Paul and Felix

And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled; and answered, Go thy way for this time: when 1 have a convenient season I will call for thee.

1 HE occasion of St. Paul’s being brought before Felix, was, the impossibility of obtaining justice for him from the Jews. It is remarkable, that, wherever he travelled, he always found his worst enemies among them; and the kind treatment, which he had often experienced from Heathen strangers, he would in vain expect from his countrymen. Whence arises this propensity in men, that, when there are many things in which they agree, they should hate for the things in which they differ, more than they do when they have nothing in common? Perhaps it is because, in the latter case, there js no collision or, if there be, better temper and consciousness of superiority (for all secretly claim superiority to all till there be a trial of strength) make us placid. The Jews would have heard with unconcern of the conversion of the Heathen Nations to Christianity; but when Paul, once a distinguished ornament of their religion, became opposed to them, they foresaw all that was to be dreaded from his talents, and hated because they feared.

On St. PauFs arrival at Jerusalem, where once he had been caressed, he soon found that which every man must expect to find from his former friends on becoming a Christian. St. Paul had not been long there before he was discovered; and immediately the whole city was in an uproar. They dragged him out of the temple, and intended to kill him, whenLysias, the Roman Officer commanding at Jerusalem, came with a large detachment and rescued him, bound him with two chains, and ordered him into the fort. When he arrived at the top of the steps leading to the Castle, St. Paul asked permission to address the people; which was granted: he then gave them the narrative of his marvellous conversion, and told them how the Lord himself had commanded him to go and preach to the Gentiles. They heard him patiently to this word; and then raised a clamour again, and threw dust in the air. Upon this, the oiiicer, who brought him in, unable to comprehend from St. Paul’s speech what crime he was accused of, for there was no aim at exculpation, evidently suspected that the Apostle intended to divert the attention of the people to other subjects; for he was proceeding to examine him himself by torture, till informed that he was a Roman Citizen. The next day he convened the Council of the Jews, and sent Paul down to them; but, as soon as he began to speak, there was such an uproar, that Lysias was again obliged to send his troops to bring him away. The Jews, irritated probably that they had suffered him to escape twice, bound themselves, to the number of forty and more, under a great oath, that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed him: informed of their intention, Lysias sent him away that night with a strong military escort to Cesarea, a town on the sea coast, the usual residence of the governor. Thus it came to pass, in the determination of God, that one Roman Chief after another heard the Gospel. The Governor at that time was Felix, who, having ordered the accusers to attend and heard what both sides had to say, declined deciding between them till he saw Lysias. Here the matter was dropped for some time. Paul continued a prisoner at Cesarea, and the cause was not brought forward again for two years. It was while his affairs were in this state of uncertainty, that Paul and Felix had that meeting in private, the result of which, as described in the text, suggests so many solemn reflections.

Paul reasoned of righteousness, temperance and judgment to come; and Felix trembled. Such is the superiority, which poverty, with integrity, possesses over guilty grandeur. The judge trembles before his own prisoner!

St. Paul, amidst all the vicissitudes of his earthly lot, never lost sight of his high calling; nor was ever unprepared to speak on the subjects that lay next to his heart — the things of another world. Even at this period, when his fate seemed to hang in suspense, his mind was calm and his conduct unembarrassed. His spirit, absorbed in his work, and contemplating his high reward, rose superior to this world. Hence, instead of endeavouring to conciliate favour, he chose a theme, though he knew it would be far from pleasing. But the season was favourable, and might never return: he therefore gave him advice that might save his souL

I. Knowing that we have to do with a holy and righteous God, upon whom depends our everlasting destiny; a Judge, who acynowledges no distinction in men but that of righteousness and unrighteousness, he began to speak, and calmly to reason of that RIGHT-EOUSNESS without which there is no salvation He would explain its nature — lay down a rule to measure it — argue for its necessity — and point out its end.

Righteousness, he would tell him, is a conformity to the will of God. How long has the light of Revelation shone upon the world; and yet, in the place of this obvious definition, others, almost heathenish, are continually substituted! The discharge of duty in the social and civil relations of life, is considered as the object of all religious systems; and, provided the end be attained, it is thought needless to raise objections about the way. This may be morality, but it is not religion. It comports very well with a system of Atheism; because if no future state is to be expected, we must be satisfied if we can but see happiness and good order in this: but it can never be held in consistency with the Revelation which we profess to admit: in that, to love God with all our heart, is declared to be the first and great commandment.

Duties to God form a distinct and separate part of the code of laws, given to us for tho regulation of our conduct: so that we are no longer left at liberty to suppose, that when we have satisfied one another, God is satisfied too. And the reason is evident enough. We are preparing for another state of existence, where the relations of parents and children, husband and wife, will be known no more. We shall be brought into a nearer relation to God himself; and, for that, some appropriate discipline is necessai7 here.

