him, and done what they could to make away with him, might be saved, and come over to Christ.167 Now who so longed for Christ? If, indeed, his feelings towards him ought not to be described as something nobler than longing; shall we then any more compare ourselves with this saint, after so great grace was imparted to him from above, after so great virtue was manifested in himself? What could be more presumptuous? Now, that he was not so unskilled, as some count him to be, I shall try to show in what follows. The unskilled person in men’s estimation is not only one who is unpracticed in the tricks of profane oratory,168 but the man who is incapable of contending for the defence of the right faith, and they are right. But St. Paul did not say that he was unskilled in both these respects, but in one only; and in support of this he makes a careful distinction, saying that he was “rude in speech, but not in knowledge.”169 Now were I to insist upon the polish of Isocrates, the weight of Demosthenes, the dignity of Thucydides, and the sublimity of Plato, in any one bishop, St. Paul would be a strong evidence against me. But I pass by all such matters and the elaborate ornaments of profane oratory; and I take no account of style or of delivery; yea let a man’s diction be poor and his composition simple and unadorned, but let him not be unskilled in the knowledge and accurate statement of doctrine; nor in order to screen his own sloth, deprive that holy apostle of the greatest of his gifts, and the sum of his praises. 7. For how was it, tell me, that he confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus,170 though he had not yet begun to work miracles? How was it that he wrestled with the Grecians and threw them?171 and why was he sent to Tarsus? Was it not because he was so mighty and victorious in the word, and brought his adversaries to such a pass that they, unable to brook their defeat, were provoked to seek his life? At that time, as I said, he had not begun to work miracles, nor could any one say that the masses looked upon him with astonishment on account of any glory belonging to his mighty works, or that they who contended with him were overpowered by the force of public opinion concerning him. For at this time he conquered by dint of argument only. How was it, moreover, that he contended and disputed successfully with those who tried to Judaize in Antioch? and how was it that that Areopa- gite,172 an inhabitant of Athens, that most devoted of all cities to the gods, followed the 167 Rom. ix. 3. 168 τερθρείαν, from τ™ρθρον, literally, a sail-rope. The man who condescends to catching the ear by mere rhetorical artifice being like the mountebank on the trapeze, fascinating the spectators in a circus by his perform- ances. 169 2 Cor. xi. 6. 170 Acts ix. 22. 171 See Acts ix. 29. 172 Acts xvii. 34. 97 Book IV