who has the most ably and successfully unfolded the sublime truths of our Divine religion, and as the instructor who has supplied us with the noblest system of the higher ethics, but who has even condescended to extend his code to the more minute exigences and relations of familiar life.

It will, perhaps, be objected to the writer of these pages, that she has shown too little method in her distribution of the parts of her subject, and too little system in her arrangement of the whole; that she has expatiated too largely on some points, passed over others too slightly, and left many unnoticed; that she has exhibited no history of the life, and observed no regular order in her reference to the actions of the Apostle. She can return no answer to these anticipated charges, but that, as she never aspired to the dignity of an expositor, so she never meant to enter into the details of the biographer. Formed, as they are, upon the most extensive views of the nature of man, it is no wonder that the writings of Saint Paul have been read with the same degree of interest, by Christians of every name, age, and nation. The principles they contain are, in good truth, absolute and universal: and whilst this circumstance renders them of general obligation, it enables us, even in the remotest generation, to judge of the skilfulness of his addresses to the understanding, and to feel the aptitude of his appeals to the heart.

To the candour of the reader,—a candour which, though perhaps she has too frequently tried, and too long solicited, she has, however, never yet failed to experience,-she commits this little work. If it should set one human being on the consideration of objects hitherto neglected, she will account that single circumstance, success;-nay, she will be reconciled even to failure, if that failure should stimulate some more enlightened mind, some more powerful pen, to supply, in a future work on the same subject, the deficiencies of which she has been guilty; to rectify the errore which sho may have committed; to rescue the cause which she may have injured.

Barley Wood, January 20, 1815.

AN ESSAY

ON THE CHARACTER AND PRACTICAL WRITINGS OF
SAINT PAUL.

CHAP. I.

Introductory remarks on the morality of Paganism, showing the necessity of the Chris

tian Revelation.

law of nature. If a collection could be made of all the moral precepts in the pagan world, many of which may be found in the Christian religion, that would not at all big

thority of the Lawgiver. Christianity, therefore, presents not only the highest perfections, but the surest standard of morals.

der, but that the world still stood as much in need of our Saviour, and of the morality be THE morality of a people necessarily par: taught. The law of the New Testament takes of the nature of their theology; and recommends itself to our regard by its exin proportion as it is founded on the know-cellence, and to our obedience by the auledge of the true God, in such proportion it tends to improve the conduct of man. The meanest Christian believer has here an advantage over the most enlightened heathen philosopher; for what he knows of the nture of God, arising chiefly from what he knows of Christ, and entirely from what is revealed in Scripture, he gains from those divine sources more clear and distinct views of the Deity than unassisted reason could ever attain; and of consequence, more correct ideas of what is required of himself, beth with respect to God and man.

His ideas

In a multitude of the noble sentences and beautiful aphorisms of many of the heathen writers, there was indeed a strong tone of morality. But these fine sentiments, not flowing from any perennial source, had seldom any powerful effect on conduct. Our great oet has noticed this discordance between principle and practice in his dialogue between two great and virtuous Romans.

Cassius, who disbelieved a future state, re

proves Brutus for the inconsistency between his desponding temper and the doctrines of his own Stoic school :

may be mean in their expression, compared with the splendid language of the sages of antiquity; but the cause of the superiority of his conceptions is obvious. While they You make no use of your philosophy, 'go about to establish their own wisdom,' he If you give way to accidental evils.. submits to the wisdom of God, as he finds it Many of their works, in almost every speis in his word. What inadequate views must cies of literature, exhibit such perfection as the wisest pagans, though they felt after him,' have entertained of Deity, who could to stretch the capacity of the reader, while at best only contemplate him in his attributes they kindle h s admiration, and invest with of power and beneficence, whilst their high-able to seize their meaning, and to taste their no inconsiderable reputation, him who is est unassisted flights could never reach the beauties; so that an able critic of their wriremotest conception of that incomprehensible blessing, the union of his justice and his mercy in the redemption of the world by his Son-a blessing familiar and intelligible to

the most illiterate Christian.

