Not Paul, But Jesus

Already, however – for in this he may be believed – already, throughout this first intercourse, though the expression is not used till he came to speak of the third, – already must the right hand of fellowship have been held out, and on both sides: and, what followed of course, – and was not only affirmed by his statement, but demonstrated by the result, – on this last occasion was the treaty again brought upon the carpet and confirmed, after such modifications as it may naturally have received, from the consideration of intervening incidents.

CHAPTER IX

Paul disbelieved continued – The Fourth and Last Jerusalem Visit. The Purpose concealed: Opposition universal; among his own Disciples, and among those of the Apostles

SECTION 1.

MOTIVES TO THIS VISIT

Of this momentous visit to say what were the real objects, must in a great part be left to conjecture: – to inferences drawn from the known circumstances of the case. By himself, as will be seen, they were concealed with the most persevering anxiety.

But, in default of direct evidence, the point may without much danger of error be settled by circumstantial evidence. The common objects of political concupiscence – money, power and vengeance – were all before his eyes: money– in no less a quantity than that of the aggregate mass of the property of the whole church: – that fund, for the management of which, the Apostles' seven trustees, under the name of Deacons, were not more than sufficient: – that fund, by which the repulsed concupiscence of the sorcerer of Samaria had so lately been excited: —power, that which was exercised by the direction of the consciences of the whole number of the faithful, some time before this, not less in number than three thousand: vengeance, for the repeated rebuffs, by which, at the interval of so many years from each other, his endeavours to supplant the Apostles had been repelled.

In a general point of view, ambition, – rival ambition, – the same motive which sent Caesar to Rome, may be stated as having sent Paul, at this time, to Jerusalem: to Jerusalem – the metropolis of the Christian world, by design; and thence, eventually and undesignedly, to the metropolis of the whole civilized world.

By two opposite desires – two antagonizing but correspondent and mutually explanatory desires – desires, in both parts intense and active, the external marks of which are sufficiently visible in two different quarters, – the nature as well as prevalence of this motive, will, it is believed, be found sufficiently proved: – a desire, in the breast of the self-constituted Apostle, to establish himself in the original metropolis of the Christian world: – a desire on the part of the Apostles – of the Apostles constituted by Jesus – to keep him out of it.

SECTION 2.

THE VISIT ANNOUNCED BY PAUL AND DEFERRED

Ephesus, at which place he had arrived not long after his departure from Corinth, where he had made a stay, as it should seem, of more years than one,47 touching in the way at Cenchrea, where he shaved his head for the performance of a vow – Ephesus is the place, at which, by the author of the Acts, Paul is for the first time made to speak of himself, as harbouring, having in mind the making of this visit: and on that occasion, the visit is spoken of, as being the subject of a settled determination, and in particular as being the time fixed upon by him for the execution of this design. Acts 18:20, 21. "When they, the Jews at Ephesus, desired him to tarry longer with them, he consented not; but bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem: but I will return again to you if God will."

As to the keeping of this or any other feast at Jerusalem or at any other place – if it was under any such notion as that of contributing to his own personal salvation by any such Mosaic work, it was an object inconsistent with his own principles – with his own so repeatedly and strenuously advocated principles: – and the like may be said of the head-shaving and the vow, performed by him, at Cenchrea, in his way to Ephesus from Corinth: and moreover, in this last-mentioned instance, more particularly in contradiction with a precept so positively delivered by Jesus, namely, Swear not at all, – if, under swearing, the making of vows is to be understood to be included.

Of this design, the next intimation which occurs in the Acts, is in the next chapter, Acts 19:21, "When these things were ended," namely, the discomfiture of the exorcists, and the burning of the books of curious arts at Ephesus, – "Paul, it is said, purposes in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome."

Fortunate it is for the credit – either of the spirit, or of Paul, or of the author of the Acts, that it was on this second occasion only, and not on the first, that it was in the spirit that he proposed to go to Jerusalem by the then next feast: for, notwithstanding the "must" and the "by all means," – so it is, that between those his two determinations as above, no less a space of time than two years is stated as elapsing, on one occasion, at one and the same place.48 And this place – what was it? it was Ephesus: the same place, at which, on his departure from it, the first determination was declared: after which, and before this his second visit to Ephesus, – he is represented as having visited Cæsarea and Antioch.

The next mention, is that which occurs in the next chapter, chapter 20:16. "Paul," we are there told, being then at Miletus, "had determined to sail by Ephesus, because he would not spend the time in Asia: for he hasted, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost."

