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fcery . We have no pleasure in coco > templating the # ecay of high taleat aad ex ^ os iv e intedligence , qf mental vigour and moral sensibility . Ho * v
can w £ account for the jnslancholy change £ The circumstances vvhatever thtey are , which tia . ys impaired so gifted a iniud , and occasioned suqh a perversion of spirit , taste and thought , must be § eriously deplored . Yet we question not the sincerity of the writer .
We recollect with gratitude his numerous and valuable services to his fellpw-mep '; and we are desirous c > f forgetting ibfct the a ^ thpr of t | t £ * Letters on vJsujry /* * is alap $ he . author of ' * Not Paul , but £ esus ; "
———— quantum mutatus ab illo Hectore , qui redit exuvias ind&tus Aehilli , Vel Danautn Phrygios jaculatus puppibus ignis ! N .
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Art . \\ j—A Reply to Two Peistical Works , fyc . SfQi By Ben EfayUk ( Continued from p . 558 . ) BEN ^ AVIP justly com piain ^ of } Gamaliel Smith ' s
disingenuousnesa iu pretending tp have ia view merely the purification and establishment of Christianity , and to be following in the steps of Lardner aud Farmer :
" Thq author ojf ^ this wor k a believer 5 n Revelation : and his pretence to imitate the example of the above venerable names , in removing the corrupt Jons which , in the ^ ye of reason ,
weigh down Clnistiainty ^ is a mere snare to entrap his readers ; and if thjs publiccation succeeded , it might sopm be fallowed by another from the same pen , emitted , ' Neither Paul nor Jesus /' . — P . 172 .
Resenting this insidious mode of proceeding , Beri David rebukes sharply the Deistical author ; and if we grieve thai hard epithets should be aihx ^ d to a napie o ^ i m any accounts so jr ^ r speelable , we grieve wore that W £ cannot censure them as undeserved .
There is weight in the following ' remarks on the antecedent probability of Paul ' s conversion , the history of which Gamaliel Smith represents as a fable : ~~ ~ , , i _ . i . - ¦ ... ... — ¦ ' * -See Air . Wywii ' s opinion pf this work , ia Mou , Renos . Xt fC 188 .
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^ If we would judge fairly of the probability or improbability of the conversion of Pcuil , we must not consider it as a naked or isolated event , but in connexion with the eyeuts which preceded it , and the end which Providence intended to answer by it * If a . divine communication was road , e to Jesus of Nazareth , desigued aud calculated to reform the world , the choice of ^ p ^ rspn , tike Paul , qualified to fulfil that dkignt , the account 0 f bis conversion , though supernatural ,
cannot be deemed improbable . The otduer ap ^ slks , though not illiterate , wer ^ ftat mea ot * learning . StiU less , it is probable , vv ^ re they acquain te d wi th tte fttate of | Jie : l ^ athen wpfld , and therefore little qualified ^ s far as they couic | be by hanian ra ^ ans , to convert
the nations . On tk other hand , Paul possessed superior talents , which be had cultivated and improved by all the advantages of a refined education , havipgmade himself acquainted not only : with the language , but with the literature of Greece - Nar was he Stte « t fbr hm high
destination , less by temper and character , than by talents and cultivation : for he wa , a open , sincere and ardent \ n his attachments , yet steady and circumspect ip . his pursuits—patient of injuries , fatigne and hunger— -resolute and collected in . the face of danger , and capable of
sacrificing every personal consideration , every se ! 6 sh interest , for the attainment of hi ^ glorious end . Now whatever ^ yidfyace renders Ihe gospel or the history Qf Christ credible , disposes us . tp lpqik wppn . the miraculous stpry of the Apostje Paul
$ s not incredible : wb ^ fev ^ r evidence supports the one ^ leads its full weight in support of the other ; so tli ^ t he vqho oil rational ground believes the nriraples and resurrection of Jesus , cannot hesitate to believe his supernatural appearance to Pilule—P . M 7 <
The moral reason of the time ^ nd plaee of Paul ' s conversion is t \ m $ lia l > - pily stated : ~ ** If Paul was an apostle accprdiiig to the will of God , if h ^ bad been separated from the beginning a chosen vessel to carry the gospel before the Gentiles , how
w £ * s he not chosen also to be a discjple of Christ during his ministry ? At least s why not appointed to succeed Judas , or why not conver ^ ei by the ^ postlfes , or converted and furnished with his cqmmission in their presence , before their divine Master had yet ascended to heaven ? Then a writer like Gamaliel would
have nothing to say agatust Paul , but what he would have said against the apostles or against Jpsus himself . No circumstance connected with Christianity
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Re » iein .- < -Ben David ' s Reply to Two Deistical Wwks . 619
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1824, page 619, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2529/page/43/
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