In the very next verse (Acts xx. 22), in which he speaks of his being "bound in the spirit unto" that place, not knowing (as, in his speech, he thereupon adds)" not knowing the things that shall be"fall me there," he goes on, and says: "Save that "the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying, "that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none "of these things" (says he, ver. 24,) move me, "neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, "which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify "the Gospel of the grace of God."

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To raise, in the breast of Paul, the expectation, that of his proceeding in the course it was his way to take in preaching that religion, to which, from a persecutor, he had, in appearance, become a convert, affliction, in a variety of shapes, might prove to be the fruits,-needed no information from the spirit; if, by receiving information from the spirit, he meant any communication of a supernatural kind-any thing beyond information in the ordinary shape;-be the effect-be the purpose, good or bad,—such is the lot, that awaits innovation in the field of politics-the spiritual part included, as well as the temporal-at all places, and all times.

A passage, which now presents itself, helps to show how easily and copiously, out of a few words, written in antient times, mysteries and miracles have been manufactured in modern times. In ch. xx. ver. 22, we have seen Paul, "bound in the spirit," (as he is made to assure us,) to go unto Jerusalem. In the next chapter (xxi.), ver. 4, we find disciples,... who said to Paul," through the spirit," that he should not go up to Jerusalem. Oh! what a useful word this word spirit! Let a man say plainly and simply, I shall go, or be going, to Jerusalem-or, Don't go to Jerusalem, his words go for no more than they are

worth in either case, with a proper proposition to introduce it, add the word "spirit," the matter becomes serious. Out of a word or two, you thus add to the Godhead a third person, who talks backward and forward for you, and does for you whatever you please.

At so small a price, even to this day, are manufactured, every day, a sort of verbal miracles, which, as many as are disposed, are welcome to improve into

real ones.

To reconcile men to this expedition of Paul's, the spirit was the more necessary,-inasmuch as it was not in his own power, or even in that of any one of his numerous attendants and dependants, to assign so much as one ostensible reason for it.

That, to the advancement of religion-of the religion of Jesus-no such presence of his was necessary; that no good could result from it;-that much evil could not but result from it;-was obvious to all eyes. Of the original number of the Apostles, -for aught that appears, not less than eleven were still remaining on the spot: men, to every one of whom, all acts and sayings of Jesus were, by memory, rendered so familiar:-men, on the part of some of whom, and, at any rate, on the part of the chief of them, Peter, there was no want of zeal and activity. While to these men a single city, or, at the utmost, one small region-composed the whole field of exertion, the whole earth besides is left open by them to Paul: still, such is the ravenousness of his ambition, nothing can content him, but he must be intruding himself-thrusting his restless sickle into their ripening harvest.

SECTION 3.

THE DESIGN INDEFENSIBLE.

ALL this-is it not yet enough? Well then, take this one other this concluding proof. In the teeth of all their endeavours (and among them, some that will be seen extraordinary enough) to prevent it, was undertaken the fourth and last of his four recorded visits to their residence-Jerusalem.

But, in the first place, in the utter indefensibility of the design, shall be shown the cause, of the opposition so universally made to it.

Tired of a mixture of successes and miscarriages,disdaining the conquests he had been making in so many remote, and comparatively obscure regions of the world, he had formed-but at what precise time, the documents do not enable us to pronouncethe determination, to exhibit his glories on the two most illustrious of theatres:-in the two capitals-Jerusalem, of the Jewish, and now of the Christian world; Rome, of the whole classical heathen world:and in the first place, Jerusalem, now, for the fourth time since his conversion. It was at Ephesus, as we have seen, this determination was first declared.

To Rome, he might have gone, and welcome: namely, in so far as his doctrines could have confined themselves within the limits of those of Jesus: which, however, it will be seen, they could not: but, success being moreover supposed, nothing but good could such visit have had for its result.

But, by a visit to any place other than Jerusalem, various were the points of spleen and ambition, that could not have been satisfied. Nothing would serve him, but, over that Edom Jerusalem, he would, in the first place, cast forth his shoe.

Unless the eleven most confidential servants, selected by Jesus himself to be the propagators of his religion, were altogether unworthy of the task thus allotted to them,-nothing to the good purposes of that religion could be more palpably unnecessary, nothing to the purposes of peace and unity more pernicious, than the intrusion thus resolved upon. That the number of these legitimately instituted Apostles had as yet suffered any diminution, is not, by any of the documents, rendered so much as probable. Neither in the works of Paul himself, nor in that of his historiographer, is any intimation to any such effect to be found. In their own judgments, had there been any need of coadjutors-any deficiency of hands for the spiritual harvest,-they well knew how to supply it. Of the sufficiency of such knowledge, they had given the most incontestable proofs: the election of Matthias was the fruit of it. They showed-and with a disinterestedness, which has never since had, nor seems destined to have, any imitators-that, in the Christian world, if government in any shape has divine right for its support, it is in the shape of democracy; representative democracy-operating by universal suffrage. In the eye of the Christian, as well as of the philosopher and the philanthropist, behold here the only legitimate government: the form, the exclusion of which from the Christian world, has been the object of that league, by which, by an unpunishable, yet the most mischievous-if not the only mischievous-sort of blasphemy, the name of Christian has been profaned.

This method of filling offices, was no more to the taste of Paul, than to that of a Napoleon or a George. He determined to open their eyes, and prove to them by experience, that monarchy,-himself the first monarch was the only legitimate form of government.

The difficulties of the enterprise were such as could not escape any eyes :-least of all his own: but to die or conquer was his resolve: so he himself declares*. What, in case of success, would have been the use made by him of it? The fate of the Apostles may be read in the catastrophe of Saint Stephen: the vulgar herd would, in his eyes, have been as declaredly foolish as the Galatians. Gal. iii. 1. "O foolish Galatians!" Ω ανόητοι Γαλάται,

The invasion was not less inconsistent with good faith, than with brotherly love, peace and unity. It was a direct violation of the partition-treaty: that treaty, of which he gives such unquestionable evidence against himself, in the boast he makes of it to his Galatians. Gal. ii. 9. "When James, Cephas (Peter), "and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and "Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, that we [should go] unto the heathen, and they unto the "circumcision."

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SECTION 4.

OPPOSITION MADE TO IT BY HIS OWN ATIENDANTS

AND OTHER ADHERENTS.

To find so much as the colour of a reason for this perfidy, was too much for the ingenuity of his attendant panegyrist. In the eyes of the whole body of

* Acts xx. 24. "But none of these things move me, neither "count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course "with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God."

Acts xxi. 13. "Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep "and to break my heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but "also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus."