After having examined the character of St. Paul by His conduct, it will
be proper to make some reflections on his writings; they will serve
to place in a still clearer light, this celebrated man, to whom
Christianity owes so many obligations. If we confine ourselves to those
works attributed to him, the Apostle of the Gentiles must have been a
very extraordinary compound of discordant qualities, which when united
must have produced an inexplicable whole. He himself informs us, that he
had within him two men, the new man and the old man; the just man, and
the sinner. He had two bodies, the one natural and the other spiritual;
the body of sin and death, and the body of justification and life. He
had within him, two laws, which regulated his actions, the law of sin,
and the law of justice, the law of the flesh, and the law of the spirit.
Never was poor mortal so perplexed and teazed, than was our Apostle
according to his own account, by these two opposite laws, which he had
within himself. The carnal man makes him say, (see Romans, chapter vii.
verse 18, to the end of the chapter.)
In other places the spiritual man, makes him hold another language, he
assures the Galatians, that he is one with Christ and crucified with him
(see Galatians. chapter vii. verse 19 and 20.) In another place he says
to the Romans. "For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath
made me free from the law of sin and death." It is clear that this
duplicity of nature and law in St. Paul as acknowledged by himself
is calculated to throw us into much embarrassment. In fact how can we
distinguish in his conduct or discourse, that which springs from the
old, from that which arises from the new man, or the spirit of life and
the grace of Christ? Is it very easy at this time, to determine which
governed St. Paul in those moments in which he spoke, acted, or wrote?
Perhaps those maxims and dogmas most admired by Christians have been the
suggestions of the flesh, the fruits of the old man, and that this old
man often influenced his conduct, which, as we have shewn was not at all
times free from reproach. In short the acknowledgments are of a nature
well calculated to plunge the most firm Christians into uncertainties
from which, without supernatural assistance, they will have great
difficulty in extricating themselves. These confessions may further
serve to shew us the inconsistencies, contradictions, absurdities, the
sophistry and superficial reasoning, and disjointed ideas, which we meet
with at every page of the writings attributed to St. Paul. It is to
be presumed, that it is the Holy Ghost, or Christ, who speaks when he
appears reasonable, it would be blasphemous to say or think, that they
could talk nonsense: in this case we shall say, that it is St. Paul
or the flesh, who speaks, when we find him using bad arguments,
extravagancies, and unintelligible nonsense. We cannot imagine that the
spirit of God would have made him utter contradictions, or inspired him
with a language incomprehensible to those whom he designed to enlighten
and instruct by the mouth of this Apostle. In fact, St. Peter himself
complains of the obscurities of Paul's epistles, in which, says he, "are
some things hard to be understood."*
* 2 Epis. Peter, chap. iii. ver. 16
The distinction which we have just made will enable us to judge of the
works of St. Paul, and explain the obscurities which we find in them,
as well as the continual variations, which we must remark in his
principles. He tells the Galatians that he was angry with Peter, and
withstood him to his face, and that he was offended, with the other
apostles, because they temporized and used dissimulation, sometimes
advocating the usages of the Jews, and at others the customs of the
Gentiles*.
Elsewhere he says (here see 1 Corinthians, chap. ix. ver. 19 to 22.)
According to these passages, is it right to temporize, or not? It
remains for our doctors to decide which of these two principles has been
divinely inspired to St. Paul, and in which of them we ought to imitate
this great Saint. Our doctors however are not much in the habit of
temporizing with their enemies unless they find themselves, too weak to
cope with them.
Our Apostle declares, formally to the Galatians that circumcision,
is useless and will avail them nothing, he says the same thing to the
Corinthians, Yet we find him circumcising his dear Timothy, and he tells
the Romans that circumcision is useful to those who fulfil the law.
He writes to Timothy, that God is the saviour of all men expecially of
the faithful, which evidently supposes that the unfaithful, will not
be excluded from Salvation. He had also said, that God willed that all
should be saved. But speaking to the Romans, he will not allow that the
gates of Paradise, shall be opened to all the world**.
* Galatians chap. ii. ver. 11, &c.
** Romans, chap. xi. ver. 7.
We should never finish, were we to relate all the contradictions which
are to be found in the writings attributed to St. Paul. It is clear
that if he be really the author of them, he exhibits himself to us, as a
fanatical writer, whose disordered head prevents him from seeing that
he is eternally contradicting himself. He says that black is white.
He follows only the impulses of a heated imagination; he establishes
principles to destroy them immediately; in a word from his want of
logic, and the little connexion of his ideas without a most lively faith
we should suspect, that he was in a continual state of delirium.
It cannot be denied that this great Saint was of a temperament too
ardent to allow him to reason connectedly, or to speak with coolness.
The tumultuous ideas which presented themselves in crowds to his
brain, did not permit him to put them into any thing like an orderly
arrangement; he incessantly wandered from his subject, so much so that
an imagination, as warm as his own, is necessary in order to follow
him in his flights. Perpetually involved in figures, allusions
and allegories, it is nearly impossible to guess what are his real
sentiments. According to his doctrine he appears to establish in the
strongest manner the dreadful doctrine of absolute predestination and
reprobation. According to him God grants grace to whom he pleases,
and whom he pleases he hardens. If we demand how this doctrine can
be reconciled with the goodness and justice of God; or how a God who
operates in man the will and the deed, can be offended with the wills
and actions of men? He extricates himself by asking if the vessel shall
say to him who made it, why hast thou fashioned me thus? Thus St. Paul,
and after him all Christian doctors, explain the conduct of a God,
whom they pretend to love, at the same time that they hold him up as
a tyrant, who is not accountable for his most unjust caprices, and
despot-like is restrained by no rule!
St. Paul being divinely inspired should have taught us something of the
nature of the soul, an object which so embarrasses alt philosophers who
not being illumined from above, have formed ideas upon this subject,
so much at variance with those of our Christian doctors. But far from
throwing any light upon this important matter, our Apostle, who appears
strongly tinctured with the platonic philosophy so universally taught in
his time, distinguishes the body, soul and spirit, and thus obscures the
thing still more. But it is the essense of theology to confound
every thing, and the interest of theologians to plunge mankind into a
labyrinth, from which nothing but faith can extricate them.