Paul's supposable Miracles explained.
OBJECTIONS, APPLYING TO THEM IN THE AGGREGATE.
But, it may be said, Paul's alleged commission from God was certainly genuine; for it is proved by his miracles. Look at the Acts, no fewer than twelve miracles of his you will find. If then taken by themselves, for want of that accurate conception of the probative form of evidence, to which maturer ages have given birth, the account of the miracle by which his conversion was wrought fails of being completely satisfactory,--look at his miracles, the deficiency will be filled up. The man, to whom God had imparted such extraordinary powers--powers so completely matchless in these our times,--can such a man have been a liar--an impostor? a liar for the purpose of deceit--of giving support to a system of deception--and that a lucrative one? An imposition so persevering as to have been carried on, from youth to death, through, perhaps, the greatest part of his life?
The observation is plausible:--the answer will not be the less satisfactory.
The answer has two branches: one, general, applying to all the alleged miracles in question, taken in the lump: the other particular, applying to the several miracles separately considered.
Observations applying to the whole together are, the following:
Not by Paul himself, in any one of his own Epistles, is any such general assertion made, as that he had received from God or from Jesus,--or, in a word, that he was in possession of, any such power, as the power of working miracles.
Nowhere in the account given of his transactions by the author of the Acts, is he in any of his speeches represented as making reference to any one act of his in the character of a miracle.
Nowhere in that same account, is he represented as stating himself to be in possession of any such powers.
Not by the author of the Acts, is he spoken of as being in possession of any such power.
Nowhere by the author of the Acts, is he in any general terms spoken of, as producing any effects, such as, in respect of the power necessary to the production of them, approach to those spoken of as having been
no such commission from God is represented as having been received.
Was it that, in his own conception, for gaining credence to his pretension of a commission from Jesus--from Jesus, styled by him the Lord Jesus--any need of miracles, or of a persuasion, on the part of those with whom he had to deal, of his having power to work miracles? By no means. Of the negative, the story told by him of the manner of his conversion is abundant proof. Of the efficient cause of this change in his mind, the account given, is plainly given in the character of the account of a miracle. But of this miracle, the proof given consists solely in his own evidence: his own statement, unsupported by that of any other person, or by reference to that of any other person: his account, of the discourse, which on the occasion of the vision, in which nothing was seen but a flood of light, he heard from the Lord Jesus: his own account, of the vision, which he says was seen by Ananias: his own account, of that other vision, which, according to Ananias, he, Paul, had had, but of which Paul himself says nothing.