few are there, by whom any such distinction as that between the headings and the text is borne in mind! The right reverend divines in question,-were they the first authors of this discovery, or was it ready-made to their hands?-made by that church, from the errors of which their own has been so felicitously purified? To this question, let those look out for, and find, the answer, in whose eyes the profit is worth the trouble.

Not a few are the divines, who have discovered Antichrist sitting in St. Peter's chair, with a triple crown on his head. In the chair of Luther, or in that of Calvin, would the triple monarch be disposed to discover the hobgoblin, if he thought it worth while to look for him. Has he ever, or has he not, made this discovery already?

"Oh, but" (says somebody) "we does not here "mean we only who are alive at this present writing; "it means, we Christians of all ages:-any number "of ages after this, as well as this, included. In the designation thus given, neither the individuals he "was addressing, nor he himself, were necessarily "comprehended." This accordingly, if any thing, must be said, or the title of the self-constituted Apostle, to the appellation of false prophet, must be admitted. Oh yes! this may be said, and must be said: but what will it avail him? In no such comprehensive sense did he use it; for, in that sense, it would not have answered his purposes: not even his spiritual and declared purposes, much less his temporal, selfish, and concealed purposes. Why was it that these disciples of his, as well as he, were to be so incessantly upon the watch? 1 Thess. v. 6, 7, 8. Why, but because "you yourselves" (says he, ver. 2) "know "perfectly, that the day of the Lord cometh like a "thief in the night." Who, on that occasion, could be meant by we, but himself and them? In no such comprehensive sense was it understood by them: if it

had been, no such consequences as we have seen following, could have followed. After the experience he and they had had, of the mischief produced by the narrow sense put upon the all-important pronoun, would he have continued thus to use it in that same narrow sense, if it had not been his wish that in that same sense it should continue to be understood? Would he have been at all this pains in creating the spiritual monster, for the declared purpose of putting off their expectation of the great day, if, but for this put-off, it would not have come on*? In what part of all his preachings can any distinct ground be seen for any such supposition, as that any portion of the field of time, beyond that by which his own life was

* Of this child of the self-appointed Apostle's brain, it seems not altogether improbable, that, in case of need, some further use was in contemplation to be made with the skin of this bugbear, might, upon occasion, be invested, any person, to whom, either in the character of a declared adversary, or in that of a rival, it might happen, to have become in a certain degree troublesome: a declared adversary,—that is, either a Gentile or an unbelieving Jew: a rival, that is, one who, believing in the religion of Jesus,adhered to that edition of it, which had the Apostles of Jesus for its publishers, or followed any other edition which was not his one of those, for example, upon whom we have seen him making such bitter war in his Epistle to his Galatians. Of the two, the believing rival would of course be much more troublesome, than the nonbelieving adversary, from whom, if let alone, he would not experience any annoyance. Of this rival class were they whose "unrigh"teousness" (2 Thess. ii. 10) had recourse to "deceivableness:" for as to non-believers, no need could they have of deceivableness; to foil him, they had but to turn aside from him, and stand as they were. Those men, whose unrighteousness had recourse to deceivableness, who could they be, but the men of the same description in this respect as those, whom in chapter third of his Epistle to his Galatians, he complains of as having "bewitched" them; and that in such sort, as to have made him so far lose his temper as to call them "foolish :" and that they were rivals, is a matter altogether out of doubt. In a word, rivals were the only troublesome sort of men, who, at the writing of this Epistle, could, with the nameless monster since named Antichrist, be yet to come.

bounded, was ever present to his view? In the field of place, yes in that field his views were of no small amplitude: for in that field it was by his ambition that they were marked out: but in the field of time, no symptoms of any the smallest degree of enlargement will any where be found. But, on this occasion, suppose other ages, and those others to any extent, included in his views from their including such future ages, would it follow that they had no application to the age then present?-But, supposing them understood to apply to that age, thereupon in comes the mischief in full force.

Any man that has been reading these Epistles,-let him suppose, in his own breast, any the most anxious desire to raise an expectation, such as that in question: and then let him ask himself, whether it be in the power of that desire to suggest language, that would afford any considerably better promise of giving effect

to it.

