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DISC. S.]
EXAMINED
AND ESTABLTSMED.
pjg
cerely
to this
all
-
sufficient
Saviour, and can apply these
consolations to themselves,
which,
are
written
in
1
Cur.
xv. in
many glorious
and
comfortable expressions.
Third observation.
Paul
would
not
have
affirmed
Jesus
Christ, who
was
dead, to
be alive again,
without
very good
proof of
it.
Here
these
two
things
Are
to be
considered,
or
.en-
quired
:
1.
Why
Paul
would
not'have
affirmed
it without
just
grounds.
2.
What
particular
reasons
Paul
had
to
believe-it,
or
what
good
proof
he
had
of
it.
Enquiry
the
first.
Why
Paul
would
not
have
.affirmed
it
without
just
grounds. These
are
some
of
the consi-
derations
to
make this evident.
viz.
1.
He
was
a man
of
good
natural
parts,
ofgreat
saga-
city
as well
as good
learning,
and
he
could
not
so
easily
have been imposed
upon
in
a
thing
of
that importance,
which was
done in
his own
country, and
the
chief
city
of
it,
in his own
day
and
time,
and
when he
had
abundant
opportunities
to
have
searched into the
truth or
false-
hood
thereof,
and
his whole
nation
was
set upon
.
the
search
and severest scrutiny into
it.
Now that
he
was
a
man
of
parts
and knowledge,
.the
good sense
and reasoning which
appears
in his
writings,
sufficiently testify this
character.
He
was
a young
man
when he was
converted,.
and
he
was
brought up
in
Jerusalem,
at
the feet
of
Gamaliel
:
He
must
have
great opportunities
of enquiring
concern-
ing the history
of
the
life,
doctrine, and the death
of
Christ, and of the
report of
his
resurrection,
among
his
Own
countrymen.
.
He
seems to be
a
very sincere and faithful
honest
man
:
This
his whole
conduct
shews,
if
we
consider
:
He appears
to
have
an
honest
zeal for his
religion whilst
he was
a
pharisee,
as well as
afterward
;
diligently
and
openly pursuing what
he
professed:
no
flaw
was
found.
in
his
morals
;
No
charge
of
hypocrisy
;
Acts
xiii.
1.
I
have lived in
all
good
conscience
before
God,
until
this
day.
or are
his
morals impeached
by
his
worst
ad-
versaries.
3.
He
was
once
a
fierce
and violent
enemy to Jesus,
Christ, and
his
name, and
his
gospel,
and
his
followers
L4