REESE LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 Received . 
 Accessions No. -&*/.-. Shelf 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME: 
 
 LECTURES 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE 
 
 f tgation of tjje liuM States of 
 
 IN ROME. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. C. M. BUTLER, D.I)., 
 
 PROFESSOR OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY IN THE DIVINITY SCHOOL, PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 
 ,T. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 
 
 1865. 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for 
 the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 
 
UNIVERSITY 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE author of the following lectures has, as it 
 will be seen, adapted himself, in their prepara- 
 tion, to the peculiar circumstances in which he 
 was placed. Addressing a shifting audience of 
 tourists, whose minds were absorbed in the mon- 
 uments and memories and ceremonies of pagan and 
 papal Rome, he desired to place before them the 
 great Apostle of the Gentiles, as the embodiment 
 of the truth as it is in Jesus, in the midst of pagan 
 impurities and Christian superstitions; and to rally 
 around the greatest presence that ever appeared in 
 Rome some of the interest which is lavished on less 
 worthy objects. Looking "on this picture and on 
 that," he felt assured that his hearers could not but 
 appreciate the divine purity and beauty of Pauline 
 Christianity, in contrast with the disingenuous system 
 which unwarrantably invokes the name of the sin- 
 gle-minded Peter, and with the hideous heathenism 
 of the Rome of Tero. Hence he has not hesitated 
 to enter into historical details, which however un- 
 suited, in ordinary circumstances, to the pulpit, might 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 be at the same time peculiarly interesting to those 
 who were sojourning in the scenes where they oc- 
 curred, and would tend to deepen and fix the impres- 
 sions which it was his purpose to convey. They are 
 intended as the dark back-ground of his sketch, in 
 order to bring it out with more distinctness. 
 
 In prosecuting his purpose, the author does not 
 claim to have thrown any new light on the question 
 of St. Paul's sojourn at Rome. He has only at- 
 tempted to concentrate that light, and by its aid to 
 look steadily at some of the details of that historical 
 picture in which both N"ero and Paul are introduced, 
 which might easily escape a casual observation. 
 Hence he has not felt it needful to encumber his 
 pages with foot-notes of references to authorities. 
 It will be sufficient to name the few authors who 
 have furnished most of the materials which he has 
 employed. They are the following: Tacitus; Sue- 
 tonius; Les Cedars par le Cte. Franz de Champagny, 
 3 vols., Paris, 1859; Storia degli Imperatori Roman! 
 da Augusto Sino Costantino de, Sigg Lebeau, 
 Crevier, etc., 36 vols., Roma, 1857; Indicazione To- 
 pographica de Roma Antica in correspondenza dell' 
 Epoca imperiale del Commendatore Luigi Qanina, 
 1 vol., Roma, 1850; Gli Edifici di Roma Antica e 
 sua Campagna, Luigi Canina, 6 vols. folio, Roma, 
 1851 ; the Life and Epistles of St. Paul, by the Rev. 
 W. J. Conybeare, M. A., late Fellow of Trinity Col- 
 lege, Cambridge, and the Rev. J. S. Howson, D.D., 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 principal of the Collegiate Institute, Liverpool, two 
 volumes, People's edition, London, 1863; Lectures 
 upon the Ecclesiastical History of the first three 
 centuries, by Edward Burton, D.D., Oxford, 1845. 
 Baronius, Fleury, and the Papal Constitutions have 
 been consulted in the library of the Convent of 
 Minerva. 
 
 It would not interest the reader of these discourses 
 to know the few modifications which they have 
 undergone in preparing them for the press. They 
 are published in substance as they were delivered. 
 
 The last Lecture, on the claims of the Church of 
 Rome to exclusive sanctity, to infallibility, and to 
 unity, has no immediate connection with the series 
 upon St. Paul. It was delivered last year, after the 
 hearing of a discourse by Monsignore Manning. 
 I venture to publish it, because although hastily pre- 
 pared, it contains a refutation of that one train of 
 argument which is over and over again repeated, by 
 the distinguished author, to the English and Ameri- 
 can auditors who crowd to listen to his Advent and 
 Lenten Sermons. 
 
 The author cannot conclude this preface without 
 the expression of his gratification at the favor with 
 which the discourses were received by the congrega- 
 tion, of several nationalities and many denomina- 
 tions, to which they were delivered. It is but jus- 
 tice to himself to add that it is at the instance of 
 many clerical brethren, English, American, and 
 
 1* 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 Scotch, that he ventures to commit them to the 
 press. 
 
 As he pens these lines, it is with a feeling of sad- 
 ness that he rememhers how many loved brethren 
 and friends, who listened to these discourses, and 
 with whom he has taken sweet counsel in the house 
 of God, under circumstances well calculated to 
 deepen and enrich all Christian sympathies and affec- 
 tions, are now dispersed and journey ing far over sea 
 and land. May grace, mercy, and peace attend 
 them and abide upon them forever! 
 
 ROME, April 6, 1864. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. 
 
 St. Paul's Relation to the Church of Borne as exhibited 
 in his Epistle to the Romans. 
 
 The Papacy a gradual growth. Presumptions in favor of St. 
 Paul's rather ihan St. Peter's headship of the church. St. 
 Paul makes no allusion, in his Epistle to the Romans, to St. 
 Peter's presence or official connection with them. He claims 
 authority over them as the Apostle of the Gentiles. The same 
 claim is implied in the whole tenor of the Epistle. The chief 
 design of the Epistle was to show that man could not be saved 
 by works, but by the faith which appropriates the finished 
 work of Christ. Jewish misapprehension of the consequences 
 of this doctrine corrected. St. Paul's salutations to the Chris- 
 tians at Rome. The profound interest connected with recall- 
 ing them on the spot. Departure of the present Church of 
 Rome from the doctrines and practices of St. Paul 13 
 
 II. 
 
 The Circumstances which preceded St, Paul's Journey 
 to Rome, 
 
 Origin of the Church in Rome. St. Paul's visit to Jerusalem. 
 State of the Church in Jerusalem. His reception. The Naz- 
 aritic vow. St. Paul's wise dealing with Jewish prejudices. 
 The fanaticism of the Jews. Their misrepresentation of St. 
 Paul. Their persecution of him. St. Paul before the Sanhe- 
 drim. St. Paul in prison. The appearance and promise of 
 Christ to him. St. Paul sent by night to Caesarea. Ar- 
 raigned before Felix. Festus succeeds Felix. Paul's ad- 
 
 (vii) 
 
Ill CONTENTS. 
 
 dress to Festus and Agrippa. His appeal to Caesar. Con- 
 trast of fanatical and persecuting zeal with the holy and loving 
 zeal exhibited in the Jews and in St. Paul 36 
 
 III. 
 
 St. Paul's Journey to Rome from Puteoli. 
 
 St. Paul's entrance into the Bay of Naples. The splendor of the 
 scene. The position, work, prospects, and feelings of St. 
 Paul. His sojourn at Puteoli. His journey to Rome. The meet- 
 ing of St. Paul with the brethren at the Appii Forum and the 
 Three Taverns. View from the Alban Hills. The Appian Way. 
 Appearance of Rome from Albano. The Roman custom of 
 placing tombs upon the great highways. Its reason and its 
 significance. St. Paul's passage through the city to the head- 
 quarters of the Praetorian prefect. Paul permitted to dwell 
 by himself with a soldier that kept him. Paul in bonds 
 preaching the Gospel. Reflections 58 
 
 IY. 
 St. Paul and the Jews in Rome. 
 
 Locality of St. Paul's hired house. State of the Jews in Rome. 
 Origin of the Jewish community at Rome. Causes of mutual 
 animosity between the Jews and Romans. Caligula orders his 
 statues to be worshiped. Tumults in consequence at Alex- 
 andria. Capito erects an altar to the god Caius. Order of 
 Caligula to have his colossal statue set up in the Temple of 
 Jerusalem. Violent excitement of the Jews. Their petition 
 to the proconsul Petroniiis. Assassination of Caligula. The 
 Jews protected during the first years of Nero's reign. Testi- 
 mony of St. Paul to the Jews in Rome. Its reception by the 
 Jews. Their judicial blindness. Their persecution and dis- 
 persion to continue so long as they reject the Gospel. Condi- 
 tion of the Jews in Rome since the time of Paul. The triumph 
 of Vespasian and Titus. Treatment of the Jews by the Pope. 
 The humiliation and degradation to which they have been sub- 
 jected. Their present wretched condition in Rome. A strik- 
 ing fulfillment of prophecy and of St. Paul's declaration. The 
 foretold restoration and conversion of the Jews. .., 81 
 
CONTENTS. IX 
 
 Y. 
 St. Paul in his own Hired House. 
 
 Locality of St. Paul's house. St. Paul permitted to preach and 
 teach. The fact explained by the influence of Seneca and 
 Burrus, by ignorance of the essential antagonism of Christi- 
 anity to all pagan systems, by the protection of the Empress 
 Poppea, and by the then absence of any motive on the part of 
 Nero for the persecution of Christians. St. Paul received all 
 who came to him. Probable character of his assemblies. St. 
 Paul preached the Kingdom of God and taught the things that 
 concern the Lord Jesus. Importance of the visible church. 
 Its peculiar adaptation to the wants of that era. The differ- 
 ence between the teachings of St. Paul and that of the Church 
 of Rome 109 
 
 VI. 
 Caesar's Household, and the Saints. 
 
 1. The house of Caesar. The palaces of Augustus, Tiberius, 
 Caligula, and Nero. 2. The household of Nero. Sketches of 
 the family of the Csesars. 3. The saints in Caesar's household. 
 Their position. Their fidelity. Their example. 4. The other 
 saints in Rome. Epaphroditus, Tychicus, Onesimus, Aristar- 
 chus, Justus, Epaphras, Timothy, Mark, Luke. Contrast of 
 the household of Caesar, and of the saints in his household 
 and the other saints in Rome ,. 133 
 
 YIL 
 
 St. Paul's Position in reference to Established Cus- 
 toms and Institutions. 
 
 Delay in the trial of St. Paul. The principle of his procedure 
 in relation to existing customs and institutions. Illustrated 
 in reference to (1) the Jewish economy, (2) the family, and (3) 
 the state. The Jewish economy no longer to be enforced as 
 of divine institution. The family a divine institution. The 
 puriiy of the Roman family during the Republic. The cor- 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 ruption subsequently introduced. St. Paul enjoins the duties 
 of the family relation, but does not assail the prevailing cor- 
 ruptions of that relation. Purifying influence of the Gospel. 
 The state divine. The relative duties of magistrates and citi- 
 zens enjoined. Why the powers that be are said to be ordained 
 of God, and obedience without limitation "unto the Lord," is 
 enjoined. Conclusion 159 
 
 VIII. 
 
 St. Paul's Position in reference to Established Cus- 
 toms and Institutions. 
 
 St. Paul's method of dealing with established customs and insti- 
 tutions restated. Illustrated in the case of Caligula, Claudius, 
 and Nero ; and in reference to games and gladiatorial combats. 
 The example of the Saviour followed by St. Paul. Reflec- 
 tions 179 
 
 IX. 
 
 St. Paul's Position in reference to Established Cus- 
 toms and Institutions. 
 
 St. Paul sometimes enjoins the relative duties of relations which 
 are evil in their origin or themselves. This principle illus- 
 trated in the case of the marriage of Christians to heathens. 
 The absence to condemn does not imply the approbation of a 
 custom. Exhortations to masters and slaves. The case of 
 Onesimus considered 197 
 
 X. 
 
 St. Paul's Position in reference to Established Cus- 
 toms and Institutions. 
 
 The condition of slaves in Rome. The wisdom of St. Paul's 
 treatment of the case of Onesimus. The emancipating influ- 
 ence of the principle of Christian brotherhood. System of 
 slavery in the United States. Personal impressions in ref- 
 erence to the character of slavery in the United States Com- 
 parison of American and Roman slavery. Mistaken extremes 
 in reference to slavery in the United States 214 
 
CONTENTS. XI 
 
 XI. 
 
 St. Paul's Second Imprisonment at Rome, 
 
 St. Paul liberated from his first imprisonment. Preaches the 
 Gospel in the East and in the West. His second imprison- 
 ment. Its hardships. His trial. His imprisonment and death. 
 Inquiry into the traditions concerning his imprisonment and 
 death, and the imprisonment and crucifixion of St. Peter at 
 Rome. The tradition of St. Peter's Episcopate, at Rome, not 
 a true tradition. The absence of proof of the fact ; and the 
 presumptions against the fact. Conclusion 237 
 
 XII. 
 
 The Claim of the Church of Rome to Sanctity, Infal- 
 libility, and Unity considered. 
 
 The relation of the Church and the Word of God. Sanctity as- 
 serted to be found only in the Church of Rome. Confutation 
 of this claim. The claim of infallibility based upon its neces- 
 sity. The necessity denied, and the infallibility of the Church 
 of Rome confuted. The unity of the Church of Rome shown 
 to be less real than that of Protestantism. Concluding obser- 
 vations... .... 268 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 ST. PAUL'S RELATION TO THE CHURCH OF ROME AS 
 EXHIBITED IN HIS EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 
 
 To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints; grace be 
 to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 ROMANS, i. 7. 
 
 I PROPOSE to deliver a series of discourses on St. 
 Paul in the relations which he sustained to Rome and 
 the church in Rome; and I commence the series 
 with the consideration of his Epistle to the Romans. 
 
 If the Papacy had not been a gradual growth, 
 rather than a manufacture or an invention, it would 
 seem as if St. Paul and not St. Peter would have 
 been designated as the Prince of the Apostles and 
 head of the church, with his see at Rome. A far 
 more powerful argument, independent of Romish 
 tradition, could certainly be constructed for the 
 claims of the former than of the latter. 
 
 It is certain that St. Paul was long at Rome. It 
 is probable that he visited it a second time, and 
 underwent martyrdom in Rome during the persecu- 
 tion of the church by Nero. That St. Peter was 
 ever there is more than doubtful. The learned Dr. 
 
 2 (13) 
 
14 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 Barrow has demonstrated that there is no proof 
 that St. Peter ever went to Rome. 
 
 It was to St. Paul that the Apostleship of the Gen- 
 tiles was distinctly assigned, and to St. Peter that of 
 the circumcision. 
 
 The qualifications of St. Paul, no less than his 
 express designation to the Apostleship of the Gen- 
 tiles, fitted him far better for this office, if such an 
 office were to be established, than St. Peter. St. 
 Paul was riot only learned as a Jew, but was also 
 largely imbued with Gentile learning. St. Peter was 
 an uncultured fisherman. St. Paul was a man of 
 large and balanced powers, set in constant and ener- 
 getic motion by a fervor which never destroyed his 
 judgment. St. Peter was fervid indeed, but rash 
 and inconstant. In all that constitutes qualification 
 for headship, and the administration of a large body, 
 composed of Jews and Gentiles, Greeks and Bar- 
 barians, newly united in the profession of a religion 
 which was the opprobrium of the world, St. Paul was 
 immeasurably the superior. Nor is it an answer to 
 this suggestion to say that God hath chosen the folly 
 of the world, and the weakness of the world to over- 
 throw its wisdom and its strength, for of that which 
 was all equal folly and weakness in the eye of 
 the world, he made choices and special adaptations; 
 and it was under divine guidance that he became 
 "to the Greeks as a Greek." 
 
 On the ground of probability, we can scarcely 
 suppose that he alone of aH the twelve who had 
 denied his Master, would have been designated as the 
 Prince of the Apostles, rather than the ever-loyal 
 and devoted Paul. 
 . If we search for Scripture proof to countenance 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 15 
 
 this claim for one or other of the Apostles, how 
 much more to the purpose than the strained inter- 
 pretations of the expressions, "thou art Peter," and 
 "feed my sheep," is the direct assertion of St. Paul, 
 "that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all 
 the churches?" 
 
 In such an argument, the fact that St. Paul was 
 miraculously called by the ascended Christ, the glo- 
 rified head of the church, and set apart for an Apos- 
 tleship peculiar in its extent and its sufferings, in 
 connection with the fact that he actually traversed 
 a large portion of the Roman world, and addressed 
 the churches in a tone of authority, might be ad- 
 duced with much plausibility. 
 
 Nor would it be a less remarkable fact, in this 
 connection, that in accordance with what might 
 have been reasonably expected from the head of 
 the church, there are in the sacred canon fourteen 
 Epistles of St. Paul, some of them the most elabor- 
 ate and best adapted to the wants of the church uni- 
 versal; while there are but two from St. Peter, 
 which, though glowing and glorious, are addressed 
 to the strangers, or the dispersed Jewish Christians. 
 
 And lastly, the fact that the most elaborate of all 
 these Epistles is addressed to the Roman Christians, 
 and adopts toward them the tone of one who feels 
 that he has over them a divinely commissioned su- 
 perintendence, while nothing of this kind remains 
 of St. Peter, confirms the conviction that if the 
 Papacy had been not an historical development, but 
 a theological invention, to St. Paul and not to St. 
 Peter would have been assigned the headship of the 
 Apostles, and the Yicarate of Christ. 
 
 It is to the relation of St. Paul to the Church of 
 
16 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 Rome, previous to his personal presence in it, and as 
 seen in his Epistle to the Romans, that I now direct 
 my argument. 
 
 I. The tone and purport of the Epistle to the 
 Romans preclude the supposition that St. Peter 
 had superintendence and' charge of the Church of 
 Rome, because he makes no allusion to the pres- 
 ence of St. Peter, or any other Apostle at Rome, 
 and seems in it distinctly to assume authority over 
 it for himself. 
 
 1. The omission to mention the presence and 
 authority of St. Peter, and to enjoin upon the Roman 
 Church spiritual obedience to him, is incredible upon 
 the supposition that he was then, and had been for 
 fifteen years, the recognized Bishop of that see. The 
 claim of the Church of Rome is that St. Peter be- 
 came Bishop of Rome in the year of our Lord 43, 
 and held the episcopate for twenty-three years. His 
 Epistle was written in the year 58. K"ow nothing 
 could be more unbecoming, intrusive, discourteous, 
 and less like St. Paul, than an epistle to the Romans 
 without a single allusion to their Bishop of fifteen 
 years' standing, and as if he himself possessed a 
 rightful authority to admonish and teach and guide 
 them. Even on the supposition that St. Paul had 
 been the divinely constituted head of all the churches 
 upon earth, it is impossible to conceive him guilty 
 of such an omission. Even if in his administration 
 of that see St. Peter was to be blamed, St. Paul 
 would not have hesitated, as upon another occasion, 
 to have blamed him. It is perfectly incredible, on 
 the supposition that St. Peter was then Bishop of 
 Rome, and head of all the churches, that St. Paul 
 should not have recognized him in either of these 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 17 
 
 characters, nor alluded to him either for praise or 
 censure. 
 
 2. But he distinctly claims for himself the office of 
 Apostle of the Gentiles. Three times he calls himself 
 such: "For I speak unto you Gentiles, inasmuch as 
 lam the Apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify my office."* 
 Here he declares that he speaks to them, Gentiles, 
 because he is the Apostle of the Gentiles; because 
 he has been set apart for that very office, and hence 
 has a right to speak; and in view of this desfgna- 
 tion he magnifies his office. In the opening words of 
 the Epistle, he declares that he has received from the 
 risen Saviour, " grace and Apostleship for obedience 
 to the faith, among all nations, for his name;" and 
 then adds, "among whom are ye also, the called of 
 Jesus Christ;" and then he pronounces upon them 
 the Apostolic blessing of "grace and peace." Here 
 his claims cannot be misunderstood. It is an Apos- 
 tleship in order to the obedience of faith among all 
 nations, and of them were the Roman Christians. 
 And then, assuming that relation, he introduces his 
 Epistle with the customary Apostolic benediction. 
 
 Still more directly to this purpose is his language 
 in another place :f "Nevertheless, brethren, I have 
 written unto you the more boldly, in some sort, as 
 putting you in mind, because of the grace that is 
 given to me of God, that I should be the minister of 
 Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel 
 of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be 
 acceptable, being sanctified of the Holy Ghost. I 
 have, therefore, whereof I may glory, through Christ 
 Jesus, in those things which pertain to God." What 
 
 * Rom. xii. 13. t Rom. xv. 15, 16, 17. 
 
18 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 could be more explicit? He writes to them, remind- 
 ing them that, through the grace of God, he has 
 been made the minister of God to them, the Gentiles. 
 Hence it is that he speaks to them boldly. Hence 
 he has whereof he may glory. As the Apostle of 
 the Gentiles, he here claims the right and the duty 
 to address to them the Epistle which contains the 
 fullest exposition of Christian doctrine and duty 
 which is contained in the sacred canon. 
 
 3. Besides this explicit claim of the right to ad- 
 dress them as the Apostle of the Gentiles, the whole 
 tenor of the Epistle implies that sense of right, of obliga- 
 tion, and of authority. It is true that in some other 
 Epistles may be found more distinct assertions of 
 his Apostolic authority, but it is in cases where he 
 feels called upon to minister rebuke to churches 
 which he had planted, or had ministered to, in 
 person. When he wrote to the Romans it was to a 
 church which he had not founded, and for which he 
 had not words of rebuke but commendation. " Their 
 faith was spoken of throughout the world." Hence 
 he had no "need to use sharpness according to 
 the power which the Lord had given him,"* and to 
 vindicate his Apostolic authority as in the second 
 Epistle to the Corinthians ; but was at liberty to speak 
 to them as a father, with the affection and the Chris- 
 tian courtesy which was one of the most pleasing 
 traits of his varied and balanced character. It was 
 because the Church of Rome originated without 
 /Apostolic agency that St. Paul felt the more ur- 
 ; gently the obligation, as the Apostle of the Gen- 
 \tiles, to visit them ; and in the inability to do that as 
 
 * 2 Corin. xiii. 10. 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 19 
 
 soon as he desired, to explain the causes of his delay ; 
 and, in the mean time, to address to them such teach- 
 ing and exhortation as their case required. That 
 such is the tone of his Epistle throughout, must be 
 recognized by every attentive reader. I adduce but 
 two passages in illustration of the remark. 
 
 After a declaration of his divinely commissioned 
 Apostleship, St. Paul proceeds to address the 
 Christians at Rome. " For I thank my God, through 
 Jesus Christ, for you all, that your faith is spoken 
 of throughout the whole world. For God is my wit- 
 ness, whom I serve with my spirit in the Gospel of 
 his Son*, that without ceasing I make mention of you 
 always in my prayers: making request, if by any 
 means now at length I might have a prosperous 
 journey, by the will of God, to come to you; for I 
 long to see you, that I may impart unto you some 
 spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; that 
 is, that I may be comforted with you by the mutual 
 faith both of you and me. Now, I would not have 
 you ignorant, brethren, how that oftentimes I pur- 
 posed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that 
 I might have some fruit among you also, as among 
 other Gentiles."* It is all the language of a 
 spiritual father, who feels that those to whom he 
 writes have no other father, and that he has a duty 
 toward them of oversight and ministration; who 
 would convince those to whom he is thus related that 
 he has riot willingly neglected them ; that he longed 
 to see them, and that he constantly remembered them 
 in his prayers. He purposed oftentimes to go to 
 them, he longed to see them, he desired both to 
 
 * Rom. i. 8-14. 
 
20 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 impart and to receive spiritual gifts. It is ineredi- 
 ( ble that St. Paul should have written in this strain 
 ; if St. Peter had been Bishop of Rome and Yicar 
 I of Christ. 
 
 Similar in its tone and purport to this introduc- 
 tion is St. Paul's lano-uacre toward the close of the 
 
 o o 
 
 Epistle. "But as it is written to whom he was not 
 spoken of they shall see, and they that have not 
 heard shall understand. From which cause also I 
 have been much hindered in coming to you; but 
 now, having no more place in these parts, and having 
 a great desire these many years to come unto you, 
 whensoever I take my journey into Spain I will come 
 to you, for I trust to see you in my journey, and to 
 be brought on my way thitherward by you, if first I 
 be somewhat filled with your company. But now I 
 go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints; when 
 therefore I have performed this, and have sealed to 
 them this fruit, I will come unto you by Spain. And 
 I am sure that when I come unto you I shall come 
 in the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ. 
 Now, I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus 
 Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye 
 strive together with me in your prayers to God for me, 
 that I may be delivered from them that do not believe 
 in Judea, and that my service which I have for Jeru- 
 salem may be accepted of the saints; that I may 
 come unto you with joy by the will of God, and may 
 with you be refreshed. Now the God of peace be 
 with you all. Amen." 
 
 Here the Apostle declares that he has had a great 
 desire these many years to go to Rome, but had been 
 many ways hindered. But now he trusts to see them 
 on his way, in his purposed visit to Spain. He ex- 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 21 
 
 presses the hope that after he shall have some time 
 enjoyed their company, they (some of them, we may 
 suppose) will accompany him on his way thither. He 
 repeats the assurance that he will visit them on his 
 way to Spain ; he feels sure that he will come in the 
 fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ. He 
 asks their prayers that he may he delivered from 
 his enemies in Judea, and reach them, and be re- 
 freshed by them. What is this but the courteous 
 Christian language of one who feels that he has 
 alike duties and prerogatives among those to whom 
 he writes, and expects the welcome and the atten- 
 tion which is appropriate from those by whom they 
 are recognized? 
 
 Such was the relation of St. Paul to the infant 
 Church of Eome. As Home was mistress of the 
 nations, and the radiating center of influence and 
 power throughout the world, St. Paul could not but 
 s,ee how supremely important to the future interests 
 of the church it was that the Church of Eome 
 should be rightly constituted ; that it should hold 
 fast to the truth as it is in Jesus ; and should exhibit 
 holiness, consistency, and zeal. Hence, in the midst 
 of his overwhelming labors, which had long hin- 
 dered his earnest desire to visit the church at Rome, 
 he addressed to them his most elaborate Epistle. 
 He wished to mould that church to such a form and 
 animate it with such a spirit as that its command- 
 ing influence should be exertecWin behalf of the pure 
 Gospel of Christ, unmixed with Pagan or Jewish 
 errors. "With the then condition of the Church of 
 Rome, with its practical holiness of zeal, he seems 
 to have been entirely satisfied. He thanks God that 
 their faith is spoken of throughout the world. He 
 
 3 
 
22 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 not only wishes to impart unto them some spiritual 
 gift, but he expects to be comforted by their mutual 
 faith. Even his painstaking confutation of Juda- 
 izing errors seems to be made with no special ref- 
 erence to the peculiar prevalence of such errors at 
 Rome, but rather in view of their general dissemi- 
 nation among Jewish converts, and for purposes of 
 warning and instruction. It will be interesting to 
 examine what were the great truths which St. Paul 
 was so earnest in impressing upon the Church of 
 Rome, just as it was assuming an organized exist- 
 ence, in order that the pure and unchangeable Gospel 
 of Christ might, through all the world and all the 
 ages, radiate from that central seat its clear and 
 steady light. Let us briefly examine the purport of 
 the Epistle. 
 
 II. It treats of many topics, but its main argument 
 is not difficult to be discerned. The points which he 
 most wishes to impress and the errors which he is 
 most anxious to confute are clear enough. 
 
 He opens the Epistle with salutations and bless- 
 ings. He then proceeds to show what was the con- 
 ' dition of mankind, and begins with the pagan world. 
 1 It is a dark, awful, but unexaggerated picture which 
 he draws of the pagan character, the justice of which 
 \must have been abundantly evident to the Christian 
 residents at Rome. That such wickedness cannot 
 escape the justice of God, is his first conclusion. 
 Then he turns to the Jews. He warns them not to 
 boast because of their superior privileges over the 
 Gentiles. Their circumcision cannot save them if 
 they obey not the law. But they neither do nor can 
 keep the law. What follows? "By the deeds of the 
 law shall no flesh be justified." Of what use was 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 23 
 
 the law then if it could not be kept? His answer 
 is, "By the law is the knowledge of sin." When 
 sin is both known and felt, then there is preparation 
 for salvation. 
 
 From this point, toward the conclusion of the 
 third chapter, opens his grand argumentation, chiefly 
 w r ith the Jew, and yet incidentally sometimes, and 
 always by implication, with the Gentile. THE great 
 point and argument of the Epistle is this: Neither 
 the Gentile by observing the law of his natural con- 
 science, nor the Jew by observing the divine law, 
 can obtain salvation. They can only attain to the 
 knowledge that it is unattainable, and that they are 
 lost. But for the salvation of the lost, Christ Jesus 
 is revealed. Because all have sinned he assumed 
 the sins of all, and died to atone for all. God accepts ' 
 the atonement, and pardons all who by believing can 
 receive the Holy Ghost, and become holy. The Gen- , 
 tile and the Jew alike may believe and live. The 
 Jew is taught that all the sacrifices of the law, which 
 atoned for ceremonial sins, for the temporal punish- 
 ment of some violations of the moral law, were in- 
 tended to point his faith to the one great sacrifice, 
 which was to come and has come, Christ, the Lamb 
 of God who taketh away the sins of the world. 
 
 Now it results from this statement that man can- 
 not be saved by works of any kind. It was just 
 because he could not be, that Christ came and laid 
 down his life. Now that he has come and presented 
 that which was a substitute for impossible obedience, 
 it is of course still impossible that the still impossi- 
 ble obedience should secure salvation. No means 
 remains but to accept the salvation which Christ 
 has wrought. To accept it is to believe. To be- 
 
24 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 lieve, in the Gospel sense of that expression, is to 
 accept. It is an act which involves conviction of 
 the mind, followed hy the acquiescence of the will 
 and a conformity of the conduct. By faith only is a 
 man justified. By faith without works. Not even 
 by the working of the faith, but yet by the aith 
 which works, and not by a faith which does not 
 work. "Works are excluded." And this is the 
 point, salvation by faith, faith without works, simple 
 acceptance with no merit, and with a deep sense of 
 demerit, it is this point which St. Paul strenuously 
 argues with the Jew. He could, with great diffi- 
 culty, believe that his being a Jew, and having the 
 custody of the oracles of God, and having been cir- 
 cumcised, counted nothing in the way of merit to- 
 ward his acceptance. It seemed to irk him that all 
 these historical and divine treasures, and all his good 
 works must be cast down when he came up to the 
 cross; and that he and the hated Gentile should 
 stand there on an absolute equality, both with no- 
 thing but their sins, and that both should smite upon 
 their breasts in penitence, and cry, " God be merci- 
 ful to us, sinners," and both obtain salvation by the 
 faith that merely accepts with the consciousness of 
 dying need, and not that one, the favored Jew, should 
 obtain it by the privileges and works which buy and 
 barter life. 
 
 Now it is easy to see that it is this doctrine which 
 St. Paul is supremely anxious to clear up, and to 
 impress upon the minds and hearts of the Roman 
 Christians, both Jew and Gentile. He gives to its 
 illustration and enforcement a large space. He 
 puts his whole heart into the argument. His soul 
 seems to ache with anxiety to lodge this truth in the 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 innermost conviction of the reluctant 
 tiently follows him into every subterfuge, 
 breaks out in tender concern lest he should fail to 
 receive that simple truth upon which his salvation 
 depends. He yearns over his countrymen with in- 
 expressible affection. He admits and glories in the 
 privileges of the Jew, but shows that they were only 
 privileges of superior preparation for the reception 
 of this great truth, this supreme essential blessing 
 of salvation by simple faith. Seldom do we find so 
 much heart in an argument as in this. He guards 
 it on all sides, that their prejudices may be as little 
 as possible offended. He shows that salvation is not 
 license to omit obedience, but on the contrary, the 
 one spring and motive and life of all holy obedience. 
 And thus, when at the eighth chapter he feels war- 
 ranted to announce it as a demonstrated truth that 
 "there is no condemnation to them that are in 
 Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after 
 the Spirit," he expatiates upon the glory and blessed- 
 ness of that great salvation, and upon the holiness, 
 zeal, and love which it awakens in the penitent and 
 believing heart. And then his kindled soul breaks 
 forth into one of the sublimest utterances in the 
 Word of God, which is but an eulogy and an am- 
 plification, and a personal and loving grasp of the 
 great truth of salvation by faith in Christ Jesus. 
 "It is God that justifieth. Who is it that con- 
 demneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that 
 has risen again, who is even at the right hand of 
 God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who 
 shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall 
 tribulation or distress, or persecution or famine, or 
 nakedness, or peril or sword?" "For I am per- 
 
26 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 suaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor 
 principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor 
 things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any 
 other creature shall be able to separate us from the 
 love of God who is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 
 
 Such was the great central truth which St. Paul 
 addressed to the Christians of Rome, as that which 
 was essential, upon which all other truths were de- 
 pendent, by which all errors were to be destroyed, 
 and all doctrines tested. 
 
 III. There are two points upon which St. Paul 
 was particularly careful to correct Jewish misappre- 
 hension. One would lead them to reject the doctrine 
 of justification by faith only; and the other to draw 
 from it a mistaken inference. 
 
 1. The Jews of his generation had become fixed 
 in the doctrine of merit as the purchase of salvation. 
 The Pharisees especially were arrogantly self-right- 
 eous. They relied upon their alms, and fasts, and 
 long prayers, and tithes of mint, anise, and cummin, 
 for acceptance with God, even while living in neglect 
 of truth, judgment, and mercy. They had misin- 
 terpreted that principle of the Jewish administration 
 / which had affixed temporal blessings to obedience, 
 land punishment to rebellion. It had been designed 
 to teach them the divine law of rewards and punish- 
 ments, only in part and in advance ministered upon 
 earth, and to be perfectly administered hereafter. 
 They learned from it only the error that merit was 
 to purchase the favor of God in the future world. 
 Nor had they less grossly misunderstood the institu- 
 tion of sacrifice. It was designed to throw their 
 minds forward to the world-atoning sacrifice of Christ, 
 While the institution was yet in existence they had 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 27 
 
 failed to see its meaning, and its long disuse had un- 
 fitted them to welcome the atonement which fur- 
 nished salvation, as a full and free expiation to the 
 penitent and believing. Hence, when told that this 
 was all ; that they were not to merit and work out 
 salvation ; that on that side there was no hope ; that 
 neither by the works of the abrogated Jewish law, 
 nor by their own obedience to the moral law, could 
 they find life, they were vexed, perplexed, con- 
 founded. It seemed to them like sending kings out 
 to beg. And this is the point which St. Paul per- 
 sistently labors. "A man is justified by faith with- 
 out the deeds of the law." "By the works of the 
 law shall no flesh be justified." These two proposi- 
 tions St. Paul reiterates in every variety of form 
 in argument and exhortation, for comfort to faith, 
 and for the rebuke of self-righteousness. 
 
 2. Nor did the Jews fail to insist that if we were 
 justified by faith only, without works, licentiousness 
 would follow, obedience would be unnecessary, and 
 holiness superfluous. Against this misapprehension 
 St. Paul is peculiarly emphatic. "Shall we con- 
 tinue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid!" 
 He labors to show that obedience is wrapped up in 
 faith ; that its very manifestation implies death to sin, 
 and life to righteousness; that it is the condition of 
 the reception of the Spirit's aid, whereby alone good 
 works are wrought, and holiness obtained. 
 
 Such are the teachings of St. Paul, divinely com- 
 missioned and inspired, to the Church of Rome, over 
 whose faith it became him sedulously to watch. 
 Such were the doctrines received and accepted by 
 the early Church of Rome. 
 
 IY. It is most interesting to stand in the very city 
 
28 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 to which this great Epistle was directed, and to think 
 of its reception. "Here," we say to ourselves, 
 " eighteen hundred years ago, the first Christians of 
 Rome conversed of the words of Paul as they walked 
 together, (where we are now assembled,) in this, then 
 Campus Martins, in the groves, and walks, and porti- 
 coes that surrounded the mausoleum of Augustus; 
 and here their hearts burned within them as they 
 unfolded to each other this newly developed scrip- 
 ture. Here the Epistle was read to the church which 
 was wont to gather in the house of Aquila and Pris- 
 cilla. Here the hearts of the beloved and faithful dis- 
 ciples and fellow-helpers in the Gospel, converts and 
 friends of St. Paul, whom he had known, and loved, 
 and labored with in different portions of his wide 
 missionary field, were refreshed by his loving mes- 
 sages, and animated by his faithful exhortations. 
 As the Epistle drew toward its close, and weighty 
 doctrine and earnest exhortations were followed by 
 affectionate salutations, we can imagine how, with 
 dim eyes and parted lips and eager expectation, they 
 listened for the paternal and fraternal messages of 
 the beloved and loving Apostle. Priscilla and Aquila, 
 his hospitable hosts in Corinth, helpers in Christ; 
 well-beloved Epsenetus, the first fruits of Achaia; 
 Mary, who devoted much labor upon him; Androni- 
 cus and Junia, kinsmen, and fellow-prisoners; be- 
 loved Amplias; Urbane, his helper in the Lord; 
 Stachys, his beloved; Appelles, well approved; Aris- 
 tobulus, and his household; Herodian, his kinsman; 
 the household of Narcissus ; Tryphena and Try- 
 phosa, laborers in the Lord; beloved Persis, who la- 
 bored much; Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his 
 mother and, says the affectionate Apostle, mine; 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 29 
 
 Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, 
 Philologus, Julia, Nereas, and his sister, and Olym- 
 pas, and all the saints, that are with them." What 
 a goodly company is this, and how highly favored ! 
 St. Paul loves them, blesses them, commands 
 them ! They were chief saints of a church whose faith 
 and obedience were known throughout the world. 
 Scarcely anything is known of any of them, except 
 what is here recorded, that they were faithful and la- 
 borious disciples of the Saviour, and beloved brethren 
 of St. Paul. 
 
 How profoundly affecting it is to think of this 
 group, and their fellow-disciples ; a holy seed of many 
 nations and many stations in life, in the midst of 
 this then vast, magnilicent, and awfully wicked city, 
 enjoying temporary peace and toleration, at the be- 
 ginning of the reign of N~ero, soon to be followed 
 by persecution, when he should have surrendered 
 himself to debauchery, cruelty, wild extravagance, 
 and frenzied dissipation ! Doubtless, many of them 
 were subsequently enrolled in the noble army of 
 martyrs. As St. Paul contemplated them in their 
 insecure position, living and walking under the 
 shadow of that imperial palace from which at any 
 moment of capricious passion the mandate might 
 issue for their extermination ; and living near the 
 amphitheaters and circuses in which the clamors of 
 a brutal and blood-fed populace might soon demand 
 that they should be given to the lions; when he re- 
 membered that they were set for a light in that dark 
 place, it is not surprising that he put so much heart 
 into his salutations, and so tenderly names his be- 
 loved brethren one by one. No wonder that his 
 earnestness is so fervent, when he guards them from 
 
 4 
 
30 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 error, and leads them into truth, and exhorts them 
 to duty. He would have them strong in the Lord ; 
 he would have their light shine ; he would have them 
 fitted for the high position assigned them of soon 
 becoming the most conspicuous of the churches. 
 They would need to put on the whole armor of God. 
 They would need the most vigorous and heroic spir- 
 itual development. Christian athletes, they required 
 to he fed with strong meats, and to he girded with 
 power. They must learn to comprehend, and live 
 upon, and cling to the most essential and vital truths ; 
 and they must be taught to shun the errors which 
 would corrupt their faith, or chill their love, or mis- 
 guide their zeal. Such was the task before the Apos- 
 tle. It was accomplished in his great Epistle. We 
 have reason to believe that it was accepted and did 
 its work. We know that its truths were reiterated 
 by St. Clement, called, in the Roman succession, 
 the third Bishop of Rome. We know what faithful 
 testimony was given by the Roman martyrs. The 
 Roman Church adopted and lived upon and dis- 
 seminated the truths so earnestly inculcated by St. 
 Paul. 
 
 The Church of Rome still exists. A Bishop of 
 Rome occupies the see which seems not to have been 
 constituted, or at least occupied, at the time in which 
 St. Paul wrote his Epistle. A few months since 
 N he proclaimed the sorrow which he felt at the palpa- 
 ble decay of faith, the spread of practical irreligion 
 and of speculative infidelity, throughout Italy and 
 the world. He addressed to the faithful animated ex- 
 hortations to second his eiforts to win back the favor 
 of God, and to revive faith and sanctity in the minds 
 of men. We know, from St. Paul's Epistle, what 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 31 
 
 exhortations he would have addressed to the saints 
 in Rome at such a crisis. He would have exhorted 
 them to earnest prayer to the Father through the 
 Son, for the converting, reviving, and sanctifying 
 power of the Holy Ghost* to he poured out upon 
 priests and people. He would have reminded them 
 of their high privileges as the freely forgiven chil- 
 dren of God, by faith in Christ Jesus; and of the 
 obligation, through the constraining love of Christ, 
 to live holily and unhlamahly, and in a spirit of 
 true consecration to God, and love to man. "Were 
 these, or similar exhortations, addressed by the' 
 Bishop of Borne to the saints that are in Rome?' 
 Not these, but other exhortations were employed.) 
 They were enjoined with their presence and faith 
 and prayer to attend a spectacle, for healing the 
 evils of the times and propitiating the favor of 
 Heaven. A picture of the Saviour would be carried 
 by Pope and cardinals, priests and monks, with ban- 
 ner and music and incense and the pornp of gilded 
 vestments, from the Basilica of St. John Lateran to 
 that of Santa Maria Maggiore. It was this picture 
 in which the hope of the restoration of faith and 
 holiness seemed to be reposed. It was said to 
 have been outlined by St. Luke, for the Virgin 
 Mary, three days after Christ's ascension; to have 
 been miraculously colored in the night; to have 
 been carried during the siege of Titus to Pella 
 and subsequently to Constantinople; to have been 
 taken away in the seventh century by the per- 
 secuted Bishop of Constantinople, and consigned 
 to the sea, over which it passed, in a perpendicu- 
 lar position, to Ostia, in twenty-four hours, when, 
 seeing the Pope ready to receive it upon shore, it 
 
32 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 /rose and placed itself in his hands. The Bishop of 
 1 Rome's method of reviving faith and religion was 
 1 the transfer of this picture from the Basilica of St. 
 1 John Lateran to that of Santa Maria Maggiore. It 
 ; evidently differs from the method which would have 
 j been adopted hy St. Paul. He knew of no such 
 means of grace.* 
 
 And the tokens of divine favor which have followed 
 this act of faith are also of such a kind as would not 
 have been appreciated by St. Paul. In the little 
 town of Yico Yaro, in the Sabine Mountains, in a 
 miniature chapel, I saw, last spring, a picture of the 
 Virgin Mary. It seems that this picture has for some 
 months been in the habit of rolling up its eyes, and 
 changing perceptibly its color, f This is received as 
 evidence that the Virgin Mary has heard the sup- 
 plications of the faithful, and that she will intercede 
 with her Son to intercede with the Father to avert 
 the evils which threaten the Church of Rome and 
 the world, and to bestow upon them anew his bless- 
 ing. Another picture in the same region makes the 
 same miraculous manifestations. Homage to a pic- 
 
 * All the statements above mentioned, elaborately and diffusely 
 narrated, are found in a printed document, scattered all over Rome 
 at the time of the exposition of the picture, entitled "Origine della 
 S. Imagine," and concluding with the words, "Con permesso." The 
 crowds who attended its transfer and its exposition were immense. 
 During the last days the press of people toward the picture, with 
 rosaries, crosses, jewels, handkerchiefs, books, and other articles, 
 kept two priests constantly employed in touching them to the glass 
 in front, by which a miraculous virtue was supposed to be imparted 
 to them; and the Swiss guard could with difficulty keep the crowd 
 back from the altar. The exposition continued from the 6th to the 
 13th of September. (1862.) 
 
 J- The eyes are not only rolled up and down, but sometimes move 
 sideways, and occasionally the eyelashes also move. 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 83 
 
 ture of the Saviour, painted by St. Luke, to act as 
 the effectual prayer; and pictures of the Madonna, 
 that roll their eyes up and down, and occasionally 
 sideways, with a movement of the eyelids, as answers 
 to the prayer, this is the method of seeking and 
 proclaiming spiritual blessing adopted by the pres- 
 ent Church of Rome. It was a method evidently 
 unknown to St. Paul.* 
 
 In view of these new methods of the Church of 
 Rome, it is scarcely necessary to ask if the truths 
 which St. Paul so earnestly labored to implant have 
 lived and thriven and borne holy fruits where they 
 were so early introduced ? Alas! there is not one 
 of them which the Church of Rome accepts. There 
 is not one of them which she does not reject. Jus- 
 tification by faith only, over w r hich holy Paul lifted / x 
 a glowing anthem, Rome visits with anathema. J 
 How is it with the errors against which St. Paul so 
 strenuously labored? Rome adopts them. She 
 preaches the merit which Paul denounced. And 
 what in the place of Paul's fundamentals are hers? 
 Dogmas of which there is not the shadow of a trace 
 in his Epistle. The supremacy of St. Peter and his 
 Yicarate of Christ, Tran substantiation, the Immacu- 
 late Conception of the Virgin, and but why should 
 I name them? Of all these fundamental dogmas, 
 we find in the Epistle of St. Paul, intended to be 
 the chart and guide of the Church of Rome through 
 all time, that there is not a word not a word! 
 Simply to state such a fact is mbre impressive than 
 
 * It is a significant comment on this miracle, that the vicar of the 
 parish at Vico Varo, who wrote glowing accounts of this miraculous 
 manifestation, has since absconded with all the offerings of the 
 faithful. 
 
34 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 eb could be made by the most mournful and impas- 
 ioned declamation. 
 
 There has recently been found beneath the Church 
 of San Clemente, a larger and nobler edifice, upon 
 which the present edifice, much less homogeneous 
 and complete than the former, has been erected. 
 That original church, itself founded on the ruins of 
 / pagan structures, was filled up with rubbish, and so 
 I completely hidden from view, that its existence was 
 Minknown for ages. The descriptions of the original 
 edifice have been misappropriated to the second and 
 meaner structure. It is now in the process of exca- 
 vation, and as one pillar after another of precious 
 and polished marble is disclosed, its superiority has 
 become more and more apparent. And so under 
 the present Church of Rome, there lies buried and 
 filled with superstitious rubbish and forgotten for 
 /ages, a nobler and purer church, the church of St. 
 \Paul and of Clement. But instead of uncovering 
 to the light its walls, which are salvation, and its 
 gates, which are praise, instead of disclosing its 
 pure altars and its polished pillars, Rome piles new 
 rubbish on, and packs it down, and does not permit 
 her children even to know of its existence. 
 
 But these blessed truths, repudiated by the false 
 Church of Rome, are still the heritage of the churches ; 
 and because she, to whom was committed the pre- 
 cious deposit, was faithless to her trust, it becomes 
 them to cling with warmer loyalty and love to that 
 which, while it is Gospel, is to fallen man the most 
 effective law. "Being justified by faith, we have 
 peace with God." "Faith worketh by love." 
 
 In these scenes and with these memories we will 
 cling to them and love them as we have never done 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 85 
 
 before. We pass over the intervening ages. We 
 gather with the disciples who are assembled to hear 
 St. Paul's Epistle. Its precious truths sink into our 
 hearts; and, oh! how we need its divine conclu- 
 sion, in the midst of this groaning and travailing 
 creation, in the midst of the tumults of the world 
 and the sorrows of the churches! "Being justified 
 by faith, we have peace with God" 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH PRECEDED ST. PAUL'S 
 JOURNEY TO ROME. 
 
 And the night following, the Lord stood by him, and said : Be of 
 good cheer, Paul, for as thou hast testified of me at Jerusalem, so 
 must thou bear witness also at Rome. ACTS, xxiii. 11. 
 
 WHEN the devout Christian visits Rome, his first 
 thought is not of Romulus, Caesar, or Augustus, of 
 Gregory, or of Leo, hut of Paul. Here he was 
 "brought in bonds. Here he lived two years. Here 
 he conferred with Jews and Gentiles. Here he wrote 
 some of his most precious epistles. Here devoted 
 Christian brethren and friends gathered about him; 
 and in his hired house, (near where we now worship,) 
 what luminous expositions of the truth as it is in 
 Jesus; what fitting in of fact with prophecy; what 
 demonstrated correspondence between the type and 
 the reality; what earnest prayer ; what joyful praise; 
 what loving intercession; what affectionate fellow- 
 ship; what peaceable wisdom; what heroic zeal! 
 
 How the Church of Rome originated does not ap- 
 pear. The Apostolic history does not designate its 
 founder. Had it been an Apostle, we can scarcely 
 ^doubt that the fact would have been recorded. It 
 probably originated with some of the disciples scat- 
 ,tered abroad, after the martyrdom of St. Stephen. 
 "They went everywhere preaching the word." (Acts, 
 vii. 4.) Though originating with Jewish converts, 
 (36) 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 37 
 
 it had already acquired a preponderance of the Gen- 
 tile element when St. Paul wrote his Epistle to 
 the Romans. He claims the right to address them 
 on the ground that he was the Apostle of the Gen- 
 tiles. The names of the Christian friends and breth- 
 ren whom St. Paul salutes at the end of his Epistle 
 are largely Greek and Roman. 
 
 St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans was written at 
 Corinth, and sent by Phsebe, a deaconess of the 
 church at Cenchrea, adjoining that city. In it he as- 
 sures them that after he shall have gone up to Jeru- 
 salem, to distribute to the poor saints there the con- 
 tributions of their wealthier brethren in Macedonia 
 and Achaia, he would visit the disciples at Rome. 
 Anxious as he was to see the brethren at Rome, and 
 confer with, and properly to constitute and regulate 
 a church, whose influence at the political center of 
 the world would be immense, he must yet first see 
 his poor disciples at Jerusalem ; he must himself pre- 
 sent to them the gifts of their brethren, and increase 
 their grateful joy; he must tell them how fully and 
 freely Christian love poured forth those gifts; he 
 must be a partaker of their holy joy; he must en- 
 deavor to correct their growing errors of doctrine 
 and misapprehension concerning his own character, 
 purposes, and views. 
 
 We have spoken of St. Paul's purposed journeyi 
 to Rome. He went at length, not as a free apostle, ( 
 but as a chained captive. The story, as recorded in I 
 the latter chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, is one j 
 of exceeding interest. 
 
 The church in Jerusalem was in a transition state. 
 The Jewish rites and ceremonies were continued 
 at the Temple at the same time that the church, 
 
 5 
 
88 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 which was to supersede them, was established by its 
 side. Christ had declared that he came not to de- 
 stroy the law but to fulfill. The true meaning of 
 this declaration many of the Jewish Christians failed 
 /to apprehend. They did not see that in fulfilling, 
 ^ Christianity superseded Judaism ; that it completed 
 fc< ^ ( it by merging it into itself; that it was the plant which 
 / of necessity absorbed the seed from which it sprung. 
 They supposed that Judaism was to remain entire, 
 and that as Moses inaugurated it, and David strength- 
 ened it, and Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and 
 all the prophets illustrated and explained it, and 
 foretold its glories, so Christ was to complete it, and 
 place it on immovable foundations, and fill out the 
 types of Moses, and the glowing delineations of the 
 prophets. Consolidated and completed Judaism, 
 seated upon a throne, and crowned with power by a 
 conquering Messiah, that was their faith and hope. 
 Slowly and reluctantly were their minds drawn from 
 these carnal views. Many of them still clung to 
 Jewish customs. They would retain circumcision, 
 and many of the ceremonies of the law. 
 
 Now St. Paul, in his large and loving wisdom, 
 dealt gently with these half emancipated minds. 
 "While he proclaimed the utter freedom of the disci- 
 ples of Christ, and the necessity of reliance only 
 on his work for pardon, grace, and life, he would yet 
 not rudely tear away the tendrils of affection and 
 association from the Jewish institutes, but would 
 wait until, of their own spiritual aifinity, they should 
 all be untwined and disengaged, and gently swayed 
 toward the cross. Yet St. Paul was disliked by 
 the less advanced of the Jewish .converts, because he 
 only tolerated for the present, and did not enjoin per- 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 39 
 
 manent adhesion to some of the ceremonies of the 
 law; and they falsely represented him as an enemy 
 who reviled customs which were at least venerable, 
 even if they had ceased to be obligatory. 
 
 St. Paul came to Jerusalem in part to refute 
 these accusations. He was well received. "When 
 we came to Jerusalem, the brethren received us 
 gladly." (Acts, xxi. 17.) The next day the elders 
 of the church, called together by James and Paul, 
 " declared particularly what things God had wrought 
 among the Gentiles by his ministry" (Acts, xxi. 19) 
 since he parted from Jerusalem four years before. 
 When they heard it, "they glorified the Lord." (v. 
 20.) And, as we may suppose, after such a recep- 
 tion, from kindness to him, they reminded him that 
 thousands of the Jews who believed were still zeal- 
 ous of the law, (v. 20 ;) that they had been made to 
 believe that he went about teaching the Jews to for- 
 sake Moses, and abandon circumcision and the cus- 
 toms, (v. 21.) They told him that his coming would 
 soon be known, and intimated that crowds would 
 gather and violent excitements would arise, (v. 22.) 
 Hence, as there were with them at that time four 
 Jewish Christians who were under the Kazan tic vow, 
 they advised St. Paul to go with them to the 
 Temple, and pay the expenses attendant upon the 
 completion of the ceremonies and the vow. (v. 23, 
 24.) 
 
 The regulations of the Nazaritic vow are found in 
 the Book of Numbers. (Num. vi. 2-5.) A Jew de- 
 livered from peril, or desiring to testify in public a 
 peculiarly solemn consecration to God, took upon 
 himself this vow. During the period which it em- 
 braced, which was sometimes for life and sometimes 
 
40 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 for a few months only, he was to drink no wine, and 
 ; to leave his hair uncut. At the termination of the 
 j period, he was to resort to the Temple with offerings, 
 and the hair of his head and beard was there shorn, 
 and cast upon the altar. This was one of the "cus- 
 toms" which the Jews, who were zealous for the law, 
 retained. While, however, St. Paul's friends ad- 
 vised him to go with these men, and to pay their 
 charges, they assured him that they did not intend 
 to impose these customs upon the Gentiles, "for," 
 they added, "as touching the Gentiles who believed, 
 we have written that they observe no such thing, 
 save only that they keep themselves from things of- 
 fered unto idols, and from blood, and from strangled, 
 and from fornication." (Acts, xxi. 25.) 
 
 St. Paul readily consented. Was it from fear 
 or for favor? Was it against his principles? Not 
 at all! It was in precise harmony with those prin- 
 ciples of broad and loving toleration which he had 
 so beautifully unfolded in the closing chapters of his 
 Epistle to the Romans. Chanty was the supreme law. 
 For its sake, and in matters indifferent, he would be 
 a Jew with Jews, and a Greek with Greeks. For 
 peace and love he circumcised Timothy, because he 
 was the son of a Jewess. He was free alike from 
 superstitious repugnance to ceremonies, and super- 
 stitious adherence to them. His doctrine left him 
 equally at liberty to practice or forsake those that 
 were innocent, and not of present divine obligation. 
 If one enjoined them on him as essential, he would 
 not admit them for a moment; if one clung to them 
 in doubt, or from old affection, or from a conviction 
 that they were edifying if not obligatory, he allowed 
 them, and joined in them. Nay, if one still prac- 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 41 
 
 ticed them because he believed them to be essential, 
 he would even then tolerate them, while he endeav- 
 ored to extricate him from bondage to ordinances. 
 "Neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncir- 
 cumcision, but a new creature." (Gal. vi. 15.) This 
 was his great principle. 
 
