quicknefs of apprehenfiou, void of humanity, and is a talent of the Devil: the other comes from the Father of Spirits, fo pure and abftracted from perfons, that willingly it hurts no man; or, if it touches upon an indecorum, 'tis with that dexterity of true genius, which enables him rather to give a new colour to the abfurdity, and let it pass. He may smile at the fhape of the obelitk raised to another's fame ;-but the malignant wit will level it at once with the ground, and build his own upon the ruins of it. What then, ye rafh cenfurers of the world! Have ye no manfions for your credit but those from whence ye have extruded the right owners? Are there no regions for you to fhine in, that ye defcend for it into the low caverns of abuse and crimination? Have ye no feats but thofe of the fcornful to fit down in ? If Honour has miftook his road, or the Virtues, in their exceffes, have approached too near the confines of Vice, are they, therefore, to be caft down the precipice? Muft beauty for ever be trampled upon in the dirt for one-one falfe ftep? And fhall no one virtue or good quality, out of the thousand the fair penitent may have left, fhall not one of them be fuffered to ftand by her?-Juft God of Heaven and carth! -But thou art merciful, loving, and righteous, and lookeft down with pity upon thefe wrongs thy fervants do unto each other. Pardon us, we beseech thee, for them, and all our tranfgreffions! let it not be remembered that we were brethren of the fame flefh, the fame fame feelings and infirmities! O my God! write it not down in thy book that thou madeft us merciful after thy own image!that thou haft given us a religion so courteous, -fo good temper'd,-that every precept of it carries a balm along with it to heal the forenefs of our natures and fweeten our spirits, that we might live with such kind intercourse in this world, as will fit us to exift together in a better. SERMON XIX. FELIX'S BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS PAUL, EXAMINED. ACTS XXIV. 26. He hoped also, that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loofe him. A NOBLE object to take up the confideration of the Roman governor! "He hoped that money fhould have been given him ;"-for what end? To enable him to judge betwixt right and wrong ?-and, From whence was it to be wrung? From the poor fcrip of a difciple of the carpenter's fon, who left nothing to his followers but poverty and fufferings! And was this Felix ?—the great, the noble Felix. Felix the happy!--the gallant Felix, who kept Drufilla!-Could he do this? -Bafe paffion,-what canft thou not make us do! Let us confider the whole tranfaction. Paul, in the beginning of this chapter, had been accufed before Felix, by Tertullus, of very grievous crimes; of being a peftilent fellow,-a mover of feditions, and a profaner of the temple, &c.-To which accufations, the apoftle having liberty from Felix to reply, he makes his defence, from the 10th to the 22d verfe, to this purport:-He fhews him, firft, that the whole charge was destitute of all proof; which he openly challenges them to produce against him, if they had it-that, on the contrary, he was fo far from being the man Tertullus had reprefented, that the very principles of the religion with which he then food charged, and which they called Herefy, led him to be the most unexceptionable in his conduct, by the continual exercise which it demanded of him, of having a confcience void of offence at all times, both towards God and man:-that confiftently with this, his adverfaries had neither found him in the temple difputing with any man, neither raising up the people, either in the fynagogue, or in the city-for this he appeals to themselves :that it was but twelve days fince he came up to Jerufalem for to worship:-that during that time, when he purified in the temple, he did it as became him, without noise, without tumult: this he calls upon the Jews who came from Afia, and were eye-witneffes of his behaviour, to atteft;-and, in a word, he urges the whole defence before Felix in fo ftrong a manner, and with such plain and natural arguments of his innocence, as to leave no colour for his adverfaries to reply. There was, however, ftill one adverfary in this court, though filent, yet not fatisfied. -Spare thy eloquence, Tertullus! roll up the charge: a more notable orator than thyself is rifen up,-'tis Avarice; and that too in the moft fatal place for the prisoner it could have taken poffeffion of;-'tis in the heart of the man who judges him. - If Felix believed Paul innocent, and acted accordingly-that is, releafed him without reward, this fubtile advocate told him he would lofe one of the profits of his employment; and if he acknowledged the faith of Chrift, which Paul occafionally explained in his defence, it told him, he might lose the employment itself;-fo that, notwithstanding the character of the Apostle appeared (as it was) moft fpotless, and the faith he profeffed fo very clear, that as he urged it the heart gave its confent, yet at the fame time, the paffions rebelled; and fo ftrong an intereft was formed thereby, against the first impreffions in favour of the man and his caufe, that both were difmiffed;--the one to a more convenient hearing, which never came; the other to the hardships of a prifon for two whole years, hoping, as the text informs us, that money fhould have been given him: and even at the last, when he left the province, willing to do the Jews a pleafure;-that is,-to ferve his intereft in another fhape, with all the conviction upon his mind that he had done nothing worthy of bonds, he, nevertheless, left the holy man bound, and configned over to the hopeless prospect of ending his days in the fame ftate of confinement in which he had ungenerously left him. One would imagine, as covetoufness is vice not naturally cruel in itfelf, that there muft |