"Now," says ver. 1, "when Festus was come into the province, after three days he ascended from Cæsarea to Jerusalem.--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, laying wait in the way to kill him.--But 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 he had tarried among them more than ten days, he went down unto Cæsarea; and the next day sitting on the judgment-seat commanded Paul to be brought." Charges, not particularized: said of them, not so much as that they were the same as before. "Many and grievous complaints against Paul, which they could not prove": ver. 7--such is the only account given of them. Defence--points contained in it. As before, no offence, says ver. 8, against the law--no offence against "the temple." One point added, "Nor yet against Caesar." Good. But how comes this here? Here we have a defence, against what, it is plain, was never charged. _Festus_--judge, to Defendant, ver. 9: "Wilt thou go up to Jerusalem, and there be judged of these things _before me_?" Defendant to judge, ver. 10: "I stand at Caesar's judgment-seat, where I ought to be judged": meaning, as appears from the direct words of appeal in the next verse,--by a Roman, not by a Jewish judicatory, ought I to be tried. Against the being judged at Cæsarea, instead of Jerusalem, he could not naturally have meant to object: at least, if the historian speaks true, in what he says about the plot for murdering the prisoner on the road. 2. "To the Jews," says ver. 10, "have I done no wrong." Thus far nothing more is said than _Not Guilty_. But now follows another trait of that effrontery, which was so leading a feature in Paul's eloquence, "as," continues he, "thou very well knowest." Now what anybody may see is,--that Festus neither did know, nor could know, any such thing. Witness the historiographer himself, who, but eight verses after, (18, 19, 20,) makes Festus himself, in discourse with King Agrippa, declare as much. But the more audacious, the more in Defendant's character; and the greater the probability, that, in the conflict between the Law-Report and the narrative, truth is on the side of the Report. 3. Conclusion: ver. 11, defendant gives judge to understand, that if he, the Defendant, has done any of the things he has been charged with, he has no objection to be put to death: but in the same breath ends with saying, "I appeal to Caesar!" submitting thus to Festus's judgment, whatever it may be, and at the same time appealing from it. Festus judge: ver. 12, "when he had conferred with _the council_," whoever they were,--"Hast thou appealed unto Caesar? unto Caesar thou shalt go." Here ends Trial IV. SECTION 6.