 How wise, how grand, how sublimely simple it is ! 
 Yet how many persons utterly fail to comprehend it ! 
 How slowly have Christians worked their way out of 
 the spirit of Judaism into the self-restraining free- 
 dom wherewith Christ has made his people free! 
 How soon did they again lapse into essential Juda- 
 ism ! We should not wonder that Christianity should 
 have first appeared at Jerusalem with this Jewish 
 stamp upon it. The lines and marks of the grub 
 are impressed upon the back of the butterfly when 
 he breaks from it and spreads his wings and flies ! 
 Let us wonder rather that the freed and bright child 
 of the sunshine should fold his winers and crowd 
 
 O 
 
 himself back into the dry shell from which he had 
 broken! Let us wonder that Christianity, once 
 emancipated from bondage, should submit to it 
 again ! Let us wonder that the Roman Church, which ! 
 St. Paul praised, should be the church of to-day ! 
 But why wonder at all, when we remember that the 
 spirit of all delusion is not yet locked up in the pit, 
 but is at large, and that man is ever spiritually 
 stupid? Only "great grace," and simple faith, and 
 ardent love can retain churches and individuals in 
 this high temper. It can be reached by the lowliest 
 through the enlightenment of love. It will be missed 
 by the loftiest without it. In our day we will still 
 hear one denomination of Christians, or one style of 
 Christian character among all denominations, say- 
 
42 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 ing: "This observance is essential, and without it 
 the foundation will be overthrown, and then what 
 will the righteous do?" Another replies: "Kay, 
 without the overthrow of that form, and adherence 
 to this essential dogma, there can be no spiritual life." 
 Even now, the rarest of all styles of Christian char- 
 acter is that so beautifully portrayed by holy, lofty 
 Paul. We often find high devotional fervor and 
 not this ! We hear seraphic preaching and not this ! 
 We meet with burning zeal and not this! It is the 
 last lesson which the ripest Christian learns ; which 
 many holy men never learn, and the fierce denial of 
 which constitutes the first dogma of churches, which 
 include more than half the Christians of the world! 
 
 St. Paul's ready compliance with the advice of 
 the council must have silenced those who were op- 
 posed to him on the ground of his hostility to the 
 national worship. But some Jews from Ephesus, 
 enraged because in that city he had defeated their 
 arguments in the Synagogue, and had built up there 
 a powerful church of converted Jews, seized this un- 
 expected opportunity of revenge. When they saw 
 him in the Temple, "they laid hands on him, 
 crying out, Men of Israel, help ! This is the man 
 that teacheth all men everywhere, against the people 
 and the law, and this place; and further, brought 
 Greeks also into the Temple, and hath polluted this 
 holy place." (Acts, xxi. 27, 28.) A violent tumult 
 .arose. A vast multitude hurried to the Temple. 
 (They were filled with horror at the alleged profana- 
 tion of the holy place. They dragged him from the 
 inner court into the court of the Gentiles, and closed 
 jthe gates, and were about to kill him. 
 
 But the design was suddenly arrested. The Eo- 
 
ST. PAUL IN EOME. 43 
 
 man garrison in the neighboring tower of Antonia, 
 whose sentinels could overlook the open court of the 
 Gentiles, was at once roused. Claudius Lysias, the 
 commandant of the garrison, hearing that all Jeru- 
 salem was in an uproar, hastened to the scene with 
 centurions and soldiers. As the veterans marched 
 into the court with flashing arms and steady tramp, 
 the fanatical mob recognized their masters, and 
 "left off beating of Paul." Lysias took him and 
 bound him with two chains, and inquired who he 
 was, and what he had done. " Some cried one thing 
 and some another." Unable to ascertain the truth, 
 because of the tumult and confusion, he took him 
 into the tower of Antonia. So violent was the crowd 
 that St. Paul was borne up the stairs by the press- 
 ure of the multitude, amid the cries, " Away with 
 him !" 
 
 Then St. Paul, with great presence of mind, turned 
 to the commanding officer and said in Greek,'" May 
 I speak with thee?" Lysias, who had hitherto sup- 
 posed that he was an Egyptian ringleader of a late 
 rebellion, was startled to hear him speak Greek, and 
 yielded to his request that he might address the 
 people. Strange, that by a gesture of the hand he j 
 should have secured at first "great silence" in that i 
 wild, heaving, tumultuous crowd. Less strange that! 
 the silence should have continued when they per-J 
 ceived that he spoke in the Hebrew tongue. (Acts, 
 xxi. 31-40.) 
 
 His speech was as conciliatory as fidelity to his 
 Master would permit. (Acts, xxii. 1-21.) He told 
 them that he was a Jew and a scholar of the famous 
 Gamaliel. But Christ had appeared to him in a 
 miraculous manifestation. He was struck down 
 
44 ST. PAUL IN EOME. 
 
 when he was on his way to Damascus to persecute 
 the followers of Christ. He arose convinced and 
 converted; and was subsequently bidden to go and 
 preach to the Gentiles. 
 
 Then Jewish fanaticism flashed forth. A child of 
 Abraham degrading himself by becoming a messen- 
 ger to uncircumcised Gentiles, and blasphemously 
 professing to call them to higher privileges than 
 those of God's chosen people! This touched them 
 to the quick. It was a provocation and an insult 
 not to be borne. They were wrought up to a frenzy 
 of indignation, and cried, "Away with this fellow 
 from the earth, for it is not fit that he should live." 
 (Acts, xxii. 22.) They rent their clothes, and in 
 their wild Eastern way threw dust into the air. The 
 spell of Paul's speech was broken. The chief cap- 
 tain, not understanding their clamors, would have 
 had him examined by scourging, and his body was 
 even stretched out to receive the lashes, (v. 25,) but 
 when he claimed exemption as a Roman citizen, 
 Lysias became alarmed that he had even bound him. 
 (v. 29.) 
 
 On the morrow the scene was changed. Lysias 
 summoned the Jewish Sanhedrim with the High 
 Priest, that he might learn from them the nature of 
 Paul's offense. Paul arraigned before the Sanhe- 
 drim of which he had been a member when St. 
 Stephen was condemned ! How that hour and scene 
 must have returned to him as he stood arraigned 
 before those with whom he had once sat as judge! 
 I^ow he understood St. Stephen's holy calm; his 
 unflinching yet humble fortitude ; for it was in his 
 own soul. "Earnestly beholding" the council, look- 
 ing steadily, sorrowfully, and yearningly, we may 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 45 
 
 well suppose, at brethren, many of whom had been 
 personal friends, whose false and fiery zeal he had 
 so lately shared, he began by declaring: "Men and 
 brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before 
 God unto this day." (Acts, xxiii. 1.) The High 
 Priest, Ananias, enraged that he should claim this 
 honest conscience, ordered those who stood by him 
 to smite him upon the mouth. "God shall smite 
 thee, thou whited wall !" was the Apostle's indignant 
 rejoinder to the unprovoked brutality. He expressed 
 his regret, however, when he ascertained that the 
 insult came from the High Priest; "Seeing it is 
 written, thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy 
 people." (Acts, xxiii. 5.) The incident shows the 
 singular balance of St. Paul's character and conduct 
 even in such a trying scene. As a man the author 
 of such an outrage deserved rebuke. As God's 
 High Priest the law enjoined reverence and submis- 
 sion to him. In that moment of high excitement, 
 Paul could remember the injunction and was so far 
 removed from the impulse of mere human indigna- 
 tion that he could make the apology, which, if he 
 had yielded to pride alone, would have been with- 
 held. But the words which had thus escaped from 
 him in indignation proved to be a prophecy. God 
 did smite Ananias. He was murdered by Jews more j 
 fiercely fanatical than himself the Sicarrii, or dag- J 
 ger assassins of the Jewish war. 
 
 The Apostle from the commencement saw that 
 there was as little hope for him as there had been 
 for St. Stephen, in the justice or moderation of his 
 judges. He therefore sought safety by enlisting on 
 his side one of the parties into which the Sanhedrim 
 
 6 
 
46 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 was divided. He adroitly proclaimed himself a 
 Pharisee, and the son of a Pharisee. "For the 
 hope of the resurrection from the dead," he cried, 
 "am I to be judged this day." (Acts, xxiii. 6.) In this 
 one doctrine he knew that he should have the Phari- 
 sees on his side. A dissension arose among them. 
 There was a temporary diversion in his favor. " The 
 Pharisees arose and strove, saying, We find no evil 
 in this man ; but if a spirit or an angel have spoken 
 unto him, let us not fight against God." (v. 9.) A 
 great dissension arose. Lysias feared that St. Paul 
 would be torn to pieces by the doctors as he had be- 
 fore feared that he would be killed by the mob. 
 Fanaticism is a mighty leveler. The doctors of the 
 Sanhedrim became as savage under its sway as the 
 rabble of the streets. The learned and eloquent 
 Legislative Assembly of France, howling like 
 demons, and the tumultuous Jacobin Club, and the 
 sanguinary Club of the Cordeliers, and the fero- 
 cious human wolves of St. Antoine, what was 
 there to choose between them ? As loving zeal lifts 
 the lowly to the high plane of angelic life, so does 
 malignant zeal sink the lofty to the level of the 
 fiend. 
 
 But night and silence came. A prisoner in the 
 Roman barracks, with no human sympathy near, 
 and conscious that he was surrounded by the fana- 
 tical and infuriated hate of the population of a 
 great city who thirsted for his blood, what were the 
 thoughts and feelings of St. Paul? We know not; 
 but from our knowledge of his susceptibility to af- 
 fection, we infer a corresponding sensibility to hate; 
 from his ardent love to his countrymen we cannot 
 but conclude that their bitter malignity pierced 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 47 
 
 his heart with the keenest anguish. We know, 
 moreover, that when an angel came to comfort 
 Jesus it was in the hour of his extremest agony in 
 the garden. And now the gracious Master, who 
 then needed an angel to strengthen him, a com- 
 passionate High Priest, touched with a feeling of 
 the infirmities of his faithful apostle, stood by 
 him in the visions of the night, and said to him, 
 "Be of good cheer, Paul, for as thou hast testi- 
 fied of me at Jerusalem, so also must thou testify 
 of me at Rome." (v. 11.) It was enough; the 
 Lord stood by him. Then must he have remem- 
 bered that he who was for him was greater than 
 all who could be against him. To one who should 
 have looked upon him, as exhausted with ex- 
 citement and fatigue, he stretched himself on the 
 cold stone floor of the barracks, with a soldier 
 guarding him, with frenzied fanatical wrath waiting 
 only for the dawn for his destruction, after a day in 
 which he had been rescued from the wrath of the 
 mob only to be exposed to the equally deadly wrath 
 of the Sanhedrim, to one who should have perceived 
 only these circumstances of his position, how piti- 
 able would the fate of the Apostle have seemed! 
 But who among all the then inhabitants .or sojourn- 
 ers in Jerusalem was so truly to be envied as St. 
 Paul? The Lord, the Creator of the worlds, the 
 redeemer of sinners, the ascended and crowned 
 Saviour, the Lord stood by him and said, "Paul, be 
 of good cheer." It was the Master's approval, after 
 a faithful, and because faithful, triumphant struggle 
 against the powers of darkness. 
 
 But how singular the grounds on which the Lord 
 bade Paul be of good cheer ! He gave him no assu- 
 
48 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 ranee that his troubles would come to a speedy end. 
 He did not promise that he should overcome his 
 enemies. He simply assured him that as he had 
 been faithful at Jerusalem, he should have the priv- 
 ilege of testifying of him at Rome. He did not 
 even foretell large results from his testimony. And 
 for this he was to be of good cheer ! To have the 
 privilege of testifying for the Master is then one of 
 the high privileges of the ministers and people of 
 God, whether men will hear or whether they will 
 forbear. And this is indeed the great vocation ot 
 the church. It is a light in a dark place. It is a 
 voice crying in the wilderness. Even unto the end 
 this is to be its essential character; for the Gospel 
 is to be preached for a witness to all nations before 
 the end shall come. And it is even to rejoice in 
 giving testimony to Christ and his Gospel. To 
 speak, in a world of hates, of so much love; in a 
 world of sins, of so much purity ; in a world of sor- 
 rows, of so much consolation; in. a world of false- 
 hood, of one so true ; in a world of the condemned, 
 of one who is so great a redeemer; in a world that 
 vanishes with all its poor joys, of one who opens 
 a world that is eternal, and joys that never fade! 
 Oh ! let us ever, with full hearts and faithful speech 
 and holy living, give testimony to the. Saviour. In 
 society, in the family, in the world of business, 
 let us all testify of Jesus that he is the Son of 
 God; that life, and grace, and pardon, and salvation, 
 and peace, and power, all that is good in the life 
 that is, and all that gives sure hope for the life that 
 is to come, are to be found nowhere but in Him. 
 Simply to testify for him is the highest privilege, 
 even though it be in peril and persecution ; for this 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 49 
 
 was the consolation which Jesus gave to Paul in his 
 sorest need. Let us not doubt that he felt the joy 
 of it when, a few days after, before Festus and 
 Agrippa, he uttered his noble testimony for his Mas- 
 ter, and experienced a loftier pleasure than Csesar 
 ever knew. 
 
 The consolation was needed, for Jewish malignity \ 
 was awake with the early dawn; and forty of his I 
 enemies had bound themselves with a curse that they I 
 would neither eat nor drink till they had slain him. 
 Such an extraordinary vow, so suddenly taken by 
 such a number, measured the wide-spread and dread- 
 ful fanaticism of hatred to which Paul was exposed. 
 *Et was in vain to think of turning it aside. Their 
 plan was to induce the council to have Paul remanded 
 for further examination, and then to spring upon him 
 suddenly and kill him before the guard could rally 
 in his defense. 
 
 The plan was defeated. Paul's sister's son heard 
 of the conspiracy, and immediately resorted to the 
 castle to advise him of the fact. Paul sent him to 
 Lysias. Lysias listened, enjoined silence on Paul's 
 nephew, and immediately sent Paul, at the third hour 
 of the night, to Csesarea, under a guard of two hun- 
 dred soldiers, seventy horsemen, and two hundred 
 spearmen. The rage against St. Paul must have 
 risen to a great height to have made such a guard 
 necessary. Lysias sent a letter to Felix, referring 
 the case to him. The whole party escorted Paul as \ 
 far as Antipatris, from whence he proceeded to I 
 Caesarea, under the guard of horsemen. (Acts, xxiii.' 
 12-35.) 
 
 After five days, the High Priest Ananias went to 
 Csesarea with the elders, and an orator named Ter- 
 
50 ST. PAUL IX ROME. 
 
 tulliis. The charges brought against him were of the 
 vaguest character. Even before the Sanhedrim, Paul 
 could not have been lawfully condemned upon them ; 
 for they could not be proved. Paul stated truly that 
 he had done nothing contrary to the Jewish law. 
 Before a Roman tribunal they could not have been 
 even properly entertained. They were not offenses 
 which came within its cognizance. The Jews evi- 
 dently expected by clamor to carry their point. They 
 believed that for the purpose of conciliating them, 
 Felix, without law, or against law, would not hesi- 
 tate to sacrifice an obnoxious Jew to their violent 
 and unanimous hatred. As in the case of the Saviour^, 
 they wished to make the Roman Government the 
 instrument of shedding blood, which they were not 
 permitted by the law to do. A pestilent fellow, a 
 mover of sedition among the Jews throughout the 
 I world, a ringleader of the Nazarenes, and a profaner 
 j of the Temple, these were the charges. Felix 
 evaded them. His reply was: "When Lysias, the 
 ; chief captain, sharll come down,^[ will know the utter- 
 most of your matter." (Acts, xxiv. 22.) He showed 
 some interest or curiosity at least in Paul's views, for 
 after some days he came with his wife Drusilla, who 
 was a Jewess, and heard him concerning the faith of 
 Christ. "And as he reasoned of temperance, of 
 righteousness, and of judgment to come," Felix trern- 
 bled, and answered: "Go thy way for this time; 
 when I have a convenient season I will call for thee." 
 (Acts, xxiv. 25.) Temperance, or continence, and 
 righteousness, and judgment to come, were topics 
 well calculated to terrify one who was a gross liber- 
 tine, living in adulterous union with a profligate 
 Jewish princess, and who was in all respects pre- 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 51 
 
 eminently vicious in an age of vice. But this trem- 
 bling was only the temporary effects of fear, pro- 
 duced on one who, in the graphic language of Tacitus, 
 " exercised the power of a king with the temper of 
 a slave." We are told that he retained Paul in 
 custody in the hope that his friends and disciples 
 would raise a ransom for him. (Acts, xxiv. 26.) 
 
 Again the scene changes. Festus succeeds Felix 
 in the government of the province. Proceeding im- 
 mediately to Jerusalem, he w^as importuned by the 
 Jews to send Paul therfc for trial. Their object was 
 to have him waylaid and killed. Festus, a better 
 man than Felix, at first refused. He decreed that 
 St. Paul's accuser should appear before his tribunal 
 at Csesarea. On his return they went down, and laid 
 many and grievous things to his charge, "which," 
 adds the sacred writer, "they could not prove." 
 Festus at length, in order to please the Jews, pro- 
 posed to Paul to proceed to Jerusalem under his 
 protection, and there be tried in his presence. The 
 Apostle no doubt knew that a proconsul's proposal 
 to his prisoner was equivalent to a command ; and 
 anticipating from this compliance with Jewish injus- 
 tice but little firmness in an emergency, and know- 
 ing by experience the deadly hatred of his enemy, 
 he uttered the memorable words which resulted in 
 his voyage as a prisoner to Rome: "I APPEAL TO 
 C.ESAE." The appeal could not be refused; it was 
 the right of every Roman citizen, and it could not 
 be disregarded with impunity. (Acts, xxv. 1-11.) 
 
 A few days after, Herod Agrippa II. King of 
 Calchis, and his sister Bernice, came on a compli- 
 mentary visit to the new governor of the province. 
 Festus described to him the peculiar case of Paul. 
 
52 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 Agrippa expressed a desire to hear from Paul him- 
 self an account of his doctrine. (Acts, xxv. 13-22.) 
 
 On the morrow, with great pomp, Agrippa and 
 Bernice, and the chief captains and principal men 
 of the city assembled in the audience chamber of 
 the palace, and Paul was permitted to speak for 
 himself. It was a most interesting audience, and a 
 speech of singular felicity and power. He defended 
 himself against the charge of heresy ; described his 
 own former fiery zeal against the Christians ; his con- 
 version and divine commission, and the consequent 
 hatred of the Jews. Festus believed that long and 
 enthusiastic study, on mysterious themes, had turned 
 Paul's brain. Agrippa, a Jew, who could at least ac- 
 cept the premises which Paul laid down, either sin- 
 cerely or in the way of compliment, declared that he 
 felt almost constrained to yield to the Apostle's con- 
 
 ( elusion. "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Chris- 
 tian," was his declaration. He subsequently de- 
 clared that St. Paul might have been set at liberty if 
 he had not appealed unto Caesar. (Acts, xxvi.) 
 
 The voyage of Paul the prisoner to Italy was 
 replete with striking incidents. My plan constrains 
 me to omit all notice of this memorable voyage, and 
 to resume in the next lecture the history of St. 
 Paul on his arrival at Puteoli. 
 
 In the incidents which we have so rapidly sur- 
 * veyed, we have a remarkable exhibition in the Jews 
 of malignant, fanatical, persecuting zeal; and an 
 equally striking exemplification in St. Paul of the 
 manner in which it should be met. It is vindictive 
 and wicked persecution encountering holy and loving 
 zeal. 
 
 This spirit of fanatical and vindictive persecution 
 
ST. PAUL IX ROME. 53 
 
 is a fearful and monstrous manifestation of our fallen 
 nature. At the first view it seems simply an insane, 
 absurd, illogical depravity. Men say to us, "We 
 have the truth of God. You are in error. You 
 hold and propagate wrong views of God and right 
 and duty. They will ruin your soul and other souls. ' ' 
 What in this state of things should be their feeling 
 toward us? It should, evidently, be affectionate 
 interest. What should be their conduct? A loving 
 effort to win us to the truth. What should be their 
 conduct and their feeling if they fail? Profound 
 pity, continued kindness, and still hopeful prayer. 
 This is the legitimate and ordinary working of holi- 
 ness in possession of the truth. It was the spirit 
 and conduct manifested by St. Paul. 
 
 But instead of this loving spirit, false, fiery, fana- 
 tical, persecuting zeal exhibits perhaps the most 
 deadly and awful hatred that ever takes possession, 
 or can take possession, of a being who has not yet 
 become a fiend. 
 
 It is a strange and hideous manifestation of human 
 depravity. We shudder as we hear it howling about 
 St. Paul in the daytime, as he stands in the midst of 
 the infuriated rabble in the court of the Gentiles, 
 and among the vindictive doctors of the Sanhedrim, 
 or as we see it in the midnight conclave of forty 
 Jews, who bind themselves by awful imprecations 
 not to eat or drink until they shall have slain the 
 Apostle. As this spirit is hideous in its full develop- 
 ment, so it is repulsive in every form and degree of 
 its manifestation. 
 
 Yet we must not forget that it arises from the per- 
 version of the highest part of our nature, conscience. 
 The true work of conscience is to reprove personal 
 
 7 
 
54 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 sins. Its right action is within. It is not to be 
 wounded by the sins of others. Love may suffer 
 because of them, and conscience prompt love to 
 work for their removal and their forgiveness. Con- 
 science, guided by love, takes truth and goes forth 
 to win others by it away from sin, and its companion 
 sorrow, and its doom, death. If it fails, it is not 
 turned into hatred. If it withdraws, it is because it 
 has ceased to hope. It does not scowl, but it weeps 
 when it retires. 
 
 But in the case of fanatical and persecuting zeal, 
 conscience performs a different function. Not being 
 an enlightened and sanctified conscience, it does not 
 perform its appropriate work. It does not act on 
 personal sins. It is wounded by the sins and un- 
 beliefs of others. It works itself out from under 
 the mountain load of its own iniquities, by which it 
 might be crushed into humility, and be made to 
 bleed in contrition, and it rushes against the sins of 
 others, and is thus maddened into pride and resent- 
 ment and fierce self-assertion, which it sanctifies with 
 the holy name of zeal. In this misdirection of a 
 perverted conscience, it does not abandon love, for 
 love was never with it; but it takes with it the whole 
 dread sisterhood of the malignant passions, and it is 
 these which it drives on to the work of converting, 
 , coercing, persecuting, and destroying. The true 
 I definition of fanatical persecution then seems to bo 
 1 that it is a perverted conscience employing hatred to do 
 > > ' the work which love alone can do. Then it is a Jehu in 
 ' his chariot, from whom not alone the enemies, but 
 ; the friends of God must flee if they would live. 
 And that which is most awful in this portentous 
 wickedness is that it considers itself eminently 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. // TJ %j . 
 
 righteous. Never are the malignai 
 
 horrible as when driven on by conscien! 
 
 men persuade themselves that it is their duty to be 
 
 vindictive, to let loose their evil passions, to hate, 
 
 and persecute, and torture, then will there be such 
 
 fiendish developments of humanity as are never 
 
 elsewhere witnessed. 
 
 It is to be observed that it is not often the truth 
 which is thus used in the service of persecuting zeal; 
 but it is some perversion of truth, or half truth, or 
 single truths separated from those, without which 
 they are errors; or it is simple error and falsehood 
 which are thus employed. Holy truth refuses to be 
 used except by holy love. The spear of Gabriel can- 
 not be fitted to the hand of Lucifer. This persecu- 
 ting fanaticism is Phariseeism, destroying the spirit 
 of the law by the letter, and imposing upon men 
 human traditions in the place of divine laws. It is 
 Judaism, ignorant of the spirit and yet clinging to 
 the forms of an abrogated economy. It is Moham- 
 medanism, with its false prophet, its flaming sword, 
 and its impure heaven. It is the zeal of the Jews 
 that assailed Paul in the Temple, and raged around 
 him in the Sanhedrim. It is the zeal of the Inquisi- 
 tion, the zeal of Alva, the zeal of Philip of Spain 
 and Louis XIV. of France, the zeal of those who 
 followed the saints of Savoy with fire and sword to 
 their mountain fastnesses, and drove the Huguenots, 
 noble martyrs and confessors, into the wild glens of 
 the Cevennes. 
 
 "Oh, my soul, come not into their secret: unto 
 their assembly mine honor be not thou united." 
 It is an utterly hateful and horrible spirit. Let 
 us be far from it. There is no danger that Prot- 
 
56 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 estant Christians should exhibit it in its full devel- 
 opment. But it has its beginnings and its partial 
 manifestations in all hearts and in all churches. It 
 is to be found in its germ in all those manifesta- 
 tions of zeal in which the consciences of the right- 
 eous are more troubled by the sins of others than 
 by their own. It is seen wherever there is exces- 
 sive zeal in imposing particular dogmas upon others, 
 and in making individual convictions of duty the 
 standard for the churches, rather than by a loving 
 effort to develop holiness of heart and life in others, 
 chiefly by the beautiful and winning exhibition of it 
 in themselves. Man is capable of such singular 
 contradictions and inconsistencies, that we may not, 
 perhaps, say that he who has most of truth will 
 manifest the most of love ; but we may say that he 
 ought to do so, and may add, that he who has the 
 most of love will be likely to learn the most truth ; 
 and that when he shows himself not lovingly zeal- 
 ous, but fanatically intolerant and persecuting in be- 
 half of any doctrine, it is likely to prove either a 
 complete error or but a partial truth. 
 
 St. Paul's conduct when exposed to this fiery fana- 
 ticism teaches us in what spirit and with what holy 
 prudence it should be met. Nothing can be more 
 calculated to stir up a spirit of resentment and indig- 
 nation. However these may have been excited, and 
 however just they might have been, they were over- 
 come by love and holy zeal for his deluded brethren 
 in the flesh. Very touching is the declaration which 
 he made to his brethren whom he called together at 
 Rome : "Not that I have aught to accuse my nation 
 of." To us it seems as if there were much cause to 
 accuse them; but he, remembering his journey to 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 57 
 
 Damascus, and how recently he had shared their 
 views and feelings, felt that it was not for him to 
 accuse his nation, although they had thirsted for his 
 blood, and driven him to Rome in chains. In all 
 his speeches there are no words of denunciation. 
 He vindicates himself. He endeavors to convince 
 and propitiate his enemies, in order that he may 
 present to them the hope of Israel, and persuade 
 them to accept the great salvation. And when it 
 becomes evident that his words will be unavailing, 
 he bows to the storm, and remembering the Master's 
 assurance that he must testify of him at Rome, 
 avails himself of the facilities which providence 
 supplied to enable him to escape from their hands. 
 
 How beautiful in contrast to the persecuting zeal 
 of the Jews is the loving zeal of Paul for his perse- 
 cutors ! 
 
 "We shall miss the moral of this instructive history 
 if we learn only to abhor the one, and do not learn 
 to love and imitate the other. 
 
LECTURE III. 
 
 ST. PAUL'S JOURNEY TO ROME FROM PUTEOLI. 
 
 And from thence we fetched a compass, and came to Rhegium: and 
 after one day the south wind blew, and we came to Puteoli: 
 
 Where we found brethren, and were desired to tarry with them seven 
 days; and so we went toward Rome. 
 
 And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet 
 us as far as Appii Forum, and the Three Taverns; whom, when Paul 
 saw, he thanked God and took courage. 
 
 And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to 
 the captain of the guard; but Paul was suffered to dwell by him- 
 self with a soldier that kept him. ACTS, xxviii. 13-16. 
 
 RESCUED from shipwreck, and beaten by storms, 
 Paul at length reached Italy. At no part of that 
 stormy voyage could he have doubted that he would 
 be saved; for the Lord had appeared to him when a 
 prisoner in the castle of Antonia, with the assurance 
 that he should testify of him at Rome; and again, 
 at the height of the storm, before his shipwreck upon 
 the island of Melita, (now Malta,) he had repeated 
 the assurance: "Fear not; thou must stand before 
 Csesar." 
 
 The ship called Castor and Pollux, the names of 
 the saviors of Rome, and the patrons of sailors, 
 anchored at Puteoli, (now Pozzuoli, near Baii.) 
 Puteoli divided, at that time, with Ostia the com- 
 merce of the sea, between Rome and the provinces. 
 It was the chief port of the corn vessels of Alexan- 
 dria. The amount of corn transmitted from Egypt 
 to Italy at this period was immense. The commerce 
 (58) 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 59 
 
 of Puteoli was then so large that an English wrjjer 
 calls it "the Liverpool of Italy." 
 
 When St. Paul rounded the promontory of Mi- 
 nerva, at the southeastern limit of the Bay of Naples, 
 a scene of unparalleled loveliness must have burst 
 upon his view. The admiration of the world, in our 
 day, for its natural charms and its picturesque ruins, 
 its shores were then everywhere alive with prosperous 
 cities and villages ; and imperial and patrician mag- 
 nificence had covered the whole of the adjoining 
 beautiful landscape of the bay, from the promontory 
 of Minerva to that of Misenum, with villas, gardens, 
 and vineyards. Opposite the promontory, as he en- 
 tered the bay, slept the Isle of Capri, so softly peace- 
 ful and lovely under its veil of blue, that it would 
 seem as if the imperial monster, Tiberius, must have 
 started back with remorse as he approached it with 
 the view of making it the scene of his hideous vices. 
 Vesuvius, not then furrowed and scarred with lava, 
 but green and laughing with vineyards, rose in per- 
 fect symmetry from a sea and against a sky whose 
 pure and brilliant tints are all that time and desola- 
 tion have not stained or dimmed, and formed an ap- 
 propriate background to the matchless scene. Her- 
 culaneum and Pompeii slept, unconscious of danger, 
 nestled as for protection at his giant feet. Little 
 could St. Paul then imagine that Drusilla, who, with 
 Felix, had heard him reason of righteousness, and 
 continence, and judgment to come, at Csesarea, would, 
 in a few years, perish with the child born from her 
 adulterous marriage with Felix, under a fire-storm 
 like that which overwhelmed Sodom and Gomorrah, 
 and whose coming perhaps awakened with horror 
 the memory of the solemn warnings of the Apostle ! 
 
60 ST. PAUL IX ROME. 
 
 As the ship proceeded up the bay to Misenum, St. 
 Paul might have discerned the imperial fleet, which 
 was habitually stationed in that harbor, and which 
 the younger Pliny commanded at the period of the 
 eruption of Vesuvius. Nearing the lovely and quiet 
 cove at the recess of the bay, between Baii and Pu- 
 teoli, he obtained a closer view of that portion of the 
 coast w^hich was the summer resort of patricians of 
 the higher rank, and hence was most magnificent and 
 gay. A lettered man, Paul was familiar no doubt 
 with some of the incidents of which this region had 
 been the scene. As they approached the harbor, it 
 might be told to him how that here the aged and 
 invalid Augustus, cruising in the bay for health, was 
 recognized by the sailors of an Alexandrian corn- 
 ship, like that in which he sailed, and how they 
 .Brought out garlands and incense, paying to him di- 
 vine honors, and attributing to him their prosperous 
 /voyage; and how the dying mortal, pleased to be 
 (called a god, distributed to them profuse gold for 
 \fcheir impious flattery. Another might point out to 
 1 him the remains upon the shore of that useless and 
 wondrous floating bridge, nearly a league in length, 
 with its pavements, and fountains, and works of art, 
 / which the mad Caligula constructed across the bay, 
 , over which he rode in the chariot rifled from the tomb 
 of Alexander, in the character of a conquering impera- 
 tor; and from which, when he returned at night 
 night converted into day by innumerable torches 
 drunk with cruelty and wine, he remorselessly con- 
 signed a multitude of his attendants, guiltless victims 
 of his drunken frenzy, to the sea. Another, with 
 bated breath, might point out to him Bauli, where 
 the then reigning Nero, only two years before, had 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 61 
 
 laid the plot for the murder of his mother Agrip- 
 pina. As he entered the mole, massive ruins of 
 which still remain, the gay yachts of the patricians 
 would multiply around him; and there upon the sea- 
 shore he would learn that the vast pile which hung 
 over the sea, and whose ruins still remain, once be- 
 longed to Julius Caesar; and that on the slope of the 
 hill above was the villa of Cicero, where, as he might 
 remember or be told, the Dictator paid a visit of state, 
 accompanied with six thousand soldiers, in order to 
 intimidate or seduce the vain and vacillating states- 
 man, who was too patriotic to approve, and too timid 
 or politic to resist his guilty ambition. There also, 
 in the city, he would discern the conspicuous temple 
 of the Egyptian deity Serapis, some of whose col- 
 umns the tourist still sees standing in the midst of the 
 surrounding desolation. 
 
 What were the emotions of the solitary prisoner 
 Paul, as he prepared to set his foot upon the Italian, 
 shore, in the midst of the rude crowds that throng 
 the quays of a seaport city ? It is no disparagement 
 to him, or to the grace that was with him, to suppose 
 that they may have been sad. He was approaching 
 the city which dominated over the nations. He saw 
 thus far off evidences of its unparalleled magnificence 
 and power. He knew that heathenism occupied at 
 Rome a more stable throne than that of the Caesars. 
 Its sway w r as over the soul. It held Caesars and 
 subjects in subjection alike by their consciences 
 and their fears, arid by appeals to their passions 
 and their lusts. It was tolerant of all idola- 
 tries, but vindictive toward true religion. It ad- 
 mitted the sensual divinities of Egypt and the 
 abominable idolatries of Syria, while it denounced 
 
 8 
 
62 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 Judaism as a malignant superstition, the spirit of 
 which was hatred to man and disloyalty to the em- 
 pire. It defamed Christianity as impure, while it 
 multiplied temples to Venus, and presented such 
 "gods as guilt makes welcome," whose chief attri- 
 butes were lust, selfishness, hatred, and cruelty. And 
 the work of Paul was what? To carry into such a 
 scene the simple, holy, self-denying religion of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. That religion could not take its 
 place by the side of the thousand idolatries that 
 prevailed at Rome. By its very nature it claimed all 
 men, and excluded as false, impious, degrading, and 
 ruinous, all idolatries. Its promulgation would in- 
 volve at once bitter wrath and scorn, and at length 
 persecution, torture, death. And the agency by 
 which it was to be accomplished was the foolishness 
 of preaching! The story of the cross and resurrec- 
 tion, as supplying the antidote and atonement for 
 sin, and the triumph over death this story with the 
 promised presence of the Holy Spirit this was his 
 instrument. Men without position, influence, or 
 power, lowly men for the most part and unlearned, 
 were thus to propagate a religion, against which 
 all the passions, vices, associations, and present in- 
 terests of the world would be arrayed. These were 
 their arts and these their arms, no other and no 
 more ! Well might it seem to mere human judgment, 
 weighing human forces, a wild and impracticable 
 scheme ! 
 
 It would not have been surprising, therefore, if at 
 such a moment, in contemplating his journey to 
 Rome, however unshaken his faith and fidelity and 
 resolutions, a deep depression had settled upon his 
 soul. We infer that there had been something of 
 
ST. PAUL IN EOME. 63 
 
 this feeling previous to his meeting of the brethren 
 at the Appii Forum and the Three Taverns", from 
 the fact that when he. saw them he thanked God and 
 took courage. The expression would seem to imply 
 a previous sinking of his heart. All that we know 
 of the quick, sensitive, affectionate, all-alive, and 
 impressible character of Paul, leads us to the infer- 
 ence that his heart must have been heavy. He was 
 affectionate and craved affection, and he had been 
 long alone, in scenes of peril and suffering, without 
 Christian sympathy or aid. He longed for and loved 
 his brethren according to the flesh ; and yet only as 
 an outcast, and a prisoner in chains, could he escape 
 assassination at their hands. He had passed through 
 toils, imprisonments, persecutions, defamations, 
 scourgings, and perils without number. He was 
 bound with a chain to a soldier that kept him. We 
 must suppose him almost more than human, if, at 
 that moment, he did not wish at least that it had 
 been the Master's will to release him and send him 
 to his rest. But he did not, like Moses, beg to be 
 released. His heroic faith and patience, his unfail- 
 ing love and unfaltering zeal appear all the more re- 
 markable when we consider the position in which 
 he was placed, and take the measure of the obstacles 
 which they overcame. And this is precisely the 
 work of grace the triumph of God's strength in 
 the midst of human weakness, and the emergence 
 of God's joy from the midst of human sorrow. The 
 contemplation of Paul, a slight, worn, and weary 
 man in chains, stepping from the ship Castor and 
 Pollux on the crowded quay of Puteoli, testifies in 
 the most striking way, that not by power nor might, 
 but by the Spirit of the Lord, does God confound 
 
64 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 the mighty. We walk amid the ruins of that mighty 
 empire; but the kingdom which Paul planted is 
 spreading over the world, and will at last become 
 the everlasting kingdom of righteousness and peace 
 which shall cover all the earth. No event in the 
 annals of Rome at that period, whether it were the 
 march of armies, or the wild, gigantic crimes of 
 Nero, are to be compared in significance and import- 
 ance to the landing of that chained and tempest- 
 tossed captive at the port of Puteoli. 
 
 But whatever may have been his feelings before 
 landing, doubtless his heart was reassured when the 
 brethren met him and urged him to remain seven 
 days. Julius acceded to their request. The news ot 
 Paul's arrival was sent to the brethren at Rome. 
 They must have been to him days of bodily and 
 spiritual refreshment, which fitted him for his jour- 
 ney and his work. 
 
 St. Paul's journey to Rome is in part indicated in 
 the Acts of the Apostles, and can with great proba- 
 bility be conjectured as a whole. He probably 
 struck the great Appian Way, which reached from 
 Rome to Brundusium the queen of roads, as a Ro- 
 man poet calls it, at Capua. There his eye rested 
 on that colossal amphitheater, which must have been 
 to him an overwhelming demonstration of the truth 
 of his representations of the cruelty and brutality 
 of man, which he had appropriately addressed to 
 the Romans. The first part of the journey to Cumse, 
 the modern traveler visits with great interest, as the 
 scene of the early mythology of Italy and of Vir- 
 gil's poetical conceptions of the other world. Capua 
 was then a magnificent city, basking in the sunshine 
 of imperial favor. From Capua to Terracina, a 
 
ST. PAUL IX ROME. 65 
 
 distance of seventy miles, the way was strewn with, 
 historic memories, the localities of which were 
 no doubt pointed out to Paul by the courteous Ju- 
 lius. As the road skirted the Bay of Formise, wit 
 its villas on the sloping hills, that of Cicero woulc 
 be pointed out, and the scene depicted in which the 
 bewildered statesman, agitated by conflicting pur 
 poses, borne in his lectica, or coach, was met anc 
 murdered by assassins, the emissaries of Mark 
 tony. From Terracina, the great Campagna, with 
 the Pontine Marshes immediately below, spread 
 out to the blue Alban hills. Whether the transit 
 from this point across the unwholesome marsh 
 to the Appii Forum was made upon the road or 
 upon the canal which was cut by Augustus with a 
 view to drain it, does not appear. But on his ar- 
 rival at the latter place, an incident occurred which 
 is one of the most touching in the eventful life of 
 Paul. 
 
 In the itinerics which remain, we find enumerated 
 as post stations on the Appian Way from Rome, Aricia, 
 the Three Taverns, and the Appii Forum. The Appii \ 
 Forum was the northern termination of the canal, / 
 and 43 miles from Rome. Horace describes it as a/ 
 low place filled with bargemen and tavern-keepers. 
 It was at this distance from Rome that Christian 
 brethren and friends, who had heard of his arrival at 
 Puteoli, came out to meet him. 2\o doubt some of 
 those whom the Apostle names in the closing chap- 
 ter of the Epistle to the Romans, as his fellow-help- 
 ers, his well-beloved and honored disciples and 
 friends, were among the number. We can scarcely 
 suppose Aquila and Priscilla to have been absent. 
 Behold how these Christians love one another! We 
 
66 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 seem to recall the meeting and the greeting in that 
 rude scene. The weary Apostle, forgetting the 
 heavy chain and the soldier to whom he was per- 
 petually bound, as to a body of death ; the sorrow of 
 the brethren to see their beloved and holy teacher, 
 worthy of all honor, as a prisoner on his way to 
 trial; the warm expressions and the animated ges- 
 tures of sympathy and affection which belong to the 
 inhabitants of these Southern lands ; the gratitude 
 and animation of the Apostle; the rapid and eager 
 question and reply concerning mutual Christian 
 friends and the interests of their loved Master's 
 kingdom ; Paul's prayer with the brethren, in the 
 open air, as before at Miletus, where he parted with 
 the elders, in which he could now, indeed, lift up his 
 free heart, but not his manacled hand, to Heaven; 
 and the wonder, not perhaps unmixed with scorn 
 and jeer of the attendants and of the soldier to 
 whom Paul was chained, and of the rude, staring 
 multitude around them, we see it all. Oh ! when 
 Christian brethren were so few, in the midst of a 
 world lying in wickedness, how precious to both 
 parties must have been that meeting on the coniines 
 of the Pontine Marshes ! It is only in foreign mission- 
 ary fields of labor, where the disciples of Christ are 
 as a handful of corn upon the top of the mountains, 
 that the affection, the joy, the sorrow, the elevation, 
 the consolation, the fervent prayers and the tearful 
 praises of that meeting can be realized. 
 
 At a distance of ten miles farther, at the " Three 
 Taverns," St. Paul was welcomed by another group 
 of brethren. Three roads met at this point, and 
 hence perhaps the name and thing "The Three 
 Taverns." The place subsequently became, in con- 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 67 
 
 sequence of the celebrity acquired by the incident 
 here mentioned, a nourishing city and the seat of anL^_ 
 Episcopate, the records of which reach to the ninth! 
 century. When Paul saw the brethren, he thanked 
 God and took courage. 
 
 From that point the interest of the journey must 
 have increased, and his mind must have been kept 
 upon the alert by converse with his friends, and by 
 the indications everywhere multiplying that he was 
 approaching the capital of the world. The beauti- 
 ful blue Alban range of hills, with its then conspic- 
 uous Temple of Jupiter upon Monte Cavo, in the 
 spot now disfigured by the hideous monastery of the 
 Passionists, rose before him, as the road wound 
 around its southern slope, which was covered with 
 villas, to the point now called Albano. From that 
 position, not too high or distant for the view to be 
 intelligible, he gazed 'upon a scene of beauty rarely 
 surpassed, and upon the signs and evidences of 
 power concentrated at its imperial seat, never before 
 or since, in the history of nations, equaled. The 
 vast Campagna, even now singularly and mysteri- 
 ously lovely in its desolation, was then bright and 
 fresh in all the charms which cultivation, luxury, 
 and art could add to those of nature. It was a 
 scene of solid, palatial villas, of slighter "houses of 
 pleasure," as they were called, of temples and con- 
 verging roads, and stately, far-stretching aqueducts, 
 in the midst of meadows and vineyards and gardens. 
 It must have been then an era in any man's life when! 
 he first saw Rome in her glory, as it is now when he 
 first sees her in her desolation. 
 
 The first distinct point at which the city would 
 plainly appear, and at which a traveler would natu- 
 
68 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 rally pause, was that at which the lofty monument 
 of Pompey, erected by his widow, stood, as its 
 stripped and desolate shaft now stands. At his 
 left he would see the villa of the great triumvir, 
 whose ruins can still be traced, transformed into an 
 imperial summer residence. Before him the road 
 would be seen to lie straight as an arrow, as the 
 same road recently opened can still be seen, to its 
 entrance into the city at the Porta Capena. But 
 how changed its aspect from then to now! Now a 
 street of scattered, broken tombs; then the most 
 thronged and splendid avenue to a city of probably 
 two millions of inhabitants, through fifteen miles of 
 intervening villas and gardens, which were them- 
 selves almost a continuous city, in the midst of 
 groves and vineyards. The custom of lining the 
 main avenues to their city with tombs, which was 
 adopted by the Romans, did not, in their external 
 aspect at least, render them gloomy and repulsive. 
 The tombs were structures of the utmost elegance 
 and beauty. The ingenuity of architects was taxed 
 to make them graceful and pleasing. They were 
 adorned with busts and statues of the departed. Upon 
 the slopes of those tombs which were fashioned after 
 the Etruscan manner, trees and parterres of flowers 
 were planted. As a mere method of giving beauty 
 to an avenue which constituted the approach to a 
 great city, nothing so effective could have been de- 
 vised. As they are reproduced in the engravings of 
 Canina, it is evident that the intermixture of the 
 vast Etruscan mound-like tombs, the graceful Gre- 
 cian miniature temples, the round Roman sepul- 
 chers, like that of Cecilia Metella, the square altars, 
 the massive simple sarcophagi, like that of Scipio, 
 
* or, 
 
 ST. PAUL IN ROME, ff U IT I V E $% I T 
 
 interspersed with innumerable 
 for busts and statues, must have 
 of architectural variety and beauty never elsewhere 
 equaled. Between the tombs, as they passed, the 
 travelers must have been constantly regaled with the 
 view of the villas and gardens that were placed be- 
 hind them. The city, from the slope of the Alban 
 hills, might have been distinctly seen; and though 
 wanting in those picturesque spires and campaniles 
 and those impressive domes which give so much 
 effect to modern cities, it must have had more than 
 a compensation in the gleaming roofs of bronze, 
 which covered many of the loftier edifices, and in 
 those numerous and splendid colonnades and porti- 
 coes, than which nothing gives greater architectural 
 pomp and majesty to a city. The uplifted Pala- 
 tine hill, with its far- stretching line of palaces, its 
 white gleaming temple of Apollo, and its innu- 
 merable porticoes and colonnades, the theater and 
 portico of Pompey, the portico of Octavia, the 
 mausoleum of Augustus with its gardens, and high 
 eminent over all the city the arx of the steep Capi- 
 tol hill, and the resplendent temple of Jupiter Capi- 
 tolinus. What a scene of unequaled magnificence 
 it must have been ! The one dome of the Pantheon 
 could scarcely have been overlooked, and the eyes 
 of Paul no doubt rested upon that shining heathen 
 bronze, which has since been converted into the 
 sacred baldachino of St. Peter's and the orthodox 
 cannon of St. Angelo. 
 
 In the representation of our Lord's temptation by 
 Satan, in the Paradise Regained, He is made to gaze 
 in vision upon imperial Rome. "We may well con- 
 ceive that Milton had this point of view in mind as 
 
70 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 that from which the magnificent spectacle was seen. 
 If we except the poetical license of " turrets and glit- 
 tering spires," the description is as literally accurate 
 as it is gorgeously beautiful. 
 
 "The city which thou seest, no other deem 
 Than great and glorious Rome, Queen of the Earth, 
 So far renowned, and with the spoils enriched 
 Of nations; there the Capitol thou seest 
 Above the rest lifting his stately head 
 On the Tarpeian rock, her citadel 
 Impregnable; and there Mount Palatine 
 The imperial palace, compass huge and high 
 The structure, skill of noblest architects, 
 "With gilded battlements, conspicuous far, 
 Turrets, and terraces, and glittering spires; 
 Many a fair edifice besides, more like 
 Houses of gods, so well I have disposed 
 My aery microscope, thou may'st behold 
 Outside and inside both, pillars and roofs, 
 Carved work, the hand of famed artificers, 
 In cedar, marble, ivory, and gold. 
 Thence to the gates cast round thine eye, and see 
 What conflux issuing forth, or entering in; 
 Praetors, Proconsuls to their provinces 
 Hasting, or on return, in robes of state, 
 Lictors and rods, the ensigns of their power, 
 Legions and cohorts, turms of horse and wings; 
 Or embassies from regions far remote, 
 In various habits, on the Appian road, 
 Or on the Emilian ; some from farthest south, 
 Syene, and where the shadow both way falls. 
 Meroe, Nilotic isle; and, more to west, 
 The realm of Bocchus to the Black-moor sea, 
 From the Asian kings, and Parthian, among these; 
 From India, and the Golden Chersonese, 
 And utmost Indian isle, Taprobane, 
 Dark faces with white silken turbans wreathed ; 
 From Gallia, Gades, and the British west; 
 Germans, and Scythians, and Sarmatians, north, 
 Beyond Danubius to the Tauric pool. 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 71 
 
 All nations now to Rome obedience pay; 
 
 To Rome's great emperor, whose wide domain, 
 
 In ample territory, wealth, and power, 
 
 Civility of manners, arts, and arms, 
 
 And long renown, thou justly may prefer." 
 
 This custom of placing tombs upon a gay and 
 crowded avenue, and of making them riant and 
 graceful, rather than solemn and impressive, seems 
 strange and repulsive to our Christian sentiment. 
 "We seek to bury the dead apart from the living, in 
 scenes which human noises do not reach, and where 
 only the voices of falling waters, and rustling leaves, 
 and singing birds are heard. And this difference of 
 sentiment and feeling has its sufficient reason in the 
 far different views of the other world entertained by 
 the pagan and the Christian. To the Roman, death 
 was simply gloomy. In this life only was the good 
 and the joyful certainly to be found. To the multi- 
 tude the future world was a dim, chill land of rest- 
 less ghosts, in the torture of Tartarus, or the dull 
 peace of Elysium. To the cultivated mind it was, as 1 
 to Csesar, nothingness; or, as to Cicero, a thing of l 
 hope and yet of doubt. Hence prayers and offerings ) 
 to the gods were only supplications and bribes, as to 
 beings moved by human motives, for long life, and 
 health, and wealth, and pleasure. To live here on 
 earth, in the midst of earthly good, secure from want 
 and care, was their highest idea of well-being. Their 
 loftiest philosophy had no better consolation than 
 the mocking lie : " The sorrows and pains of life are 
 nothing if you will only think so!" Hence they 
 clung to life. They could not bear to be torn away 
 from their human haunts, and be forgotten. They 
 would still live in memory by their presence in busts 
 
72 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 and statues in their olden homes. Hence these 
 were placed, together with their family records, in 
 the "tabulmum," one of the most conspicuous por- 
 tions of their dwellings. Hence also their tomhs 
 must be upon the public ways, that old friends might 
 see and remember them every day; and that they 
 might have a feeling before they died, that their life 
 was in this way, in some sort, protracted among them. 
 These great pompous sepulchers then, what were 
 they all to Paul but gigantic characters stretching 
 over the Campagna, and writing the sad record, 
 which in its defacement we still can trace, " No joy 
 and no sure hope, beyond the tomb!" But the children 
 'of the resurrection, whose bodies rest, not in despair 
 but hope, desire not that their flesh should be laid 
 in cold marble, or their ashes gathered in unperisha- 
 ble urns, amid the noise and tumult of our poor 
 earthly life, but, remembering the sublime declara- 
 tion, "the seed is not quickened except it die," they 
 desire to place the immortal body safely in the earth, 
 the mother of its second glorious birth, apart from 
 the noise of cities, in a peaceful campo santo, circled 
 by silence, and calm and sweet with sober beauty. 
 It is only a true Christian sentiment which thus 
 honors and reverences the body, which, "sown in 
 weakness," is to be "raised in power." Only a false 
 system, which gives up the bodies of the saved to 
 ages of purgatorial torment, could produce that 
 horror and shrinking from the dear dead, which leads 
 wives and husbands, parents and children, to allow 
 their departed loved ones to be carried to the tomb, 
 not with joyful resurrection anthems, but with most 
 mournful dirges, in which there is no undertone of 
 hope, and to be borne away from them by black- 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 73 
 
 robed officials and hired Cappucini, under grim 
 death's-head effigies, to the church, thence to be car- 
 ried out at midnight, without a friend, and to be 
 thrust naked into a common receptacle of the decay- 
 ing dead, to be consumed by lime more rapidly than 
 by nature's process of decay. In that stately street 
 of tombs, Paul could see the Roman's joyless hea- 
 thenism, as in these misnamed "CampiSanti" bare 
 stone holes, we read the perverted Christianity of 
 the Romanist. 
 
 It is an interesting thought to us, that Paul's eye 
 must have rapidly glanced, as he passed by, at some 
 of those epitaphs which we now read in the Hall of 
 Inscriptions, in the Vatican. How exceeding sad 
 they sometimes are ! How affectingly they portray 
 the "sorrow without hope" of heathen bereave- 
 ment! Two of these epitaphs which I recently saw 
 in the Roman burial-ground at Aries, in France, will 
 express the two feelings that generally pervade them 
 all. The one, in its cold and sharp conciseness, 
 sounds like hard despair; the other is the wail of 
 inconsolable maternal grief. The one reads thus: 
 "Fui. Non sum. Estis. Non eritis. Nemo immortalis." 
 "I was. I am not. Thou art. Thou wilt not be. No 
 one is immortal." The other exclaims : "Oh grief! 
 what bitter tears have watered the sepulcher where 
 the ashes of Lucina lie, Lucina, the joy of her mother, 
 and the sweet flower of her old age. Would that 
 the gods might permit her to return to life, that she 
 might know how great is my affliction. She lived 
 27 years, 10 months, and 13 days. I, Parthenoppe, 
 her unhappy mother, have erected to her this monu- 
 ment." In view of the spiritual darkness and desti- 
 tution of the souls of the Romans, thus exhibited in 
 
74 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 their pompous monuments, we may well suppose that 
 the magnificence of Rome impressed Paul more with 
 pity than with awe. To them were applicable the 
 words of the Master: "Thou sayest that thou art 
 rich and increased in goods and have need of nothing ; 
 and knowest not that thou art wretched, and misera- 
 ble, and poor, and blind, and naked." The pomp of 
 their sepulchers was a symbol of their entire condi- 
 tion. It was splendor shrouding death ! 
 
 If St. Paul approached the Porta Capena at the 
 close of the day, he would find it a scene of gayety 
 and bustle. It was the hour, as that was the locality, 
 in which the patricians and fashionables of Rome 
 as now upon the Pincian hill took their walk or 
 drive. As he passed under the arch, the Apostle 
 could scarcely have avoided meditating upon the 
 streams of human life that had for centuries been 
 flowing through it, to and from the most distant re- 
 gions of the earth. Victorious generals and empe- 
 rors with their legions, and captives, and spoils, pac- 
 ing in stately and slow magnificence, from morning 
 until evening; ambassadors, and kings, the guests of 
 the empire, from beyond the Euphrates, on the east, to 
 Gaul and Britain, on the west; the representatives 
 of every nationality from every class of life; the 
 funereal pomps of Caesars and patricians, what sor- 
 rows, what hopes, what pride, what despair, what 
 passion, what vice, what glory, and what shame had 
 poured for centuries through that avenue as through 
 a channel, a noisy, foaming, rapid tide of life, rush- 
 ing on to the great sea of death ! 
 
 And now within the city, and leaving the crowded 
 Aventine hill on the left, and passing between the 
 Cseliau and the southern portion of the Palatine hill, 
 
ST. PAUL IX ROME. 75 
 
 he emerges on the ridge Velia, where the arch of 
 Titus was subsequently built; and the famous Forum, 
 the very beating heart of Rome, with all its architec- 
 tural magnificence is before him! On the left, the 
 Palatine hill, with its connected imperial palaces and 
 temples around its entire circuit, and covering with 
 their dependent gardens and areas all its surface. In 
 the Forum itself, the immense basilica Julia, com- 
 menced by Caesar and completed by Augustus, and 
 the opposite, almost equal basilica ^Emilia, and be- 
 tween them, and above and below them, temples, 
 porticoes, altars, and rostra; and above, dominating 
 over all, on the abrupt high hill of the Capitol, the 
 resplendent temple of Jupiter Capitolinus all in its 
 unparalleled magnificence, burst upon the view of 
 Paul the prisoner! 
 
 But he was not permitted long to gaze. Julius 
 transferred his prisoner to the charge of the Prae- 
 torian prefect. It has been a question whether the 
 captain of the guard, as the Praetorian prefect is 
 called in the Acts of the Apostles, when Paul was 
 delivered to him, transferred him to the Praetorian 
 camp without the walls, or to the Prcetorium con- 
 nected with the palace. The latter appears to me 
 the much more probable opinion. The Praetorian 
 cohort was originally the personal guard, the body 
 guard in modern phrase, of the emperor; and the 
 quarters were within the palace, or at the entrance 
 of the palace, in a barrack called the Praetorium. 
 Under Tiberius, the Praetorian soldiers were much 
 more numerous than under Augustus, and became, 
 instead of a body guard to the emperor, rather for 
 state than for defense, the instrument of the tyrant 
 for holding the city in subjection, and preserving 
 
76 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 him from their violence and revenge. It was then 
 that the camp of the Praetorians was placed beyond 
 the walls, hy the advice and under the direction of 
 Sejanus, then the Prsetorian prefect, and the detest- 
 able minister of all the cruelties of the suspicious 
 despot. But his headquarters were still at the 
 palace, and a sufficient number of soldiers were 
 retained there for the imperial dignity and protec- 
 tion. 
 
