mouth. "So, when this was done, others, also, which had diseases in the island, came and were healed: who also honoured us with many honours; and when we departed, they loaded us with such things as were necessary.".

At last Paul arrived at Rome; and though still a prisoner, his bonds were rendered as light as courtesy and kindness could make them. "And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard: but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him." In this situation he was at liberty to discharge his office as an ambassador of Christ, and to converse privately and preach publicly to the Jews. Providence also ordered it that the Jews gave him a hearing, and were not shut up against him till they had heard the gospel; and God had called to the knowledge of the truth as many as were ordained to eternal life. Paul continued to enjoy such liberty in bondage, and went on in his labours without interruption. "And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him." Thus did Providence carry Paul to Rome, and regulate every thing concerning him with the minutest attention. The evil as well as the good that happened to the apostle was divinely directed, and no evil occurred out of which God did not bring ultimate good. The very evil was ordained for the sake of the good that was to come out of it.

PROVIDENTIAL CHARACTER OF THE STANDARD OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

In giving a standard for the guidance of all ages in the doctrines, precepts, and ordinances of Christ, we would have naturally expected that all would have been drawn up in a formal, full, and precise system by the apostles. No such thing is found in the New Testament. All things are brought forward as circumstances called for; and they are taught in words, not in a regulated system. The epistles of the apostles contain the doctrines, precepts, and ordinances of the Christian religion as occasion demanded at the time; and all ages are left to find the truth by tracing their steps. Every thing is brought forward in a way of Providence. This is admirable wisdom; this is the wisdom of God. It leaves a standard, while it apparently neglects a standard. While there is no formal symbol of divine truth, there is not a truth, nor duty, nor ordinance of Christ, which, in the words and scattered hints of Scripture, is not taught with sufficient evidence. Can there be a stronger demonstration of the divine original of the Scriptures? Surely this book cannot be a human production, when no man, learned or unlearned, would have followed the same plan.

appears

The wisdom of God farther in this providential manner of revelation by hiding God from the wisdom of the wise, while he is seen by babes

and sucklings, who renounce their own wisdom, and implicitly follow Christ. Is it not notorious that many learned men can find no standard in Scripture for many things that must be practised one way or other? Because there is no system or regulated symbol of worship, they think that they are, in many things, left to their own discretion. The epistles of the apostles were occasioned by the state and circumstances of the churches or individuals to which they are written. They are, therefore, as some think, mere letters of business, which are, indeed, in some measure, to guide us, but only by a discriminating application. Hence the never-ending variety in the ceremonial forms of worship under the Christian name, according to the different views of an enlightened and discriminating imitation of the first churches. Hence, in the wisdom of God, occasion was given for the rise and progress of the Man of Sin. That monster was predicted by the Spirit of inspiration, and will ultimately serve, with every thing else, to contribute to the exhibition of the divine glory. The Spirit of truth hath given a perfect standard; but, by the divine wisdom, the character of that standard is of such a nature, as to afford occasion of evasion to disaffection and human wisdom.

For the occasion of the full, and clear, and strong exhibitions of the doctrine of justification, for instance, we are indebted to the Jewish opposition. With immediate and especial reference to the Jews, Paul discusses this subject at large in his Epistle to

the Romans. From this treasure the children of God enrich themselves with a never-ending increase of wealth. But, from the character of revelation to which I have referred, the enemies of justification, solely by faith in Jesus Christ, take occasion to invent evasions. Socinians, Arians, Arminians, with all the enemies of the pure gospel, tell us that Paul, as addressing Jewish error, must not be understood to mean the moral law, but the ceremonial law, or the judicial law; or that he meant not good works as conditions of justification on our part, but works of law as meritorious of pardon. In like manner, upon every other subject, enemies will find something to allege from the peculiar manner of revelation. Now, men would think this a defect in revelation; but in the Divine discovery of the will of God, it is a perfection. It manifests the disaffection of the heart of man to the things of God. It would really be a defect in human law; for human law is not to detect the state of the heart, but to regulate conduct only. The Divine law is to regulate the conduct in such a way as to discover the state of the heart. Such, then, is the wisdom of God in the providential way in which the standard of the Christian religion is regulated.

HESITANCY IN RECEIVING PAUL BY THE CHurch at JERUSALEM.-Acts ix. 26.

Faith in Jesus Christ is the only bond of the union of Christians, and no questions ought ever

to be put to any who seek admission among them, but such as are intended to ascertain this. To refuse any whom Christ has received, is as sinful as to receive those whom Christ has rejected. It is the very spirit of antichrist. Some may think that they discover zeal for the honour of Christ, when they insist on perfect conformity in order to fellowship. But like the Hebrews to whom Paul wrote, they need to be taught the first principles of the oracles of God. Accordingly, we find that when any, in the days of the apostles, confessed their faith in Christ, they were admitted among the disciples.

But this fact is misinterpreted by others, and is alleged to justify the admission even of Arians. Do they not, it is said, confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? No; they do not confess this. They confess it in words, not in meaning. And that true faith, as far as it can be ascertained, is required for a right of admission, is clear from the fact above referred to, with respect to the hesitancy of the church at Jerusalem, in relation to the reception of Paul. They did not take his mere confession, when they had cause of suspicion that his confession was feigned. He was received not simply on his confession, but on the recommendation of Barnabas.

What a providential thing, then, was it that Paul was stopped a moment at the door of the church at Jerusalem! Even an apostle was not received on his mere profession, when there was ground of suspicion. This providential occurrence, then, is the way in which Jesus Christ teaches us this part of