The monstrous and unnatural malignancy of his heart cannot be estimated, except by a comparison of his condition as a Jew, with the circumstances in which he was subsequently placed. While an agent of the sanhedrim, his employment was in itself exactly suited to at zealot. It was actively to search out, to apprehend, and punish individuals, against whom he was himself violently incensed. He was applauded on all hands for his exertion, and had every facility afforded him, which could be commanded by the patronage and assistance of all the authorities, both secular and religious. His own notions of religion too, would supply him with mighty stimulus from within: and he had on the whole, every conceivable inducement to continue this course of conduct. His condition was widely different when he had no outward encouragement, nor in fact any inward excitement either, except a disinterested attachment to fraud. In the second period of his life, though he still had much to do, he had yet more to endure; and to such an ardent temper as that of Paul, labour, however severe, is light compared to endurance. He had to bear all the reproaches of his former associates for treachery, apostasy, and ingratitude,-charges which his own heart told him were justly merited: he had to labour under the distinct consciousness that he was the object of their bitterest scorn, and most righteous hatred, and that he was constantly exposed to their attempts against his life. He had to suffer the sneers of the Gentiles, to whom he preached salvation through a Galilean malefactor, who died the death of a slave at Jerusalem, while every circumstance of his education and previous habits, tended to augment the contumely to which he was exposed, and to increase the hopelessness of his strange and iniquitous enterprise. What could the highest Jewish scholar, with his barbarous Greek, abounding in Hebraisms,-hope from the rhetoricians and philosophers of Athens, but the most perfect contempt? He had often to endure the divisions, the heart-burnings, and even the ungrateful reproaches of his own converts. He had little assistance from other Christian preachers, as for the most part, he laboured in regions which they had never visited; nor had he opportunities of intercourse with the apostles generally, for many years after he became a preacher of Christianity. He had not only to subdue his pride and prejudice, but to keep his excitable spirit in a state of the utmost apparent equanimity, under continual provocation. And no man ever succeeded in preserving more fully the appearance of patience, even towards his most determined enemies. With how great semblance of deep compassion, does he breathe forth his wishes for the welfare of the Jews! In how striking a manner, does he chide and renounce every thing like partizanship in his favour, among the churches which he had planted; and in short, with what distinguished calmness does he pass through all the irritating incidents, to which he was constantly exposed! Meanwhile, for all his labour and suffering, he had no motive but his disinterested delight in wickedness and mischief, unless he could find motive in the remorse of a guilty conscience, and the apprehensions of vengeance from a justly incensed God. He was willing himself to be wretched, both in this and a future world, so long as he could have the fiendish delight of rendering others so. Beyond this, he had nothing to sustain his spirit in solitary labours, in painful journeys, in popular tumults, at Gentile tribunals, and in the other perils and sorrows by which he was constantly surrounded. But upheld by a consciousness of the most flagrant guilt, and triumphing in the miseries of his fellow men, he never faltered, nor hesitated, till his course of mysterious iniquity was terminated by the sword of justice. In the proportion in which his intelligence, education and rank exceeded that of the other apostles, so did his atrocity; and it should be distinguished as one of the few praise-worthy acts in the life of Nero, that he condignly punished the apostle Paul,-a man in the comparison with whose wickedness, his own life seems almost virtue. But of this enough: these opinions are so unnatural and revolting, that there never has been found an infidel with sufficient hardihood to avow them. Yet they are the inevitable results of the rejection of the New Testament. What then shall we say of a system, the ultimate consequences of which its boldest advocates feel themselves compelled studiously to conceal? What shall we think of the discretion of that man who has allied himself to such a system without inquiring into the conclusions to which it unavoidably leads? or if he has ascertained such conclusions, what must be our opinion of his ingenuousness? Before however we dismiss the entire subject, it may be proper to add a few considerations, which may serve to render it still more manifest, that the unbeliever is responsible for these and all other absurdities involved in the rejection of Christianity. This will be attempted in the following and concluding chapter. CHAPTER VI. RESPONSIBILITY OF INFIDELS FOR ALL THE AB- Christianity accused of bigotry.—Infidelity really intolerant.— Man's non-accountability, a last resort of scepticism.—Men are universally allowed to be accountable for their belief on mathematical and historical subjects,—and on questions of conven tional morality.-If they are not responsible for their belief, neither are they for their conduct.—A divine revelation probable. -If God gave a revelation, man would be accountable for his reception of it.—Its doctrines, according to the Infidel, must be more honourable to God, and its morals more pure than those of the Bible. It must be free from all mystery, or unphilosophical phraseology,―evidenced by something more convincing than miracles-or prophecy—or remarkable preservation for many ages— or the most splendid moral revolutions.—Every professor of its faith must understand it in precisely the same way—and must at once be morally perfect.-God could not compel our faith without dishonour to his own government,— ,—nor increase the evidences of the divinity of Christianity, so as to overcome the unbelief of the heart.-Corollaries.—The risk of Infidelity.—CONCLUSION. ONE of the common boasts of infidelity, is its readiness to tolerate varieties of opinion, on questions of theology and morals. It is supposed by |