At Miletus it is, that he sends for, and receives, from Ephesus, a number of his adherents in that place. Upon their arrival, he is represented as making a formal speech to them: and now, he not merely proposes in the spirit, as before, but is "bound in the spirit," to go thither.49 Vain would be the attempt to ascertain, with any approach to exactness, the interval of time, during which the operation of the spirit remained in a sort of suspense between purpose and obligation: it may have been months, only: it may have been years.

While, by one spirit, Paul was thus urged on, every now and then, towards Jerusalem; – by the same spirit, or by another spirit, he was pulled back.50

In the very next verse, Acts 20:22, 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 befall 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."

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 – anything 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 ancient times, mysteries and miracles have been manufactured in modern times. In Acts 20:22, we have seen Paul, "bound in the spirit," as he is made to assure us, to go unto Jerusalem. In the next chapter, 21:4, 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 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 pronounce – the 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.51 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. 3:1. "O, foolish Galatians!" Who did bewitch you, etc.

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. 2:9. "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."

SECTION 4.

OPPOSITION MADE TO IT BY HIS OWN ATTENDANTS 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 his attendants, of whom the historian was one, so completely unjustifiable was his design in every point of view, – they joined in a remonstrance to him, beseeching him to give it up.

ACTS 21:12 to 14

And when we heard these things, both we, and they of that place, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem. – Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord Jesus. – And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done.

At no such loss, however, was Paul himself: for this, and for everything else it was his will to do, he had a reason ready made. It was no less concise and economical than convenient: a word, and no more than a word, was the price paid for it: —revelation was that word.52 So he assures his "foolish" Galatians: and if they were foolish enough to believe it, these, though first, have not been last, in the career of foolishness.

Allow a man but the use of this one word, so it be in the sense in which Paul here uses it – admit the matter of fact, of which it contains the assertion, – the will of that man is not only sufficient reason, but sufficient law, for everything: in all places, and to all persons, his will is law. The will of this man is the will of that God, by whom this revelation of it has been made to him: the will of God, what man shall be audacious enough to dispute?

The motives, which gave birth to this act of perfidy and hostility, will now be visible enough, to every eye, that dares to open itself to them. At the time in question, they were too manifest to need mentioning: and at the same time too unjustifiable, to bear to be mentioned by his dependent historian, when speaking of the opposition, which, even on the part of his own dependents, it produced. They besought him – with tears they besought him: but, as to the reflections by which these tears were produced, they could not bear the light: it was not for a declared adherent to give them utterance. The sort of colour, put upon the project by Paul, with the help of one of his phrases – this was the only colour that could be found for it. It was for the name of the Lord Jesus, Acts 21:13, that he was ready – "ready, not to be bound only, but also to die." For the name? O, yes, for the name at all times; for, in the name of Jesus, he beheld from first to last his necessary support: and of the Lord Jesus, nothing, as we shall find, – nothing from first to last, did he ever employ but the name. But, to be bound at Jerusalem – to die at Jerusalem – to be bound – to die – supposing this to take place, – where – to the religion of Jesus – would be, where could be, the use of it? There, at Jerusalem, the Apostles – the real Apostles of Jesus: – executing, without either dying or being bound for it, the commission, which to them had been really given by Jesus.

SECTION 5.

OPPOSITION MADE TO IT BY THE APOSTLES AND THEIR DISCIPLES

Thus indefensible and deplorable, in the eyes even of his own dependents, – it may be imagined in what light the invasion presented itself at Jerusalem, to those who found themselves so cruelly menaced by it.

At the first place, at which, after a voyage of some length, they landed on their way to Judea, – they found the alarm already spread. This place was Tyre: there they found "disciples," Acts 21:4, "who said to Paul," and "through the Spirit, that he should not go up to Jerusalem." It was through their spirit, that they bade him not to go; but his revelation, as we have seen, bade him to go, notwithstanding: – his revelation was too strong for their spirit. If it was from the Lord Jesus, as he all along informs us, that his revelation came, while their spirit was the Holy Spirit, otherwise called the Holy Ghost, – already another schism was produced: a schism, in a council still higher than that of the Apostles.

At Ptolemais, on the road from Tyre to Jerusalem, they stayed but one day: Acts 21:7, not long enough, it should seem, for any fresh marks of opposition to this enterprise to manifest themselves.

Continuing their approach to the metropolis, the next day they came to Cæsarea, Acts 21:4, "The house," then "entered into," was that of Philip, there styled the Evangelist, one of the seven trustees, who, under the name, rendered in the English translation by that of Deacon, at the recommendation of the Apostles, had been chosen by universal suffrage, for the management of the pecuniary affairs of the Church. Here they took up their quarters: and here a fresh scene awaited them.

