and deliver him to their will. But the testimony of Agrippa, himself a Jew, to the innocence of Paul, compelled the Roman governor to açknowledge, that he had done nothing worthy of death or bonds. And Agrippa said unto Festus, This man might have been set at liberty, if he had not appealed unto Cæsar. But that appeal had been providentially ordered by God; and we may discover a probable reason of that providential arrangement in the consideration, that if Paul had visited Rome of his own accord, a private and obscure individual, he would not have excited the same interest and attention, which were awakened by the circumstance of his being sent thither as an appellant to the tribunal of the emperor. This brought him immediately within the precincts of the court; and one result was, the conversion of some of the imperial household. He tells the Philippians, that the things which happened unto him had fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel; so that his bonds in Christ were manifest in the palace, and in all other places 1 The limits of this discourse permit me to notice but very briefly the voyage of St. Paul to Rome; * Luke xxiii. 25. and the remarkable illustration which it affords of a truth, which we must acknowledge and repose in, and yet are unable to comprehend; that the fixed purposes of God's providence are not so fixed, as to exclude the instrumentality of human means; but that the certainty of his decrees is consistent with what we consider to be a contingency. Paul had been assured in a vision, that there should be no loss of any man's life in the ship; and yet he prayed them to take meat, and declared that unless all continued in the ship, none could be saved. An implicit reliance, therefore, upon the divine protection, does not exclude the diligent use of all probable means of ensuring our own safety. The Jews at Rome received the doctrine of Paul, as their brethren had done elsewhere: some believed the things that were spoken, and some, the greater part, as we collect from his rebuke, believed not. The Apostle therefore turned to the Gentiles, amongst whom he was assured that the Gospel would find a readier reception. And he dwelt at Rome two whole years, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him. *Acts xxvii. 22, 31. During his residence there, he wrote four, if not five of his Epistles; in some of which he speaks of himself as the prisoner of Jesus Christ, and his ambassador in bonds. At the end of two years he was set at liberty, and travelled to other countries, to plant the Church of Christ not building on other men's foundations, but passing on from land to land, to preach the Gospel in the regions beyond, and not to boast in another man's line of things made ready to his hand. By some he has been supposed, but with very little, probability, to have visited these islands. Whether he did so or not, is of small importance to us; but it is a consideration of infinite importance, (inasmuch as it lays upon us an awful responsibility,) that the same Gospel which Paul preached, has been preached to us; and that we possess, in the written monuments of its history, an amount and weight of evidence, which none of his immediate hearers enjoyed. Let us take comfort from reviewing the wonderful manner, in which God put forth the energies of omnipotence, in mighty demonstration of the truth as it is in Jesus; and let us take warning from the example of those who despised and rejected that salvation, which was proposed to them with so much clearness of evidence, and so great importunity of kindness. For, as the great Apostle has said, unto us was the Gospel preached, as well as unto them; but the word preached did not profit them (nor will it profit, yea rather it will destroy us), not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.* Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, which they despised, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. Let us pray to be blessed with such a freedom from pride, and false opinion, and corrupt inclination; with such a clearness of spiritual vision; such a longing after the kingdom of God and his righteousness; such a spirit of meekness and submission to his revealed will; that through patience and comfort of the Scripture, we may have hope;t and be filled with all joy and peace in believing; and remain stedfast and exemplary members of that Church, which is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone.§ *Heb. iv. 2. Rom. xv. 18. + Rom. xv. 4. |