Bible. New Testament -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.; Christianity -- Origin; Paul, the Apostle, Saint
That which, on this occasion, may be believed without much difficulty
is, that the word thus taught by Paul was Paul's word: and, that which
may be believed with as little, by those, whoever they may be, who
believe in his original conversion-vision, is--that it was God's word
likewise. From Paul himself must the account of this vision have been
delivered to the historiographer: for, unless at the expense of a sort
of miracle, in the shape of an additional vision at least, if not in
some more expensive shape, no information of any such thing could have
reached him. In these latter days, no ghost is ever seen but in a
_tete-a-tete_: in those days, no vision, as far as appears, was ever
seen but in the same degree of privacy. A vision is the word in these
pages, because such is the word in the authoritative translation made of
the historiographer's. That which Paul is related to have heard,
is--what we have just seen as above: but that, upon this occasion
he saw anything--that he saw so much as a flash of light, this is
what we are not told: any more than by what other means he became so
well assured, that the voice which he heard, supposing him to have heard
a voice, was the Lord's voice. In these latter days,--inquiries, of
some such sort as these, would as surely be put, by a counsel who were
against the vision,--as, in the case of the Cock-lane Ghost, which
gave so much exercise to the faith of the archlexicographer,
were put by the counsel who were against the ghost; but, by a
sort of general understanding,--than which nothing can be more
convenient,--inquiries, such as these,--how strictly soever in season
when applied to the 19th century of the vulgar ear, are altogether
out of season, as often as they are applied to the commencement of it.
As to the speaking by a vision, the only intelligible way, in which any
such thing can really have place, is that, which under the pressure of
necessity has been realized by the ingenuity of dramatists in these
latter days. Such is the mode employed, when the actors, having been
struck dumb by the tyranny of foolish laws, and consequently having no
auditors, convey to the spectators what information seems necessary, by
an appropriate assortment of gold letters on a silk ground: whether the
Lord who, on this occasion, according to Paul, spoke to the eyes of
Paul, came provided with any such implement, he has not informed us.
Without much danger of error, we may venture to assert the negative:
for, if such was the mode of converse, there was nothing but what might
happen without sign or wonder: and, on this supposition, no addition was
made by it, to those signs and wonders, which, as has been seen, it was
his way to make reference to, in the character of evidence.
SECTION 7.
SUPPOSABLE MIRACLE VI.--AT EPHESUS, DISEASES AND DEVILS EXPELLED BY
FOUL HANDKERCHIEFS.--_Acts_ 19:1-12.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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