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A COMMENTARY 
 
 ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, 
 
 C; Mr^pU VEIL, D.D. 
 
 BDITGD FOH 
 
 €f)t Mn&tv'H Unollysi ^o«>tp, 
 
 WITH AN HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION, 
 
 REV. F: Al COX, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRIMED FOK THE SOCIITV, BY 
 
 J. HADDON, CASTLE STREET, FINSBURY, 
 
 M.DCCCL.I. 
 3i 
 
HISTORICAL INTEODUCTION. 
 
 Among the Yarious classes of knowledge, that which relates to what 
 may be denominated the biography of the miad must be regarded as one 
 of the moat important. By this expression it is intended to make a clear 
 distinction between the mental and physical phenomena, which are in 
 general blended together in the term biography. Where a man was 
 bom, in what schools he was instructed, what profession or trade, if any, 
 he followed, what connexions he formed, in what sphere he lived, where 
 he died, with many other particulars respecting any notorious individual, 
 possess a certain degree of interest ; but incomparably less than what con- 
 cerns the habits of his mind, the processes of his thought, and the forma- 
 tion of his character. 
 
 In contemplating some minds we look upon a dead level, a sort of quiet 
 lake, 80 enclosed and contracted as never to have been rufEed by the in- 
 ward stLrrings of anxious thought, or the vrinds and storms of controversy. 
 There is little to discover and little to instruct. There is a surface smooth 
 enough, but too flat and tame to be truly interesting; and though they may 
 excite to approval and even some admiration, they fede from the memory. 
 Others there are, whose peculiarities are such, or who have passed through 
 such courses of thought and action, as to awaken the utmost attention, and 
 claim a scrupulous inquiry. We ask. What led them to the extraordinary 
 changes they underwent — what influenced at this or that time, their deci- 
 sions — ^what altered their decisions — ^what fixed and unfixed them in their 
 revolutions of sentiment — by what motives were they urged, and where at 
 last they landed ? 
 
 There may be a great apparent similarity between caprice and principle; 
 yet are they widely diiferent. Both admit of great changes ; but changes 
 upon different grounds ; and nicely to distinguish these differences is a pro- 
 
 A 2 
 
IV HISTOlUCAIi INTEODUOTION. 
 
 gress in the science of mental philosophy. In regard to religion this is of 
 the utmost moment, and must necessarily regulate our contempt or admi- 
 ration. The researches of a mind really engaged in the pursuit of truth 
 are worthy of the greatest attention ; its struggles claim our sympathy ; its 
 progress on this great voyage of discovery, as we may say, may assist our 
 own inquiries, or strengthen our own faith. 
 
 Few persons, we helieve, hold important truth firmly who have not ex- 
 perienced some, it may be very considerable, alterations of opinion. Light 
 has broken in' gradually upon them, errors have been for a time tenaciously 
 held ; but the day of their knowledge has often been the brighter for the 
 mists of the early morning. All minds indeed are not thus, or similarly 
 constituted ; but we must make allowances for those that are, and gain this 
 general instruction from their history, to look well and often to the founda- 
 tions, that we may secure the stability of our faith. 
 
 These remarks have been elicited by a view of the peculiar career of the 
 author of the following Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles. But of 
 this we know little more than the general outline. Memoranda, letters, 
 and documents of a similar kind which would have interested us, do not 
 appear to have survived the wreck of time. While these might he very 
 well dispensed with in ordinary cases, their almost entire absence is to be 
 greatly regretted in the present instance, as the mind of Du Veil passed 
 through many and remarkable changes. These he had the nobleness to avow 
 as they occurred, though the particular processes of thought are not re- 
 corded ; sufficient evidence however being afforded that they were not the 
 result of a spirit of vacillation, or of imbecility of judgment, but rather of 
 patient inquiry, deliberate reflection, and profound conscientiousness. 
 
 With what scanty materials of his life we are furnished we shall now 
 proceed to supply our readers ; and as they chiefly relate to vicissitudes of 
 opinion, they will the better prepare us for duly appreciating the present, 
 which is among the last of his critical compositions. 
 
 Carolus Maria de Veil, or as it is frequently written Duveil, was born of 
 Jewish parents, and was educated accordingly. His writings furnish ample 
 evidence of his intimate acquaintance with the rites and ceremonies of that 
 people. Endowed with a strong and inquiring mind, however, the result 
 of a careful investigation of the prophetical parts of the Old Testament was, 
 an irresistible conviction that Jesus Christ was the true Messiah ; a dis- 
 covery which induced him without hesitation to embrace Christianity. His 
 father violently resented this departure from his educational faith, and even 
 attempted to kill him with a sword ; from which danger he was only rescued 
 
■HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. V 
 
 by the prompt interference of the by-standers. This early discipline in the 
 school of persecution was probably by no means unfavourable to his charac- 
 ter ; but on the contrary tended to brace his mind to more vigorous research 
 for the assurance of his principles, and to prepare him for the brave endur- 
 ance of contumely and sufferings for righteousness' sake. 
 
 From Judaism he passed over to Boman Catholicism ; that being, it 
 ■ seems, iiie first form of the Christian faith to which he was introduced ; 
 probably by some accidental associations. His literature and great abilities 
 soon rendered him distinguished among the members of that community 
 which he had newly chosen, and he figured as a preacher of no little cele- 
 brity among them in the Galilean church. In a short time he received 
 the diploma of Doctor in Divinity from the University of Anjou. With 
 characteristic zeal he took occasion, on publishing a commeiltaiy on the 
 Gospels of Mark and Luke, to plead for the errors and superstitions of the 
 church of Rome, which he accomplished in so satisfactory a manner to 
 that body, that he was immediately invited to a controversy with the Hu- 
 guenots, who were at the time the great antagonists of popery in France. 
 
 The investigations of De Veil into the grounds of difference between 
 Catholics and Protestants, which were pursued with no little diligence and 
 research, for the purpose of refuting the latter, issued, however, in his own 
 conviction of the fallacy of those dogmas which he had hitherto maintained. 
 He was not a man to hesitate about the avowal of his sentiments ; but he 
 deemed it prudent to flee from the fury of those whom his change at once 
 converted into persecuting enemies. It may be thought that it was his 
 duty rather to have braved martyrdom than to have taken to flight, and we 
 must confess, whUe unacquainted with the circumstances which might have 
 justified, or or least modified, any condemnation of his apparent cowardice, 
 we should have honoured above no ordinary estimate the great act of 
 sacrificing his reputation and his life upon the altar of his God. He waa 
 not, however, it appears, in this the incipient state of his new faith, strong 
 enough in his principles to die for them. 
 
 Escaping to Holland, he abjured popery, and soon hastened to England, 
 where he was introduced to new and important associations. In what 
 manner he became acquainted with Dr. Stillingfleet, bishop of Worcester ; 
 Dr. Sharp, dean of Norwich ; Dr Tillotson, dean of St. Paul's, and after- 
 wards archbishop of Canterbury ; Dr. Patrick, dean of Peterborough, after- 
 wards bishop of Ely ; Dr, Lloyd, bishop of St. Asaph's ; Dr. Compton, bishop 
 of London, a munificent patron of learned men; and many other clergymen 
 of eminence, we are not informed; only that these were his patrons and 
 
VI HISTORICAL INXEODUCTION. 
 
 friends. The result was naturally that he should be admitted into the 
 orders of the English church ; and he was appointed chaplain and tutor in 
 a noble family. 
 
 In a revised edition of a Commentary on Matthew and Mark, published 
 in A.D. 1670, he furnishes some account of the alterations he had made, 
 and of himself. This work had issued from the press six years previously, 
 and contained a very literal explanation of the words, which was conform- 
 able to his usual method. In composing it, he states that he availed 
 himself both of what he had found in searching into the monuments of 
 antiquity", as transmitted to us by the fathers, and of what he had himself 
 observed during a careful examination of ancient and modem writers. The 
 Hebrew rites and the idioms of the language, among which, he emphati- 
 cally remarks, he was bom, instructed, and brought up, aiforded no small 
 degree of light, in aid of his explanations. At that time he was a public 
 teacher of Divinity in the University of Anjou, and was therefore induced, 
 probably with a particular view to his immediate pupils, to intersperse in 
 his Commentary several dissertations on the Divine doctrine and history 
 of the Christian religion. These abounded with defences of the super- 
 stitions and erroneous dogmas of the Romish church, and " therefore," says 
 he, "since God has delivered me from that dismal darkness out of his 
 abundant mercy, it is fitting that I should use the greatest diligence to 
 have this my Commentary reprinted, that I may therein publicly oppose 
 the errors whi^h I have defended ; and here and there briefly explain the 
 weighty reasons which God employed to dispel the darkness of my mind." 
 He further proceeds to inform the reader that he had made considerable 
 alterations even where the controversy was not concerned, so as almost to 
 make a new book, as well as a new edition. What he means by intimating 
 that "now, whatever writers he quoted, he quoted truly," we are at some 
 loss to divine. Are we to understand that he had formerly, under the 
 influence of papistical prejudice, and Jesuitical contrivance, .to enforce an 
 error, -willingly perverted the words of scripture, by distorting and falsifying 
 learned authorities ? If so, it is a sad suicidal charge, yet not without its 
 sanction by even eminent names in the annals of those bitter religious 
 controversies which ^tated former times. These culpable perversions 
 have, alas ! too often evinced that passion has for a season over-mastered 
 principle, in ecclesiastical conflicts ; but they are now, we have reason to 
 believe, of very rare occurrence. 
 
 In the year 1679, De Veil published his " Literal Ejtplication of 
 Solomon's Song," dedicating it, according to the fashion of the age, to Sir 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. VU 
 
 Joseph Williamson, a privy counsellor and president of the Royal Society. 
 This work became very popular both among the clergy at home, and the 
 reformed churches abroad, who, in letters, urged the author to engage in 
 similar expositions of other portions of the Scriptures. Accordingly, in 
 1680, he published his "Literal Exposition of the Miuor Prophets," 
 which was dedicated to Lord Heneage Finch, Baron of Daventiy, lord 
 high chancellor, privy counsellor, and keeper of the royal seal. 
 
 The celebrity of this performance paved the way for another important 
 alteration of his religious opinions. The Bishop of London was so gratified 
 by it, and so highly estimated the commentator's abilities, that he studiously 
 encouraged him by every means, and gave him free access to his library at 
 all times. In that library, the bishop little thought of what would be the 
 consequence of his finding and perusing attentively, some of the writings 
 of the English Baptists, which he very soon began to suspect were in 
 accordance with the word of God. In the bishop's household was a young 
 woman, a servant, who avowed baptist principles, and probably belonged to 
 a baptist church. She was much derided by her fellow servants for her 
 peculiar sentiments, but was no doubt amply repaid by an approving con- 
 science for her faithful adherence to what she deemed scriptural truth and 
 apostolic practice, and by the opportunity she had of obtaining for Du Veil 
 an interview with Hanserd Knollys, at the house of a nobleman where that 
 eminent individual was accustomed frequently to resort. He also became 
 still more intimately acquainted with the Rev. John Gospold, a man of 
 great learning, whose conversation he found both pleasing and instructive, 
 and who doubtless aided his researches into the Baptist controversy. After 
 some time he was fully convinced on the subject, renounced the principles 
 of Psedobaptism, and joined Mr. Gosnold's community. 
 
