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Review . —Not Paul , but Jesus , 613
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that PauPs instructions accorded entirely with hia great Master ' s , and , by consequence , with the preaching of the body of the apostles . True ; Paul was specially appointed to be the Apostle of the Gentiles ; while the services of his
fellow-labdurers were directed to the Jews . The distinction is precisely what the infant state of the church required : they wrought in different fields , yet tinder one Lord , atid foi * one and the same purpose ; nor were their objects in
any degree mutually opposed . Must we not regard this condition of things as being strictly agreeable to nature and to truth ? Is it not presumptive of the genuineness of the history , and of the divine origin of the Gospel ?
Upon one occasion , a dispute arose between Paul and Peter : and hence some persons heve inferred the absence of a recognition of the claims of the apostle to the Heathens , oa the part of the apostle to the circumcision . The inference is perfectly
unjustifiable . * Their dispute was of short duration : it grew out of Peter ' s temporizing" spirit , and placed the enlightened seal and inflexible honesty of Paul in the fairest point of view ; improves , moreover , that these illustrious men did not combine with each
other to impose a fraud upon the world—and thus it becomes a separate and resistless argument in behalf of Christianity . The apostles then co-operated with Paul . Would they have done so , had they discredited his conversion and his mission ? Let the case be examined
on the principles of human nature , on the laws of historical testimony : let it be decided by means of a rigorous application of those principles and laws to Luke ' s narrative and Paul's Epistles ; and we cannot doubt as to what must be the answer .
We further maintain that the views and the conduct of Paul were entirely disinterested ; that he was free from the influence of covetousness , of ambition , and of every sinister and merely
selfish motive ; and that he had a mind supremely intent on advancing the glory of God , the interests of his Saviour , and the highest welfare of mankind . It is a strange and a novel intima-* Mon , Renos , VII . 699 , &c .
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tioii , that a van ce might prompt him to assume the profession of a Cbristiau . Saul was evidently a person of no mean rank and eoiteideration among his countrymen . Hence we may with reason judge it probable that he belonged to a family in £ asy cireum ^
stances , and surrendetecl all hope of sharing in its temporal advantages , when he embraced the religion , and entered into the specific service , of Jesus Christ . What , though he had learned a trade , by the exercise of
which he afterwards gained a livelihood ? Every Je # , even the most intelligent and accomplished , passed through the same discipline , and was taught to labour with his hands . * The education that Saul of Tarsus
received , was not of an ordinary kind : and can a person of sound understanding fancy that such a man , by the act of joining the first Christians , would not forego and lose far more property than he could thence acquire ? Of what funds was the infant church
possessed ? , To read and hear the language of certain individuals , on this subject , we might suppose that not a few of the apostle ' s followers were men of affluence . The contrary was the truth . Not many rich were called .
Barnabas and some others , undoubtedly , sold estates , and threw the produce into a common stock , for the supply of common wants . But this was a spontaneous and a temporary measure : the whole amount of the
sums so contributed , would be inconsiderable ; nor do we find that Paul had any controul over it , or any share in distributing it . That the hope of partaking in the management of such a fund might govern him , is one of the wildest of imaginations : and he who can form this opinion , shews how
nearly allied to each other are scepticism and credulity * Whether the common property of which we are speaking existed after Saul's conversion , is far from being evident . Of the collections subsequently made , among a different class of believers , for the distressed Christians at
Jerusalem , he , beyond question , was a bearer . Yet we cannot have forgotten his wise , disinterested conduct , on the * See Michaelis * admirable chapter on the Character , &c . of St . Paul , In trod ., &c , ( Marsh , ) IV , Ch . xxiii .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1824, page 615, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2529/page/39/
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