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verted, and they were instructed in the new and living way, a conformity of this kind would be of little service, for it was not Paul but Jesus they persecuted. The appalling question once put to him, was, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" and yet he was then persecuting men and women; but they were believers in Jesus. And this, brethren, is the real state of the case : the opposition which is exhibited against those who sincerely and truly live unto God, and endeavour to keep a conscience void of offence, is against the Gospel itself: it is not any outward concession that will change that persecuting spirit, so long as it is known the individual pleads for spiritual-mindedness, as totally opposed to the spirit of the world. But this character of the religion of Jesus, and of the indifferent and unthinking world, never changes; as he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit, even so it is now : not in the same form, indeed; for there are worldly considerations, and different degrees of zeal there is serpent-subtilty and infidel indifference, but the spirit is the same. No man will easy under the tacit sentence which is pronounced upon his want of religion by his neighbour, who exhibits it in all words and actions : ye may expect those things, brethren, if ye resolve to dedicate yourselves to the service of

sit

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God, and to live as candidates for eternity. Scarcely had the seven days which were required for Paul's observance of his vow, elapsed, before the truth of these remarks was verified. When certain Jews of Asia, who had heard him preach in their own country, and now saw him with a Greek of the name of Trophimus, recognised him in the temple, they stirred up the people, and all the city was thrown into commotion. The military commander, Lysias, was obliged to interfere; but so little did he understand the occasion of the uproar, that he took it up as a continuation of the sedition which had taken place five years before, the circumstances of which were these There came to Jerusalem, in the year 55, an impostor from Egypt, giving himself out as a prophet'. (Christ had said, false prophets and false Christs should arise among them, and there were several of that description previous to the destruction of Jerusalem.) This man persuaded a number of persons to follow him out of the city to the Mount of Olives, and from thence he pretended they would see the walls of Jerusalem fall down at a sign to be given by him, so that they might immediately go in and take possession of it as their own. Felix, the

1

Vide Joseph. Antiquitat. Lib. xx. c. 4. p. 886. Tom. II. Edit. Oxon. 1720. Ib. de Bell. Jud. Lib. ii. c. 13. Id. p. 1075.

S

258

TUMULT RAISED BY THE JEWS [LECT. governor, having received intelligence of this commotion, in which 4,000 persons were concerned, went against them with a sufficient force, killed four hundred, and took two hundred of them prisoners, the rest fled, the leader himself also making his escape. "Art thou that Egyptian," said this ignorant officer to the apostle, "which before these days madest an uproar, and leddest out into the wilderness four thousand men that were murderers?" Paul showed no marks of rude indignation at so preposterous and unjust a charge; he answered with dignified simplicity, never losing sight of his Master's cause. "I am a man, which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia-a citizen of no mean city1; and I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people.' The request being granted, they heard him patiently, until he mentioned his mission to the Gentiles, and then, they broke out into that pitch of fury, which is betokened in the East, by throwing dust into the air, on which occasion, the circumstance of Paul being a citizen of Rome, alone saved him from the greatest indignities and torture. The day following he appeared before the Jewish Sanhedrim: he was next rescued from a horrible conspiracy formed against him by more than forty Jews, who bound themselves by an

1

Comp. Dion. Cassius, Lib. xlvii. Tom. I. p. 501. Edit. Hamburg. Albert Fabric. 1750.

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oath of execration, that they would neither eat nor drink, until they had taken his life. But the designs of wicked men are easily defeated by an overruling Providence and thus this most formidable plot was brought to light by the prudence and activity of a youth, an event which caused a heathen soldier to take a peculiar interest in the fate of this great Christian teacher, and with a sufficient escort, to send him down to Cesarea, where the governor, Felix, resided: where Paul also was detained in the judgmenthall of Herod, until his accusers arrived of these not only did the chief priest go down with their elders, but they arrayed also against Paul, all the subtilty of a Greek orator, whose false accusations were answered by Paul, in such simplicity of truth, that Felix was even induced to defer his decision, and to treat the apostle with extreme indulgence. We might dwell with much advantage upon the subsequent intercourse of Paul with the Roman governor: Felix trembled before the truth of God's word; but it was through fear of future punishment alone, and not repentance for the sins of his life: he found no convenient season for troubling his heart or his conscience1 nay, his avarice was tempted even by

Two Heathen writers bear unfortunate testimony to the character of Felix. Vide Tacit. Annal. Lib. xii. cap. 54.

260

PAUL BROUGHT BEFORE FELIX. [LECT.

his destitute prisoner, and he hoped that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might be loosed silver and gold, however, the apostle had none; but he was rich in grace and wisdom, and adorned with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. From his arrival at Jerusalem, to his appearing before Felix at Cesarea, only twelve days elapsed; but he was now to be kept a prisoner until a new governor should arrive in the room of Felix, which was not until two years after these transactions during his tedious imprisonment, we hear nothing of the apostle, it must have been, in all probability, a close confinement. Felix is said to have left him bound, implying that he had been so ever since his accusation during this time, the Jews had evidently not ceased to clamour for his death; for we learn, that Felix left him a prisoner, to do an agreeable thing to the Jews, on leaving his province and even Festus, when he arrived, was actuated by the same motives. But Festus, however he might have been disposed, had no authority to refuse a Roman citizen's appeal to the emperor. This was made by St. Paul at the conclusion of the trial, which took place fourteen days after the arrival of the new governor; he was not, however, sent

Ibid. Historiar. Lib. v. cap. 9. and Sueton. in Vit. Claud. chap. 28.