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.