"And when Felix heard these things, having more perfect knowledge of that way, he deferred them, and said, When Lysias the chief captain shall come down, I will know the uttermost of your matter. And he commanded a centurion to keep Paul, and to let him have liberty, and that he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto him." Felix, living at Cæsarea, where Cornelius, a Roman centurion, had been so wonderfully converted, and where Philip the deacon, and many other Christians resided, must have heard a good deal about the doctrines of "that way" of worshipping the Lord; and he had certainly found, that the Christians were better subjects, and altogether better men, than the Jews. He would not therefore be inclined to condemn St. Paul because he was a Christian; and, listening carefully to the accusations and defence just made before him, he saw at once that the prisoner had not committed any crime whatever, and that the whole affair arose from the hatred, which the Jews bore to the followers of Jesus Christ. Instead, however, of boldly pronouncing sentence one way or the other, he tried to pacify the Jews by putting off the trial till Claudius Lysias, whom they had accused of illegal violence, could come down; and mean time he entrusted St. Paul to the care of a centurion, with orders not to treat him as a prisoner. It must have been a bitter disappointment to the Jews, to see the man whom they persecuted thus kindly treated.
We may also see the protecting hand of God overruling these events. Had St. Paul been set at liberty, the Jews would doubtless have tried to take his life; but under the watchful care of the centurion, he was safe from their malice.
Whether Claudius Lysias ever did come down to Cæsarea, we are not told; but it is quite clear that St. Paul was neither declared guilty of any offence deserving punishment, nor set at liberty, which, as an innocent man, he ought to have been.
St. Luke next tells us, "And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ." It has already been said that Drusilla was one of the daughters of Herod Agrippa, who died miserably at Cæsarea, as a punishment for allowing himself to be treated as a god. Drusilla had been married to another man, but Felix had persuaded her to leave her husband, and become his wife. This was a great sin in both Felix and Drusilla. After the trial of St. Paul, the governor appears to have left Cæsarea for a while; and when he came back, bringing Drusilla with him, they both wished to hear more of the doctrines of Christianity, and therefore they sent for St. Paul, that he might talk to them "concerning the faith in Christ." St. Paul was always ready to speak the truth boldly in the service of his heavenly Master; and knowing that Felix was an unjust and unrighteous ruler, and a man who at all times thought only of pleasing and indulging himself, without caring what injury or suffering he inflicted upon others, he took this opportunity of showing the sinfulness of such conduct, and that those who persisted in it would be punished hereafter, when Jesus Christ should come to judge the world. "And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled"; for his conscience told him, that he was guilty of the very sins for which the Apostle declared that the wrath of God would fall upon the impenitent. Well would it have been for him, if the fear which made him tremble, had made him at once anxiously inquire in true penitence, What must I do to be saved? But, unhappily, he took another course, too often followed amongst ourselves: he did not like to hear such things, and so he tried to put them away, and answered, "Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee."
Even in worldly matters, it is a good maxim, never to put off till to-morrow what ought to be done to-day. Infinitely more does it apply to spiritual things; to repentance, to abstaining from what we feel to be wrong, to making the sacrifice we know we ought to make, to doing the duty which we perceive we ought to do. Never let us put off such things, and thus quench the Spirit of God speaking in our hearts. If we wilfully let one opportunity slip, we may never have another given to us. There is no "season" so "convenient" for doing right as the moment in which we feel what is right. Felix stifled the voice of conscience, which answered to St. Paul's teaching; and we have no reason to believe that the convenient season ever came, for, though he often talked with him after this, we hear of no good results from such meetings; nor could any good results be expected, from a course in which covetousness had so great a share; for one of the governor's motives for keeping the Apostle still in some sort as a prisoner, was the hope that he or his friends would purchase his liberty, by giving money. But Felix ought to have felt, that St. Paul would never offer a bribe, which it was very wrong for any Judge to take. However that may be, we read, "He hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him: wherefore he sent for him the oftener, and communed with him."
Chapter XXVI.—ST. PAUL BEFORE FESTUS.
"But after two years, Porcius Festus came into Felix' room: and Felix, willing to shew the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound." Felix might now at least have let the Apostle go, for he could no longer hope for any advantage by leaving him still a prisoner. This governor had never tried to please the Jews by a just and kind government: then he preferred pleasing himself: now, that it does not interfere with his own gratification, he was willing to do the Jews a pleasure, by committing another sin, in the detention of an innocent man, whom he well knew ought to have been set free long ago. The Bible says truly, that "the fear of man bringeth a snare," and the same may be said of the wish to please him, when we cannot do so without doing wrong or neglecting our duty.
Felix gained nothing by thus sacrificing St. Paul, for the Jews of Cæsarea followed him to Rome, and there made such complaints of him to the Emperor Nero, that it was with great difficulty that Felix saved himself from severe punishment. The new governor of Judæa, when he "was come into the province," made in the first instance a very short stay at Cæsarea, and "after three days" went up to Jerusalem. Of course in this short time, he had not had leisure to hear anything concerning St. Paul. The Jews of Jerusalem, therefore, gladly seized this opportunity to try and prejudice Festus against St. Paul. "Then the high priest and the chief of the Jews informed him against Paul, and besought him, and desired favour against him, that he would send for him to Jerusalem," to be there tried. But they had another end in view; even the same which the Zealots, with the approbation of the Sanhedrim, had hoped to accomplish on a former occasion. The high priest and the elders, knowing well that St. Paul could not be found guilty of any crime, only besought Festus to have him brought to Jerusalem, because they were determined to get rid of him, by "laying wait in the way to kill him." But their wicked scheme was again defeated, for "Festus answered, that Paul should be kept at Cæsarea, and that he himself would depart shortly thither. Let them therefore, said he, which among you are able, go down with me, and accuse this man, if there be any wickedness in him."
And when Festus had been about ten days in Jerusalem, "he went down unto Cæsarea; and the next day sitting on the judgment seat, commanded Paul to be brought. And when he was come" before the judgment seat, "the Jews which came down from Jerusalem stood round about, and laid many and grievous complaints against Paul, which they could not prove. While he answered for himself, Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Cæsar, have I offended anything at all." Festus quite saw that St. Paul had been guilty of no offence towards the Roman Government, but that the whole matter concerned the doctrines and customs of the Jewish Law; and that he, as the Roman governor, had no cause to keep him prisoner, or trouble him any further. "But Festus, willing to do the Jews a pleasure, answered Paul, and said, Wilt thou go up to Jerusalem, and there be judged of these things before me?" The Sanhedrim was the proper Court to try questions concerning the Jewish Law. Festus knew nothing of the plots to kill St. Paul, for he was a just man, and would not have countenanced such wickedness. He could not order St. Paul to be tried by the Sanhedrim, for the authority of that Court was not recognized by the Romans; but probably with the view of convincing the Jews that St. Paul had not offended against their Law, he proposed that the Apostle should go up to Jerusalem to answer their charges.