Apostle, we may be assured, was his conversion. He wished to make him sensible of the efficacy of prayer; he, doubtless, named the name of Jesus; he would address him as his Saviour; his spiritual, as well as his bodily, deliverer; he would make it appear, that he himself was only an instrument in the hands of the living and true God; and that the fabulous gods of the father of Publius, were no more than deified men, or imaginary beings. He would introduce in his holy conversation, the true revelation of the Gospel, that good news which Malta had not then heard: all this he would impress, in his own energetic language, on the wondering, but expecting patient: he would then lift up his hand over him, after his blessed Master's example and injunction; and he would receive, with grateful rapture, the great blessing of renovated health, and, doubtless, of Christian salvation. Valuable as we estimate the health of the body, still more, indeed most valuable, is the welfare of the soul. I dwell the longer on this subject, because bodily infirmity is a necessary condition from which none of us are exempt. And I would press upon you, with all the strength of exhortation, the use to which a state of sickness should always be applied. We, my brethren, who are often called upon, by profession, to attend the pillow of the sick and dying, well know how unprepared too many are, for that awful and important hour. We know that the best counsel we can give, is half, if not wholly, dissipated, by being directed to a languid and decaying body, animated too frequently M m eastern coast of the island of Sicily, of which Syracuse was the metropolis, they came to Rhegium, a sea-port town on the coast of Calabria in Italy: and after one day, the south wind, as St. Luke says, blowing favourably, we arrived the second day at Puteoli, our destined, and long desired, harbour. Early as it was in the history of the Gospel, Christianity had even now found a place of residence at Puteoli. How delightful for these early converts to receive in their infant Church the great Apostle of the Gentiles! How consoling to the heart of Paul, to find friends on this distant shore, and to be refreshed by the manifestations of the Spirit, after so perilous a voyage! With the permission of the indulgent Julius, he was allowed to remain a week in this happy society. The ar The journey from hence was by land. rival of so eminent an Apostle of Christ at Puteoli, was soon communicated to the Roman Christians; and many of the Brethren, some of whom were personally known to him, and others, attracted by the knowledge of his character, and particularly by the invaluable Epistle which he had sent to the Roman Church a few years before, came to meet him, and conduct him on the road; some as far as Appii forum; others at Tres Tabernæ; well known stages on the road to Rome; the former fifty-one, the latter thirty-three miles, distant from that famous city. It appears that the mind of the Apostle suffered some agitation at his approach to this celebrated place. Let the unfeeling endeavour to account for it, if they can. It was not fear; it was not despair of any kind, which oppressed him. He was called by God. He knew, and valued his commission. Yet the infirmities of the human frame made a momentary impression on him, which was soon dissipated by the kind consolations of his Christian friends-" whom when St. Paul saw, he thanked God, and took courage. وو Our next, and concluding Lecture, will present us with a view of this great Apostle at his first entrance into the then metropolis of the world. We have seen him at Athens, confounding the wisdom of the wise. We shall behold him at Rome, propagating the sublime doctrines of his Master, even in Caesar's household. But what are these, my Brethren, if we rest contented with the prospect? What are to us the conversion of the Maltese, or the propagation of Christ's religion at Rome, if it be not our nightly study, and our daily care, to plant the ever blessed Gospel in our own hearts?" If we see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven," and we ourselves cast out? Let us humble ourselves then before the mighty hand of God, and implore his grace to "assist us mercifully in all our supplications and prayers, and to dispose the way of his servants towards the attainment of everlasting salvation; that among all the changes and chances of this mortal life, they may ever be defended by his most gracious and ready help, through Jesus Christ our Lord '." Amen. 1 Prayer after the Offertory, in the Book of Common Prayer. LECTURE XXVIII. ACTS XXVIII. 16—31. St. Paul's Entrance into, and Transactions at, Rome. THE first entrance of St. Paul into the city of Rome raises, in the contemplative mind, many important and agreeable reflections. We begin to perceive a sensible progress in the doctrines of Christianity. What was planted like a grain of mustard-seed in the small territory of Palestine, spreads into a flourishing tree on the banks of the Tyber. The song of salvation, indeed, had been sung in this celebrated metropolis, before the arrival of the Apostle Paul. Ecclesiastical history acquaints us, that the Gospel had been preached at this place several years before, by St. Peter. At all events, we find a society of Christians established at Rome very early in the history of the Church, to whom St. Paul addressed an invaluable epistle; and of whom he records the pleasing remembrance, that their "obedience," their purity of faith, and subsequent good conduct, had "come come abroad unto all men'," was the was the gene When we recollect what Rome was at this period of her history, the seat of art and science, the possessor of all the learning which the whole world could then produce (for the wisdom of the Grecian sages had melted before her) the conqueror of distant provinces, and visited not only by many from her numerous tributary kingdoms, but by the inhabitants of remote regions, attracted by her celebrity and pre-eminent qualities; we cannot but conclude, that this was within the plan of Providence, to diffuse the knowledge of a Saviour farther than the Roman eagle ever found its way. accordingly we find, that within a few years, the primitive purity of the Church of Rome displayed a large assembly of Christians; Christians who "obtained a good report through faith"," and bore their cross with joy. And Such was this little Church of Christian converts, when Nero, whose name has now become proverbial for his character, was Emperor of the Romans. But in what language shall I contrast thy state, O Rome! when papal power had corrupted the purest daughter of Heaven, and a proud imperial hierarchy had been erected on the most unspotted, benign, and humble of all foundations? And even now, when this power is shorn of some of her deceitful beams, the blessed cross, the object of every Christian's love, is prostituted to a vile superstition, an |