Void, as we have seen, of all title to credence, is the story of Paul's commission from Jesus:--void may it be seen to be, even if taken by itself, and without need of resort to any counter-evidence. Who could have expected to have found it, moreover, disproved by the most irresistible counter-evidence--by the evidence of the Apostles themselves? Yes: of the Apostles themselves, of whom it will plainly enough be seen, that by not so much as one of them was it ever believed: no, not to even the very latest period, of which any account has reached us: namely that, at which the history of the Acts of the Apostles closes, or that of the date of the last-written of Paul's Epistles, whichsoever of the two may be the latest. In regard to the story of his conversion, its cause, and manner,--it has been seen, that it is either from himself directly, or from an adherent of his, the author of the Acts,--who had it from himself, unless Ananias was a person known to the author of the Acts, and heard by him,--it is from Paul, and Paul alone, that all the evidence, which the case has happened to supply, has been derived. In regard to the degree of credence given, to his pretence to the having received a commission from Jesus, still the same remark applies: still, either from himself, or from the same partial, and, as will be seen, not altogether trustworthy, narrator, comes the whole of the evidence, with which the case happens to have furnished us. SECTION 2. COUNTER-WITNESSES, THE APOSTLES. BY THEM, THE STORY WAS PROBABLY NOT HEARD--CERTAINLY NOT CREDITED. Jerusalem, according to the Acts, was the headquarters of the noble army of the Apostles: the ordinary residence of that goodly fellowship:--a station, which they none of them ever quitted, for any considerable length of time. In the course of the interval, between the date assigned by Paul to his conversion, and that of the last particulars we have of his history,--mention, more or less particular, may be found of four visits of his--distinctly four related visits, and no more than four,--to that metropolis of the new Church. On no one of these occasions, could he have avoided using his endeavours, towards procuring admittance, to the fellowship of the distinguished persons, so universally known in the character of the select companions and most confidential servants of Jesus: of that Jesus, whom, in the flesh at any rate, he never so much as pretended to have ever seen: _from whom_ he had consequently, if they thought proper to impart it, so much to learn, or at least to wish to learn: while _to_ them he had nothing to impart, except that which, if anything, it was only in the way of _vision_, if in any way, that he had learned from Jesus.