 The office of Praetorian prefect at the date of 
 Jv Paul's entrance into Rome was held by the cele- 
 \ brated Burrus. He was one of the few characters 
 in whom, during this period, we can find anything 
 to praise. It was due to him and the philosopher 
 Seneca, who had been Zero's tutor, who were his 
 chief ministers and advisers, that the early part of 
 the reign of Nero was as mild and just as his pri- 
 ivate life was contemptible and atrocious. We may 
 .account for the kind treatment which St. Paul re- 
 ceived, and for the privilege which he enjoyed of 
 living in his own hired house, to the personal char- 
 acter of Burrus. 
 
 If then St. Paul was transferred to the Prcetorium 
 of the palace, as we can scarcely doubt, then we are 
 able, with great probability, to fix its precise posi- 
 tion. At the foot of the hill, directly beneath the 
 (site of the palaces of Augustus and Tiberius, and 
 I connected with them, there has been uncovered 
 ' within a few years a portion of what antiquarians 
 generally agree in considering the quarters of the 
 Prcetorium of the palace. One of its porticoes has 
 been reconstructed in part, from the fragments of 
 the former portico, in order to show its original 
 form. Everything connected with it is similar to 
 
ST. PxlUL IN ROME. 77 
 
 the Prsetorium disclosed at Pompeii, and at other 
 places, and seems to have been constructed with the 
 magnificence appropriate to its~imperial use. That 
 which gives it a peculiar interest, and enables us, as 
 it were, to reproduce the scene of Paul's introduc- 
 tion to these quarters, is the fact that OE the plaster 
 of the walls there remain the names of several sol- 
 diers, some rudely scratched as by an illiterate hand, 
 and others more carefully cut out in larger letters. 
 We fancy that we can see one of these idle soldiers 
 while on guard thus whiling away his time, turning 
 to look, and placing himself suddenly in position in 
 the soldier's attitude, with his arms in hand, as the 
 centurion arrives with his prisoner and his little squad 
 of military attendants, and his group of Christian 
 friends, and the message was sent up to Burrus for 
 direction as to the disposition to be made of the 
 prisoner. Who knows, I said to myself, as I visited 
 the scene, but that as he sat upon tjie stone benches 
 of the barracks, waiting to hear whether he was to 
 be cast into prison, or whether his friends might be 
 permitted to receive him with the Roman soldier to 
 whom he was chained, who knows but St. Paul's 
 eye may have wandered vaguely over these very 
 scrawls which we now see ! 
 
 "Paul was permitted to dwell by himself with a 
 soldier that kept him !" "A soldier that kept him !" 
 How suggestive is this record! It was in chains 
 that St. Paul preached the free and emancipating 
 Gospel. It was a captive at Rome that proclaimed 
 liberty to those that bound him. At his subsequent 
 visit to Rome, he writes to Timothy that he suffers 
 as an evil-doer even unto bonds ; but he adds, by a 
 sublime and unselfish turn of thought, "the word 
 
 10 
 
78 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 of G-od is not bound." In the subterranean of the 
 Church of Santa Maria via Lata, which is said to 
 have been Paul's hired house, on the pillar to which 
 St. Paul is said to have been chained, these words 
 "the word of God is not bound" are engraved. If 
 Paul had been chained to that pillar, it would have 
 been an apt and most expressive thing to have 
 placed upon it the words, "the word of God is not 
 bound;" but even then it would have been a singular 
 record for that church to make, which so carefully 
 and jealously strives to bind that Word. Yet if 
 these words are to be set up anywhere by the Church 
 of Rome, it is certainly in keeping that they should 
 be engraved in a dark crypt of a church, which is 
 open but once a year, and seen only by a few. To 
 have placed these words in large gilt capitals upon 
 the forefront of St. Peter's and St. Paul's, and over the 
 few pulpits from which the year's accumulated dust 
 is swept away on Passion Week, would not have 
 been so appropriate. 
 
 And yet with St. Paul preaching it in bonds, the 
 Word of God was not bound. Its sound has gone 
 into all the world. It is thus through, and in con- 
 nection with, the sufferings of the preachers and the 
 churches, that the Word from the beginning has 
 gone forth with the most penetrating and holy 
 power. And this is after the manner of the Master. 
 He was bound to the accursed tree, but the words 
 which he then uttered have gone forth through the 
 world and through all ages; and that dying testi- 
 mony has been the w r oiid's life and salvation. St. 
 Paul's bonds turngfl out to the furtherance of the 
 Gospel ; for they were known in all the Prsetorium, 
 and in all other places. And when St. Paul reminds 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 79 
 
 the Thessalonians that they received the Word in 
 much affliction, and with joy of the Holy Ghost, (a di- 
 vine and singular conjunction !) then he adds, "from 
 you sounded out the Word of the Lord, in Macedonia 
 and Achaia and in every place !" The Word of God 
 is not bound, but set free by the sufferings of its 
 teachers and preachers. In all straits and afflictions 
 they feel anew its power, and give it forth more 
 fully, and their faith and prayer wins to it the de- 
 monstration of the Spirit. That Word, once in the 
 world, like light, its emblem, cannot be bound. It 
 is our joy and comfort to believe that it will reach 
 souls in many places whence the effort is made to 
 keep it out. Into the dark caverns of unbelief a 
 single ray will often penetrate, and reveal to the soul 
 its gloom and loss, at the same time that it tells of 
 the radiant source from which it comes. Even in 
 churches that keep out this pure light, or admit it 
 only through stained mediaeval glass, it will still 
 come in ; and however the name and the work of 
 Christ whom Paul preached, is covered and muffled 
 and subordinated, there is in that all-saving name 
 such an omnipotence of love, that it will be to thou- 
 sands, even thus in its hindered power, the light of 
 life. The Word of God is not and cannot be 
 bound. 
 
 Paul's manacled hand pointing to the crucified 
 and bleeding Jesus ! What an affecting demonstra- 
 tion is this, that it is liberty and joy and peace of soul, 
 which it is the great gift of the Gospel to bestow, 
 and not outward happiness and prosperity and gain ! 
 This is the Gospel, the good n^vs to those who need 
 it. It is joy in sorrow. It is comfort in affliction. 
 It is liberty in bonds. It is peace in tumult. It is 
 
80 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 rejoicing in tribulation. Hence it has been best 
 proclaimed from the midst of the sufferings which 
 it overcomes. The Saviour announces it in sorrow 
 and humiliation, and seals it with his blood upon the 
 cross. The church testifies of it in the wilderness. 
 The witnesses prophesy it in sackcloth. And it is 
 best that we should be in such a world, while with 
 a nature only sanctified in part, we are struggling 
 for spiritual purity and peace. Prosperity and joy 
 uninterrupted would foster all our earthliness and 
 draw our hearts from heaven and the holiness with- 
 out which it cannot be entered. Hence our state is 
 mixed, and though God gives us many joys, and 
 would give us more but for his love, it is in the full- 
 ness of his love that he himself died upon the cross, 
 and often sends his ministering servants forth to 
 sow in sorrow, that they who sow and they who reap 
 may rejoice together with exceeding joy. Then is 
 Paul far above our pity when he enters Rome in 
 bonds, and points, with a manacled hand, to his cru- 
 cified Redeemer ! 
 
LECTUKE IY. 
 
 ST. PAUL AND THE JEWS IN ROME. 
 
 And it came to pass, that after three days Paul called the chief of the 
 Jews together: ani when they ware coma together, he said unto 
 them, Men and brethren, though I have committed nothing against 
 the people, or customs of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner 
 from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. 
 
 Who, when they had examined me, would have let me go, because there 
 was no cause of death in me. 
 
 But when the Jews spake against it, I was constrained to appeal unto 
 Caesar; not that I had aught to accuse my nation of. 
 
 For this cause therefore have I called for you, to see you, and to speak 
 with you: because that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this 
 chain. 
 
 And they said unto him, We neither received letters out of Judea con- 
 cerning thee, neither any of the brethren that came showed or spake 
 any harm of theo. 
 
 But we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest : for as concerning 
 this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against. 
 
 And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him 
 into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom 
 of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of 
 Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening. 
 
 And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed 
 not. 
 
 And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after 
 that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias 
 the prophet unto our fathers, 
 
 Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and 
 shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: 
 
 For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of 
 hearing, and their eyes have they closed ; lest they should see with 
 
 (81) 
 
82 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, 
 and should be converted, and I should heal them. 
 Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto 
 the Gentiles, and that they will hear it. ACTS, xxviii. 17-28. 
 
 THE profound interest of St. Paul in his country- 
 men is seen in the fact, that after he had been in 
 Eome hut three days, he sent for the chief of the 
 Jews, to speak to them and explain to them the cir- 
 cumstances of his arrest. Abstaining from all crimi- 
 nation of his brethren at Jerusalem, he declared: 
 "For the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain." 
 " This chain" doubtless the Apostle lifted it as he 
 spake. 
 
 His brethren declared that they had received no 
 letters from Judea concerning him ; and that no Jews 
 coming from there had showed or spoken any harm 
 of him. But they desired to hear somewhat of his 
 doctrine; which they candidly declared to him was 
 everywhere "spoken against." 
 
 A day was appointed for this purpose, and many 
 came to his lodging; to whom he expounded and 
 testified the kingdom of God, persuading them con- 
 cerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out 
 of the prophets, from morning until evening. 
 
 It would be an interesting thing to us if we knew 
 where this lodging of St. Paul was, at which he re- 
 ceived the Jews, and spent the day in this exposition 
 and testimony. We should visit it with profound 
 emotion. It seems a little singular that there should 
 be at Rome no authentic tradition concerning the 
 fact of St. Paul's residence in it, a fact which is 
 mentioned in sacred Scripture, and yet that the tra- 
 ditions concerning him, which are not mentioned in 
 Scripture, should be superfluously and incredibly 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 83 
 
 numerous and minute ; while concerning saints with-, 
 out number, some of whom never lived, we have de- 
 tails which are exceedingly unimportant, even if 
 true. 
 
 That which is certain is, that St. Paul was not re- 
 tained in the Prsetorium, nor sent to a prison by the 
 captain of the guard; for it is stated that he "was 
 suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept 
 him." (Acts, xxviii. 16.) The soldier who kept him 
 was responsible with his own life for that of his cap- 
 tive ; and had his own left hand chained to the pris- 
 oner's right. Burrus, the then captain of the guard, 
 or Pfsetorian prefect, was one of that better class of 
 officials, with which ^N"ero, perhaps under the influ- 
 ence of Seneca, was surrounded in the earlier years 
 of his reign; and he seems to have treated Paul with 
 all the indulgence that his position as a prisoner would 
 permit. We learn from Josephus, that when Agrip- 
 pa's imprisonment at Rome was relaxed, he was per- 
 mitted to have his chain unloosed at meals. The in- 
 cident shows what was the kind of alleviation which 
 it was in the power of Burrus to allow. 
 
 Though Paul dwelt by himself when he addressed 
 the Jews, it does not appear that he was yet in his 
 own hired house, in which he lived two whole years. 
 The Romish tradition indeed makes him to have had 
 but one place of sojourn in Rome. But, apart from 
 the probability that some of his Christian friends, 
 such as his former hosts, Aquila and Priscilla, might 
 have received him or obtained a temporary lodging 
 for him until a permanent home could be secured, 
 the phrases employed in the two cases have a sig- 
 nification which countenances the impression that he 
 occupied a temporary lodging before he removed to 
 
84 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 his own hired house. One expression is that he 
 dwelt by himself; and the other, that the Jews came 
 to his lodging. These are general expressions which 
 might agree with the supposition of a temporary rest- 
 ing-place; whereas the other is specific u his own 
 hired house." Moreover, the Italian translation ren- 
 ders the word i ' lodging' ' t c albergo, ' ' or inn. Wherever 
 therefore it might have been and there is no testi- 
 mony or tradition concerning this point it probably 
 was not at his own hired house that St. Paul preached 
 Jesus to the Jews. 
 
 I. STATE OF THE JEWS. 
 
 We have already seen what was the state of the 
 Jewish mind at Jerusalem. It was probably some- 
 what less virulent and fanatical at Rome. Yet every- 
 thing in their recent history had conspired to arouse 
 an intense nationality of spirit, and a bigoted and 
 fierce adherence to the distinctive doctrines and prac- 
 tices of their religion. This feeling, awakened at 
 first against the Romans, by whom they were subju- 
 gated and oppressed, was ready to flame out against 
 the Christians, as a sect springing from themselves 
 and disloyal to their divinely-descended institutes, at 
 a crisis when fidelity was most required. Hence 
 they were ready to regard Christianity with peculiar 
 abhorrence and contempt. 
 
 We shall not be able to comprehend the state of 
 Jewish feeling at this period, unless we contemplate 
 the indignities and cruelties to which they had been 
 subjected since the days of Pompey. It was made 
 up of the disappointment of glowing hopes of na- 
 tional glory; of a bewilderment of mind because of 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 85 
 
 the failure of divine prophecies, which they were 
 sure they understood, and sure would be accom- 
 plished, and which were yet, in contradiction to theae 
 seeming certainties, delayed; of an intense longing 
 to be revenged; and of the smothered rage of per- 
 fect powerlessness under the giant grasp of Rome. 
 The j udgments of God began to gather darkly around 
 them. The blood of the Crucified, which they had 
 invoked upon themselves and upon their children, 
 cried from Calvary ; and retribution was now answer- 
 ing the cry ! And yet even previous to the capture 
 of Jerusalem, so cruelly outraged had they been in 
 all their most sacred feelings, that we do not wonder 
 that they were subsequently. driven to madness; and 
 we forget their guilt as we think of their unparalleled' 
 provocation and their unequaled woes. 
 
 When Pompey returned from the conquest of} 
 Jerusalem, he brought with him many Jewish cap-' 
 tives. They came with the recollection burning at 
 their heart, that the impious conqueror had profaned / 
 the holy of holies by his presence. This was the 
 beginning of the Jewish community at Rome. Many 
 of them became freedmen and wealthy merchants ; 
 and their numbers rapidly increased. Csesar treated 
 them with his accustomed magnanimity; and they 
 regarded him with enthusiastic gratitude. Augustus 
 followed his example. Tiberius, in the beginning of 
 his reign, showed them special kindness. But in the 
 popular apprehension they were confounded with the 
 Egyptians, whose secret rites of worship were the 
 object of peculiar obloquy and suspicion. In the 
 fifth year of the reign of Tiberius, when this feeling 
 ran high, four thousand Jewish freedmen were im- 
 pressed into the army and sent to extirpate brigand- 
 
 11 
 
86 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 /age in Sardinia. Tacitus shows the prevailing Roman 
 ifeeling toward them, when he coldly remarks, that 
 'if they had all perished by the rigor of the winter, it 
 * , would have been vile damnum, a small damage. The 
 incident shows that their numbers at Borne must have 
 been, at that time, large. 
 
 The causes of mutual hatred, which culminated in 
 the capture of Jerusalem ten years later, were already 
 in violent activity. Caligula's conduct was calcu- 
 lated to lash them into ungovernable rage. He pro- 
 claimed himself a god, and required that his statue 
 should be everywhere worshiped. To the Pagans 
 it could have been no great grief; for between Ca- 
 ligula and most of their gods, there was not much to 
 choose as to character and as to the benefits which 
 were looked for at their hands. But the demand 
 was intolerable to the Jews. Dead to the spirit of 
 true religion, as holiness and love, they were fanatical 
 for rites and dogmas. The unity of God and hatred of 
 images, the one was their creed, and the other their 
 passion. Their faith and zeal were concentrated on 
 these two points; hence it was inevitable that ani- 
 mosities and tumults should arise. 
 
 They began at Alexandria, where the Jews were 
 very numerous, and very cordially hated. The 
 Egyptians, who worshiped crocodiles and serpents, 
 had no difficulty in adding Caligula to the number 
 of their gods. They demanded that the statue of 
 the Emperor should be placed in the synagogues of 
 the Jews. Resistance was made to the demand. 
 Tumults and seditious arose. They were declared 
 to be no longer citizens of Alexandria, but strangers 
 and aliens. They were crowded into one of the two 
 quarters which they had before occupied. The 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 87 
 
 houses from which they were driven were sacked. 
 Horrible cruelties were exercised against them, and 
 multitudes perished. All this cruelty was connived 
 at and fostered hy Flaccus, the governor at Alexan- 
 dria, who had the basest reasons for propitiating the 
 favor of Caligula. 
 
 His example was followed by Capito, the prefect 
 at Jerusalem, who erected there a large altar to the 
 "god Cains." The Jews arose and demolished the 
 altar. Capito wrote an account of the affair to the 
 Emperor, which inflamed his already excited mind 
 still more against the Jews. The madman determ- 
 ined that a colossal statue of himself, in the char-' 
 acter of Jupiter Olympus, should be erected in the j 
 Temple consecrated to the one Jehovah. Conscious 
 of the opposition which it would meet with from the i 
 whole nation, he ordered an army to be ready to I 
 accompany the statue, and to carry the edict into 
 effect. Capito called the principal Jews together, 
 and endeavored to secure their peaceable acquies- 
 cence in this outrage against their faith and feelings. 
 It was in vain. They answered him only with the 
 most passionate expressions of grief and horror. 
 
 It is a most painful page of history. The whole 
 nation was roused to the wildest excitement. Thou- 
 sands of men, women, and children abandoned the 
 cities and villages and the cultivation of the fields, in 
 order to throw themselves at the feet of the Procon- 
 sul Petronius, to supplicate his mercy and his inter- 
 vention in their behalf with the Emperor. The 
 narrative of the historian is most affecting. 
 
 Their troop was so numerous that it spread over 
 all the country like a cloud. They prostrated them- 
 selves before him, and when he ordered them to 
 
 < 
 
88 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 arise, they stood with their hands behind their backs, 
 their heads covered with dust, their eyes bathed 
 in tears, and one of their old men spoke in these 
 terms: "We are as you see without arms, and we 
 are most unjustly accused of rebellion. We hold 
 our hands in a position which proves that we place 
 ourselves defenseless in your hands. We have also 
 brought with us our wives and children that we may 
 be saved or may perish together. Petronius, we are 
 peaceful by inclination, and our religion breathes 
 only peace. When Caius became Emperor, we 
 were the first in Syria to congratulate him on his 
 auspicious accession to the throne. Our Temple 
 was the first in which sacrifices were offered for his 
 prosperity. Why then is it the first to have its 
 religious rites abolished? We will abandon our 
 houses, our cities, our goods : we are ready to place 
 at your feet all that we possess, and we shall not feel 
 that we have purchased at too dear a price the pres- 
 ervation of the purity of our worship. But, oh ! 
 if we cannot obtain our demands, then nothing re- 
 mains for us but that we should die, or see an evil 
 more terrible to us than death. We hear that troops 
 of infantry and cavalry are to be led against us if 
 we resist the consecration of the statue. Slaves are 
 not so senseless as to resist the will of their master. 
 We present our neck to the sword. Kill us, immo- 
 late us, cut us to pieces; we will suffer everything 
 without resistance and without lamentation." 
 
 Petronius was moved by this remarkable national 
 demonstration. He determined to ascertain if this 
 was the general feeling of the Jews. Going to Ti- 
 berias he found that the same serene was repeated. 
 The pressure of prayer and importunity on the 
 
ST. PAUL IX ROME. 89 
 
 part of the Jews was irresistible. He delayed the 
 execution of the order, and cast the blame of the 
 delay upon the artists, who needed time for a statue 
 which was to be at the same time colossal and 
 highly wrought. He expressed his apprehension 
 that despair and frenzy would drive the Jews into 
 unanimous rebellion, and announced to Caius the 
 danger of his contemplated presence at its inaugu- 
 ration. The Emperor was furious, and wrote back^ 
 more stringent orders than before. After a tempo- , 
 rary modification of the order through the iuterces- < 
 sion of Agrippa, the playmate of his boyhood, the i 
 capricious Emperor again determined that the statue ! 
 should be erected, and that he himself would be 
 present at its inauguration. The assassination of 
 Caligula alone prevented the execution of this/ 
 hideous purpose. 
 
 The Jews at Rome must have fully shared with 
 their brethren at Jerusalem the immense relief of 
 the riddance of this monster from the earth. Yet 
 they were still occasionally subject to popular vio- 
 lence and clamor. During the reign of Clau'dius 
 many were banished from the city. The reign of i 
 Nero, up to the period of Paul's entrance into Rome, \ 
 had been mild and just. The Jews and Christians, ' 
 who were confounded in the popular apprehension, 
 had been treated with lenity. Although the per- 
 sonal character of Nero from the beginning had 
 been base and abandoned in the extreme, yet the 
 first five years of his reign, under the influence of 
 Seneca and Burrus, had been marked by none of 
 the atrocities which have made it supremely infa- 
 mous in history, when having murdered his faithful 
 ministers, he gave himself up to the guidance of 
 
90 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 eunuchs and freedmen, and the licentious and atro- 
 cious Poppea. 
 
 These details are given for the purpose of showing 
 how little the Jews at that period were prepared, as 
 a body, to receive a Messiah, who should only re- 
 lease them from the bondage of sin and not from 
 Roman bondage. 
 
 II. TESTIMONY OF ST. PAUL, AND ITS RECEPTION BY 
 THE JEWS. 
 
 "When the day which was fixed for the meeting 
 with the Jews arrived, they came in great numbers 
 to Paul's lodgings ; and earnestly and long did he 
 plead with them. He expounded and testified the 
 Kingdom of God, persuading them concerning 
 Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the 
 prophets, from morning till evening. Some be- 
 lieved the things which were spoken, and some 
 believed not. 
 
 In view of the woes that were gathering over 
 them, and soon fell upon them, we cannot but repeat 
 the Saviour's tender lamentation: "If thou hadst 
 known in this thy day the things that belong unto 
 thy peace !" A despised and oppressed people, with 
 no hope of national restoration, how blessed it 
 would have been for them in their sorrow if they 
 could have realized their spiritual privileges as God's 
 chosen people; as the keepers of his oracles; as the 
 favored nation from whom Christ, according to the 
 flesh, came; and could have rejoiced in thus giving 
 to Rome and to the World a greater boon than she 
 took from them, when she robbed them of national 
 liberty and life ! 
 
ST. PAUL IN HOME. 91 
 
 III. THEIR JUDICIAL BLINDNESS. 
 
 But these things were hidden from their eyes. A 
 few individuals believed, but as a nation they re- 
 jected their Redeemer. A judicial blindness, the 
 result of long rebellion and resistance to miraculous 
 testimony and miraculous mercy, at length fell upon 
 them. Seeing that they would not believe what 
 Moses and the prophets had written, St. Paul, after 
 a day's exposition and exhortation, closed the inter- 
 view with the solemn application to them of one of 
 the most fearful of the prophecies. "And when 
 they agreed not among themselves, they departed, 
 after that Paul had spoken one word, well spake the 
 Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet, unto our fathers, 
 saying, Go unto this people and say, Hearing ye 
 shall hear and not understand; and seeing ye shall 
 see and not perceive ; for the heart of this people is 
 waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and 
 their eyes have they closed ; lest they should see with 
 their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand 
 with their heart, and should be converted and I 
 should heal them. Be it known unto you that the 
 salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles and that 
 they will hear it." Here their self-induced con- 
 tinued blindness and insensibility to the Gospel is 
 foretold, repeated in the long ago previous language 
 of Isaiah, in contrast to the Gentiles who would ac- 
 cept it, and from whom the Kingdom of God would 
 henceforth be chiefly recruited and composed. 
 
92 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 IV. Tins BLINDNESS IN CONNECTION WITH THEIR 
 DISPERSION AND PERSECUTION. 
 
 Now it is to be observed how closely this unbelief 
 of the Jews is connected in the prophecies with 
 their continued dispersion and oppression by the 
 nations. In the verses immediately succeeding the 
 prophesy of Isaiah quoted by St. Paul, (Is. vi. 11, 
 12,) the prophet continues: "Then said I, Lord, how 
 long? How long is this judgment of impenitence 
 and disbelief to continue?" "And he answered, 
 Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and 
 the houses without man, and the land be utterly 
 desolate ; and the Lord have removed man far away 
 and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the 
 land." Here the impenitence, it is declared, will 
 be of the same duration as the dispersion of the 
 Jews and the desolation of Judea; as elsewhere it 
 is announced that the restoration of the Jews to 
 their own land, and their conversion to Christ, will 
 be simultaneous. So that the presence of the Jews 
 in the Ghetto, in wretchedness and degradation and 
 oppression, and in an obstinate clinging to the faith 
 of their fathers, which no suffering and no persecu- 
 tion can overcome, is not only a fulfillment on the 
 very spot where the words were uttered by St. 
 Paul, of the solemn declaration of their contin- 
 ued disbelief, but also of the connected prophecies 
 of their dispersed, trampled, peeled, stripped, and 
 wretched state, during the period of their resist- 
 ance to the Gospel, with which these prophecies 
 /of disbelief are inseparably associated. The poor 
 /Jews of the Ghetto are more than a wretched and 
 Ipitiable population. They are a fulfilled prophecy. 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME, ff or rjjp- 
 
 They are a proof of the divine or^gj^a , Tl^^ aw * 
 witnesses to the fidelity of God 
 judgments. They are solemn warnings 
 disbelieve and reject the testimony of God. 
 
 "We have been accustomed to refer to the destruc- 
 tion of Jerusalem by Titus, and the judgments that 
 fell upon the nation in their native land, and in 
 Babylon, during the captivity, and to their condi- 
 tion among the Eastern nations, as the most striking 
 illustration of the fulfillment of the prophecies. 
 And so no doubt they are. These demonstrations 
 are large and conspicuous. But there is something 
 so peculiar in the tenacity with which a few Jews 
 have retained their position arid life and faith in 
 the City of Rome, amid poverty and persecution 
 and degradation, in all ages, and against the first law 
 and the otherwise unvarying policy of the Papacy, 
 there is something so evidently supernatural in their 
 preservation in the midst of hostilities of govern- 
 ment and society and nature herself, which it seems 
 certain would have crushed out the nationality of any 
 other people, that we are made to feel that though 
 not so appalling and awful a demonstration of pro- 
 phecy as that of Jerusalem, compassed with armies, 
 and trodden down of the Gentiles, it is yet as con- 
 vincing to the mind, as affecting to the heart, and 
 as admonitory to the conscience. The Coliseum,^ 
 the labor of captive Jews, and the Ghetto, their 
 wretched abode, speak to us as impressively of the 
 truth and judgment of God toward his disobedient 
 and gainsaying people, as do Jerusalem in her 
 lation, and the mosque upon the hill of Zion. 
 
 12 
 
94 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 Y. CONDITION OF THE JEWS SINCE THE DAYS OF 
 PAUL. 
 
 We have seen something of the state of the Jews 
 at Jerusalem, in Judea, "and at Rome, up to the 
 period when Paul addressed them. Let us give 
 some indications of their subsequent condition in 
 Rome. 
 
 That it became constantly worse at Rome as the 
 rebellion in Judea became more fierce and fanatical, 
 may well be supposed. They seem already to have 
 been driven out into the valley of Egeria, where 
 they w T ere confined for several centuries. When 
 Juvenal wrote, he refers to them as a poor and beg- 
 garly race, who swarmed under the old trees, with 
 hay and mats as the only substance in which they 
 I trafficked. Ten years after Paul addressed them 
 / they were compelled to witness the triumphal pro- 
 cession of Vespasian and Titus into the city, with the 
 I captives and spoils of their conquered and desecrated 
 city and Temple. It is thus described by Josephus : 
 "The day of this proud pomp having arrived, no 
 one of the vast multitude of Rome was willing to 
 be absent from it. The legions did not wait for the 
 dawn to commence their march. They resorted in 
 magnificent array to the doors of the Temple of 
 Isis, where the Emperor Vespasian and his son 
 Titus had passed the night; and the sun had but 
 begun to brighten the horizon when the two Empe- 
 rors issued forth crowned with laurels and clothed 
 with purple. The senate, the knights, and the prin- 
 cipal men of the republic awaited them near the 
 portico of Octavia. A stage had been erected there 
 with two thrones of ivory. When the emperors 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 95 
 
 were seated, the soldiers began to celebrate their ex- 
 ploits, of which they had been witnesses, and to ac- 
 knowledge how much they owed to their bravery. 
 Vespasian modestly silenced them, and then arose, 
 and covering his head in part with his mantle, as 
 did Titus also, offered the usual prayers and vows. 
 Then they marched to the Triumphal Gate, so called 
 because it is the only one through which the trium- 
 phal processions pass. 
 
 "It is impossible to describe the magnificence of ^ 
 this august pomp. The captives themselves had been 
 clothed with so much care, and in such a variety of 
 modes, that the sadness imprinted upon their coun- 
 tenance was scarcely observed. But nothing ex- 
 cited so much admiration in the spectators as those 
 structures, sometimes three or four stories high, on 
 which were painted, with marvelous fidelity, the 
 most important incidents of the war. There were 
 seen the most beautiful provinces ravaged, entire 
 troops of soldiers cut to peices, cities carried by as- 
 sault, and the population given up to slaughter, even 
 those who had no other weapons than stones. There 
 were seen the temples burning; the owners of hab- 
 itations crushed beneath them, and horrible cruelties 
 by fire and sword. All these things the Jews hadX 
 suffered. 
 
 "Then followed several ships, and amid many\ 
 other spoils, those which had been taken from the 1 
 Temple in Jerusalem ; the table of gold, whose weight f 
 was many talents, and the golden candlestick, a mas- 
 ter-piece of art. From its base rose a column, and / 
 from this column issued, like the branches of a tree, * 
 seven hollow tubes, at the end of each of which there 
 was a lamp ; and last a copy of the Jewish law, i 
 
yb ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 which, more than anything else in the world the 
 Jews reverence, closed this magnificent exposition 
 of all the rich spoils conquered by the Romans. 
 
 " The triumph closed at the Temple of Jupiter Cap- 
 itolinus, where they paused according to custom, 
 until the moment when the death of the chief of 
 their enemies had been announced. This chief was 
 Simon, the son of Gioras. After having appeared 
 in the triumph, with the other captives, he had been 
 drawn with a cord about his neck, beaten with rods, 
 and executed in the Forum. After his death had 
 been announced, and the people testified their joy 
 by loud applause, sacrifices, accompanied by prayers 
 and vows, were offered. The emperors returned to 
 their palace, where a great feast was provided. 
 Other feasts were held all over the city." 
 
 Since that period the condition of the Jews in 
 Rome has been one of extreme contempt, degradation , 
 persecution, and wretchedness, both under Pagan 
 and Christian rule. The classic writers allude to 
 them only to express abhorrence and disdain.* To 
 hate the race that murdered our blessed Lord- 
 though he died for them as well as by them was 
 considered by Christians rather a duty than a sin. 
 When the church, escaping from persecution, had 
 learned no better lesson than to persecute in turn all 
 heresy and unbelief, it visited the obstinate infidelity 
 of the Jews with relentless cruelty. They were 
 looked upon as a race accursed of God, because of 
 
 * Juvenal speaks of them, as English writers of three centuries 
 ago speak of the gypsies. Seneca calls them " scelleratissima gens," a 
 most wicked race, scattered over all the world. Tacitus, compelled 
 to testify to the spiritual purity of their religion, denounces their ex- 
 clusiveness as hatred to all other nations. 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 97 
 
 the crucifixion of the Saviour. They were believed 
 to be reserved by miracle as a witness of the judg- 
 ments of God upon them. While no other form of f 
 unbelief or dissent was tolerated in Rome for ages, ! 
 they have been permitted to remain, because, as it is 
 stated in a bull of one of the Popes, they gave Christ 
 to the world; and because they were believed to be 
 reserved to live and suffer in the world, as an in- 
 stance of judgment for having crucified him who was 
 both their Saviour and their brother. To have ex- 
 terminated or banished them would have been in 
 their view to have interfered with God's plans of 
 judgment. To have allowed them to live otherwise 
 than in wretchedness and persecution, a by-word and 
 a hissing, to be mocked, and spit upon, and trampled, 
 would have been an equal resistance of the purposes 
 of God. Hence those fearful descriptions in the pro- 
 phets, of their peeled, and stripped, and despised, 
 and wretched condition, when dispersed among the j 
 nations, have received in Home perhaps their most / 
 striking exemplification. 
 
 As the Jews are not citizens of Rome, they have 
 had no rights to be protected; and hence have always 
 been subjected not only to the most vexatious and 
 cruel oppression from the government, but to every 
 species of unredressed outrage on the part of the 
 people. This license to wound their feelings, and 
 insult and wrong them without redress, has been the 
 most constant and bitter portion of their misery. 
 Social persecution, and personal indignities and con- 
 tempts are hotter, and sharper, and more poisoned 
 swords for the soul than legal disabilities. The great 
 Master of human passion has expressed the horribly 
 bitter and revengeful spirit which this persecution 
 
98 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 must of necessity have engendered in those Jewish 
 hearts, out of which all manhood had not been 
 crushed. Only one Shy lock has spoken ; hut thou- 
 sands of them have lived, not only in Venice, hut as 
 well doubtless in the Ghetto ; and he has spoken for 
 them all. 
 
 "Seignior Antonio, many a time and oft, 
 In the Rialto, you have rated me 
 About my moneys and my usances. 
 Still have I borne it with a patient shrug; 
 For suffei'ance is the badge of all my tribe. 
 You call me misbeliever, cut -throat dog! 
 And spit upon my Jewish gabardine, 
 And all for use of that which is mine own. 
 Well then, it now appears you need my help. 
 Go to, then; you come to me and you say: 
 Shylock, we would have moneys; you say so; 
 You, that did void your rheum upon my beard, 
 And foot me, as you spurn a stranger cur 
 Over your threshold; moneys is your suit. 
 What shall I say to you ? Should I not say, 
 Hath a dog money? Is it possible 
 A cur can lend three thousand ducats? or 
 Shall I bend low, and in a bondman's key, 
 With bated breath, and whispering humbleness, 
 Say this: 
 
 'Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last; 
 You spurned me such a day; another time 
 You called me dog! and for these courtesies 
 I'll lend you thus much moneys ?' " 
 
 No douht this is a true picture of the treatment to 
 which Jews in all Italy, and especially in Rome, were 
 for ages subjected; and of the feelings of smothered 
 bitterness and rage which sometimes found expres- 
 sion when their moneys were needed to extricate 
 bankrupt merchants, or spendthrift patricians, from 
 embarrassment or ruin. 
 
ST. PAUL IX ROME. 99 
 
 The persecutions and outrages suffered by the Jews 
 were so extreme that the Popes sometimes felt con- 
 strained to intervene for their protection. The Con- 
 stitutions of Martin Y. in the middle of the fifteenth 
 century, a bull of Pius IV. toward the close of the 
 sixteenth century, and a brief of Sixtus Y. still later, 
 considerably mitigate the hardships to which they 
 were exposed. But they were effectually neutralized 
 by the edicts of other Pontiffs. The bull of Pius Y., 
 in 1566, is full of degrading and vexatious restrictions 
 and regulations. It prescribes articles of dress which 
 mark them as a proscribed race ; it puts a limit to 
 the amount of property which they may be permitted 
 to hold; and forbids them to receive Christians into 
 their families. The bulls of Clement YJIL, in 1593, 
 which have never been repealed, are cruel in the ex- 
 treme. One drives them from all the cities of the\ 
 States of the Church, except Rome, Ancona, andy 
 Aunione. In this bull, they are accused of grievous 
 crimes, and especially of usury. If within a certain 
 period a Jew was found in any other than the three 
 designated places, all his possessions were to revert 
 to the government. A sweeping clause revokes posi- 
 tively and absolutely every provision made by pre- 
 vious Popes in their favor. The whole tone of the 
 document is savage and relentless. It was followed 
 in a few days by another which prohibited the Jews 
 from retaining the Talmud, or any other of their 
 sacred books except the Bible. And this provision, \ 
 I understand, has never been repealed. The Jews \ 
 here have no records even of their own history. They T . 
 are not permitted to possess vindications or exposi- j 
 tions of Judaism; for those would be considered J 
 attacks upon Christianity and Catholicism. 
 
100 ST. PAUL IN EOME. 
 
 From this reference to some of the severe enact- 
 ments of the Papacy, it will be seen that the condition 
 of the Jews in Rome is wretched indeed. The Popes 
 have constantly, in all the ages past, enforced pecuni- 
 ary exactions and loans. The Jews have been sub- 
 jected to acts of the most degrading servility. They 
 have been compressed into close and unwholesome 
 quarters. Their industry has been crippled in every 
 direction. They have been driven from many towns 
 in the Papal States. They have been forbidden to 
 apply for aid or protection to the constituted authori- 
 ties. They have been forced to attend sermons com- 
 posed to convert them, and filled with the most 
 dreadful denunciations against them. They have 
 f not been permitted to exercise any trade or art, but 
 1 only traffic; nor to live, nor to have shops outside of 
 xthe Ghetto; nor to have the benefit of any of the 
 institutions of the city for the relief of suffering; 
 their children were not permitted to be taught with 
 Christians, nor could a Jew teach Christians. They 
 could not be servants to Christians, nor employ them 
 f as servants. When all these disabilities, indignities, 
 i and oppressions were explained to me in detail by 
 J an intelligent Jew, I felt the full force of his remark, 
 and at the same time sadly felt that he did not per- 
 j ceive his unconscious testimony to the truth of the 
 j sacred oracles, when he declared that the preservation 
 of the Jews in Rome was a miracle. 
 
 The humiliations to which they have been sub- 
 jected have been unspeakable. Not until the reign 
 of the present Pope, who has kindly mitigated many 
 of the sufferings and removed some of the indigni- 
 ties to which they have been subjected, were they re- 
 lieved from defraying the expenses of the Carnival . 
 
ST. PAUL IX ROME. 101 
 
 And worse than this were the Jewish races in the 
 Corso, at the Carnival, for the amusement of the 
 people. Not only the fleet and young, hut decrepit 
 old men and women, after heing made to drink to 
 intoxication, were compelled to furnish brutal pastime 
 to a degraded and scoffing population. Pope Bene- 
 dict XIV., in the middle of the last century, substi- 
 tuted horses without riders ; but the Jews were com- 
 pelled to pay eight hundred crowns for the substitu- 
 tion. The sum was carried with great parade to the 
 senator, who dismissed them with indignity; and 
 then it was taken by them to one of the city com- 
 missioners, with the humble request that they might 
 be permitted to reside in Rome one year longer. 
 This humiliation is now spared them. From another, 
 however, they have not been exempted. At the ac- 
 cession of a new Pope, the deputies of the Jews place 
 themselves in the path of the holy father, near the 
 arch of Titus, and present to him the Jewish scrip- 
 tures, saying, "We beg permission to offer to your 
 Holiness a copy of our law." The Pope accepts it, 
 saying, "Excellent law! Detestable race!" A little 
 church is planted at the entrance of the Ghetto, on 
 which is inscribed the text of Isaiah "Alt the day 
 long have I stretched forth my hand to a disobedient 
 and gainsaying people." In this church, and in the 
 Church of St. Angelo, in Pescheria, three hundred 
 Jewish men and fifty Jewish women were compelled 
 to assemble every Sunday, to hear a sermon which 
 was intended for their conversion. The number, 
 was usually complete, because the Jewish commu- 
 nity was compelled to pay three pauls for every 
 absentee. 
 
 Although some Of the Popes have shown them- 
 
 13 
 
102 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 selves mild and tolerant, yet no changes for the bet- 
 ter have been made in the existing laws. Pius VII. 
 treated the Jews with unusual kindness, but he never 
 revoked the pontifical constitution which imposed 
 severe restrictions and disabilities upon the Jews. 
 They might at any moment be put in force. They 
 had no security therefore that their comparatively 
 happy state under this pontiff would continue. Their 
 temporary toleration was largely due to French in- 
 fluence. Indeed, during the French occupation, from 
 ^X>/1809 to 1814, they were placed on the same footing 
 Vas other citizens. Subsequent to this period, under 
 the same Pope, they were permitted to have shops 
 outside of the Ghetto ; and in some cases their fami- 
 lies lived where their business was conducted. They 
 were allowed to traffic in towns and boroughs of the 
 States of the Church without being obliged as form- 
 erly to provide themselves with a license from the 
 Inquisition. Many of them were permitted to pur- 
 \ chase real estate. They were not forced to attend 
 - * preachings until near the time of the death of Pius 
 VII., in 1823, when this was again made obligatory 
 by an edict of Cardinal della Genza, afterward his 
 successor under the name of Leo XII. He restored 
 most of the severe regulations of Paul IV., of Pius 
 V., and of Clement VIII. Then followed the pau- 
 perization and ruin of the Jews. From that period 
 they have suffered evils of every kind ; privations and 
 impediments in business; losses in trade; greatly 
 diminished numbers; depression, hopelessness, and 
 inability to struggle against the fatal accumulation of 
 difficulties under which they groan. Gregory XVI. 
 softened some of the regulations of his predecessor. 
 The kindness of the present Pope who has removed 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 103 
 
 the gates that shut them within the Ghetto at night, 
 remitted the expense of the Carnival, and ceased to 
 compel their attendance on preachings has come 
 too late to afford them true relief. They seem to the 
 eye of sense to be wasting away in hopeless poverty 
 and wretchedness ; and yet still survive with a tena- 
 cious dying life which tells us at once how much 
 they suffer for the past, and how surely they are re- 
 served for a glorious future. 
 
 Their present condition is indeed deplorable, and 
 well calculated to awaken profound pity in their 
 behalf. Since 1842 the Jewish population has di- 
 minished from 12,700 to a little more than 4000. 
 This diminution arises chiefly from emigration. It 
 commenced in 1814, when many who enjoyed a 
 good position during the French occupation, left 
 the city on the re-establishment of the Pontifical 
 Government. Others followed on the publication 
 of the rigorous orders by Leo XII. , in 1824 and 
 1825. Others left in 1850, after the return of the 
 present pontiff from Geeta, when it was feared that 
 all their old unrepealed disabilities were about to 
 be enforced. These emigrations still continue, and 
 are very disastrous to the population that remain. 
 Those who emigrate are generally the most pros- 
 perous portion of the community. About 3000 oft 
 the 4000 that now remain in Rome are described/ 
 to me, by a competent authority, as excessively/ 
 poor.* The proportion of the poor increases as 
 the number of those who can aid them diminishes. 
 Thus the forced contributions, (some of which still 
 continue,) the expenses of their five synagogues, the 
 
 * A collection was made for the Jews when this discourse was 
 preached. 
 
104 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 aid required for the infirm and sick, now fall on a 
 few persons of limited means. It would seem as if, 
 but for occasional contributions from their wealthy 
 brethren in other cities, some of them would perish. 
 When we remember that they are permitted to exer- 
 cise no trade but that of tailoring ; that they have 
 no relief from public institutions; that immense im- 
 pediments in the way of trade place them at every 
 disadvantage ; that they are not accepted as servants ; 
 that their wretched quarter is most uninviting as a 
 place to which to resort for making purchases, and 
 that it is damp and unwholesome, and liable to in- 
 undations from the overflow of the Tiber, it will 
 readily be seen that their condition must indeed be 
 wretched. I am sure that I do but give you an op- 
 portunity to exercise the charity to which you are 
 already prompted, when I ask you to-day to con- 
 tribute to the relief of the sufferings of poor and in- 
 firm Jews during this rigorous winter. 
 , It is creditable to a people whose position is one 
 ;of so many disabilities, one calculated to stir up 
 so much evil in the heart, that there is very little 
 crime among them. The number of those who are 
 imprisoned is small. It is generally for very slight 
 often ses that they are committed. The crimes of 
 murder, assassination, forgery, and felony are un- 
 known among them. 
 
 That the efforts which are made to convert them 
 to Romanism are not successful, is not surprising. We 
 know that love, and not persecution, is the great 
 means to draw men to Him who is incarnate love. 
 'Moreover, the one sin which the Jews believe to 
 'transcend all other sins is idolatry. They believe 
 vthat Romanism is a system of idolatry; and hence 
 
ST. PAUL IN HOME. 105 
 
 fe 
 
 ages of attendance on the preachings intended for 
 their conversion have been utterly without effect. 
 When the present pontiff dispensed the Jews from 
 attending the services, and sent a converted Jew to 
 preach to them, the experiment failed. The church 
 was empty. 
 
 It is a melancholy picture which we have sketched. 
 It is part of that doom, the view of which through 
 the vista of centuries called forth melodious lamenta- 
 tions from the tender spirit of Jeremiah. "All her 
 people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their 
 pleasant things for meat to relieve their soul; see, 
 oh Lord, and consider, for I have become vile. Is it 
 nothing to you all ye that pass by? Behold and see 
 if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which 
 is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted 
 me in the day of his fierce anger. The yoke of my 
 transgressions is bound by his hand; they are 
 wreathed and come up upon my neck. He hath 
 made my strength to fail. The Lord hath delivered 
 me into their hands, from whom I am not able to 
 look up. For these things I weep. Mine eye, mine 
 eye runneth down with water because the comforter 
 that should relieve my soul is far from me." 
 
 1. But this is not always to be their doom. They 
 are never to cease their existence as a nation, for 
 God has said that only "when the ordinances of day 
 and night fail shall the seed of Israel cease to be a 
 nation before him," but their humiliation has an 
 appointed end. The preserved remnant of the Jews 
 shall be restored to the Holy Land, and accept their 
 long rejected Messiah, and again live and thrive 
 under the smile of God. "The remnant that is es- 
 caped of the house of Judah shall again take root 
 
t 
 106 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 downward and bear fruit upward." (Is. xxxvii. 31.) 
 " Behold, I will gather them out of all countries ;" 
 "And I will cause the captivity of Israel and the 
 captivity of Judah to return, and will build them 
 as at the first." (Jer. xxxii. 37, xxxiii. 7.) "But fear 
 not thou, oh my servant Jacob, and be not thou dis- 
 mayed, oh Israel, for behold I will save thee from far 
 off, and thy seed from the land of thy captivity ; and 
 Jacob shall return and' be at rest and ease, and none 
 shall make him afraid." So speaks God through 
 Isaiah and Jeremiah. And that this restoration to 
 their own land, and this blessing from God will be 
 connected with their conversion to Christ, is evident 
 from the fact that they are under a judgment only so 
 long as they disbelieve. When they shall be blessed 
 it will be because they shall have ceased to be unbe- 
 lieving and disobedient. St. Paul's eleventh chapter 
 to the Romans unfolds not only their restoration to 
 God's favor, but the pre-eminent privileges which 
 will belong to thejn as God's first kingdom. They are 
 the original olive tree ; we, a wild olive tree, have 
 been "grafted in among them;" the root of the 
 original tree survives alive. The life of the engrafted 
 tree will again be received through it; for, says the 
 Apostle, after having used this illustration- " For I 
 would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of 
 this mystery, (lest ye should be wise in your own 
 conceits,) that blindness in part has happened unto 
 Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. 
 And so all Israel shall be saved. As it is written, there 
 shall come out of Zion the deliverer, and shall turn 
 away ungodliness from Jacob." For, as he had said 
 /above, "If the casting away of them be the recon- 
 \ciling of the world that is, the bringing in of the 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 107 
 
 Gentiles what shall the receiving of them be but 
 life from the dead?" 
 
 2. Hence, although the dispersion and persecu- 
 tion and misery of the Jews is God's judgment on 
 their obstinate impenitency and unbelief, we must 
 not feel that we are called upon to be the agents of 
 that judgment, and either to oppress them or to leave 
 them to suffer in cold indifference, as if to relieve 
 them and to strive to do them good would be a pre- 
 sumptuous attempt to turn aside or thwart God's 
 awful retribution. On the contrary, God denounces 
 his wrath on those who afflict his people. Mark how 
 emphatic is His language in Zephaniah: "Behold at 
 that time" the time of her restoration "I will undo 
 all that afflict thce ; and I will save her that halteth, 
 and gather her that was driven out; and I will give 
 them praise and fame in every land where they have 
 been put to shame." (Zeph. iii. 19.) We should 
 share the tender spirit of St. Paul toward them. 
 We should see in now wretched Israel a discrowned 
 queen, who is again to resume her scepter and her 
 throne. We should treat her with pitying honor. 
 We should aid her with a sense of privilege. We 
 should remember her glorious past, and her more 
 glorious future. We should not forget that of them, 
 according to the flesh, our Saviour and their Saviour 
 came. If they are the children of those who in- 
 voked and called down the guilt of the blood of the 
 Son of God upon themselves and upon their child- 
 ren, we must not forget that that blood cleanseth 
 from all sin, even that unspeakable sin, and was 
 shed for them in love, though by them in hatred, and 
 that it cries from the ground, not to invoke upon 
 them a vengeance which shall be inexorable, but to 
 
108 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 plead with them to yield and live. Its language is, 
 " though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as 
 white as snow; though they be red like crimson, 
 yet they shall be as wool." Those judgments are 
 themselves a part of that instrumentality of mercy 
 by which at last they shall hail Jesus as their Mes- 
 siah, and go up to restored Zion with everlasting 
 joy upon their heads. 
 
 God's already executed judgments upon sinning 
 Israel solemnly warn us that all his threatenings will 
 be fulfilled, and that unrepented sin must incur its 
 eternal penalty. His promised restoration of peni- 
 tent Israel tenderly assures us that his mercy and 
 patience are infinite, and that Christ is able to save 
 unto the uttermost, and that his blood cleanseth 
 from all sin. Let us heed both these lessons, and 
 turn to Him and live ! 
 
LECTURE Y. 
 
 ST. PAUL IN HIS OWN HIRED HOUSE. 
 
 And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received 
 all that came in unto him ; 
 
 Preaching the Kingdom of God, and teaching those things which 
 concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man for- 
 bidding him. ACTS, xxviii. 30, 31. 
 
 A TRADITION preserved in the Roman Church 
 points out the site of St. Paul's hired house. It is a 
 tradition which one would wish to be able to believe. 
 It belongs to that kind of tradition which is the least 
 likely to be untrue. As St. Paul certainly resided 
 in Rome, it would not -have been strange if Chris- 
 tian affection and respect had faithfully transmitted 
 from age to age the memory of the place of his 
 abode. 
 
 The subterranean chapel of the Church St. Maria 
 ViaLaia is indicated as the site of Paul's hired house, 
 on the authority of a tradition which is traced no 
 higher than to St. Jerome. He, however, only men- 
 tions that his house was on the Via Lata. Later 
 tradition fixes it at the site of St. Maria. The Via 
 Lata started from the Capitol, and issuing from the 
 then wall of Rome, near the present piazza Ye- 
 nezia, traversed the Campus Martius on the line of 
 the modern Corso. If tradition had pointed out 
 some site within the walls, near the Capitol, it would 
 
 14 (109) 
 
110 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 -have been readily accepted. But the Church St. 
 \Maria Via Lata is in the then Campus Martins, in 
 ( which there were baths, porticoes, sepulchers, col- 
 ^onnades, and other structures, but in which, if there 
 (could have been any private dwellings, they must 
 'have been very few, and those near the walls. Ca- 
 nina refers the remains of an ancient structure 
 under St. Maria, too massive evidently for a private 
 dwelling, to one of the three arches that adorned 
 the Yia Lata, the new arch of Diocletian, and to 
 a colonnade, constructed by Agrippa, in the site 
 of the Septi, an inclosure where the people of 
 Rome assembled to vote on questions submitted to 
 their decision. Cardinal "Wiseman, in his tale of 
 Fabiola, forgetful apparently of the decision of his 
 church, makes the same statement as to the charac- 
 /ter of these remains. Thus where the tradition of 
 I the Roman Church locates the house of St. Paul, the 
 llearned antiquarian and scholar, and the illustrious 
 cardinal, place an arch and a colonnade. We are 
 compelled, therefore, to discredit the tradition which 
 fixes St. Paul's house under St. Maria Yia Lata, and 
 to conclude that it must have been near to the wall, 
 and immediately under the shadow of the temple 
 of Jupiter Capitolinus. 
 
 The text gives us a general description of the 
 mode in which St. Paul employed the two whole 
 years which he passed in Rome in his own hired 
 house. It was in "preaching the Kingdom of God, 
 and teaching those things which concern the Lord 
 Jesus." He remembered, no doubt constantly, that 
 solemn night in the tower of Antonia, when his 
 Master stood by him and said, "Be of good cheer, 
 Paul, for as thou hast testified of me at Jerusalem, 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. Ill 
 
 so must thou bear witness also at Rome." Hence, 
 when as free, so in bonds, he determined to know 
 nothing among those to whom he ministered but 
 Christ and Him crucified. 
 
 I. When we remember how soon after this period 
 !ftTero persecuted the church, it seems strange to read 
 that Paul was permitted at that time so openly to 
 preach and to testify, "with all confidence, no man 
 forbidding him." 
 
 In order to understand this, it will be necessary to 
 refer briefly to the then condition and spirit of the 
 Roman government. 
 
 fero Had succeeded to the empire, in the year\ 
 A.D. 54, nearly seven years before the arrival of St. 
 Paul in Rome. His character from his earliest youth 
 gave fearful promise of its development into those 
 portentous vices which have made' his name pre- 
 eminent in infamy. It was the policy of his evil 
 mother, Agrippina, to foster all his private vices, in 
 order that she might withdraw him from the cares 
 of state, and rule the empire through him as she 
 had through her dull husband, the Emperor Clau- 
 dius. She indulged all his tastes for the circus and 
 theater, and association with players and charioteers 
 and pantomimists ; and surrounded him with a host 
 of polluting parasites, freedmen, and teachers in all 
 the luxuriant vices of that most degenerate age. It 
 may readily be supposed how rapidly a youth of 
 seventeen, with bad blood in him, and prone to all 
 the vices, would ripen in iniquity in such a school, 
 when put in possession of the vast and irresponsible 
 imperial power, the greatest power ever enjoyed 
 by man. 
 
 1. Against these powerful influences of evil, in 
 
112 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 /the beginning of his reign, Seneca and Burrus, his 
 L chief advisers and ministers, struggled not 'altogether 
 in vain. Seneca had been Nero's tutor. His fame 
 for wisdom and probity were so high that he had 
 been talked of as the successor of Claudius to the 
 empire. He retained, for a time, his ascendency 
 over the mind of the Emperor, restraining somewhat 
 at least, the outward manifestations of his private 
 vices, and giving a mild, popular, and just character 
 to his public administration. Burrus, the Praetorian 
 prefect, the constant friend and helper of Seneca, 
 and having more of the spirit of the old and vir- 
 tuous Roman in him, was less afraid of Agrippina, 
 and more peremptory with Nero, than the timid and 
 politic philosopher. Nero, having full sweep to all 
 his will in the direction of his youthful tastes and 
 vices, was rather amused than offended to see the 
 struggle between his astute mother on the one hand, 
 and the philosopher and soldier on the other, for 
 that control of the public administration which he 
 knew that he himself could at any time assume. 
 Under the guidance of these two wise and prudent 
 statesmen, the public administration continued to 
 be beneficent and just, long after Nero had eman- 
 cipated his private life from the control of them 
 and of Agrippina, and had given himself up to 
 utter license, self-will, and evil passion, and had be- 
 xjome the deliberate murderer of his brother and his 
 (-mother. The contrast between his private life and 
 his public administration was indeed remarkable. 
 It may be doubted whether there had been any 
 period since the reign of Augustus in which the 
 empire had been so wisely, justly, and beneficently 
 administered, as during the first six or seven years 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 113 
 
 of Nero's reign. Trajan, an emperor so just that 
 Gregory the Great is said to have prayed God to 
 make an exception in his case and admit him into 
 Paradise, expressed the wish that the best years of 
 his reign might resemble the first years of Nero's 
 administration. 
 
