of all public business must have tended. It was to be expected, therefore, that men who had been selected by Divine Providence for the momentous task of converting the world should turn their eyes with anxiety to the capital of the world: and accordingly we find that this was a pregnant idea of St. Paul during his ministry. He had visited Athens, the seat of science, and he must visit Rome, the seat of empire. He had argued with human learning, the wisdom of the Greeks; and he must also contend

with human power. "After these things

were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, "when he had passed through Macedonia

and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, "After I have been there I must also see "Rome." I intreat your attention to the importance which is given in the sacred writings to St. Paul's mission to Rome; for much is dependent thereon. Not only does the Apostle purpose the voyage himself, as is here declared in his own words, but it is also predicted to him in a miraculous vision of

his Saviour: "And the night following the "Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good

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cheer, Paul; for as thou hast testified of

me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome"."

k

It is unnecessary here to specify by what judicial process the decision of St. Paul's cause, together with the person of the prisoner, is transmitted to Rome: these circumstances, along with the incidents of his voyage, are related with no casual or superfluous minuteness in the two last chapters of the Acts. He is delivered to the custody of a Roman centurion, by whom he is kindly treated, and with whom he sets sail from Adramyttium: after touching at Sidon, and some other ports, they are driven by a tempest on the island of Melita; from thence they pass by Syracuse, Rhegium, Puteoli, and the western side of Italy, to Rome; where, says the sacred historian, "Paul "dwelt two whole years in his own hired "house, and received all that came in unto

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him, preaching the kingdom of God, and

*Acts xxiii. 11.

teaching those things which concern the "Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him '."

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Such is the unalterable record of this Apostle's arrival at Rome, and his abode there. Now you are aware that the professors of another creed found an essential article of their doctrine and discipline on the important fact that one of the Apostles visited Rome, and there founded a Church; but that the Apostle whom they have selected for this purpose, (and if the matter were now first related, I should be thought to speak things incredible and impossible,) the Apostle upon whom they have founded their prescriptive right to rule Christ's flock, is not the Apostle whose voyage St. Luke describes ; but another, respecting whose presence at Rome, or in any part of Italy, there exists not, either prophetically or historically, one single word in the writings of the New Testament. What then becomes of their derivative infallibility, and their unbroken succession? They hang upon a chain,

'Acts xxviii. 30, 31.

the first link of which is attached to nothing; it has not any hold on the word of God, or the apostolic writings; the only firm soil in which the anchor of human faith can be fixed.

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The narrative called "The Acts of the Apostles" closes with St. Paul's arrival at Rome. The other incidents of his eventful life must be gleaned with more pains from his own epistolary writings. The fruits of his literary labours executed at Rome", of which we are in possession, are five of his Epistles. That to the Philippians, to the Colossians, to Philemon, to the Ephesians, and probably to the Hebrews. And the proof that we possess these and the other Apostolic writings pure, that they were not liable to adulteration, is, that they were read publicly during the lives of their authors in the several Churches of Christ. "And when this Epistle is read among you," says St. Paul to the Colossians, “cause that "it be read also in the Church of the Lao

" Phil. i. 13, 14. Col. iv. 18. Philem. 22-24. Eph. iii. 1. vi. 20.

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"diceans; and that ye likewise read the Epistle from Laodicea"." These works constituted the occupation of his retirement. The effect also of his personal presence and oral communications is strikingly described by himself: "I would ye "should understand, brethren," says he, addressing the Philippians, "that the things which happened unto me" (namely at Rome) are fallen out rather unto the "furtherance of the Gospel: so that my "bonds in Christ are manifest in all the

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palace, and in all other places; and many "of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold "to speak the word without fear." And again: "All the saints salute you, chiefly "they that are of Cæsar's household "."

Contemplate in these short extracts, my brethren, the inefficacy of human power to arrest the course of truth. "Chiefly they 66 that are of Cæsar's household." In vain is the sword of the tyrant lifted up over the head of the devoted preacher, while the

n

" Col. iv. 16.

• Phil. i. 12-14.

P Phil. iv. 22.