On these points Felix needed information.

St. Paul would, therefore, tell the Roman, that valour was not necessarily virtue, nor humility meanness; that a romantic friendship was often passion, not duty; and patriotism but a small part of Christian Love. He would warn him against measuring the virtue of an act by its apparent expediency: and, instead of admitting that a practice held in general esteem was estimable, to be cautious of admiring what men admire, since many things are highly esteemed among men which are abomination in the sight of God; but, in all things, to consider it his duty, henceforward, to ascertain the will of God and make that his rule. It is neglect of the Scriptures that makes men, calling themselves Christians, not only live Heathen lives, but defend their unsound practices by principles still more unsound; and make such gross inistakes in what they profess to know, as on

PAUL AND FEtlX. 171

any other subject they would blush to be detected in.

Having told him what Morality was not, St. Paul might proceed to rectify his views of Religion; and would tell this benighted idolater, that religion was something more than spectacles and processions, sacrifices and festivities- — truths, which, in another form, those need to be reminded of, who put the external Church for the real; and think that nothing has been left undone,when the Church has been attended* and the Sacrament has been received. He would let him know that God was a Spirit, who must be worshipped in spirit and in truth — in secret, as with the multitude; and that the preparation of the heart was noticed by him, rather than the construction of the prayer, or the repetition of it; that as we are here in this world in a state of preparation for another, where, if fit, we shall dwell with God,, holy tempers and holy habits must be forn>^d here by communion with God, in persevering prayer, and never-ceasing supplies of his Holy Spirit.

We cannot conceive that St. Paul, while speaking of righteousness, would omit intimating to Felix, as far as he was able to hear it, something of those deep truths respecting the righteousness of Christ, which it pleased God so fully to unfold to him, and on which he expatiates so largely in his writings, and which he seems to have conceived more fully and lived and acted upon and rejoiced in more habitually than any other human creature. It was impossible, therefore, that Paul would let him remain ignorant of Christ: indeed the context expressly proves that Felix heard him concerning the faith of Christ. He would by no means let him suppose, that the life of devotion which he preached to him was to be the purchase of heaven; but would make him know that the Son of God, having in mercy come down to fulfil all righteousness as the surety for sinners and suffered the penalty due to their sins, they who believe become entitled to the reward of eternal life. New and strange would appear to Felix a system from which human merit was excluded. Alas! that it should remain incomprehensible to many among ourselves, who are zealous for morality against those doctrines, the ultimate effect of which is to promote morality!

II. If, however, any one be really so deluded as to think that the orthodoxy of his creed will atone for the irregularities of his life, let him observe, that the Apostle reasoned also of TEMPERANCE, or self-denial.

The opposition of our nature to the will of God, is the foundation of the duty of self-denial.

PAUL AND tLLlX.

We are born in sin — we delight in sin: we must be torn from sin, or we shall never leave it. The leading agent in the work of self-denial, is the Spirit of God; and the man in whom he works will be temperate in all things — he will restrain his passion and his pride.

To be meek and lowly as the Lord — to be poor and patient in spirit — to forgive injuries — to abhor himself for his iniquities, is the duty of the highest as well as the lowest of men; a duty incumbent upon the soldier as well as others: and public opinion or practice cannot alter God’s Word.

All love of human praise, or vain glorious self-complacency, on the possession of honours, or the distinctions of talents or opulence, birth or beauty, or any other quahty natural or acquired, must be mortified and crushed, as utterly irreconcilable with that self-abhorrence which lies so deep in the nature of repentance and humility.

To check all impurity of heart is also a necessary part of temperance. Whatever therefore has a tendency to inflame the passions, in look, reading, or imagination. Christian purity requires us to avoid; much more, therefore, all that may pollute our bodies, which we are taught to consider as sacred, the temples of the Holy Ghost.

Worldly-mindedness is another species of intemperance; less suspected than bodily excess, but more destructive. It is the sin of riper years; a propensity, which time, instead of weakening as it does many other inclinations, has a tendency to strengthen. To them who are enslaved by this principle, death as it comes nearer appears more indistinct: more provision must be made for the way, as the way grows shorter: and, while they are anxious to hoard up for a future day, they cannot act upon the same principle and provide for a future state. As worldly-mindedness is the sin of the more advanced in life, to whom is committed the management of this world’s affairs, because they possess most of the little wisdom that is in the world, to declaim against their system will appear to them puerile: yet as it is evident that sin is not necessary to conduct the affairs of sinful men (for how does God govern the world?) the fancied necessity of the system of the world exists only in their own excessive selfishness, or the obstinacy of their ignorance. But if it be so that falsehood, flattery, dissimulation, forming connections with the powerful to uphold our state or aggrandize our families, are of such indispensable necessity in maintaining our station, a good man will abandon his: he will lay down the instruments of iniquity and fetire, choosing rather to lose a good place than a good conscience.

