which, as they pretend, raises them above their fellow creatures, but which in reality is unworthy of a human being, shut their hearts against the influence of every feeling, which Providence has implanted in them.

There was nothing in the character or condition of St. Paul, which would authorize us to place him in the same class with persons of either of these descriptions. He was poor, and under the necessity of having recourse to his own personal, nay his own manual, exertions for subsistence. He was weak; and in consequence exposed not only to those sufferings, to which the weak may be regarded as ordinarily liable; but he was in a more especial manner exposed to the malice of the profligate and unprincipled; to the indignation of the Heathen philosophers and populace; and to the fury of his own bigotted countrymen: all of whom in turn scrupled not to wield against him the power they could command, in order to overbear by violence what they could not refute by argument. Learned indeed he was, and versed not

only in Jewish but in Heathen literature; but powerful as was his mind, and extensive as may have been his acquirements, so far were they from being an obstacle to his engaging in the active occupations of life, that they were on the other hand constantly and vigorously employed in such a manner, as to bring upon him unremitted hatred and persecution. So far was he from possessing, or affecting to possess, a stoical insensibility, that his natural feelings appear to have been singularly acute; and his character is accordingly distinguished by an uncommon liveliness, that forces itself on our attention, whether we consider his conduct or his language: the former of which was animated by the most fervent zeal; and the latter, both in his speeches and in his epistles, was marked by that vehemence and impressiveness, which have never been surpassed, and rarely equalled.

We may then consider acute sensibility; unceasing activity; habitual hardship; and severe sufferings and persecutions; as eminently distinguishing the mind and life of

St. Paul. These different particulars appear to be summed up by himself in a comprehensive and most forcible passage, in which he compares himself with the other Apostles. "Whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also. Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I. Are they Ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often; in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the Heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painful. ness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedBeside those things which are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the

ness.

care of all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things, which concern mine infirmities. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not"."

From a man, thus constituted, and thus circumstanced, the declaration in my text comes with peculiar efficacy. Had it been delivered by such persons, as those with whom we have been contrasting St. Paul, any one disposed to question its value, might have found a ground for his carelessness with respect to it, in the character or condition of the speaker. In the man of pleasure or the man of retirement he might have attributed it to an ignorance of what human sufferings are; in the Stoic he might have ascribed it to a real or affected insensibility to them. But when he, who from the circumstances of his situation was peculiarly exposed to affliction, and from the constitution of his nature was

"2 Cor. xi. 21-31.

peculiarly sensible of it, declares, that to him all human sufferings appear light and of no serious moment; we cannot but attach to the declaration the value which it then seems to deserve, and contemplate with admiration that glorious recompense, the very hope of which could effectually blunt the sting of the keenest sufferings in a mind of the most lively sensibility.

And in truth although this holy Apostle displays such uncommon fervour, when he speaks of that eternal and glorious reward "which God hath prepared for them that love him ;" and although it may not fall to the lot of many even of the most pious and devout Christians, to be able to speak of and to endure with such perfect indifference" the sufferings of this present time;" yet strange indeed must be that judgment, which does not think every earthly affliction more than overbalanced by the promised recompense; and dull indeed must be that heart, which, when it seriously contemplates the reward as held out to us in the Gospel, does not glow with a heavenly exultation; and feel itself elevated