date

1817 Oct 13 Not Paul Period
1817 Oct 13

Not Paul

Period before Conversion

Cloven tongues

that on this occasion ‘they that gladly received his (Peter’s) word were baptized:’ and as to the number of the persons in whose instance this preparation to /for/ or substitute to an admission ticket is an entry in a register book was performed /had place/, though is such a case exaggeration is an incident altogether natural, yet no particular reason /ground/ for diminishing /defalcation/ the number presents itself.

Be the assembly what it may and be the occasion of it what it may, in the eyes of every man in whose instance it exceeds the number that had been expected by law, it will in proportion to the excess be the subject /an object/ of wonder.

In the instance in question so it really happened that in the instance of a portion more or less considerable of the company the enthusiasm had received assistance from the exciting powers of the intoxicating beverage, the intensity of the sentiment /passion/ of wonder would naturally receive a proportionable encrease. The fact that wine had been at work is not only directly asserted but indirectly admitted: the denial deduced /insinuated by a reference/ from the time of the day is but argumentative, and the argument seems to want much of being conclusive.

If at the time the wind happened to be higher than common, in this supposition by whatsoever in the degree of its velocity there was or appeared to be beyond the ordinary degree the aggregate sensation would naturally be excited.
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  • Title: [1817 Oct. 13 Not Paul Period]
    Description: 1817 Oct. 13

    Not Paul

    Period before Conversion

    §. 2 Cloven tongues

    As to the cloven tongues, it seems to have been added /slipped in/ by the historian, for the improvement of the miracle for the purpose of adding to the compound mass of the efficient causes of wonder: with the principal effect /result/ it has no particular /peculiar/ connection in any one of three characters, that of a cause that of an effect or that of a concomitant circumstance. If in any part of the room so it really was that by any part of the light by it passage through a transparent body the prismatic spectrum happened to be /was/ produced, the figure of such a spectrum resembles that of a tongue, and if a straw or any other […?] body happened to coincide with the axis of the cylinder /divide it longitudinally in any part of its length/, the tongue would be a cloven one. By multiplying by the number of the persons present any one such cloven tongue would produce ‘the cloven tongues like as of fire’ which ‘sat upon each of them’. In any such muliplication it is not natural that the author should find much difficulty: he who on that same occasion brings to Jerusalem and makes /making/ them dwellers there ‘men out of every nation under heaven’ ‘all of them devout.’

    But when it is considered how many years were there that had intervened between the supposed time of the supposed incident and the time of the penning this account of it, and that in /for/ the writing of the words which in English have been rendered by cloven tongues no more labour was necessary than in the writing of any two other words of equal length, it will be manifest how little need there can be for any such supposition as that of a prismatic mass frequently as we see it produced by accident, or any other supposition, the expence of which shall be incurred for no better purpose than that of giving /affording/ credibility to a fact so compleatly destitute of importance.
  • Title: [1817 Sept. 24  […?] Not Paul]
    Description: 1817 Sept. 24  […?]

    Not Paul

    Ch Period before Conversion

    § Cloven tongues

    Peter’s Speech

    Immediately After these cloven tongues are reported to have been seen, and the confused concert of languages heard comes the report of a speech from Peter.

    The result is that they (the auditors) were pricked to the heart such as were converts were baptized and the number of those converts is reckoned at three thousand.

    With the account thus given of the effects it is curious to compare the account given of the cause: of the proximate cause at any rate viz. this speech which we have of Saint Peter.

    It consists of three arguments: viz. a passage which in his eyes is a prophecy - a prophecy of Jesus from the prophet Joel 2. an appeal to the miracles of Jesus - to the personal knowledge which speaking to his auditors he informs them they themselves had of the miracle wrought by Jesus. 3 a passage out of the Psalms of King David.

    1 As to the miracles alluded to, if of the persons present any there were that possessed any such personal knowledge that of itself should naturally /rationally/ speaking have sufficed for making converts of them /their conversion/: if by this knowledge of the miracles themselves that effect had not been produced, it seems rather difficult to conceive how it was that by the vague allusion there made to those same miracles the effect should have been produced. Shall it be said /we say/, that though to no one any miracle was known, yet to any number of others for aught any one could say such miracles in any number might be known to have been wrought?

    For the production of the effect then, abstraction made of the cloven tongues and the concert of languages, all that remains in the character of a cause is composed of the two passages /quotations/ the passage from the prophet Joel, and the passage from David’s Psalms.

    If by these passages either or both of them not to speak of imitation[?] any the least tendency was produced towards the production of the effect it must be allowed that in that particular instance not to say in that age and nation a small quantity of hearing[?] would go a good way, and that to operate in that way it was not necessary that between the thing to be proved and the proof it was not necessary that any very particular relation should have place.

     Go on to shew this.
  • Title: [1817 Oct. Not Paul Heading]
    Description: 1817 Oct.

    Not Paul

    Heading for

    §. 12 Sorcerer Simon’s

    Offer refused.

    §. 12 Sorcerer Simon - his offer to buy power to confer the Holy Ghost - refused.

    §. 12. Ch VIII Simon the Sorcerer baptized - his offer to purchase the power of conferring the Holy Ghost refused 9 to 24: - Peter’s Speech to him (Speech 8) 20 to 23

    In the account here given of /what is said of/ this Simon, commonly distinguished by the name of Simon Magus, and famous in Church history as being the man, by whom the sin called from him Simony was first attempted to be committed, some /considerable/ instruction is afforded /presented/, and in respect of the correctness of the narrative little ground for doubt /disbelief/.

    The profession of wonder-worker rendered by one word sorcerer was it seems in that age and nation, as one naturally expect /might well be expected/ to find a common one: a little while and we shall find another of the same calling Barjesus, brought by our author upon the stage to be blinded put to shame and confounded.

    In the instance of this bad Samaritan, whatso /notwithstanding the celebrity here reported/ in how flourishing a state so ever it may have been at some antecedent period, it looks as if at this time it was on the decline. Upon the testimony of our author That the Sorcerer was baptized, though it were /be/ upon no better authority than that of our author, we may without much danger of error venture to believe. That he likewise believe seems also possible /not impossible yes/, but not eminently /preponderantly/ probable: to be baptized was to be admitted into the fellowship: and for the whole of his dealings with the Apostle an object not of the religious but of the commercial character is too plainly declared to admitt of doubt /to be questionable/.