St. Paul, while reasoning of Righteousness and Temperance, would sometimes lower the lofty tone which became the herald of God, and try to win where he had failed to intimidate. He would display the excellency of the Christian Character, whether considered in its connection with this world or its expectations in the next; and would bid him remark what various and valuable qualities are united in his person — what a constellation of glories compose his crown — how elevated his sentiments — how noble his conduct — how high his destiny — and how peaceful his end! He would contrast the pleasures of the world with those of religion: the world flattering, but false, and its friendship ruinous — religion faithful in its promises, though severe in its requisitions, awful in aspect, but in reality benign: the pleasure of sin unsatisfying, degrading, and at last disgusting; accompanied with guilt and followed by remorse — how different from the calm delights of a good conscience! how superior the satisfaction to be found in wisdom’s ways! Keep sound wisdom: it shall be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck. Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble: when thou liest down, thou shalt not he afraid: yea, than shalt lie down and thy sleep shall be sweet (Prov. iii. 21 — 24).

111. At last, the sacred teacher, drawing to a close, would begin to enforce his admonitions with the dread sanctions of ETERNITY.

As it is appointed unto men once to die, hut after this the judgment (Heb. ix. 27), the time is approaching to every man, when he must leave the world, and go to give up his account to God.

It will then be inquired, not what was the state of things, their facilities or possibilities, or the standard of morality at the time he lived: for there is but one standard admitted, which is the Word of God — the word that I have spoken to you, the same shall judge you in the last day (John xii. 48); and according to that, the judgment will proceed.

It will be inquired, whether he kept the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus — whether he considered himself as a servant, accountable to God for the use which he made of the things committed to him; or as his own master, subject to no control but his own will. Every act of self-gratification, reference not being had to the will of God, all application of our means of doing good to selfish purposes, will be condemned as treachery and fraud.

Then, too, those acts of criminality, which had escaped the notice of men, or were beyond their cognizance — secret iniquity, and habitual neglects, and wilful ignorance; disregard of God’s public ordinances; and omission of the secret duties of prayer, reading the Scripture, self-examination, and watchfulness, unconcern about the soul, and Him who alone can save it, the Lord Jesus Christ — will appear in their true colours. No degree of criminality was attached to these on earth: they were, in no respect, prejudicial to men’s interest or honour: but, there, they will be considered as the preludes to final reprobation.

Then there is no reprieve, and no pardon: the wicked shall be turned into helU cind all the nations that forget God! (Ps. ix. 17.) Though they had succeeded in rising above the fear of hell, they will not be above suffering it. God will then signally confound the wisdom of the wise; and will shew man what he ought to have been aware of, that, in this first stage of his existence, he is a mere child in wisdom, and in power a worm — a worm which God will crush, if it is not submissive.

But there, whatever lessons they learn, they learn too late; for their punishment is not chastisement, but an everlasting evidence of God’s truth and holiness. There, as the Judge liiinself hath told us, their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched (Mark ix. 44). They are bound in everlastiu;!;’ chains, and the smoke, of their torment ascendeth ujj for ever and ever (Rev. xiv. 11).

I^elia; trembled, He was convinced in his conscience, that, if he died as he lived, he should y)erish. But did his alarm lead him to repentance? No.

Now what were the sins that maintained such a fatal ascendency over him, that though he knew that they would ruin him, he could not emancipate himself from their hold? The context informs us.

1. He lived in illicit intercourse with a woman, a native of the country. Drusilla, a Jewess, though called his wife, could not, properly speaking, be so, because it appears that she was the wife of another man. This woman was one weight about his neck. He knew that to be saved he must part w ith her, but to this he could not consent: like Herod, who, after hearing John preach, would do many other things, but not give up Herodias. Felix too would be most averse to make that sacrifice, which of all others was most necessary. Now, though Felix might have reflected, that all politic as well as good men would have deemed him unfit for the situation which he held, or for any other place of trust, while he was in danger of being influenced by a native of the country, and though it was very easy for one of his rank to form a virtuous and honourable union with a Roman Lady, neither of these considerations had any weight with him. Sinners must make to themselves crooked ways, though it has been long known that they who walk in them shall not know peace: the very same happiness which they expect in sin, they might have as certainly, and often more readily, by adhering to duty.