 The Roman people must indeed have greatly en- 
 joyed that bright and peaceful lull in the long, dark 
 storm of tyranny under which they had timidly 
 cowered or recklessly reveled. Instead of the sus- 
 picion, espionage, banishments and beheadings, the 
 dull void created by the absence of the Emperor and 
 court from Rome, the comparative rarity of games 
 and shows, which were the characteristics of the 
 reign of the morose, suspicious, and gloomy Ti- 
 berius, there was a sudden disappearance of spies 
 and informers; a revival of literature, poetry, and 
 art; the Palatine hill became alive and gay with im- 
 perial pomp and activity; games and shows were 
 profusely multiplied, and largess and bread were 
 freely scattered among the people. In place of the 
 capricious tyranny of the mad Caligula, whose fan- 
 tastic atrocities kept the whole city and empire in a 
 state of nervous apprehension, there was an assu- 
 rance, on the part of the citizens, that the strong 
 hand of Burrus would direct the Praetorian cohorts 
 for their protection and not for their destruction, 
 and that the civil administration under Seneca would 
 assure and not rob them of their rights. Instead of 
 the degrading rule of freedmen and of Messalina 
 and Agrippina, a mixed anarch reign, as it were, of 
 satyrs and of furies, in which all the old Roman 
 dignity disappeared, and in which the lives and 
 property of citizens were at the mercy of their spies 
 
114 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 and poisoners, there was a government whose chief 
 officials were men of the highest rank and character, 
 and under which imperial crimes were con-fined to 
 
 ^ the imperial circle. The people at that time were 
 ready to consider an emperor eminently good who 
 confined his murders within his palace, and who al- 
 ways, at this period of his reign, followed up a pri- 
 vate atrocity by some reform in the public adminis- 
 tration, or some new benefaction to the public. It 
 is this peculiarity of Nero's reign, this recollection 
 of its bright beginning, which accounts for the fact 
 that among the populace of Rome the popularity of 
 Nero was never wholly effaced, even by his subse- 
 quent public atrocities ; and that it was through the 
 influence of this feeling chiefly that Otho was sub- 
 
 Csequently elevated to the empire. 
 
 As St. Paul resided in Rome during the latter 
 part of the good portion of Nero's reign, we can 
 perceive, in the then policy of the government, the 
 reason why he was permitted to teach and preach 
 "with all confidence, 110 man forbidding." During 
 this period, neither the Jews nor the Christians were 
 molested. 
 
 2. At this period, moreover, the essential antago- 
 nism of Christianity to all pagan systems had not 
 become fully apparent. Rome, the capital of the 
 world, was accustomed, when she incorporated a 
 nation into the empire, to receive its gods also into 
 her mythology. When indeed some foreign super- 
 stition gave freer play to licentiousness than even 
 licentious Rome approved, laws were passed for the 
 prohibition of its rites. But in such cases the 
 trivial open sore became by suppression a secret 
 poison in the blood. Judaism had long been de- 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 115 
 
 nounced as an unsocial and malignant superstition, 
 because it refused alike to admit and to be admitted 
 into the system of thousandfold Polytheism that pre- 
 vailed at Rome. But its nature was not aggressive. 
 It sought, with intense exclusiveness, self-preserva- 
 tion, but not extension. It could not be extended 
 without pollution ; it could not be mixed with other 
 worships without blasphemy. It had been placed in^ 
 a position of antagonism to Rome, not because it. 
 had attempted Proselytism, but because it had re- 
 sisted the impious effort of Caligula to usurp in the 
 Temple of Jerusalem the place of the Most High- 
 God. Christianity was at that time regarded as but 
 a form of Judaism. It was hated simply because it 
 refused to coalesce with the prevailing idolatry. 
 But it was not then denounced as impiety, and as 
 dangerous to the state. Later, indeed, when the 
 persistent defamation of Christians as guilty of all 
 crimes and enormities in their worship was univer- 
 sally received, they were persecuted simply because 
 they bore the name of Christians. We find, from 
 the correspondence of Pliny with the Emperor 
 Trajan, that this was the policy of the government 
 at that period. A confession of Christianity was 
 considered equivalent to a proof of the practice of 
 enormities subversive of the existence of society. 
 Yet the real motive of this malignant misrepresent- 
 ation and this persecuting hate was to be found in 
 the fact that Christianity denounced the idolatry of 
 the Romans, and demanded their entire allegiance, 
 and their holy consecration to the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 the crucified man of Calvary and the ascended God 
 of Olivet. It was not to be borne by the haughty 
 masters of the world, that they who ought humbly to 
 
116 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 seek mere toleration, should come with, rebukes and 
 warnings, and inexorable claims, and awful denun- 
 ciations of wrath and woe to the unbelieving and dis- 
 obedient. They hated the light, and persecuted the 
 children of light, because their deeds were evil. 
 
 3. The favor also of the infamous Poppea is be- 
 lieved at this time to have protected both the Jews 1 
 and Christians. Josephus states that she had become 
 \a proselyte to Judaism. At this period her power 
 was in the ascendant. No one possessed equal in- 
 fluence over Nero. A little later, on the birth of her 
 daughter, temples were erected to her and her in- 
 fant, and divine honors were paid to both. Her 
 Judaism must have been of a very lax kind to have 
 permitted her to receive these divine honors. Yet 
 Josephus calls her a religious woman. There was 
 in Rome at that period a Judaism which had become 
 very loose, having been corrupted by the surround- 
 ing paganism. In. the position of suspicion and 
 obloquy which the Jews occupied at Rome, those 
 who were not made by it more rigid in their faith, 
 would become more compliant with pagan sentiments 
 and customs. The Pharisee would become more 
 sternly bigoted, and the Sadducee more accommo- 
 datingly loose. The luxurious, the rich, the timid, 
 would seek to propitiate the favor of the Romans, 
 by bringing their systems as nearly as possible into 
 line with all other tolerated worships. Josephus 
 himself is an illustration of this remark. We may 
 lind a symbol at least, even if it shall not prove to be 
 an historical illustration, of this style of Judaism, 
 in what are called the Jewish Catacombs, recently 
 opened, in which are found mixed Jewish and classic 
 emblems, the golden candlestick and ark of the 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 117 
 
 covenant, in connection with some of the usual rep- 
 resentations of heathen mythology. The prevalence^ 
 of an easy and fashionable style of Judaism may ac- ) 
 count for Poppea's adhesion. She was not one who 
 would have adopted a stern and rigid rule of faith 
 or practice. A system, adherence to which enabled 
 Josephus to call Poppea "a religious woman," could 
 not have been very strict. ~No doubt, if at Rome as 
 at Jerusalem a bitter persecution of the Christians 
 by the Jews had arisen, she might have lent herself 
 as the instrument of their hatred. But directly 
 under the imperial influence, as it were, the Judaism 
 of Rome could scarcely have been the bitter, malig- 
 nant, and persecuting thing it was at Jerusalem. 
 Hence the comparatively kind personal reception 
 which Paul met with at the hands of his country- 
 men in Rome. They may have thought that, ob- 
 noxious as they were to the Romans, and apt to be 
 confounded as they were with the Christians in the 
 popular apprehension, their own safety might be in- 
 volved in that of the hated JSTazarenes, and they may 
 have rejoiced, therefore, that the protection of their 
 imperial patroness shielded those whom many of 
 them would otherwise gladly have seen given to the 
 lions. It is a confirmation of this remark that the 
 persecution of the Christians was soon followed by 
 that of the Jews. 
 
 4. There is another reason for the change in the 
 imperial policy from careless toleration to the most 
 cruel persecution. After the conflagration of Rome^ 
 Nero became so obnoxious to the citizens, in conse- 
 quence of the suspicion that it was his work, that it 
 became necessary to divert the public hatred. It 
 was directed upon the heads of the Christians. They 
 
 15 
 
118 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 were accused of the crime of having burned the 
 city. They were denounced as guilty of impiety to 
 the gods and disloyalty to the empire. The most 
 atrocious falsehoods were circulated with regard to 
 them. They were accused of sacrificing children, 
 and feeding upon their flesh, and of joining to their 
 worship rites more obscene and abominable than 
 those of Yenus and of Isis. In the gardens of Nero 
 on the Vatican hill, Christians were tortured and 
 martyred with many circumstances of indignity and 
 cruelty worse than death. At night, tied up in 
 sacks and smeared with pitch and wax to serve as 
 torches, they were made a spectacle for tHe populace ; 
 and amid the illuminated scene the imperial wretch 
 drove his chariot with the joy of a gratified, malig- 
 nant demon. It was because that, previous to this 
 period, the sacrifice and persecution of the Chris- 
 tians could have served no purpose of the tyrant, 
 and might have done him harm, that St. Paul was 
 permitted for two whole years, in his own hired 
 house, "to teach and preach with all confidence, no 
 man forbidding him." 
 
 II. St. Paul received "all that came in unto him." 
 The words seem to imply that his house had become 
 a place of much resort. We have seen that tradi- 
 tion has assigned it to the Via Lata. If it were 
 there, St. Paul was in precisely that part of the city 
 where he would be most likely to be known, and his 
 history and his doctrine to be discussed. It was on 
 the great thoroughfare which led from the Forum 
 and the Capitol to the Campus Martins. The tide of 
 life which flowed through it was that of persons at 
 leisure and in search of recreation. The crowds 
 which perpetually passed Paul's house were going 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 119 
 
 and coming to and from the baths, or games, or 
 drives, or strolls, in the Campus Martins. It would 
 not be singular if such a peculiar case as that of 
 Paul's should, from such vast and mixed multitudes, 
 have drawn daily a concourse to listen to his exposi- 
 tions sufficient to have filled his probably narrow 
 atrium and adjoining chambers. Some of his own 
 beloved Christian friends and disciples would be 
 always there. They would bring others with them, 
 in the hope that they would be convicted and con- 
 vinced by the Apostle's faithful rebukes, luminous 
 expositions, and earnest appeals. We cannot doubt 
 that each day believers thus came, bringing with 
 them Jewish or heathen friends ; for it is to be ob- 
 served in the salutations of St. Paul to the Roman 
 Christians, how much he commends them as "help- 
 ers," "work-fellows," and "laborers in the Lord." 
 The soldiers, w r ho on successive days kept him and 
 listened to his words, might have been so struck and 
 won by his heroism and his love, as to have fre- 
 quently returned. It must have been through them 
 that the Apostle's bonds were known in all the Prse- 
 torium; and through that knowledge in Csesar's 
 house, and in all other places. What singular sen- 
 sations of wonder, and sometimes of admiration and 
 of sympathy, must have thrilled through those rude 
 men, when St. Paul, in the ardor of his prayer or 
 speech, lifted up the short and heavy chain which 
 bound him to his guard, and made him as it were 
 a partaker and helper of his solemn warnings and 
 affectionate persuasions ! The clank of that common 
 chain may, to their startled minds, have ominously 
 seconded his vivid reasonings of righteousness and 
 of judgment to come. Brethren and children of the 
 
120 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 Apostle, his converts, from Ephesus, Corinth, Phil- 
 ippi, ^and many other places, would hasten to 
 the scene, and St. Paul's eye might first discern 
 them in his ever-shifting audience, in the midst of 
 some exposition or appeal. How often may the 
 sight of some brand plucked from the burning have 
 added fervor to his representations of the fullness 
 and sufficiency of redeeming grace, or the sudden 
 view of some dear Christian brother, who had ten- 
 derly ministered to his necessities or sorrows, have 
 added to the divine beauty of his representations of 
 the blessedness of Christian love ! 
 
 And there, shrinking in the corner, is the poor, 
 tattered, and guilty slave Onesimus. Perhaps in 
 his extremity he has come to Paul, whom he had 
 known at his master's house, for human help, and 
 has found a heavenly treasure. There, mixed with 
 the crowd, are slaves and servitors and freedmen, 
 whose badges proclaim them to be of Caesar's house- 
 hold. That proud senator that sweeps by with a 
 troop of clients and attendants, will he enter? No. 
 A sycophant, as he pauses a moment before the 
 door, gives him a ludicrous account of the bold and 
 enthusiastic prisoner, and the haughty Roman laughs 
 and passes on. That young patrician candidate for 
 the honors of the Forum, will he step in ? Yes ; he 
 will turn back a moment, for one of his friends has 
 given him assurance that this man has a certain sort 
 of natural eloquence, which, though careless of the 
 rules of art, is not coarse or common. That grave 
 and sad man, whom the atrocities and sorrows of 
 the time have driven into the only system of that 
 era which has anything of strength or dignity, the 
 system of the Stoics, which is beginning to prevail, 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 121 
 
 and will soon have one of its best disciples on the 
 throne, will he gather up his robe and join that 
 motley crowd? Almost ashamed, and looking 
 around to see that no friend is near, he will indulge 
 his curiosity; for his mind is tortured with the 
 problems and enigmas of this dark world, and he 
 has heard that this Jew is a joyful man, and speaks 
 of the immortality of the soul and its glorious de- 
 velopment in the future, in a strain of eloquence 
 worthy of the divine Plato, and with a certainty of 
 conviction which Plato never reached, though 
 strangely mixed with fables and with abject repre- 
 sentations of the moral condition of the soul of 
 majestic man. Such are Paul's audiences, Nor are 
 his words in vain. His bonds turn out rather to the 
 furtherance of the Gospel. Onesimus is begotten 
 on his bonds. Saints are found in Csesar's house- 
 hold. The gay and busy crowd pass by. But few 
 of those who passed in pomp and splendor have 
 done anything for man or have lived in history; 
 while that poor prisoner, whose case might have 
 been the subject of a moment's wondering or con- 
 temptuous comment, as they saw the crowd before 
 his door, has been, and is, and will be remembered 
 with gratitude by millions of regenerated souls on 
 earth and in heaven. 
 
 III. We know St. Paul's one theme, Christ. It 
 was "Jesus and the resurrection;" " Christ, and him 
 crucified." In the text, however, we are told that 
 he remained at Rome " preaching the Kingdom, of 
 God." To preach the kingdom of God and to 
 preach only Christ are not inconsistent things. 
 Christ came to establish God's Kingdom. To be- 
 lieve in Christ, to profess faith in him, to be con- 
 
122 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 verted and sanctified, was to belong to God's King- 
 dom in heart, and to be ready to be enrolled among 
 his disciples in that visible kingdom of which Christ 
 was head, which had its own appropriate rites, and 
 its own duties to its members and to the world. 
 
 It is a deplorable mistake when the Church or 
 Kingdom of God is preached, as if it, and not the 
 truth which it should hold and dispense, is that 
 which is supremely important; and as if its sacra- 
 ments and rites were, of themselves, salutary and 
 saving, without the truth or against the truth, for 
 the soul of man. It is an error scarcely less fatal in 
 its final effects upon the world, to represent the truth 
 as so alone important as to speak slightingly and ir- 
 reverently of the Church of God, and its divinely 
 instituted rites ; and to feel no duty in reference to 
 its extension and support. It is true that it is not 
 the cup but the water of life that refreshes and saves 
 the soul ; but the water is presented in the cup. "Who 
 will drink the water and then dash the cup contempt- 
 uously to the earth ? The truth is that which is to 
 convince, convict, and save the soul, or rather it is 
 Christ that saves the soul through the Word adminis- 
 tered by the Spirit; but it is the church that presents 
 the Word. It is the Bible that is the soul's treasure ; 
 but the casket in which it is laid up, and from which 
 it is brought forth, is the church. The truth is for 
 the soul and the church is for the truth, and both 
 are so connected in the divine purpose, because 
 so important to each other, that St. Paul, in the same 
 breath, is said to have preached the Kingdom of 
 God, and to have taught those things which concern the 
 Lord Jesus. 
 
 Suppose that there were no church, no sacraments, 
 no ministry, no visible union of believers, no organ- 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 123 
 
 ization for united duty, helpfulness, and prayer; 
 conceive the Gospel to have been proclaimed by the 
 Saviour and committed to writing, and faith in the 
 Saviour to have been as it is now, the one only way 
 of life. Then the Gospel, or truth of God, would 
 be in the world precisely as different moral theories 
 are in it ; and would be adopted by individuals who 
 would not be associated in any visible organizations. 
 Now as this Gospel is light from heaven which men 
 hate, which they do riot love to see by when it is in 
 a candlestick, which they hold behind them when it 
 is placed in their hands, we may be sure they would 
 not be likely to find it and be guided by it when it 
 was placed under a bushel. With how few souls 
 would it come in contact ! How soon it would die 
 out in the world! Instead of taking its course 
 through this dry and barren land, the world, as an 
 abounding and beautiful river, sparkling in the sun, 
 and diffusing fertility, it would sink under ground 
 and creep through sunless caverns. Men will not 
 go after a Gospel which condemns them. Rather 
 they will strive to flee from it when it comes to 
 them. If it holds them it will be by grasping their 
 conscience first, while it repels their heart. The 
 mercy which is to save them must be aggressive 
 mercy. The orb of truth which is to enlighten 
 them must be above the horizon. The truth pri- 
 vately proclaimed, merely announced, with no pro- 
 vision made for its conservation and diffusion by a 
 permanent organization, would be as the commis- 
 sion of God to Moses, when it was shut up in his 
 unwilling heart, when he cried, "Oh, Lord! send 
 whom thou wilt send!" But when it is committed 
 to an organization, it is like the same commission as 
 
124 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 it came down on wings of fire from Sinai to the as- 
 sembled thousands that trembled at its base. It 
 would be like the dim light that struggled with the 
 dark chaos of the world's first day, if it were left to 
 diffuse itself of its own spontaneous power from 
 heart to heart. But committed to an organization, 
 it is like light compacted into the orb of day and 
 diffusing its radiance over all the earth. The church, 
 deriving its light from Christ, is the light of the 
 world. Its office, like that of each individual ot 
 which it is composed, is that of holding forth the 
 Word of Life. 
 
 Iii preaching the Kingdom of God at Rome, in 
 proclaiming a new, heavenly, earth-embracing Insti- 
 tution in which there was truth, and life, and happi- 
 ness, and the beginning of a bright immortality for 
 man, St. Paul no doubt adapted himself to what he 
 knew was among the most deeply felt of the moral 
 wants of those whom he addressed. The philoso- 
 phy of the ages past had utterly failed to furnish a 
 refuge and give peace to the heart. There had been 
 a flitting succession of schools and theories, which 
 had left only one deep conviction behind them, and 
 that was that truth was nowhere to be found. They 
 had neither succeeded in establishing truth on which 
 the soul could rest, nor in imposing upon the human 
 mind a plausible falsehood in the place of truth. 
 The hopefulness which inspired the earlier thinkers 
 had been changed into despondency or despair. 
 The brilliant lights of the Platonic philosophy, which 
 played upon the horizon and seemed to be the dawn- 
 ing brightness of the coming day, proved to be the 
 / ushers of a gloomy night. All attempts to explain 
 \^man's present state, or forecast his future doom, had 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 125 
 
 failed. The foaming and sparkling philosophies 
 of the past had left but this one poor residuum, 
 the inexplicable fact of human ignorance and wretch- 
 edness. All that remained to man was to make 
 the best of it. The only two systems, called phil- 
 osophy, which remained at this period, attempted 
 to do no more than practically to make the best that 
 could be made of this lamentable fact. The Epicu- 
 rean adopted one mode and the Stoic another. 
 The one said, "Our ignorance we will not lament, 
 and our sorrow we will drive away; let us eat, drink, 
 and be merry !" The other stoutly denied that what 
 were called pain and sorrow were real, or if real, 
 that they should disturb a good man's peace. The 
 latter was the nobler system ; but in their results the 
 only difference between the two was that the one 
 was a gay and frivolous, and the other was a digni- 
 fied and mournful wretchedness. 
 
 Now it is evident that such minds must have pro- 
 foundly felt that theories, however subtle and bril- 
 liant, could be of no avail. If St. Paul had come to 
 them with a mere new system of truth, which ex- 
 plained evil, and the soul, and God, and the future, it 
 could not have met their needs. They would have 
 been in no mood to listen to its proofs. The world 
 had already had more than enough of theories and 
 systems. But that which St. Paul announced was a 
 practical remedy to felt and incumbent ills. Its 
 truth could be even better learned by being tested 
 than by being examined. He came with facts and 
 not theories. The facts made all theories and sys- 
 tems superfluous. The understanding of the system 
 followed the acceptance of the well-attested facts. 
 Paul said to them, "You have groped after God. 
 
 16 
 
126 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 Behold, he has revealed himself through his Son ! 
 That Son, in the form and nature of man, has come 
 to tell us the truth, remove our sin and sorrow, and 
 take us to a perfectly holy and happy and eternal 
 home. He died for our sin, and God forgives it. 
 He has gone back to heaven, and there awaits us, 
 and thence sends down holy power into our souls to 
 prepare us for it. See the proofs of it in the life, 
 death, and resurrection of the God-man Saviour. 
 See them here, in the Kingdom of God which he 
 established. See! here are its laws, its rites, its 
 privileges, its purifications, and its joys! Christ now 
 in heaven is at the head of it. His life is in it. Its 
 work in the soul is a matter of fact and of experience. 
 Try it and you will have the experience. Look, and 
 you will see the fact. The Kingdom of God has 
 come unto you. Enter it and live. All the past, 
 present, and future of man and earth and heaven 
 are here explained, and here all that is sorrowful and 
 evil begins the process of restoration to purity and 
 joy." Oh! how to many hearts torn with sorrow, 
 to consciences pierced with the sense of sin, to minds 
 bewildered by doubt; how to souls so consciously 
 alone, and desolate and helpless, must the proclama- 
 tion of the Kingdom of God a heaven-descended re- 
 ality in which there was divine life and love and 
 power, and sweet and mutually sustaining fellowship 
 and present peace, and the sure hope of future rest 
 and glory, how must it have come with power and 
 with self-evidencing light to snatch them from de- 
 spair ! 
 
 It should be remembered, too, that the proclama- 
 tion of "the Kingdom of God," of the actual pres- 
 ence of God's government in the world, must have 
 
ST. PAUL IN EOME. 
 
 +J 
 
 ^ ? E^nS I 7 1 
 xtf o_p- 
 
 been a most comforting truth to 
 under tlie Kingdom of the Caesars. Un 
 awful domination it must have seemed as if the 
 gods had abandoned the earth, and that it had been 
 given up to the rule of irresistible, crushing, evil 
 power. It must have seemed as if all the principles 
 of morality and honor and mercy, which had hith- 
 erto at least struggled to maintain a place in human 
 affairs, had at length given way, and resigned the 
 world to the single sway of power employed as the 
 instrument of luxury, rapacity, lust, cruelty, and the 
 varied crimes whose evil brotherhood is never broken. 
 The government of the Caesars had become almost 
 an earthly omnipotence and omniscience in the re- 
 gard of the Romans and the subject nations. It 
 had destroyed all the old Roman virtues, which if 
 stern and even savage, were at least bold and manly 
 and often magnanimous and heroic. Cringing, flat- 
 tery, falsehood, treachery, and a wild pursuit of pleas- 
 ure, all the more keen because it was upon the edge 
 of death, became the prevailing characteristics of the 
 time. Learning and philosophy, which had formerly 
 aimed to lift men above luxury and pleasure, were 
 now employed as the instruments to give them new 
 and richer zest. The citizens looked alone to Caesar 
 and the government for all their good, and from it 
 alone they feared their chiefest evil. It had become to 
 them their providence or their fate. Nothing aston- 
 ishes the reader of the Roman annals of this period 
 more than the tameness with which proud and power- 
 ful men gave themselves up to the evil will of the 
 government, as to a fate which it would be madness 
 to attempt either to escape or to resist. They seemed 
 to feel that there was no desert, cave, nor mountain 
 
128 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 height, nor lonely isle, where the Argus-eyed and 
 million-handed Roman power could not track and 
 grasp and strangle them. Even generals at the head 
 of mighty armies, when they heard of the displeas- 
 ure or suspicion of Caesar, hastened to open their 
 veins, and for the sake of their children died con- 
 fessing crimes they had not committed, and praising 
 and invoking the clemency of the master of the 
 world. This awful weight of evil power upon Rome 
 and upon the nations reached its maximum under 
 Nero. Of the latter years of his hideous tyranny it 
 might have been said, in the wonderful words of 
 Shakspeare : 
 
 Everything includes itself in power, 
 Power into will, will into appetite, 
 And appetite, an universal wolf, 
 So doubly seconded by will and power, 
 Must make perforce an universal prey, 
 And last eat up himself! 
 
 Now to he assured that there was a good and 
 righteous God, that he was not dead nor sleeping, 
 that he had not abdicated the government of the 
 world, that earth was not and was not to be given 
 up to the sole sway of the Caesars, that there was a 
 Kingdom of God set up on earth, which was to ex- 
 tend until it should embrace all nations we may well 
 suppose that this would be a message to arrest the 
 attention of those who were reveling or crouching 
 or wondering or weeping under the fearful kingdom 
 of the Caesars. St. Paul, under the shadow of the 
 Palatine hill, preaching the Kingdom of God and 
 demonstrating in his own person its mighty and 
 superior power, in the midst of what seemed his 
 absolute subjection to the power of the Caesars, and 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 129 
 
 rejoicing in its glorious liberty as he shook the 
 chains that bound him, St. Paul, thus demonstrat- 
 ing freedom in servitude, and power in weakness, < 
 must have spoken thrilling words to many who/ 
 paused to hear him on the Via Lata. 
 
 It is comforting as we walk up and down the 
 Corso, by the spot where Paul preached, to remem- 
 ber that the free Kingdom of God was then here in 
 the midst of the servitudes of Pagan Rome. It 
 will be well if the thought shall increase our own 
 rejoicing liberty in Christ, in the midst of the Chris- 
 tian bondage wilich has taken the place of the 
 Pagan, and has been wrought out of the very free- 
 dom which Paul preached and enjoyed in the midst 
 of his imprisonment and bonds. 
 
 Paul enjoyed and gave freedom in the midst of 
 servitude. The Church of Rome has taken the in- 
 struments by which Paul broke the bonds of Pagan 
 servitude, and out of them has forged new chains of j 
 so-called Christian bondage. 
 
 IV. St. Paul was not only occupied in "preaching 
 the Kingdom of God," but also in "teaching those 
 things that concern the Lord Jesus." They are dif- 
 ferent functions preaching and teaching of the 
 same office. His great and primary work was to 
 "preach the Kingdom." This was his more public, 
 formal, official heralding of salvation through Christ, 
 and his invitation to accept it and to be enrolled in 
 the Kingdom of God. It is to be followed up by 
 teaching those things that concern the Lord Jesus. 
 While each function is to be discharged both to the 
 world and the church, yet the preaching had more 
 reference to the former and the teaching to the 
 latter. After salvation and the Kingdom of God 
 
130 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 are announced as facts, present, saving, and avail- 
 able to all, there remain many things to be taught 
 concerning the Lord Jesus, the founder and the 
 head of this glorious kingdom. After St. Paul had 
 stood up and preached the Gospel, inviting sinners 
 to accept it, and unfolding to saints its privileges 
 and duties, we can imagine a group remaining when 
 the crowd had dispersed, to whose questions con- 
 cerning the Lord Jesus he would answer at length ; 
 we can see the children of the saints come in and 
 sit at his feet while he unfolds the histories and 
 types and prophecies which refer to Him, and tells 
 the story of the Saviour's life, and his miracles of 
 love and power. How much there would be to teach 
 concerning the Lord Jesus to both Jew and Gen- 
 tile ! The teaching would make the preaching more 
 precious to the heart, and the preaching would ani- 
 mate it with holy curiosity and thirst for fuller 
 teaching. Only they who, like Paul, teach con- 
 cerning Jesus, can like him successfully preach the 
 kingdom. 
 
 We are assembled, it is probable, very near the 
 place where St. Paul preached the Kingdom of God 
 and taught concerning Jesus. !N"ow, alas ! there is 
 little other preaching in Rome than that of the 
 kingdom, temporal and spiritual, of the Pope, and 
 the things that concern Mary ! The name and the 
 work of the Saviour are becoming here an append- 
 age, and an appendage increasingly insignificant, to 
 that of Mary. The dogmatic theology of Rome, 
 which always follows and systematizes and elevates 
 into articles of faith the superstitions of the people 
 and the exaggerations of the clergy, not long ago 
 decreed, through the Pope, the Immaculate Concep- 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 131 
 
 tion of the Virgin. This has given a prodigious 
 popular impulse to an enlargement of her power 
 and glory; and soon the church must come forward 
 and express in dogma what priests and people now 
 so freely express in devotion, viz., the proper deifi-\ 
 cation of the Virgin, and her supreme and exclusive 1 
 administration of the Kingdom of God on earth/ 
 Another divine person is practically added to the 
 Trinity, and to her is practically consigned the gov- 
 ernment of the Kingdom of God. I quote a few 
 words of a little work commemorating a miraculous 
 picture of the Virgin at Spolato, purchased close by 
 the place where Paul preached the Kingdom of 
 God and taught concerning Jesus. 
 
 "Who is there that does not need the mediation 
 deservedly omnipotent of the celestial Mother of God 
 and of men ? He only who has no need of anything 
 in time or in eternity. Every one without distinc- 
 tion, sovereign or subject, wise or ignorant, rich or 
 poor, good or bad, sick or well, in life or in death, 
 in need whether of body or of mind, all must have the 
 maternal, pitiful, and most efficacious protection of 
 the Virgin Mother of God and of us her children. 
 This is because Mary has been made by the thrice Holy 
 Trinity the dispenser of all graces, temporal and spiritual, 
 and has decreed that the children of Eve the sinner, 
 should obtain them through the mediation of the 
 first-born, immaculate, and ever-virgin Mother and 
 ever-holy Spouse of God. It [i.e. the Trinity] has\ 
 decreed that we should receive all things through/ 
 Mary." 
 
 It is impossible for language to be used which 
 shall more absolutely take away all the attributes 
 and powers, and all the works of Christ, and consign 
 them to the Virgin. 
 
132 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 It is very sad, after 1800 years, to find this other 
 Gospel and other Kingdom and other Saviour and 
 other God preached where Paul preached Jesus and 
 his Kingdom. It makes us long for the coming of 
 the day when our poor sinful hearts and darkened 
 minds shall no longer corrupt the truth as it is in 
 Jesus, and when that millennium Kingdom of God 
 shall be established over all the earth, which shall 
 never again lapse backward into error, but shall go 
 forward and at length be merged into the perfect 
 kingdom into which nothing that defileth or de- 
 ceiveth shall ever enter. 
 

 LECTURE VI. 
 
 CESAR'S HOUSEHOLD, AND THE SAINTS. 
 
 All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesar's house- 
 hold. PHIL, iv. 22. 
 
 THESE words not only show that there were saints 
 in Caesar's household, but they seem to imply, in the 
 word chiefly, a peculiar predominance of these saints 
 over others in Borne, or a peculiarly close relation of 
 St. Paul with them, or of them with the Christians 
 of Philippi. 
 
 No contrast could be greater than that which is 
 presented by the first Christianity of Rome, and its 
 then prevailing Paganism. It is suggested by the 
 text, which points out on the one hand, the house 
 and household of Caesar, and on the other, the 
 saints that were there, and the other saints of 
 Rome. 
 
 When Paul lived in his own hired house, the 
 Golden House of Nero was not yet built. Yet Caesar's 
 house when Paul wrote as the ruins of the Palatine 
 hill abundantly testify must have been exceedingly 
 magnificent. 
 
 I. The labors of the learned, and especially of 
 Canina, enable us to obtain an impressive conception 
 of Caesar's house at the time when Paul wrote. If 
 they cannot be sure of all the details which they 
 
 17 (133) 
 
134 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 suggest, and if they differ among themselves, they 
 yet agree in many main particulars, and do not fail 
 to convey to us that which is most important for 
 our present purpose the same impressions of the 
 grandeur and luxury of Caesar's house. 
 
 In the time of Nero, the Palatine hill had become 
 one vast congeries of imperial piles for the private 
 residence of the emperors and the officials of the 
 court, and for some public purposes. It included 
 palaces, temples, libraries, baths, and fountains, the 
 gardens of Adonis, and an area for athletic games. 
 Previous to the empire it had been occupied chiefly 
 by patrician residences, Augustus had purchased 
 the house of the orator Hortensius, lying midway 
 on the southeastern crest of the hill opposite the 
 Circus Maximus. It was described as a modest man- 
 sion, compared to the sumptuous palaces that were 
 subsequently constructed. One of the columns of 
 the portico, however, preserved in the Church Am 
 Cceli, suggests that it must have been massive if not 
 i gorgeous. Behind it, on the central portion of the 
 ( hill, he constructed, of pure white Carrara marble, 
 the exquisite Temple of Apollo. Its surrounding por- 
 ( ticoes were adorned with fifty equestrian statues of 
 ( the sons of Danaus, and with fifty statues of his 
 , daughters ; and within its atrium there was a statue 
 1 of Apollo fifty feet high. Beyond this he con- 
 structed the celebrated Greek and Latin libraries. 
 Tiberius added a still more sumptuous palace, which 
 was connected with that of Augustus, and stretched 
 toward the north, though still overlooking the 
 Circus Maximus. A large temple intervened be- 
 tween these palaces and that still more magnificent 
 which Caligula constructed on the hill which over- 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 135 
 
 looks the Forum, and the exceedingly massive re- 
 mains and foundations of which are now in process 
 of being opened by the Emperor of the French. -^ 
 Beyond this palace began the extensive additions 
 of !Nero, the first of which was the new or renewed 
 ground entrance to the palace near that which the 
 visitor now enters, and which led to the imperial 
 residences through the courts of the libraries and 
 the corridors of the portico of the Temple of 
 Apollo. Thence, occupying the portion of the hill 
 which overlooked the Via Sacra and the VeUa, .with 
 the famous gardens of Adonis, he stretched a pile 
 of palaces, some of whose enormous arches can still 
 be seen, around the southern portion of the hill, 
 until they touched, on the southwestern side, the 
 original palace of Augustus. In addition to this) 
 complete occupancy of the Palatine hill, he con- 
 structed another palace, the Domus Trajisitoria, 
 across the space now occupied by the Coliseum, 
 which ascended the slope of the Esquiline to the I 
 borders of the gardens of Mecsenas. Such was even 
 then, before the insane extravagance of the Golden \ 
 House, the enormous extent, the vast splendor, and j 
 the immense variety of magnificence included under \ 
 the name of "Cesar's house." And all this pile of 
 palaces was rich beyond all modern luxury, in mar- 
 bles, and gilding, and frescoes, and bronzes, and mo- 
 saics, and statuary, and paintings. There the luxury 
 of life, the extravagance of expenditure in furni- 
 ture, and feasts, and wines; the employment of 
 troops of players, mimics, musicians, athletes, gladi- 
 ators, charioteers, and nameless ministers of name- 
 less vices, were such as Christian civilization in its 
 most splendid and vicious periods has never known. 
 
136 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 II. The Household of Caesar. We cannot describe 
 it so as at the same time to convey a just impres- 
 sion of its character and retain the reserve which- 
 propriety demands. When we enter it in thought, 
 what dreadful memories of guilt start up from every 
 corridor and hall! If one should seek the most 
 striking demonstration of the unfitness of man to 
 be put in the possession of unlimited power, and the 
 awfully degrading and polluting effects of it on the 
 character of those who come under its immediate 
 influence, as well as the general demoralization of 
 a whole age and empire which it involves, he could 
 find nowhere such ample proofs of his position as in 
 the house of Csesar, from the reign of Augustus to 
 that of Vespasian. 
 
 Before we look in upon its inmates, of the period 
 of St. Paul's sojourn at Rome, let us glance at some 
 who have preceded them. What a tangle of intrigues, 
 crimes, and woes does the family history of the Cae- 
 sars present ! It is a revolting medley of adoptions, 
 divorces, remarryings, adulteries, incests, betrayals, 
 and murders. Augustus, mourning the untimely 
 death of his destined heir and successor, the young 
 Marcellus, over whom Virgil poured such melodious 
 lamentations, begins this deplorable history, which 
 deepens in tragic horrors to the end of Nero's reign. 
 That death was soon followed by that of his two 
 nephews, Caius and Lucius, who are believed to 
 have fallen victims to his own wife's ambition for 
 her son Tiberius. His reluctant consent to the 
 succession of Tiberius, whose horrible temper and 
 veiled vices the sagacious Emperor discerned ; his 
 repudiation of his third wife because of her de- 
 praved manners; the banishment of his daughter 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 137 
 
 Julia, and again of Tier daughter Julia, to desolate 
 islands, because of their intolerable and shameless li- 
 .centiousness ; himself perhaps the victim of his wife's 
 impatience to see her son Tiberius upon the throne, 
 all this exhibits the great Augustus as wretched in\ 
 his private as he was fortunate in his public careerj 
 Tiberius, his successor, is believed to have caused 
 the murder of the too popular and well-beloved Ger- 
 manicus, his nephew, the idol of the army and of 
 the people, and is known to have destroyed his two 
 sons, Nero and Drusus, the heirs of his popularity 
 and virtues, the one by famine in a distant island, 
 and the other by poison in the imperial palace. 
 He destroyed also the harmless and incompetent 
 Agrippa Posthumus. Two sisters of Caligula were 
 banished because of their immoralities, and a third, 
 guiltier than either, remained in the palace, as if to 
 prove that no conceivable crime should be wanting 
 to the house of the Csesars. In this imperial pile} 
 of the Palatine hill, resplendent with gold and beau- 
 tiful with art, here is the crypt where Caligula was 
 murdered ; here the cell w T here Drusus died of hun- 
 ger, gnawing the leather of his sandals, and cursing 
 Tiberius; here the festive hall where Britannicus was 
 poisoned, and the garden where Messalina perished. 
 Crime kept pace with luxury, and was as exagge- 
 rated as the splendor with which it was associated ; 
 and in the language of Tacitus, Locusta, the female^ 
 poisoner, became an instrument of Government. ' 
 
 Under Claudius, a dull and gross, but not cruel 
 Emperor, the tool of his freedmen and his wives, 
 crime held high saturnalia in the halls of the Caesars. 
 The names of Messalina and Agrippina, the last two 
 wives of Claudius, and the latter his own niece, oc- 
 
138 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 cupy a place of infamy in history which it would 
 have been supposed could not have been equaled, if 
 Poppea, the wife of Nero, had not subsequently ap-. 
 peared. It is a proof of the abjectness of Claudius' 
 subserviency to his two infamous wives, to find that 
 a grave historian of the empire gives, as the title of 
 one of his chapters, "The Government of Messa- 
 lina," and of the other, "The Domination of Agrip- 
 pina." When we read the history of the former we 
 seem to follow the adventures of one who is by turns 
 a wild bacchante, incapable of thought, and an im- 
 placable fury; and the narrative sounds like an ill- 
 constructed and incredible romance. The stolid 
 Emperor, at last convinced of her guilt, after all 
 Rome had known it long, commanded that she 
 should be slain ; and concluded his dinner when the 
 news had been brought to him that his orders had 
 been executed. The incident reminds us of Nero's 
 turning upon his couch to see Britannicus carried 
 out, convulsed with the poison that had been pre- 
 pared in his own chamber, with the remark that his 
 brother had been subject to epilepsy from his boy- 
 hood, and then resuming his meal. In the history 
 of Agrippina, we find all the vices fearfully devel- 
 oped, but all mastered by a political craft and ambi- 
 tion which remind us of the policy which Machia- 
 velli preached and Caesar Borgia practiced. Such 
 were some of the shapes which start up before us as 
 we enter Caesar's house. 
 
 There Nero reigns and revels, the last of the dy- 
 nasty of the Caesars. That dynasty indeed was not 
 composed of a single family, but of four connected 
 families, which by marriage and adoption consti- 
 tuted the imperial stock. The succession passed 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 139 
 
 from them on the death of Nero and the accession 
 of Galba. There is a singular illustration of the 
 .dying out of this guilty race mentioned by the his- 
 torian Suetonius. Livia, the wife of Augustus, planted * 
 a laurel grove, whence each of the Emperors gath- 
 ered the leaves for his triumphal crowns, and where 
 each one planted a new tree. It was observed at 
 the death of each of them that the tree which he 
 had planted died also; and that a little before the/ 
 death of Nero the entire grove perished. A stroke 
 of lightning knocked off the heads of all the statues 
 of the Emperors, and broke the scepter which the 
 hand of that of Augustus held. It is also a curious 
 fact, in this connection, that the beautiful statue of 
 Augustus, which is now in the Braccia Nuora, in the 
 Vatican, was found in the ruins of the villa of Livia; 
 and that when I saw it, previous to its removal, it 
 was lying as it was found, with its head off, and the 
 arm which held the scepter broken by its side. CX 
 
 It is indeed a remarkable history, that of the dy-") 
 nasty of the Caesars. In the genealogy of the 
 Caesars, by Lipsius, it is found that out of forty- 
 three persons, of whom it may have been said 
 strictly to have been composed, thirty-two perished < 
 by violence. From the death of Caesar under the - 
 daggers of the conspirators, to the pitiable suicide 
 of the craven Nero, no Caesar died without crime, 
 or the strong suspicion of crime. No Emperor had 
 a son for a successor. The wretched end of the 
 daughter and granddaughter of Augustus; the son 
 of Tiberius poisoned by Sejanus, his grandson by 
 Caligula, and his granddaughter by Messalina; the 
 daughter of Caligula, but two years old, condemned 
 to die; the children of Claudius, Octavia, Antonia, 
 
\^elty 
 
 140 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 and Britannicus, all slain by their adopted brother 
 ]^~ero, all this is in the direct line of the Caesars. Of 
 the sixteen wives of the five Csesars, six perished by 
 a violent death, seven were repudiated, three only, 
 by a prompt death or a fortunate widowhood, es- 
 caped divorce or punishment. An historian has 
 well remarked that there never has been such cru- 
 
 , because there has never been such power. 
 And now behold this lord of the nations, the last 
 and most miserable of his race, free from the re- 
 straints of the early part of his reign, surrounded by 
 the subservient ministers of his pleasures and his ty- 
 rannies, who smile and natter him in his presence 
 and tremble in his absence. The usual impression 
 of Nero is that of a licentious, cruel, and brutal per- 
 son, with all his evil portentously developed by the 
 possession of power greater in fact than that which 
 was attributed by heathenism to the gods, and by 
 the absolute subserviency, flattery, and kindred de- 
 pravity of all around him. This conception of his 
 character is just, but insufficient. He was not a 
 bold and brutal imperial gladiator, with low tastes 
 and vulgar vices, like Caracalla; nor was he like 
 Maximinius, a rude provincial soldier, carrying 
 from the camp the taste and manners of a Goth 
 into the palace of the Caesars. He was a person of 
 elegant tastes and manners. He gathered philoso- 
 phers about his table. He wrote such verses as 
 Seneca condescended to praise and quote. Archi- 
 tecture was with him a passion, and music little less 
 than a frenzy. He was also, as Tacitus informs us, 
 a painter and a sculptor. In early life his bearing 
 conveyed an impression of modesty and timidity. 
 He blushed easily, and shrank, seemingly more in 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 141 
 
 mortification than in anger, from censure and dis- 
 praise. But, in fact, lie had no good qualities; the 
 worst blood of Rome was in him. He seemed to 
 inherit and combine from his brutal father and 
 dreadful mother all the worst male and female vices. 
 His artist taste and habits exercised over him no 
 humanizing influence ; on the contrary, they stimu- 
 lated him to wild extravagances and to personal and 
 official degradation. When Rome was burning, he 
 came up from Ostia on the third day, and gave or- 
 ders that the flames should not be arrested. His 
 artist nature enjoyed the magnificent terrors which 
 could not harm him, and which he saw would ena- 
 ble him to indulge in new luxuries of architecture, 
 and in the ornamentation and reconstruction of the 
 city. 
 
 With this character and these tastes Nero grew 
 up in the court of Claudius in the charge of a 
 dancer and a barber, in a school of maternal and im- 
 perial pollution, a rapid pupil under elaborate mas- 
 ters, in all the arts of splendid vice. His seeming 
 modesty was but the furtive and stealthy stealing 
 away from observation which was appropriate to his 
 essentially tiger nature. Cruel in heart, and yet a 
 thorough coward, he dared not indulge in cruelty 
 unless he could do it with perfect safety, and unless 
 he was lashed into audacity by terror. He was not \ 
 satisfied unless he could put more than one vice into 
 a single action. His sensuality could not be fully 
 gratified unless it were connected with the betrayal 
 and banishment of a friend. Cunning by inheritance 
 from his mother, and under her subtle training, he 
 became an overmatch for her before he was twenty 
 years of age, and imposed upon her by [elaborate 
 
 18 
 
142 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 courtesies and filial kisses, when at Bail he assisted 
 her into a boat which he had had constructed for her 
 destruction ; and yet, though cunning and remorse- 
 less, still so timid and superstitious, that after the 
 news had been brought to him of his mother's mur- 
 der in obedience to his command, he paced the floor 
 of his chamber all night in the wildest terror, and 
 fancied that he could hear the voice of his murdered 
 victim in the sound of the breeze which came from 
 the shore where the horrid deed was done. 
 
 From that period it would seem as if he could en- 
 joy only when he made others suffer. Afraid, after this 
 deed, to meet the senate and the people, he yet could 
 not be content with their mere abject acquiescence, 
 but must put upon them a pressure which would 
 force the people, in craven fear, to come forth and 
 meet him with processions, and garlands, and music, 
 and the senate to address to him the most fulsome 
 adulations. It was not enough that Seneca should 
 not blame; he must compose a panegyric upon the 
 deed. The craven tyrant must have the base gratifica- 
 tion of feeling that how low soever he may sink in in- 
 famy, the senate and the people must sink still lower, 
 and hold him up with their flattery and approbation. 
 His relish of iniquity is heightened by the conscious- 
 ness of the real abhorrence of those out of whom his 
 power crushes praise. When he appears upon the 
 stage to play upon the harp, he is not content to 
 have broken down the old Roman sentiment, which 
 made such performances, even in private, a degrada- 
 tion to a patrician, but a man of consular dignity 
 must stand by his side to hold his harp, and a consul 
 must bespeak the indulgence of the audience for the 
 blushing candidate for their approbation; and he 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 143 
 
 must set the whole proud aristocracy of Rome to 
 fiddling and driving chariots, and even to wrestling 
 with gladiators in the public arena. As an actor, he 
 cannot enjoy the enforced applauses of the people of 
 his poor squeaking singing, and all the crowns of 
 victory which he brings from his trip as Emperor- 
 actor from Greece, unless he murders his rival and 
 teacher in music and companion in revelry, and hears 
 Seneca praise his "generosa vox," his rich voice. His 
 cruelty will be without a condiment sharp enough 
 to please his palled appetite, unless he receives from 
 Seneca a fulsome dedication to him of his treatise 
 upon clemency. He has no other conception of' 
 hilarity than that which involved pain in others ; for 
 when he and Otho issue out in wild revelry at night, 
 it is to rush drunken through the streets and to 
 knock down and bruise unoffending citizens, while ; 
 a guard attends not far off to save the imperial mis--' 
 creant from harm. 
 
 At the period of which I write, this dreadful spirit, 
 thus given up to evil self-will, and free from all its 
 old restraints, is the master of the world. It de- 
 veloped rapidly in that career of unparalleled ini- 
 quity which culminated in the persecution of the 
 Christians, the burning of Rome, the wild extrava- 
 gances of the Golden House, and went out in the 
 pitiful and reluctant suicide, which proved him to 
 have been the meanest and most cowardly, as well 
 in proportion to his capacities the worst of all the 
 Caesars. It was a fearful exhibition of what a writer 
 forcibly calls the imperial mania, "a double excite- 
 ment born of danger and of power, of desire without 
 limits, and of fear without cessation, of the rage for 
 enjoyment, and the dread of death." 
 
144 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 And now there is no one to stand in Nero's way. 
 Burrus, of whom he was most in awe, is dead, and 
 his place is supplied by the supple Tigillanus, 
 whose name is inseparably associated in infamy with 
 that of his master. Seneca falls under a cloud. 
 Courtiers whisper that Nero has been too long in 
 tutelage to a pedagogue whose creed was indeed 
 stoical, but whose practice was epicurean. They 
 point out the extent of his villas and gardens and 
 estates, and proclaim that his wealth and luxury ap- 
 proach too near the imperial standard for a subject. 
 Seneca, alarmed, hastens to lay them all at the im- 
 perial feet, and to beg to be released from a ser- 
 vice which his sagacity advised him would soon be 
 taken from him ; and the Emperor, playing his part 
 in the comedy well, dismisses him with many com- 
 pliments, and postpones his murder and the confis- 
 
 r cation of his goods to another time. He retires to 
 one of his humbler villas, and writes some of those 
 admirable moralities and lofty sentiments of superi- 
 ority, to fate and fortune which would have been 
 more impressive if we did not know that they were 
 written after a life of eager pursuit of wealth and 
 honors, by one who, if he were not the counselor, 
 as some believe, was certainly the apologist of the 
 murder of Agrippina, and the ready flatterer of Nero 
 
 ^whenever he fell short of being excessively atrocious. 
 But the evil inspiration of this period of his life 
 was the beautiful, gifted, quiet, soft-spoken, graceful 
 fiend, shall I call her ? Poppea. Her portrait lives 
 in ineffaceable colors on the page of Tacitus. To 
 her there was nothing wanting, he declares, but 
 virtue ; the rarest beauty, the loftiest rank, with an 
 equal fortune, were her inheritance. She was mod- 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 145 
 
 est in manners, but utterly shameless in practice. 
 Married to a Roman knight, she was divorced to 
 marry Otho, who was subsequently Emperor. Nero, 
 fascinated by her, sent Otho away as Governor of 
 Lusitania, and wished her to be divorced. But her^) 
 aim was to share the imperial throne, and ruling' 
 Nero to rule the world. She refused to be divorced' 
 until she could be sure of her victim, and prepared 
 to clear the way for herself in the palace by the re- 
 moval of Agrippina the mother, and Octavia the, 
 wife, of Nero. It was by her prompting that Agrip- 
 pina disappeared. The divorce and destruction of 
 Octavia, the wife of Nero, is one of the most mourn- 
 ful incidents of a reign full of tragic woe. The stern 
 historian Tacitus becomes softened as he narrates 
 the story of the young, beautiful, and virtuous Oc- 
 tavia; the only specimen of pure and lofty woman- , 
 hood which the history of that period presents. 
 
 She was divorced and exiled by Nero at the bid-' 
 ding of Poppea. But this outrage was too great to 
 be borne peaceably by even the abject Roman popu- 
 lace, by whom Octavia was beloved and honored, as 
 Agrippina, the wife of Germanicus, had been in the 
 reign of Tiberius. They made such clamorous and 
 passionate cries for her recall about the palace, that 
 the tyrant was alarmed, and she was brought back 
 from exile. The news of her recall was welcomed 
 by such a popular demonstration as increased Nero's 
 fear. The people rushed to the Capitol to return 
 thanks to the gods; some overthrew the statues of 
 Poppea, others carried those of Octavia on their 
 shoulders, crowned with flowers ; the palace was be- 
 sieged by joyful multitudes who had come to thank 
 Ceesar for his clemency. His return for the unwel- 
 
146 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 come demonstration of gratitude was an order to 
 drive them away with clubs and with the display of 
 
 x naked swords. 
 
 Then with simulated fears, with tears, with ap- 
 peals to Nero's pride and passion, Poppea demanded 
 the sacrifice of the innocent rival whom she hated 
 intensely because she wronged her grossly in sup- 
 planting her and driving her from her home and 
 throne. A charge of adultery was vamped up. Ani- 
 ceta, the murderer of Agrippina, was the infamous 
 instrument of the plot. Octavia's faithful slaves were 
 in vain tortured to extort false witness against her. 
 C "Never did an exile draw more tears from the 
 eyes of those who were its witnesses. They re- 
 membered Agrippina banished by Tiberius, and 
 more recently, Julia driven away by Claudius. But 
 they were in the vigorous years of life. They had 
 'known some happy days. But Octavia's marriage 
 day was fatal to her. The house she entered pre- 
 sented only subjects of mourning: her father pois- 
 
 | oned, she, the mistress of the mansion, humbled 
 before a slave, Poppea espoused for her destruction, 
 and she the victim of an accusation more cruel than 
 the death which was to follow. This young crea- 
 ture, in the twentieth year of her age, surrounded 
 by centurions and soldiers, the presage of her 
 coming destruction, could not resign herself to her 
 doom. She was ordered to prepare herself for 
 death in a few days. She entreated Nero, no 
 longer as his wife but as his sister; she invoked 
 their common relations to Germanicus, and em- 
 ployed even the name of Agrippina to induce him 
 to spare her life. But in vain. She was bound 
 with chains and her veins opened, and as the blood, 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 147 
 
 arrested by terror, did not flow freely, she was 
 thrown into a hot bath, by the vapor of which she 
 was strangled. By a refinement of cruelty her 
 head was cut off and sent to Rome and placed be- 
 fore Poppea. Then thanks and offerings were 
 presented in the temples. And this I mention," 
 says the historian, "in order that those who wish to 
 understand the sorrows of this epoch, may know 
 that after every execution, thanks were presented to 
 the gods, a token formerly of prosperity but then a 
 sign of slaughter and of woe." (Tacitus, Annalium, J 
 lib. xiv. 63, 64.) 
 
 One feels, after reading such a narrative, that the 
 feigned avenging Nemesis of the heathen, which is 
 God's real moral retribution, would have slept too 
 long if she had not made E~ero destroy Poppea by 
 personal brutal violence, and at last driven him, a 
 cowering and trembling wretch, consciously loaded 
 with the imprecations of the world, to the cowardly 
 death which he neither dared to meet nor shun, 
 which overtook him in the poor coal-hole of his 
 freedman isTaon, while weeping and exclaiming 
 "what a great artist is about to die!" 
 
 Such were the master and mistress of Caesar's 
 house, surrounded by an army of guards and servi- 
 tors and ministers of every luxury and pleasure. 
 If one at that period should have passed up the 
 steps of the palace, he would have found the atrium 
 divided into many portions by large curtains. By 
 dint of entreating the freedmen and bribing the 
 porters, he might penetrate to the peristyle in view 
 of the crowd that waited to pass to the private quar- 
 ters of the Emperor. There Caesar, such as we see 
 him still iii his busts and medals, might have been 
 
148 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 seen lolling perhaps upon a couch, or trifling upon 
 his harp. All around him would be seen the 
 statues of the ancient families, which made up the 
 imperial stock the Julii, the Domitii, the Claudii 
 and the little grotesque images of the household 
 gods. Gathering near him a crowd of courtiers 
 would be seen endeavoring to arrest his attention, 
 elated at his least notice and turning pale at a glance 
 or word of displeasure. There were patricians and 
 freedmen, parvenu slaves and ruined nobles, lackeys 
 converted into senators, and senators with his- 
 toric and heroic names, and with spirits as abject as 
 those of lackeys, all in search of profitable employ- 
 ment. There also was a crowd of astrologers, 
 Jews, buffoons, philosophers, deputies from distant 
 cities, ambassadors from the Parthians and Ger- 
 mans, tributary kings, music men, mimics, chariot- 
 eers and gladiators, and nearest to him the watchful 
 slave who carried a perfumed handkerchief to put 
 below his mouth, when too rough a breath of air 
 from the uncourtly Apennines came to put in peril 
 the tone of the imperial voice which was that day 
 to charm a delighted audience in the gardens of 
 Adonis. Suddenly, from out the inner court of the 
 palace, the Empress Poppea, radiant with pomp and 
 with her conscious supremacy, swept through the 
 crowd with her brilliant bevy of attendants, for a 
 drive to some pleasure house upon the Campagna. 
 
