344 The NEW and COMPLETI: LIFE of our BLESSED LORD their former health and flrength ; in con- fequence of which, they not only {hewed him the greateff marks of their efleem, but furnifhed both him and his company with all the neceffaries proper for the refi of their voyage. After three months flay in this Bland, the centurion with his charge went on board the Caffor and Pollux, a fhip of Alexandria, bound to Italy. They put in at Syracufe, where they tarried three days, failed thence to Regium, and fo to Puteoli, where they landed ; and finding fame Chriflians there, !laid at their requef} a week with them, and then let forward on their journey to Rome. The Chriftians of this city, hearing of the apoffle's coming, went to meet him as far as the Three Taverns, about thirty miles from Rome, and others as far as the Apii Forum, fifty- one Miles diflant from the capital : they kindly embraced each other, and the liberty he law the Chrifl'ians- enjoyed at Rome, greatly tended to enliven the fpirits of the apoflle. By thefe Chrifl'ians he was con - duled in a kind of "triumph into the city, where, at their arrival, the reff of the pri- foners were delivered to the captain ofthe guard, rind' by him difpofed in the common prifon ; but St. Paul, probably by the in- tercelfion ofJulius, was permitted to reticle in a private houle, with only a foldier to guard him. St. Paul arriving at Rome, he feet, after he had been there three days, for the heads of the Jewifh confiflory in that city, and related to them the caufe of his coming, in the following manner " Though I have been guilty of no violence; of the laws of our religion, yet I was delivered by the Jewsat Jerufalem to the Roman governors, who more than'once, would have acquitted me as innocent ofany capital offence; but by the perverfenefs of my perfecutors, I was obliged to appeal unto Cælar; not that I had any thing to accule my nation of: I had therefore recourfe to this method, merely to provemine own innocence, and confute the allegations of any enemies." t A popular prejudice being thus removed, he added, " That the true caufe of his fufferings was what their own religion had taught him, the belief and expelation ofa future refurrelion." This fpeech gained greatly on their affelions, and they an fwered, That they had received no advice concerning him, nor hod any of the Jews that came from Judea brought any charge againft him ; but, at the fame time, they defired to know, what he had to fay in fupport of the religion he had embraced, it being every where decried both by Jew and Gentile. Accordingly, upon a day appointed, he difcourfed With them from morning to night concerning the religion and dolrine of the l;oly Jesus ; proving, from the promifes and predilions of the Old Teframent, that he was the true Mel - fiah: but his difcourfe had different effels on different hearers, Tome being convinced, and others perfifling in their infidelity ; and as they were departing in Tome dif- content at each other, the apoflle told them, it was too plain that God had accomplifhed upon them the prophetical curfe, ofbeing left to their own wilful hardinefs and impe- nitency, to be blind at noon-day, and to run themfelves headlong into irrecoverable ruin. That finge this was the cafe, they muff expel, that he would henceforth preach to the. Gentiles, who would very readily embrace the glad- tidings of the gofpel, which they fo fcornfully rejéled. During two whole years, Paul dwelt at Rome, in a houle he had hired for his own ufe ; wherein he conffantly employed himfelfin preachiríg andwritingfor the good of the church. He preached daily without interruption, and with remarkable fuccefs ; fo that his imprifonment contributed greatly to the propagation of the gofpel, and ren- dered him famous even in the emperor's court, where he converted feveral to the faithof CI-ÍRIST. Befides others of the apoflle's converts at Rome, there was one Onefimus,_ who had formerly been a fervent to Philemon, a perfon of diflinflion in Coloffe, but had run
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=