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ST PAUL'S
DIVINE
COMMISSION
[DISC.
II.
ing the vigour and
spirit of
his
writings,
and
the force
of
argument
contained
in
them,
we
have the
testimony of
some
of
his
greatest adversaries,
as he
himself represents
the
case.
His letters,
say they,
are
weighty
and power-
ful
;
and
he was
not
ashamed
to
appeal to
themselves,
and threaten
them,
that
he
would make -it
appear that
his
practice towards
them should have
as
much force
and power
as
his
letters
had, when he came
the
second
time to
visit'
them
;
2
Cor.
x.
10;
1.1.
:And we
have.the
testimony
of
two
others, particularly
Luke
the physician,
in
his
history
of
the Acts
of
the
,Apostles, who
was a fel-
low-
traveller
with him
;
and Peter,
who was
another of
his
countrymen,
in
his epistles,
bears
witness
to
him
and
to
his
writings
:
besides the
testimony
of
all the
christian
writers
from
the beginning
of
Christianity
;
2
Pet.
iii.
15,
16.
Which
writings
of
St.
Paul are
dignified
by
St.
Peter
himself,
with the names
of
the scriptures,
ver. 16.
they
being
both
men
inspired
by
God, and
of chief repute
among
the,
apostles.
I
proceed
now
to enquire, what
were
these blessed
effects on men in
the
heathen
world, whereby
Paul's
doctrine of
the
resurrection
of.
Christ
was
further
con-
firmed and
established..
And here
I might
talk
largely
of
the idolaters,
that
were turned
from
their superstitions
to the worship
and
love
of
the
true God,
of
their abandoning their former
vices,
mad
the
superstitious and
sinful customs
of their
nations,
and the
reformation
of
their
lives and manners,
to goodness and
holiness,
&c.
but I
shall
confine myself
only
to
those
effects which
bear
a
more
apparent
relation
to
the
resurrection
of Christ;
and such
are
these
that
follow
:
(viz.)
1.
How many dead sinners
were made alive
to
God,
and
virtue, piety and universal
holiness, by
preaching
this
doctrine of
the death and resurrection
of Jesus Christ?
What
encouragement
for
hope
of
pardon
for the worst
of
sinners,
in
this
blessed
doctrine of
a dying
and
.a
rising
Saviour?
What
an
assurance
of
full
atonement
made
to
the justice of
God,
in
that Jesus,
who, in
death,
took
our
sins
upon
him,
is
now
discharged
from
the dead, and
his
dismission
from
the grave
is
a
full
token and
proof of
it.
,He
died
for
our
offences,
and
rose
again
for
our
justifi-
cation
;
Rom.
iv.
25.