 Such was the house, the household, and the occu- 
 pations, and such the memories of guilt and splen- 
 dor on that then scene of glory, but now of desola- 
 tion, the Palatine hill. 
 
 III. What a contrast to the heathen household of 
 Caesar were the saints who were there, and the other 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 149 
 
 saints in Rome ! "Who were the saints of Caesar's 
 house we are not informed. They were probably, 
 for the most part, humble members of the house- 
 hold. They may have been the servants and sol- 
 diers of the Praetorium. It was probably through 
 the soldiers that the knowledge of St. Paul was dif- 
 fused through the household of. Caesar. Each one, 
 as he came from the day's duty of guarding the 
 Apostle, would speak of his preaching to the group 
 assembled in his house, or of his personal appeals 
 to himself. Each convert thus won, with the char- 
 acteristic zeal of that early period, would communi- 
 cate the fact of his conversion and repeat the mes- 
 sage of salvation. St. Paul ascribes this precise 
 influence to his bonds. " But I would that ye 
 should understand, brethren, that the things which 
 have happened unto me have fallen out rather to 
 the furtherance of the Gospel ; so that my bonds in 
 Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all 
 other places, and many of the brethren in the Lord 
 waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold 
 to speak the Word without fear." (Phil. i. 14.) His 
 bonds were known in the Praetorium. and thence in 
 all other places; brethren, encouraged by his suc- 
 cess and impunity in preaching while thus bound, 
 more boldly and openly proclaimed the faith. 
 Doubtless it was chiefly among the servants and 
 the humbler inmates of Caesar's house that the first 
 converts were to be found. "Ye see your calling, 
 brethren," says St. Paul, "how that not many 
 mighty, not many wise, not many noble are called." 
 An interesting coincidence of names with some 
 of those in the close of St. Paul's Epistle to the Ro- 
 mans is found in the Columbaria of the Yigna 
 
 19 
 
150 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 Codini which contains the ashes of many of the 
 household of the Csesars. There we find the name 
 of Tryphena the same as that of one of the women 
 who labored in the Lord. The name of Philologus 
 and Julia are also there, and "Amplias the beloved 
 of the Lord " has also a namesake there. These cor- 
 respondences, if they are no more, intimate at least 
 that the Eoman Church at that period consisted 
 chiefly of persons of the humbler classes. 
 
 Saints in Ceesar's household ! And if there were 
 saints there then, it is evident that there is no place 
 of temptation and of trial in which men may not 
 be Christians. Every influence against becoming 
 Christians, in fact and in profession, and each in its 
 highest intensity, must have been exerted in the 
 house of Nero. It is probable that no palace ever 
 held more degraded and abandoned beings, .and 
 that in none were dependents ever compelled to 
 more polluting services than those which then 
 thronged the halls of Nero. The lust of the flesh, 
 the lust of the eye, and the pride of life enjoyed 
 there a perpetual saturnalia. Their habits must 
 have made excessive self-indulgence and worldli- 
 iiess a second nature. All worldly interests were on 
 the side of Paganism. Hatred, ridicule, and con- 
 tempt must have been in such a scene a Christian's 
 daily and hourly experience. The liability to the 
 outbreak of fanatical hatred into bloody persecution 
 must have been constant. In such a scene Christ's 
 disciples must have known well what the Master 
 meant, by taking up the cross daily and following 
 him. Yet all these adverse influences were resisted 
 by some. There were saints in Nero's household. 
 . The scorn and contumely with which Christians 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 151 
 
 may have been treated in Caesar's palace appear 
 from the remarkable graffito, or rude sketch, made 
 by a sharp stylus in the cement of a wall in one of 
 the lower apartments of the palace of Tiberius, the 
 quarters of the servants and the Praetorian guards, 
 which has been transferred to the museum of the 
 Collegio Romano. The sketch represents the figure > 
 of a man with the head of an ass; the arms are' 
 stretched upon a cross, and the feet rest upon a 
 transverse support. On the right, and a little be-i 
 low, a man is represented in an attitude of devo- 
 tion. The inscription in rude Greek characters is, 
 "Alexamenos is adoring God." It is probably the 
 work of an inmate or servant of the palace who 
 thus ridicules the religion of his fellow- servant or 
 inmate. The Jews were represented by Tacitus as 
 rendering divine homage to the ass, and Christians ! 
 were at this time considered as only a baser sort of 
 Jews. This constitutes a singular and striking 
 proof, in the very palace of the Caesars, of the con- 
 tumelies to which Christians were then exposed. 
 It is also remarkable that the earliest authentic 
 representation of Christ upon the cross should be 
 thus rude and scornful. To take up the cross in 
 Caesar's household is thus proved to have been an-^ 
 other name for exposure to ridicule and shame. 
 
 But there is no reason to doubt that some mighty 
 and wise and noble connected with Caesar's 'house 
 were called to the faith of Christ. There are some 
 patrician names among those to whom St. Paul 
 sends his Christian salutations, in the Epistle to the 
 Romans. Ecclesiastical history also confirms this fact. 
 And what a lesson does the fact read to those who 
 in public life in our day declare that it is almost if 
 
152 ' ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 not quite impossible to be at the same time a states- 
 man and a Christian; to serve at the same time 
 God and Csesar; to discharge the duties of public 
 life and those of a strict and holy follower of Christ ! 
 Yet how evidently is their position less adverse to 
 the claims of Christ than that of those who pro- 
 fessed faith in Him in Caesar's court! They were 
 born in a Christian community. They inherit a 
 Christian sentiment. They are surrounded by 
 Christian influences. The government with which 
 they are connected is nominally Christian, and its 
 constitution and laws enshrine the principles of 
 Christian morality. There is nothing in the occu- 
 pation and duties of government in any of its de- 
 partments which is in itself demoralizing. On the 
 contrary, it is a most lofty calling. The application 
 of the principles of justice to the government of a 
 great people for their security, their development, 
 their prosperity, and their happiness, what human 
 function can be nobler? What can be more di- 
 rectly in the line of the Christian's high vocation, 
 who, while he works out his own salvation with fear 
 and trembling, is also laboring to fashion and fix 
 society in such a position as shall best fit it to pro- 
 fess and possess faith in the Son of G-od ? Nay, the 
 open and public Christian profession of a public 
 man by no means robs him of public honor and 
 regard. It only so restricts him that he cannot 
 well work with those with whom politics is a trade, 
 and the only trade in which dishonesty is not dis- 
 honorable. But the public honor him all the more 
 for his profession of the Christian faith if it shows 
 itself brave, genuine, and consistent. The public 
 knows not how to express its huge delight when 
 
ST. PAUL IN RO 
 
 it finds a leader and commander 
 oughly honest, true, and staunch * 
 precisely the qualities which a real Chrisfclife itfUTe' 
 heart produces. Christian men, fitted to adorn 
 their country's history and promote their country's 
 good, should not avoid public life on the ground 
 that it is impossible to discharge its functions and 
 remain true to Christian principle. The saints of 
 Caesar's household cry shame on their unmanly 
 weakness. 
 
 -Hence they are not to be heard or heeded, those 
 godless and abandoned men w T ith whom politics is 
 gambling and political principles but the loaded 
 dice with which they play the dishonest game. 
 These flatterers and plunderers of the public, golden- 
 mouthed orators, whose glittering rhetoric has been 
 gilded in the public mint, warn and hoot Christian 
 men from the ground of politics, crying out, "Keep 
 off from our domains. We are sovereigns here ; we 
 have pre-emptive claims to this field. You have no 
 right to come here with your strict Christian princi- 
 ples. You and they are in the way. Your scruples 
 are a bother. Leave politics to us. We understand 
 them. We have no troublesome misgivings. You 
 are too good. Go and teach Sunday-schools. Sing 
 psalms. We will take care of the government. You 
 cannot be a Christian and a politician." 
 
 Oh ! evil it is, and evil it has been, and more evil 
 it will be, because these men are believed, and be- 
 cause they so often frighten or disgust God's men 
 from the field. The greatest want of our times has 
 been and is the want of saints in that divine institu- 
 tion, the state, who shall comprehend that they are 
 
154 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 placed as ministers of God for the punishment of 
 evil-doers, and for the praise of those that do well. 
 
 IV. But there were other saints besides those in 
 Csesar's household or connected with Caesar's court. 
 "All the saints," says St. Paul, "salute you." 
 
 A goodly company they were! Many of them 
 were soon to be enrolled among the noble army of 
 martyrs. Most of those whom St. Paul had saluted 
 a few years previous in his Epistle to the Romans, 
 were probably alive and still at Rome. We know 
 of some who were at that time there. Faithful and 
 affectionate Epaphroditus, so tenderly and grate- 
 fully mentioned by St. Paul, (Phil. ii. 25-30,) was 
 there. The bearer of pecuniary aid from the Phil- 
 ippians to St. Paul, he was sick at Rome nigh unto 
 death, but seems to have been convalescent when 
 the Apostle wrote his Epistle. Tychicus, a beloved 
 brother and faithful minister and fellow-servant in 
 the Lord, (Eph. xxi.; Col. iv. 17; 2 Tim. iv. 12,) was 
 also at Rome during St. Paul's residence. Onesimus 
 also is reckoned among the beloved brethren by the 
 Apostle. It is interesting to observe the manner in 
 which he is mentioned by St. Paul in his Epistle to 
 the Colossians. He went with Tychicus, who bore 
 a letter of St. Paul to the Colossians, himself bear- 
 ing the remarkable letter of the Apostle to Phile- 
 mon, his master. While the Apostle commits him 
 to the justice of his master as a slave who had 
 wronged him, he pleads for his kindness as a re- 
 pentant and converted brother, who deserved not 
 only his pity and forgiveness, but his esteem. And 
 at the same time that Onesimus, a converted fugitive 
 slave, of his own will returns to his master and takes 
 this epistle, he is commended by &t. Paul to the 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 155 
 
 church at Colosse, in connection with Tychicus as 
 equally deserving of their regard. "Whom," speak- 
 ing of Tychicus, he says, "I send unto you for the 
 same purpose that he might know your estate, and 
 comfort your hearts; with Onesimus, a faithful and 
 beloved brother, who is one of you. They shall make 
 known unto you all things which are done here." 
 (Col. iv. 7-9.) The Christian slave is put on a pre- 
 cise equality with another honored Christian brother 
 in the Kingdom of God. It is a striking illustra- 
 tion of St. Paul's own exhortation to Philemon to 
 treat him as no longer a slave, but above a slave, as 
 a brother in the Lord, and exhibits the inevitably 
 emancipating and equalizing power of the true 
 working of the brotherhood of Christ. 
 
 We know also that Aristarchus was at Rome. 
 He accompanied St. Paul there, (Acts, xix. 29; 
 xxvii. 2,) and is mentioned as his fellow-prisoner. 
 That bond of fellow-imprisonment, whether at Cse- 
 sarea or at Rome, does not appear, and the fidelity 
 of which it was a proof, must have made him pe- 
 culiarly dear to the Apostle. Justus, a converted 
 Jew, is mentioned as one who had been a comfort 
 to him as a fellow-worker unto the Kingdom. 
 Epaphras, (Col. i. 7; iv. 12,) a minister of the 
 church of Colosse, was evidently a person of un- 
 usual fervor. St. Paul calls him his " dear fellow- 
 servant," a faithful minister of Christ, always la- 
 boring fervently for the Colossians in his prayers, 
 and as having great zeal in behalf of those among 
 whom he labored. Demas also (Col. iv. 14) is 
 joined in the same salutation with Luke, the be- 
 loved physician. Afterward St. Paul speaks of 
 him in those touching words in which there is much 
 
156 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 sorrow and no anger. "Demas hath forsaken me, 
 having loved this present world." 
 
 But those in whom St. Paul must have taken most 
 comfort at Rome were Timothy, his son in the 
 Gospel, the beloved Luke, and Mark. We do not 
 know the reasons for the absence of Timothy from 
 the church of Ephesus, in the charge of which St. 
 Paul had left him some years before ; but that he was 
 not about to return there, as to a settled and exclu- 
 sive Episcopate, appears from St. Paul's declaration 
 to the Philippians: "I trust in the Lord Jesus to 
 send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also may 
 be of good comfort when I know your state." 
 (Phil. ii. 19.) Timothy's residence at Rome and St. 
 Paul's message to the Philippians prove that the 
 apostleships and episcopates of that day were mis- 
 sionary rather than stationary. St. Luke it is be- 
 lieved, and with great probability, composed the 
 Acts of the Apostles under the eye of St. Paul while 
 they were together at Rome. If they had been 
 written later, St. Luke would certainly have con- 
 tinued the history of St. Paul. Mark also was with 
 the Apostle (Col. iv. 10,) when St. Paul wrote to the 
 Asiatic churches. The disagreement which led to 
 St. Paul's separation from him several years before 
 seems to have been entirely forgotten. If to these 
 we add some of the brethren mentioned, by St. Paul 
 in his Epistle to the Romans, and others like-minded 
 and like-hearted not mentioned, we see the Apostle 
 surrounded and cheered by much Christian fellow- 
 ship, sympathy, and affection. 
 
 Great indeed must have been the strength and 
 consolation which the Apostle derived from these 
 brethren in the Lord. We know that sympathy is 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 157 
 
 sweet in proportion to the bitterness of trials. We 
 know that Christian fellowship is dear just in the 
 degree in which one is surrounded by unchristian 
 and uncongenial influences. Hence St. Paul, in 
 bonds and living amid a most awfully polluted 
 Paganism, must have richly relished the converse 
 and sympathy, the mutual faith and prayer of 
 Christian brethren and friends. Hence the terms of 
 tender endearment and generous praise in which 
 their names are mentioned. He speaks of them as 
 "beloved," as "dear," as "faithful," as "those that 
 labor," that "labor much," that "labor exceedingly 
 in prayer," that exhibit "great zeal," and that "long 
 after" their converts in Christ. "We know not pre- 
 cisely where, but probably very near the place in 
 which we now worship, these brethren met with St. 
 Paul, or themselves preached and prayed. We know 
 how and what they preached, and to whom they 
 prayed. They preached Christ and him crucified. 
 They prayed only to the Triune God. They labored 
 in the establishment of a kingdom not of this world. 
 It would be difficult to conceive a greater contrast 
 than that presented by the house and household of 
 Csesar on the one hand, and the saints there and the 
 other saints in Rome on the other. It was Paganism 
 in its utmost power, splendor, and corruption; and 
 it was Christianity in its first feebleness, poverty, and 
 purity. It was the setting of a lurid and baneful sun, 
 and the rising of a pure and lustrous day-star. Nero 
 and Paul represent, each in the highest degree, what 
 the world and the Gospel can do for man. The one 
 tormented by conscience in the midst of boundless 
 luxury and power. The other joyful on the verge 
 of martyrdom. The one possessing all things and 
 
 20 
 
158 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 enjoying nothing. The other having nothing and 
 yet possessing all things. The one corrupted by 
 power, and the other purified by suffering. The one 
 driven by terror into the arms of death with a pas- 
 sionate love of life, and the horror of a doom to 
 which nothing but the dread of a direr doom could 
 have ever urged his coward soul. The other ex- 
 claiming, with calm eyes fixed upon the prepared 
 altar of his martyr-sacrifice, "I am ready to be 
 offered, and the time of my departure is at hand!" 
 
 Nero and his court, and Paul and the saints, these 
 are the parties for our choice which God is ever pre- 
 senting to us all. The gain of the world, or the at- 
 tempt to gain it, or the saving of the soul, these are 
 the alternatives. 
 
 "Choose ye this day whom YE will serve!" 
 
LECTURE VII. 
 
 ST. PAUL'S POSITION IN REFERENCE TO ESTABLISHED 
 CUSTOMS AND INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 The powers that be are ordained of God. ROMANS, xiii. 1. 
 
 THE law's delay may be a modern phrase, but the 
 fact which it expresses is old. It was exemplified 
 in the case of St. Paul. He arrived in Rome in the 
 spring of the year A.D. 61. His accusers were not 
 there. The Jews in Rome had not even heard that 
 they were coming. By the Roman law it was essen- 
 tial to a process that the accuser should be per- 
 sonally present. A trial might therefore be long 
 delayed. An accused person might suffer more by 
 delay than by an adverse judgment. Hence, per- 
 sonal malignity might hold one a long time accused, 
 in restraint or imprisonment and obloquy, without 
 trial. If he or his friends had not sufficient influ- 
 ence to bring the trial on, it might be suspended 
 for years. When it was probable that the accused 
 might be acquitted, it is evident that a malicious 
 accuser might wish to delay the trial. By thus 
 delaying justice, he might obtain what he sought 
 revenge. 
 
 This was probably the policy of St. Paul's ac- 
 cusers. The case was one which evidently had no 
 Roman law to rest upon. Agrippa had openly de- 
 clared that St. Paul might have been released if he 
 had not appealed unto Caesar. 
 
 (159) 
 
160 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 But quite apart from the intent of his accusers, 
 Paul's case was one which would be likely to be 
 long delayed. Witnesses were to be brought from 
 the remotest portions of the empire. The conve- 
 nience or caprice of the Emperor in hearing the case 
 was to be waited for. Tiberius was in the habit of 
 putting off trials for years. Nero, immersed in guilty 
 pleasures and frivolous pursuits, would not be likely 
 to be more prompt. 
 
 But the period of delay was not lost or wasted by 
 St. Paul. He had been sent by the Master to Rome 
 to preach and teach Christ and his kingdom. Dili- 
 gently and faithfully he discharged that mission. 
 Many of his hearers were brought to the knowledge 
 of the truth as it is in Jesus. 
 
 The case of Onesimus, the fugitive slave of Phil- 
 emon, is one of peculiar interest. Converted by St. 
 Paul to the faith of Christ, he was sent back to his 
 master. It is a case which furnishes a proper occa- 
 sion on which to consider the whole subject of St. 
 Paul's views and feelings in relation to established 
 customs and institutions. 
 
 The great principle on which St. Paul proceeded 
 in reference to all established customs and institu- 
 tions, by which we shall be able to understand all 
 that he did and all that he left undone in reference to 
 them, is one which is extremely simple and intelli- 
 gible. It is this : he did not attack established cus- 
 toms and institutions, how much soever of evil 
 sprang from them directly or indirectly, unless they 
 interfered with, or prevented the personal duty, or 
 personal access of the soul, to God. He attacked 
 indeed, directly and vigorously, all heathen worship, 
 because it was treason to God and a sacrifice to 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 161 
 
 devils ; because it robbed the soul of its privilege of 
 access to its Heavenly Father, and prevented the 
 discharge of its duties of love and service to him. 
 He also attacked the doctrine of the present obliga- 
 tion of the abrogated Jewish economy, because it 
 destroyed the Gospel. These were the interests of 
 that spiritual kingdom which he came to administer. 
 Everything which obtruded itself into this king- 
 dom, as truth which was falsehood, as duty which 
 was sin, as obligation which was a matter of indif- 
 ference, he confuted, resisted, denounced, forbade. 
 A law of man which should forbid him to profess 
 faith in Christ and to perform his spiritual duties in 
 the world, he would disobey, even under the penalty 
 of death, because it was an unlawful intrusion of 
 the power of a human government into the sphere 
 of divine things, which would have compelled him 
 to sin, and to omit the discharge of his highest obli- 
 gations. While it was no part of his mission as an 
 Apostle to define what acts of human governments 
 were lawful within their sphere, it was his right and 
 duty to resist and disobey such laws as would forbid 
 him to discharge his duty in the higher sphere of the 
 kingdom of God. 
 
 Hence those customs, and those established insti- 
 tutions, and laws of human society, which he found 
 in existence, however evil in themselves or their re- 
 sults, he did not directly attack and denounce, and 
 preach the duty of destroying. He denounced evil 
 in all its forms, and in all institutions, whether of di- 
 vine or human origin. Even those which were the 
 outgrowth of human depravity, or the perversion 
 of such divinely established institutions as the 
 Church and State, he did not declare should be at 
 
162 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 once destroyed. He inculcated principles which, if 
 practically and universally established, would destroy 
 every evil custom and institution in the world. He 
 knew that it would be useless to cut off the evil fruit 
 and leave the tree evil, because its next growth 
 would be the same; and because if the tree were 
 made good, the fruit through all time would be also 
 good. There were all around St. Paul at Rome vast 
 structures of iniquity, evil from their base to their 
 summit, and yet, what did he do ? He preached 
 the kingdom of God, and taught those things which 
 concerned the Lord Jesus. There was at Rome the 
 awful despotism of Nero; there was a system of 
 concubinage; there were cruel gladiatorial fights; 
 there were the horrible slaughters of beasts and men 
 in the amphitheaters ; there was a dreadful system of 
 slavery; and yet not against one of them is there a 
 denunciation in the Epistles which he wrote from 
 Rome. But no doubt the presence of these awful 
 iniquities added fervor to his earnest exhortations to 
 the love of God and man, to purity, and righteous- 
 ness, and mercy, before which all these pollutions and 
 cruelties would flee away! 
 
 Let us examine the mode in which St. Paul treated 
 some established customs and institutions while he 
 sojourned at Rome. During that period he wrote 
 the Epistle to Philemon, to the Ephesians, the Co- 
 lossians, the Philippians ; and during his second so- 
 journ his second Epistle to Timothy. To these Epis- 
 tles I shall particularly refer. And in order that we 
 may have a complete view of St. Paul's mode of pro- 
 ceeding in reference to them, let the facts be borne 
 in mind which we have already mentioned, viz., that 
 the general description of St. Paul's work at Rome 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 163 
 
 was that he preached Christ and the kingdom of 
 God, and that, in the midst of customs and institu- 
 tions which were utterly evil, he did not turn aside 
 from his great work to denounce them, but incul- 
 cated principles and fostered feelings in the pres- 
 ence and ascendency of which they could not sur- 
 vive. 
 
 We will speak first of those institutions which were 
 of divine origin and obligation. 
 
 I. The Jewish economy was of divine origin, and 
 had been of divine obligation. Many of the Jewish 
 Christians, as we have seen, still contended that its 
 rites were obligatory, ^"ow these rites, and indeed 
 the whole Jewish economy, St. Paul contended had 
 been done away and were no longer obligatory. 
 ]S"ay, he contended that it was wrong to observe 
 them as of present obligation. In the Epistle to the 
 Colossians, (ii. 16, 17,) he writes: "Let no man 
 therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in re- 
 spect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the 
 sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come, 
 but the body is of Christ." To condemn this insti- 
 tution as of present obligation, was a duty which he 
 owed to the Gospel, which he was commissioned to 
 proclaim. 
 
 II. The family was a divine institution and of per- 
 petual obligation. It was founded in Eden; it was 
 regulated by the law; it was enjoined in the Gos- 
 pel. Its one divine form was that of man and wife, 
 and their offspring. To break the marriage bonds 
 was one of the greatest of crimes. It was to violate 
 a specific law of God; and it was to fill society with 
 pollution, violence/ and manifold evil. 
 
 During the Republic, and even in the age of Au- 
 
164 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 gustus, the utmost purity in the family relation pre- 
 vailed among Roman citizens. The name of a Ro- 
 man maiden was synonymous with purity and mod- 
 esty, and that of a Roman matron with dignity and 
 honor. The violation of the marriage bond between 
 Romans was by law, and in fact, visited with death 
 or exile. The guilty daughter and granddaughter 
 of Augustus, as we have seen, were both banished 
 to a solitary island, a humiliation to the proud 
 Caesar which was a fit punishment of his own cruel 
 licentiousness. But this stern jealousy of the purity 
 of the Roman family had far more reference to the 
 interests of the state than to morality. It was that 
 the Roman stock might be preserved unmixed and 
 un weakened, and that the state might always have 
 fit citizens to uphold and extend the glory of all- 
 conquering Rome. Outside of the Roman families 
 great license prevailed. It was the purity of the 
 Roman matron and maid, and not that of the Ro- 
 man father or youth, that was so sternly guarded. 
 Philosophers counted licentiousness within the limits 
 of the law, to be rather unwise than wicked. Cato 
 did not condemn it. Cicero apologized for it. Epic- 
 titus, the sternest of the Roman Stoics, regarded it 
 as weakness and folly, but not as crime when it did 
 not violate the law. So that even in the best times of 
 the Republic, when the purity of the family relation 
 was singularly preserved, it was on the grounds of 
 civil polity and expediency, and not on those high 
 grounds of inherent and divine and moral obliga- 
 tion, on which alone obedience is virtue. 
 
 But at the period when St. Paul was in Rome, 
 society had become exceedingly corrupt. We have 
 seen how, in the family of the Csesars, there had 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 165 
 
 been a frightful succession of adulteries, repudia- 
 tions, divorces, remarryings, concubinages, legal 
 murders, and secret poisonings, in the interests of 
 monstrous lusts. The same spirit and practices 
 were exhibited in the entire patrician circle. How 
 little the sanctity of the marriage tie in itself, and 
 irrespective of the law of the state, was respected 
 even in the purer period of a hundred years before 
 Nero, appears in the well-known case of Cato. No 
 name in the Roman annals stands higher for lofty 
 virtue, on the Roman model, than that of Cato. 
 Yet when his friend Hortensius, desirous of an heir 
 to his immense fortune and high fame, divorced his 
 wife and was in search of another, Cato offered to 
 him his own, with whom he had lived happily and in 
 honor, and the offer was gratefully accepted; and 
 after the death of Hortensius and the birth of chil- 
 dren to him, his wife was remarried to Cato. "The 
 virtuous Cato," said Caesar, " surrendered his wife 
 when she was young, and resumed her when she 
 was rich." If such things could occur at that pe- 
 riod, and among men of the high moral standing of 
 Cato and Hortensius, we can readily suppose that in 
 the days of Claudius and of Nero, the very satur- 
 nalia of the Roman history, corruptions of the most 
 frightful kind must have spread through the whole 
 structure of Roman society. The system of patron- 
 age and clientage which prevailed at Rome, inevi- 
 tably forced the manners and habits of the Caesars 
 and of the patricians on the lower and dependent 
 classes. Hence, as was to be anticipated, it is found 
 that the marriage and family relations were in a state 
 of corruption, contempt, and dislike, which were the 
 sources of enormous crimes and evils. In vain did 
 
 21 
 
166 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 Augustus endeavor to force and shame his subjects 
 from celibacy, and from loose and licentious di- 
 vorces, into permanent marriages and the family 
 duties which they involved. The patricians, leading 
 the life of the circus, the theaters, and the baths, 
 studying, reveling, and traveling, having free play 
 to every whim and passion, could be induced to 
 marry only from motives of ambition or of interest. 
 Meceenas, the favorite minister of Augustus, in the 
 face of his master's stern decrees against divorce, 
 repudiated and remarried his wife not less than 
 twenty times. From the palace of the Caesars to 
 the lowest quarters of the Aventine and the Su- 
 burra, the marriage and family relation, when St. 
 Paul wrote, was in a frightfully corrupt condition. 
 "The old Roman paternal despotism could not sub- 
 sist under imperial despotism; the old laws of the 
 family were too stern for effeminate Rome ; too na- 
 tional for Rome, inundated with foreign elements; 
 too patrician for Rome, governed by freedmen ; and 
 too little in harmony with the debased morality and 
 philosophy of the age." 
 
 Now it was just at this period, when this family 
 license and corruption culminated, that St. Paul 
 lived in Rome. How did he deal with the subject 
 in his letters to the churches, written when all this 
 frightful corruption was passing under his eye? 
 He explained the divine constitution of the family ; 
 the headship of the husband; the reciprocal duty 
 of the husband to love and honor, and of the wife 
 to love, honor, and obey; the duties of both to 
 their children, and of their children to them. In 
 the Epistle to the Ephesians, (v. 22-33,) he writes 
 thus: 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 167 
 
 ""Wives, submit yourselves unto your own hus- 
 bands, as unto the Lord. 
 
 "For the husband is the head of the wife, even as 
 Christ is the head of the church : and he is the sa- 
 viour of the body. 
 
 "Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, 
 so let the wives be to their own husbands in every- 
 thing. 
 
 "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also 
 loved the church, and gave himself for it ; 
 
 "That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the 
 washing of water by the word, 
 
 " That he might present it to himself a glorious 
 church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such 
 thing; but that it should be holy and without 
 blemish. 
 
 " So ought men to love their wives as their own 
 bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. 
 
 "For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but 
 nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the 
 church : 
 
 "For we are members of his body, of his flesh, 
 and of his bones. 
 
 "For this cause shall a man leave his father and 
 mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they 
 two shall be one flesh. 
 
 "This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning 
 Christ and the church. 
 
 "Nevertheless let every one of you in particular 
 so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see 
 that she reverence her husband." 
 
 The reciprocal duties of parents and children are 
 thus enjoined, (Eph. vi. 1-4:) 
 
 " Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this 
 is right. 
 
168 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 "Honor thy father and mother; which is the first 
 commandment with promise ; 
 
 " That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest 
 live long on the earth. 
 
 "And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to 
 wrath; but bring them up in the nurture and admo- 
 nition of the Lord." 
 
 The same injunctions are repeated in the Epistle 
 to the Colossians, (Col. iii. 18-21.) 
 
 Here we see that a divine and holy character is 
 attached to the family relation, and that its duties 
 are to be discharged "as to the Lord." The union 
 of man and wife is like that of Christ and his church, 
 and its reciprocal duties and affections are like the 
 holy ones which spring from that divine relation. 
 It is a beautiful and pure ideal placed in the midst 
 of the awful practical corruptions of the age, whose 
 realization was approached in the actual practice 
 and experience of Christians. It was the pure family 
 as it ought to be, in the midst of the polluted family 
 as it was. 
 
 Now that to which I wish to call attention is the 
 fact that St. Paul's mode of dealing with the cor- 
 ruption that prevailed in this divine institution, was 
 to describe it and enjoin it as it was divinely consti- 
 tuted, and as it ought to be. He did not directly 
 attack the prevailing and recognized laws and cus- 
 toms of the period, which were awful violations of 
 the true purposes of the family, dreadfully corrupting 
 to the individuals, and fearfully destructive of the 
 public prosperity and peace. He attacked them only 
 by enjoining as sacred and indispensable duties all 
 that was opposite to them in the letter and the spirit. 
 Those calm and solemn instructions, those words of 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 169 
 
 passionless and weighty wisdom, intended for all 
 ages and all nations, one can scarcely conceive of 
 them as written from the licentious Rome of Nero to 
 the scarcely less licentious cities of Asia Minor. It 
 may have been that as his hand, benumbed by the 
 long and weary weight of his chain, was slowly and 
 painfully tracing these words, he could see the gay 
 thoroughfare on which he lived thronged with the 
 chariots in which shameless patrician vice, as it is 
 painted in the vivid pages of honest and indignant 
 Juvenal, and as we cannot repeat it, flaunted by ; or 
 a louder rumor and a vast clinking train of eunuchs, 
 players, pantomimes, and praetorian guards, might 
 announce to him that the greatest and the guiltiest 
 pair, the most powerful and shameless corrupters of 
 all family ties and all remains of chastity and honor 
 then upon the earth, Nero and Poppea, were ap- 
 proaching. Now what a proof it is of the large, divine, 
 calm, world-embracing wisdom by which St. Paul 
 was guided, that at such a time he could withhold 
 his holy and indignant denunciations ! Not all holy 
 men could have refrained from denouncing directly 
 and personally upon Nero as Imperator, and of 
 charging upon established customs, and immunities, 
 and laws of Rome, the frightful corruption that then 
 prevailed. 
 
 But St. Paul knew that the source of all these 
 evils was deeper even in the depraved and fallen 
 heart of man. He knew that the kingdom of God 
 cometh not with observation. Its first work is in 
 the soul. It penetrates, pervades, transforms insti- 
 tutions, by first penetrating, pervading, transforming 
 the souls of those by whom they are fashioned and 
 sustained. It changes the one as it does the other. 
 
170 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 That which in the heart and life superinduced is evil, 
 falls ; that which is good in the design of G od, stands 
 transformed. That which is evil in itself in society, if 
 society becomes holy, and in proportion as it becomes 
 holy, disappears; that which is good, in the lower 
 sense of prudential or mere moral goodness, re- 
 mains, and becomes penetrated with a higher and 
 holier goodness. Ambition, hatred, cruelty, and 
 lust disappear from holy hearts, in the same measure 
 as they are holy; nature's love for wife and child, 
 and for blameless human and sensitive enjoyment, 
 remains, converted, purified, exalted into holy affec- 
 tions, and into joys which are at the same time du- 
 ties. Precisely such is the transformation of society. 
 That which is evil in itself such as the amphithea- 
 ter with its inhuman slaughter, wars of aggression 
 and ambition, licensed and protected licentiousness, 
 the outgrowth of ambition, cruelty, and lust will 
 disappear among nations in proportion as they are 
 holy. The family and the state, which are good in 
 themselves and divine in their organization, but 
 which have been degraded into instruments of hu- 
 man iniquity, will remain transformed and purified. 
 Such is the process and the work of holiness in 
 individuals, and in the customs, laws, and institu- 
 tions of the world. The institutions which are 
 wholly evil do not fall by being battered, but by be- 
 ing undermined. They are not suddenly over- 
 thrown like the temple of Dagon by Samson, but 
 they gradually rnelt away like the ice palace of the 
 northern Czar. Such institutions as are conformed 
 to man's true needs, or are of divine origin, are 
 filled at length with purity, under the influence of 
 Christian light and life, not as at midnight the 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 171 
 
 world is filled with sudden and temporary light hy 
 lightning flashes, but as the day fills it, at first with 
 the pearly radiance of the rising, and then with the 
 full effulgence of the risen sun. Hence St. Paul 
 could see the imperial cortege and the gay patrician 
 crowds flash by in guilty revelry, and feel with pro- 
 found sadness the awful desecration of the family 
 institution, and could yet indite those calm and holy 
 teachings to the Ephesians, in which there are no 
 allusions to the scenes that were passing all around 
 him. He w T rote with loving tranquillity, for he wrote 
 for all time and all the world, under the influence of 
 that Holy Spirit whose emblem is the dove. "Wis- 
 dom reacheth from one end unto the other mightily, 
 and sweetly doth she order all things." Divine wisdom 
 embraces the whole course of time in her vigorous 
 _ administration, and gentle and gradual as nature's 
 growths and processes, are her moral and spiritual 
 transformations. The form and structure of the 
 vine is not changed when the sap recedes in winter 
 and creeps upward in the spring; but the result of 
 the one is a gradual transformation of the leafy and 
 purple vineyard into bare and straggling sticks, and 
 of the other into graceful and festooned foliage, 
 which makes the hill-side laugh, and into precious 
 and clustered fruit which makes glad the heart of 
 man. 
 
 III. As is the family so also is the state a divine 
 institution. It is so described by St. Paul in his 
 Epistle to the Romans. Obedience to it is enjoined 
 in the Lord, and as unto the Lord. It was when 
 Nero was Emperor of Rome that St. Paul wrote to 
 the Romans the most full and complete assertion and 
 explanation of the divine constitution of the state, 
 
172 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 of the sacred character of tlie magistracy, and of 
 the respective duties of the rulers and the ruled, 
 that inspiration has produced. It certainly proves 
 the universal applicability of these words to find 
 that they were addressed to the horribly misgov- 
 erned citizens of Rome just at the period when a 
 Claudius had ceased, and a Nero had *begun to 
 reign. 
 
 " Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. 
 For there is no power but of God : the powers that 
 be are ordained of God. 
 
 "Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, re- 
 sisteth the ordinance of God : and they that resist 
 shall receive to themselves damnation. 
 
 "For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to 
 the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? 
 do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of 
 the same: 
 
 "For he is the minister of God to thee for good. 
 But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he 
 beareth not the sword in vain : for he is the minister 
 of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that 
 doeth evil. 
 
 "Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for 
 wrath, but also for conscience sake. 
 
 " For for this cause pay ye tribute also : for they are 
 God's ministers, attending continually upon this very 
 thing. 
 
 "Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to 
 whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom ; fear 
 to whom fear; honor to whom honor." 
 
 Here is a description of the state, as before of the 
 family, as it is divinely constituted, and as it should 
 be administered. Without any theories, or any ex- 
 
UBfty 
 
 ( T THE 
 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 planations, as to how governments 
 tuted, whether as republican, oligarchical, 
 archical, or mixed, he makes the broad and distinct 
 announcement that the powers that be established 
 governments are the ordinance of God. As such they 
 are to be obeyed. Resistance to them is resistance 
 to the ordinance of God. They are designed to ad- 
 minister justice, to be a terror to the evil, and to re- 
 ward and protect the good. Hence also they must 
 be obeyed, not from fear only, but from conscience. 
 Hence also they must be sustained by the payment 
 of dues and tributes. They must also be honored 
 as well as obeyed, because established by God, and 
 administering human justice by his authority. 
 
 It is to be observed that while organized society, 
 with laws, protection, punishment, and rewards, is 
 declared to be an ordinance of God, there is no pre- 
 scription as to the forms which governments should 
 assume, and no expression of preference for one 
 rather than another. The precise form of the family 
 man and wife and their offspring is designated, 
 but not that of the state. 
 
 It is to be observed, moreover, that while obe- 
 dience in general to parents and the state is en- 
 joined, the limitations to that obedience are nowhere 
 prescribed. In the case of the family, love, protec- 
 tion, nurture on the part of parents, and obedience 
 on the part of children, are enjoined; but the contin- 
 gencies in which they may or ought to be limited, 
 suspended, or withheld, are not specified. It is cer- 
 tain that if parents enjoin crime upon their children, 
 it is their duty nof to obey, but to disobey. In like 
 manner while the duty of magistrates is enjoined, 
 the circumstances in which it becomes lawful or ob- 
 
 22 
 
174 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 ligatory not to obey or to disobey, are not specified. 
 It is certain that such circumstances may arise. The 
 settlement of such cases is left to the individual con- 
 science. By such means it is that conscience be- 
 comes purified and quickened. 
 
 Thus it was that St. Paul wrote to the Romans 
 during the early period of Zero's reign at Rome. 
 When he resided at Rome the second time, the pub- 
 lic administration of Nero had become as atrocious 
 as his private life. And yet in the letter to Timothy, 
 which he wrote from Rome, there is no change and 
 no modification of his teachings in respect to gov- 
 ernments and rulers, and obedience to them. He 
 did not then write anything to this effect: "When 
 I wrote the Epistle to the Romans, enjoining obedi- 
 ence to the government as of divine institution, 
 that government was then justly administered, un- 
 der the direction of Seneca and Burrus. Now it 
 has become an instrument of capricious cruelty and 
 oppression. It has violated all the purposes for 
 which a government is established; and therefore it 
 has ceased to be worthy of obedience or honor; it 
 would be lawful and right to overthrow it." He 
 wrote no such words. He let his first teachings 
 stand. As the inspired teacher of the Church for 
 all ages, it was his office to declare the principles 
 upon which governments should be on the one 
 hand administered, and on the other obeyed. 
 "While such governments existed their laws were to 
 be obeyed, unless they were such as compelled indi- 
 viduals to violate the laws of God. When it would 
 become lawful, or expedient, or obligatory, for sub- 
 jects to combine to overthrow such a detestable 
 tyranny, he did not declare. He left such questions 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 175 
 
 for the decision of Christian citizens on the princi- 
 ples which he had enjoined. 
 
 It is certainly all the more striking proof of the) 
 fact that it is not the mission of the Gospel and the 
 church to assault and overthrow existing institutions, 
 however evil in themselves or in their administra- 
 tion, but rather that it is their divine function to 
 proclaim principles which shall, if really adopted, 
 gradually undermine or transform them, to find that 
 St. Paul wrote this remarkable description of the 
 relative duties of governors and citizens at a period 
 when the world was most tyranically, cruelly, and/ 
 unjustly governed. It is true that when St. Paul 
 wrote to the Romans, the government of Nero was 
 mild and just. But St. Paul had known well the 
 dreadful character of the two preceding reigns of 
 Caligula and Claudius. He knew human nature 
 well enough to be assured that such vast irresponsi- 
 ble power in the hands of one man was fearfully 
 liable to abuses. All these abuses of power were 
 known, and perhaps exaggerated, in the provinces. 
 News from Rome, sent by officials, or carried by 
 private hand, was posted in the Basilica, or in the 
 Forum of all the cities of the Empire. The bulle- 
 tin would announce that Nero had jwst escaped as- 
 sassination by his mother, and offerings of gratitude 
 for his safety would be offered in all the temples; 
 but private letters and the gossip of travelers would 
 spread abroad the fact that Agrippina was murdered 
 at the suggestion of Poppea. Thus St. Paul in the 
 provinces would not remain ignorant of the atrocities 
 of the capital. He had known the cruel treatment 
 of his countrymen by Caligula. He had known all 
 the wild and capricious excesses of the two crowned 
 
176 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 furies, Messalina and Agrippina, in the reign of 
 Claudius. And yet it was in the full knowledge of 
 all this misuse and perversion of power, that he 
 wrote that calm and complete delineation of the re- 
 lation of the rulers and the ruled, whose first words 
 are "Let every soul be subject to the higher powers." 
 
 The two points which seem singular to us in this 
 doctrine of St. Paul are that the powers that be, how- 
 ever unjust in their origin and cruel in their admin- 
 istration, should be said to be ordained of God, and 
 that the duty of obedience to them, without restric- 
 tion or qualification, "as unto the Lord," should be 
 enjoined. Yet there they stand in St. Paul's Epis- 
 tles, too distinctly to be misunderstood. They have 
 been used to sanctify cruel despotism, and to make 
 resistance to them a crime against God. How are 
 these teachings to be reconciled with the attributes 
 of Him whose name is love and whose government 
 is righteous, and who demands loyalty and obedi- 
 ence only to that which is just and good? 
 
 1. When St. Paul says that the powers which be 
 are ordained of God, I understand him to mean that 
 it is the will of God that man should live in organ- 
 ized society under governors and laws. He does 
 not specify, as in the case of the family, any one 
 form which states shall assume. The form of such 
 governments is an ordinance of man. The existence 
 of government in some form is an ordinance of God. 
 Hence St. Paul was able to say, even of the govern- 
 ment of the Caesars, that it was of God. Does one 
 who thinks of the government of Nero exclaim, 
 "Can it be that this awful domination is of God?" 
 "We do not wonder at the question. Yet when one 
 looks in upon the family where the husband is a 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 177 
 
 brute, and the wife a fiend, and the children the 
 victims of their blended vices ; or when one or all 
 convert the family relations into a dreadful scene of 
 cruelty, suffering, and pollution from which it is im- 
 possible to escape, and which it is a life-long agony 
 to endure, he might ask the same question, " Can 
 this be of God?" Not this certainly in the intention 
 of God, in either case. In the one case justice and 
 mercy on the part of the ruler, and reverence and 
 obedience on the part of the people, and in the other 
 case mutual affection and regard on the part of hus- 
 band and wife, and loving obedience on the part of 
 children, this is the ordinance of God. It is none 
 the less a right ordinance of God because man per- 
 verts it. With all its horror, the government of 
 Nero is better than anarchy ; and with all its woes, 
 the family in its worst form is better than the law- 
 less reign of lust and passion, which would soon 
 convert what God created a paradise into a pande- 
 monium. 
 
 2. If these institutions of the family and the state 
 be of God, then obedience to them, u as to the Lord," 
 logically ensues. That no restrictions to this duty 
 are stated, should create no surprise. On the one 
 hand, justice, mercy, and affection are enjoined on 
 governments and parents, and 011 the other, rever- 
 ence and obedience on the part of citizens and 
 children. They are to go together. When we are 
 bidden to obey lawful authorities, and when there 
 is no specification of what we are to do when they 
 cease to exercise lawful authority lawfully, it by no 
 means follows that there is no limit to the obedi- 
 ence which we should render. We know one limit 
 which is clearly and broadly marked. If either of 
 
178 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 them bid us to commit a crime, we know that it is 
 our duty to disobey. Other duties to self, to brothers 
 and sisters, and to communities, may be paramount 
 to the duties of parents or of governments when 
 they transcend their powers. It is the province of 
 the lawmaker to put forth precise and dogmatic 
 laws concerning certain relations. It rests w r ith 
 those to whom they are addressed to determine 
 when disobedience becomes duty. 
 
 Thus we see how they err who make man's path 
 of duty to be always a straight and level way. It 
 is, on the contrary, often rugged and winding, and 
 not well defined, and to be discerned only by alert 
 and earnest faculties. He climbs, he plunges, he 
 wades, he dives, he deviates, he turns impossible 
 precipices and leaps yawning gulfs, and when he 
 shall reach the end of the journey, palpitating and 
 weary, he will be developed in strength and ca- 
 pacity, and relish his success all the more because 
 it was difficult to gain. 
 
LECTUEE VIII. 
 
 ST. PAUL'S POSITION IN REFERENCE TO ESTABLISHED 
 CUSTOMS AND INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 have shown in our last how St. Paul dealt 
 with existing institutions. He did not attack them 
 directly, however evil they might be ; but he incul- 
 cated principles, the adoption of which would de- 
 stroy evil by introducing good. In the case of di- 
 vine institutions which were perverted from their 
 original purpose, he inculcated the duties and affec- 
 tions which were appropriate to them. He unfolded 
 the duties of the marriage and family relation. He 
 explained the mutual duties of rulers and subjects. 
 He described the "powers that be" existing govern- 
 ments as ordained of God ; and with Nero upon the 
 throne, proclaimed disobedience to government to 
 be disloyalty to Heaven. 
 
 We shall not be able fully to feel all the signifi- 
 cance of this fact, unless we recall some of the inci- 
 dents of those reigns, which will show us what sort 
 of a government existed in Rome just previous to 
 the period when St. Paul wrote his Epistle. 
 
 Every one has heard of what may be called the 
 more personal extravagances of the reign of Cali- 
 gula. His incestuous passion for his sisters; his 
 claim to be a god, and to hold private conferences 
 with the moon, and with Jupiter; the elevation of 
 
 (179) 
 
180 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 his favorite horse to the Consulate, and his wish 
 that the Romans had but one neck, that he might 
 destroy them all at a blow, those imperial insani- 
 ties are well known. "We have alluded to his bridge 
 at Bali, which drew to that point all the vessels of 
 the empire, and called for thousands more, an ex- 
 travagance which strained the resources of the em- 
 pire to the utmost for a mere imperial whim. We 
 have spoken of the drunken frenzy in which, on the 
 occasion of its inauguration, he consigned helpless 
 and unoffending victims by the boat-load to the sea. 
 We have described also his impious cruelty to the 
 Jews. Even these wild violations of all the purposes 
 for which a government is instituted, were outdone 
 by the means which he adopted to replenish his ex- 
 hausted treasury. 
 
 / Seneca informs us 'that at one repast he expended 
 ten millions of sesterces; and in a year two thou- 
 sand and seven hundred millions of sesterces. These 
 extravagances called for extraordinary means. Ac- 
 cordingly confiscations were multiplied. Caligula 
 professed to find in the records of Tiberius proofs 
 of the treason of those rich persons whose posses- 
 sions he coveted ; and they were cut off. He adopted 
 a means, which subsequent tyrants largely practiced, 
 of replenishing his treasury by getting himself ap- 
 pointed heir of the estates of his subjects. "If you 
 wish a favor of Caesar make him your heir! If 
 ' you wish to escape a charge of treason make him 
 ' your heir ! If you wish to rescue a relative from the 
 wiles of informers make him your heir!" Such 
 were the messages which his creatures gave to the 
 trembling citizens. Even then, if the old man who 
 had enrolled him as heir to the detriment of all his 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 181 
 
 own relations, lingered too long in life, a delicate ra- 
 gout was sent to him from the Emperor's table with 
 his compliments, and with poison in it; and he died / 
 it was said of apoplexy, and the grateful Caesar com- ' 
 memorated his virtues. If it was announced that 
 one who was a stranger to him had left to him all 
 his property, to the exclusion of all his own relatives, 
 he declared that the sanctity of wills must be pre- 
 served ; and took the money ! If another who had 
 received any benefit, by offices or contracts from the ! 
 state, had forgotten him in his will, it was declared 
 to be an infamous insult to the imperial majesty and 
 beneficence; and he broke the will and took the 
 money. If another died, and a friend of Caesar in- 
 formed him that the deceased told him that he in- 
 tended to have made him heir though his name was / 
 not mentioned in the will the intention was held 
 to be sacred, and Caesar broke the will and received 
 the money. Thus a vast source of supply was opened 
 by a means which was at the same time absolutely f 
 unjust, and so cunningly cruel that it must have 
 kept every wealthy citizen in a terror of anxiety, 
 and all his relatives in a state of doubt and fear. 
 
 On the birth of a daughter the poor Caesar affects ) 
 to fear absolute ruin and destitution. How to pro- 
 vide for her support? He asks alms of his people. 
 He seats himself in the vestibule of his palace on 
 his throne, to receive their gifts. Consuls, the sen- 
 ate, patricians, goldsmiths, and merchants crowd, 
 with hands and togas full of coins, and of precious 
 gifts, and lay them at the feet of Caesar. It is much, 
 but it is not enough. The imperial beggar resorts 
 to another device which sinks the Caesar as low as 
 the vilest imagination could place the most infamous 
 
 23 
 
182 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 creature of his household. As one now passes 
 through the colossal substructions of his palace, re- 
 cently uncovered, under the auspices of the Emperor 
 of the French, the series of apartments is pointed out 
 which, according to the statement of a Roman his- 
 torian, Caligula rented out as the place of debauch- 
 ery, whose patrons were commended by him for thus 
 aiding their impoverished lord, burdened with the 
 expense of an imperial baby. 
 
 But the supply is temporary and insufficient. He 
 professes to find records which prove that his de- 
 ceased sisters had been plotting against his life. 
 Their effects are sold. Caligula attends the sale, 
 and cries up the articles, and exhorts the purchasers 
 ^ to bid generously for the possession of goods which 
 once belonged to the imperial family; and for the 
 pressing needs of their poor bankrupt master. "Are 
 ^ you not ashamed, you misers! to be richer than 
 , I? See to what straits I am reduced! compelled 
 to sell the furniture belonging once to Augustus. 
 ^ Behold this choice utensil ! Mark Antony once 
 used this!- and Augustus this! For the love of 
 history and of Roman glory, purchase this for the 
 trifle at which it is offered, only 200,000 sesterces ! 
 Crier! why do you not observe that Aponius nods 
 his head in sign that he takes the thirteen gladiators 
 at my price, only nine millions of sesterces !" And 
 Aponius, a corpulent man of consular dignity, who 
 was asleep and nodding, awakes to find himself 
 ruined, with thirteen voracious gladiators on his 
 hands. And to all this ludicrous degradation of 
 ( themselves and of their prince, the once haughty 
 Romans, whose pride was always associated with 
 V dignity, tamely and unresistingly submitted. 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 183 
 
 For a time Caligula was again rich. His gold was 
 strewn upon the floor of one of the rooms of his 
 palace, and he handled it with greedy glee, and took 
 oft' his sandals and walked over it, and even slept 
 upon it. But golden bigas set with precious stones, 
 and golden oats for his favorite horse, and his vast 
 new palaces, and his bridge over the Forum, from 
 the Palatine to the Capitoline hill, soon exhausted 
 his means, and led him to resume his business of 
 auctioneering on a still grander scale. The supply 
 of his exhausted treasury was secured in the rich 
 provinces of Gaul. 
 
 On his way to commence his ridiculous invasion of 
 Great Britain, which he undertook only for the pur- 
 poses of obtaining more money, he paused in Gaul and 
 hastened to despoil its citizens. The people were sub- 
 jected to new and onerous taxes. A conspiracy, real 
 or pretended, at Rome, enabled him to destroy and 
 to seize the possessions of some of its richest citi- 
 zens. While in Gaul he sent, in hot haste, for what 
 would be called, in modern phrase, the regalia, or 
 jewels, and for many of the triumphal chariots and 
 equipages of state, which he sold at .auction. Every 
 appliance of terror, and every species of trickery was 
 resorted to, in order that an exorbitant price might 
 be secured. He personally set forth the peculiar 
 value of each article as it was offered. " This," he 
 said, "belonged to my father, and this to my grand- 
 father. This vase is Egyptian, and was used by An- 
 tony ; and this is a trophy of the victory of Ac- 
 tium !" By this means he again accumulated enor- 
 mous sums. 
 
 And this poor creature was the master of the 
 world ! This is the great Csesar who insisted upon 
 
184 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 being worshiped as a god in the Temple at Jeru- 
 salem, at the same time that he officiated in Gaul as 
 an auctioneer of the property of murdered citizens, 
 and of the state. And it was in the full knowledge 
 that the government of the Roman Empire had been 
 committed to such hands, and was in hands as vile 
 when he wrote, that St. Paul penned the remarkable 
 declaration, "The powers that be are ordained of 
 God." 
 
 In the reign of Claudius, the abuses of the gov- 
 ernment were scarcely less. He was not personally 
 cruel, but he was a dull, inactive, learned gorman- 
 dizer, and the administration of aifairs fell into the 
 hands of his freedmen and his wives. Pallas, who, 
 once a slave, became the master of the master of 
 the world, possessed in a few years a fortune of a 
 hundred millions of francs, and saw all patrician 
 Rome groveling at his feet. Narcissus, another 
 freedman, his rival, was scarcely less powerful. 
 These creatures, in league with Messalina, or mixed 
 in tangled intrigues with each other, made the 
 reign of Claudius, if less disastrous to the pub- 
 lic, quite as atrocious in the palace as that of Cali- 
 gula, Let me here adopt the words of one of the 
 historians of the Empire. 
 
 "I here close my account of Claudius. Is it not 
 strange that the Empire should have been subject 
 in succession to Caligula, who mocked everything, 
 and to Claudius, whom everybody mocked? Is it 
 not horrible to think that this imperial power over 
 life should have been seized and squabbled for by 
 women, eunuchs, and valets, each drawing from 
 the imbecile Emperor what he desired, one a 
 pardon, one an exile, one gold, and another a pun- 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 185 
 
 ishment? Murders were sold like the other pre- 
 rogatives of power. These creatures passed over 
 to each other the sword of the centurion or the 
 poison of Locusta. Such were the exchanges of 
 men who were to be murdered ; the bargaining and 
 bartering of lives. Under this reign, legal execu- 
 tions and murders were confounded. It was indif- 
 ferently the assassin or the informer, as the case re- 
 quired, that was employed. Men were publicly 
 invited to destroy themselves, or were poisoned by 
 some exquisite dish sent from the table of the 
 prince. If it were the Emperor and Messalina that 
 wished to dispose of an enemy, or to fulfill a con- 
 tract of murder, they carelessly turned to the cen- 
 turion on guard and said to him, 'Go and destroy 
 this man.' If it were a more timid freedman, he 
 sent for Locusta, who proved her loyalty by first 
 showing the power of her poison on a slave. I do 
 not now speak of manners. If I should say half 
 that history records upon this topic I should seem 
 to say too much. But the fearful licentiousness of 
 manners is forgotten in this license, this openness of 
 murder. Think what must have been, in the pres- 
 ence of such crimes among the powerful, the mo- 
 rality of the people, and how readily they would, 
 when they could, imitate the vengeance of their 
 masters. Assassination committed in the name of , 
 authority is a public invitation to every species ofV 
 crime." 
 
 These were the governments which immediately 
 preceded that during which St. Paul wrote his Epis- 
 tle. When he wrote his second Epistle to Timothy, 
 Nero was in his high career of murder, dissipa- 
 tion, and boundless extravagance. Rome had been 
 
186 ST. PAUL IX ROME. 
 
 burned, the Christians martyred, the journey of 
 Nero as imperial singer and fiddler to Greece had 
 been completed, and he had returned with his eight- 
 een hundred laurel crowns all reeking with blood ; 
 proscriptions and murders were multiplied; and St. 
 Paul, in the midst of the mad and cruel misgovern- 
 ment, knew that the hour of his own martyrdom 
 approached, and wrote, "I am ready to be offered, 
 and the time of my departure is at hand." 
 