Of the nature of the disorder, as well as of the cause of it, the persons, to whom the world is indebted for the preservation of these remains of the selfconstituted Apostle,-have given us, as above, some conception. Of the effect of the remedy, it would have been amusing to be informed: unfortunately, this portion of his history is not comprised in the labours of his historiographer *.

* As for that "helmet of faith," which, in the passage first quoted, he has been seen commanding his disciples to put on-of that faith, which is the everlasting object of his so indefatigably repeated "command," and which is always faith in Paul, for of Jesus scarcely is so much as a word, except the name, to be found in any of his Epistles,—as to this helmet, it is the sort of cap, which a man learnt how to put on, when he had made himself perfect, in what may be called the self-deceptive exercise, or in a word the erercise of faith. It is composed of two very simple operations at the word of command, the recruit turns its face to the

arguments on one side; at the word of command, it turns its back to those on the other side. The test of perfection is-its being able to hold in its embrace, for any length of time, both parts together of a self-contradictory proposition; such as, that three man's-persons,―(to use the German word,) or if any other sorts of persons there are three others,—are but one. When the helmet sits close enough on his head to enable him to do this, there is no fear of its falling off. Holding fast to improbabilities, how absurd and extravagant soever, is thenceforward but child's play to him:for example, belief in the future existence of Paul's Antichrist: including, the coming on of those scenes, in which that raw-head and bloody bones is to be the principal performer.

:

To this, as to any thing else, the mind of man is capable of being brought, by assurances of infinite enjoyment, in case of his having made himself perfect in this exercise, or of infinite torment in case of his neglecting it: of course, still more effectually, by both assurances put together; and, considering the facility of both operations, easier terms could not very easily be imagined. A capital convenience is that, for producing faith in this way, not a particle of any thing in the shape of evidence is necessary: the place of evidence is supplied by assurance:-by the intensity, real or apparent, of the persuasion, to which expression has been given, by what the preacher has said or done. The more intense the apparent assurance on the one part, the greater the apparent safety, obtained by yielding to it, on the other: and thus it is, that no absurdity can be so flagrant, that the side on which it is found may not be embraced, under the notion of its being the safe side. When Paul, with his accustomed vehemence, was preaching the world's end, so many of his Thessalonians as believed in it, believed, that believing in it was being on the safe side. On the part of the preacher, the more vehement and impudent the assurance, the greater on the part of the disciple, the apparent danger on the disbelieving, the apparent safety on the believing side.

By this means are produced the signs and wonders we read of in the Epistles of our modern missionaries; for, how conclusive soever the evidence may be, which the assertions they employ might call in for their support,-conclusive to every reasonable mind by which it was received,-assuredly it is not by the evidence, but by the unsupported assertion, that, on the occasion of those exploits of theirs,-whatever credence has place, is produced.

CHAPTER XIII.

Paul's supposable Miracles explained.

SECTION 1.

OBJECTIONS, APPLYING TO THEM IN THE AGGREGATE.

BUT, it may be said, Paul's alleged commission from God was certainly genuine; for it is proved by his miracles. Look at the Acts, no fewer than twelve miracles of his you will find. If then taken by themselves, for want of that accurate conception of the probative form of evidence, to which maturer ages have given birth, the account of the miracle by which his conversion was wrought fails of being completely satisfactory,-look at his miracles, the deficiency will be filled up. The man, to whom God had imparted such extraordinary powers-powers so completely matchless in these our times,-can such a man have been a liar-an impostor? a liar for the purpose of deceit of giving support to a system of deceptionand that a lucrative one? An imposition so persevering as to have been carried on, from youth to death, through, perhaps, the greatest part of his life? The observation is plausible :-the answer will not be the less satisfactory.

The answer has two branches: one, general, applying to all the alleged miracles in question, taken in the lump: the other particular, applying to the several miracles separately considered.

Observations applying to the whole together are the following:

1. Not by Paul himself, in any one of his own