 His former friends, vrith the honourable exception of Tillotson, now for- 
 sook him, and he had to seek as he could, literary or other employment. 
 He had a mind, however, capable of rising superior to this unhappy sec- 
 tarianism ; but was not improbably led by it to a closer examination of 
 the earliest documents of the Christian church, and thus to confirm his 
 confidence in the sentiments which he had deliberately adopted. Very 
 soon he applied himself to the task of producing his " Literal Explanation 
 of the Acts of the Apostles," in which he takes occasion, with much accuracy 
 of criticism to vindicate the principles and practices of the Baptists. M. 
 Claude, one of the most celebrated and learned of the French Protestants 
 at the time, though a Padobaptist, wrote the following letter : — 
 
VIU HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " Sir,— 
 
 " I received your Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles which you 
 were pleased to send me, and givfe you a thousand thanks for the share 
 which you are thus so kind as to afford me in your remembrance, which I 
 have entertained, not only with all due acknowledgment, but also with 
 much joy, as coming from a person who is and ever shall be very dear to 
 me, and for whom I have a most particular esteem. I have perused your 
 Commentary, though it came but lately to my hands, and I have found in 
 it, as in all your other works, the marks of a copious reading, abundance of 
 sense, right reason, and a just and ejcact understanding ; a:nd I do not 
 doubt but that this Commentary will be kindly received by the learned, 
 and prove very useful to all those who apply themselves to understand the 
 Scriptures. This shows you, Sir, not to be idle, and that you manage 
 well the talents God has been pleased to bestow upon you. The public 
 will be very much obliged to you, if you continue, as I hope you will, and 
 which I talte the freedom to exhort you to do, to make similar presents. 
 For my own part, I find in it a great edification, and wish with all my 
 heart, it lay in my power to manifest it to you by effectual services. I 
 beseech you to be persuaded of this truth, and that you would preserve me 
 the honour of your friendship, which I shall ever look upon as very much 
 to my advantage. I take my leave, praying God he would continue to 
 pour out upon you his holy benedictions ; assuring you that I am, 
 
 " Sir, 
 " Your most humble and most obedient servant, 
 
 '• Claude." 
 " Paris, April 15, 1684. 
 
 " For Dr. Du Veil, London." 
 
 By comparing the Commentaries of Du Veil, and particularly this of 
 the Acts of the Apostles, with others, their real value will be more distinctly 
 seen. This Commentary, like most that he has produced, holds a kind of 
 middle place between those of an elaborate description, and those which, 
 the expression being allowed, we may term more densely critical. He does 
 not expatiate on the general truths he discovers for the purpose of spiritual 
 improvement, like Henry ; nor interweave theological sentiments or ques- 
 tionings, with vast masses of rabbinical or other foreign literature in the 
 form of long and learned citations like Gill, some of which are, but many of 
 which are not really illustrative ; and on .the otherh and, he does not, like 
 the German critics, such as RosenmuUer, travel down the rugged path of 
 
HISTORICAL INTUODUCTION. IX 
 
 critical bye-roads, to the most literal of all literal investigations, holding 
 converse with letters, points, and punctuations : but yet he is sufficiently 
 verbal and minute to make even the unlearned reader acquainted with the 
 meaning of words and phrases, and sufficiently suggestive to indicate the 
 important truths that are to be found in Scripture phraseology. Occasion- 
 ally, however, he is somewhat more elaborate than even the ordinary 
 expositors ; as for example, in his geographical and historical explanations 
 in the second chapter. His learned references, it wiU be seen, evince a 
 remarkably extensive acquaintance with writers, both ancient and modern ; 
 and though we might sometimes spare them, they are usually introduced 
 in a manner that shows a mind so replete and overflowing with knowledge, 
 as to prevent the suspicion of their being intended as an ostentatious 
 display. Subsequent commentators have perhaps in one form or another, 
 and one after another, given most of the criticisms to be found in this 
 volume ; but it is to be remembered that our author led the way, and it 
 would not be easy to trace them in other writings in such rich and varied 
 combination. 
 
 Among other reasons which might be assigned for carefully and critically 
 studying the Acts of the Apostles, there is one which invests this portion 
 of the sacred volume with attractive peculiarity. It introduces us into the 
 interior of the primitive church. "We see Christianity in its first elements, 
 in the primary period of its growth, in the zeal that actuated, the love that 
 united, and the wisdom that guided, under Divine teaching and influence, 
 the regulations made by its earliest and most endowed disciples. We see 
 how they gloried in the cross, took joyfully for Christ's sake the spoiling of 
 their goods, baffled the purposes of their persecutors by an indomitable 
 courage and death-defying adherence to the gospel, abounded in devotion, 
 in faith and in charity, set their faces as a flint against error, steeled their 
 hearts against the fascinations of the world, and wore with exultation the 
 thorny crown which was transferred from their Divine Master to ' them, — 
 " glorying in tribulation, that the power of Christ might rest upon them." 
 We see in that age of purity and power what may well in this fill us with 
 shame, and stimulate us to a better course. While led to mourn over our 
 deficiencies, let us cultivate their piety, and emulate their example. The 
 grace poured forth upon them, with all its sweetness of spirit and energy 
 of action, our God is still able and willing to impart to us. Let us pray 
 for it; for these are times which demand the apostles' principles, the 
 martyrs' courage, and the RedeemeV's love. 
 
[The Translation of the Dissertation of Spanhemius has heen 
 omitted from the present reprint, as it does not appear to have 
 been the work of Dr. Du Veil.] 
 
A Literal 
 
 EXPLANATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ACTS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 WnttenmLa.tmehYC.M.DuFei/,D.D. 
 
 Now Tranflated into Englifh out of a Copy 
 
 carefully reviewed and corrected by the Author, 
 
 To which is added 
 
 A Tranflation of a Learned Differtation about Baptism 
 for the Dead, i Cor. 15. zg. Written in Latine by the Famous 
 Fridericus Spanhemim Films. 
 
 John 5. 39. Search the Scriptures. 
 
 Theodoret on Ezekiel 16. ive mustfearch the Scripture Idioms,' elfe 
 tue cannot attain itsfcope. 
 
 PhotiusinBiblioth. Cod. 177. Whatfoe'ver is confonant to Right Reafon, 
 & plainly deli'vered in the Holy Scriptures that alone is to be approved of. 
 
 LONDON, Printed for Francis Pearse, at the Blew 
 Anchor, at the Weft End of St. Pauls. 1685. 
 
THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE 
 
 TO THE READER. 
 
 St. Luke gives an account of the most considerable actions of the 
 apostles, especially of Peter and Paul, in that golden book of his, which 
 by the Greeks is commonly called rrgd^eig rSJv 'AiroaroXtav, " the Acts of the 
 Apostles ;" by Epiphamus,H8er. SO, ruvir^d^imTuii' AmeroXuv n ^l^y^oc, "the 
 book of the Acts of the Apostles;" Can, 16. Cone, in Trul., «/ rut irga^suv 
 ^l^Xoi, "the books of the Acts of the Apostles ;" by the Latins (if ye except 
 only Hilarius, who, citing this book in his annotations on Matthew, retained 
 the Greek word) it is called the Acts and Deeds of the Apostles. There is 
 scarce any book that treateth of the Christian religion, which so clearly 
 explains the doctrine of truth by examples that cannot be spoke against, 
 and truth of history attending it. And truly there is no other book, save 
 the apostolic epistles, that intermingles these two. 
 
 Courteous reader, I here present thee with a coramentaiy on this most 
 excellent book of Luke's, which plainly unfolds the meaning that is wrapt 
 up in the words, and that agreeable to the letter. In composing whereof 
 I have made use of both what I could find in the sacred fountains of the 
 scriptures, and what I have taken notice of in searching out those monu- 
 ments which the Hebrew rabbis and fathers of the churches have left 
 behind them, and what 1 have observed in reading over, and carefully 
 examining many and several vmters, as well ancient as modem, and what 
 talent of prudence and knowledge God, the donor of all good things, has 
 bestowed upon me. 
 
 In this my commentary, as in those which I formerly published on 
 Matthew, Mark, Solomon's Song, Ecclesiastes, and the twelve lesser 
 prophets, I for the most part use the ancient Latin version of the scriptures, 
 as being that which 1 am best acquainted with : but I always diligently 
 remark what it differs from the original texts, the Hebrew and Greek. I 
 vindicate those places which heretics abuse with some pretence, especially 
 
XIV author's preface. 
 
 papists, from their abuse and corruption. I likewise briefly make several 
 profitable observations out of philology, history, geography, and grammar, 
 where I see it necessary either for the confirmation or explication of this 
 sacred history of the Acts of the Apostles. Courteous reader, if thou meetest 
 with anything in these my observations that is skilfully spoken, ascribe 
 that not to me, bat to God, the fountain of all goodness ; to me only what 
 my hand has not well penned, and what my mind has not well conceived. 
 Moreover, if I have erred in any place, as such cases may easily happen, I 
 neither stubbornly refuse to profess my error, nor to be better instructed. 
 I desire to learn what I am ignorant of, and willingly offer myself to be a 
 scholar to any, provided (to use Jerome's phrase) that he instruct, and do not 
 detract; for there is nothing so easy as for an idle and lazy person to carp 
 at other men's labours and watchings. In the meanwhile, candid reader, 
 peruse my writings, such as they are, and join your earnest prayers to God 
 with mine, that he may make them profitable to his church ; which when 
 I shall see performed, I shall never repent of my labours and studies. 
 
 Farewell. 
 
A Letter from the Eminent and Learned Monsieur Claude, to the Author. 
 
 Monsieur, 
 I received your Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, you were pleased 
 to send me, and give you a thousand thanks for this share you are so kind as to 
 afibrd me in your remembrance ; which I hate entertained not only with all 
 due acknowledgment, but also with much joy, as coming from a person who is 
 and ever shall be very dear to me, and for whom I have a most pecuhar esteem. 
 I have redosed your Commentary, though it came but very lately to my hands, 
 and have fotmd therein, as in all your other works, the marks of a copious 
 reading, abundance of sense, right reason, and just and exact understanding, 
 and 1 do not doubt but that this Commentary will be kindly received by the 
 learned and prove very useful to all those who apply themselves to understand 
 the Scripture. This shows you, Monsieur, not idle, and that you manage well 
 the talents God has been pleased to bestow upon you. The public wUl be very 
 much obliged to you, if you continue (as I hope you wUl, and which I take the 
 freedom to exhort you to) making it sttch like presents. For my own part I 
 find therein a very great edification, and wish with all my heart it lay in my 
 power to manifest it to you by effectual services. I beseech you to be per- 
 suaded of this truth, and that you would preserve me the honour of your 
 friendship, which 1 shall ever look upon as very much to my advantage. I 
 take my leave, praying God he would continue to pour upon you his holy 
 benedictions, and assuring you that I am, 
 
 Monsieur, 
 Your most humble and most obedient servant, 
 
 CIjADSE. 
 
 Paris, April 16, 1684. 
 These for Monsieur Du Veil, D.D., 
 London. 
 
 Augustine, in his 137th Epistle, otherwise Third, to Votuiianui, Proconsul of 
 Africa, UncU to Melania the Younger, Numh. 3, 
 
 Such ia the depth of the Christian Scripture, that therein 1 could reap new 
 advantage every day, if I had given myself over to the study of it alone, from 
 my very first childhood even to decrepit old age, with the greatest leisure 
 earnestest study, and a more happy genius ; not that it is so difficult to attain 
 to the knowledge of those things that are necessary to salvation ; but after 
 
XAT 
 
 every man holds his faith there, without which he cannot live godly and 
 righteously ; there are so many things wrapt up in such multiplicity of veils, 
 that are to be understood by proficients, and there is such depth of wisdom 
 couched, not only in the words whereby these things are expressed, but also in 
 the things that are to be understood, that it fares with the most aged, the most 
 acute, and those who are most desirous of learning, as the same Scripture has 
 in a certain place, " When a man has done, then he beginneth." 
 
 The aaine Augustine in the same place, Nwmh. 18. 
 
 The manner of speaking, whereby the holy Scripture is connected, how acces- 
 sible is it to all, though it be penetrable by very few ! Those things which it 
 contains that are manifest, it speaks as a familiar friend without sophistication 
 to the hearts of the unlearned and learned. And those things that it hides 
 in mysteries, it does not raise them up beyond our capacities by loftiness of 
 style, so as a duU and illiterate mind dare not approach, as one that is poor to 
 a rich person ; but it invites all by its low style, whom it may not only feed by 
 manifest truth, but also exercise with hidden, having the same things in what 
 is manifest as in what is hid. But that the things being plain might not be 
 loathed, the same things being again hidden are desired, being desired, they 
 are in some manner renewed, being renewed they are delightfully received. 
 By these both depraved minds are wholesomely amended, the mean are 
 nourished, and the great delighted. He only is an enemy to this learning who, 
 either by reason of his mistakes, is ignorant of its soundness, or by reason of 
 his distemper has an aversation to medicine. 
 
 The Oolden Saying of St. Prosper, 
 Reader, though in the sacred books thou long'st to know, 
 Many things are concealed and hid thee fro ; 
 Yet watch, and still pursue thy good intent, 
 Gifts that are stay'd for move thy mind, if bent ; 
 That fruit's more grate which hope drawn out brings forth, 
 Things easily attain'd are nothing worth, 
 Even hidden mysteries solace the mind ; 
 Who gave to ask, will further give to find. 
 