2. The other predominant sin of Felix, was the love of money; a principle, of itself, sufliciently powerful to produce every species of evil. He hoped that money would have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him: wherefore he sent for him the oftener, and commitned with him (Acts xxiv. 26). Thus it appears that he was a corrupt judge. Placed by his country on the seat of judgment, that he might judge justly and truly, this man took advantage of his distance from the Senate and the Emperor, to betray his trust, and for a bribe to turn aside the poor from his right. One so lost to every sense of probity and honour, so deaf to all the remonstrances of reason and conscience, as to descend to practices as infamous as they are immoral, must have been little prepared for receiving the pure precepts of the (xospel. He retained, however, sufficient respect for the sacred character of his prisoner, to promise that he would hear him again the first opportunity. Possibly he might, at the time, have made resolutions to reform, when he should have lived a little longer in the enjoyment of his pleasures. But, however this be, it IS evident that his religious impressions soon wore off: for, at the end of two years, we find him still engaged in his worldly schemes; and, that no means might be left untried for promoting his interest, endeavouring to ingratiate Iiimself with the Jews, though Paul was to suffer by his complaisance to them. Felix was willing to have served Paul, but Paul could not requite him: Paul had no money and no friends. Felix therefore, in the true spirit of a man of this world, looked favourably on that side, where there were connections, and something to be gained. He made his court to the wicked Chief Priests, and left St. Paul in prison.

Thus ends the Scripture History of Felix: and here we leave him. Alas! the folly of ;siiiners, with all their worldly wisdom! Is it not folly, for the sake of a perishing world, to destroy an immortal soul I for a momentary gratification of the senses to plunge into everlasting tire? For let us be sure, that if there be indeed an eternal difference by the nature of things between righteousness and unrighteousness, God, in that judgment to come, of which we have been hearing, will also make a difference between the righteous and the wicked. If your worldliness will consist with this prospect, well: still let it be a sound, ever meeting you amidst the din of the world, that there is a judgment to come I Rejoice, O young 7nan, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth.... but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment (Keel. xi.9). Forsake the God who made you, and despise the rock of salvation — still, to Him belongeth vengeance, and recompense. If he wliet his glittering sword and his hand take hold on judgment, he will render vengeance to his enemies, and reward them that hate him: he Will heap mischiefs upon them, and his arrows will be drunk with their blood: a fire will be kindled in his anger, and shall burn to the lowest hell; which shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. Oh, that men were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! — that they would consider that they have a latter end! that how many soever the days they give to pleasure,

Ig2 NINTH SERMON.

how high soever they climb in power and grandeur, how happy soever they may be in their friends and possessions, there is an end to all, not far distant. When that is come, how comfortless must be the state of the soul that has nothing else to look to! This is one reason why God in his mercy calls us away from earth, and would loosen our attachment to all things here, that we may set our affections on things above.

As we may be permitted to hope that some among us tremble at the thought of a Future Judgment, we entreat them not to stifle their convictions, nor increase their danger by procrastination. Say not to your faithfid monitor, your own conscience. Go thy way for this time: u’hen IJmve a more convenient season I will call for thee. Hear conscience! What more convenient season than the present — when you have been excited, summoned, reasoned with’! will you put it off to your death-bed? Alas! the soul has enough to do, then, to support the weight of a dying body; which, after being so long the abode, the instrument, the companion of the soul, becomes a burden to it which it cannot sustain. Besides, will you give the best of your time to Satan, and leave only the remnant to God? — God hath not dealt thus with you, who 2;ave his Beloved Son for you.

Will you put ofl’ the necessary work till the next Lord’s Day?~how do you know that this week’s affairs will not dissipate your serious thoughts, and converse with the world weaken your resolutions? Trifle not with God: TO-DAY if ye trill hear his voice, irhile it is called to-day, harden not your hearts. He is free in the dispensations of his race, and may withhold to-morrow what he grants to-day. Therefore, ivhaisoever thy handjindeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no v’ork, nor device, nor knoivlcdge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest (Eccl. ix. 10). Nay, even in this world procrastination may be an evil not to be remedied: for wisdom thus speaks — Hecause 1 have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my ha?id, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh; ichen your fear comet h as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish come upon you: then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early but they shall not find me (Prov. i. 24 — 28). Though true penitents find mercy at the eleventh hour, many pray on their death-beds who are never heard: many cry for mercy, and never obtain it.

JNovv therefore, Men and Brethren, while you have life, and health, and strength; while your sun is not yet gone down, nor the grave yawning for you beneath; before time begin his ravages, and disease sap your vitals — ascend your watch-tower — contemplate the prospect — stretch your thought inward — and determine what the end shall be. You are, in one sense, the arbiters of your own destiny! God has opened the way to Himself, by the mediation of his Son, and by the offers of his Spirit. Through the Son, you may be forgiven — through the Spirit, sanctified. A feast is spread, to which you are invited; a river of life, of which you may drink; a crown of glory, which is your appointed reward! May God fix your hearts for glory, honour, and immortality, through Jesus Christ our Lord!