Paul knew. St. Paul
always speaks of the terrible judgments of God as about to come in
his own days, we know that they did come.
We know--God forbid that a preacher should tell you one-tenth of what
he ought to know--that St. Paul's times were the most horribly wicked
that the world had ever seen; that the few heathens who had
consciences left felt that some terrible punishment must come if the
world went on as it was going. And we know that the punishment did
come; and that for about twenty years, towards the end of which St.
Paul was beheaded, the great Roman Empire was verily a hell on earth.
If Felix lived ten years more he saw the judgment of God, and the
vengeance of God, in a way which could not be mistaken. But did
judgment to come overtake him in his life? We do not altogether
know; we know that he committed such atrocities, that the Roman
Emperor Nero was forced to recall him; that the chief Jews of
Caesarea sent to Rome, and there laid such accusations against him
that he was in danger of death; that his brother Pallas, who was then
in boundless power, saved him from destruction. That shortly
afterwards Pallas himself was disgraced, stripped of his offices, and
a few years later poisoned by Nero, and it is probable enough that
when he fell Felix fell with him: but we know nothing of it
certainly.
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