The Conversion of Paul

Now this, in a fullness of meaning which a heathen could not understand, is, I conceive, the characteristic of this great Apostle.

He is ever speaking, to use his own words, "human things," and "as a man," and "according to man," and "foolishly": — that is, human nature, the common nature of the whole race of Adam, spoke in him, acted in him, with an energetical presence, with a sort of bodily fullness, always under the sovereign command of divine grace, but losing none of its real freedom and power because of its subordination.

And the consequence is, that, having the nature of man so strong within him, he is able to enter into human nature, and to sympathize with it, with a gift peculiarly his own.  Now the most startling instance of this is this — that, though his life prior to his conversion seems to have been so conscientious and so pure, nevertheless he does not hesitate to associate himself with the outcast heathen, and to speak as if he were one of them.

Saint Philip Neri, before he communicated, used to say, "Lord, I protest before thee that I am good for nothing but to do evil."  At confession he used to say, "I have never done one good action." He often said, "I am past hope."  To a penitent he said, "Be sure of this, I am a man like my neighbors, and nothing more."

Well, I mean, that somewhat in this way, Saint Paul felt all his neighbors, all the whole race of Adam, to be existing in himself.  He knew himself to be possessed of a nature, he was conscious of possessing a nature, which was capable of running into all the multiplicity of emotions, of devices, of purposes, and of sins, into which it had actually run in the wide world and in the multitude of men; and in that sense he bore the sins of all men, and associated himself with them, and spoke of them and himself as one.