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"and though I give my body to be burned, “and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. "Is this the language of enthusiasm ? "Did ever enthusiast prefer that univerfal "benevolence which comprehendeth all "moral virtues, and which, as appeareth

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by the following verfes, is meant by cha"rity here; did ever enthusiast, I fay, pre"fer that benevolence" (which we may add is attainable by every man)" to faith and "to miracles, to thofe religious opinions. "which he had embraced, and to thofe fu

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"pernatural graces and gifts which he imagined he had acquired: nay even to "the merit of martyrdom? It is not the genius of enthusiasm to fet moral virtues

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infinitely below the merit of faith; and of "all moral virtues to value that leaft which "is moft particularly enforced by St. Paul, "a fpirit of candour, moderation, and "peace? Certainly neither the temper nor "the opinions of a man fubject to fanatic ❝delufions are to be found in this paffage." -Lord Lyttelton's Confiderations on the converfion, &c.

I fee no reafon therefore to question the

integrity

integrity of his understanding. To call him a visionary, because he appealed to vifions; or an enthusiast, because he pretended to inspiration, is to take the whole question for granted. It is to take for granted that no fuch vifions or infpirations exifted; at least it is to affume, contrary to his own affer tions, that he had no other proofs than these to offer of his miffion, or of the truth of his relations.

One thing I allow, that his letters every where discover great zeal and earnestness in the cause in which he was engaged; that is to fay, he was convinced of the truth of what he taught; he was deeply impreffed, but not more fo than the occafion merited, with a fenfe of its importance. This produces a corresponding animation and folicitude in the exercise of his ministry. But would not thefe confiderations, fuppofing them to be well founded, have holden the fame place, and produced the fame effect, in a mind the strongest and the most sedate?

VI. These letters are decifive as to the fufferings of the author; alfo as to the dif treffed state of the Chriftian church, and

the

the dangers which attended the preaching

of the gospel.

"Whereof I Paul am made a minifter, "who now rejoice in my fufferings for

you,

"and fill up that which is behind of the "afflictions of Chrift in my flesh, for his body's fake, which is the church." Col. ch.i. ver. 24.

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"If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most mifera"ble." Cor. ch. xv. ver. 19.

"Why ftand we in jeopardy every "hour? I proteft by your rejoicing, which "I have in Chrift Jefus, I die daily. If, "after the manner of men, I have fought "with beafts at Ephesus, what advantageth "it me if the dead rife not?" 1 Cor. ch. xv. ver. 30, &c.

"If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and "joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we fuf"fer with him, that we may be alfo glorified.

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together. For I reckon that the sufferings "of this prefent time are not worthy to be

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compared with the glory that fhall be re"vealed in us." Rom. ch. viii. ver. 17, 18.

"Who

"Who shall separate us from the love of "Chrift? fhall tribulation, or diftrefs, or perfecution, or famine, or nakedness, or

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peril, or fword? As it is written, for thy "fake we are killed all the day long ; we are "accounted as sheep for the flaughter.". Rom. ch. viii. ver. 35, 36.

"Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, "continuing inftant in prayer." Rom. ch. xii. ver. 12.

"Now concerning virgins I have no "commandment of the Lord; yet I give "my judgment as one that hath obtained 66 mercy of the Lord to be faithful. I fuppofe therefore that this is good for the prefent diftrefs; I fay, that it is good for a 66 man fo to be." I Cor. ch. vii. ver. I Cor. ch. vii. ver. 25, 26.

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"For unto you it is given, in the behalf "of Christ, not only to believe in him, but "also to suffer for his fake, having the fame "conflict which ye faw in me, and now ❝ hear to be in me." Phil. ch. i. ver. 29, 30.

"God forbid that I should glory, fave in "the cross of our Lord Jefus Christ, by "whom the world is crucified unto me, " and I unto the world."

"From

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"From henceforth let no man trouble

me, for I bear in my body the marks of "the Lord Jefus." Gal. ch. vi. ver. 14, 17.

"Ye became followers of us, and of the "Lord, having received the word in much "affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghoft." 1 Theff. ch. i. ver. 6.

"We ourselves glory in you in the "churches of God for your patience and "faith in all your perfecutions and tribula"tions that ye endure." 2 Thef. ch. i, ver, 4.

We may feem to have accumulated texts unneceffarily; but befide that the point, which they are brought to prove, is of great importance, there is this alfo to be remarked in every one of the paffages cited, that the allusion is drawn from the writer by the argument or the occafion; that the notice which is taken of his fufferings, and of the fuffering condition of Chriftianity, is perfectly incidental, and is dictated by no defign of ftating the facts themselves. Indeed they are not stated at all: they may rather be faid to be affumed, This is a diftinction, upon which we have relied a good deal in former parts of this treatise; and where the writer's

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