SERMON S. SERMON I. THE CHARACTER OF PAUL. 1 Cor. xv. 10. BY THE GRACE OF GOD I AM WHAT I AM. It is not my intention, from these words, to discourse of the nature of the grace of God, or to prove the necessity of divine influence on the hearts of men to form them to goodness and happiness. But I propose to show what Paul became through the grace of God, or, in other words, to set before you the leading features of his character as a Christian and Apostle. Every one who has read the New Testament must have observed, that, next to "the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus," Paul is the most extraordinary person, whose name has been handed down to us in connexion with the propagation of the Gospel, and the establishment of the Christian Church. The Church of Rome, building on a single declaration of our Saviour greatly misunderstood, has pretended that Peter was the Prince of the Apostles, and universal Bishop. If this had been the fact, it would have been rather strange that we have a much fuller account in the sacred records of the labours of Paul in spreading the Gospel, than we have of those of Peter; and that A we possess only two epistles of the latter, while no fewer than thirteen, written by the former, are included in the canon of Scripture. Not that we would infer from this that Paul was advanced to any species of primacy, either in respect of jurisdiction, dignity, or order, among the Apostles. They were all brethren, and he that was "greatest” among them, in point of usefulness, was to act as "the least," and he that appeared to be "chief" in gifts, was not only to call himself, but also to behave as, "the servant of all." He that said, "I am of Paul," and he that said, "I am of Cephas," in the primitive church (for the spirit of vain-glory and faction, which produced the Popedom, began early to work), were equally blamable: neither of them was crucified for us, nor were we baptized in the name of either, and their highest honour is, not that they were lords of God's heritage, but ensamples to it, and helpers of its joy. I mean not to speak of the apostolical authority of Paul; nor do I intend pronouncing his panegyric, a species of discourse in which the excellences of the person described are rhetorically exaggerated, and artificially blazoned, so as to form a masterpiece, in which the device and image of the artist are conspicuously enstamped. Such an attempt the sacredness of the subject forbids; the text frowns on it; and it would violate instead of embalming the memory of one whose uniform object it was to "preach not himself, but Christ Jesus the Lord," and who had these words more than any other in his mouth-"Glory not in men." But without incurring this censure, we may surely dwell for a little on a character which meets us so frequently in the word of God. It cannot surely be unlawful for us to trace and point out the marks of the finger of God in framing this "chosen vessel" to bear "the unsearchable riches of Christ" to the Gentiles. We must be prone to idolatry indeed, if we are in danger of putting that servant out of his place who is continually reminding us that he is nothing," and that his Master is "all in all." In delineating his excellences, and describing his abundant labours, is it possible that we should be puffed up, and not rather humbled and mortified at our falling so far behind a man, who, after all, disclaimed every thing bordering on perfection, and gloried only in his infirmities? The information which the New Testament contains respecting Paul, appears to point out his character as peculiarly deserving our attention, while it furnishes us with ample materials for describing it. In the Acts of the Apostles we have a narrative of his travels and preaching by the pen of one who accompanied him for many years-who enjoyed the very best opportunities of knowing his inmost sentiments, and of observing his conduct among Jews and Gentiles, among friends and enemies, in circumstances of honour and of disgrace and whose record of what he saw and heard bears the most indubitable and convincing marks of truth and ingenuousness. Besides this we have the confidential letters (which, of all things, reflect the character most truly), written by the apostle to individuals and churches in different parts of the world, and at different periods of his life, which show him to be always the same person, and on comparing which with the narrative of Luke, we discover such incidental coincidences in facts, sentiments, and feelings, as throw equal light and authority on both. Those who have carefully examined these documents, and especially those who have entered into the spirit of his epistles, are admitted to all those advantages which were enjoyed by his contemporaries and companions, and may be said, like Timothy, to have "fully known his doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions."* The epistles of Paul are, in fact, a continuation of the Acts of the Apostles, and in them he is the historian of himself, as well as of the churches to which he wrote. They have often been represented as filled with discussions of a speculative and abstruse kind; but of all writings, sacred or profane, ancient or modern, I know none in which there is such truth and force of moral painting, in which there is such a union of doctrine and practice, and, above all, in which the heart of the author is so completely laid open, and all his sentiments, and feelings, and emotions * 2 Tim. iii. 10. depicted. In his epistles the writer, to use his own expression, may be "known and read of all men." This renders our present task the less difficult. With the facts of the early life of Paul you are all well acquainted, and it is unnecessary for me to do more than advert to them. Born in Tarsus, a free city of Cilicia, and of Jewish parents, he inherited from his father the rights of a Roman citizen. Educated by Gamaliel, a celebrated teacher at Jerusalem, he made great proficiency in the knowledge of the Jewish religion; and having joined the popular sect of the Pharisees, was held in reputation for the correctness of his manners, and his scrupulous observance of the written and traditionary law of his fathers. When Christianity first made its appearance, he opposed it with all the keenness of the sect to which he belonged; and so inflamed was his zeal, that he became an active and forward instrument in the hands of those who sought to extirpate the nascent religion, and not contented with persecuting its followers to death in Jerusalem, obtained a commission from the chief priests to make inquisition after them in foreign cities, and to bring them to punishment. But he was arrested in this mad career, convinced that he had been ignorantly warring against the truth, and wonderfully converted from an enemy to a friend, from a persecutor into a preacher of the Christian faith. Into the subject of his conversion, which has been treated at large, and justly considered as one of the leading secondary evidences of the truth of the gospel, I propose not to enter. When sincerely believed, and deeply felt, Christianity is calculated to work so thorough a change on the whole frame of the mind- often sharpening the understanding and enlarging the soul, as well as regulating and purifying the heart-that it is difficult to determine what the natural dispositions of Paul were. From the facts preserved respecting the early part of his life, and from a cautious comparison of them with his subsequent conduct, we may perhaps be warranted in drawing the following inferences. He possessed a good understanding, which enabled him to judge of the characters of men, and manage their various tempers. Pride, rather than vanity of mind, was his besetting |