v.]

AND OF ITS RECEPTION.

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condition before God and when ye have compared God's own word with these our views of it, and made yourselves as it were auditors of Paul's preaching, and taken account of those who rejected his doctrines, and of those who received them; then be serious in your prayers to the Giver of all grace, and He will direct your hearts into a right discernment of the truth, that ye may embrace it, and ever hold it fast, and so become members of His true Church, which He hath redeemed with His own blood; and finally may be made partakers of His glory in a world to come, through His merits and mediation.

LECTURE VI.

ST. PAUL'S VOYAGE TO ITALY THE STATE OF CHRISTIANITY ON HIS ARRIVAL AT ROME (A.D. 62)—

THE REST OF HIS ACTS-CONCLUDING OBSER

VATIONS.

ROMANS i. 15.

So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are at Rome also.

WHEREVER the great truths of religion are deeply felt, and the benefits resulting from a sincere reception of them, acknowledged and experienced, there is a disposition to impart the inestimable blessings to others, who know them not, and to bring all mankind if possible under their immediate influence. When David prayed for remission of sins and for sanctification, in the penitential psalm which breathes the language of deep humiliation, it was with the ultimate view of imparting to others the knowledge

LECT.VI.] ACTIVE ZEAL A MARK OF SINCERITY. 273

of true religion. "Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and uphold me with Thy free Spirit, then will I teach transgressors Thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto Thee." We may further add, that the more a person feels the value of the blessings we allude to, the more will he desire their propagation, until that which was mere desire will grow into zeal and activity, and will in some way or other so show itself in him, that he may be truly said to be engaged in the service of religion. It cannot, therefore be denied, that Christianity is a proselyting system; if it were not so, then "would the children of this world be always wiser in their generation than the children of light." We often see men, when impressed with sentiments and opinions of a mere worldly nature, (not to say that they are either wrong or injurious), inflamed with such zeal for instilling them into others, that they leave no means untried, but are constant and indefatigable in endeavouring to accomplish their end, and if their zeal be accompanied with evident. sacrifices, they generally obtain credit for sincerity, notwithstanding their system itself should be condemned. But, if the real Christian were to sit still, and take no interest in the propagation of his principles, then it would come to pass, that the believer in Christ would be the only person without those evidences of appreciating

T

274 ACTIVE ZEAL A MARK OF SINCERITY. [LECT.

his own principles, which are requisite, in every other subject, as a proof of sincerity. I do not deny that there are many false teachers and false prophets who are sincere in the profession of their errors, and would "compass sea and land to make one proselyte." Zeal is not, therefore, of itself a sufficient indication of the truth; but this we say, that whenever we can satisfy ourselves of the sincerity of the professor, we generally admire his zeal; and if it be not an evidence of the truth, it proves at least, that the person believes what he advocates to be true, because his zeal is sincere; whereas without zeal, or with that indifference which in our day marks a large number of professing Christians, one can hardly obtain credit for the belief of that which is professed. St. Paul acted otherwise he had preached the unsearchable riches of Christ from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum; that is, in almost every part of the Roman empire in the East: he had laboured for years, in the same cause, in those places through which we have traced him in our preceding lectures; but he was not yet satisfied, his zeal knew no bounds, nay, he considered it as a necessity laid upon him to propagate the Gospel. "I am a

debtor," he says, "both to the Greeks and Barbarians, the ignorant and the learned, so much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel to

vi.]

THE APOSTLE'S ZEAL RATIFIED.

you that are at Rome also."

275

We are not to sup

pose this to be an expression of mere compliance with the wishes of others, it was Paul's earnest desire to preach at Rome. You will recollect, that about three years previously to the period we are now about to touch upon, Paul purposed in spirit to go to Jerusalem, saying, "After I have been there, I must also see Rome." Now, it was about the time he formed this resolution, that he wrote the Epistle to the Romans, in which he expresses his readiness to preach the Gospel among them his desire was confirmed by a special message from Heaven; for, in the night which followed his trial before the Sanhedrim, where the apostle bore witness to the sacred cause of Christ, it is related, the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul, for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome." So far was his wish to propagate the Gospel in the West ratified by a miraculous interposition of heaven; and herein he had an assurance and a guide to his zeal, to which we, with the ordinary helps of the Spirit, can lay no claim. We must, therefore, be content to feel our way by prudence and well-tempered zeal, but still we must be mindful we have the same cause to defend; and I trust, my brethren, that in these times of excitement and general inquiry, we shall be endued