THE 
 
 ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES 
 
 LITEEALLY EXPLAINED. 
 
 The authority of this book, which is entitled " The Acts of the 
 Holy Apostles," has been denied by Cerinthus, who lived in the 
 primitive times, as Philastrius records ;^ as also by Tatianus and 
 Severus, in the reign of Marcus Aurelius.' For whatever book of 
 the New Testament the heretics thought to be opposite to their 
 own mad inventions, that they presently condemned. Hence it was 
 that the Manichseans likewise refused to give credit to this book, 
 because the author of it writes, that the Comforter, even the Spirit 
 of Truth promised by Christ, did^escend upon the day of Pente- 
 cost, long before Manes, who presumed to call himself the Holy 
 Ghost promised by Christ, was born. But seeing this book, as St. 
 Austin well observes,* doth contain so many things like thosie 
 which the Manichaeans themselves take for granted, and believe to 
 be parts of the holy scriptures, it seems a very great folly that they 
 do not also believe and allow its authority. St. Luke declares 
 himself to be the author of this book in his proem to the same 
 Theophilus to whom he makes his address at the beginning of his 
 gospel, and Intimates that he had before that time committed to 
 writing the several acts of Christ. Surpassingly well, therefore, 
 saith St. Jerome,* " The Acts of the Apostles seem to represent a 
 bare history, and to set forth the infancy of the growing church ; 
 but if once we know St. Luke, the physician (whose praise is iii 
 
 ' H»r. 36. ' Euseb. Hist. lib. iv. cap. 29. ' Lib. de Util. Cred. c. 3. 
 
 * Epist. ad Paulin. 
 B 
 
THE ACTS or THE HOLY APOSTLES 
 
 the gospel) to be the writer thereof, we shall also find all his 
 words to be the physic of a languishing soul." Philostratus, who 
 flourished under Severus Augustus, affords us a singular testimony 
 of the antiquity not only of the evangelical history in general, but 
 of the gospel of St. Luke in particular, and of the Acts of the Apos- 
 tles by him written. For he has transcribed into his ApoUonius 
 many miracles of Christ and his apostles, so manifestly out of those 
 books that he has not forborne to pake use of the very words them- 
 selves, as the most famous Huetius "apparently makes out.' Josephus, 
 by birth a Jew, honoured with the dignity of an earl, as Epiphanius 
 witnesseth,^ Hser. 30, which is of the Ebionites, three hundred and 
 seventy years after Christ's nativity as Sixtus Senensis reports, 
 found at Scythopolis, in a private treasury of the Jews, this book 
 which records the most remarkable acts of the apostles, translated 
 out of Greek into Hebrew, together with the Gospel of St. 
 Matthew, written with his own hand in the Hebrew language, 
 and the Gospel of St. John, translated likewise out of Greek into 
 the same language. 
 
 This golden book, quite through, displays the singular providence 
 of God in gathering together to himself and preserving his church. 
 It opens and explains what was the beginning and rise of the 
 Christian religion; after what manner the apostles began the 
 preaching of the gospel; how strenuously and courageously a 
 few obscure, unarmed, and contemptible persons opposed by the 
 power of the whole world, while all the potentates of those ages 
 employed their forces to "oppress the gospel, relying only upon the 
 assistance of the Spirit and truth, indefatigably defended the 
 faith of Christ, refused no labours nor dangers, but combated 
 with an unshaken constancy against all opposition, till at length 
 they became victors, and the power of God, under the ignominy 
 of the cross, magnificently triumphed over all the pride of the 
 earth. 
 
 The chapters of this book are twenty-eight ; the principal parts 
 are four. The first of which, in the first eight chapters, sets down 
 the original and progress of the New Testament church among the 
 Jews. The next from the ninth to the sixteenth, declares how 
 greatly the church was multiplied and propagated among the 
 Gentiles. The third part, from the sixteenth to the twentieth, 
 
 • Demonstrat. Evang. Prop. non. cap. 147, num. 4. ' In Bibliothec. Sanct. 
 
LITEBALLTT EXPLAINED. 3 
 
 relates the several travels and voyages of St. Paul, to his very last 
 journey Jo Jerusalem. The last," from the twentieth to the end, 
 gives an account with what perseverance St. Paul endured a thou- 
 sand troubles, hardships, and indignities ; with \yhat patience he 
 surmounted the raging floods of persecution ; and lastly, how 
 mildly, and with what an equal temper he carried himself in the 
 midst of all manner of calumnies and reproaches, and all sorts of 
 miseries. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 1. The former. The evangelist St. Luke makes this intro- 
 duction as he passes from the history of the gospel, comprehending 
 the sayings and acts of Christ, to the acts of the apostles. Now, 
 whereas, the Vulgar Latin interpreter rendering here the positive 
 Trpwroi', has used the superlative Jirst, instead of the comparative 
 former, the words having relation to Luke's former book which he 
 had published before : he has been therein followed by Beza, who 
 justifies himself by the authority of Cicero, who in his second book 
 of Invention, citing his former calls it his first. You shall also find 
 the positive, Trpwroe, used for the comparative, former, by St. 
 John in his Gospel, ch. i. 15, 30. xv. 18 ; 1 Epist. iv. 19. 
 
 Discourse have I made. This is a Grsecism ; as much as to say, 
 The former book have I made. Thus in Lucian, The first Dis- 
 course of the true History, is the first book. And Galen calls his 
 seventh book his seventh discourse. 
 
 Of all. But not setting down all things. For though a person 
 might discourse of the works and doctrine of Christ to a consider- 
 able extent, yet to set down the whole series of what he said and 
 did, 80 as to make a full narration, was an undertaking of that pro- 
 digious labour, that St. John in his Gospel tells us, the world would 
 not contain the books, ch. xxi. 25. 
 
 O Theaphilus. This Theophilus, to whom St. Luke dedicates his 
 Gospel also, seems to many to have been a person in high dignity, 
 Luke i. 3. For the title attributed to him of mx}st excellent, not wont 
 to be given but only to princes and persons in great authority, does 
 
 B 2 
 
4 THE ACTS or THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. !• 
 
 plainly demonstrate, as they allege, that it was the proper name of 
 some noble personage. The author of the books of Eecognitions, 
 under the name of Clement,' the first of that name, bishop of 
 Rome, says that this Theophilus was one of the principal men of 
 Antiochia, who being converted by Peter to the faith of Christ 
 set apart his houses for the public and solemn meetings of the 
 church.- Theophylact^ calls this Theophilus, a consular person, and 
 perhaps a prince. A certain author cited by Abulensis, conjectures 
 this Theophilus, prince of Antiochia, to have been, after the depar- 
 ture of Peter, bishop of that city ; and that upon his persuasion 
 and encouragement, both the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles 
 were written by St. Luke. Grotius believes him to have been the 
 chief magistrate of some city in Achaia, and baptized by Luke. 
 But though the additional most excellent, which by several writers 
 is frequently given to persons in high authority, as for example by 
 Paul, Acts xxiii. 26 ; xxvi. 25, to both the procurators 'or vice- 
 governors of Judsea, Felix and Festus, and by Josephus* to 
 Epaphroditus, to whom he dedicates the History of his Life, and 
 by Justin Martyr to Diognetus, to whom he writes a Compendium 
 of the Christian Religion : yet it does not seem to be a note of 
 dignity in Theophilus, in regard it does not appear likely that St. 
 Luke would have omitted to have given the same addition to 
 Theophilus when he recommends to him his Acts of th^ Apostles, 
 had it been a title of dignity. Therefore Origen,^ St. Ambrose,* 
 and Epiphanius'^ believe it more probable that Theophilus was an 
 appellative made use of by St. Luke, as belonging to all that pro- 
 fessed the Christian religion out of a sincere love of God. " Nor 
 ought it," saith Camero,^ " to be thought a thing out of practice, 
 seeing that Athanasius uses the same sort of compellation. For ia 
 his book of the Incarnation, he gives the titles of happy, and friend 
 of Christ, and sometimes both together, without distinction, to every 
 pious and true Christian." 
 
 Which Jesus began to do and teach. That is, which make to the 
 whole of our salvation from the beginning of the works and doc- 
 trine of Christ. Learnedly the Greek scholiast observes, that 
 Luke wrote of all things from the beginning till Jesus was trans- 
 lated into heaven; of which St. Chrysostom takes notice also, 
 
 ' Lib. X. near the end. ' Argum. in Luc. ' In Prolog, in Matt. q. 21. 
 
 * In fin. vit. suae. ' Horn. 1, in Luc. ' In Luc. 1. 
 
 ' Hier. 5L « In Luc. 1. 
 
VER. Il.J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 5 
 
 where he says that Luke wrote, " ncit simply of all things, but of 
 all things from the beginning to the end." And this is that which 
 St. Luke himself says in the preface to his Gospel, ver. 3 ; That 
 he had perfect understanding of all things from the very beginning : 
 that is, what Christ, powerful both in deed and word, both taught 
 and acted most remarkable while he conversed upon earth. Others 
 will have these words. Which Jesus began to do and teach, to be un- 
 derstood according to a usual Hebrew phrase, "which Jesus did and 
 taught." Most excellently, therefore, Calvin : " Now," saith he, 
 " we see the sum of the gospel contained in these two parts, the 
 doctrine and deeds of Christ. Forasmuch as he not only per- 
 formed the duty of that embassy, for which he was sent by the 
 Father to men, but effectually discharged whatever could be re- 
 quired from the Messiah. He laid the foundations of his kingdom ; 
 he atoned the wrath of God by offering himself; he expiated the 
 sins of men with his own blood ; he overcame death and the devil ; 
 he restored us to our true liberty, and acquired for us justice and 
 life eternal ; and that every thing that he said or did might be 
 ratified among mankind, he proved himself to be the Son of God 
 by his miracles." 
 
 2. Until the day. That is, until the 14th day of our May, 
 according to Bishop Usher. 
 
 In which time giving commandment. As if he had said. Upon 
 which day, after he had dictated to the apostles by him elected, lest 
 they should deliver any thing but what was truly divine, through 
 the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, what they should teach and 
 preach, he was taken up into heaven. " The apostles," says the 
 learned John Lightfoot, " had cast out devils, and had healed the 
 sick, by the assistance of the Spirit, but it is to be doubted, 
 whether they had taught any thing which they had not heard 
 verbatim from the lips of their Master. He had promised them 
 that they should bind and let loose the law of Moses ; he had told 
 them that there were several things to be revealed to them, which 
 they could not bear, in which they should be instructed by the 
 inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Therefore when he, arose, and had 
 breathed upon their faces, saying. Receive the Holy Ghost (John 
 XX. 22), then they were inspired with the Holy Spirit, like the 
 prophets of old, who dictated to them what they should preach, 
 what they should require, and what they should enjoin. And 
 now they wanted nothing but the gift of tongues, that they might 
 
6 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. I. 
 
 be able to deliver what was dictated to them in the proper lan- 
 guages of those to whom they should speak. " 
 
 Which he had chosen. That is, whom he created his messengers, 
 to publish the doctrine of the gospel two years before he suffered 
 over all Judea, and after his resurrection over all the world. 
 These messengers Christ called his apostles, or envoys. Luke 
 vi. 13. Thus formerly the emperors of the east, and popes, 
 called their legates envoys, as is frequently apparent from Ana- 
 stasius the Bibliothecarian, and others. 
 
 He was taken up. That is, by the interposition of a cloud he 
 was taken from the sight of men, as is said below, ver. 9. 
 
 3. To whom, &c. As if he had said: And that the apostles 
 might be most credible and substantial witnesses of the resurrection 
 of Christ, upon the truth of which is founded all the majesty of 
 the gospel, he, being restored from the grave, by most solid and 
 incontrovertible arguments proved himself to be truly risen from 
 the dead, as often as he showed himself visible to his apostles, 
 during the forty days between his resurrection and ascension ; ,and 
 discoursed with them concerning the kingdom of God. 
 
 He showed himself alive. That is, ocularly proved himself to 
 be risen. 
 
 After- his passion. That is, after he had been put to a most 
 ignominious death, for the sake of our salvation. 
 
