not ascribe divine authority to any traditional records, but those which are expressly contained in the writings of the Apostles and Evangelists.

The remaining part of St. Paul's adventures, as recorded by St. Luke, will form the subject of my concluding lecture. A very brief and cursory survey only can be taken of them, as illustrating the courage, and zeal, and wisdom, of that wonderful man, and the providence of God, as displayed in the first settlement of his Church.

We are not to suppose, that while Paul was labouring, and journeying, and encountering peril and hardship of every kind, the other Apostles were less diligently employed, in laying the foundations, and rearing the fabric of that Church. St. James, as we learn from the twenty-first chapter of the Acts, presided over the Church at Jerusalem as its first Bishop; and, therefore, as the first Bishop of the Christian world. Peter, as we collect from his Epistles, was labouring in. Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Of the provinces, in which the other Apostles executed their commission, we have a less certain tradition in the earlier historians of the Church: but a sure proof that their labour was not fruitless, is the fact, that by their preaching, the name

of Jesus was made known, within a few years after his resurrection, to every province of the Roman empire.

The history of St. Paul's ministry, or rather of a certain period of his ministry, is recorded as a specimen of apostolical zeal and activity in general. It is a single portrait, drawn in the liveliest colours by the hand of a master-artist, and suspended in the school of Christian instruction, to serve as a model and encouragement to those, who are called to the like ministry with the great original; and from whom the Lord, who has called them, expects the same faithfulness, and the same exertions, in proportion to the door which is opened to them, in setting forward the cause of his Gospel, and the salvation of mankind. May all those, who have laid the burthen of that duty upon their own souls, have grace to shadow out, in their ministry, the lineaments of that perfect example; that when the chief Shepherd shall appear, they may receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.

* 1 Pet. v. 4.

LECTURE XII.

EPHES. iii. 1.

Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for the Gentiles. It has been already observed, that the character and conduct of St. Paul ought to be carefully studied by all those, who are sent, like him, but with a less direct and authoritative commission, to preach the Gospel to heathen nations; to be studied, as presenting a model, not only of fervent zeal, and unwearied activity, but of sagacity, and judgment, and discretion. His was not that blind and turbulent enthusiasm, which rushes strait forward to its object, regardless of intervening obstacles and difficulties; nor that worldly cunning, which seeks to achieve apparent success, at the expense of sacred principle; but a steady, considerate, well-regulated zeal, unconquerable indeed by persecution, and unmixed with any

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worldly or selfish motives, but guided by the principles of sound reason, and common sense, to choose and to pursue the surest, as well as the holiest methods of accomplishing its purposes. He complied with the innocent prejudices, and studied the unavoidable prepossessions of his hearers, so far as to conciliate their kindness, and to ensure their attention; but never so far, as to sanction an error, which affected any material point of religious belief or practice. In how great a degree the work of evangelizing the heathen has been impeded, in the later ages of Christ's Church, by the inconsiderate and eager zeal of some preachers of the Gospel, and by the temporizing and unholy weakness of others, the annals of Christian missions too plainly declare. Let all, who are entrusted with a dispensation of the Gospel, but especially those, who are charged with the arduous duty of conveying it to the nations that sit in darkness and the shadow of death, bear in mind, that if they are to tread in the footsteps of St. Paul, they must strive to imitate the whole of his ministerial character in its happy proportions and combinations. They may possess a measure of his ardour in the cause of Christ, of his affectionate concern for the salvation of mankind, of his laborious perseverance,

his boldness, his patient endurance; but, as they must not expect the same infusion of spiritual gifts and powers, they must be the more diligent in completing the resemblance in its remaining features, by copying his wisdom, his considerateness, his judicious discrimination of character, and his happy choice of arguments.

There is another feature in the conduct of St. Paul, which deserves to be pointed out, in contrast to the foolish enthusiasm of some missionaries, and preachers of the Gospel, who have considered it a part of their duty, in that character, to court, or at least not to avoid, persecution. St. Paul was never deterred by the fear of persecution from proclaiming the truth as it is in Jesus; but he did not scruple to decline it, when he could do so without betraying the cause which he was engaged to maintain. Not to mention other instances of this, which occur in the Acts of the Apostles, I may refer you to his conduct at Jerusalem, as related in the twentysecond chapter. When the chief captain gave orders that he should be examined by scourging, he escaped that punishment, by asserting his character of a Roman citizen; Is it lawful for you to Scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?*

*Acts xxii. 25.