tings almost ranks with him who excels in original composition In like manner the lives of their great men abound in splendid sayings, as well as heroic virtues, to such a degree as to exalt our idea of the human inThe religion of the heathens was so deplo- tellect, and, in single instances, of the hurably bad in its principle, that it is no won man character. We say, in single instander their practice was proportionally corrupt. ces, for their idea of a perfect character Those just measures of right and wrong, wanted consistency, wanted completeness. says Locke, which necessity had introdu- It had many constituent parts, but there was ced, which the civil laws prescribed, or phi- no whole which comprised them. The morlosophy recommended stood not on their al fractions made up no integral. The virtu true foundation. They served indeed to tie ous man thought it no derogation from his society together, and by these bands and lig-virtue to be selfish, the conqueror to be reaments promoted order and convenience: but there was no divime command to make them respected, and there will naturally be little reverence for a law, where the legisla tor is not reverenced, much less where he is pot recognized. There will also be little obedience to a law without sanctions where neither penalty is feared, nor reward expec

ted.

vengeful, the philosopher to be arrogant, the injured to be unforgiving: forbearance was cowardice, humility was baseness, meekness was pusillanimity. Not only their justice was stained with cruelty, but the most cruel acts of injustice were the road to a popular. ity which immortalized the perpetrator.The good man was his own centre. Their

virtues wanted to be drawn out of themPrevious to the establishment of Chris-selves, and this could not be the case. As tianity, philosophy had attained to its utmost their goodness did not arise from any knowperfection, and had shown how low was its ledge, so it could not spring from any imitahighest standard. It had completely betray- tion of the Divine perfections. That inspired its inability to effect a revolution in the ing principle, the love of God, the vital spark minds of men. 'Human reason,' says the of all religion, was a motive of which they same great authority above quoted, never had not so much as heard; and if they had, yet, from unquestionable principles or clear it was a feeling which it would have been deductions, made out an entire body of the impossible for them to cherish, since some

of the best of their deities were as bad as the worst of themselves

Those who were invested with a sacred character, and who delivered the pretended When the history of their own religion sense of the Oracles, talked much of the contained little more than the quarrels and gods, but said little of goodness; while the the intrigues of these deities, could we ex- philosophers who, though they were profes pect that the practice of the people would sors of wisdom, were, not generally to the be much better, or more consistent than their vulgar, teachers of morals, seldom gave the belief? If the divinities were at once holy Deity a place in their ethics. Between these and profligate, shall we wonder if the adoration was at once devout and impure? The worshipper could not commit a crime but he might vindicate it by the example of some deity; he could not gratify a sinful appetite of which his religion did not furnish a justification.

conflicting instructors the people stood little chance of acquiring any just notions of moral rectitude. They were indeed under a necessity of attending the worship of the temples, they believed that the neglect of this duty would offend the gods; but in their attendance they were neither taught that purity of heart, nor that practical virtue, which might have been supposed likely to please them. The philosophers, if they were disposed to give the people some rules of duty, were overmatched by the priests, who knew they should gratify them more by omitting what they so little relished. As to the people themselves, they did not desire to be better than the priests wished to make them.They found processions pleasanter than

Besides this, all their scattered documents of virtue could never make up a body of morals. They wanted a connecting tie. The doctrines of one school were at vari ance with those of another. Even if they could have clubbed their opinions, and picked out the best from each sect, so as to have patched up a code, still the disciples of one sect would not have submitted to the leader of another; the system would ha e wanted a head, or the head would have wanted au- prayers, ceremonies cheaper than duties, and thority, and the code would have wanted sanctions.