 By many proofs. A Hebraism ; that is, by many evident signs, that 
 had the force of a most powerful and irresistible proof. The Greek 
 calls " theses" proofs, rtK/jiripia, " which word signifieth," says Beza, 
 as Quintilian affirms out of Aristotle,^ "signs necessary and indubi- 
 table : as these actions, speaking, walking, eating, drinking, are un- 
 doubted signs of life." To appear publicly in sight, ai^d to be felt 
 by the hands, are certain signs of a real natural body. Also the 
 wounds of the hands, feet, and side, were indubitable signs that 
 the same body rose that was crucified and pierced with a lance. 
 The blood and water flowing from his wounded side, was for a cer- 
 tainty a sign of the parts about the heart being wounded, and of 
 death. These were therefore the signs by which St. Luke affirms 
 that Christ confirmed his resurrection; of which he treats more 
 fully in his gospel. 
 
 Being seen. Often and long together. For it was but neces- 
 sary that Christ, in regard of the infirmity of his disciples, 
 
 ' Lib. V. cap. 9. 
 
VER. IV.] LITJSRALLY EXPLAINED. 7 
 
 should converse with them both frequently, and for a good while 
 together, to the end they might have a full assurance of his resur- 
 rection. For we know how difficultly they were induced to believe 
 it ; and how at first, when he appeared to them, they thought 
 it only a delusion of the sight, and that it had been only some ap- 
 parition that deceived them. 
 
 And speakinff of the kingdom of God. That is, of the spiritual 
 kingdom, the possession of which Christ was to take upon his 
 ascent into heaven. The apostles were as yet but ignorant in 
 many points of faith, which before the suflfering of Christ, being 
 blinded by their own prejudices, they could not sufficiently appre- 
 hend, though they had frequently heard them from his mouth. 
 Therefore, after his resurrection, he delayed his ascension forty 
 days, and took in that interval as much time as he thought to be 
 sufficient, to instruct his disciples in what was necessa,ry for them 
 to know, to the end they might the more faithfully perform the 
 function which they were to undertake. 
 
 4. AufL being assembled together. The Greek word is, " using one 
 common table," or eating the same salt and meat together. Whence 
 the proverb. To have eaten many bushels, of salt with any one, is 
 the same thing as to have had long converse with any one. Says 
 the most learned Sir Edward Leigh,* "There are some that en- 
 deavour to prove by examples, that the Greek word signifies 
 properly the rallying of soldiers dispersed in pursuit after a battle 
 won : or, as when a shepherd gathers his scattered sheep into 
 one fold. Which significations agree very exactly to the sense 
 of this place, because Christ doth re-collect his disciples dispersed 
 like scattered sheep, and give them instructions for the spiritual 
 warfare which they were to undergo." The same author in the 
 same place affirms the Greek word to be .a military word, and to 
 signify the pitching of the victor captain in the field of battle. 
 The most learned Lightfoot deduces the word (xwaXiZofuvog, not 
 from hals, which signifies salt, but from halia, which signifies an 
 assembled congregation. But whereas Christ, after his resurrec- 
 tion, never appeared to his disciples but of a sudden, and when he 
 was least expected, but only upon the mountain of Galilee, Matt, 
 xxviii. 6, where he had appointed a meeting, that most learned 
 man refers this verse to that meeting, as if this were the sense of 
 the words ; Jesus a little before his ascent into heaven being met 
 
 ' In his Critica Sacra. 
 
8 THE ACTS OF THiS HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. I. 
 
 in an assembly of five hundred of the brethren, 1 Cor. xv. 6, upon 
 the mountain of Galilee, according to his own appointment, 
 finding his disciples not willing to return to Jerusalem still as 
 it were reeking with his blood without his express order, he com- 
 manded them to repair thither forthwith, and not to stir from 
 thence, until they had received the Holy Ghost according to his 
 promise. 
 
 They should wait for the -promise of. the Father. Thus he calls, 
 both here and Luke xxiv. 49, the gift of the Holy Ghost promised 
 by the Father to all believers, Isa. xliv. 3 ; Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27 ; 
 and Joel ii. 28. 
 
 Which, saith he, ye have heard from my mouth. As if he had 
 said: the performance of which promise I have told you that I 
 will make good to you, Luke xxiv. 49. 4- passing like to this, 
 from an oblique to a direct speech, is frequent in history. 
 
 5. Because John, &c. As if he had said. Because within a few 
 days ye shall find by experience, how truly my forerunner John 
 said formerly that he baptized indeed with water, but that I would 
 baptize with the Holy Ghost. See our literal explication on 
 Matt. iii. 11. 
 
 . Shall he baptized. The Greek word fiawri^siv, says Casaubon, 
 is to dip or plunge, as if it were to dye colour. In which sense 
 the apostles may be truly said to have been baptized. For the 
 house in which this was done was filled with the Holy Ghost. 
 So that the apostles may seem to have been plunged into it, as 
 into a large fish-pond. Hence CEcumenius,, upon Acts ii. 2 : " A 
 wind filled the whole house, that it seemed like a fish-pond; 
 because it was promised to the apostle's, that they should be bap- 
 tized with the Holy Ghost." 
 
 Not many days hence. Christ seems as it were to point out 
 with his finger those few days between the time wherein he had 
 charged his disciples not to stir out of Jerusalem, and the approach- 
 ing Pentecost. 
 
 6. When they therefore were all met. That is, all the apostles at 
 Jerusalem. - 
 
 They asked him. When he appeared to them upon the very day 
 of his ascent into heaven, as appears out of the 1 Cor. xv. 7 ; 
 Luke xxiv. 50, 51, compared together, 
 
 Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom of Israel ? That 
 is. Now thou art again risen from the dead, wilt thou reign over 
 
VES. VIII.] " LITEKALLY EXPLAINED. 9 
 
 the Israelites after the manner of other kings, and free them from 
 the yoke of the heathens ? Christ had really proposed to restore 
 the kingdom of Israel, but not the earthly and worldly kingdom, 
 as both now and at other times the apostles imagined ; but by re- 
 calling that people from their incredulity to the knowledge of 
 himself, that he might rule in the midst of' them by the power 
 of his gospel ; which St. Paul foretells shall be, Rom. xi. 25, &c. ; 
 but by reason their minds were clouded with worldly thoughts, 
 they could not yet understand this mystery. Christ, therefore, 
 contenting himself to restrain their curiosity as to the point of 
 time when it should come to pass, and which it nothing concerned 
 them to know, adds to his answer, But you shall receive the power of 
 the Holy Ghost upon you. As if he had said, That heavenly Doctor, 
 whom I shall send to you, shall instruct you as to that which now 
 ye seek from me ; that is to say, what that future restitution of 
 the kingdom of Israel shall be, which you expect. Though as to 
 the time, that is a secret which my Father thinks not proper as 
 yet to reveal to you, in regard that without that knowledge you 
 may perform the work committed to your charge. Some are of. 
 opinion that the kingdom of Israel was . then restored by Christ, 
 when the church of Christ, which is the spiritual Israel, began 
 to be governed by Christian kings and princes; such as were 
 three hundred years after the birth of Christ, Constantino the 
 Great, and several other emperors ; but the first interpretation 
 seems to be the best. For though under those princes, the church 
 rested from persecution, yet ambition, covetousness, and many 
 other evils got footing in it, so that the kingdom could not be then 
 truly said [to be] restored to Israel. 
 
 It is not your business to know times, &c. As if he had said. It is 
 not proper nor expedient for you ; according to the common 
 English version, It is not for you. It is not a thing permitted 
 for you to know to what point of time the restoration of the king- 
 dom of Israel is reserved, in regard this is one of those mysteries 
 which the heavenly Father will have lie hid, and to be at his 
 disposal to act as he pleases, otherwise than men look for, and 
 beyond the reach of human capacity. "It is the custom of 
 Christ," saith Grotius, " to refer secret dispensations to the Father," 
 Matt. XX. 23; Mark xiii. 32. See our literal expositions upon 
 those places. 
 
 8. But ye shall receive, &c. As if he had said. But I will supply 
 
10 THE ACTS OF XHE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. I. 
 
 that power, which I know you want at present from heaven; and 
 will fill your breasts with the celestial Spirit, that you may learn 
 with patience to expect the promised restoration of Israel's kingr 
 dom, not the earthly as you vainly now dream, but the spiritual 
 dominion of the Jews : and in the meantime, be zealous to publish 
 to all the world the doctrine of the gospel, and by your testimony 
 to confirm my resurrection, which not being believed the whole 
 gospel falls. 
 
 And ye shall be witnesses unto me, &c. St Austin saith,' " It was 
 not so said to the apostles, ye shall he loitnesses unto me, &c., as if 
 they alone to whom the words were spoken, were to fulfil so great 
 a trust, but as he seems to have spoken to them alone that other 
 saying of his. Behold I am with you to the end of the world, &c. 
 Which, nevertheless, who does not understand to have been 
 promised to the whole church, which, while some die, others are 
 born, shall remain to the end of time? As he speaks again to 
 them what does not at all concern them, and yet is so spoken 
 to them, as if it concerned nobody else : when ye behold, all these 
 things, know ye that it is at the doors. For whom does this 
 concern unless ourselves, who' shall be then in the flesh, when 
 all those things come to be fulfilled? How much more that, in 
 doing of which they were to bear a great share, though the same 
 act was also to be continued by their successors ?" 
 
 In Jerusalem. It behoved the apostles to begin the preaching 
 ,of the gospel in> Jerusalem, that the prophecies might be fulfilled, 
 Isa. ii. 2, 3 ; Mich. iv. 1, 2. See what we have said upon the word 
 Jerusalem, Matt. ii. 3. 
 
 And in all Judea. The word Judea is here used in the dilated 
 sense ; which, when Christ was upon the earth, was divided into 
 six parts ; to wit, into Galilee, Samaria, and Judea, strictly taken, 
 which lay on this side Jordan, and reached to the Mediterranean 
 Sea ; and into Trachonitis, Iturea, or Perea, and Idumea, that lie 
 beyond Jordan, and are seated in the midland country. Christ, 
 therefore, would have the Jews enjoy their privileges, till they~ 
 themselves, through their Impiety and perverseness, forfeited and 
 lost them. For he does not indulge the preaching of the gospel 
 either, to the Samaritans or Gentiles, before it was offered to the 
 nation of the Jews ; for that he was sent by the Father [as] minister 
 of the circumcision, to perform those promises which were formerly 
 
 ' Epist. 199, N. 49, novre edit. Parisiensif. 
 
VEkI Vm.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 11 
 
 made to the patriarchs of the Jews, Kom. xv. 8. See our literal 
 explication upon Matt. x. 5. 
 
