out the petition which we have learned of our lord and master,

66

may thy kingdom

come, and thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven!"

SERMON IX.

THE REPORT MADE BY FESTUS TO AGRIPPA OF THE CHARGE AGAINST THE APOSTLE PAUL.

ACTS, xxv. 18, 19.

Against whom, when the accusers stood up, they brought no accusation of such things as I supposed: but had certain questions against him of their own superstition (religion) and of one Jesus who was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.

THESE words are addressed by Festus to king Agrippa, who was at that time making a complimentary visit to the Roman governor at Cesarea, to congratulate him upon his appointment to the province of Judea, and upon his safe arrival in the country. They relate to a charge against the apostle Paul; whom Felix having, in expectation of a bribe, unjustly detained two years in confinement, had now, to pacify the Jews, who were incensed at the tyranny of his adininistration, left in bonds to the judgment of his successor. Festus

informs Agrippa that the singular virulence of the Jewish rulers against this prisoner had induced him to embrace the earliest opportunity of inquiring into the nature and malignity of his offences; but what was his astonishment when he found, that instead of charging him with some great political offence, or some gross violation of civil rights, they only accused him of maintaining that a man who had been publicly put to death some years before, was still living.

This he calls a question of their own superstition, or rather of their own religion; for, little as Festus might in his heart respect the Mosaic revelation, he was too accomplished a courtier to use so contemptuous an expression in the presence of Agrippa, who was himself a Jewish prince.

Upon this report of Festus to Agrippa, in connexion with the history in which it is recorded, I now proceed to make some remarks.

I. In the first place, we may observe the obstinate prejudice and savage malignity

of the Jewish priests and rulers against the christian religion, and the first authorized teachers of it.

No sooner had the governor taken possession of his office than the principal magistrates of the Jews, both civil and ecclesiastical, immediately combine to prosecute the impeachment of the venerable prisoner whom Felix had left in bonds; and they embraced the early opportunity of a visit of compliment and curiosity, which Festus made to the metropolis, to bring up their charges against Paul. They first request that he may be removed from Cesarea, where he was then confined, and which was the principal seat of the Roman government, to Jerusalem, piously intending to assassinate him upon the road. Providentially, this nefarious design proved abortive. The governor denied the request, and ordered the attendance of the accusers at Cesarea, whither their officious zeal soon despatched a deputation from their own body, with the orator Tertullus at their head, to prefer an indictment at

the bar of the governor and many and grievous were the complaints which they alleged against him. But to what did they amount? And what could they prove? Had he violated the laws of his country? Had he infringed the prerogative of the emperor? Had he encroached upon the honours and emoluments of the ecclesiastical establishment? No. The apostle boldly appeals to his accusers and his judges. Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Cæsar, have I offended any thing at all. Nor could his enemies invalidate the appeal.

What then was the daring and atrocious crime which called forth these vociferous clamours? this malignant prosecution? this sanguinary conspiracy? The fact was, that the apostle had the confidence to claim, and to exercise the right of obeying the dictates of his own conscience; of dissenting from established modes of worship and formularies of faith; and of worshipping the God of his fathers in a way which his enemies were pleased to stigmatize as schism and heresy.