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Untitled Article
guage , if they are honest . But in judging of the degree 0 / i creuit due to a relation of facts given by another , or of the in ~ ferences to be drawn from them ^ if they have reall y taken place * men may alter their opinions without affecting their moral character ; according as they give them greater attention , or as new facts arise to illustrate the old .
The book of Acts completely proves , that Paul's case an < i thaj of a man who is guilty of perjury are by no means parallel . Paul before his conversion knew little more of Jesus than the name : the authority of his superiors and his own vanity had prevented him , mogt probably , from going to hear an unauthorised teacher of religion . In this conduct on the part of the
master or pupil , there would be nothing much more extraordinary than that a student at one of our universities should never , during the whole time of his being at college , once attend at a conventicle . The apostle ' s first opposition to Christianity
may be explained by his ignorance ^ which was . no doubt , jhighly blameable . His testimony against the gospel w&s that of a rash young man unacquainted with Jesus and his apostles ; his testimony in its favor , enlightened , deliberate , aiyi predo * -
miaant-Mr . K . justly remarks , that the effects produced upon Paul , at the time of his conversion , cannot be attributed to lightning , Jbecause an electrical shock upon the head sufficient to produce blindness invariably produces insensibility likewis ^; and it is argued from his sincerity and fair moral character , even when he was a persecutor , that his veracity in the relation of the scene
on his road to Damascus cannot reasonably be called in question , The truth , then , in respect to Paul is not that he has been guilty of a wilful falsehood , in mis-stating a fact , either in defence of Christianity , or in opposition to it ^ and is therefore undeserving of credit ; but that , at different times , he main * , tained two opposite opinions , which are to be weighed against each other , one against Christianity , the other ii > its favor .
This apostle is vindicated in the sixth sermon ( Acts xxvi , 25 , " But he said , I am not mad , most noble Fesjtus , but speak forth the words of truth and soberness / ' ) from another charge of Mr . Paine ^—that of violence and fanaticism . It is not the violence of the artful and designing hypocrite of which he is accused , but that of the honest and sincere ,
though weak , believer , whose zeal is the result of a heated imagination and a peculiar constitution of mind . If this charge against Paul were true , it would go far to destroy his testimony for the gospel . - There are two reasons why the accusation of violence , in respect to any contested p *> int , is always to be received with
Untitled Article
8 ff $ Kenrick ' s Sermons *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1806, page 262, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1724/page/38/
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