 AtuI Samaria. As if he had said, Out of all Judea, taken in 
 the dilated signification, I do not except Samaria, as formerly. 
 Matt. X. 5 ; but in express words I enjoin you to preach the 
 gospel as well in Samaria, as in the other provinces of Judea. 
 Philip the (^eacon, in obedience to this command, was the first 
 who preached up Jesus in Samaria, which was approved by, the 
 apostles sending to the Samaritans Peter and John, who by 
 imposition of hands, communicated the Holy Ghost to the be- 
 lieving Samaritans, ch. viii. 17. Now, Samaria is a province of 
 Palestine, lying between Judea, strictly taken, to the south, and 
 Galilee to the north, comprehending the tribes of Ephraim and 
 Manasseh on this side Jordan : so called from the metropolitan city 
 of the whole country, deriving its name from a mountain, as the 
 mountain took its name from one Somer or Shemer, who was lord 
 of it, 1 Kings xvi. 24. In this city of Samaria, built by Amri or 
 Omri, king of Israel, the kings who ruled the ten tribes that were 
 rent from the house of David kept their seat, till Shalmaneser; 
 king of Assyria, carried away captive their last king, Hoshea, 
 and with him, having taken the city of Samaria itself after three 
 years' siege, all the ten tribes, and then dispersed them over 
 Media to prevent their revolting. Some years after that, 
 Esarhaddon, the nephew of Shalmaneser, — who is also called 
 Asnappar the great and noble by Ezra, as also Asbazareth, Ezra 
 iv. 10 ; 3 Esd. xv. 69 : by Ptolemy Assaradin, and by Josephus 
 Asseradoch, the youngest son of Sennacherib, who succeeded his 
 father, slain by his eldest sons,-^gathered a confused multitude of 
 inhabitants together out of the provinces of the Cuthaeans, Baby- 
 lonians, Hamathaeans, Sepharvaimites, and Chavaeans, and sent 
 them to re-people the country which his grandfather had emptied of 
 the Israelites, to possess henceforth Samaria as their own inherit- 
 ance, and dwell in the cities thereof, 2 Kings xvii. 24; Ezra iv. 2, 
 10 ; 3 Esd. XV. 69. These new inhabitants were by the Greeks 
 called Samarites, not because the Assyrians in their language call 
 keepers or guardians Samarites, as aflSrms Sulpitius Severus; 
 but because they inhabited Samaria ; and Cuthaeans by the 
 Hebrews, because the chiefest part of them came out of Cuth, a 
 pirovincB of Persia, so called from the river Cuthah upon which it 
 
12 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. I. 
 
 borders, as Josephus testifies.' These Cuthjeans, when they first 
 inhabited Samaria, did not worship the God of Israel, but each of 
 them adored the idols of his own country ; but many of them 
 having been therefore destroyed by lions, Esarhaddon took care to 
 send to the remnant one of the priests which his grandfather 
 Shalmaneser had carried away captive. This priest residing at 
 Bethel taught the inhabitants the worship of God, after the 
 manner of Jeroboam. Of the Samaritans thus, adoring their 
 ancient idols, together with their new calf, it is said, 2 Kings xvii. 
 25, 33, 41 : They feared the Lord, and they feared not the Lord] 
 there being a small difference between adoring many gods and no 
 god at all. They had a temple built them at lengh by Sanballat, 
 upon Mount Gerizim, where the blessings were pronounced, 
 Deut. xi. 29, in imitation of the temple of Jerusalem, which 
 temple, Hircan, the high priest of the Jews, afterwards destroyed, 
 two hundred years after it had been built, as Josephtis reports.'' 
 However, though the temple was destroyed, the Samaritans con- 
 tinued their divine worship upon the same mountain still, John 
 iv. 20 : having, not by any scripture rule, as the Jews had for 
 worshipping upon Mount Sion, but by the example of the 
 patriarchs, designed that place for the public worship of God, 
 Gen. xii. 6, 7 ; xxxiii. 18, 20. Thus Abraham and Jacob are said to 
 have built an altar near to Sichem, threescore furlongs distant from 
 the city of Samaria, Judg. ix. 7. But seeing that the Mount Gerizim 
 overlooked Sichem,^ and that the patriarchs made choice of moun- 
 tains for the building of altars, it is probably conjectured that 
 the patriarchs Abraham and Jacob did rear an altar to God 
 upon Mount Gerizim, Gen. xxii. 2 ; 2 Sam. xxiv. 18 ; 2 Chron. i. 
 3. " Now," says Thomas de Pinedo, the Portuguese, " The 
 Saniaritans only believed the Pentateuch of the omniscient Moses, 
 and thence arose the hatred between them and the Hebrews. 
 For, as sin entered the world by the law, so hatred invades par- 
 ticular societies through diversity of religion, with which distemper, 
 men of obscure birth and illiterate, labour ; the noble and learned 
 hate the vices, not the men, because they follow this or that 
 religion. Whence it was, that the Samaritans traduced the high ~ 
 priest Eli as a magician, for that he translated the sacrifices and 
 the worship of God, out of a schismatical boldness, to Shiloh, con- 
 trary to the command of God. They also condemned Samuel the 
 
 ' Antiq. lib. ix. cap. U. ' Ibid. lib. xiii. cap. 17. ° Ibid. lib. xi. cap.'s. 
 
VEH. VIU.] LITERAIXY EXPLAINED. 13 
 
 j)rophet for a magician, as appears by the Samaritan Chronicles ; 
 the epitome of which is set forth by Hottinger in his Antimorinian 
 Exercitations upon the Samaritan Pentateuch. ' Nor were the 
 Jews behindhand with the Samaritans. For Aben Ezra, the most 
 learned of the Hebrews, upon the book of^sther: 'The Cuthasans,' 
 saith he, ' instead of those words of Genesis, In the beginning God 
 created, have put. In the beginning Asima created, which Asima 
 was an idol in the shape of a goat.' Benjamin Tudelensis, in his 
 Itinerary reports, that the Samaritans wanted the three Hebrew 
 guttural letters, he, cheth, and ain; both which are false, for that 
 neither are those guttural letters wanting in any of the Samaritan 
 Pentateuchs. Neither was Asima, but Nergal, the idol of the 
 Cuthseans, of whom consisted the greatest number of the 
 Samaritans," 2 Kings xvii. 30. Many other such stories the 
 Jews invented, in hatred of the Samaritans ; as how they wor- 
 shipped a dove, and were circumcised in veneration of that 
 creature ; and that they worshipped the images that were brought 
 by Jacob out of Assyria, and lay buried behind Shechem, under 
 a turpentine tree. To this, the learned Pinedo, " I make no 
 doubt," saith he, " but that they worshipped the image of a dove, 
 in regard they were subject to the empire of the Assyrians : for 
 that the kings of Assyria always bare in their ensigns the figure 
 of a dove, ever since the reign of Semiramis. To which Jeremiah 
 alludes, ch. xxv. 38, where, 'from the face of the anger of the 
 dove,' ^ is no more than from the face of the anger of the kings of 
 Assyria ; in regard the kings of Assyria carry the figure of a 
 dove in their standards, as now the kings of Spain and the 
 emperor bear the lion and the eagle." But the Samarites abolished 
 all worship of idols from the time that Sanballat built them a 
 temple upon Mount Gerizim, after leave obtained from Alexander 
 the Great, and made Manasseh, his son-in-law, and brother of 
 Jaddi, the .first high-priest, to officiate therein. And whereas 
 Epiphanius aflSrms, that the Samarites celebrated the feast of 
 Pentecost, and the paschal feast in Autumn, so Scaliger asserts it 
 to be untrue. But this is certain, that when the Jews lived in 
 prosperity, the Samaritans affirmed themselves to be Jews, de- 
 
 I'Cap. 4]. 
 
 ' [Authorized version, Because of the fierceness of the oppressor, pifi ''JBTp 
 
 nji'n. Gesenius translates this, the anger of the oppressive sword, i^Jn'tl is found 
 translated dooe in Gen. viii. 8, and Lev. v. 7. 
 
14 THE ACTS OP THE HOLT APOSTLES [cHAP. I. 
 
 scended from the grandchildren of Joseph, Epbraim, and Manasseh; 
 but when the Jews were in adversity, then they would neither 
 acknowledge themselves to be Jews, nor to be allied to them by 
 any tie of blood or relation whatsoever. 
 
 And unto the uttermost part of the earth. To the intent that the 
 doctrine of salvation might be published to all the corners of the 
 world. Thus was fulfilled that prophecy of Isaiah, ch. xlix. 6, with 
 others of the same nature, that Christ was given as a light to the 
 Gentiles, and to be the salvation of God unto the ends of the earth. 
 
 9. And when he had spoken these things. Supply out of Luke 
 xxiv. 50, 51. He led out his apostles as far as Bethany, a village 
 belonging to Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, about 
 fifteen furlongs from Jerusalem, John xi. 18, and stretching forth 
 his supplicating hands, he blessed them. The ceremony of benedic- 
 tion, saith Grotius,"^ was wont to. be solemnized with the imposition 
 of hands, as we find by the story of Isaac and Jacob, Gen. xxvii. 4, 
 7, 12, 19, 21, 22; xlviii. 9, 14, 15, &c. But when the blessing 
 was to be given to many, then, for the quicker despatch, only the 
 stretching forth, or lifting up of the hands, was used toward them 
 that were to be blessed : thus Aaron lifted up his hand toward the 
 people, and blessed them. Lev. ix. 22; that is, prayed for their 
 prosperity and success. 
 
 While they beheld. He did not disappear, nor become invisible, 
 privately or remote from company, as Luke xxiv. 31, but by 
 degrees; while the disciples beheld the action, he was by the 
 Divine power raised, or drawn up to a cloud, which soon received 
 him, and conveyed him out of their sight. But as Christ after his 
 resurrection would not be promiscuously seen by. all, so did he not 
 admit every one to be witnesses of his ascension, as designing that 
 mystery of faith to be rather known by the preaching of the 
 gospel than by ocular testimony. " This shows the vigour of 
 great -minds," saith Leo,^ " this the true light of faithful souls, 
 undoubtedly to believe what they do not behold with the corporeal 
 eye, and there to fix their desire where they cannot reach with 
 tlieir most piercing sight. Which piety, how should it breed in 
 our hearts, should our salvation consist only in those things which 
 are obvious to the sense ?" Thus St. Austin,' " The faith of those 
 who will see God, while they are in their pilgrimage and cleaning 
 
 ' Upon Luke xxiv. SO. ' Serm. 2, de Ascens. ^ Tract 68, in Johan. 
 
VER. IX. J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 15 
 
 their hearts, believes what it sees not. The merit accrues by- 
 believing ; the reward is seeing afterwards. Let the Lord go and 
 prepare a place. Let him go, that he may not be seen ; let him 
 be concealed, that he may be believed : for then the place will be 
 prepared, when our life is according to faith. Let us desire him 
 in whom we believe, that being desired he may be enjoyed. The 
 desire out of love is the preparation of the mansion." 
 
 He was lifted up. Supply out of Luke xxiv. 51, While he blessed 
 them. Thus Plautus uses the word, " Take this stone," saith he, 
 " and lift it up." Sulpitius Severus hath these words :' " This is 
 wonderful," saith he, " that the place whereon Christ set his last 
 footsteps, when he was taken up in a cloud into heaven, should 
 still continue marked out, and could not be paved with the rest of 
 the place about it. For whatsoever else was applied, the earth 
 disdaining human workmanship, refused, while the stones flew in 
 the faces of them that attempted it. Yea, it is such a lasting 
 monument of the dust being trampled by Divine feet, that the 
 impression of the footsteps still remains. And though the multi- 
 tude of believers every day carry away some parcels of the place 
 where our Lord set his feet, yet the sand is not diminished, and 
 the earth that received the mark of the footsteps Still preserves the 
 same form." That men have endeavoured in vain from time to 
 time to cover or pave the place still preserving the footsteps of 
 our Lord, Pseudo- Jerome,^ Paulinus,^ and Bede,* have delivered in 
 their writings. But in regard there is no mention made of any 
 such miracle either by Eusebius, Socrates, Theodoret, Sozomen, 
 or Nicephorus, we may thence conjecture the liberty which former 
 ages took to frame little stories of their own, merely to impose 
 upon the ignorant people. Neither do the mythologists agree in 
 this fable. For Baronius,^ following Burchardus, will have these 
 footsteps imprinted in stone, Paulinus in the green turf, Sulpitius 
 Severus in dust or sand, Pseudo-Jerome and Bede upon the 
 ground in the earth itself. Which of these must we believe ? Cer- 
 tainly none of them. Nor does Pseudo-Jerome affirm that he 
 ever saw these imprinted footsteps, but only says, "as is reported." 
 But one eye-witness is better than ten heSr-say testimonies. 
 Hornius believes this fable arose from the words of Eusebius 
 misunderstood. For he, speaking of Helena's arrival in Judea,^ 
 
 ' Lib. ii. Hist. Sac. ' Lib.- de Loc. Act. ApoBt. ' In Ep. ad Sever. 
 
 * De Loc. Sanct. cap. 7. ' A.D. 34, 11. 232. " Lib. iii. de Vit. Const, cap. 41. 
 
16 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. I. 
 
 " Then," saith he, " she gave decent reverence to the places where 
 the steps of our Saviour had trod." Which was not spoken 
 particularly of Mount Olivet, but in general of all Judea, " where 
 Christ as man was born, where he set his sacred footsteps, where 
 walked his adorable feet, where so many and so great miracles 
 were wrought by him."' 
 
 A cloud received him out of their sight. Not that the cloud, 
 which having received Christ took him from the sight of the 
 apostles, was to him any assistance in his ascension ; for a cloud is 
 no solid body that can afford any such help. Besides, the highest 
 clouds do not rise above a mile or two above the earth, being 
 only nourished by the exhalations of the land and water ; but it 
 was for state and grandeur. Thus it is said of God himself. Who 
 maketh the clouds his chariot, Ps. civ. 3. And that other. He 
 maheth darkness his secret place, Ps. xviii. 11. For obscurity and 
 gloominess get devotion and reverence to sacred things. 
 