sacrifices easier than self-denials, with the additional recommendation, that the one And as there was no governing system, so made amends for the want of the other.* there was no universal rule of morals, for When a violent plague raged in Rome, the morality was different in different places.-method they took for appeasing the deities, In some countries people thought it no more and putting a stop to the distemper, was the a crime to expose their own children than in establishment of a theatre and the introducothers to adopt those of their neighbour.- tion of plays. The plague however, having The Persians were not looked upon as the no dramatic taste, continued to rage. But worse moralists for marrying their mothers, neither the piety nor ingenuity of the supplinor the Hyrcanians for not marrying at all, ants was exhausted. A nail driven into the nor the Sogdians for murdering their par- Temple of Jupiter was found to be a more ents, nor the Scythians for eating their dead.* promising expedient But the gods being as The best writers seldom made use of argu- hard as the metal of which the expiation was ments drawn from future blessedness to in-made, were no more moved by the nail, than force their moral instruction. Excellently the plague had been by the theatrical exhi as they discoursed on the beauty of virtue, bition; though the event was thought of suftheir disquisitions generally seemed to want ficient importance for the creation of a dictaa motive and an end. Did not such a state tor!-What progress had reason, to say of comfortless ignorance, of spiritual degra- nothing of religion, made in the first metropodation, of moral depravity, emphatically call is in the world, when a nail or a play was for a religion which should bring life and, thought a rational expedient for pacifying immortality to light? Did it not impera- the gods and stopping the pestilence. Nor tively require that spirit which should re- does reason, mere human reason, seem to prove the world of sin, of righteousness, and have grown wiser in her age. During the of judgment? Did it not pant for that blood late attempt to establish heathenism in a of Christ which cleanseth from all sin.

nightly expiation to the Goddess of Reason for the cruelties and carnage of the day?

neighbouring country, does it not look as if Even those fine theorists who have left us the thirty theatres which were opened every beautiful reflections on the Divine nature, night in its capital in the early part of the have bequeathed no rule for his worship, no revolution had been intended, in imitation of direction for his service, no injunctions to the Romans, whose religion, titles, and ofobey him; they have given us little encour-fices, the French affected to adopt, as a agement to virtue, and no alleviation to sorrow but the impracticable injunction, not to feel it. The eight short beatitudes in the 5th of Saint Matthew convey not only more promises to virtue, and more consolation to sufferers, but more appropriate promise to the individual grace, more specific comfort to the specific suffering, than are to be found in all the ancient tomes of moral discipline.

Plutarch relates, that Alexander, after conquering these countries had reformed some of their evil habits,

Whatever conjectural notions some of the wise might entertain of a future state, the people at large could only acquire the vague and comfortless ideas of it, which might be picked up from the poets. This indefinite belief, immersed in fable, and degraded by the grossest superstition, added as little to the piety as to the happiness of mankind.

* See Locke on the Reasonableness of Chris. tianity.

The intimations of their Tartarus, and their noble ends in view. The people stood m Elysian fields, were so connected with fic-need of a religion which should bring relies tions, as to convey to the mind no other im- to human wants, and consolation to human pression, but that they were fictions them- miseries. They wanted a simple way, proselves. Such uncertain glimmerings of such portioned to their comprehension; a short a futurity could afford neither warning nor way, proportioned to their leisure; a living encouragement, neither cheerful hope, nor way, which would give light to the conscience salutary fear. They might amuse the mind, and support to the mind; a way founded, but never could influence the conduct. not on speculation, but evidence, which They might gratify the imagination, but should carry conversion to the heart as well could not communicate a hope full of im as conviction to the understanding. Such a mortality.' They neither animated the religion God was preparing for them in the pious, nor succoured the tempted, nor sup- Gospel of his Son. Christianity was calcu ported the afflicted, nor cheered the dying. lated to supply the exigences both of the Greeks and of the barbarians; but the former, though they more acknowledged their want, more slowly welcomed the relief; while the latter, though they less felt the one, more readily accepted the other.