 Now it must be admitted that if it were ever the 
 function of the Gospel and the church to assail in- 
 stitutions and customs instead of vices of the heart 
 and life, the occasion was presented to St. Paul. 
 But his mission was not directly to attack the evil 
 works of unregenerate men, but to bring men to 
 the cross and to the washing of regeneration, that 
 the fountain of evil works might be dried up. That 
 he should have written and left on record only prin- 
 ciples on which governments should be administered 
 at a period when the world was more than ever mis- 
 governed, and just at the moment when he himself 
 was about to fall a victim to its cruelty and injustice, 
 is the most striking evidence that could be furnished 
 that the Gospel and church and ministry were in- 
 tended, in their direct use and application, as the 
 agency for building up that Kingdom of God which 
 is not of this world. Hence in the Epistle to Timo- 
 thy, so touching, when we recall the circumstances 
 under which it was written, there is no escape from 
 him of the personal feeling of righteous indignation 
 with which we may well suppose him to have been 
 filled; there is no denunciation of the perversion of 
 the heaven-delegated powers of government, by 
 which it had become a terror, not to the evil, but to 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 187 
 
 the good; there is no calling down of tire from 
 Heaven on the guilty rulers who had turned God's 
 benificent institution for the protection of man into 
 an instrument of cruelty and oppression. St. Paul 
 writes for the Kingdom of God of all ages. He 
 occupies himself in giving many and minute direc- 
 tions and exhortations to his son Timothy for the 
 right ordering and establishment of the Church of 
 God. Then, looking forward to his reward, lie ex- 
 claimed: "I have fought the good tight; I have fin- 
 ished my course ; I have kept the faith ; henceforth 
 there is laid up for me a crown which God, the 
 righteous judge, will give me at that day." 
 
 And yet let not these statements of St. Paul's 
 position be misunderstood. The church and the 
 Gospel are not indeed agencies to be employed di- 
 rectly against evil institutions, or perversions of 
 good institutions, but against the sins, and for the 
 sanctification, of the human heart. Yet when in 
 them and by them hearts are made new, and men 
 made holy learn to do justly and to love mercy, 
 then in all their relations they should strive to bring 
 all institutions into conformity to righteousness and 
 love. As citizens they should strive to bring down 
 every citadel of wrong, every habitation of cruelty, 
 by the use of such means as justice and righteous- 
 ness approve. The statement that because a man is 
 a Christian he should shut up all his sympathies and 
 activities within the church, and allow wicked men 
 all around him to build up their structures of in- 
 iquity and oppression without an effort to overthrow 
 them, and with a saintly indifference to the suffer- 
 ings and wrongs which they may intiict, is an insult 
 to his Christian manhood. Because he is a Christian 
 
188 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 he is bound as a man and citizen, always indeed in 
 the spirit of righteousness and truth, to resist wrong, 
 whether it be individual or combined. He is not, it 
 is true, to bring his church, designed for another 
 purpose, to bear against these wrongs. But in that 
 church, a separate spiritual kingdom in the midst of 
 earthly kingdoms, the mountain of the Lord's house, 
 he is to learn the lessons and imbibe the spirit which 
 will fit him to come down into the midst of this bad 
 world's evil, and do brave work for God and man, 
 for righteousness and truth. 
 
 St. Paul, as an inspired teacher of the church, de- 
 clared that the powers that be are ordained of God; 
 but he did not declare that ISTero's government was 
 administered according to God's ordination, or that 
 it was to be always tamely submitted to, and its op- 
 pressions borne, when it became excessively cruel 
 and unjust, as a religious duty; and that it would be 
 w T rong for its citizens to overthrow it in any circum- 
 stances. The duty of the obedience of the citizen 
 and subject is not more clearly announced than that 
 of the just and righteous administration of the ma- 
 gistrate. When duties are reciprocal, it by no means 
 follows that the one remains in undiminished obliga- 
 tion when the other has been wholly and grossly vio- 
 lated. We have the directions of St. Paul, the in- 
 spired teacher of the church, as to the duty of 
 Christians toward established governments, so long 
 as they continue to exert and perform their appro- 
 priate functions. But we have not, for reasons 
 which have been developed in the previous dis- 
 course, his declaration or direction as to the duties 
 or privileges of Christian citizens in reference to 
 the reformation or overthrow of established govern- 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 189 
 
 ments, when they have become hideous and tyranni- 
 cal perversions of all the purposes for which govern- 
 ments were ordained. These were subjects on which 
 they were to decide their own duties on Gospel- 
 principles in the fear of God and in love to man. 
 The principles upon which established governments 
 should be administered and obeyed clearly stated, 
 the circumstances under which the revolution and 
 overthrow of oppressive governments may be a right 
 or duty left undefined and to be settled by the Chris- 
 tian conscience, this is St. Paul's mode of dealing 
 with the powers that be. 
 
 IY. The institutions hitherto enumerated are 
 divine in their origin but utterly perverted in their 
 uses. There were many other established customs 
 which were exceedingly evil in themselves, and in 
 their effects, and wholly inconsistent with the spirit 
 and principles of the Gospel, and of wide-spread dis- 
 astrous influences, to which St. Paul makes no ref- 
 erence in his Epistles. There were desolating wars 
 of aggression and ambition ; there was a system of 
 concubinage recognized by the government; there 
 were corrupting spectacles and cruel gladiatorial 
 fights, and the slaughters of the amphitheater, to 
 which the hard Romans, as if retaining the fierce- 
 ness of the ancestral wolf, were passionately de- 
 voted. Of these I will mention briefly only some 
 of those spectacles which were at once a sign and an 
 instrument of the moral corruption that so fright- 
 fully prevailed. 
 
 The extent to which these spectacles were carried, 
 and the frenzy of devotion to them on the part of 
 the Roman people, seems incredible. One of the 
 chief cares of state was to provide them. No con- 
 
 24 
 
190 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 sul could be popular, uo edile could be tolerated, no 
 candidate for the favor and offices of the people 
 could be successful, who did not provide or furnish 
 them on a scale of great magnificence. A memor- 
 able example of the bloody and cruel spirit in which 
 these spectacles were conducted is furnished in the 
 reign of Claudius. 
 
 s> Julius Caesar had examined the Lake Fucinus in 
 the gorges of the Apennines, and had conceived the 
 project of draining it and recovering it for agricul- 
 tural uses. It was in an elevated position, of wide 
 extent, and subject to an irregular rise and fall and 
 overflow. Augustus had examined the subject and 
 rejected the project of draining the lake as imprac- 
 ticable. Claudius, however, undertook the task 
 from which Augustus had recoiled. He attempted 
 to pierce the Apennines, and to turn the water into 
 \the River Liris. For eleven years thirty thousand 
 'men worked incessantly at the task of opening a 
 I channel three miles long. When it was supposed to 
 be finished, Claudius wished to celebrate the event 
 by a great fete. He surrounded the lake with the 
 r Praetorian guards, and with a rampart provided with 
 | instruments of war. "Within this inclosure, twenty- 
 jfour vessels, divided into two fleets, had sufficient 
 i space to move, and upon these vessels nineteen thou- 
 sand men, condemned to death, were embarked, and 
 commanded to fight to the death for the amusement 
 ' of the people. Vast multitudes from Rome and from 
 ithe neighboring country thronged the shores and 
 1 the circling hills. Nature had provided an amphi- 
 theater far more vast than the Coliseum for a spec- 
 tacle of blood too wide to be crowded into any 
 structure of human make. Claudius presided, with 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 191 
 
 Agrippina seated by his side. The historian men- 
 tions that her robe was of woven gold with no ad- 
 mixture of other material. A silver triton rose from 
 the water and sounded his shell in signal that the 
 combat should begin. Then the poor victims cried, 
 "Csesar, about to die, we salute you!" His unskill- 
 ful and confused answer led some of them to cry 
 out that he had pronounced a pardon. A clamor for 
 mercy rose among them, and for a space they de- 
 layed the fight. Claudius, in a rage, threatened to 
 burn them all alive in the ships, and by rebukes and 
 entreaties persuaded them to return to what he 
 called their duty. The horrible slaughter com- 
 menced. The excitement and applause was un- 
 bounded. They fought fiercely. All perished. 
 Thus was inaugurated an enterprise which was not 
 in fact successful, and was never completed. It has 
 been reserved for a Roman prince, Torlonia, to com- 
 plete what a Roman emperor in vain attempted. 
 The blood-stained waters refused to leave their bed. 
 But the brutal Romans had enjoyed such a holiday 
 as no potentate but a Roman emperor could have 
 furnished, and no people but the degraded populace/ 
 of the Empire could have relished. 
 
 But the spectacles at Rome, what a picture do 
 they present of the tastes and feelings of the people! 
 A father of the church has thus designated them : 
 "The infamy of the circus, the indecency of the 
 theater, the cruelty of the amphitheater, the atrocity 
 of the arena, and the folly of the games." 
 
 At this period all taste for intellectual power or 
 genius in the amusements of the people of every 
 class had disappeared. The only poetry which re- 
 mained was that of the machinist and the painter 
 
192 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 of the scenes. On the stage there must pass troops 
 
 of horses, chariots, elephants, cavalry, and infantry. 
 
 On one occasion six hundred mules passed over the 
 
 stage, laden with the spoils of a captured city ; and 
 
 hundreds of warriors issued from the flanks of a 
 
 /gigantic Trojan horse. Gross reality; brute power; 
 
 Isplendor without imagination and excitement of 
 
 J feeling only from the view of suffering ; these were 
 
 ' the characteristics of this deplorable era. 
 
 A passion for pantomime pervades all ranks. 
 Formerly forbidden at Rome, because of the facili- 
 ties which it furnished for immorality, the professors 
 of the art now teach it in the imperial and patrician 
 halls. 
 
 But all this is frivolous amusement. The bloody 
 arena of gladiators and beasts furnished the serious 
 and stirring occupations of Roman life. 
 
 The more bloody the more acceptable. The com- 
 , bats of beasts with each other, and of men with 
 i beasts, constitute their deepest joys. They will sit 
 ' twelve hours on the marble steps in order to lose no 
 part of the absorbing performance. Pompey brings 
 , six hundred lions into the arena; Augustus four 
 I hundred panthers. In one day five hundred Gatu- 
 * lian prisoners fight against twenty elephants. Gi- 
 raffes and rhinoceroses vary the scene. Augustus 
 in one series of fights in the arena sacrifices thirty- 
 five hundred animals. Trajan holds games for one 
 i hundred and twenty-three days, and on each occa- 
 i sion from one thousand to ten thousand animals are 
 1 slaughtered. Under Titus, five thousand perished 
 ,' in a day. When blood and agony and death become 
 the pastime and exhilaration of a people, homes 
 must be brutal, the government must be despotic, 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 193 
 
 and religion only the worship, because the dread, of 
 power. 
 
 But more exciting than all the other Roman spec- 
 tacles were the gladiatorial combats. It gave to 
 Rome a taste of the excitements of war. The La- 
 nista trained his gladiators in a school or gymnasium, 
 and fed them with raw flesh, that they might be 
 tierce and strong. What they were, or what they 
 became, may be seen from the full-length delinea- 
 tion of some of the most celebrated of them in mo- 
 saic, which were found in the baths of Caracalla, 
 and have been transferred to the museum of the La- 
 teran. The view of those brutal heads and faces, 
 and those brawny limbs, suggests a vivid and dis- 
 gusting conception of the character of the Romans, 
 who made heroes of those trained and stolid mur- 
 derers. The Lanista bought the gladiators if they 
 were slaves, or hired them if they were free. They 
 bound themselves on the penalty of death never to 
 fly or yield until absolutely overcome. In vain did 
 Augustus endeavor to restrain this human slaugh- 
 ter. The Romans had surrendered to him their 
 rights as citizens; but they refused to surrender 
 to him the privilege of being cruel and remorseless. 
 The art of slaying was diversified by pungent varie- 
 ties of murder. The JEssedarii fought in chariots; 
 the Rhetiarii, on foot; the Andabatee, with their eyes 
 bandaged. The Roman people attended these spec- 
 tacles as connoisseurs. They criticised a becomingr 
 agony as they would a representation of it in a statue' 
 or a painting. They applauded a good murder.; . 
 They hissed a victim who fell awkwardly on the\ 
 arena, or seemed afraid to die. All around the in-' 
 closure there was a confused noise of plaudits, cries 
 
194 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 of joy, sentences of death; bets won and bets lost; 
 bravos for a wound or a fall ; bravos for those who 
 kill well and those who die well. ' 
 
 But enough. It suffices to know how largely spec- 
 tacles, most of them utterly brutal and cruel, en- 
 tered into the Roman life, and were cared for by the 
 state, and to find at the same time in Paul's letter, 
 written from Rome, no denunciation of them, to have 
 an additional and striking demonstration of the truth 
 that it was not directly against institutions, however 
 evil, but against the evil heart of man, from which 
 they sprang, that St. Paul directed his efforts. 
 
 I have adduced these extreme cases of wrong and 
 evil in customs and institutions, against which St. 
 Paul makes no direct assaults, in order to demon- 
 strate the fact, strikingly and convincingly, that the 
 Apostle aimed at reforming evil within, even in the 
 hearts of those who administer evil organizations, 
 and practice and profit by evil customs. St. Paul, 
 after the Master, refused to interfere in the sphere 
 of civil or social wrongs, which it belonged to the 
 state or the family to regulate. But this by no 
 means debarred him from denouncing the sins of 
 heart which gave rise to such wrongs, and from ex- 
 hibiting the evil effects of such sins in just such 
 cases as he refused to interfere with or adjudicate. 
 Even a wise human father will rather exhibit to his 
 children the evil of the bad temper and passions 
 from which their dissensions rise, and leave them to 
 adjust them on the principles which he has incul- 
 cated, rather than settle them himself as an arbiter 
 and judge. "When one came to Jesus asking him 
 to compel his brother to divide the inheritance with 
 him, the Saviour, without pausing to inquire into 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 195 
 
 the right or wrong of the request, abruptly refused 
 interference, saying, " Man, who made me a ruler 
 or a divider over you?" Yet if both those brothers 
 had become true disciples of Christ, the most abso- 
 lute justice would have been accomplished; for the 
 one would not have withheld what was due, and the 
 other would not have desired what was not just. 
 Hence the Saviour, adopting the divine method of 
 regulating the evils of the world, struck directly at 
 the root of the dissension which had arisen between 
 them, when he added, " Beware of covetousness." 
 This example of the Master was followed by Paul 
 and all the Apostles. 
 
 How sublime nay, how evidently divine is this 
 procedure! He enjoins men, if subject to unjust 
 laws, to obey them while they exist; but he enjoins 
 rulers to make just laws and to govern justly. He 
 tells the poor to be patient in poverty; but at the 
 same time he tells the rich to relieve it. He bids 
 the wife to obey the husband ; but at the same time 
 enjoins the husband so to love the wife as that her 
 obedience maybe spontaneous and joyful. He bids 
 the slave to obey his master; and at the same time 
 enjoins his master to treat him justly, kindly, and as 
 a brother in the Lord. And that which is a most 
 striking proof of the divine character and mission of 
 the Gospel is that it reforms the world by the singu- 
 lar method of making all classes act against their 
 worldly interests and their passions. It engages the 
 master in the interests of the liberty of the slave, at 
 the same time that it reconciles the slave to bondage. 
 It enables the poor to avoid coveting or demanding 
 the possessions of the rich, and the rich to give of 
 them cheerfully and joyfully to the poor. Its revo- 
 
196 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 lutionizing principles are simply these: immense 
 patience on the part of those who suffer; disinter- 
 ested and voluntary sacrifice are the part of those 
 whq enjoy. 
 
 These are not abstractions : they teach us to com- 
 mence the removal of evil from the world by re- 
 moving it first from our own hearts; and they bid 
 us to be diligent in the most efficient way in dimin- 
 ishing human wretchedness, by promoting divine 
 purity and joy; and at the same time to be patient 
 in the midst of the sorrows and wrongs which fall 
 on others, and peaceful under the trials which befall 
 ourselves. 
 
LECTURE IX. 
 
 ST. PAUL'S POSITION IN REFERENCE TO ESTABLISHED 
 CUSTOMS AND INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest 
 
 receive him forever; 
 Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved. 
 
 PHILEMON, 15, 16. 
 
 have shown that St. Paul did not directly 
 attack established evil customs and institutions, 
 nor even perversions of institutions which were 
 divine. He taught truth and duty. He attacked 
 evil in the heart. He gave laws and directions 
 for the right ordering of the kingdom of God. He 
 fenced it off from all that did not belong to it. He 
 taught in it the duty due in every divine institu- 
 tion, and in every sphere in life. He would not 
 make the church the direct agent in beating down any 
 established customs and institutions; but he incul- 
 cated principles which, by the grace of God, trans- 
 forming the evil heart out of which all evil customs 
 come, would undermine and displace all the struc- 
 tures of iniquity, and all the habitations of cruelty 
 in the world. 
 
 This course of procedure is the more noticeable 
 from the fact that he lived in an era of the world's 
 history when crime was organized and established, 
 and when it would seem to human view as if good 
 
 25 (191) 
 
198 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 could find no place in which to be planted, unless 
 this gigantic growth of evil should be first cut down. 
 All wisdom, except that which was inspired, would 
 have commenced with lopping off the branches and 
 hewing at the trunk of this world-wide upas tree of 
 evil. The wisdom that is divine directed itself to 
 evil in its seeds and in its roots. 
 
 There is another principle of the divine procedure 
 with established customs and institutions which it is 
 necessary that we should understand, before we can 
 study intelligently the course of St. Paul in refer- 
 ence to the slave Onesimus. Divine wisdom does 
 not only abstain from attacking some of those cus- 
 toms and relations, which are evil in their origin 
 and in themselves, but it even enjoins the relative du- 
 ties which they involve, so long as they continue to 
 exist. 
 
 This principle had been already sanctioned by 
 inspiration, speaking through John the Baptist. 
 Nothing could be more adverse to the spirit and 
 precepts of the Gospel than war. It is a guilty 
 perversion of the purposes for which governments 
 were established. Inspiration traces it directly to 
 the lusts that war in our members. (James, iv. 1.) 
 And yet when the soldiers came to John the Bap- 
 tist, demanding of him what shall we do ? (Luke, iii. 
 14,) he did not say, "Refuse to fight abandon your 
 trade of blood leave the army endure scourging 
 or crucifixion rather than be the hired murderers of 
 Caesar;" but he said to them, "Do violence to no 
 man, neither accuse any falsely, and be content with 
 your wages." Here the duties of a relation whose 
 origin is evil is enjoined. Government is divine. 
 Magistracy is of God. The coercion of evil is the 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME, 
 
 proper work of government. War, ^>r ptn*pos<& -of S 
 aggression, on the contrary, is a per 
 pose; and yet as an established institui 
 he enjoined a faithful discharge of the moral duties, 
 and the peculiar obligations which were connected 
 with it. But it certainly does not follow from this 
 fact that war is a divine institution, or that it met 
 the approval of the Saviour. 
 
 The same principle appears in St. Paul's first 
 Epistle to the Corinthians. He declares it to be 
 unlawful for a Christian to marry a heathen. Yet 
 if by the conversion of one party to Christianity, a 
 Christian husband or wife is found to be united to 
 a heathen, he does not enjoin separation. On the 
 contrary, he recommends a continuance in that rela- 
 tion. "If any brother hath a wife that believeth 
 not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him 
 not put her away. And the woman that hath a hus- 
 band that believeth not, and if he be pleased to 
 dwell with her let her not leave him. For the un- 
 believing husband is sanctified by the wife, and the 
 unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband." (1 
 Corin. vii. 14, 15.) Here we see what may be called 
 the sanctified common sense ; the plain and practical 
 wisdom of the ethics of Christianity. St. Paul for- 
 bids a certain relation; when, however, it is found 
 in fact existing, without the guilt which would have 
 arisen from its voluntary adoption, he does not de- 
 clare that it should be broken, but prescribes the 
 duties which it involves. His injunction of the du- 
 ties which belong to the relation evidently consti- 
 tutes no sanction or approbation of the institution. 
 
 By the light of these principles we see the error 
 of those who have considered that slavery has re- 
 
200 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 ceived the divine approbation, and is as really a di- 
 vine institution as the family and the state. The 
 Scriptures indeed prescribe the duties of this rela- 
 tion. St. Paul often enlarges on the reciprocal obli- 
 gations of master and slave. But we have seen that 
 it is not the divine mode of procedure to attack hu- 
 man institutions which are the expression or the 
 stimulant of evil ; but to correct the evil heart out of 
 which they spring, and while they exist to prescribe 
 the mutual duties which arise in them. God from 
 the beginning has enjoined the union of one man 
 and woman as alone lawful, and proclaims the mar- 
 riage of a second wife to be adultery; and yet when 
 among the Jews concubinage, or secondary marriage, 
 became established, God at the same time leaves the 
 law unrepealed, and yet forbears to denounce as evil 
 all who have adopted this evil custom. David re- 
 ceives many divine directions; but none that I am 
 aware of to the effect that he should repudiate all 
 his wives but one. And there is one remarkable 
 record in reference to King Joash, which seems to 
 show that this toleration on the part of God of an 
 evil when it became established, had led even a 
 prophet to suppose that because it had not been 
 condemned after it had been practiced, it might be 
 lawful to originate the practice. In the same verses 
 which declare that Joash did that which was right 
 in the sight of the Lord, it is announced that two 
 wives were selected for him. "And Joash did that 
 which was right in the sight of the Lord all the days 
 of Jehoida the priest ; and Jehoida took for him two 
 wives, and he begat sons and daughters." 
 
 Wars are the outgrowth of human sin, and John 
 the Baptist does not abolish the function, but pro- 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 201 
 
 scribes the duties of the soldier. Christians should 
 not marry heathens; but if they find themselves in 
 that relation it is not to be dissolved, but rather the 
 new and sacred duties which arise from it are to be 
 discharged. In like manner slavery, an existing in- 
 stitution, protected by the laws and part of the con- 
 stitution of the state, though cruel in its origin and 
 unjust in its very nature, is not denounced as that 
 which must be at once destroyed; but on the con- 
 trary, it is described as a relation which involves re- 
 ciprocal and solemn obligations. "We cannot, from 
 this divinely wise and practical spirit in which Chris- 
 tianity deals with human evil, organized into systems 
 and institutions, conclude that they are approved of 
 God ; and much less can we infer that they are divine 
 in origin and obligation. We cannot turn back to 
 tolerated polygamy, and say that it was established. 
 "We cannot enroll war among the duties of man, be- 
 cause John the Baptist specifies the moral duties of 
 the soldier whose profession is war. E~or, in like 
 manner, can we infer slavery to be approved or en- 
 joined because the master is exhorted to be just 
 and merciful, and the slave to be faithful and obe- 
 dient. 
 
 We may advance a step further. The absence of 
 condemnation is not to be construed as approbation. 
 St. Paul was at Home when the cruel sports of the 
 amphitheater the slaughter of beasts and men in 
 combat was an absorbing passion with the Ro- 
 mans. Yet in his letter from Rome there is not a 
 word of condemnation of this enormous sin. It is 
 absurd to conclude that this bloody pastime met with 
 his approbation. We cannot conclude therefore 
 that because St. Paul did not specially condemn 
 
202 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 slavery in his Epistles, that he regarded it as just 
 and right. 
 
 In these two principles then, viz., that of not at- 
 tacking evil institutions but the evil heart from 
 which they come, and that of prescribing the duties 
 of relations which are established, we find an expla- 
 nation of St. Paul's treatment of slavery, and of One- 
 simus the slave. 
 
 I. In the Epistles which St. Paul wrote from Rome 
 there are several exhortations to masters and slaves. 
 " Servants, obey in all things your masters according 
 to the flesh; not with eye-service, as men pleasers; 
 but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And what- 
 soever ye do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord, and 
 not unto men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall 
 receive the reward of the inheritance; for ye serve 
 the Lord Christ. " But he that doeth wrong shall re- 
 ceive for the wrong which he hath done : and there 
 is no respect of persons." (Col. iii. 22-25.) Here 
 Christian slaves are addressed as those who owe a 
 duty to their masters; duty which should be ren- 
 dered as unto the Lord and not unto men. They 
 serve the Lord Christ; they shall receive from him 
 reward; if they do wrong they shall be punished. 
 Then follows an exhortation to masters. "Masters, 
 give unto your servants that which is just and equal, 
 knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven." 
 (Col. iv. 1.) Here the reciprocal obligation of jus- 
 tice on the part of the master, and fidelity on the 
 part of the slave, are clearly enjoined. 
 
 The same exhortations, in words almost identical, 
 are repeated in the Epistle to the Ephesians. (vi. 
 5-9.) 
 
 II. In precise harmony with these injunctions 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 203 
 
 was St. Paul's treatment of the case of the slave 
 Onesimus. He belonged to Philemon, a member of 
 the church of Colosse. He may have known of St. 
 Paul in his master's house. He may have resorted 
 to the Apostle for the relief of his destitution. How- 
 ever this may be, he came to him and was converted 
 to the faith of Christ and confessed his sins against 
 his master. St. Paul seems to have been strongly 
 attracted toward Onesimus. It should be remem- 
 bered in this connection that slaves were frequently 
 persons of education and refinement. St. Paul 
 speaks of him as one who might be profitable to 
 him in his work. He wishes to retain him in Rome 
 as a fellow-helper. Yet he would not violate the 
 law of the state which made him the property of 
 his master. He would not assume, on the higher 
 grounds of the religious obligations of Philemon, 
 to decide for Mm that it was his duty to release his 
 slave. He therefore sent him to his master with 
 Tychicus, who was charged with the Epistle to the 
 Colossians. It is in this very Epistle, which Onesi- 
 mus, with Tychicus, carried to Colosse, that the 
 most full exposition of the duties of master and ser- 
 vant contained in the New Testament are to be 
 found. He intimated his wish to Philemon that 
 Onesimus might be released for the sake of the 
 church, but he left the decision of the question to 
 his own sense of duty. The letter which he wrote 
 by Onesimus is a model of delicacy, Christian mod- 
 eration, and affection. A part of it, in the transla- 
 tion of Conybeare and Howson, I subjoin. 
 
 ''Wherefore, although in the authority of Christ, 
 I might boldly enjoin upon thee that which is befit- 
 ting, yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee, as 
 
204 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 Paul the aged and now also prisoner of Jesus Christ. 
 I beseech thee for my son whom I have now begot- 
 ten in my chains, Onesimus; who formerly was to 
 thee unprofitable, but now is profitable both to thee 
 and me. Whom I have sent back to thee; but do 
 thou receive him as my own flesh and blood. For 
 I would gladly retain him to myself, that he might 
 render service to me in thy stead, while I am a pris- 
 oner, for declaring the glad tidings; but I am un- 
 willing to do anything without thy decision; that 
 thy kindness may not be constrained but voluntary. 
 For perhaps to this very end he was parted from thee 
 for a time that thou mightest possess him forever; 
 no longer as a bondsman but above a bondsman, 
 a brother beloved; very dear to me, but how much 
 more to thee, being thine own both in the flesh and 
 in the Lord. If then thou count me in fellowship 
 with thee, receive him as myself. But whatsoever 
 he has wronged thee of or owes thee, reckon it to 
 my account. I, Paul, write this with mine own 
 hand. I will repay it; for I would not say that thou 
 owest to me even thine own self besides. Yet, 
 brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord; com- 
 fort my heart in Christ. I write in full confidence 
 of thy obedience, knowing that thou wilt do even 
 more than I say." (8-21.) 
 
 Let us now endeavor to deduce from this Epistle 
 some of the truths and principles which it contains 
 in reference to the institution of slavery. 
 
 1. There is no reason to infer, from the case of 
 Onesimus, that St. Paul approved of the. institution 
 of slavery, or considered it to be in accordance with 
 the spirit and precepts of the Gospel. There is no 
 such approbation expressed. There is none im- 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 205 
 
 plied. The failure to condemn does not, as we have 
 seen, conclude approbation. The exhortations to 
 perform the reciprocal obligations of this relation, 
 as we have also seen, do not imply that the relation 
 itself is right and just, such as Christians should 
 originate and perpetuate, but only that while it does 
 continue, the moral duties which it involves should 
 be faithfully discharged. 
 
 2. But there is a recognition of the right of Phil- 
 emon, in accordance with the then existing laws, to 
 claim the services of his slave. This is evidently 
 regarded by St. Paul as the civil right of his friend. 
 St. Paul does not raise or touch the question whether 
 it ought ever to have become an established right. 
 As a Christian teacher, he does not feel called upon 
 to discuss the justice of the laws or institutions of 
 the state, but only in a general way to enjoin obedi- 
 ence to the powers that be and the laws that are. 
 Christianity, leavening minds and hearts and con- 
 sciences and communities, will gradually remove 
 unrighteous institutions and improve all human 
 legislation. But in the mean time he recognizes the 
 legal and vested right of Philemon to the services 
 of Onesimus. This is implied in the fact that he 
 sends him to Philemon, with the request that he 
 would release him from the obligation. If it had 
 not been a right on the part of Philemon, St. Paul 
 would not have requested him to waive it. Had it 
 been a civil right, yet religiously wrong in Phile- 
 mon, under the circumstances in which he was 
 placed, St. Paul would have forbidden it by his 
 Apostolic authority. But he expressly forbears from 
 commanding, and limits himself to entreating. So 
 that while we have no evidence and no hint that he 
 
 26 
 
206 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 approved of the institution in itself, we see that as 
 one which existed and was protected by the laws, he 
 recognizes its rights and duties. 
 
 3. Yet while St. Paul plainly admits the right of 
 Philemon to the services of Onesimus, there is no 
 reason to infer that he felt himself under a legal ob- 
 ligation to remand him to his master. This case 
 has been singularly treated as if it were one in 
 which St. Paul felt himself bound to send back his 
 son in the Gospel to servitude, in obedience to some 
 existing fugitive slave law, or from a sense of reli- 
 gious obligation to the institution of slavery. But 
 of this there is not the shadow of a proof. Onesi- 
 mus may have desired to return. He may have felt 
 that he had been ungrateful to his master, and now 
 as a Christian he may have desired to render due 
 reparation. It is intimated by St. Paul that he had 
 defrauded his master, and now as a sincere Christian 
 he might wish to go and confess his faults, and to 
 the best of his ability make amends. St. Paul might 
 have approved and encouraged his purpose to re- 
 turn to his master on these grounds. He might 
 have done the same thing if Onesimus had been an 
 apprentice or a free laborer. It was no case of the 
 rendition of a fugitive slave in obedience to legal or 
 moral obligation, or in the interests of slavery. St. 
 Paul may have sent Onesimus at his own request. 
 It is certain that true religious principle should 
 have made him desirous to return, and would have 
 prompted Paul to encourage him to fulfill that desire. 
 
 4. And, moreover, though St. Paul evidently ac- 
 knowledges Philemon's legal right to the services 
 of his slave as aforetime, and though he does not 
 expressly declare that it would be morally or reli- 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 207 
 
 giously wrong to enforce that legal right, he just as 
 evidently did not send him hack with the purpose 
 or the expectation that he would he remanded to 
 slavery. Much less is there anything to prove, as 
 has been asserted, that the great object for which 
 St. Paul sent back Onesimus was that the relation 
 should be renewed and rendered perpetual. He 
 did not say, "It is your religious duty, Onesimus, to 
 go back and put yourself again in bondage ; and it 
 is equally your religious duty, Philemon, to keep 
 him there." It is most evident that he had no such 
 object. On the contrary, his object seems to have 
 been, that inasmuch as Onesimus had now become 
 a Christian, he should return to his wronged and 
 defrauded master, and as a Christian, on Christian 
 grounds, such as would have been obligatory if he 
 had not been a slave but only a hired servant, put 
 himself in a right relation to his master, and that 
 his master should put himself in a right relation to 
 his penitent and converted slave. If St. Paul had 
 wished Onesimus to be remanded into bondage, he 
 would have expressed the wish. 
 
 5. And yet it is quite possible, in view of St. 
 Paul's exhortations to master and slave, to imagine 
 a case somewhat different from what I suppose that 
 of Onesimus to have been, in which St. Paul might 
 have recommended the Christian slave to have re- 
 turned into bondage, and in which he might have 
 enjoined the Christian master to retain him in that 
 position. I mention such a supposable case for the 
 purpose of showing how different the application of 
 the same principles may be when the circumstances 
 differ. If, as in the case of Onesimus, a slave had 
 defrauded his master, it would be his duty to return 
 
208 ST. PAUL IX ROME. 
 
 when he became a Christian, and -acknowledge his 
 fault, and put himself in a right moral relation to 
 him. And if, moreover, he was one who had be- 
 come unfit for any other position, and unable to pro- 
 vide for himself and family, and if in his master's 
 service he could have enjoyed good religious privi- 
 leges, we can well believe that St. Paul might have 
 recommended not only that he should return and 
 confess his wrong, but also that he should return to 
 bondage, and that the master should keep him in 
 that position. In that case the Apostle might ap- 
 propriately have repeated the exhortations which 
 are found in his Epistles. This course of proceed- 
 ing would have been in perfect harmony with the 
 principles which we discern in his teachings and his 
 conduct. 
 
 6. But it appears very plain that St. Paul did not 
 consider that the institution of slavery remained on 
 the same footing, when master and slave became 
 Christians, as it was before. Its legal status, indeed, 
 was not changed, but neither master nor slave took 
 the same view as before of its prerogatives on the one 
 hand, nor its duties on the other. That was not law- 
 ful in the eye of the master which was lawful in the 
 eye of the law. That was not duty in the view of 
 the slave which law and custom had enjoined as 
 duty. On the one hand, the master did not feel it to 
 be right to exercise cruelty, or to enjoin immoral 
 and polluting services upon his slave. On the other 
 hand, the slave did not feel it his duty to obey com- 
 mands which would involve a denial of his Master 
 in heaven, or a violation of the law of God. It is 
 evident that this change in the moral position of the 
 parties completely changed the character of the in- 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 209 
 
 stitution, and took from it just those elements which 
 constituted it slavery, in contradistinction to other 
 menial service. This fact appears from the language 
 of St. Paul. Says the Apostle, "For perhaps he 
 departed for a season that thou shouldst receive him 
 forever, not now as a servant, but above a servant, a 
 brother beloved specially to me, but how much more 
 unto thee both in the flesh and in the Lord." Here 
 St. Paul states explicitly that by becoming a Chris- 
 tian he had become a brother, and was no longer as 
 a servant but above a servant. It is as much as if 
 he had said to him, "I send Onesimus to you, recog- 
 nizing your legal right, if, on the whole, you shall 
 conclude to exercise it, to his services.- Without 
 entering upon any questions as to the justice of this 
 relation, I have, as you remember, enjoined the re- 
 ciprocal duties which it involves so long as it con- 
 tinues. They are, you observe, very different from 
 what, on heathen grounds, have been hitherto ac- 
 cepted. The slave is not now to be regarded as 
 merely an animated thing, to be used with no recog- 
 nition of his rights as a man, and no recognition of 
 his brotherhood. He is now above a servant, in the 
 heathen sense of that term. As you are both Chris- 
 tians, both and equally the purchased possession of 
 the Master, both redeemed and loved by the same 
 God and Saviour, he is no longer a servant but a 
 brother beloved. If you should still retain him in 
 the relation of servant, lay to heart, as I have en- 
 joined Onesimus to lay to heart, the injunctions 
 which I have given to both parties who sustain to 
 each other that relation." 
 
 7. Thus by sending Onesimus to his master, and 
 therefore recognizing his claim to the services of his 
 
210 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 slave recognizing them still further by the earnest 
 request that he would waive them for the sake of 
 the church and from affection to himself, "Xow 
 Paul the aged," the Apostle yet speaks as if, al- 
 though he entreats Philemon he might command him: 
 "wherefore though I might be much bold in Christ 
 to enjoin that which is convenient, yet for love's 
 sake I rather beseech thee, being such an one as 
 Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus 
 Christ." What is it that St. Paul claims he might 
 have commanded? Not certainly that he should 
 have emancipated his slave on the ground that it was 
 a relation which it was wicked for him for a mo- 
 ment to sustain. This cannot be, because he had 
 enjoined the reciprocal duties of that relation. It 
 could not be, that he, as a ruler in the spiritual 
 kingdom, possessed a power of abrogating, even in 
 individual cases, the laws and institutions of states ; 
 for he had written, "let every soul be subject to the 
 higher powers!" It must have been on some other 
 ground that St. Paul claimed that he might have en- 
 joined Philemon to release Onesimus. St. Paul was 
 an inspired Apostle of the church, and specially 
 designated to the Apostleship of the Gentiles. 
 Philemon is called a fellow-laborer with St. Paul. 
 Whether in the ministry or a layman, he had ac- 
 cepted the position as a laborer for the Gospel, under 
 the guidance of the inspired Apostle. As such the 
 Apostle possessed the right to enjoin upon him what 
 was necessary for the prosperity of the kingdom of 
 God, to whose interests he was consecrated. Phile- 
 mon was at liberty to manumit his slaves. But St. 
 Paul does not say that he w^s bound to do it on the 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 211 
 
 ground of moral obligation, because slaveholding in 
 all cases and circumstances is, like theft and adul- 
 tery, always sin. At liberty, but not necessarily 
 bound, on moral grounds, to manumit his slaves, 
 Philemon might yet be under moral or religious 
 obligations to do it from regard to the interests of 
 the church. The freedom of Onesimus might be 
 necessary that he might do sendee to Paul, or other 
 service as a fellow- worker in the Gospel. It is on 
 this ground that he claims that he might have been 
 bold to command. But he prefers to beseech. " "Whom 
 I would have retained with me that in thy stead he 
 might have administered to me in the bonds of the 
 Gospel. But without thy mind would I do nothing; 
 that thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity 
 but willingly." St. Paul offers personally to pay 
 whatever Onesimus may owe his master. "If he 
 have wronged thee, or owe thee aught, put that on 
 my account. I, Paul, have written it with my own 
 hand; I will repay it." He thus removes in advance 
 the obstacles which might make Philemon perhaps 
 indisposed to accede to his request; and then con- 
 cludes with the expression of his confidence that 
 he will do even more than he has been requested. 
 
 Such, so far as I have been able to educe them, 
 are the views and principles by which St. Paul was 
 guided in the treatment of this remarkable case of 
 Onesimus. As the subject is one of much difficulty, 
 I beg leave to connect the points which I have made 
 in one brief statement : 
 
 (1) St. Paul, in the case of Onesimus, neither ex- 
 presses nor implies an approval of the institution of 
 slavery as in accordance with the spirit and precepts of 
 
212 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 the Gospel; (2) yet he recognizes the legal right of 
 Philemon to claim the services of his slave, while (3) 
 at the same time he does not admit any legal or 
 moral obligation on himself to remand that slave to 
 his master; nor (4) does he send him back in the 
 interests of slavery, in order that his bondage may 
 be renewed and rendered perpetual; (5) though 
 St. Paul might, under some circumstances, have en- 
 joined or recommended a servant to return into 
 bondage, and the master to render it perpetual, yet 
 (6) it is evident from his language in this case, that 
 if this should be done, Christianity would have com- 
 pletely changed the relation of the parties from what 
 it had been under heathenism, and that the slave 
 was not to be regarded as a thing, or an animal for 
 mere use and profit, but as a brother beloved in the 
 Lord; (7) it appears also, that although St. Paul 
 claims that he might have commanded what he re- 
 quests, he does it, not on the ground of divine au- 
 thority over human enactments, but by virtue of his 
 Apostolic authority, and in behalf of the church of 
 God. 
 
 To that impatient spirit which expects the king- 
 dom of God to come with observation, this proceed- 
 ing of St. Paul may seem to have been, slow and 
 circuitous, and scarcely consistent with that sincerity 
 and godly simplicity which he himself so earnestly 
 enjoins. It would even seem as if there were some 
 good Christians who would have preferred that this 
 Epistle had not been written. Yet if it were not in 
 the Sacred Canon, we should be without a remark- 
 able practical exemplification of the mode by which 
 the Gospel removes the evils that prevail in the 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 213 
 
 world. It is good gaining on and supplanting evil, 
 as the light, by penetrating into, dispels and sup- 
 plants the darkness. One might as well accuse the 
 growing dawn of a compromise with darkness, as to 
 charge upon St. Paul's Epistle to Philemon a Chris- 
 tian sanction to slavery. It is an Epistle eminently 
 profitable for "instruction in righteousness." 
 
 27 
 
LECTURE X. 
 
 For perhaps he departed from thee for a season that thou shouldst 
 receive him forever. 
 
 Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved. PHIL- 
 EMON, 15, 16. 
 
 IN a previous Lecture I have explained the rela- 
 tion of St. Paul to the institution of slavery as 
 illustrated in his treatment of the ease of the slave 
 Onesimus. 
 
 III. That St. Paul's proceedings in this case arose 
 from his fixed principle that the kingdom of God 
 was not directly to assault human customs and in- 
 stitutions and the laws of states, will appear beyond 
 all question if we consider the condition of slaves 
 at the period when Paul wrote from Rome. It 
 would be an insult to the Apostle to suppose for a 
 moment that he could have approved of an institu- 
 tion so utterly inhuman. It shows him to have been 
 restrained and guided by a wisdom from above that 
 he could have abstained from forbidding Christians 
 from holding such a relation as that of master to a 
 slave. Let us look at the institution of slavery as it 
 then existed at Rome, and as St. Paul saw it beneath 
 his eye when he penned his Epistle to the Colossians, 
 and sent it by Tychicus and Onesimus. 
 
 The condition of the common plebeian or field 
 
 slave among the Romans was excessively wretched. 
 
 Placed upon the block of a slave dealer in the 
 
 Forum, and exposed like any other merchandise 
 
 (214) 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 215 
 
 for sale, lie could be purchased for what in modern 
 value would be five hundred francs, or one hundred 
 dollars. The janitor, or door-keeper, was sold with 
 the house. The vicarius, or servant of a slave, was 
 not so much regarded as the animals of whose com- 
 fort he had reason to be envious. The master in 
 some cases personally knew but few of the slaves 
 that thronged his courts, and would condescend to 
 communicate with them only through an agent, or 
 by the medium of imperious gestures. The slave 
 was not regarded as a man, and the Romans were 
 accustomed to use neuter and abstract terms to de- 
 scribe him. He was not so often called servus, a ser- 
 vant, as servitium, service ; not so frequently homo, a 
 man, as corpus, & body, or mancipium, property. Ac- 
 cording to law he was only a thing. One of the 
 common descriptions given of the slave was that he 
 was an animated tool, and of a tool that he was an 
 inanimate slaye. If he injures the property of an- 
 other, it is the master who must make indemnity. 
 If he is injured or slain by another, indemnity is 
 made to the master. As he is not regarded as a 
 man, engagements with him are not considered 
 binding, and he has no rights which a freeman is 
 bound to respect. 
 
 It results from the same cause that he can have no 
 wife, no family, no relations. His wife, if he is al- 
 lowed by the gratuitous kindness of the master a 
 quasi marriage, or contubernium, is not his, nor his 
 children his, in any true sense of right or possession ; 
 for they belong absolutely to another, and can be 
 taken from him, and used in any way the master 
 pleases, at any moment. Among slaves there can 
 be neither husband, nor wife, nor father, nor mother, 
 
216 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 nor children. Nay, the slave is not permitted to have 
 a god. Cato the elder, with that rigid and remorse- 
 less logic which distinguished him, wrote that the 
 master only could perform religious rites for the 
 slaves, and that they must not presume to make any 
 offerings to the gods without the permission of their 
 master. This was the Roman right and law. A 
 kind master, indeed, would permit his slaves to cel- 
 ebrate some low rites connected with religion, but 
 they all bore the stamp of the debasement which be- 
 longed to his condition. The shepherds enjoyed 
 their rude sacrificial rites, in which wild revelry and 
 license prevailed. The slaves in the city were per- 
 mitted to enjoy their saturnalia and the women their 
 matronales; but all these were gifts and concessions 
 from their masters, which might be at any time with- 
 held. 
 
 Although it was not altogether impossible for 
 slaves to purchase their freedom in peculiarly favor- 
 able circumstances, and on the indispensable condi- 
 tion of the good- will of the master, yet it was exceed- 
 ingly difficult. 
 
 The Emperors Claudius and Augustus had at- 
 tempted to limit the arbitrary and absolute right of 
 the master over the person and life of the slave. 
 But manners and habits proved stronger than laws. 
 As the nation grew more cruel and more devoted to 
 the sports of the amphitheater, and more careless of 
 human life, it would not be likely to grow more kind 
 and considerate to the slave. Juvenal, in a well- 
 known passage, depicts a woman who, with no mo- 
 tive but caprice, consigns her slave to the cross. 
 Pollio fed his eels with the flesh of slaves. The 
 crosses upon the Esquiline hill, with the bodies of 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 217 
 
 crucified slaves polluting the air, or with their 
 ghastly skeletons rattling in the wind, constantly re- 
 minded the slave to beware how he provoked the 
 omnipotence of the master. When the slaves grew 
 old they were sent to an island in the Tiber, where 
 the sick and infirm were deserted, left, as it was 
 said, to the care of Esculapius. Cato the elder 
 said to a friend, "If you are a good manager, you 
 will sell your slave and your horse when they are 
 old." 
 
 The number of slaves held by the rich Romans 
 was very great. They were counted by the hundred 
 and the thousand. Seneca was opposed to any ex- 
 ternal badges being borne by them by which they 
 might be designated, lest, perceiving their numbers 
 and strength, they might rise and overpower the citi- 
 zens. He mentions one house in Rome in which 
 there were four hundred slaves. He describes De- 
 metrius, a freedman of Pompey, and richer than his 
 master, who built the theater which went under 
 Pompey's name, as receiving, every night, like the 
 general of an army, an account of the effective force 
 of his slaves. And yet they lived in constant terror 
 of assassination. There was a Roman proverb, 
 "So many slaves, so many enemies." True, slaves 
 guarded their doors and corridors and chambers, but 
 who should guard them against their guards ? The 
 usual resource of terror is cruelty, and it was most 
 remorselessly applied toward the slaves. If a master 
 was slain by a slave, the law provided that all the 
 slaves of the household, innocent and guilty, should 
 be punished with death. A shocking instance of 
 this cruel injustice had occurred at Rome just pre- 
 vious to Paul's arrival. It had startled even the 
 
218 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 imbruted populace of Rome by its unusual horror, 
 and led to a practical modification of the law. A 
 man of consular dignity was slain by one of his 
 slaves. Four hundred slaves, men, women, and 
 children, passed along in mournful procession to 
 execution. The Forum was agitated; the people 
 were roused almost into a revolt; and the Senate 
 House was besieged for mercy while the weeping 
 train passed on to death. It was all in vain. The 
 law took its course. Four hundred innocent persons 
 perished for the crime of one. 
 
 That which added to the horror of this event was 
 the vindication of it which was made in the Senate. 
 Some of the Senators had recoiled before the exe- 
 cution of this horrible law in a case where so many 
 persons were the victims. But an old and learned 
 lawyer, Cassius, charged with the task of resisting 
 these weak-minded innovators upon the sacred cus- 
 toms of their ancestors, spoke in the true dialect of 
 all advocates of prescriptive wrongs. "Shall we 
 seek for reasons against a custom which our ances- 
 tors, wiser than we, have established ? Among four 
 hundred slaves, if all were not in the plot, is it pos- 
 sible that not one suspected, not one knew, the guilty 
 one? And if information had been given by that 
 one, would not the murder have been prevented? 
 But you say that many innocent persons perish with 
 the guilty. That is true ; but when an army is found 
 wanting in courage, and is decimated, both brave 
 men and cowards incur the chances of the lot. There 
 is always something of injustice in every great ex- 
 ample, but the wrong inflicted upon the few is com- 
 pensated by the advantage of the many." 
 
 Such was slavery at Rome when St. Paul wrote 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 219 
 
 his Epistles from that city. Its condition was no 
 better in Asia Minor, to which Philemon and Ones- 
 imus belonged. It is just as certain that St. Paul 
 abhorred the system as that he hated sin. Thus ab- 
 horring it he might have pursued toward it another 
 course. He might have denounced it and exhibited 
 its hideous cruelty. The denunciation would have 
 been just. He might have shown its utter incon- 
 sistency with the precepts and spirit of the Gospel. 
 His demonstration would have been complete. He 
 might have forbidden Christians to sustain the rela- 
 tion. He might have instructed the slave that he 
 was free of the master, and the master that he had 
 no right to his slave. What would have been the 
 result? He would then have employed the church 
 in the settlement of an affair of the state. He 
 would have placed the church in conflict with the 
 state. He would have falsified the Saviour's decla- 
 ration that his kingdom was not of this world. He 
 would have brought persecution upon the church, 
 destroyed the master, and not benefited the slave. 
 
 IV. But now observe the divine wisdom of the 
 course which he did pursue. He gave Christians 
 such precepts, and bade them pursue such a course 
 as would have destroyed the main evils of the insti- 
 tution while it continued to exist, and would have 
 led to its speedy extinction. If Christians should have 
 acted upon St. Paul's exhortations, then the institu- 
 tion, in all its essential peculiarities, would have been 
 destroyed. When masters were told to remember that 
 they should be such masters to their servants as God 
 was to them, when they were bidden to give to them 
 that which was just and equal, it is evident that the 
 whole system of slavery would be destroyed in all 
 
220 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 its essential features by the practice of that simple 
 principle. For the system was in its nature, and by 
 its very definition, unjust and unequal. The slave 
 was not a man ; his feelings were not to be regarded ; 
 he had no rights to himself, his wife, or children ; he 
 might be overtasked, beaten, and killed, at pleasure. 
 Now to give him what was just and equal would be 
 to treat him as a man, to render for his services the 
 same return that he would to any other man, to re- 
 gard his feelings, to admit his rights to his wife and 
 children, to punish him only for what was wrong, 
 and in the measure proportioned to his wrong-doing. 
 To have treated him in this manner would have been 
 to have destroyed all that was peculiar in practice in 
 the institution 'of slavery, and to have left only its 
 name and its legal tenure of property in the slave. 
 To have acted in this manner would have led 
 Christians to perceive that the doing of that which 
 was just and equal to the slave would inevitably 
 lead to the duty of bestowing upon him freedom. 
 This was in fact the logic and this the practice of 
 the early Christians. 
 
 The practical operation of this principle is seen 
 clearly in the case of Onesimus. St. Paul sent him 
 back with the implied admission of Philemon's 
 legal claims to his services as a slave. Yet he ex- 
 horts him to regard him no longer as a servant, but 
 above a servant, as a brother in the Lord. A brother 
 in the Lord! Then he was bound to give as much 
 as he received. It was not possible for him at the 
 same time to treat him as a Christian brother and a 
 slave. It is not to treat one as a Christian brother 
 to hold him as property, to deprive him of freedom, 
 and to exact labor from him without compensation. 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 221 
 
 The man who treats another as a slave would not 
 believe that he was treated like a Christian brother 
 if he was subjected to that condition. St. Paul re- 
 quests Philemon to receive and treat Onesimus as 
 his own flesh, his own son. Now surely the Apostle 
 would not have wished his own flesh, his own son, to 
 be used and treated as a slave; nor would he have 
 felt that he had acceded to his request if he had still 
 kept Onesimus in bondage. And again, St. Paul 
 begs Philemon to receive Onesimus as himself. 
 Surely he would not wish or expect himself to be 
 received and treated as a slave by his Christian 
 friend and brother. These expressions make it 
 perfectly evident that nothing was further from the 
 intention of St. Paul, when he sent Onesimus to his 
 master, than to remand him to bondage. 
 
 It is indeed impossible for a master to regard his 
 slave as a Christian brother. The two relations are 
 contradictory, the one to the other. Brotherhood 
 implies equality of nature and of rights. Master- 
 ship implies inequality of one or both. Hence one 
 cannot at the same time consider himself as a mas- 
 ter and a brother, and look upon another as at once 
 his brother and his property. 
 
 And here let me add that these principles were 
 practically applied, and produced their legitimate 
 results in Home and in other portions of the world. 
 Says the author of Christian Rome, " Soon, only a 
 hundred years after the birth of Christ, a prefect of 
 Rome, Hermes, freed 1250 slaves on the day of his 
 conversion. Under Diocletian, another prefect of 
 the great city, Cromacus, gave liberty to 1400 slaves, 
 who received baptism with him. ' Those who have 
 become the children of God,' he cried, 'ought not to 
 
 28 
 
222 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 be the slaves of a man.' " The same thought, it will 
 also be remembered, had already been in the heart 
 of the virgins Praxedes and Prudentiana, who eman- 
 cipated their slaves. The Pagans smiled in pity. 
 They reproached the Christians with admitting into 
 their number abject and ignoble souls. "Have you 
 not among you," they demanded, "the rich and 
 poor, the master and the slave?" "No," replied 
 Lactantius, "it is because we believe all are equal, 
 that we employ the word ''brethren.' Though there 
 be a diversity of conditions among us, there is at least 
 no place for slaves; and religiously we are all the 
 servants of God." 
 
 The thought may have occurred to the minds of 
 my readers, "If St. Paul did not directly attack 
 slavery, is it right for you to enter upon this exposi- 
 tion, and to express the condemnation which he 
 withheld?" The same thought has occurred many 
 times to myself. But observe this distinction. St. 
 Paul would not employ the -church as the direct 
 agent in beating down slavery. Nor \vould I. But 
 the Apostle adopted a certain principle in dealing 
 with this question. I would understand and explain 
 this principle. St. Paul uttered certain exhortations 
 to masters and slaves. I would study them and en- 
 deavor to comprehend their real purport and signifi- 
 cance. This is what I have attempted. It is an 
 interpretation ef Scripture which I consider, criticise, 
 and condemn. It has been as I believe errone- 
 ously explained to sustain slavery. I would show 
 that it condemns slavery as a moral relation between 
 Christians, and between man and man. I find that 
 St. Paul announced principles which, if they were 
 carried out, would certainly overthrow slavery; but 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 223 
 
 that he refrained from applying them directly to that 
 institution at a time when such an application would 
 have convulsed the state, have led to a persecution 
 of the church, and have made the condition of the 
 slave still more deplorable. In like manner, in 
 similar circumstances, before the rebellion, when the 
 agitation of this subject tended to convulse the States, 
 and rend the churches, and make the condition of the 
 slaves worse than before, I refrained, together with 
 most of my brethren of the church to which I be- 
 long, from making a direct application of these 
 principles to the institution of slavery, as it exists in 
 our country. But now I feel that I act, and that the 
 honored fathers and presbyters of the church act, 
 precisely in the spirit of St. Paul, when* we make a 
 direct application of these principles against slavery 
 in our land; because the admission and the practice 
 of these principles are the only means which can 
 now give peace to a convulsed country, and har- 
 mony to divided churches; and because the word 
 now uttered in behalf of the poor slave is not a blow 
 to rivet, but a blow to break his fetters. That which 
 it was a duty to abstain from doing before the rebel- 
 lion, it has now become a duty to do. 
 
 V. It is impossible that the consideration of this 
 subject should not have turned our thoughts to the 
 system of slavery as it exists in the United States. 
 In one respect I think it is much worse than Roman 
 slavery; and that is in the subjection and degrada- 
 tion of a whole race. There were slaves of many 
 nationalities and many complexions among the Ro- 
 mans; but no one nation or race was set apart as a 
 lower species of the human family, as a slave race, 
 fitted by their constitution for no other position. 
 
