196 St. PALL'S DIVINE COMMISSION. larly with regard to the doctrine of original sin, derived from Adam, and the salvation by Christ,his priesthood, his royalty, and the use and benefit of afflictions ; Heb. xi. xii. &c. Our resur- rection from the dead, and our eternal happiness; 1 Cor. xv. and 1 Thess. iv. and many others ? And of how great advantage is it to us, that St. Paul has foretold in plain language, the rise and characters of Antichrist; 2 Thess. ii. 3-12. and the destruction of that state, to forewarn us, and to give us comfortable hopes and expectations. It is matter therefore of great and heavenly importance, for us chris- tiáns to be well established in thebelief of St. Paul's conversion, his' faith, andhis apostleship, and for this end we shall do well to remember these proofs and arguments which convinced him that Jesus was risen from the dead. - Other holy writers have told us more of the life, actions, death, and resurrection of Christ, in the particular circumstances thereof : but St. Paul has told us more of the blessed consequences of these transactions. And let it be always kept in mind by us, that he was in a special manner the apostle to the Gentile nations, of which Great-Britain is a large province, and a remarkable part ; so that in his wri- tings he speaks directly to us, and we are bound to attend to him. 3. It is very reasonable to conclude, we may safely believe , what St. Paul believed and taught about this subject of the resur- rectionof Christ. For if we have but reason to believe that this was Paul's character, faith and practice, and these are the reasons of his belief, what should discourage or stagger us ? Let us sum up the force of this argument and put it together. Here is awise, learned, sincere, honest man, bred up a Pha- risee in a strongopposition to Christ, and the doctrine of his re- surrection, zealous for another religion, even the religion of his fathers and his country, who yet saw reason to renounce all his ancient prejudices, and submit to receive this new and strange doctrine, who believed and professed this gospel, which he once grievously persecuted, and afterwards preached it, with much fatigue, danger and suffering, supported it with courage, and con- stant divine zeal and piety, and the practice of every virtue; through his whole life, gloried in his perpetual sufferings for it, lived upon the comforts derived from it, died in defence of it, and sealed it with his blood, and left it as a chief treasure to those whom he loved best in this world, even to the churches of Christ. Nowwe have not this account of Paul from mere hearsay andtradition, but we have his own testimony to all this in his writ- ings, which have been delivered down tous throughmany ages : andno man of sense can reasonably doubt whether they are his writings or no, any more than we can doubt thewritings of Julius
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