 10. And while they looked. That is, with more eager eyes and 
 diligent marking. 
 
 As he went up. That is, into heaven, as appears by the follow- 
 ing verse. 
 
 Behold two men. That is to say, angels in human shape. 
 
 In white apparel. White, of all colours, is the most pure and 
 spotless ; it admits no defilement, and borrows nothing from any 
 other mixture ; therefore it is the most proper emblem of candour 
 of mind, justice, and sanctity. Thus the angels both here and in 
 other places, as also the martyrs, and all the saints in heaven, 
 where there is nothing of contamination to be found, are said to be 
 clothed in white garments. Matt, xxviii. 3 ; Mark xvi. 5 ; John xx. 12 ; 
 Kev. iii. 4, 5 ; iv. 4, 6, 11 ; vii. 3, 13. "And indeed," saith the most 
 learned Braunius,* " the Hebrews themselves confessed that white 
 was the symbol of cleanness and sanctity, and consequently of justice 
 and integrity. For whoever among the priests was polluted by the 
 law, was bound immediately to put off his white garments, as being 
 unworthy to wear them, and after he had put on black to depart 
 out of the temple. To which that of St. John seems to have 
 relation, where he says. They who have not defiled tlieir garments 
 shall walk in white, because they are worthy, Rev. iii. 4. And for 
 that reason the white colour in the garments of the high priest 
 signified the innocency, justice, and sanctity of Christ. Therefore 
 
 ' Optat. Milevit. lib. vi. contra Parmen. ' Lib. ii. de Vest. Sac. Heb. cap. 26. n. 34. 
 
VER. XI.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 17 
 
 white linen is called the righteousness of the saints, Rev. xix. 8. 
 And though the holy garments were mixed with scarlet and 
 purple, yet there was also a mixture of white, and some of the 
 garments were white altogether. So that although Christ were 
 laden with our sins, which were signified by the scarlet' colour, 
 Isa. i. 18, and sprinkled for our sins with blood, which was 
 signified by the purple, yet was he most holy and just. 
 
 11. Ye men of Galilee. The disciples of Christ are called 
 Galileans as being natives of Galilee; though all the Christians 
 were generally so called by the Jews and ethnics, as we have 
 observed upon these words of St. Matthew, into the parts of 
 Galilee, Matt. ii. 22. Julian the apostate in an epistle saith, 
 " That the religion of the Galileans increased by their kindness to 
 strangers." 
 
 Wh;/ stand ye gazing up into heanen ? That is. In vain do ye 
 now expect the return of Christ with your eyes fixed upon 
 heaven. Saith St. Austin,* "The aagels by those words. Why 
 stand ye gazing up into heaven ? what did they mean else but to 
 infer. That it was impossible for human eyes to penetrate into that 
 secret place whither Christ went, when he was carried up to 
 heaven in the sight of his disciples ? " 
 
 This same Jesus, &c. The particle, this same, is emphatical, and 
 denotes that the angels pointed with their fingers towards the 
 Lord Jesus. " Cease therefore to doubt," saith St. Austin," " that 
 the man Christ Jesus is now there, from whence he shall come ; 
 but diligently get by heart, and faithfully retain the Christian 
 confession, that Christ rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, 
 sits at the right hand of the Father, and that he shall come from 
 thence, and from no other place, to judge the quick and the dead. 
 And so shall he come, according to the testimony of that angelic 
 voice, as he was seen to ascend into heaven ; that is, in the same 
 form and substance of the flesh, to which he gave immortality, 
 but took away nothing of its nature. Yet he is not to be thought 
 to be everywhere diffused, according to that form. For we must 
 be careful that we do not so uphold the divinity of this Man, as to 
 take away the reality of his body. For it Is not consequential, 
 that what is in God should be everywhere as God. For the most 
 true scripture speaks also of us, that we live, move, and have our 
 being in God, yet are we not everywhere as he is; but man is after 
 
 • Lib. ii.. Quest. Evang. 38, n. 9. ' Ep. 187, alias 57, ad Dardan. n. 10. 
 
 C 
 
18 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP., I. 
 
 another manner in God, and God is after another manner in man, 
 after a manner both singular and proper. For God and man is 
 one person, and one Christ Jesus is both. Everywhere as he is 
 God, but only in heaven as he is man." " Again," as Leo well 
 observes,! " The ascension of Christ is our advancement, and 
 whither the glory of the head is gone before, thither also is the 
 hope of the body called." 
 
 12. Then. That is to say, when the majesty of Christ was 
 apparently known, the apostles adored him as the King of glory, 
 and Judge of the world, and he being adored, as appears out of 
 Luke xxiv. 52, they return to Jerusalem, rejoicing in their hearts, 
 as now having attained to understand that wonderful mean by 
 which the redemption of mankind was procured, and full of ex- 
 pectation of the descent of the Holy Ghost from heaven upon 
 them, now approaching and at hand. 
 
 From, the mount called Olivet. That is, from the farther side of 
 Mount Olivet, to which the village of Bethany adjoined, distant 
 from Jerusalem about fifteen furlongs, John ii. 18. Whereas the 
 beginning or foot of the mount was distant not above a sabbath 
 day's journey, or five furlongs, as we find in Josephus.^ Moreover, 
 lest we should extend the length or latitude of Mount Olivet too 
 far, the most famous Ludovicus de Dieu gives us this caution, that 
 St. John may be understood [as speaking] of the Jewish furlongs, 
 whereas Jogephus is to be understood of the Grecian furlongs. 
 " And so," saith he " Bethany, situated in the farther side of this 
 mountain, will be no farther distant from the foot of the mountain 
 than the foot of the same mountain from Jerusalem. For since 
 five Grecian furlongs make seven Jewish furlongs and a half, that 
 number doubled will make fifteen Jewish, or ten Grecian furlongs, 
 which make, exactiy two Jewish miles, or a double sabbath-day « 
 journey. In which sense may be taken that of St. Jerome.* 
 " Bethany, a town two miles from JElia, upon the side of Mount 
 Olivet." Now^ Bethany did not join close to Mount Olivet, but 
 were seated beyond it^ as Adrichomius will have it, or some 
 furlongs distant from it, as it is in the Jewish map set forth by 
 the Jews at Amsterdam, then the words were to be translated : 
 « and they returned by Mount Olivet;" and from the mount seems 
 to denote that the mountain Olivet lay between the fields of 
 Bethany whither Christ carried his disciples, being [about] to 
 
 » Serm . 1, de Ascens. = Antiq. lib. xx., i;. 6. » be loo. Heb.' 
 
VEB. XII.J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 19 
 
 ascend into heaven, and the city of Jerusalem, which they were of 
 necessity to pass over before they could come to Jerusalem. "As 
 Bethany," says De Dieu, " is said in the Greek text to have been 
 near to Jerusalem from almost fifteen furlongs, John xi. 18, the 
 from signifies the fifteen furlongs lying between, which are of 
 necessity to be passed over from Bethany to Jerusalem. Thus 
 Rev. xiv. 20: And the bhod came out of the wine-press unto the 
 horse-bridles, from the space of a thousand six hundred furlongs. 
 The vulgar translation rendering the adverb from, per or by, a 
 thousand six hundred furlongs ; and that rightly, for from sig- 
 nifies the adjoining space lying between. Thug, Acts xiv. 24, 
 They coming from Perga, the vulgar version translates, They 
 coming by Perga. Whence it would follow that Christ did not 
 ascend into heaven from Mount Olivet, which nevertheless St. 
 Jerome frequently affirms, and which has always hitherto been 
 believed, as conjectured from Acts i. 12, where however Luke 
 does not aver it, but from the fields of Bethany, which the gospel 
 sufficiently declares, Luke xxiv. 50, 51 ; from which fields of 
 Bethany the apostles went to Mount Olivet, and took the shortest 
 way over that hill to Jerusalem." 
 
 Which is a sabbath-day's journey. That is, the space between 
 the city and the foot of the hill, was a sabbath-day's journey. See 
 our literal explication upon Matt. xxiv. 20. Says the lately com- 
 mended De Dieu : " The learned easily reconcile this diflference 
 with Josephus, asserting the mountain to be five furlongs distant 
 from the city. For a sabbath-day's journey consisted of two 
 thousand cubits, which extent of ground the Hebrews called a 
 mile, as is manifest out of their writings. But a furlong among 
 the Greeks contained a hundred paces, a pace six foot, or four 
 cubits, as appears from the words of Herodotus,' a hundred just 
 paces are one furlong of six acres, but a pace is the measure of 
 six foot, or four cubits. One foot contains the breadth of four 
 hands, and a cubit six hands breadth. Thus far Herodotus. You 
 see he measures the cubit to be a foot and a half. Therefore six 
 hundred foot, which made a furlong, amount to fbur hundred 
 cubits ; and, consequently, five furlongs two thousand cubits. But 
 how this agrees with the Syrian interpreter, who will have a 
 sabbath-day's journey to be about seven furlongs, the learned do not 
 80 easily resolve. For our parts we affirm, that the Syrian spake 
 
 1 Lib. ii. 
 C 2 
 
20 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. I. 
 
 not of the Grecian, but the Hebrew furlongs, of which seven and a 
 half make a mile, or sabbath-day's journey. See Baal Aruch upon 
 the word D"il, rus. See the Jewish Map set forth at Amsterdam 5 
 ■«vhere seven furlongs and a half make a Hebrew short mile ; and 
 four short miles a long one called Parsa. 
 
 13. And when they xoere come in. That is, into the city of 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 Tliei/ went into an upper room. The Greek has it, "into the 
 upper part of the house." But whose house this was • is a thing 
 very much controverted among the learned. Nicephorus, out of 
 one Euodius,' affirms it to have been the house of St. John the 
 Evangelist, the son of Zebedeus. Baronius and Bede assert it to 
 have been the house of that Mary who was the mother of John, 
 surnamed Mark, of whom Luke makes mention in some chapters 
 lower, Theophylact^ believes it to have been the house of Simon 
 the leper. Others will have it to have been the house of 
 Nicodemus, or Joseph of Arimathea. For my part I am apt to 
 believe, that this house was the temple of Jerusalem itself, 
 according to the testimony of Luke himself in his gospel: And 
 they returned to Jerusalem with great joy ; and were continually in 
 the temple, praising andblessing God, ch. xxiv. 52, 53. Observe, that 
 it is there said, " they were there continually," which is here said, 
 they were " remaining together," which being the same in signi- 
 fication, you shall never reconcile the two places if they remained 
 in any other place than the temple. " Neither is this opinion 
 obstructed," saith the famous Lewis de Dieu, " by this, that they 
 are said to have ascended into an upper room, or according to the 
 Syrian interpreter, into a dining room ; for that the temple had 
 several upper rooms built round about the outside of it is apparent 
 from the 1st of Chron. xxviii. II, and 2 Chron. iii. 9. As also 
 chambers and apartments, such as was the chamber of Gemariah, 
 where Baruch read the book of Jeremiah in the liouse of the Lord, 
 Jer. xxxvi. 10. " And Baruch read in the book the words of 
 Jeremiah in the house of the Lord, in the house of Gemariah," 
 according to the Septuagint ; where we are also to observe that 
 the temple is not only called a house, but also that the chamber is 
 also translated a house, both there and ver. 12, 20, 21, as like- 
 wise ch. XXXV. 4, just as the upper chamber where the apostles 
 were, Acts i. 13, is called a house, Acts ii. 2 ; for those chambers 
 
 ' Lib. i. Hiat. c. 28. a.d. 34, n. 236. " In Matt. xxvi. 
 
