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Drufilla who was equally concerned, it seems was more Hardned; Or elfe being a Jewess, the might have fome Vain Confidence from thence: But Felix was cut to the Heart; The Judge trembled before his Prifoner: St. Paul with his awakening Sermon had come home to his Confcience, and being wounded_in Spirit he was not able, (as it is expreffed in the Cafe of St. Stephen,) to refift, or bear up againft, the Power and the Spirit by which he spake. He had heard more already than would lie Eafy on his Guilty Mind, and being afraid to Hear any farther, he is for hufhing up all again, and therefore fpeedily difmiffes his Prifoner, with Pretence that he will Hear him out at fome other more Convenient Time Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a more Convenient Seafon, I will call for thee.

In the Words there are two Things to be confidered.

Ift. the Subjects that St. Paul chofe to treat on; Righteoufnefs, and Temperance, and Judgement to come. and

IIdly. How Felix was affected with St. Paul's Difcourfe on the foremen

tioned Subjects

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He Trembled; and

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Answered, Go thy way for this Time; when I have a Convenient Seafon I will call for thee.

Ift. We are to Confider the Subjects that St. Paul chofe to treat on; Righteousness, and Temperance, and a Judgement

to come.

Righteousness and Temperance, as they may be taken in their full Latitude, fignifie the two great Branches of our Duty; Righteousness our Duty to our Neighbours, and Temperance our Duty to our felves; which, together with our Duty to God, make up the Summ of all Religion: As we find the fame Apostle has, Tit. ii.12. in his Epiftle to Titus, comprehended all the Practical Part of Religion in these three Words, the Living Soberly, Righteously, and Godlily in the World. So that these two Heads of Righteoufnefs and Temperance, being taken at large, might have given St. Paul a mighty Scope in Practical Divinity.

But Righteoufnels and Temperance are commonly taken in a more reftrained Sence: And being fo taken, Righteousnefs is the fame with what we properly call Justice; That Vertue which reftrains us from doing Wrong or Injury unto any, but teaches us to deal equitably and fairly and honeftly with all

Men,

Men, rendring to every Man what is Due unto him.

And fo the Original Word ἐγκρατεία, here rendred Temperance, which is that Vertue which keeps Men within due Bounds as to all Bodily Pleasures whatfoever; does moft properly fignifie Continènce, which is the Vertue that lays due Restraint upon Men's Carnal Appetites, to keep them from all the Sinful Lufts of the Flefb.

And it is highly Probable that St. Paul bent his Difcourfe on Righteousness and Temperance more particularly this way, treating of the Obligations Men had to the Practice of Juftice in their Dealings with one another, and to Conjugal Honefty in their Marryed Eftate, that fo he might more properly adapt it to their Cafe to whom he was then Speaking. And This is what we have reason to Beleive, if we confider St. Paul's great Zeal and Courage, which would prompt him, after the Example of John the Baptift, boldly to Rebuke Vice, and upon fuch an Opportunity, to addrefs himfelf in fuch manner to them, as was most requifite to their Cafe, and might be most proper to Inftruct and Reform them; Or if we confider on the other hand, what fort of Man Felix was, and how St. Paul's Difcourfe wrought upon him.

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him. He was the Roman Governour of Judea, and therefore to take his Character from a Roman Hiftorian, Tacitus gives this account of him, *

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That he exercised a Princely Power, "but with a Bafe Sordid Temper of "Spirit; That he governed with all

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manner of Cruelty and Licentiouf"nefs and thought himself at li"berty for all manner of Villainies, c. To which we must add what JoSephus farther tells us both of Him and of Drufilla"That Drufilla, "(Daughter of Herod the Great,) who now liv'd with Felix as his Wife, (and was now Prefent with him before St. Paul, to bear her Part in the Condemnation,) was truly the Wife of "Azis King of the Emiffeni, from "whom Felix, by the help of one Si

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mon, a Jewish Sorcerer of Cyprus, had inticed her;" and now they liv'd together in a Courfe of Adultery.

It was not then for Nothing that Felix Trembled. When St. Paul had

*Felix per omnem Sævitiam ac Libidinem, Jus Regium Servili Ingenio exercuit; Drufillâ, Cleopatra ac Antonii nepte, in matrimonium acceptâ. Tac. Hift. lib. 5to.

And again in his Annals lib. 12mo. Felix non pari moderatione agebat; Cuneta Malefacta fibi impuné ratus, &c.

Jofephus Antiq. Jud. 1. 20.

rouzed

rouzed him up with his Difcourfe on Justice and Continence, with that Power and Zeal that became an Apostle of Chrift; and had preffed on his Arguments with fuch Force and Weight of Reason, as had ftartled and Convinc'd him of the Unlawfulness of fuch Courfes of Life, then was the Time for Felix's awakened Confcience to strike in, and make the Application to himself. But when he was brought to the Sence of his Guilt, then to be farther urg'd with the Remembrance of a Judgement to Come; Firft to fet his Sins in order before him, and then the Dreadful Punishment confequent to his Sins, ftruck him to the Heart, and made him Tremble at the Thoughts of it. Which is the

IId Thing expreffed in the Text, How Felix was affected with St. Paul's Dif courfe on the forementioned Subjects,--He Trembled; and answered, Go thy way for this Time; when I have a Convenient Seafon, I will call for thee.

I do not wonder that a Man of fuch a flagitious Life fhould Tremble at the Thoughts of a Judgement-Day. To Difplay a Man's Confcience, to lay him open to himself; to fhow him his Guilt, and fet his Sins before his Face, and

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