The study of their mythology could carry with it nothing but corruption. It neither intended to bring glory to God, nor peace and good will, much less salvation, to men. It was invented to embellish the fabulous periods of their history, to flatter illustrious families, by celebrating the human exploits of their deified progenitors: and thus to give an additional and national interest to their bewitching fables. What a system did those countries uphold, when the more probable way to make the people virtuous, was to keep them ignorant of religion!-when the best way to teach them their duty to man, was to keep their duties out of sight!

Alexander, though he had the magnanimity to declare to his illustrious preceptor, that he had rather excel in knowledge than in power, yet blamed him for divulging to the world those secrets in learning, which he wished to confine exclusively to themselves. How would he have been offended with the Christian philosophy, which, though it bas mysteries for all, has no secrets for any How would he have been offended with that bright hope of glory, which would have displayed itself in the same effulgence to his meanest soldier, as to the conqueror of Persia!

But how would both the monarch and the philosopher have looked on a religion, which after kindling their curiosity, by intimating it had greater things to bestow than learning and empire, should dash their high hopes, by making these great things consist in poverty of spirit, in being little in their own eyes, in not loving the world, nor the things of the

It is indeed but justice to acknowledge, that most of the different schools of philosophy held some one great truth. Aristotle maintained the existence of a First Cause; Cicero, in opposition to the disciples of Epicurus, acknowledged a superintending Prov idence. Many of the Stoics were of opinion, that the consummation of all things would be effected by fire. Yet every philosopher, however rational in many parts of his system, not only adopted some absurdity himself, but wove it into his code. One believed that the soul was only a vapour, which was transmu-world. ted from body to body, and was to expiate, in the shape of a brute, the sins it had committed under that of a man. Another affirmed that the soul was a material substance, and that matter was endowed with the faculties of thought and reason. Others imagined every star to be a god. Some denied not only a superintending, but a creating Providence insisting that the world was made, without any plan or contrivance, by a fortuitous concourse of certain particles of matter; and that the members of the human body were not framed for the several purposes to which they have been accidentally applied. One affirmed the eternity of the world; another, that we can be certain of nothing,-vourites,-those ambiguous TEARS which he that even our own existence is doubtful.

A religion so absurd, which had no basis even in probability and no attraction but what it borrowed from a preposterous fancy, could not satisfy the deep-thinking philoso pher; a philosophy abstruse and metaphysical was not sufficiently accommodated to general use to suit the people. Lactantius, on the authority of Plato, relates, that Socrates declared there was no such thing as human wisdom. In short, all were dissatisfied. The wise had a vague desire for a religion which comprehended great objects, and had

But what would they have said to a religion which placed human intellect in an inferior degree in the scale of God's gifts; and even degraded it from thence, when not used to his glory? What would they have thought of a religion, which, so far from being sent exclusively to the conqueror in arms, or the leaders in science, frankly declared at its outset, that not many mighty, not many noble were called,' which professed, while it filled the hungry with good things, to send the rich empty away?

Yet that mysterious HOPE which Alexander declared was all he kept for himself, when he profusely scattered kingdoms among his fa

shed, because he had no more worlds to conquer; that deeply felt, but ill understood hope, those undefined and unintelligible tears, mark a profounder feeling of the vanity of this world, a more fervent panting after something better than power or knowledge, a more heart-felt longing after immortality, than almost any express language which philosophy has recorded.

Learn of me' would have been thought a dignified exordium for the founder of a new religion by the masters of the Grecian schools. But when they came to the humbling motive

of the injunction, for I am meek and lowly in heart,' how would their expectations have been damped! They would have thought it an abject declaration from the lips of a great teacher, unless they had understood that grand paradox of Christianity, that lowliness of heart was among the highest attainments to be made by a rational creature.

is still too frequently resisted,-if the offered light of the Holy Spirit is still too frequently quenched, what must have been the state of mankind, when that grace was not made known, when that light was not fully revealed, when darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people? But under the clear illumination of evangelical truth, every precept becomes a principle, every argument a motive, every direction a duty, every doctrine a law; and why? Because thus

