Had there really been any such preaching, well might have amazement followed it. But there was no such preaching, therefore no such amazement. Had there been real preaching, and real amazement produced by it--what would have been the subject of the amazement! Not so much the audacity of the preacher--for madmen acting singly are to be seen in but too great frequency: not so much the audacity of the speaker, as the supineness of the constituted authorities; for, madmen acting in bodies in the character of public functionaries have never yet been visible. And if any such assemblage was ever seen, many such would be seen, before any one could be seen, whose madness took the course of sitting still, while an offender against their authority, coming to them single and without support,--neither bringing with him support, nor finding it there,--continued, at a public meeting, preaching against them, and setting their authority at defiance. TOPIC 9.--_Matter of the Revelation, which, in and by the supposed unpremeditated Oratorical Account, is supposed to have been made._ Forgetting what, as we have seen, he had so lately been saying in his own person--in the person of Paul,--he on this occasion, returns to the subject: and more evasive is the result. On this occasion--this proper occasion--what is it that he, Paul, takes upon him to give an account of.--That which the Lord had revealed to him?--revealed, communicated in the supernatural way of revelation, to him--Paul? No; but that which, according to him,--if he, and through him the historian, is to be believed,--the Lord communicated to Ananias concerning him--Paul. The Almighty having minded to communicate something to a man, and yet not communicating to that man any part of it, but communicating the whole of it to another! What a proceeding _this_ to attribute to the Almighty, and upon such evidence! Still we shall see, supposing it communicated, and from such a source communicated--still we shall see it amounted to nothing: to nothing--always excepted the contradiction to what, in relation to this subject, had, by this same historian, been a little before asserted. Observe what were the _purposes_, for which, by this Ananias, Paul is supposed to be made to understand, that God--the God, says he, of our fathers--had chosen him. 1. Purpose the first--"To know his will." His will, respecting what? If respecting anything to the great purpose here in question, respecting the new doctrine which, to this Paul, to the exclusion of the Apostles of Jesus, is all along supposed to have been revealed. Of no such doctrine is any indication anywhere in these accounts to be found.