VER. XIII.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 21 
 
 and dining-rooms served not only for the keepers and ministers of 
 the temple, the priests and Levites, and for the preservation of the 
 holy -things, but also for the assembling of devout people to attend 
 to religious exercises. Hence it was that Baruch read the book of 
 Jeremiah in the chamber of Gemariah. In such a chamber it is 
 probable that the devout women met, and were defiled by the sons 
 of Eli, who are said to have had their lodgings at the door of the 
 tabernacle, 1 Sam. ii. 22. Some such place had Anna the pro- 
 phetess to stay in, who departed not from the temple, hut served 
 God with fastings and prayers night and day, Luke ii. 37. Nor is 
 it to be questioned but that the apostles chose to themselves such 
 a place, while they are said to have been continually in ike temple 
 praising and blessing God, Luke xxiv. 53. St. Luke describes 
 the place, that is to say, that it was an upper room where they 
 remained together, and continued with one accord in prayer and 
 supplication, Acts i. 13. And this adds much to the lustre of that 
 illustrious descent of the Holy Ghost upon the apostles, whereof 
 in the following chapter, if we agree it to have fallen out in the 
 temple, where formerly the majestical shadow of God inhabited, 
 but was withdrawn ever since the Babylonish captivity and the 
 loss of the ark ; to the end that laying aside that allegorical type 
 of God's presence, they might aspire to the enjoyment of that real 
 presence which God was shortly to -impart to them, in that very 
 place where his presence was only figuratively represented before ; 
 and as the cloud is said to have filled the house, by Solomon 
 dedicated and consecrated, 1 Kings viii. 10 ; so the wind of the 
 Holy Ghost filled the same house, Acts ii. 2, not that from thence- 
 forward they should remain fixed to that house, but that being 
 driven by the same wind, they might fill the whole world with the 
 gales of evangelic grace; and thus the law went truly out of 
 Sion. Wherefore Erasmus' places this upper room in Mount 
 SIoD. For comparing this place with that where the law was 
 given of old, " in both," saith he, " there is height of place ; but 
 in this there is nothing but a mountain, which the people also are 
 forbid to approach, that is, the dull and earthly, not capable of 
 spiritual things ; here there is a house upon the mountain itself, to 
 let thee understand the concord of the church. There was Mount 
 Sinai proper for the promulgation of the law, which by the multi- 
 tude of its precepts curbs a rebellious people ; for it is called Sinai 
 
 ' PHraph. ad Act. ii. 
 
22 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. I. 
 
 from precept. Here is Mount Sion, which in the Hebrew lan- 
 guage signifies a watch-tower, from whence all earthly things are 
 looked on with disdain. Neither does it make against where it is 
 said that the wind filled the house, and not the temple. For it is 
 known that the temple of Solomon was called the first house, and 
 the temple of Zerubbabel the second house. To all this we may add 
 that noted place : And I will fill this house with glory. The glory of 
 the latter house shall be greater than of the former, Hag. ii. 7, 9. Which 
 prophecy was fulfilled upon the feast of Pentecost, when the Holy 
 Spirit, with which the first temple was adorned, but of which the 
 second temple was deprived, according to the confession of the 
 Hebrews, as also of the ark, the Urim and Thummim, the perpetual 
 fire, and the typical presence of the Divine Majesty, filled that 
 temple with the sacred blast, and the apostles with those gifts, 
 which struck all nations into admiration. So that from that time 
 the Holy Spirit alone supplied the absence of the ark, the Urim 
 and Thummim, and the perpetual fire ; and, converting type into 
 verity, granted to us the majesty of God everywhere present with 
 his church." 
 
 Abode. In the Greek, " were remaining," or " did remain to- 
 gether." 
 
 Peter, &c. See our explication upon Matt. x. 2, 3. 
 
 James. Supply, " the son of Alpheus." This Alpheus is thought 
 to be called Cleophas, or Cleopas. For that she who is called 
 Mary the mother of James the lesser, and Joses, is called Mary 
 the wife of Cleopas, or Cleophas, Luke xxiv. 18 ; Mark xv. 40 \ 
 (Tohn xix. 25. 
 
 And Judas. Supply, "the brother of James," as he calls himself 
 in his own Epistle General. This person, that he might be the 
 more truly distinguished from Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, is 
 by St. Matthew surnamed Thaddeus ; and from Lebba, a sea town 
 of Galilee, of which Pliny' makes mention, called also Lebbeus, as 
 Lightfoot conjectures in his Hebraic Hours upon Matt. x. 3; John 
 xii. 4. Although in the Hackian edition of Pliny, in the place cited 
 by Lightfoot, the town is not called Lebba, but Jebba. 
 
 14. These all continued with one accord in prayer. This St. Luke 
 expresses by other words in his Gospel, ch. xxiv. 53j And they 
 were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. The words, 
 with one accord, denote, that they did not only agree with hearts 
 
 ' Lib. V. cap* 1 9. 
 
VER. XV. J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 23 
 
 and minds among themselves, and cohabit together without strife 
 or contention, but also acted and desired the same thing, chiefly in 
 matters of religion, and more particularly in the duty of prayer. 
 
 In prayer. According to the Greek, " in prayer and supplica- 
 tion." This St. Luke in his Gospel, ch. xxlv. 53, expresses in 
 these \iovdiS, praising and blessing God. Thus St. Paul makes prayer, 
 blessing, and giving thanks, to be all one, 1 Cor. xiv. 4, &c. Thus 
 supplication seems also to be taken for giving thanks, Phil. i. 4. 
 Nevertheless, sometimes supplication is distinguished from prayer, 
 and then it is taken for deprecation, or prayer to remove or repel 
 some evil. Hence Junius upon this place : " The disciples," saith 
 he, "besought as well the sending of the Holy Ghost, as to 
 be freed from all the present evils with which they were encom- 
 passed." 
 
 With the women. Meaning those women of whom mention is 
 made. Matt, xxvii, 55, and with them the wives of the apostles. 
 " For," saith the famous Beza, " As it is well observed by others, 
 it was requisite that the wives of the apostles should be confirmed, 
 whom it behoved either to be the companions of their travels, or 
 patiently at home to endure their absen6e." An ancient book of 
 mine adds also, "and with their children." 
 
 And Mary the mother of Jesus. Mary is exempted from the com- 
 mon sort of women, as the most excellent of women. According 
 to this phrase, David, in the title of the 18th Psalm, is said to be 
 delivered out of the hand of his enemies, and out of the hand of 
 Saul, as being the most potent of his adversaries. And in the 
 Hebrew bibles, reches, a most excellent sort of horses, is particu- 
 larly distinguished from other horses in general : And they brought 
 forth barley and straw for the horses and the reches, I Kings iv. 28.' 
 
 15. In those days. That is, when the apostles and the rest of the 
 disciples abode together, expecting the coming of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Peter standing up. To whom the priority of degree was given, 
 in regard of his seniority, according to St. Jerome, Cassian, and 
 several others of the fathers. 
 
 The number of men. Some ancient Latin exemplars, together with 
 the Greek, read names, as it is in the English version. But by 
 names is to be understood men. Thus the name of Christ is taken 
 for Christ himself, ch, iv. 12. The name of God is used for God 
 
 ' [Authorized version, Barley also and US^'J^T ; translated by Gesenius, a swift 
 straw for the horses and dromedaries, Aorse, one of a peculiar and noble breed.] 
 
24 ' THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. I. 
 
 himself, Psa. xx. 1, and in other places. Thus in Cicero pro Archia : 
 " Thou demandest of us, why we are so delighted with this name," 
 i. e. this man. TibuUus : " Nor is woman a faithful name." 
 
 Near a hundred and twenty. So that there were present at this 
 most noble and holy college, besides the eleven apostles and seventy 
 disciples, thirty-seven others, who, together with them, made up 
 the number of a hundred and twenty. 
 
 16. The scripture must needs have been fulfilled. That is, according 
 to the interpretation of Christ, from whose lips all the disciples, who 
 were then present, had a little before understood the mystical sense 
 intended by the Holy Ghost from the mouth of David, when he 
 interpreted the scriptures after his resurrection, Luke xxiv. 44,45. 
 
 Concerning Judas. The rival in wickedness with the impious 
 enemies of David. 
 
 Who. In the malice of his heart. 
 
 Was guide to them. Those bloody murderers, of whom, John 
 xviii. 3. 
 
 17. Who, &c. In the Greek, "because," instead of the adversa- 
 tive particle, " although." As if he had said. Who, seduced by the 
 devil, soared to that height of impiety, that he most shamefully be- 
 trayed the Lord Christ, although among many other benefits he 
 also attained this, to be enrolled into our number and apostolic 
 college. 
 
 Lot. That is, ministry or function. That lot is taken for 
 office or employment, is apparent out of Livy and the lexicon 
 writers; kleros in Greek, and sors in Latin. Lot is said in the 
 first place to be any thing cast into a little vessel, and then drawn 
 forth again. In the next place, the same words are taken for that 
 portion or property which is gained by the lot cast. Lastly, they 
 are taken in a diffusive sense for that proportion of anything which 
 falls to any man by the allotment or appointment of any one, or 
 by any other accident, " and it is said not only of hereditary goods, 
 whether they be obtained by gift, or labour, but also of offices 
 or functions, aa here," says Brenius. Ver. 26 ; Prov. xvi. 33 ; Deut. 
 iii. 6. Moreover, the word kleros is by long use made proper to 
 those who are in the ecclesiastical ministry. However, in scripture 
 the pastors of the church are never, the flocks but once charactered 
 under this title, 1 Pet. v. 3, where Peter the apostle, joining him- 
 self to the presbyters as a fellow presbyter, admonishes them not 
 to domineer over the lots. " By lots," saith the forementioned 
 
VER. XVIIl.J LITEEALLY EXPLAINED. 25 
 
 Daniel BreniuSj upon this place of St. Peter, « he understands the 
 assemblies of the faithful con^egated out of the Jews and Gen- 
 tiles, to whom, through Christ, their lot is fallen among the people 
 of God, who being his peculiar, and not the property of the bishops, 
 they are therefore to act not according to their will and pleasure, 
 but according as they are prescribed. Allusion being made to the 
 allotments of the tribes, who had their divisions in the land of 
 Canaan by lots ; but chiefly for this reason, that Israel is said to be 
 the portion and inheritance of God." 
 
 Of this ministry. In the Greek, "of this deaconry." Deaconry 
 signifies the exercise of any office or function ; but below, ver. 25, 
 where the word " apostleship" is added, there it is restrained only to 
 the apostolic function. 
 
 18. And this man possessed a field. Not as his own possession, 
 but as an eternal monument of infamy. For still the people cried, 
 as they passed by, This is the field bought with the thirty pieces 
 of silver, which Judas took as the price and hire of his detestable 
 treason. And it may probably be conjectured, that Judas himself 
 was buried in that field appointed for the interment of strangers ; 
 for so the sense of the words. And this man possessed a field with 
 the hire of iniquity, will be the same as if we should say: And this 
 man out of his covetousness of shameful gain delivered the Author 
 of salvation into the hands of the Jews, and, suddenly snatched 
 away by a severe death, got nothing by such a detestable and inhu- 
 man crime, but a small pittance of earth for the burial of his body 
 in that field, which the priests jointly bought with the restored 
 hire which they had given to Judas. For Luke, as Heinsius notes, 
 ■ did not say, " he possessed the little field," in reference to the whole 
 field, but " a little field," that is, he possessed a little part of the 
 field. For when he comes to speak of the whole field, or the field 
 itself, he does not only say, « the little field," but " that little field." 
 " What then," says Heinsius, " means that word, a little field ? A 
 part of the earth, or place sufficient to contain the body of the 
 dead." 
 
