Chapter XXIX: Section 8

SELF-WRITTEN BIOGRAPHY--ITS SUPERIOR VALUE AND CLAIM TO CREDENCE.

On the occasion of this portion of history, it seems particularly material, to bring to view an observation, which, on the occasion of every portion of history, it will, it is believed, be of no small use to have in remembrance.

In comparison of self-written biography, scarcely does any other biography deserve the name.

Faint, indeterminate, uninstructive, deceptive, is the information furnished by any other hand, of whatsoever concerns the state of the mental frame, in comparison of what is furnished by a man's own. Even of those particulars which make against himself,--even of those motives and intentions which he would most anxiously conceal,--more clear and correct, as far as it goes, if not more complete--is the information given by him, than any which is commonly afforded, even by an impartial hand. By a man's own hand, not unfrequently is information afforded, of a sort which makes against himself, and which would not, because it could not, have been afforded by any other hand, though ever so hostile. He states the self-condemnatory mental facts, the blindness of self-partiality concealing from his eyes the condemnatory inference: or, even with his eyes open, he lays himself under the imputation: bartering merit in this or that inferior shape, for the merit of candour, or for the hope of augmenting the probative force of his own self-serving evidence, in favour of every other merit for which it is his ambition to gain credence.

FOOTNOTES:

[20] Gal. i. 18. "Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days."

[21] Of any mention made of Galatia, in any of the Books of the New Testament, the following are, according to Cruden's Concordance, the only instances: 1 Cor. xvi. 1. "... have given order to the churches at Galatia." Times, assigned to these Epistles, A.D. 59. 2 Tim. iv. 10: "Crescens is departed to Galatia." A.D. 66. 1 Pet. i. 1: "to the strangers scattered in Galatia." Date A.D. 60.

[22] Acts xv. 1-4. 1. "And certain men which came down from Judea taught the brethren and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.--When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain other of them should go up to Jerusalem unto the Apostles and Elders about this question.--And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles: and they caused great joy unto all the brethren.--And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the Church, and of the Apostles and Elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them."

[23] Be this as it may, that he must have been in the way to hear, from various persons present, accounts, such as they were, of what was said by Paul,--seems to follow almost of course. This seems applicable even to the _latest_ of the two occasions; for, though the place, Cæsarea, was some distance from Jerusalem, 56 miles,--yet the distance was not so great, but that the persons, who were attached to him, might, for the most part, be naturally supposed to have followed him: and in particular the historian, who, according to his history, continued in Paul's suite till, at the conclusion of this his forced excursion, he arrived at Rome.

But, on the subject of _possible materials_, one concluding query here presents itself. On a _subject_ such as that in question, on an _occasion_, such as that in question, for a _purpose_ such as that in question, a _speech_ such as either of those in question, might it not, by a person in the historian's situation--not to speak of other situations--be just as easily made without any special materials, as with any the most correct and complete stock of materials?

[24] Between Paul's third visit, and that which is here reckoned as his fourth, another is, by some, supposed[I.] to, have been taken place; on which supposition, this concluding one, which is here styled the fourth, ought to be reckoned the fifth.

But, for the support of this supposition, the grounds referred to for this purpose do not seem sufficient:--not that, if the supposition were true, any consequence material to the present purpose would follow.

For this supposition, what ground there is, consists in a passage in the Acts:--Acts 18:20, 21, 22.

20. When they, the Jews at Ephesus, desired [him] to tarry longer time 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 unto you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus.

And when he had _landed_ at Cæsarea, and _gone up_, and saluted the _church_, he _went down_ to Antioch.

There we have the grounds of the supposition. But, what is the support they give to it?--declaration, affirming the existence of an intention, is one thing; actually existing intention is another. Even supposing the existence of the intention in question,--intention is one thing; corresponding action, another. Jerusalem is not mentioned. Cæsarea being on the sea-coast, Jerusalem is indeed in the interior: and therefore, it may be said, is a place, to which, if a man went from Cæsarea, he would "_go up_:" but, from Cæsarea, it being on the coast, a man could not go to any place in Judaea not on the coast, without _going up_.

So much for _place_:--and now as to _time_. The time mentioned as the object of the _intention_, is the _passover_; but, that the time, at which, being _gone up_, Paul "_saluted the church_"--this being all which, upon this _going up_, he is here stated as doing--that this time was the passover, is not stated.

As to the _salute_ here stated as given to the _church_,--at the conclusion, and as a material part of the result, of this inquiry, it will appear plain beyond all doubt, that, if by "_the church_" be understood any member of it at Jerusalem, besides two, or at most three, of the Apostles,--according to this interpretation, from the time of his Conversion Visit to Damascus antecedently to his first visit to Jerusalem, down to the last visit here reckoned as his fourth--there never was a day on which the _church_ would have received his salute.

What will also be rendered manifest is--that it was an object with the author of the Acts, to induce a belief, that Paul, before the conclusion of his first visit, was upon good terms with the church, and so continued to the last: and that, to this end, a purposed misrepresentation was employed by the historian.

Not that, in regard to the visit here in question, to the purpose of the argument--it makes any sort of difference, whether it had place or had not. If it had place, neither the conclusion, nor any part of the argument, will be seen to require any variation in consequence.

[I.] Wells's _Historical Geography of the Old and New Testament_,
ii. 271. Ch. 5. Of Saint Paul's Travels and Voyages into Asia.
"St. Paul" (says Wells very composedly) "_having kept_ the passover
at Jerusalem, went thence down, &c."--And for this the Acts are
quoted as above: but the Acts, it will here be seen, say no such
thing.

CHAPTER IV.

Paul disbelieved _continued_.--_First of his four Visits to
Jerusalem after his Conversion_; _say_ Jerusalem Visit I. _or_
Reconciliation Visit.--_Barnabas introducing him from Antioch to
the Apostles._