In the person of a man, whose name was Agabus, the Apostles and their associates had found, as we have seen, an agent of approved talents, and usefulness: to him they had been indebted, for the most important service, of a temporal nature, which the history of the church in those days furnishes: – the supply of money already received, as above mentioned, from the first-born daughter of the church – the church of Antioch, in Syria. At this place, Cæsarea, as a last resource, this same Agabus, or another, was, as it should seem, dispatched to meet – at any rate did meet – the self-appointed Apostle in his way; and, in the character of a prophet, for so this Agabus is styled, strained every nerve, in the endeavour to divert the invader from the so anxiously apprehended purpose.

Whoever he was, employed on this occasion, but employed in vain, were all the treasures of his eloquence. The Holy Ghost was once more, and by name, set in array against Paul's Lord Jesus. The powers of verbal and oral eloquence were not thought sufficient: action – and not only of that sort which, in the eyes of Demosthenes, was an object of such prime importance, but even pantomime – was employed in aid. Acts 21:11. As to argument – fear in the bosom of the Church, for a life so precious, was the only one, which the skill of the orator could permit him to employ: as to fear for their own sakes, and resentment for the injury which they were predestinated to suffer, – these were passions, too strongly felt to be avowed. "He took Paul's girdle," Acts 21:11, "and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles."

Supposing the Agabus mentioned on this occasion, to be the same Agabus as he who was mentioned on the occasion of the apprehended dearth – supposing this to be he – and no reason presents itself in favour of the contrary supposition – well known indeed must he have been to Paul, since it was by his means that Paul was indebted for the opportunity of paying, to Jerusalem, that second visit of his, from which, as we have seen, so little fruit was reaped.

The singular circumstance here is, the manner, in which, on this second occasion, mention is made of this name – Agabus: "a certain prophet named Agabus," Acts 21:10. Whether this was, or was not, the same as the former Agabus, – this mode of designation presents itself as alike extraordinary. If he was the same, – in that case, as, by the addition of the adjunct "a certain prophet," a sort of cloud is thrown over his identity, – so, by so simple an expedient as that of the non-insertion of these redundant words, the clouds would have been dispelled. If he was not the same, – so expressive being the circumstances, by which identity stands indicated – namely, the quarter from whence the same; the quarter to which the same; the importance of the mission, and the demand for talents and influence, in both cases so great; on this supposition, to prevent misconception, no less obvious than urgent was the demand, for some mark of distinction, to be added on this second occasion: in a word, for that sort of mark of distinction, which, on other occasions; may, in this same history, be seen more than once employed: witness that John, twice distinguished by the name of John, whose surname was Mark. Acts 22:25, ib. 25:37.

Hence a suspicion, nor that an unnatural one – that, in this history, the part, in which the name Agabus occurs for the first time, and the part, in which that same name occurs for the second time, were not the work of the same hand.

With or without the assistance of the Holy Ghost, with the like importunity, though in a tone corresponding to the difference of situation, was a dissuasion, to the same effect, added, with one voice, by the adherents, of whom the suite of the self-appointed Apostle was composed, and by all the other Christians then present. "And when we heard these things," says the author of the Acts, "both we, and they of that place, Cæsarea, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem." Acts 21:12.

The Holy Ghost, whom all the rest of the Church had for their advocate, was no equal match for the Holy Ghost whom Paul had for his adviser. "What mean ye," says he, "to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." Acts 21:13. To a Holy Ghost so highly seated, submission from a Holy Ghost of inferior rank, was the only course left. "When he could not be persuaded, concludes the historian, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done."

Paul die at Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord Jesus? He, Paul, this self-constituted Apostle, who, upon his own showing, had never seen Jesus? for the name of Jesus, forsooth, die at Jerusalem? at that Jerusalem, at which the indisputable Apostles had been, and continued to be, living and labouring, in the service of that same holy name, each of them, or they are much misrepresented, not less ready and willing, both to live and upon occasion to die for it, than he could be? Was it then really to die for the name of Jesus? was it not rather to live? to live for his own name, for his own glory, for his own profit, and for the pleasure of depriving of their flock those shepherds of souls, by whom his pretensions had been disallowed, his glory disbelieved, his advances received with that distrust and jealousy, for which the long and bitter experience they had had of him, afforded so amply sufficient a warrant? men, in whose eyes, though in the clothing of a shepherd, he was still a wolf?