Romans 15:20 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

So have I lived to preach the Gospel, &c.— So have I been ambitious, &c. The Apostle could not mean that he scorned to come after any other Christian minister, especially after what we read of his going to preach the Gospel at Damascus, Antioch, and Jerusalem. It may signify, that, far from declining dangers and oppositions, which might be expected from his first planting the Gospel in any country, he rather felt a sublime ambition, as the Greek word signifies, in making the first proclamation of the Gospel in places where it had before been quite unheard of. And probablyhe might glance at those false Apostles, who crept into the churches which he had planted, and endeavoured to establish their own reputation and influence by alienating the affections of his own converts, while they built on his grand and noble foundation an edifice of wood, hay, and stubble. This is likewise a proof in favour of the Apostle's own sincerity, and of the miraculousness of his conversion. If his conversion, and the part he acted in consequence of it, was an imposture, it was such an imposture as could not be carried on by one man alone. The faith he professed, and of which he became an Apostle, was nothis own invention. With Jesus, who was the author of it, he had never any communication, except when going to Damascus; nor with his Apostles, except as their persecutor. As he took on himself the office of an apostle, it was absolutely necessary for him to have a precise and perfect knowledge of all the facts contained in the Gospels, several of which had only passed between Jesus himself and his twelve Apostles, and others more privately still, so that they could be known to very few: and as the testimony they bore, would have been different in point of fact, and many of their doctrines repugnant to his, either they must have been forced to ruin his credit, or he would have ruined theirs. It was therefore impossible for him to act this part but in confederacy at least with the Apostles. Such a confederacy was still the more necessary for him, as the undertaking to preach the Gospel did not only require an exact and particular knowledge of all that it contained, but an apparent power of working miracles; for to such a power all the Apostles appealed in proof of their mission, and of the doctrines they preached. He was therefore to learn of them by what secret arts they imposed on the senses of men, if this power was a cheat. But how could he gain these men to become his confederates? Was it by furiously persecuting them and their brethren, as we find that he did to the moment of his conversion? Would they venture to trust their capital enemy with all the secrets of their imposture? Would they put in his power to take away not only their lives, but the honour of their sect, which they preferred to their lives, by so ill-timed a confidence? Would men, so secret as not to be drawn by the most severe persecutions to say one word which could tend to prove them impostors, confess themselves such to their prosecutor, in hopes of his being their accomplice? This is still more impossible, than that he should attempt to engage in the fraud without their consent and assistance. Had he not availed himself of a confederacy with the Apostles to get at their secret doctrines, he might have gained a knowledge of them by pretending to preach among such persons as they had already converted: but by going to places where the Gospel was entirely unknown, he lost every opportunity of this kind; and though he lost all these opportunities, we find no one of the Apostles objecting to the doctrine which he planted, as inconsistent with what they had received from Christ, and the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. His very success among such people was another proof of the reality of his conversion, and his divine mission. For among the Gentiles, who had not heard of the Gospel, he could find no disposition, no aptness, no bias to aid his imposture. It is evident, that there was not anyconfederacy between him and them, strong enough to impose either his doctrines or his miracles upon them, if they had been false. He was in no combination with their priests or their magistrates; no sect or party among them gave him any help; all eyes were open and watchful to detect his impostures; all hands ready to punish him, as soon as he was detected. Had he remained in Judea, he might at least have had many confederates, all the Apostles, all the disciples of Christ, at that time pretty numerous; but in preaching to the Gentiles he was often alone, seldom or never with more than two or three companions. Was this a confederacy powerful enough to carry on such a cheat in so many different parts of the world, against the united opposition of the magistrates, priests, philosophers, people, all combined to detect and expose their frauds? Let it be also considered, that those to whom the Apostle addressed himself, were not a gross or ignorant people, apt to mistake any uncommon operations of nature, or juggling tricks, for miraculous acts. The churches planted by St. Paul, were in the most enlightened parts of the world, among the Greeks of Asia and Europe, among the Romans, in the midst of science, philosophy, freedom of thought, and in an age more inquisitively curious into the powers of nature, and less inclined to credit religious frauds, than any before it. Nor were they only the lowest of the people whom he converted. Sergius Paulus the proconsul of Paphos, Erastus chamberlain of Corinth, and Dionysius the Areopagite, were his proselytes. Upon the whole, it appears beyond contradiction, that his pretension to miracles was not assisted by the disposition of those whomhe designed to convert, nor by any power and confederacy to carry on and abet the cheat: what less, then, than a divine concurrence could have rendered him successful in converting nations, which had not heard of the Gospel till he preached it to them? See Doddridge, and Lyttelton's Observations on the Conversion of St. Paul.