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out, that you may escape, and flee from the wrath to come? As it would have gratified the malice of the Jews, to have seen the blessed Apostle dragging his chains, and led out to execution; so will the evil spirits rejoice against you, when you are carried forth to punishment in the day of vengeance: they will mock at that indolence, that fatal drowsiness and stupidity, which lost for ever the opportunity of salvation.

The practical duty which we are to infer from all that has been said, is that kind of charity, which exercises itself in delivering others, either from sin or from sorrow. The question will be put to us, whether we have visited those that were in bondage, as the day spring from on high hath visited us? He who has no compassion upon his poor brother, that is bound, either by sickness, poverty, debt, sorrow, or sin, is insensible of the blessings of his own redemption: into his prison the light hath not yet shined, but he is in darkness even until now. To enlighten the ignorant, to raise up the afflicted, to restore the guilty to pardon, to awaken the imprisoned soul, and strike it with a sense of its own misery, and of God's mercy; these are the proper works of the children of light. If we do these things to others, then we shew all men that we believe God has done the same for us; and this is the best security we can find in the great day of inquisition and retribution. And why doth God require these things of us? Not for his sake, but our own: not that we may repay him for what he has done, but that we may qualify ourselves for the hearing of that blessed sentence, worth ten thousand worlds-Well done-enter thou into the joy of thy Lord: which, may he grant, for the sake of Jesus Christ, who was manifested to us Gentiles, that we should no longer sit in darkness, but have the light of life.

SERMON VII.

AND WHEN IT WAS DETERMINED THAT WE SHOULD SAIL INTO ITALY, THEY DELIVERED PAUL AND CERTAIN OTHER PRISONERS UNTO ONE NAMED JULIUS, A CENTURION OF AUGUSTUS' BAND.-ACTS Xxvii. 1.

ALL the adventures of St. Paul are worth the consideration of a devout reader of the Scripture; but few parts of his history are more remarkable than this of his voyage and shipwreck in his passage to Rome. Several articles of that narrative, which is given us in the chapter from whence the text is taken, are so interesting, that I shall select them in the following discourse, and add as I go along such remarks as shall naturally arise from them. As to any critical consideration of the geographical part of this narrative, I have no concern with it, my design being rather of a moral nature. I shall not dispute about the true direction of the wind, called Euroclydon; neither shall I enquire whether the island called Melita was that which is now called Malta, near to Sicily, or another of the like name among the islands of the Archipelago. I shall neglect all such critical disquisitions for the present, and confine myself to such observations, as may teach us to understand in a better manner the goodness of God and the perverseness of man; both of which were signally displayed on this occasion. The particulars I mean to extract and propose to your meditation are these following:

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1. I shall consider the situation and circumstances of the Apostle's sailing a prisoner to Rome.

2. The error of Julius the centurion in not taking the Apostle's judgment concerning the voyage.

3. The attempt of the shipmen to flee out of the ship, and leave her in a helpless condition.

4. The comfort, encouragement and safety derived to the whole company from the presence of St. Paul. 5. The necessity they were under of throwing their provisions into the sea, to lighten the ship.

6. And lastly, the insensibility and ingratitude of the soldiers, who gave counsel to kill the prisoners, amongst whom the blessed Apostle himself, who under God was the saviour of them all, must have fallen a sacrifice.

Of these things, all of which are of important consideration, the first that offers itself is the situation of St. Paul himself, sailing as a prisoner to Rome.

He is brought into this, as into all his other perils, by his fidelity to God and his services to the world as a minister of the Gospel. The malicious Jews raised a clamour against him, and falsely accused him to the Roman Governor, as a mover of sedition; with full purpose to take away his life; so that he was constrained to appeal to the authority of Cæsar for his own preservation; in consequence of which, he embarked on shipboard with other prisoners to take his trial at Rome,

When the servants of God are persecuted, and obliged to fly from reproach and treachery and cruelty, for their own security; we may be tempted to imagine, that God has forgotten them, and left them to the malice of their adversaries; whereas he is then most mindful of them. They are, as the Apostle himself speaks, persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but

not destroyed: and he warns the Christians of Thessalonica, not to be moved or disturbed in their profession by these afflictions; for yourselves know, saith he, that we are appointed thereunto. God is often nearest to his saints when he seems farthest off. To us indeed, short-sighted as we are, it is more easy to discover and acknowledge his attention, when we are sensible of his bounty. We see and adore the hand of the Creator, in the clearness of the fountain, the brightness of the sunshine, and the calmness of the ocean; but his power as a Saviour, is manifested in the storms and troubles of life. Therefore he brings his servants into distress, that he may make his power known by bringing them out of it; with this farther advantage to themselves, that they are exercised and improved by the trial of their faith.

It is for this end that we see the life of the great Apostle diversified with such contrary visitations. We see him honoured beyond all other men by a miraculous call to the ministry, yet under continual troubles and perils, for acting in his proper character: while he is favoured with more abundant revelations, he is vexed and humbled with a thorn in the flesh: he pleads with all the dignity and power of an orator before kings and rulers, while he is fettered as a malefactor for the hope of Israel: he is admired, and worshipped as a God in the likeness of a man, at Lystra, and soon afterwards stoned by the same people, and dragged out of the city for dead.

On the occasion mentioned in the text, we see him on shipboard, in the company of soldiers and sailors, whose conversation is generally of the coarsest sort, and upon the lowest subjects; very unsuitable to the dignity and purity of an Apostle. But in this situation, it pleases God to distinguish and exalt him, as

a preacher and a deliverer. The ship that carries him becomes like the ark of Noah; he himself is like that second father of mankind, and all the souls embarked with him, whatever their character may be, are preserved for his sake.

But let us ask once more, how it comes to pass, that we find this holy man exercised with so many perils by sea and by land? The answer is plain; the Lord had said of him, at the time of his miraculous conversion; I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. He was the vessel chosen to bear the name of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. Next to him who came into the world, to be the light of the Gentiles, he had the greatest office that ever man was entrusted with; he was made the Apostle of the Gentiles: he was preferred above all, and therefore he was to suffer more than all. The heroes of this world are distinguished by great actions, but the servants of God by great sufferings; and it is a better evidence, because it is a much harder trial, of our faith, to suffer patiently, than to act valiantly. A man may act for his own glory, and it is surprising to see how much is done, and spoken, and written, in the world, on this principle: but if he suffers in a cause which the world opposes, it is for the glory of God: he who was to be the Saviour and pattern of all mankind, was therefore made perfect through sufferings. St. Paul is now before us, in his progress to perfection, through the like way of patient suffering for the truth's sake. He has suffered by land among Jews, heathens, and false brethren; and now he is joined with shipmen and soldiers, to go through all the trials and dangers to which men are exposed, who go down to the sea in ships, and suffer shipwreck on that dreadful element.

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