224 ST. PAUL IN EOME. 
 
 In that which constitutes the pecidium of slavery, 
 viz., the possession of man as property, to be "bought 
 and sold as an animated tool, without the right of 
 possessing his faculties, himself, his wife, or his chil- 
 dren, the two systems were essentially the same. 
 And though much of "the legislation of the slave 
 States is cruel in the extreme, it must be admitted 
 that the law affords them a protection greater than 
 that which they enjoyed under the Roman system; 
 and that the same absolute right over the life of the 
 slave is not recognized by law, however it may some- 
 times be practically exercised with impunity. Yet, 
 on the other hand, it must be admitted that slaves 
 among Greeks and Romans had opportunities to 
 rise to positions of trust and favor, and even of 
 honor in their masters' households, such as are not 
 enjoyed under our system. There were slaves with 
 every degree of culture. Mechanics, accountants, 
 stewards, musicians, artists, scholars, teachers, and 
 poets were found among them. There were no 
 laws, as with us, against their instruction. Each 
 master was at liberty to train his servants according 
 to his will. He was the gainer by their accomplish- 
 ments, and it was both a matter of pride and profit 
 with him to develop their peculiar powers. In com- 
 paring the two systems, I think it may justly be con- 
 cluded that their revolting features, though not pre- 
 cisely the same, were about equal ; but that in their 
 practical administration, the spirit of Christian char- 
 ity, and the general sense of justice and humanity 
 which it has diffused, has prevented to a large ex- 
 tent the practice, and to a still greater degree the 
 toleration and approval of atrocious personal wrongs 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. . 225 
 
 and cruelties among us which would have passed 
 without comment among the Romans. 
 
 On the practical working of our system of slavery 
 there is a great diversity of opinion. Heated feel- 
 ing has led to extreme representations of its evil and 
 its good. On the one side, slavery is described as ad- 
 ministered in a mild, paternal, and Christian spirit, 
 which counteracts in practice the evil of its theory ; it 
 is claimed that it proves to be the best and kindest ar- 
 rangement which can be made for the colored race; 
 and that cases of cruelty and hardship are rare excep- 
 tions. On the other side, it is contended that, sepa- 
 rate from the perpetual cruelty of placing persons in 
 the relation of being owned by others, constant cru- 
 elties are necessitated by that relation, and that what 
 would be considered harshness and cruelty toward 
 free servants is not so regarded when exercised to- 
 ward slaves; and that when kindness is felt and at- 
 tempted to be exercised in rare and exceptional 
 cases, it is not, and cannot be so effective as to seem 
 like kindness so long as the relation is sustained. 
 Opinions are formed upon such subjects by the facts 
 which are before the mind; and as one's position or 
 prejudice places one set of facts exclusively or more 
 prominently before the view, he will be likely to 
 form one or other of the above opinions. It would 
 be in vain for me here to attempt to discuss this im- 
 mense question. I can only give the results of the 
 working of my own mind on the subject. 
 
 When I went into the midst of a slaveholding 
 community, more than twenty years ago, it was with 
 a feeling of strong moral reprobation of slavery, and 
 with a deep conviction of its actual enormities and 
 horrors. Living in the midst of it, and learning to 
 
226 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 respect and love the high and genial character of 
 many slaveholders; observing their personal kind- 
 ness to their slaves; seeing the comfort which many 
 of them enjoyed; knowing the institution only 
 where it was presented in its more favorable aspects, 
 I at first concluded that the system was less evil in 
 its practical working than I had supposed, while I 
 still felt as strongly as before its inconsistency with 
 natural justice, and with the spirit and precepts of 
 the Gospel. A longer residence, and a more ex- 
 tended observation, and a closer study of the evil 
 effects of slaveholding on personal character, render- 
 ing it willful and imperious ; a revelation of the inevi- 
 table hardships and cruelties arising from the system 
 itself, even in kind and Christian families, and which 
 no personal kindness could prevent; a knowledge 
 of the smothered animosities in the hearts of ser- 
 vants which it often produces, and of the consequent 
 state of suspicion and vague terror, which always en- 
 genders cruelty, which it awakens; an observation 
 of the fact that the standard of justice and kind- 
 ness was lowered in relation to the colored race, and 
 that consequently that treatment was considered kind 
 to a slave which no free-born servant would have 
 been expected to submit to; an initiation into the 
 more inner workings of the system in families, 
 and of the frequent half-recognized concubinage, or 
 worse temporary connections, between the masters 
 and the masters' sons and female slaves ; the knowl- 
 edge of some horrible cases of the sale of their own 
 flesh and blood, on the part of men who still retained 
 a position in the community where the facts were 
 well known or generally believed, all these facts 
 led me to a more profound conviction of the in- 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 227 
 
 herent and incurable evils of our system of slavery 
 than my first vague and less-informed impressions 
 had produced. 
 
 But whatever convictions a practical knowledge of 
 the system may have produced on different minds, 
 there are certain evils which all must and do admit 
 to exist, which are so great and so immediately the 
 result of the system, and so without remedy while 
 the evil exists, that it seems singular that so many 
 good and kind and pious persons can uphold the in- 
 stitution. Admit all that the evidence allows of 
 the kindness of masters and mistresses, and the 
 amount of this kindness is very great; admit all the 
 religious influence that has been exerted over the 
 slaves, and it is very large ; admit the claim that 
 multitudes of them are far better off and more ad- 
 vanced than their savage brethren in Africa and 
 the fact is undoubted, and yet it remains true that 
 Christian men buy and sell their fellow-men, as if 
 they were merchandise or cattle ; that they separate 
 husbands and wives, parents and children ; that the 
 laws of inheritance and the pressure of financial 
 difficulty often force the cruel sale and separation 
 of closely related slaves, and consign those who 
 have hitherto been treated well to a fearful fate, and 
 that numerous cases of horrible cruelty go mi- 
 whipped of justice. It is still all too true that cruel, 
 licentious, abandoned men, the worst which a com- 
 munity possesses, have a right to hold as property, and 
 therefore to wield an absolute irresponsible power over just 
 so many men, women, and children as they can buy ! This 
 last fact is alone sufficient utterly to condemn the 
 system as inhuman and unworthy of a civilized and 
 Christian nation. It is still true that the laws forbid 
 
228 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 that slaves should be taught to read. Add to this 
 the fact that the laws make it impossible for good 
 aud kind masters to carry out such purposes of 
 benevolence as may be in their hearts. A Roman 
 master could do all the kindness to a slave that he 
 desired. He could instruct him, educate him, eman- 
 cipate him, set him up in the world; and it was 
 possible for him to rise, as many did rise, to the best 
 positions in society, and the highest offices of the 
 State. Our system forbids a master, under severe 
 penalties, to teach his slaves. In many States he 
 cannot manumit them, except upon conditions which 
 are almost impossible to be fulfilled, and which 
 would leave a freed slave in a position worse 
 than that of bondage. No career is opened to the 
 freedman. Citizenship is denied him. Law, and 
 public opinion more exigeant and cruel than law, 
 watches and visits with its wrath the slaveowner 
 who should attempt any other kindness to him 
 than that of promoting his physical well-being, 
 and of furnishing him with some oral religious 
 instructions. 
 
 I think this must be admitted to be a very tem- 
 perate statement of the evils of our system. If it 
 is just, then no possible alleviations and advantages 
 which it may possess are sufficient to counterbal- 
 ance its enormous wrongs. Its relations to the Gos- 
 pel must be essentially the same as that of Roman 
 and Grecian slavery. St. Paul's exhortations to 
 masters and slaves, while the system subsists, are as 
 applicable to the one as to the other. If the master 
 should render to the servant that which is just and 
 equal, if he should treat his slave as a brother be- 
 loved, the whole system would be undermined and 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 229 
 
 eventually destroyed. But unhappily the law, and a 
 cruel and denunciatory opinion worse than law, will 
 not permit him, as it would have permitted the Ro- 
 man master, to carry out in their spirit and in their 
 fullness those just injunctions. It must he admitted 
 to he a singular and mortifying anomaly, that in a 
 Christian land a system of slavery should exist, 
 which, if not quite so evil in some of its features as 
 that which prevailed among the hard and coarse- 
 grained Romans, is yet more tightly riveted upon its 
 victims, and less capable of amelioration. 
 
 VI. In the light of these principles evolved from 
 the words and the example of St. Paul, we are ahle 
 to discern some of the mistaken extremes*which have 
 prevailed upon the subject of slavery in our day. 
 
 1. It has not only been vindicated as right in it- 
 self, but it has been claimed that it has a divine sanc- 
 tion; it has been elevated into a divine institution 
 on the authority of St. Paul. We have shown how 
 this mistake has arisen from supposing that when St. 
 Paul urges the faithful discharge of the duties of a 
 certain relation while it exists, he necessarily ap- 
 proves of the relation itself, and sanctions its estab- 
 lishment and continuance. 
 
 2. On the other hand, others have contended that it 
 is wrong ever, under any circumstances, to sustain the 
 relation of master to a slave. St. Paul evidently did 
 not so regard it. He did not assume this ground with 
 Philemon. In the case of a Christian husband or wife, 
 connected with a heathen wife or husband, he sanc- 
 tioned the principle that it may be right, and even a 
 duty, to remain in and discharge the duties of a re- 
 lation which it would have been unrighteous to have 
 originated. 
 
230 ST. PAUL IX ROME. 
 
 3. Hence also it is a mistake and wrong to de- 
 nounce all persons who hold slaves, as thereby shown 
 to be evidently inhuman men, and as consciously up- 
 holding a system of cruel wrong and oppression. 
 One who has long known and lived among them 
 cannot but deeply feel the injustice of such a judg- 
 ment. He will remember some of the most excel- 
 lent and exemplary Christians he has ever known 
 among this class. He will recall instances of the 
 most painstaking and self-denying labors for the 
 temporal and spiritual good of those committed to 
 their care. He will be able to mention the consci- 
 entious convictions of duty which have prevented 
 some persofts from freeing slaves, who would gladly 
 have avoided the care and responsibility of them by 
 this pecuniary sacrifice if they had considered such 
 a course lawful. He will see that such persons do 
 not differ in Christian principles, or even Christian 
 practice, from those good Christians who mistakenly 
 denounce them ; but only differ as to the case which is 
 actually presented to them. If by upholding slavery 
 and holding slaves they thought that they were rob- 
 bing men of their rights, keeping them in igno- 
 rance, perpetuating their degradation, and prevent- 
 ing their advancement, they too would oppose the 
 institution and emancipate their slaves. But this is 
 not the case as it is presented to them. They think 
 that they are taking care of a race who cannot take 
 care of themselves; that it is a kindness to force 
 them to labor, inasmuch as it is better for their 
 health and morals and advancement, than the vi- 
 cious idleness into which they would else inevitably 
 lapse ; that thus they can be advanced in morals and 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 231 
 
 intelligence and religion as fast as they are capable 
 of advancing; and that their sufferings in servitude, 
 some of which indeed are in consequence of hard 
 laws, which they personally would desire to have 
 removed, are not to he compared to those which 
 would result from freedom. Such is the case which 
 is presented to their minds. One may think that they 
 are exceedingly mistaken in this view. One may 
 suspect that they have been led to adopt it by influ- 
 ences of interest or of passion of which they are 
 wholly unconscious. One may be surprised and 
 grieved at the degree of indignation and animosity 
 which they feel against those who wholly dissent 
 from them, and yet one may admit, and feel con- 
 strained to admit, and ought to be ready cheerfully 
 to admit, and if he has associated much among this 
 class, feels bound emphatically to testify that among 
 them are persons of the most saintly and lovely 
 character. As one of those who disapprove and 
 would have removed the institution to which they 
 cling, I have been subject to many hard speeches 
 and bitter feelings among Southern brethren with 
 whom I once held sweet counsel, and walked to- 
 gether in the House of God as friends; but I re- 
 member their friendship with gratitude; I mourn 
 over the delusions of feeling and opinion which 
 have urged them into most unpardonable and 
 causeless rebellion ; I sympathize with the dreadful 
 sufferings which they have brought upon them- 
 selves, and lament the humiliation to which as a 
 subjugated people they have become, or will soon 
 become, exposed ; and with all these feelings blend- 
 ing into one emotion of sorrowful regret, I feel that 
 
232 ST. PAUL IN ROME.. 
 
 however they may speak of me and of my brethren 
 who have felt and acted with me, it is alike a pleas- 
 ure and a^luty to speak thus of many among them. 
 4. And it is an equal mistake, and less excusable, 
 and one which rests on grounds less plausible, to 
 denounce the friends and advocates of emancipation 
 as enemies of a divinely constituted society, and to 
 affix to them opprobrious epithets, and cast out their 
 name as evil. That a Bishop of our Church, with 
 all the lights thrown upon this subject by recent 
 events, should commit himself to such statements is 
 a singular and mortifying event.* It is indeed a 
 strange anomaly that in a State, constituted upon the 
 Gospel principle of human brotherhood and equal- 
 ity, they, whose only error it is admitted has been 
 the too rigid application of a right principle without 
 a sufficient reference to practical and complicated 
 difficulties, in the midst of which, 
 
 "Right too rigid hardens into wrong," 
 
 should be denounced as pre-eminently guilty. The 
 treatment of abolitionists at the -North has been a 
 disgrace upon our country; and has been the prin- 
 cipal cause of all the harm that has come from their 
 existence. That they have not been wise is no suffi- 
 cient reason that they should have been treated as if 
 they were the vilest of the vile. It will read strangely 
 in future history, that in a republican State, the first 
 sentence of whose proclamation of independent ex- 
 istence is but another form of the Scripture truth, that 
 God hath made of one blood all nations, there was 
 
 Bishop Hopkins, of Vermont, 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 233 
 
 a period when to advocate the continued existence 
 of a system of slavery, far worse than that of Tunis 
 or Algiers, without any improvement or any provi- 
 sion for its ultimate removal, was to be among the 
 vast majority that were regarded as conservative of 
 right and just principles; and to plead earnestly for 
 its immediate removal was to he among a despised 
 minority, which was regarded as vile, and cruel, and 
 unjust. I am thankful to rememher that, although 
 I felt their schemes were not w r ise, I never gave in 
 to this unrighteous clamor against their character. 
 I knew that among them were some of the purest 
 Christians of our time; and that among those who 
 were infidel and radical, were many of those noble 
 natures whom the world's wrong drives to disbelief, 
 and maddens into a blind and unwise indignation, 
 but who are in the basis of their character far higher 
 than many who, with the name of Christian, are the 
 narrow, and mean, and selfish advocates of all pre- 
 scriptive and profitable wrongs. Some of the best 
 men of the free States have been denouncing as un- 
 christian and inhuman some of the best men of the 
 slave States; and they have hurled back these de- 
 nunciations with an equal conviction of their truth, 
 and an added turning sense of outrage and indigna- 
 tion. Both of these classes are beginning to find 
 that they w r ere both and equally mistaken. 
 
 5. In this matter we all have grievously erred and 
 sinned, and God is scourging us for our sins, and at 
 the same time removing the evil that has clouded 
 our judgments and kindled asperities of feeling. 
 There were those who did not believe it wise or 
 Christian, both on grounds of Christian obligation 
 
234 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 and on St. Paul's principles of procedure, to labor 
 for the immediate emancipation of slavery in the 
 Southern States. They hoped and prayed that it 
 would he ultimately accomplished through the action 
 of Christian feeling in the communities where slav- 
 ery existed. In this position I think they were right. 
 Having myself occupied it, I do not now see or feel 
 that I was wrong. But in so far as the taking of 
 this position led any of us to extenuate the evils of 
 slavery, to shut our eyes to its manifold ahomina- 
 tioris, to vindicate it on moral or religious grounds, 
 and to denounce all strong sympathy with the suffer- 
 ings of the slaves, I think we were clearly in the 
 wrong. Those who advocated immediate emanci- 
 pation, irrespective of constitutional obligations and 
 of all the deplorable consequences which might 
 ensue, were, I think, unwise and in the wrong, and 
 in conflict with the "peaceable wisdom" of St. Paul. 
 They were no less wrong in the bitter denunciations 
 with which many of them assailed those who advo- 
 cated the policy of peace and patience. But they 
 were right, as all our subsequent history has shown, 
 in their vivid representations of the sins and cruelties 
 and shames of slavery. 
 
 Of the state of feeling and thinking on this sub- 
 ject in the Southern States I do not wish to speak. 
 It is a time when every instinct of magnanimity and 
 Christian sympathy for their sufferings, the conse- 
 quences of their mistakes, and admiration for their 
 heroic energy, should lead us to dwell rather on our 
 own sins than on theirs. God is making the wrath 
 and sin and folly of us all to praise Him. He is ex- 
 orcising the evil spirit which has hitherto possessed 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. U HI V E Big I T "X 
 
 our body politic, and the convulsions 
 fers are but from the struggles of the Teluctant 
 demon to retain his place. God is bringing all 
 classes, in every portion of our country, to relin- 
 quish some of the errors of prejudice and opinion 
 which they have hitherto entertained, and to unite 
 in what promises to be the well-nigh universal con- 
 viction that as slavery has been our sin and has 
 found us out, so repentance for it should lead to the 
 works meet for repentance in the elevation and the 
 investment with the rights of manhood and of citi- 
 zenship of the race that has been so unjustly held in 
 bondage. My profound conviction is that in twenty 
 years there will be no one in all the breadth of our 
 restored and purified Union to rise up as a public 
 advocate or apologist of slavery. The amiable and 
 gifted Mr. Stephens, of Georgia, proclaimed slavery 
 to be the corner-stone of the new confederation, but 
 it is a corner-stone on which no superstructure can 
 rest, for it is upheld by a revolutionary earthquake 
 which will cast it crushingly on the structure it was 
 expected to support. 
 
 If this attempt to expound St. Paul's relation to 
 established institutions, and especially to slavery, 
 and to apply his principles to slavery in our own 
 country, is not successful, it is not because I have 
 not sincerely and earnestly desired to give it a dis- 
 passionate consideration, and to apply to it the result 
 of many years of the most anxious thought, and of 
 careful and widely-extended observation. One im- 
 portant lesson we should all learn from this consid- 
 eration of this difficult subject. It is, that inasmuch 
 as most of the practical duties of life and of society 
 
236 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 lie not among the distinctly-marked right and wrong 
 of things, but rather among mixed and blending 
 rights and wrongs, the most 'conscientious mind, 
 still subject to the infirmities of our poor fallen 
 nature, may through unconscious bias greatly err, 
 and still retain high moral integrity and a genuine 
 Christian spirit. This great lesson of charity I have 
 earnestly endeavored to apply to others, and con- 
 scious of my equal need of it, I invoke it for my- 
 self. 
 
LECTUEE XL 
 
 ST. PAUL'S SECOND IMPRISONMENT AT ROME. 
 
 For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at 
 hand. 2 TIM. iv. 6. 
 
 THE history of St. Paul subsequent to the last 
 record in the Acts of the Apostles is exceedingly 
 ohscure. We have hitherto moved with confidence 
 in the open and well-lighted path of authentic his- 
 tory. We are now to grope and wind our way 
 through historical probabilities and deductions by 
 the aid of scattered and feeble rays of testimony. 
 
 We conclude that St. Paul was liberated from his 
 imprisonment at Rome from a passage in the Epis- 
 tle to the Hebrews. He was then in Italy or at lib- 
 erty, for he writes, "they of Italy salute you;" and he 
 says of Timothy, "Know ye that our brother Timo- 
 thy is set at liberty, with whom, if he come shortly, 
 I will see you." This Epistle was written subse- 
 quent to St. Paul's two years' imprisonment. He 
 was then in Italy, and he was at liberty to visit the 
 Hebrews, to w-hom he writes, in company with lib- 
 erated Timothy. This seems to be a clear proof that 
 St. Paul's trial had either resulted in his acquittal or 
 had been abandoned. 
 
 The strongest proof, perhaps, which we possess 
 that St. Paul had been tried and acquitted, is the 
 universal belief that it was so which prevailed in 
 
 30 ( 237 ) 
 
238 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 the ancient church. The proofs of the fact, as they 
 come to us, are few and indirect. They may have 
 been explicit and numerous to the early church. 
 Few as they are, there appears to be no counter tes- 
 timonies. Clement, the disciple of St. Paul, and 
 afterward Bishop of Rome, writing from Rome to 
 Corinth, asserts that St. Paul had preached the Gos- 
 pel in the East and in the West; that he had in- 
 structed the whole world in righteousness ; and that 
 he had gone to the extremity of the West before his 
 martyrdom. ~Now as we know that St. Paul had not 
 visited the West previous to his imprisonment at 
 Rome, it must have been after his release. 
 
 There exists a Canon of the New Testament 
 called Muratoris Canon, compiled by an unknown 
 author about the year A. D. 170. In this document, 
 it is said, in the account of the Acts of the Apos- 
 tles, that "Luke relates to Theophilus events of 
 which he was an eye-witness, as also in a separate 
 place he evidently declares the martyrdom of Peter, 
 but omits the journey of Paul to Spain." The wri- 
 ter refers, we suppose, by the expression " in a sep- 
 arate place," to the Gospel of St. Luke. In that 
 Gospel there is no account of the martyrdom of 
 St. Peter. The writer may have regarded the Sa- 
 viour's words, "Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired 
 to have you that he may sift you as wheat;" and 
 Peter's reply, "I am ready to go with Thee both 
 into prison and to death," as a prophecy of his 
 martyrdom, and may therefore have called it an ac- 
 count of his martyrdom. But, however this may be, 
 his assertion is distinct to the visit of Paul to Spain. 
 
 Eusebius tells us that after defending himself suc- 
 cessfully, it is currently reported that the Apostle 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 239 
 
 again went forth to proclaim the Gospel, and after- 
 ward came to Rome a second time, and was mar- 
 tyred under Nero. Chrysostom mentions it as an 
 undoubted fact "that St. Paul, after his residence in 
 Rome, departed to Spain." St. Jerome also testifies 
 "that Paul was dismissed -by Nero, that he might 
 preach Christ's Gospel in the West."* 
 
 The argument thus far goes to prove that St. Paul 
 left Rome, and preached the Gospel in the West, and 
 especially in Spain. 
 
 The Epistles to Timothy and Titus, called the 
 Pastoral Epistles, are usually believed to have been 
 written after his first imprisonment at Rome. Their 
 date, in the received translation of the Bible, is 
 placed beyond this period. We find from these 
 Epistles that after his first imprisonment at Rome 
 he was traveling and at liberty at Ephesus, (1 Tim. 
 i. 3,) Crete, (Titus, i. 6,) Macedonia, (1 Tim. i. 3,) 
 Miletus, (2 Tim. iv. 30,) and Nicopolis, (Titus, iii. 12,) 
 and that he was again, for the second time, a pris- 
 oner at Rome, These facts concerning his jour- 
 neys and his history, are all that can be collected 
 from the sacred canons. 
 
 The internal evidences that the second Epistle 
 could not have been written during St. Paul's first 
 imprisonment at Rome, but that it is to be referred 
 to a subsequent imprisonment, are quite clear and 
 strong. They have been well stated in Barnes's 
 Notes. I can but briefly refer to some of them. 
 St. Paul evidently expected, in his Epistles to the 
 Philippians and to Philemon, a speedy release and 
 departure from Rome. "I trust in the Lord I shall 
 
 * These authorities are derived from Conybeare and Howson's 
 'Life and Epistles of St. Paul." 
 
240 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 come shortly," (Phil. ii. 24,) he writes to the Phil- 
 ippians. He requests Philemon to prepare him a 
 lodging. (22 v.) But in the second Epistle it is clear 
 he had no such expectation, for he says, "I am ready 
 to be offered, and the time of my departure is at 
 hand." (2 Tim. iv. 6.) Again, St. Paul says, "Eras- 
 tus abode at Corinth." (iv. 20.) This implies a second 
 journey to Rome. It implies that they traveled to- 
 gether, and that while Paul proceeded to Rome, Eras- 
 tus remained at Corinth. It is certain that this lan- 
 guage would not be appropriate if written during 
 Paul's first sojourn at Rome. The same remark is ap- 
 plicable to what St. Paul says of Trophimus. " Tro- 
 phimus have I left at Miletum sick." (iv. 20.) Paul, 
 when sent by Festus to Rome, did not stop at Mile- 
 tum. Nor could he have referred to his first visit 
 to Miletus, (Acts, xx.,) five years before. He evi- 
 dently refers to a recent occurrence. There would 
 have been no propriety in informing Timothy that, 
 five years before, he had left a fellow-laborer sick, as 
 a reason why he should hasten to Rome as soon as 
 possible. The fact, moreover, that certain persons 
 are spoken of as present in the first Epistle who are 
 mentioned as absent in the second, is a strong reason 
 for supposing the second Epistle to have been writ- 
 ten during a second imprisonment. Timothy was 
 at Rome when St. Paul wrote his first Epistle, and 
 absent- of course when Paul addressed to him his 
 second Epistle. The same remark is true of Demas 
 and of Mark. These internal evidences, added to 
 those testimonies to which we have referred, leave 
 no just reason to doubt that St. Paul was impris- 
 oned at Rome a second time. If they do not con- 
 stitute a demonstration, they at least conclude the 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 241 
 
 very highest degree of probability short of demon- 
 stration. 
 
 It would be extremely interesting to know the 
 circumstances of St. Paul's acquittal at his first im- 
 prisonment. In the absence of any authentic testi- 
 mony on the subject, we 'can only form some con- 
 jectures as to his trial, from what we learn of the 
 mode of procedure that prevailed at that period. 
 This has been so admirably done in Gonybeare and 
 Howson's Life of St. Paul that it would be a great 
 injustice to withhold at least a part of the descrip- 
 tion. 
 
 "In the first place, after a long delay, St. Paul's^ 
 appeal came on for hearing before the Emperor. ' 
 The appeals from the provinces in civil cases were 
 heard, not by the Emperor himself, but by his dele- 
 gates, who were persons of consular rank. Augus- 
 tus had appointed one such delegate to hear appeals 
 from each province respectively. But criminal ap- 
 peals appear to have been heard by the Emperor in 
 person, assisted by his council of assessors. Tibe- 
 rius and Claudius had usually sat for this purpose 
 in the former; but N"ero, after the example of Au- 
 gustus, heard those causes in the imperial palace, 
 whose ruins still crown the Palatine. Here, at one 
 end of a splendid hall, lined with the precious mar- 
 bles of Egypt and Lybia, we must imagine the Csesar 
 seated in the midst of his assessors. These council- 
 lors, twenty in number, were men of the highest 
 rank and greatest influence. Among them were the 
 two consuls and selected representatives of each of 
 the other great magistracies of Rome. The remain- 
 der consisted of senators chosen by lot. Over this 
 distinguished bench of judges presided the represen-^ 
 
242 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 tative of the most powerful monarchy which has 
 ever existed, the absolute ruler of the whole civilized 
 world. But the reverential awe which his position 
 naturally suggested was changed into contempt and 
 loathing by the character of the sovereign who now 
 presided over that supreme tribunal. For Nero was 
 a man whom even the awful attribute of ' power 
 equal to the gods' could not render august except 
 in title. The fear and horror excited by his omnip- 
 otence and cruelty were blended with contempt for 
 his ignoble lust of praise and his shameless licen- 
 tiousness. His degrading want of dignity and insa- 
 tiable appetite for vulgar applause drew tears from 
 the councillors and servants of his house, who could, 
 however, see him slaughter his nearest relations 
 without remonstrance. 
 
 "Before the tribunal of this blood-stained adul- 
 terer, Paul the Apostle was now brought in fetters 
 under the custody of a military guard. But to him 
 all the majesty of Borne was nothing more than an 
 empty pageant; the demi-god himself was but 'one 
 of the princes of this world that come to naught.' 
 Thus he stood, calm and collected, ready to answer 
 the charges of his accusers, and knowing that in the 
 hour of his need it should be given him what to 
 \ speak."* 
 
 We have seen already that the charges brought 
 against the Apostle could not be proved, and even 
 if proved, would not have been a violation of the 
 laws of the empire. Yet if the influence of Pop- 
 pea, or the caprice of the Emperor, had been 
 
 * Conybeare and Howson's Life and Writings of St. Paul, vol. ii. 
 pp. 465-67. It is not thought necessary to append the notes which 
 confirm or illustrate the passages quoted. 
 
SH. PAUL IN ROME. 243 
 
 turned against the Apostle, no doubt he would 
 have been condemned. We are left wholly to con- 
 jecture as to the influences which determined his 
 acquittal. 
 
 The causes and the circumstances of St. Paul's 
 second imprisonment at Rome are as obscure as 
 those of his first acquittal. There is no expression 
 of his purpose again to visit Rome in his first Epis- 
 tle to Timothy, or in the Epistle to Titus. Hence 
 we infer that he was carried thither as a prisoner. 
 By whom or on what charges, does not appear. But 
 we know that a great change in the policy of the 
 Roman Government and in the feelings of the peo- 
 ple had taken place between his first and second 
 imprisonment. The first imperial persecution had 
 occurred, and the Christians had become distin- 
 guished in the popular apprehension from the Jews, 
 with whom they had formerly been confounded. 
 St. Paul might well anticipate his own martyrdom 
 when he arrived in Rome, a prisoner for the second 
 time, after the scenes of persecution which have been 
 so graphically commemorated by the pen of Taci- 
 tus. The well-known passage should not be omitted 
 in this connection. 
 
 "But neither these religious ceremonies, nor the) 
 liberal donations of the prince, could efface from 
 the minds of men the prevailing opinion that Rome 
 was set on fire by his own orders. The infamy of 
 that horrible transaction still adhered to him. In 
 order, if possible, to remove this imputation, he de- 
 termined to transfer the guilt to others. For this 
 purpose he punished, with exquisite torture, a race 
 of men detested for their evil practices, by vulgar 
 appellation commonly called Christians. The name 
 
244 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 was derived from Christ, who, in the time of Tibe- 
 rius, suffered under Pontius Pilate, the Procurator 
 of Judea. By that event the sect of which he was 
 a founder received a blow which, for a time, checked 
 Ithe growth of a dangerous superstition; but it re- 
 vived soon after and spread with recruited vigor, not 
 only in Judea, the soil that gave it birth, but even 
 in the City of Rome, the common sink into which 
 everything infamous and abominable flows like a 
 torrent from all quarters of the world. Tero pro- 
 ceeded with his usual artifice. He found a set of 
 ' 
 
 abandoned and profligate wretches who were in- 
 duced to confess themselves guilty, and on the evi- 
 dence of such men a number of Christians were 
 convicted, not on the clear evidence of their having 
 set the city on fire, but rather on account of their 
 sullen hatred of the whole Roman race. They were 
 put to death with exquisite cruelty, and to their suf- 
 ferings Nero added mockery and derision. Some 
 were covered with the skins of beasts and left to be 
 
 _ devoured by dogs ; others were nailed to the cross ; 
 numbers were burnt alive; and many, covered over 
 with inflammable matter, were lighted up when the 
 day declined to serve as torches during the night. 
 For the convenience of seeing this tragic spectacle, 
 the Emperor lent his own gardens. He added the 
 sports of the circus, and assisted in person, some- 
 times driving a curricle, and occasionally mixing 
 
 ^with the rabble in his coachman's dress."* 
 
 St. Paul in his second Epistle to Timothy makes 
 no allusion to the charge upon which he was again 
 remanded to Rome and to prison. In the recollec- 
 
 * Tacitus' Annals, xv. 44. 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 245 
 
 tion of the scenes described by Tacitus, he must 
 have had a full persuasion of his own coming mar- 
 tyrdom. It is probable that, after the persecution 
 described above, the profession of Christianity was 
 forbidden by the laws, then newly enforced against 
 new and unlawful religions. They had been applied 
 on several occasions to the worship of Isis, and other 
 Eastern gods, when the popular indignation had risen 
 against them. 
 
 There appear to have been none of the alleviations 
 and relaxations to this imprisonment which he had 
 previously enjoyed. He was now not only in chains, 
 but as a malefactor. "I suffer trouble," he says, "as 
 an evil-doer, or malefactor, even unto bonds." (2 
 Tim. ii. 9.) He had previously been arraigned 
 rather as a state prisoner, as one who had violated 
 a law of one of their provinces, Judea, whom they 
 were bound to protect. !N"ow, he seems to have been 
 presented as a culprit a direct violator of the laws 
 of the empire. He was not permitted as before to 
 preach and teach. That it was dangerous and ob- 
 noxious to visit him, and difficult to find him, we 
 infer from his grateful commemoration of the visit 
 of Onesiphorus. "The Lord give mercy unto the 
 house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and 
 was not ashamed of my chain ; but when he was in 
 Rome he sought me out very diligently and found 
 me." (2 Tim. xvi. 17.) The aged Apostle, now more 
 aged by several years than when he used the expres- 
 sion, seems to have been deserted by all his friends 
 and brethren, except St. Luke. " Only Luke is with 
 me." (2 Tim. iv. 11.) "Demas hath forsaken me, 
 having loved this present world, and is departed 
 unto Thessalonica; Cresseus to Galatia; Titus unto 
 
 31 
 
246 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 Dalmatia." (2 Tim, iv. 10.) Added to this sense of 
 desertion and loneliness, was the consciousness of 
 being subjected to the wiles of malignant enemies. 
 "Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: 
 the Lord reward him according to his works; of 
 whom be thou ware also, for he hath greatly with- 
 stood our words." (14, 15.) "When he is arraigned 
 before the tribunal, there is not a solitary Christian 
 friend to stand by him. "At my first answer no 
 man stood with me, but all men forsook me; I pray 
 God that it may not be laid to their charge." (16.) 
 He evidently looked forward to certain condemna- 
 tion and death; and in these circumstances of the 
 desertion of friends, of loneliness, and of the weight 
 of years, was enabled calmly to declare, "I am ready 
 to be offered, and'the time of my departure is at 
 hand." (6.) It is a touching incidental proof of his 
 destitution, and of the absence of friends to minister 
 to his necessities, such as he enjoyed during his first 
 imprisonment, when he declared, "I have all and 
 abound," that he should now write to Timothy, 
 "The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, when 
 thou comest bring with thee, and the books, but es- 
 pecially the parchments." (13.) 
 
 That in the circumstances in which St. Paul was 
 placed he should have been able to have written the 
 Epistle to Timothy, is a proof of the sublime power 
 of the Gospel and the grace of God. It is no less 
 remarkable for what it omits than for what it con- 
 tains. Its solemnity, its tenderness, its calm eleva- 
 tion are befitting to the soul that is on the verge of 
 heaven. But that, thus in prison, deserted of friends, 
 surrounded by enemies, and about to die a cruel 
 death, there should be no egotism, no querulousness, 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 247 
 
 no crimination, in this is to be found the divine 
 and sublime beauty of the Epistle. He writes to 
 animate his beloved son Timothy to be steadfast 
 under the persecution which he foresaw would soon 
 assail the churches. He commends his faith the 
 precious inheritance of his mother Eunice and grand- 
 mother Lois. And then, animating him to con- 
 stancy, he writes these noble words, "For God hath 
 not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, and of 
 power, and of a sound mind." And then, his soul 
 soaring toward his Saviour, in lofty peace he enters 
 upon his teaching and exhortation. 
 
 Timothy must not shrink from suffering. He 
 must not merely submit to it, and be crushed by it. 
 He must work in the midst of it. So did the Mas- 
 ter. He must be a busy and thorough workman in 
 the Gospel. He must avoid foolish, speculative, 
 barren questions; for some, as Hymen seas and Phile- 
 tus, have been led astray by them to the denial of 
 the first truths of the Gospel. Better to rest in plain 
 saving truth and practical duty. For from neglect 
 of this, in the last days, evil times will come in 
 which men will join licentious practices to specula- 
 tive errors. 
 
 Then follow exhortations to constancy, in which 
 there is no gloom, no fearfulness, but, on the con- 
 trary, high-hearted joyfulness. He would have 
 Timothy come to him speedily. He evidently trusts 
 in his friendship and fidelity. 
 
 There are some names mentioned in the last verse 
 but one of this/ Epistle, which possess much interest. 
 "There salute tliee Eubulus, and Pudens, and Linus, 
 and Claudia, and all the brethren." Linus is proba- 
 bly the person who was afterward Bishop of Rome. 
 
248 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 Pudens and his family have been made the subjects 
 of many Roman traditions. Those traditions are 
 minute and specific, but rest upon nothing that can 
 be considered as historical testimony. "We are told 
 of the sojourn of St. Peter at his house. We are 
 shown the mosaic floor of his house in the church 
 dedicated to Santa Prudentiana, his daughter. It 
 is astonishing how many and minute facts are stated 
 and believed, on no other ground than that such is the 
 tradition of the church. We are not only required 
 to accept with unquestioning faith the traditions of 
 the church, but we are required to believe that cer- 
 tain things are the traditions of the church, on the 
 most meager and unsatisfactory evidence. There is 
 undoubtedly a certain prima facie evidence in a gen- 
 eral tradition, which states facts which are im- 
 probable or impossible, but it may safely be said 
 that we are called upon to accept many things as 
 traditions on individual testimonies that are not so. 
 Hence, when anything is stated on Romish authority 
 to be a tradition, we have two separate questions to 
 ask: first, "is it a tradition?" and second, "is it 
 true?" The names of Pudens and Claudia are pa- 
 trician. There is an epigram of Martial, congratu- 
 latory and eulogistic, on the marriage of a Pudens 
 and Claudia; but there is no proof that they are the 
 persons mentioned by St. Paul. The salutations 
 sent by these Christian friends to Timothy prove 
 that, at the period when this Epistle was written, 
 they had access to the Apostle. It is scarcely credi- 
 ble that St. Paul could have been in the Mamertine 
 prison when he wrote this Epistle, and w r as able to 
 communicate with some of his brethren in Rome. 
 On what charges Paul was tried we cannot learn. 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 249 
 
 It may have been on the charge of teaching a reli- 
 gion forbidden by the state. It may have been on 
 Nero's false accusation that as a prime leader of the 
 Christians he had instigated them to burn the city. 
 But that it was not this time "before Csesar," ap- 
 pears from the statement of Clemens Romanus that 
 he was tried before "the presiding magistrates."* 
 He describes his first appearance before them in 
 these words: "When I was first heard in my de- 
 fense, no man stood by me, but all forsook me. I 
 pray that it be not laid to their charge. Nevertheless, 
 the Lord stood by me and strengthened my heart." 
 (2 Tim. iv. 16, 17.) At that time he was delivered 
 from the wrath of the lion. But at a subsequent 
 period we cannot doubt that he was condemned and 
 executed, although we are left utterly in the dark as 
 to his trial and his death. 
 
 Although we have no authentic testimony on this 
 subject, we may yet follow with great interest the 
 suggestions which have been made by the authors 
 already quoted as to "the probable external features 
 of his last trial." He evidently intimates that he 
 had spoken before a crowded audience, so "that all 
 the Gentiles might hear," and this corresponds with 
 the supposition which historically we should be led 
 to make, that he was tried in one of those great 
 Basilicas which stood in the Forum. Two of the 
 most celebrated of these edifices were called the 
 Pauline Basilicas, from the well-known Lucius 
 -^Emelius Paulus, who had built one of them and 
 restored the other. It is not improbable that the 
 greatest man who ever bore the Pauline name was 
 
 * See Conybeare and Howson, vol. ii. p. 498. 
 
250 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 tried in one of these. From specimens which still 
 exist, as well as from the descriptions of Vetriivius, 
 we have an accurate knowledge of these halls of 
 justice. "They were rectangular buildings, consist- 
 ing of a central nave and two aisles, separated from 
 the nave by rows of columns. At one end of the 
 nave was the tribune, in the center of which was 
 placed the magistrate's curule chair of ivory elevated 
 on a platform called the tribunal. Here sat also the 
 council of assessors, who advised the prefect upon 
 the law, though they had no voice in the judgment. 
 On the sides of the tribune were seats for distin- 
 guished persons, as well as for parties engaged in 
 the proceedings. Fronting the presiding magistrate 
 stood the prisoner with his accusers and his advo- 
 cates. The public was admitted into the remainder 
 of the nave and aisles, which was railed oft* from 
 the portion devoted to judicial proceedings; and 
 there were also galleries along the whole length of 
 the aisles one for men, the other for women. The 
 aisles were roofed over as was the tribune. The 
 nave was originally left open to the sky. The Ba- 
 silicas were buildings of great size, so that a vast 
 multitude of spectators was always present at any 
 trial which excited public interest." 
 
 If such were the circumstances of St. Paul's trial, 
 we cannot doubt that he bore himself, as before 
 Festus and Agrippa, with dignity and intrepidity 
 and with all fidelity to his Master and his convictions. 
 
 From all that we have thus far adduced we may 
 conclude, I think, with a good degree of certainty, 
 that Paul was tried and acquitted at his first im- 
 prisonment; that he subsequently exercised his 
 ministry for some years, both in the East and West ; 
 
ST. PAUL IX ROME. 251 
 
 that he was a second time prisoner at Rome; that at 
 his first hearing he was acquitted, hut that he sub- 
 sequently was tried and condemned and executed. 
 But though there be sufficient proof of his martyr- 
 dom, there is nothing, as we shall see, which can be 
 relied upon as proof, as to the circumstances of his 
 imprisonment, trial, and execution. 
 
 Here we might naturally conclude our account of 
 St. Paul in Rome. But what is called the tradition 
 of the church, minutely and confidently narrates his 
 confinement in the Mamertine prison, and the cir- 
 cumstances of his death. Many Protestant authors 
 are disposed to endeavor to separate from these nar- 
 ratives all that is miraculous and absurd, and to rest 
 in the conviction that the Apostle was confined in 
 the Mamertine prison and carried out upon the 
 Ostian Way and executed at the point' three 
 miles from the gate, where the church " San Paulo 
 alle Tre Fontane" was subsequently erected in com- 
 memoration of the martyrdom. ~Now although there 
 is nothing improbable in the statement, and no evi- 
 dence against it, I am yet unable to feel, from any 
 authorities to which I have had access, that it is 
 either proved, or by the evidence made more probable. 
 It may be probable in itself; but no evidence has 
 been adduced which, to my mind, increases that in- 
 herent original probability. It seems to me a point 
 neither proved nor disproved, and having no satis- 
 factory evidence for it or against it. My reasons for 
 this conviction can be briefly stated. 
 
 1. In looking into the authorities for these state- 
 ments I find none that are contemporaneous, nor 
 that are so near to the period as to be the evidence 
 of witnesses. Clemens Romanus declares the mar- 
 
252 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 tyrdom of St. Paul, but gives no account of' the place 
 of his imprisonment, nor of the mode and scene of 
 his martyrdom. 
 
 2. In the absence of contemporary authorities, we 
 are referred to others which testify at the same time 
 to incidents and marvels and absurdities which it is 
 impossible to accept. It may be said that we are at 
 liberty to accept what seems to us probable, and re- 
 ject what is impossible or absurd. But in that case 
 we do not accept anything in fact on the testimony, 
 but only our own mind's decision as to what we con- 
 ceive might probably have happened. I do not ob- 
 ject to the inherent probability that St. Paul may 
 have been placed in the Mamertine prison, and exe- 
 cuted on the Ostian Way; but to accepting as of 
 any value what is presented as testimony to that 
 effect.' We are told that St. Paul was in the Mam- 
 ertine prison, and are at the same time informed 
 that St. Peter was there, and that a fountain sprang 
 out of the rock and still remains there, at which 
 St. Peter baptized his jailers. We are told that St. 
 Paul was executed at the site of the "San Paulo 
 alle Tre Fontane," but by the same authority we 
 are assured that when his head was cut off, it was 
 milk instead of blood that flowed from it, and that 
 it bounced three times after it was off, and at every 
 spot at which it fell a fountain was opened which 
 still continues flowing. Now we do not deny nor 
 assert that St. Paul was at the Mamertine prison, 
 and was executed at the spot thus indicated, but we 
 refuse to accept such testimony in the case. If a 
 witness testify to three things, two of which we 
 know to be absurd and false, he has disqualified 
 himself for being accepted as a witness to the third 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 253 
 
 point, however reasonable or probable his statement 
 may appear. 
 
 3. The testimony, or tradition, or whatever we 
 may prefer to call it, which would lead us to con- 
 sider it a fact proved that St. Paul was in the Mam- 
 ertine prison, and was executed at the point indica- 
 ted on the Ostian Way, would also compel us to 
 accept the statements concerning St. Peter's Episco- 
 pate in Rome and supremacy over the churches, as 
 well as the fact of his martyrdom and its accom- 
 panying marvels. How impossible it is for a mind 
 which demands proofs before it gives its assent, to 
 acBpt the statements on those points with which the 
 supposed proofs concerning Paul's imprisonment 
 and death are inseparably bound up, will appear, I 
 think, from the following considerations. 
 
 (1) From the history of St. Peter, as it is found 
 in the New Testament, there is not the slightest evi- 
 dence that he ever came to Rome. There is only 
 one passage which can even be supposed to furnish 
 a proof that he had ever been in Rome. That this 
 passage should have been employed for that purpose 
 is a proof of the extreme difficulty of finding any- 
 thing that looks like evidence to that effect. The 
 passage in one of the closing verses of the first Epis- 
 tle, "The church that is at Babylon elected to- 
 gether with you saluteth you." This is the only 
 passage upon which Bellarmine relies to show that St. 
 Peter was at Rome. He considers that by Baby- 
 lon, pagan Rome was intended by St. Peter. It is 
 scarcely necessary to enter upon an argument to show 
 how groundless is this supposition. Neither he nor 
 any other writer pretends to cite any other evidence 
 
 32 
 
254 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 from Scripture in proof of the supposed residence 
 of St. Peter at Rome. 
 
 It has indeed been denied that this Epistle of St. 
 Peter could have been addressed from the literal 
 Babylon of Mesopotamia, because it was at that 
 time a desolate wilderness, a haunt of wild beasts. 
 Strabo says that the great. city had become a great 
 desert. This author died in the reign of Tiberius, 
 about the year A. D. 25. If then his description is 
 to be literally received, the city must have been 
 then an uninhabited wilderness. But according to 
 Josephus, (lib. 18, chap. ix. 38,) it was at that very 
 time the abode of a very numerous colony of J^vs. 
 He states that a large number of Jews, after this 
 period, (between A.D. 37 and 41,) migrated from 
 Babylon to the neighboring Seleucia, to escape 
 the persecutions of the Parthians of that city. He 
 also adds that, within the same period, 50,000 of the 
 Jews perished by the hands of the Seleucians. Hence 
 we are compelled to infer that Strabo meant nothing 
 more than to give a strong expression to the con- 
 trast between the former grandeur and the then 
 comparative desolation of Babylon. Moreover, it is 
 well known that down to the middle of the second 
 century, vast numbers of Jews were gathered in the 
 Province of Babylonia, and that in the reign of Had- 
 rian, they broke forth in frequent sanguinary attacks, 
 both against their Parthian and Roman oppressors. 
 Within three centuries after Christ, the great seat of 
 Rabbinical learning was fixed at Babylon, and then 
 and there the famous Babylonian Talmud was pro- 
 duced. 
 
 This then was precisely the place at which we 
 might expect the Apostle of the Circumcision to 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 255 
 
 have sojourned. In the absence of any proof to 
 the contrary, and in the presence of many concur- 
 rent probabilities of the fact, we must conclude that 
 St. Peter dated his Epistle from the Babylon of Meso- 
 potamia. Thus the one alleged proof from Scripture 
 that Peter was ever in Rome falls to the ground. 
 
 (2) There is also a negative argument against the 
 claim of St. Peter having been at Rome so strong as 
 to be almost equivalent to a positive demonstration. 
 It is the fact, that neither during St. Paul's first nor 
 second imprisonment, neither in his letter to the Ro- 
 mans before he came to them, nor in his letters from 
 Rome during his first imprisonment, nor in his last 
 letter to Timothy during his second imprisonment, is 
 there the slightest allusion to St. Peter as having, or 
 ever having had, any connection with the Church of 
 Rome. It is incredible that if Peter had been, as it 
 is claimed, Bishop of Rome for more than twenty 
 years, no allusion, even remote and incidental, should 
 have been made to him, on either of these occasions. 
 When we add to this fact that St. Clement, who 
 speaks of St. Paul, makes no mention of St. Peter, 
 we have a negative argument, an argument from 
 silence, as strong as can be conceived. 
 
 (3) As the one passage relied upon in Scripture 
 to prove that St. Peter wrote his first Epistle from 
 Rome is thoroughly insufficient for that purpose, so 
 is the one passage outside of Scripture, in proof of 
 his coming to Rome in the second year of Claudius. 
 The Roman historian, Suetonius, (In Claudio, c. 25,) 
 mentions that, at that period, a Jew, by the name of 
 Simon, came to Rome, and so stirred up his country- 
 men to quarrels and seditions that Claudius decreed 
 that all Jews should be banished from the city. On 
 
256 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 this statement rests the only proof of St. Peter's 
 coming to Rome in the year A.D. 41, and his expul- 
 sion from it for a time. It is asserted without a 
 shadow of proof or probability that this Simon the 
 Jew was Peter the Apostle. This statement, and the 
 salutation from Babylon in the Epistle of St. Peter, 
 are all the contemporary evidence which is even at- 
 tempted to be adduced for St. Peter's residence in 
 Rome. On these rest the traditions. On the tradi- 
 tions rests the statement of the fathers. On the 
 statement of the fathers rests the whole vast fabric 
 of the Papal supremacy. It is such a feat in logic as 
 it would be in mechanics to upturn St. Peter's and 
 make it rest upon the cross that crowns its dome. 
 
 (4) How utterly one finds himself without a rea- 
 son when he seeks authorities for the facts so mi- 
 nutely recorded concerning St. Peter and St. Paul, 
 will appear from a few instances. 
 
 There is no higher authority in the Church of 
 Rome than that of their great historian Baronius. 
 He relates at length the imprisonment of St. Peter 
 and St. Paul. St. Peter's escape from prison, and 
 his meeting of Christ on the Appian Way, with the 
 salutation, "Domini quo Vcedis?" "Lord, whither 
 goest thou?" and the Lord's reply, that he goes "to 
 Rome to be crucified anew," and St. Peter's convic- 
 tion and return ; the conversion and baptism of their 
 jailers by the Apostles; their incarceration for 
 eight months previous to their martyrdom. But 
 when we look for the authorities for all these inter- 
 esting facts, we are referred to nothing better than 
 the Roman Martyr ologies, which were compiled cen- 
 turies after the events which are thus confidently 
 recorded. 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 257 
 
 And again, when we have references to authorities 
 which promise to be more authentic and reliable, 
 we are compelled to wonder at the insufficiency of 
 proof and the absurdity of the reasonings based 
 upon them, to which we are so boldly directed. We 
 are told, for instance, by Baronius, that when the 
 Apostles were taken from the prison they were 
 scourged previous to their execution. He says that 
 it might be a question whether Paul, a Roman citi- 
 zen, was subjected to this indignity, but that the 
 fact cannot be doubted, because the column is preserved 
 in S. Maria, in Trastevere, at which the Apostles were 
 scourged!* When the most learned of the Romish 
 historians resorts to a proof like this, we may well 
 suppose that no proofs exist. 
 
 The want of good faith in the conspicuous exhi- 
 bition of so-called proofs of the most important 
 statements, which are elsewhere admitted by the 
 highest authority to be worthless, is another painful 
 feature of this gigantic structure of deception and 
 delusion. Of this I mention but one instance. 
 
 On the Ostian Way there is a little chapel erected 
 at the spot where St. Peter and St. Paul are said to 
 have separated, the one to be crucified on the Jani- 
 culum, the other to be beheaded at the Acque Salvie. 
 On this chapel there is an inscription in Italian, of 
 which the following is a translation: "At this place 
 St. Peter and St. Paul, on their way to martyrdom, 
 separated from each other ; and St. Paul said to St. 
 Peter, ' Peace be with thee, thou (fundamento) foun- 
 dation of the church and pastor of all the lambs of 
 Christ;' and Peter said to Paul, 'Go in peace, 
 
 * Baronius, vol. i. p. 666. 
 
258 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 preacher of good tidings and guide of the saints 
 and of the just.' " As authority for this statement, 
 reference is made on the tablet to " Dyonisius in 
 Epistolo ad Timotheum." 
 
 Now certainly so important a statement as this 
 testimony given by St. Paul to the supremacy of 
 Peter at the last solemn hour of life should not 
 be obtruded on the public highway, unless the 
 church, without whose sanction it would not remain 
 there a moment, fully believed that such testimony, 
 whatever its value, had at least been given. "What is 
 our surprise upon turning to Baronius, the most au- 
 thoritative and accredited historian of the church, 
 to find him declare this quotation from Dyonisius 
 not to be authentic, and that the fact there recorded 
 is to be believed rather by tradition than from any di- 
 rect assertion of the ancient writers !* What can be 
 more dishonest than this conspicuous testimony ob- 
 truded by the church on the highway, which is at 
 the same time declared by the highest authority in 
 the church to be a falsehood and a forgery ? 
 
 One other instance of the failure to find the re- 
 spectable support to an assertion which we are led to 
 expect from the reference which is given, will suf- 
 fice. Baronius, in narrating the fact of the behead- 
 ing of St. Paul, of the flowing of rnilk from his 
 neck, and that the severed head gave three long 
 leaps, and that from each place where the head 
 struck, a fountain sprung, refers the reader to the 
 sixty-eighth sermon of St. Ambrose. Upon turning 
 to this sermon we find the following observations : 
 "When the executioner had cut off St. Paul's head 
 
 * Baronius, vol. i. p. 666. 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 259 
 
 with a sword, it is said that milk rather than blood 
 flowed therefrom, which is not at all to be wondered 
 at in the case of St. Paul. For what is there surpris- 
 ing in the fact that the nourisher (nutritor) of the 
 church, he who said to the Corinthians, i hitherto I 
 have fed you with milk and not with meat,' should 
 abound in milk? This is plainly the land which 
 God promised to the fathers, saying, 4 1 will give you 
 a land flowing with milk and honey.' " 
 
 Now when reference is made to a father in proof 
 of a fact which occurred centuries before his time, 
 and he introduces such an extraordinary exposition 
 with the statement, it is said, we must be pardoned 
 for considering the passage as little a proof of the 
 reported fact upon which he comments, as it is evi- 
 dence of his taste or judgment as an expositor. 
 
 After even this brief examination, we are not im- 
 pressed by the imposing array of the names of the 
 fathers as authorities for St. Peter's residence at 
 Home, and all the high claims which are connected 
 with his alleged Episcopate and primacy. We see 
 from an examination of those references which we 
 have considered, of how little weight, in the way of 
 historical testimony, would be the statements of 
 Eusebius and Jerome, and twenty or thirty other 
 fathers who lived from a century and a half to four 
 centuries after Peter, as to the question of his resi- 
 dence, his life and death at Rome. They could but 
 repeat the statements of those who had gone before. 
 They could but assert, over and over, that such arid 
 such were the traditions of the church. How much 
 credit would be due to traditions thus created we 
 have already seen. For it would not be difficult to 
 show that whatever weight may be due to that which 
 
260 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 may properly be called traditions, the alleged state- 
 ments with regard to St. Peter are not in fact en- 
 titled to that name. 
 
 A tradition is a statement of fact or doctrine, 
 which, originating at the time, or near the time of 
 its occurrence, has been uninterruptedly handed 
 down by a succession of witnesses. Let me illus- 
 trate this definition. Just previous to our Lord's 
 ascension, Peter seeing John, said to Jesus, "Lord, 
 and what shall this man do ? Jesus said, If I will 
 that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow 
 thou me. Then went this saying abroad among 
 the brethren that this disciple should not die; yet 
 Jesus said not unto him, he shall not die, but if I 
 will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee." 
 Now if St. John had disappeared, and no one had 
 known that he had died, the saying that went abroad 
 among the brethren that he should not die, w^ould 
 probably have been handed down from generation 
 to generation, together with the statement that, in 
 accordance with this saying, he had not died. It 
 would then have been truly a tradition, though a tra- 
 dition of that which was not true. It would have 
 originated from the Master's saying at the time it 
 was said, and would have been handed down by suc- 
 cessive witnesses. It is a singular testimony with 
 regard to the character and value of traditions, that 
 the only one which originated with and prevailed among the 
 Apostles was not true. But the statements of St. 
 Peter's residence and Episcopacy and primacy are 
 not even truly traditions, quite independently of the 
 truth of that which they profess to deliver. We find 
 no contemporaneous witness saying that St. Peter 
 was at Rome, nor even saying that it ivas said. We 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 261 
 
 find no witnesses near that period making the asser- 
 tion. It is not until several generations after his 
 death that it began to be said that St. Peter had 
 lived and been crucified at Rome. After it once 
 began to be said, it matters not how many may have 
 repeated the saying on the authority of those who 
 went before. They do not add any strength to the 
 testimony. The chain of testimony fails for the 
 want of connecting links between the first witnesses 
 and the facts alleged. Nothing is accomplished by 
 adding a thousand links at the other end of the 
 chain. 
 
