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SERMON XX.*

ASSIZE SERMON.

ACTS xxii. 25.

And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?

To men eminently distinguished for the extent of their learning and the depth of their researches, it has appeared an appropriate, and I had almost said, an exclusive character of the Christian revelation, that so many parts of it are delivered in an historical form. The commands laid down by our blessed Lord, though sufficiently comprehensive to direct us aright in all the internal postures of our minds, and in all the varities of our external condition, are not burthensome from their number, nor are they removed from the common moral apprehension of believers, by artificial arrangement, by subtle and minute distinctions, or by curious and recondite modes of expression. Thus far then, the gracious Author of our salvation has provided that we should understand what we ought to practice; and for the same great end, yet further provision has been made by

* March 1797.

the numerous, and most impressive, and most instructive narratives, which constitute so very large, and so very useful a part of the sacred records.

In those records example comes in to the aid of precept. The true spirit of Christianity is unfolded by the personal conduct of its holy founder, and of his immediate followers; in so much that, were it possible for us to entertain doubt upon any the import or the extent of the laws prescribed to us, no diligent and impartial reader of the Gospel can long be at a loss for practical illustrations.

To men, therefore, who live, as the indulgent providence of God has long permitted the inhabitants of this nation to live, under the guidance of fixed and systematic laws, the passage I have just now read to you, must seem an illustration of this kind, most worthy of our attention. St. Paul had been rescued from the violence of his intolerant and bigoted countrymen by Roman soldiers, who carried him into a place called the Castle of Antonia in Jerusalem; and as he stood upon the stairs he obtained leave from the chief captain to make his defence in the Hebrew tongue, before a Hebrew audience, whom he affectionately addressed by the appellation of "Men, brethren, and fathers." For a time they listened to his solemn statements and his masterly reasonings with some curiosity, or at least without impatience. But when the Apostle told them that Jesus, whom they were conscious of having crucified, had commanded him "to go far hence to the Gentiles," the mean and captious prejudices of his hearers took the alarm-they cast off their

clothes, threw dust into the air, and exclaimed, "Away with such a fellow from the earth." Upon this fresh outrage of popular fury, the chief captain ordered St. Paul to be brought into the castle, and by the power which the Roman laws permitted him to exercise over strangers, he bade his attendants examine Paul by scourges for the purpose (as it should seem from the original Greek word egeTαZev,* and from several events related in the context,) of extorting from him some confession, for what reasons the inhabitants of Jerusalem "cried so against him." While they were binding him with thongs, as preparatory to the infliction of scourges, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by," Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman and uncondemned?" The discretion or the humanity of the centurion was roused by this question. He instantly communicated the intelligence to the chief captain, and desired him "to take heed what he did, for the man was a Roman." The chief captain, as we find in the course of his conversation with St. Paul, had obtained the freedom of a Roman citizen by purchase. St. Paul had, however, a stronger claim to it by birth, for he was a native of Tarsus, the metropolis of Cilicia, where his father or some of his ancestors probably had been recompensed with freedom for military services. Now the inhabitants of Tarsus having favoured the party of Julius Cæsar during the civil wars, though not formed into a regular colony, were honoured by great privileges, and even the city itself

* See Hesychius, quoted by D. Whitby, in loco.

had obtained from Augustus the name of Juliopolis. The Apostle, then, availed himself of the rights which belonged to him as a Roman, and the chief captain knowing the validity of those rights, 'loosed him from his bonds." He certainly had no very favourable impressions about St. Paul; for, as we read in the close of the preceding chapter, he had contemptuously asked him, "Canst thou speak Greek?" Yet more invidiously he inquired, whether Paul was not the Ægyptian who before these days had made an uproar, and led out into the wilderness four thousand men who were murderers." But neither his scorn nor his suspicions made him inattentive to his duty, and as he knew what the law required him to do to a man, who had pleaded that he was a Roman, he readily and honourably obeyed the law.

From this story we first learn the importance of clear and definite laws to the well-being of society; and secondly, have a luminous and decisive proof that Christianity does not exclude its followers from the protection, which laws may be able to give against capricious, insolent, or vindictive oppression. First, then, I shall show the essential importance of clear and definite laws to the well-being of society.

Without entering into those thorny disputes, in the course of which the origin of government may not always have been distinguished with sufficient precision from the origin of society, we may contend that, as on the one hand society is indebted for stability and order to government; so, on the other hand, to live by one man's will must be "the cause,"

as said the acute and pious Hooker, " of all men's misery." A despot, indeed, gratifies his own untameable desires by his own uncontrolable power without law, and beyond law, and against law. He decrees according to any momentary sally of passion-he kindles upon every frivolous provocationhe interdicts without necessity-he punishes without warning-he strikes, but hears not-he slumbers in the tempest-he rages in the calm-he connives to-day, and to-morrow he destroys. Despotism, therefore, is alike adverse to every known principle of every regular government-to honour which thrives under monarchy-to moderation which is the vital principle of aristocracy—and to that austere virtue which has been described by some writers as necessary to the existence of a permanent and wellfounded republic. But wheresoever wise and impartial laws have been introduced, there a curb is thrown upon arbitrary will, and in point of fact, such laws, as all know, not from visionary or dubious theories, but from the solid testimony of history, have been judiciously instituted, and steadily executed under each of the three forms which I have enumerated. It is upon the basis of these laws, that under each of those governments liberty of some kind or other has been founded, and from that liberty so founded and so supported, have arisen constitutions, in which various modifications of society have existed, with high degrees of moral and intellectual improvement, with correct notions of justice, and with a long and secure enjoyment of happiness among their respective

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