When they had heard the beginning of that animating interrogation,--Where is the wise? Where is the disputer of this world? methinks I behold the whole portico and acade-saith the Lord. my emulously rush forward at an invitation Christianity, however, is not merely a reso alluring, at a challenge so personal; but ligion of authority; the soundest reason emhow instinctively would they have shrunk braces most confidently what the most expliback at the repulsive question which suc- cit revelation has taught, and the deepest ceeds;-Hath not God made foolish the wis-inquirer is usually the most convinced Chrisdom of this world? Yet would not Chris- tian. The reason of philosophy, is a disputianity, well understood and faithfully received, have taught these exalted spirits, that, to look down upon what is humanly great, is a loftier attainment than to look up to it?

Would it not have carried a sentiment to the heart of Alexander, a system to the mind of Aristotle, which their respective, though differently pursued, careers of ambition utterly failed of furnishing to either?

Reason, even by those who possessed it in the highest perfection, as it gave no adequate

6

ting reason, that of Christianity, an obeying reason. The glory of the pagan religion consisted in virtuous sentiments, the glory of the Christian in the pardon and the subjugation of sin. The humble Christian may say with one of the ancient Fathers,-I will not glory because I am righteous, but because I am redeemed.

CHAP. II.

ment.

view even of natural religion, so it made no On the Historical writers of the New Testaadequate provision for correct morals. The attempt appears to have been above the reach of human powers. God manifested AMONG the innumerable evidences of the in the flesh,-He who was not only true, but truth of Christianity, there is one of so rare THE TRUTH, and who taught the truth as and extraordinary a nature, as might of itself one having authority,'-was alone compe- suffice to carry conviction to the mind of evtent to this great work. The duty of sub-ery unprejudiced inquirer, even if this proof missiou to Divine Power was to the multitude were not accompanied by such a cloud of more intelligible, than the intricate deduc concurring testimonies. tions of reason. That God is, and is a re- The sacred volume is composed by a vast warder of them that seek him; that Jesus variety of writers, men of every different Christ came into the world to save sinners, rank and condition, of every diversity of make a compendious summary both of natu- character and turn of mind: the monarch ral and revealed religion; they are proposi and the plebeian, the illiterate and the learntions which carry their own explanation, dis-ed, the foremost in talent and the moderateentangled from those trains of argument, which, as few could have been brought to comprehend, perhaps it was the greatest wisdom in the philosopher never to have propo

sed them.

The most skilful dialectician could only reason on known principles; but without the superinduction of revealed religion, he could only, with all his efforts, and they have been prodigious, furnish rules,' but not 'arms. Logic is indeed a powerful weapon to fence, but not to fight with; that which is a conqueror in the schools is impotent in the field. It is powerful to refute a sophism, but weak to repel a temptation. It may defeat an opponent made up like itself of pure intellect; but is no match for so substantial an assailant as moral evil. It yields to the onset, when the antagonists are furious passions and headstrong appetites. It can make a successful thrust against an opinion, but is too feeble to pull down the strong holds of sin and Satan.'

If, through the strength of human corruption, the restraining power of Divine grace VOL. II.

31

ly gifted in natural advantages, the historian and the legislator, the orator and the poet,each had his immediate vocation, each his peculiar province: some prophets, some apostles, some evangelists, living in ages remote from each other, under different modes of civil government, under different dispensations of the Divine economy, filling a period of time which reached from the first dawn of heavenly light to its meridian radiance. The Old Testament and the New, the law and the gospel; the prophets predicting events, and the evangelists recording them; the doctrinal yet didactic epistolary writers, and he who closed the Sacred Canon in the apocalyptic vision;-all these furnished their respective portions, and yet all tally with a dove-tailed correspondence; all the different materials are joined with a completeness the most satisfactory, with an agreement the most incontrovertible.

This instance of uniformity without design, of agreement without contrivance; this consistency maintained through a long series of ages, without a possibility of the or