 We have spoken of the absence of any contem- 
 porary testimony of St. Peter's residence and Epis- 
 copate at Rome. We have shown that the tradition 
 to that effect is utterly wanting in the characteristics 
 either of a true tradition or of a tradition that is 
 true. We might add that neither Clemens, nor Ig- 
 natius, nor Irenseus, nor Justin Martyr, nor Tcrtul- 
 lian, directly affirm the fact. And now it would not 
 be difficult, we think, to indicate the origin of this 
 asserted residence of St. Peter at Rome. It is well 
 known that even before the Apostles passed away 
 from earth, the Jewish and Gentile converts differed 
 and disputed concerning the observance of the Mo- 
 saic Law. Paul was regarded as the champion of 
 Gentile freedom, and Peter of a more Jewish and 
 orthodox strictness. The Church of Home consisted, 
 no doubt, in a largely preponderant measure, of Jew- 
 ish converts. They would be anxious to sustain the 
 credit of their chosen leader, who they erroneously 
 supposed differed from St. Paul. Pious fraud, as 
 usual, came to the support of fanatical and intoler- 
 ant error. At a very early period spurious writings 
 
 33 
 
262 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 in the name of Peter, or professing to give an ac- 
 count of Peter, appeared at Rome. Their whole 
 tendency and effect was to exalt St. Peter as the 
 authoritative doctrinal head of the Christians of the 
 capital. The step was not long nor difficult from 
 this species of doctrinal headship and supremacy in 
 the church, itself an invention, to the story of 
 his actual presence, and Episcopate and primacy. 
 "The preaching of Peter" and "The Itinerary of 
 St. Peter" are of very early date. But that which 
 produced the most effect was the romance of " The 
 Clementines," together with "The Recognitions," 
 and "Apostolical Constitution and Canons," with 
 which they became associated as a decisive authority 
 in matters of faith and fact and right. In this 
 pseudo-Clementine system, St. Peter is brought for- 
 ward as the representative of what is claimed as the 
 original and pure Christianity ; and the historical ro- 
 mance is elaborated in the scene of the conversion 
 of the father, the mother, and the brothers of Cle- 
 ment. In these writings, St. Peter is reported as the 
 sole speaker and instructor, or the President of the 
 Apostolic College. Clement, one of the earliest 
 presiding elders of the Roman Church, is the chosen 
 recipient of the Petrine ordinances, and the scene is 
 laid throughout at Rome. ~Now there is no reason to 
 believe that any report or belief of the presence of 
 Peter in that city, at a date anterior to these writings, 
 existed in the Roman Church. It is just as reason- 
 able to suppose that the tradition took its origin 
 from these writings, as that they sprang from a pre- 
 viously existing and accredited tradition.* 
 
 * Cathedri Petri. Thos. Greenwood, M. A., Book iii. Preface, 
 Herzog's Eccl. Cyclopaedia, article Clementines. 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 263 
 
 Hence it is seen why, on the one hand, we rest in 
 the secure conviction that St. Paul went a second 
 time to Rome, and why we believe that he then suf- 
 fered martyrdom ; and why, on the other hand, we 
 say to the claim of St. Peter's residence and Episco- 
 pacy and martyrdom at Rome, not proven, and why 
 we add with a good degree of conviction, not prob- 
 able. We have external contemporary evidence that 
 Paul left Rome and returned and was executed. 
 We have internal evidence from his Epistles, that he 
 wrote a letter to Timothy during a second imprison- 
 ment, and expected soon to suffer death. These are 
 solid historical testimonies. But we have no eviden- 
 ces, equally strong as we have seen, external or inter- 
 nal, to Peter's sojourn at Rome; and we have proba- 
 bilities against it from the silence of St. Paul and St. 
 Clement, which amount almost to a demonstration. 
 
 From all these reasons it is that we prefer to pause 
 at the point where we are abandoned by clear his- 
 torical light, and to be content with the conviction 
 that St. Paul's anticipation of speedy death was 
 verified soon after he wrote to Timothy, and that 
 he was "offered" a victim and a martyr to his 
 fidelity to his Master. If we accept the statement 
 as historically true that he was incarcerated in the 
 Mamertine and beheaded at the Acqua Salvice, we 
 must do it on evidence which just as positively as- 
 serts St. Peter's companionship in imprisonment and 
 death, and all the puerile marvels which marked 
 their sojourn in prison and their execution. It is 
 believed not to have been without a solemn motive 
 that the place of the burial of Moses remained un- 
 known, and that the record of it was made in vague 
 and general terms. "So Moses the servant of the 
 
264 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to 
 the Word of the Lord ; and he buried him in a valley 
 of the land of Moab over against Beth Peor, but no 
 man knoweth of his sepulcher unto this day." (Deut. 
 xxxiv. 5-6.) It was probably with a view to prevent 
 the superstitious reverence which would have been 
 likely to have been rendered to the spot, and to the 
 remains of Moses, that the place of his burial was 
 designedly left unknown. And similar may have 
 been the object of divine wisdom in the uncertainty 
 which has been permitted to remain as to the death 
 and burial place of him who may not improperly be 
 called the Moses of the New Dispensation. A carnal 
 curiosity; a low and superstitious and irreverent 
 intrusion into things unrevealed ; a manifestation of 
 that unspiritual desire "to know Christ after the 
 flesh," when through the higher knowledge imparted 
 by the Spirit it becomes his disciple "to know" even 
 "him" in that respect "no more;" a return from the 
 privileges of those who were permitted to see the 
 divine beauty and meaning of earthly and outward 
 ordinances by the Spirit, to resting on ordinances 
 for the Spirit; this relapse of the church from the 
 spirit of the Apostolic age, at once led it to corrupt 
 the sublime and spiritual purity of St. Paul's doc- 
 trine, and to search, as if for the most precious of 
 divine treasures, for his bones, and which, in the 
 failure to find them, gradually converted conjecture 
 into tradition, and superstitious wishes into history. 
 If we will rightly view it, there is something august 
 in the solemn shadows through which we vaguely 
 discern the great Apostle, passing with majestic 
 peace to martyrdom and heaven ! 
 As he disappears, we seem to see him pause a 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 265 
 
 moment, and with solemn earnestness declare the 
 truth which underlies all his teachings, and which 
 the Church of Eome everywhere reverses, "The 
 letter killeth, the Spirit giveth life!" 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 THE theologian at presenj in greatest repute in Eome is Gio- 
 vanni Perrone. Immediately after the above lecture was deliv- 
 ered, a small work of 160 pages was issued by him, under the 
 title " S. Pietro in Roma, ossia la verita storica del viaggio di 
 S. Pietro in Roma" It is evidently nothing more than an en- 
 larged syllabus published in advance of an enormous work upon 
 the subject, in the preparation of which he is now engaged. It is 
 to be a companion to the massive production of Passaglia on the 
 Immaculate Conception of the Virgin. It is intended as a final 
 and full gathering up of all the testimony of all time in favor of 
 this fundamental dogma. If such a question were to be settled 
 by the number of authorities adduced without reference to their 
 pertinency to the real point in question, this array would be in- 
 deed quite overwhelming. 
 
 It is an interesting fact, as illustrating the progress of opinion 
 in Italy, that the work is prepared in confutation of another pub- 
 lished at Turin, as recently as 1861, with the title " The His- 
 torical Impossibility of the Journey of St. Peter to Rome demon- 
 strated by substituting True for False Tradition" 
 
 Before noticing the sort of proof which Perrone adduces for 
 the fact of St. Peter's journey to Rome, let us remember the im- 
 portance of the alleged doctrine which rests upon the alleged 
 fact. To the Protestant it is by no means a matter of importance 
 to prove that St. Peter was not at Rome. It might be admitted, 
 and not a single step be thereby made toward the demonstration 
 of the claim made on his behalf to the Vicarate of Christ and 
 the Primacy of the Church. But to the Romanist it is essential 
 that he should prove that St. Peter presided over the Church at 
 
266 ST. PATJL_IN ROME. 
 
 Eome. On that assumed fact is erected the most important doc- 
 trine next to that of salvation by the death of Christ ever pro- 
 claimed to man. If true, it is a truth on which the salvation of 
 myriads rests. If false, it is a portentous falsehood, the evil re- 
 sults of which no imagination can conceive. It rests on the fact 
 that St. Peter was at Eome. If he was not there, it falls to the 
 ground, a convicted and dead lie. Now it will be admitted that 
 such a fact should have proof that is unimpeachable, abundant, 
 and undoubted. God did not allow the proofs of Christ's cruci- 
 fixion and resurrection to be few and feeble. They are abundant 
 and overwhelming. If he had intended St. Peter to be his vicar 
 to the world, with the seat of his principate at Eome, he would 
 not have left the doctrine or the fact of so momentous an ar- 
 rangement in doubt. Of the doctrine there is not a shadow of 
 proof in the Word of God. If it is conceivable that it should 
 have been left so utterly without proof, it is conceivable only on 
 the supposition that the fact should appear with indubitable 
 brightness. 
 
 Now the mere fact that the question is raised whether St. 
 Peter was ever actually at Eome, preliminary to the question 
 whether he was there as head of the church, is presumptively 
 damaging to the claims of his Episcopate and Headship. And 
 the attempted proof of this alleged fact is so incidental, infer- 
 ential, remote, and vague, that even if one is constrained, on the 
 whole, to accept the fact of St. Peter's journey and residence at 
 Eome, he would be equally compelled to conclude that no import- 
 ant doctrine, certainly no doctrine of such transcendent moment 
 as that of the Primacy of St. Peter and his successors, could be 
 allowed to rest upon a point proved with so much difficulty and 
 by processes of argument so recondite, subtle, inferential, and 
 remote. 
 
 And now, turning to the work of Perrone, we find a chasm 
 just where we need a bridge. Positive assertions of St. Peter's 
 residence at Eome from and after Irenaeus, about 180 A. D., we 
 find in abundance ; but the proof or the assertion of this fact, 
 from intermediate authors, is altogether wanting. The attempt to 
 wring out of expressions which are merely incidental in Clement 
 of Eome, and Ignatius, such a testimony, is an utter failure. Cle- 
 ment, in the way of narrative and exhortation, in his Epistle to 
 the Corinthians, uses the general expression that we have seen 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 267 
 
 with our own eyes good Apostles suffer martyrdom. He does 
 not say which Apostles. Nor does the language imply, of neces- 
 sity, an actual ocular view by the Romans and by them alone. 
 He is writing to the Corinthians, and he says, we have seen among 
 us. Writing, as he does, in a practical way to the Corinthians, 
 and using the words we and among us, the words may well be be- 
 lieved to mean no more than if be had written thus: "I have 
 spoken to you of the example of the ancient faithful men who 
 have died from persecuting hatred. But let us turn to our own 
 times. In our own day, we, i.e. the men of this generation, have 
 seen faithful Apostles martyred." 
 
 He then proceeds to speak of Peter. He suffered and died 
 from persecution. Bat Clement does not mention where he suf- 
 fered. On this exceedingly small basis rests the alleged proof 
 of the one only testimony which is ever claimed to be contempo- 
 raneous, of the martyrdom of St. Peter at Rome. The alleged 
 testimony of Ignatius is equally unsatisfactory. 
 
 That the importance of this fact to the Romish system has not 
 been overstated, will appear from the declaration of Perrone him- 
 self. The author of the work which he attempts to confute, as- 
 serts that some Catholic writers have declared that St. Peter was 
 never at Rome. Perrone says that this is impossible. None but 
 apostate Catholics could have made such an assertion. And 
 why ? Because they become apostate by making it. " The reason 
 of this fact," viz., that no Catholic could have made this assertion, 
 " is that the coming of St. Peter in Rome and the seat there es- 
 tablished by him is connected as the indispensable condition with 
 an article of our faith, that is, the primacy of order and jurisdic- 
 tion belonging of divine right to the Roman Pontiff. Hence it 
 follows that he cannot be a Catholic who does not admit the 
 coming, the Episcopate, and the death of St. Peter in Rome." 
 Page 32. 
 
LECTUEE XII. 
 
 THE CLAIM OP THE CHURCH OF ROME TO SANCTITY, 
 INFALLIBILITY, AND UNITY CONSIDERED. 
 
 But he said, Yea, rather blessed are they that hear the word of God, 
 and keep it. LUKE, xi. 28. 
 
 ON Sunday evening last I heard, and some of you 
 heard, disparaging reference made to the word of 
 God, by the distinguished Romish divine who is 
 now preaching a series of Lenten sermons in a 
 neighboring church. Those Christians were I was 
 about to say ridiculed, who believe in and rely upon 
 a book for divine truth and life. At the same time 
 that this reliance upon a book for authority in sacred 
 things was censured, appeals were constantly made 
 to a book as if it were a final and absolute authority 
 upon all questions of faith and practice. The book 
 against reliance upon which we were warned was 
 the Word of Grod. The book which was quoted to 
 settle our faith and secure our assent was one of St. 
 Augustine. While cautioned not to rely upon the 
 Word, we were invited to believe in the one holy, 
 illuminated, infallible present Church of Rome. It 
 was aid to us in substance, "Deluded, miserable, 
 without the covenant, without grace, without the 
 promises, without the divine life, are those who rely 
 upon the Bible. Hear and believe the teachings of 
 the Papal Church." 
 
 Such were the words which fell on our ears on 
 Sunday last. To-day, from the ascended Son of 
 (268) 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 269 
 
 man, from the enthroned Son of God, from the 
 founder and teacher of the church, from Him who 
 is the truth as well as the way and the life, and 
 from whom the Holy Spirit itself, which is to guide 
 the souls of men into all truth, proceeds, who surely 
 knew what we were to hear and upon what we should 
 rely; to-day, in the Gospel for the day, these pre- 
 cious words come to our ears, and we take them to 
 our heart of hearts, "Blessed are they that hear the 
 Word of God, and keep it!" Dear Master! having 
 thy blessing in hearing and keeping the Word of 
 God, we need fear no man's ridicule or anathema 
 for doing that which wins thy benediction. "I wot 
 that he whom thou blessest is blest!" 
 
 The question of the relative position of the church 
 and the "Word of God is most interesting and import- 
 ant. It is so quite irrespective of the claims of the 
 Church of Home. It has often been inquired "which 
 was first, the church or the Word?" and very im- 
 portant results have been supposed to depend upon 
 the answer. If the reply is, "The church was first," 
 then it has been inferred that it was the prerogative 
 of the church to interpret the Word. If the answer 
 be, "The Word was first," then it has been con- 
 cluded that it is the office of the Word to teach the 
 church. ISTow, although I do not see that these in- 
 ferences logically follow their respective premises, 
 and though I do not therefore attach much import- 
 ance to the inquiry, yet, as a fact, I think it cannot 
 be doubted that the Word was first, and that the 
 church is the outgrowth of the Word, administered 
 by the Spirit. When God called Abram, and he heard 
 and kept the Divine Word then in him, the father 
 of the faithful, the germ of the patriarchal church 
 
 34 
 
270 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 was formed. The Word summoning, and through 
 the Spirit creating the church, such was the pro- 
 cess. When God called Moses, and he heard and 
 kept the Word then by the Word was the Jewish 
 church begun. The twelve became the founders of 
 the Christian church by being first obedient to the 
 words of Jesus. As the creation was evolved into 
 order under light by the power of God, so the church 
 assumed its form under the light of the Word, min- 
 istered by the Holy Spirit. 
 
 It is a, question more practical and important 
 "What is the relation of the church to the Word?" 
 To this question it seems to me there can be but one 
 answer for him who takes for his authority the 
 founder of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ. Its 
 office is not certainly to disparage, not to hide, but 
 to dispense the Word of God. The Saviour's last 
 solemn commission to his disciples before his ascen- 
 sion was this, "Go ye into all the world and preach 
 the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and 
 is baptized shall be saved ; but he that believeth not 
 shall be damned." St. Paul, taught of Jesus, said 
 for himself that he determined to know nothing 
 among his disciples but Christ, and him crucified; 
 and his son Timothy he exhorted with intense ear- 
 nestness, as if it were the one work which he was to 
 do "preach the Word; be instant in season and 
 out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort." And 
 everywhere the conviction, illumination, and sanc- 
 tification of the heart is made dependent upon the 
 Word of God, administered by the Spirit. Not of 
 the personal Word, the Son of God, as was said on 
 Sunday last, but plainly of the written Word is it de- 
 clared that it "is quick and powerful, sharper than a 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 271 
 
 two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing 
 asunder of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner 
 of the thoughts and intents of the heart." "Being 
 born again," says ST. PETER!! "not of corruptible 
 seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God which 
 liveth and abidelh forever." St. Peter did not speak 
 disparagingly of the Word. St. Paul commended 
 the Ephesians to God, and to the Word of his truth, 
 which was able to build them up. "The Gospel is 
 the power of God unto salvation." Is one baptized? 
 It is when listening to the Word he becomes peni- 
 tent. Does one commemorate the Saviour's dying 
 love? It is because he obeys the Divine Word 
 which says, "Do this in remembrance of me!" 
 Does one go into the house of God? It is that he 
 may worship according to the teachings of the Word, 
 and listen to that right dividing of the truth which 
 will furnish him his portion of meat in due season. 
 Hence, as the church is established for dispensing 
 the Word of God, its function is gone when that 
 duty ceases to be discharged. Established for that 
 purpose, of what use is it when that purpose is not 
 accomplished? The church, according to the defi- 
 nition of our article, is the keeper and witness of 
 the Holy Writ. It is her privilege to keep, and her 
 duty to dispense the Word. Hence, the Word is 
 greater than the church, even when she truly keeps 
 and truly proclaims it; and, of course, immeasurably 
 greater when she neither holds nor dispenses the 
 truth of God, but proclaims only error. When the, 
 Jewish church made void the law of God by its tra- 
 ditions, how did God regard it, and what did he do 
 with it? He abhorred it, and scattered it, and de- 
 stroyed it; but the Word of God liveth and abideth 
 
272 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 forever. That Word itself the prophetic Word 
 smote the apostate Jewish church ; and another pro- 
 phetic word is hovering over, and will in its ap- 
 pointed time strike and destroy the second great 
 apostacy. 
 
 Great and precious therefore as is the church of 
 God, and high as is its function, as that which holds 
 the water of life, and dispenses it for the souls of 
 men, yet if, in some other way, that water of life 
 shall reach some thirsty soul, that soul shall live. 
 Far off in the mountains is the source of the "Aqua 
 Claudia." If the citizens of Rome had no other 
 supply of water but this, then how precious to them 
 would be the aqueduct, and the reservoirs, and the 
 conduits, which should convey it to them, and keep 
 them from perishing by thirst. Then how glori- 
 ously grand would seem to them the far-stretching 
 arches that conveyed it; and how exquisitely beau- 
 tiful the castelli that inclosed it; and how musical 
 and refreshing would be the flow, and the spray, and 
 the sparkle of the fountains ! But even then it would 
 not be the aqueduct, and the reservoir, and the foun- 
 tains, but the water, that would quench their thirst 
 and save them from perishing. If the aqueduct 
 should be destroyed and the water should be brought 
 to them some other way, they would not perish. 
 Such is the function of the church of God. It is 
 the established agency by which the truth of God 
 is brought to the perishing souls of men. It is 
 lovely and majestic to the eye of those who drink 
 and live. They walk about this Zion ; they count 
 its towers; they breathe upon it the blessing, "peace 
 be within thy walls!" They love it for what it is; 
 they bless it for what it gives. Its prosperity is their 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 273 
 
 joy; its adversity is their sorrow. If it is broken 
 down, they thirst, they faint, they pine; but if the 
 water of life be brought to them in some other way, 
 directly from the source, they do not die, but live. 
 Thus is held, in most revered and loving estimation, 
 the church of God, because it dispenses the living 
 and life-giving Word. And when the church ceases 
 to perform this, its appropriate function, what is 
 it? Behold the majestic ruins of the Claudian aque- 
 duct, as it stretches its broken and picturesque and 
 festooned arches over the Campagna, and climbs the 
 imperial hill; behold the shapeless mass of the 
 Meta Sudens ; and in them, long dry, and empty, be- 
 hold a symbol of the Church of Rome, as it stretches 
 in broken grandeur over the centuries of time! 
 ]N"ay, the symbol is not complete; for from those 
 arches no poisoning dew distils to blight the grass 
 beneath; and from that silent fountain issue no pes- 
 tilential vapors ! 
 
 Such we believe to be, on the authority of Christ 
 himself, the true relation of the church of God to 
 the Word of God. But the system which prevails 
 in the Church of Rome is quite* another; and was 
 stated on Sunday last in a way which, I am told, 
 seemed to some minds plausible and attractive. So 
 far as the discourse to which I refer expounded the 
 relation of the three persons of the Sacred Trinity 
 so far as it explained, in general terms, the office 
 of the Holy Spirit, in its procession from the Father 
 and the Son, and in its sanctifying, illuminating, and 
 comforting influences, it appealed to the conviction 
 and experience of all true Christian hearts. But 
 when the attempt was made to show that all the in- 
 fluences of the Holy Ghost were limited to the 
 
274 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 I church, which was itself limited within the bounds 
 of the Homan obedience ; then who could fail pain- 
 fully to feel the deplorable degradation to which the 
 blessed Paraclete was subjected? How vain the at- 
 tempt to show that, either in just theory or in fact, 
 its broad and blessed agency is so cribbed, cabined, 
 and confined ! Ah ! as well might the Pope and his 
 cardinals and priests stand at the door of St. Peter's 
 and gather the sunshine that irradiates the world 
 into their hands, and put it in St. Peter's, and lock 
 it up and leave the world in darkness as shut up 
 the light of the world, which Christ manifested by 
 
 V the Spirit, within the bounds of the Papal Church ! 
 The assumption of the discourse was, that the 
 Holy Spirit, acting only in and through the church, 
 reproduces in her its own essential nature and char- 
 acteristics. Being essential light, it conveys to the 
 church illumination, and thus becomes the world's 
 guide. The Spirit of Holiness it makes the church, 
 like itself, holy, unchangeable, and indefectible; it 
 imparts to the church infallibility. One and uniform, 
 it gives to the one church one system of sacred truth. 
 ' ' Holiness , ' ' c i illumination, " " infallibility, " " unity, inte- 
 rior as wdl as exterior," these are the gifts, the reflex 
 and repetition of itself, which the Holy Ghost im- 
 parts to the church, and that church is the Church 
 of Rome ! I do not know that it would be going 
 beyond the extremely strong expressions which were 
 used in this connection if it should be said that the 
 representation of the doctrine was, that as God the 
 Word was incarnate in Jesus, so God the Holy Ghost 
 was embodied in the church. 
 
 IsTow if it were proved or capable of proof that the 
 Holy Ghost was promised to produce such results in 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 275 
 
 a body upon earth, called the church, it would be no 
 difficult task to show that assuredly they have not 
 been realized in the Church of Rome. 
 
 I. The Spirit whose name is Holy must transfer to 
 the body its own holiness; and one prominent mark 
 of the church is therefore claimed to be "sanctity" 
 What is holiness or the fruit of the Spirit? "The 
 fruit of the Spirit," says the Word, inspired by the 
 Spirit, sent from the ascended head of the church, 
 " is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, good- 
 ness, faith, meekness, temperance." But it is said 
 that nowhere but in the church does the Holy Ghost 
 pour its influences and produce its fruit. Only in 
 the Papal Church may we find sanctity. The limb 
 cut off from the body cannot partake of the life that 
 pervades the body. Now in connection with this 
 declaration, and the Holy Spirit's own definition of 
 sanctity, some conclusions must be drawn which are 
 fatal to the exclusive claims of Rome. 
 
 It appears as a fact beyond all possibility of denial, 
 that the fruit of the Spirit, described by the Spirit, 
 does appear in those who, according to Rome, are 
 cut off from the body. Take the catalogue and 
 compare it with what is found in the hearts of Chris- 
 tians, of various names, and you will find the living 
 graces and the description to correspond. "We 
 know, and are agreed, as to what Christian love, as a 
 grace of heart, is ; for Rome and other churches do 
 not differ in their definition of Christian love, as it 
 is a subjective and individual grace; and that love 
 is in your heart, my brother ! and fellow-Protestant 
 against the Church of Rome. "Joy, peace, long- 
 suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, 
 temperance," I find them all, in a degree, equal 
 
276 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 surely to that in which they are found in the mem- 
 bers of the Church of Rome, in the hearts of those 
 who are, by Rome, said to be cut off from the body, 
 and therefore without holy life. The fact is beyond 
 all possible doubt or denial. What can be done 
 with it by the Church of Rome? Let it be turned 
 and dealt with as it may, it is, on any disposition 
 which she can make of it, absolutely fatal to her 
 claims. 
 
 (1) Does she deny that these graces of the Spirit 
 are in the hearts of Protestants ? Then is she wanting 
 in truth and charity, declaring that what are graces 
 of the Spirit in the hearts of Romanists, cease to be 
 so when they are seen, in their same essential quali- 
 ties, and in their same outward tokens, in the hearts 
 of Protestants; and thus failing in truth and charity, 
 which are the very elements of holiness, she is 
 void of the most important mark of the church 
 sanctity. 
 
 (2) Or does she admit that these graces enume- 
 rated by St. Paul are in the hearts of those who are 
 cut off from the body, but that they do not consti- 
 tute holiness? Does" she say that there are other 
 graces different from these which constitute sanctity, 
 and that these do not? and that these graces are 
 implicit and submissive faith in the church, and 
 others of the same character? Then does she make 
 void the law of God by her traditions, and subject 
 herself to the same withering rebukes of the Master, 
 as those with which he visited the apostate Jewish 
 church ? 
 
 (3) Or does she admit that these graces may be in 
 the hearts of those who are cut off from the body, 
 through the rich, nn covenanted, overflowing mer- 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 277 
 
 cies of the compassionate Redeemer; while, at the 
 same time, the church, i.e. the Papal Church, is the 
 only appointed, authoritative, and sure receptacle in 
 which they are to be found? Then the position is 
 abandoned that the limb severed is necessarily dead; 
 and the admission is made that divine life can be 
 obtained apart from the body. 
 
 (4) Or again, is it, on the contrary, stoutly denied 
 that sanctity can be found anywhere but in the 
 church; the one body organized by Christ, and vivi- 
 fied by the Spirit? Then must we, who exhibit 
 sanctity, i.e. the graces of the Spirit, which, accord- 
 ing to the Spirit, constitute holiness, be in that 
 body where alone that sanctity is found. If that 
 body be not the Church of Rome, or she is not a 
 part of it, so much the worse for her. 
 
 Thus, if we take this claim to exclusive sanctity 
 for the body, which is all along claimed to be the 
 Papal Church, in connection with the Holy Spirit's 
 own definition of sanctity a definition admitted in 
 its application to the individual, by the Church of 
 Rome, and which cannot be denied without blas- 
 phemy against the Holy Ghost, we find that the 
 Word of God, the disparaged Word, utterly annihi- 
 lates the pretensions of the church. No wonder that 
 it is disparaged. 
 
 The truth is, that this pretension of the Church 
 of Rome to be the exclusive depository of the Holy 
 Ghost, can be sustained only bj r denying the very 
 nature of holiness, as it is defined by the Holy Spirit. 
 It cannot be admitted to be what St. Paul describes 
 it ; for then must the fatal concession follow that it 
 is found outside the church. Accordingly we find 
 that it can exist as a nameless something when it is 
 
 35 
 
278 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 . utterly void of all moral or spiritual quality. Grace, 
 ' or holiness, conveyed by the sacraments, reaches, 
 and is infused into all who partake of them. It is 
 not in you who love God, rely upon your Saviour, 
 enjoy spiritual communion with the Father of your 
 spirit, and exhibit in your daily life, love, forgive- 
 ness, meekness, temperance, it is not in you, be- 
 cause you are not where it can be obtained. But it 
 is in the brigand, who is now watching for lives in 
 the mountains of Southern Italy, because he is in 
 union with the body, and draws from it this myste- 
 rious sanctity, and adores the Virgin, and obeys the 
 church. What is it? A new spiritual nature ? Nay, 
 the first glimmer of it is not to be found in him ! 
 Is it knowledge ? He is absolutely ignorant. Is it 
 holy love? His heart is full of hate, and has only 
 some instinctive natural affections. Is it joy, peace, 
 long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, 
 and temperance? The dog that follows him has 
 scarcely less of any of these qualities than he! I do 
 by no means deny I rejoice to be assured that 
 there is genuine spiritual life, real sanctity, in the 
 hearts of many members of the Church of Rome. 
 But this too this nameless infused grace, which 
 has no^ spiritual or even moral quality which may 
 exist, nay, which must exist, in the heart of this bri- 
 gand-member of the church; this sacred galvanism 
 which informs souls that are utterly vile and evil; 
 this too is holiness, and the spirit exhibited by Henry 
 Martyn, by Heber, by the Dairyman's daughter, 
 was not holiness. Oh how strange it is that such 
 astounding absurdities can be believed ! How awful 
 it is that such blasphemies against the Holy Ghost 
 should be uttered by the church which professes to 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 279 
 
 embody it, to be its sole organ of expression upon 
 earth ! How sad that such a system should entangle 
 and bring down a high and gifted spirit, once hon- 
 ored and beloved in a pure and scriptural church ! 
 Alas! that we should be compelled of this bright 
 and beautiful mind to reverse the language of the 
 Psalmist: "Though ye were as the wings of a dove 
 covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow 
 gold, .yet are ye now lying among the pots!" 
 
 II. But it is to the church as a whole, in her corpo- 
 rate capacity, that the Holy Spirit imparts its power, 
 and therefore in its function as a church, we are to 
 discover the most striking evidences of a sanctity 
 that is but a reflex of the holiness of its source. 
 The moon receives light from the sun, and none the 
 less is it a pure and completed rounded light because 
 some spots maybe discerned upon the surface. Let 
 us see ! 
 
 The Saviour declared that "His kingdom was not 
 of this world." Those of whom it was composed 
 were, according to St. Peter, "a chosen generation, 
 a royal priesthood, a peculiar people." The mode 
 in which it was to be made a glorious church is thus 
 stated by St. Paul. " That he might sanctify and 
 cleanse it by the washing of water by the Word, that 
 he might present it to himself a glorious church, 
 without spot or wrinkle or any such thing." Said the 
 founder of this kingdom, "If my kingdom were of 
 this world, then would my servants fight." A king- 
 dom not of this world ; a peculiar, separated people ; 
 a body which would be made glorious by the wash- 
 ing of water by the Word ; and in which there could 
 be no exercise of civil power, even for self-preser- 
 vation, without a perversion and degradation of its 
 
280 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 high, and holy functions. Such was the holy king- 
 dom of our Lord as described by himself and by 
 those whom he inspired. This is now the holy 
 church, the body in which the Spirit's sanctity re- 
 sides, and from which it emanates. Is the Church 
 of Rome in its corporate capacity and its action such 
 a church? 
 
 St. Peter, in the context in which 4ie dwells upon 
 the separateness and sanctity of the holy nation, en- 
 joins upon it submission to the civil powers. " Sub- 
 mit," says St. Peter, "to the king as supreme," and 
 the pretended successor of St. Peter replies, "I am 
 myself POPE-KING !" "Submit," says St. Peter, "to 
 the king," and the pretended successor of St. Peter 
 seems to have read it, "Make all kings submit to 
 you." Hence his kingdom is, whatever else it may 
 be, a kingdom of this world, which the Saviour de- 
 clared that his kingdom was not. Again said the 
 Master and the founder of the kingdom, "The 
 princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them 
 and they that are great exercise authority upon them. 
 But it shall not be so among you." It is so with that 
 body which is claimed to be the exclusive depository 
 of the Holy Ghost. It exercises dominion and au- 
 thority precisely as the princes of the Gentiles do. 
 It has assumed, in addition to its spiritual, civil func- 
 tions. The church, which was to be made glorious by 
 the washing of water by the Word, is glorious with 
 church edifices, rich in marble and gems and gold; 
 with glittering priestly vestments; with elaborate 
 ceremonies; with gorgeous carriages and liveried 
 servants ; with palaces and basilicas and halls of art 
 which put to shame the poor pomp of emperors and 
 kings ; with all the officials of a human court and with 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 281 
 
 the armed servants that will fight that their master 
 be not delivered up to his enemies. The hishops of 
 this holy body, the successors of those to whom the 
 Master's injunction was "teach and preach; give 
 yourselves wholly to the ministry of the Word," 
 many of them never teach or preach at all, but they 
 ride in stately carriages ; they take part in church 
 and state ceremonials; they are at the head of, or in 
 the council for managing the war department, the 
 treasury department, the department of agriculture, 
 and public instruction and the police ; they superin- 
 tend the administration of the lottery and the thea- 
 ters. And this is the great appropriate work of the 
 Holy Catholic Church! This is that power which 
 she declares is essential to her existence and to the 
 right discharge of her high functions in the world. 
 And these are manifestations of the Holy Spirit 
 from that one body in which it is enshrined and to 
 which it is confined. Others, which it is equally 
 difficult to recognize as breathings of that Holy 
 Spirit, whose emblem is the dove, are found in those 
 anathemas which sound so like angry maledictions; 
 in those persecutions of heretics which are so little 
 in the spirit of the Divine Master who poured his 
 compassionate lamentations over infatuated Jerusa- 
 lem; and in that withdrawal of the Word of God 
 from the people, and that disparagement of its sacred 
 and sanctifying office, which is a direct denial of the 
 Master's saying, "Blessed are they that hear the 
 Word of God, and keep it." But while Borne re- 
 mains what she is we wonder not that she does not 
 love the Book! If this Word be true, if the Holy 
 Ghost speaks through it to the world and to the 
 church, then the voice which we hear from the Pa- 
 
282 ST. PAUL IN HOME. 
 
 pacy is not the voice of the Spirit. She is compelled 
 to claim a monopoly of holiness and to deny that 
 there is any other in the world, or from the Bible, 
 except as it is dispensed by her; for the Bible itself, 
 and all else in the world which claims to be holiness, 
 on its authority, unite in declaring that much of her 
 boasted exclusive holiness is secularity and sin. 
 
 III. (1) It is claimed that the Holy Ghost imparts 
 also to the one body its own illumination and infalli- 
 bility. It makes the church infallibly to receive and 
 infallibly to teach the truth. The body thus inter- 
 penetrated and assimilated by the Spirit cannot hold 
 or proclaim error. Hence it always holds, and al- 
 ways must have held, all the truth, and nothing but 
 the truth. This claim was advanced in all its full- 
 ness. And certainly if the premises be admitted, 
 the conclusion cannot be denied. If the work of 
 the Holy Spirit is not only to sanctify the souls of 
 men and keep in the world a church against which 
 the gates of hell shall not prevail, but also so to 
 transfer itself to the church as to make it incapable, 
 like itself, of error; and if the body to which it 
 thus transforms itself is the Papal Church, then it 
 indeed follows that the church thus illuminated is 
 infallible, both in receiving and teaching the truth 
 of God. I do not now pause to consider whether 
 such a gift was promised to the body. It was, in the 
 discourse alluded to, assumed that it was; and it 
 might be as readily assumed that it was not. It is 
 sufficient to show that, whether promised or not, it 
 is not in the possession of the body by which it is 
 claimed. If the Holy Spirit transfers itself to the 
 church in its full illumination, then as the spirit 
 never holds only a part of truth, and never progresses 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 283 
 
 in knowledge, but is always the same, yesterday, to- 
 day, and forever, it must of necessity have at once 
 led the church into all truth. There can be no 
 place for doctrines of development and of gradual 
 illuminations in connection with such a statement. 
 "We take it in its full and emphatic and unlimited 
 form in which it was made. If, indeed, the church 
 is claimed to be made infallible, that claim of itself 
 involves the ever-present possession of all the truth. 
 Hence this body, the Papal Church, must have al- 
 ways held precisely the same one complete faith once 
 delivered to the saints. 
 
 (2) What a singular claim to be made for the? 
 Church of Rome ! The Emperor Augustus said 
 that he should think that two Augurs meeting 
 together in the exercise of their pretended func- / 
 tions of divination from the entrails of sacrificed 
 victims, must needs laugh in each other's faces. '/ 
 One would suppose- that an advocate of the Church 
 of Rome could scarcely advance this pretension 
 without a smile. For from the days of the first 
 Clement, Bishop of Rome, from his own pure and 
 Paul-like Epistle to the Romans, to the days of the ' 
 present Pope, the student of history can trace every ' 
 succeeding step of the Church of Rome in error 
 until the church of the nineteenth century be- 
 comes as little like the church of the first and 
 second centuries as the worship of the High Places 
 by apostate Israel was like that of the tabernacle 
 in the wilderness. He can run his hand down the 
 chart of history and mark the successive steps / 
 from bad to worse. Here commemoration of 
 the dead became prayers for them. Here what 
 had commenced as honors for the saints and mar- 
 
284 ST. PAUL IX ROME. 
 
 tyrs became prayers to them. Here commenced 
 ; the celibacy of the clergy. Here the claims of the 
 / Pope to the headship of the church were first hinted 
 i and here they were advanced. Here Purgatory. 
 Here transubstantiation. Here masses for the dead 
 for money. And here, last of all, the Immaculate 
 Conception. And yet, in the face of historical 
 monuments which verify these changes, which are 
 just as authentic as anything in history, the claim is 
 gravely advanced that the Papal Church has always 
 been unchangeable, because infallible. All the time 
 infallible, and yet not teaching in one century an 
 ^ article of faith essential to salvation which she pro- 
 claimed as such in the century following. All the 
 time infallible, and yet one infallibility at Rome and 
 ' another at Avignon, and both infallibilities infalli- 
 bly anathematizing the other; and the church not 
 yet agreed as to who was truly Pope. But we need 
 not go back to history to show kow infallibility has 
 faltered and been at fault for eighteen centuries! 
 Look at the new column of the Immaculate Concep- 
 tion !* Listen to its testimony ! What does it say ? It 
 gives distinctly to the churches and world this testi- 
 mony : "I proclaim that for eighteen hundred years, 
 the church which professes to hold and dispense all 
 truth, has been without this saving article of faith, 
 this article necessary to be received on the pain of 
 damnation. The body which accepts truth from the 
 spirit has waited eighteen hundred years before it 
 has accepted this. The children of the church have 
 been robbed for centuries of this essential truth. 
 Who knows how many other essential truths neces- 
 sary to salvation there may be which the Spirit has 
 
 * Piazza di Spagna. 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 285 
 
 been struggling to present, and which the church 
 does not yet accept, and may be eighteen hundred 
 years more in learning!" So does that column, in- 
 tended to commemorate the Immaculate Concep- 
 tion, stand a perpetual witness to the falsity of the 
 pretensions of the church to changelessness and in- 
 fallibility. And oh ! if the marble lips of the image 
 of the Virgin Mother which crowns that column 
 could speak, if her spirit could visit earth and be 
 heard from the elevation to which an idolatrous 
 homage has lifted her, even above her divine Son, 
 how would she cry out in the anguish of deprecation 
 to her infatuated followers to cease that awful idol- 
 atry of a lowly creature, who mingles with the 
 throngs that cast their crowns before the throne; 
 and was highly favored on earth only because she 
 was permitted to be very near in love and service 
 to her divine Redeemer Son; is blessed now in 
 heaven only in that she can sing with all the ran- 
 somed the new song to Him who has washed her and 
 redeemed her in His blood ! There is a feeling of 
 inexpressible tenderness, sympathy, and reverence 
 among Protestant hearts toward the Virgin Mother 
 of our Lord; because they know that if she could 
 be cognizant of what transpires on earth, and sor- 
 row could enter heaven, her holy and loving heart 
 would be torn with anguish at the awful idolatry 
 which renders to her the homage due only to her 
 divine Son and Lord. 
 
 (3) This pretended infallibility of the church is 
 assumed on the ground of its necessity. A living in- 
 fallible teacher for the church is announced to be a 
 self-evident need. The Master says not so. The 
 Word administered by the Spirit this is provided, 
 
 36 
 
286 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 and no intimation is given that anything more or 
 other is needed. It seems to be considered that if 
 infallibility is granted, then all difficulty in the way 
 of right and sure knowledge and belief vanishes. 
 Nothing more imposes on minds that have been in 
 doubt, and crave an absolute certainty, than the claim 
 of the church to be a present, inspired, infallible 
 teacher of the truth. But it will be seen that this is 
 a mistaken apprehension. 
 
 In the first place, we remark that it is not an in- 
 fallible teacher that is needed, but an infallible 
 learner. An infallible teacher will avail nothing 
 unless the learner be equally infallible. Moses and 
 the prophets were infallible teachers; but the Jews 
 did not therefore learn from them and retain the 
 truth of God. Jesus and the Apostles were infalli- 
 ble teachers authenticating their authority to teach 
 by signs and wonders and yet how many did not 
 believe, and how many who did believe, believed 
 amiss! No additional perfection in the teacher, if 
 that were possible; no multiplication of infallibili- 
 ties, if they could be multiplied, would secure the 
 soul of the taught in truth and holiness. The great 
 difficulty is found in the sin, and blindness, and un- 
 belief of the heart to whom the truth is addressed. 
 We have already an infallible teacher in the in- 
 spired Word, administered by the Spirit. This, 
 while it does not secure all who seek the truth from 
 every error, does lead the believing, and honest, and 
 earnest soul into all truth which is necessary for 
 salvation and for spiritual life. Now it would not 
 secure absolute exemption from all error, and cer- 
 tain introduction into all truth, if a present infallible 
 interpreter were added, to make known the meaning 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 28T 
 
 of the present inspired Word, any more than when 
 the Apostles were, under the very teachings of Christ 
 himself, the inspired interpreters of his words: the 
 disciples were kept within a rigid mechanical uni- 
 formity of faith and dogma, and secured as by a 
 physical necessity from falling into error. Even then, 
 if we should grant that the church were an infallible 
 interpreter of the infallible Word, if we could have 
 such a guide, it would avail little to save the soul 
 from error. Without humility, penitence, and faith, 
 it could not, even then, accept the truth ; and with 
 them it can accept it now. The Word is truth, and 
 the Spirit, sought and used, will lead us into all truth 
 necessary for salvation and for life. 
 
 But this infallible teacher that is promised us ^ 
 where is it to be found ? There is one who can au- \ 
 thoritatively assure us where it is, and what it is. / 
 We are promised an infallible teacher in the church; j 
 and lo ! we need another infallible teacher and he 
 does not come to teach us where the Teacher is. 
 Some of the doctors of the church declare that it is 
 in the Pope alone; some that it is alone in the Gen- 
 eral Councils; some that it is in both combined; 
 some that it is in neither singly nor in their combi- 
 nation; but that it is in the voice of the collective 
 church. If we seek it in the Popes we find them 
 frequently in direct conflict on points of prime im- 
 portance. If we go to the Councils we find Con- 
 stance against Trent, and both against Mce. To 
 obtain a consentient teaching, from interconnecting 
 Popes and Councils, or from the General Church of | 
 all ages, would be to evolve ordered music from the r 
 broken and tangled strings of a shattered harp. \ 
 How then is the case of a Protestant practically im- J 
 
288 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 proved in reference to Ms assurance of being under 
 a perfect guide, by this promise of an infallible 
 teacher, whom he cannot locate and cannot find? 
 And if he could find the teacher, could he under- 
 stand the teaching ? For it is a curious fact in con- 
 nection with this claim to be an infallible teacher of 
 the truth, that the Roman Church professes to inter- 
 pret Scripture, not in the independent exercise of the 
 gift of the Holy Spirit which dictated the Scripture, 
 and which is, in herself, but in accordance with tradi- 
 tion. And what is tradition ? The consentient tes- 
 timony of the fathers. Now how is the condition of 
 the private Christian improved who has been ac- 
 customed to rely upon his Bible, under the teachings 
 of the Spirit, and in connection with the prayers of 
 the church and the ministry of the Word; how is it 
 improved by having an infallible teacher who, after 
 all, only gathers and repeats the opinions of the un- 
 inspired fathers of the church, some of whom were 
 foolish, and who, not singly infallible, cannot possi- 
 bly be infallible when combined? The case is not 
 improved to a thoughtful mind, by the assurance 
 that the teachings of the church are compacted into 
 a little catechism which a child can learn and com- 
 prehend ; for the suggestion constantly occurs that 
 he has no assurance, that by whomsoever composed 
 by doctor, or Pope, or Council, they are abso- 
 lutely infallible, for he cannot ascertain that infalli- 
 bility resides in either or in all. Oh ! vain the at- 
 tempt to obtain a better or surer teacher than the 
 Holy Ghost, which the Saviour, before his ascen- 
 sion, promised to all his disciples; vain the hope 
 of a higher blessing, in connection with the search 
 for the truth, than that pronounced by the Master: 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 289 
 
 "Blessed are they that hear the Word of God and 
 keep it!" 
 
 IV. Time will not permit me to enter at the same 
 length upon the other claim of unity in the body, 
 outside of which there can be no life, and schism 
 from which must be inevitable death. This unity 
 was described to be not only exterior in organiza- 
 tion, but interior in holy charity, and in the uni- 
 versal possession of one faith and one doctrine. The 
 question was asked, "How can that be the one body, 
 informed by one Spirit, in which so many heteroge- 
 neous doctrines and sentiments prevail?" Without 
 entering now upon that large question, of the unity 
 of the church, it is sufficient to remark that the same 
 series of questions, and the same train of observa- 
 tions, which were supposed to be conclusive against 
 the claims of all religious bodies outside the Papal 
 Church to belong to the one body of Christ, would 
 be equally conclusive against that church herself. 
 "How," w r e may ask, taking up that mode of arguA 
 ment, "how can that be one body, informed by/ 
 one Spirit, in which one party locates the vast 
 and momentous prerogative of infallibility in the 
 Pope, another in the Councils, another in both, and 
 another in neither, but in the church universal of 
 
 all asres? How can that be one tree from one root 
 
 
 
 and homogeneous, which bears on one branch the ' 
 doctrine of the Jansenists, of j ustification by faith;/ 
 and on the other the doctrine of the Jesuits, of jus- ( 
 tification by works and by grace infused? Howl 
 can that body be pervaded by Spirit, whose fruit 
 is love, which was rent by the fierce discords of 
 Jansenists and Jesuits, Dominicans and Francis- 
 cans? How can the same illuminating spirit teach, 
 
 36* 
 
290. ST. PAUL IX ROME. 
 
 at the same time, Transmontaue and Cisalpine doc- 
 trine to different portions of the one body? How 
 can the bishops and priests in Rome and Southern 
 Italy claim the temporal authority of the Papacy to 
 be a divine prerogative or a sacred duty, and 10,000 
 priests in Northern Italy regard it as an usurpation 
 and degradation, and treason to the great head of 
 the church, and yet both be under the teachings of 
 the same Holy Spirit, and united by him in the same 
 holy body? How can the priests who, in the South- 
 ern States of America, vindicate slavery as sanc- 
 tioned by the Word of God, and in the Northern 
 . States denounce it as utterly at variance with the 
 I teachings of the Bible and the church, be of one 
 , body and taught of one Spirit? And so we might 
 1 proceed with many more and similar contrasts. 
 Surely no diversities which prevail among Prot- 
 estants are greater or more fundamental and vital 
 than these; and if their variations conclude them to 
 be not under the teachings of the Spirit and not in 
 l the body of Christ, these variations of Popery no 
 less prove her to be in the same situation. The truth 
 is that there is more diversity of sentiment and more 
 difference of opinion on fundamental points within 
 the church, whose boast is that of absolute uni- 
 formity of faith and feeling, than prevail among the 
 great body of Protestant Christians of various names. 
 ( There is, at this moment, in this room, among the 
 | various churches here represented, which Rome 
 ( would describe as the warring and discordant sects, 
 , more of the unity of the Spirit under the bond of 
 peace, and more substantial agreement of opinion on 
 I points of prime importance, pertaining to life and 
 i godliness, than there is among the "Romanists now at 
 Rome! 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 291 
 
 I have thought it well, my Christian brethren, to 
 prove that the claims of the Church of Rome to be 
 the one body of Christ, with the exclusive life of the 
 one Holy Spirit, as evidenced by sanctity, by infalli- 
 bility, and by unity of faith and feeling, are utterly 
 without foundation ; by showing that she has not 
 superior holiness, that she has not and cannot have 
 infallibility, and that her boasted unity is but the 
 enforced external union of warring elements. This 
 train of thought may be useful to those who are im- 
 pressed with the abstract and plausible argumenta- 
 tion to the effect that there must be this unity and 
 infallibility in the church, on the ground of the in- 
 conveniences which arise from their absence, and 
 the advantages which they would bring. The argu- 
 ment that they must be, on the grounds of their need 
 and usefulness, may well be met by the demonstra- 
 tion that they are not. If a man contends that a 
 certain thing really is, because it must needs be, then 
 the must needs be falls to the ground when it is de- 
 monstrated that the thing is not. Such is the nature 
 of the argument. "When Rome dwells upon the 
 varieties of religious opinions which prevail outside 
 of her communion; when she depicts and exagger- 
 ates the dissensions of Protestantism; when she 
 paints a beautiful and attractive picture of the one 
 church of God, pervaded and taught by the one 
 Spirit, the home of superior sanctity, where all are 
 bound together in one golden bond of love, where 
 the teacher speaks with divine authority and where 
 the disciple cannot err, where all doubts and ques- 
 tionings as to what is truth, and all misgivings as to 
 ultimate salvation are forever hushed to rest; when 
 she thus appeals to minds and hearts that are not at 
 
292 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 peace through simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 she seems to promise that for which they yearn ; and 
 for persons in such a position it may not be useless 
 as a preventive and a preliminary to show to them 
 that these pretensions are utterly fallacious ; that she 
 does not possess that of which she boasts, and can- 
 iiot give what she promises ; and that the reality to 
 the experience of the convert will be hideously un- 
 like the promises held out to the hope of the in- 
 quirer. 
 
 But, indeed, these claims can seem to have the 
 least plausibility only to those who permit themselves 
 to dwell much on the real or the exaggerated 
 diversities of opinion among Protestants, or to be 
 troubled by doubts arising from the action of their 
 own unaided and not very earnest speculations, and 
 who do not keep their minds in habitual contact 
 with the Word of God. They who devoutly read 
 the Word of God with faith and prayer, and drink 
 in the spirit of its teachings, cannot be accessible 
 to the fallacies which would persuade them that it 
 is unintelligible or injurious to their souls without 
 an infallible human interpreter. !N"or can such per- 
 sons be entangled in the net-work of interminable 
 argumentations and sophistries upon unity and in- 
 fallibility and their connected falsehoods, because 
 they can cut their way right through them with that 
 sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. 
 What need to climb up this elaborate pagoda and 
 take apart, piece by piece, its twisted fret-work, and 
 unloose its jingling bells, and painfully and slowly 
 tear off its painted pasteboard ornaments, when 
 single blows from the hammer of the Lord will at 
 once knock away its foundation stones? The de- 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 293 
 
 vout reader of the "Word of God is furnished with 
 principles which enable him at once to set aside the 
 claims and pretensions of the Papacy, without the 
 need of following her in her line of argumentation 
 into details which confuse the mind by their com- 
 plexity and weary it with their number. 
 
 Take, for instance, the doctrine that we are not to 
 read and accept for ourselves the teachings of the 
 "Word of God. Nothing could be more absolutely 
 conclusive than the words of the Master, in the 
 Gospel for the day, against this most false, most in- 
 jurious, and to Him, the great head of. the church, 
 who has expressly declared the opposite, this most 
 traitorous dogma. Jesus, the great teacher, the 
 head of the church, declared that "Blessed are they 
 that hear the Word of God and keep it." Yea, 
 rather blessed, or more blessed, was it to hear and 
 keep the Word of God than to have been his human 
 mother. What a double testimony is this against 
 the idolatrous exaltation of his mother and in honor 
 of the Word of God! Now whatever else may be 
 true or false, this is true on the infallible testimony 
 of Christ himself, that not deluded, not disobedient 
 to his authority, but " blessed," and acting in accord- 
 ance with his own holy will, are they that hear and 
 keep that Word. Now as by this one word of God, 
 this claim of the Papacy is at once destroyed ; so by 
 other words, in their spirit or letter, are all its dis- 
 tinctive dogmas to be annihilated. If the Word of 
 God be in the mind and in the heart, the confuta-^ 
 tion of all the claims of the Papacy is then already 
 in advance. They can find no entrance and make 
 no lodgment in your mind. Let me entreat you, 
 therefore, to make it the subject of your habitual 
 
294 ST. PAUL IN ROME. 
 
 and prayerful study and meditation. God's Spirit, 
 on God's Word, which is truth, will lead you into 
 all saving truth. Let me entreat you to keep away 
 from instructions which may beguile you into for- 
 getfulness of those foundation principles which are 
 a perpetual confutation of all the errors of the 
 Church of Borne. A practiced dialectician, a skill- 
 ful orator may thus lay you open to its delusive and 
 flattering claims, if he gets you off from the simple 
 rock of faith in Christ Jesus, revealed to you in the 
 Word, confound and perplex you with subtleties 
 which you .cannot answer, but which would not 
 have disturbed you for a moment if you had been 
 living close to God, through the communications of 
 his word and the fellowship of his spirit, and had 
 been able to have answered all sophistries, with the 
 assurance which is the same time experience, "I 
 know whom I have believed." 
 
 My friends, let me assure you as a pastor who 
 knows something of the mental torture of those 
 who have passed into Romanism from Protestant- 
 ism, that if you are again entangled in this } 7 oke of 
 bondage you will find that it is such as you will not 
 be able, as our fathers were not able, to bear. Its 
 promises of assurance to the doubting mind, and of 
 rest to the agitated heart, are most delusive. It 
 cannot be with those who go out of Protestantism 
 into Romanism, as it is with those who have been 
 trained in that system from childhood. There will 
 be the memory of a happier past to throw deeper 
 gloom on the gloomy present. There will be a 
 higher moral and spiritual culture to create a revul- 
 sion of the soul as it is admitted further into the ex- 
 emplification in practice of dogmas and rites and 
 
ST. PAUL IN ROME. 295 
 
 ceremonies which were fascinating in the theory. 
 What does it offer for those whose privilege it is in 
 simple faith to receive from the Lord Jesus a com- 
 plete salvation, an indwelling comforter, a guide in 
 the Word which is a light to our feet and a lantern 
 to our paths in all difficulties and doubts, and beyond, 
 a heaven of rest when we fall asleep in Jesus ? For 
 this precious and full and present salvation, what 
 does it offer? It invites you to a system in which 
 your soul will be perpetually tortured with fear that 
 your sins cast you out from God's favor, and that 
 your good works are not sufficient to bring you back; 
 in which you will be perpetually vibrating between 
 a state of condemnation and one of forgiveness, the 
 one inevitably induced by the frailty of your nature, 
 and the other dependent upon the forgiveness of the 
 priest ; and then at last on the death-bed, when the 
 body is fainting with anguish, it will have no better 
 comfort to speak to your poor trembling soul than 
 of a dim, far distant heaven, to be reached after un- 
 counted ages upon ages of awful purgatorial fire. 
 U 0h, my soul! come not unto their secret; into 
 their assembly be not thou united!" 
 
 THE END. 
 
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