 And being hanged. In the Greek, " and being headlong :" " For 
 the Greek word," saith Leigh, in his Sacred Critics, " does not 
 properly signify hanged, but prone, headlong, and with head down- 
 ward, and signifies the posture of a person suffocated with a halter, 
 with the face hanging toward the earth, as Erasmus observes." 
 Others render the Greek, " and being cast down headlong," or as 
 
26 THE ACTS' OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. I. 
 
 the common English translation hath, " and falling headlong." But 
 that this version may be reconciled with that of Matthew, saying. 
 And departing, he went and hanged himself, ch. xxxvii. 5, as the 
 ancient Latin interpreter renders the Greek words, some turn it 
 thus, " And departing, he was consumed with anguish of mind." 
 For the Greek word used there, if we may credit Heinsius, Grotius, 
 and Brenius, " is to be tormented with grief and sadness, and stop- 
 page of the breath, whether the person die of those torments or 
 no." So that Matthew does not speak of the death of Judas, 
 which happened after the same manner here by St. Luke related, 
 but of the unsupportable torment of an exulcerated conscience; 
 which Chrysostom calls,^ " to be strangled with conscience," that 
 is, to be oppressed with the guilt of his crimes. Lightfoot- renders 
 the Greek word in St. Matthew, " he was strangled." And so he 
 believes the death of Judas happened. " For now," says he, " after 
 he had thrown back the price of his treason, when Judas was de- 
 parted with an intention to return to his own family, the devil, 
 who dwelt in him, snatching him up into the air, strangled him, 
 and threw him down headlong, so that dashing against the earth, 
 he burst in two in the middle, his guts tumbling forth, after which 
 horrible exit the devil left him." But whereas the most ancient 
 author of the Epistle to the Philippians under the name of Ignatius 
 the martyr, ascertains hanging to be the death of Judas; and 
 Juvencus affirms that he hanged himself upon a fig-tree;' and 
 Bede testifies that the same was to be seen in his time near Jerusa- 
 lem : the Vulgar Latin version of St. Matthew seems to be preferred 
 before the rest, which, though it seems to vary something from the 
 relation of Peter concerning his casting down headlong, yet does it 
 carry no contradiction to it. Matthew gives an account of the 
 beginning of the action, Peter of the end, -supplying by divine 
 inspiration what was wanting in the relation of Matthew. Judas 
 fits the halter to his neck, and springs downward with the greater 
 violence, to the end he might the sooner choke himself. But that 
 the vengeance of God might more eminently appear in the horrid 
 and immature death of the infamous traitor, by an unexpected 
 accident the rope broke, so that Judas fell headlong upon some 
 craggy stone, or sharp pointed stump of a tree, so that his bursten 
 belly let forth all his bowels. Thus Casaubon. Concerning the 
 ten thousand Idumeans thrown headlong by the Jews from a rock, 
 
 ' Horn. 22, ad Antiochen. ' De locis Sanctis. 
 
VER. XX.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 27 
 
 who all of them burst their bowels, the story still is extant, 2 
 Chron. xxv. 12. Papias, who, as Eusebius declares, was a writer 
 of little worth, and one that feigned trifles from false interpreta- 
 tion, confounding the Greek word signifying "headlong," with 
 another Greek word signifying " swollen up," and thence erecting 
 his own dreams, relates that the body of Judas was swelled to that 
 immensity, that so much ground as was sufficient to drive a cart 
 through could not contain it; and that thereupon the cart went over 
 him and squeezed out his bowels. In like manner the authors of 
 another fable, when they read that Judas possessed or purchased a 
 field with the hire of iniquity, affirmed that the same field, in regard 
 that Judas died in it, by reason of the horrid stench which he left 
 behind, remained barren and untilled. 
 
 19. And it was known to all the dwellers at Jerusalem. That is to 
 say, that horrid sort of death, which ended ,the ignominious life of 
 the sacrilegious betrayer of Christ. 
 
 Insomuch that field is called. That is to say, that field which was 
 purchased with the hire of treachery, and infamous for the burial 
 and perhaps the death of the traitor. For many are persuaded 
 that Judas deservedly perished in that field ; and that by this event 
 the priests were the rather instigated to desire the purchase of that 
 field. 
 
 In their proper tongue. The Greek has it, " in their proper dia- 
 lect," that is to say, which was used by the inhabitants of Jerusa- 
 lem. This Peter speaks as a Galilean, and speaking to the disciples 
 of Christ, who were for the most part Galileans. Now the Gali- 
 leans had a distinct dialect from those of Jerusalem : as appears 
 from the history of Christ's passion, where Peter's tongue betrayed 
 him. 
 
 Hakeldama, The field of Mood. Saith the most learned Lightfoot, 
 as well because it was purchased with the price of blood, as watered 
 with the blood of the traitor. 
 
 20. For it is written. Now Peter alleges the Scripture, which 
 before, ver. 16, he had said was to be fulfilled; that is to say, 
 according to the mystical sense intended by the Holy Ghost : as the 
 disciples had learned it from the lips of Christ, explaining the 
 scripture, Luke xxiv. 44. 
 
 In the book of Psalms. That work which the Hebrews are wont 
 to call the book of Hymns, because the chief part of it celebrates 
 the praises of- God, the Greeks and Latins call the Psalter, from the 
 
28 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. I. 
 
 name of the instrument to which those hymns were sung. They 
 are in all a hundred and fifty in the Hebrew copies. For the hun- 
 dred and fifty-first, which is added in the Greek, is fictitious, 
 rejected not only by the Hebrews, but by the council of Laodicea. 
 Theodoret and many others, as well ancient as modern, affirm David 
 to be the only author of all the Psalms. Philastrius' also accounts 
 them to be heretics who think otherwise. But St. Austin- waversj 
 sometimes ascribing the whole work to David alone, sometimes 
 allowing him to have composed no more than only nine ; affirming 
 the rest to have been made by the four singers, of whom he made 
 choice for that purpose. But it is apparent from the arguments 
 of the Psalms, wherein their authors are discovered, or from the ex- 
 press words and subjects of the Psalms, by which the time of their 
 composure may be conjectured, that all the Psalms were not the 
 work of David only, but of several authors. Deservedly there- 
 fore Hilarius,'' in his preface to the Psalms, concludes the whole 
 composure to be called, not the Psalms of David, but the Book of 
 Psalms ; as here it is called by Peter, and by Christ himself, Luke 
 XX. 42. The author of the Synopsis attributed to Athanasius and 
 Hilarius says, that the Psalms were reduced into one volume by 
 Esdras, and digested into that order as now they are extant.* "As 
 for that division of the Psalms into five parts, which Hilarius and 
 Jerome affirm to have been used by the Hebrews, and is at this 
 day observed in their book,^ I believe to be no ancienter than the 
 times of the Maccabees," saith a person among the eloquent, most 
 highly learned, and among the learned surpassingly eloquent, Peter 
 Daniel Huetius.^ 
 
 Let his habitation. What David, out of his zeal to justice and 
 the honour of God, imprecating upon his enemies, had prophesied, 
 that the Holy Ghost also, speaking by the mouth of David, would 
 have foretold concerning the persecutors of Christ, typified by 
 David. And thus Peter being taught the sense .of the holy 
 scriptures by Christ, deservedly applies to Judas, the leader of the 
 persecutors of Christ, the miserable destruction foretold of his 
 persecutors in general. Psal. Ixix. 25. 
 
 And, his bishopric let another take. To the end that another 
 testimony of scripture may be the better understood to be cited, 
 
 ' Hter. 126. * Prol. in Psal. Epiat. ad Sophron. et 
 
 ' Lib. xvii. de Civ. Dei. cap. 14. Cyp. 
 
 ' In Dissertatione ad Tit. Primi Psalmi. ' Demonst. Evang. Prop. 4. 
 
VEit. XXII.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 29 
 
 in imitation of Beza, I put a comma after the copulative, and, so 
 that the sense is the same as if Peter had said, The same Spirit 
 which, Psal. Ixix. 25, had foretold the death of Judas, and thereby 
 the vacancy of his function, foretold also that another was to be 
 substituted in his place, upon whom the honour of the bishopric, 
 of which Judas was deprived, should be conferred. "Where," 
 saith Beza, " he calls the bishopric a ministry or function, as much 
 as to say inspection. The Hebrews, for the same reason, called it 
 an oversight. Num. iii. 32, which word we have retained willingly, 
 for that St. Peter here discourses concerning an ecclesiastical, and 
 that particularly an apostolical function; whereas, David wrote 
 this properly against Doeg, the overseer of the king's herds. 
 However, the appellations of pastors of sheep and of the flqck, 
 are frequently attributed to ecclesiastical administration." In the 
 charter of Ina, king of the "West Saxons, set forth by Spelman, 
 among the Councils, an. 725, one Daniel subscribing, calls himself, 
 «' Overseer of the flock of God." 
 
 21. Therefore must one, &c. As if he had said. Seeing God is 
 pleased to make use of our diligence to choose another into the 
 place of Judas deceased, and that we are assured of the pleasure 
 of God, it is not lawful for us to delay, but strenuously to execute 
 whatever the duty of our ministry requires. 
 
 Wetit in and out among us. That is, performed the oflSce of preach- 
 ing enjoined him by the Father. To go in and go out, denotes 
 in scripture the laborious discharge of a duty, when it is spoken of 
 those who are entrusted with any eminent charge. Num. xxvii. 17, 
 21 ; Deut. xxxi. 2 ; 1 Sam. xviii. 13, 16 ; xxix. 6; 2 Sam. iii. 25 ; 
 2 Kings i. 3, 7 — 9 ; 1 Chron. xxvii 1 ; 2 Chron. i. 10. 
 
 22. Beginning from the baptism of John. That is, according to 
 the interpretation of Grotius, " from the time that Christ was 
 baptized by John ; for that was the beginning of his taking his 
 function upon him." 
 
 He was taken up from us. That is, when ascending into heaven 
 he was withdrawn in a cloud from our sight. 
 
 To he ordained vrith us a witness of his resurrection. That is to 
 say, in an apostolic degree and order. Here is required by Peter 
 an eye-witness, such as John the Baptist bespeaks himself to have 
 been, where he says. And I also have seen and have given tes- 
 timony/, John i. 34. For this did not meanly avail toward the 
 strengthening of belief. In the meanwhile, Peter strictly binds 
 
30 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. II. 
 
 himself and his companions to the necessity of preaching the 
 gospel, while he ordains new proolaimers of the resurrection of 
 Christ, which is preferred before all other doctrines of the gospel, 
 as being the chief Head and Foundation of it, as St. Paul teaches, 
 1 Cor. XV. 17. 
 
 23. And they appointed two. That is to say, the disciples not 
 daring to do more than what they knew to be their office and duty, 
 and commanded them by the Lord, publicly, and by the suffrages 
 of the whole college, put up two of the most eminent persons 
 among them, that God might choose to himself which he thought 
 fittest for the exercise of the apostolic function, and to the end the 
 party so chosen might boast with Paul, that he was not made an 
 apostle neither by men, nor of men, Gal. i. 1. 
 
 Joseph, who was called Barsabas. This person some will have to 
 be the same with him who is called Joses, and by the apostles 
 surnamed Barnabas, ch, iv. 36. " And certainly," saith Glasslus, 
 " there is but little difference in the declension and pronunciation 
 of these names, which is a small alteration of a letter in each 
 name." 
 
 Who was surnamed the Just. That is, if we may believe Drusius, 
 by the Jews following the Greek idiom, who write, 'lovoroe* 
 Otherwise, in the Hebrew language, tsaddik signifies "just," 
 which was the surname of Simon the high priest, who attended 
 upon Alexander, whom others called Jadduas. The author also of 
 the Talmudic Lexicon, Rabbi Nathan, is surnamed Tsaddik, or 
 the Just. 
 
 And Matthias. Clemens Alexandrinus * believes this person to 
 have been Zaccheus, of whom Luke, ch. xix. of his gospel. The 
 name of Matthias is the same, however, with that other name 
 which is written more at large, Mattathias, as Drusius observes. 
 
 24. And they prayed. Induced thereto by the promise of 
 Christ, What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye 
 shall receive them, and ye shall have them, Matt. xi. 24. 
 
 And said. That is, they prayed about this manner. Neither 
 does Luke set down their words, contenting himself only to recite 
 the sum of their prayer. 
 
 Thou, Lord. As much as to say : Whereas it belongs only to 
 thee, O Lord, rightly to judge of the hearts and minds of men, 
 and for what ministry or function every one is most fit : be pleased 
 
 ' Strom. 4. 
 
VER. XXV. j LITEKALL-Y EXPLAINED. 31 
 
 to declare which of these two, conspicuous for their uncorrupted 
 conversation and integrity of life, thou art pleased to substitute 
 .into the place of Judas, since, which is most worthy to be preferred 
 cannot be discerned by human judgment. 
 
 25. To take a place. The now extant printed Greek copies 
 have, " to take a lot," that is, to be made partaker. 
 
 Of this ministry and apostieship. That is, of this apostolic 
 function. 
 
 From which Judas by transgression fell The Greek has it, "from 
 which Judas declined, or turned aside." « But," saith Beza, " the 
 genuine interpretation of these words is to be collected from the 
 following coherences. For the vocation of every man is as it were 
 the way and road where every one is to journey, if he intend to 
 attain to the end of his stage. From this way, therefore, that is, 
 from the apostieship, Judas is said to have deviated, or turned 
 aside, or rather, leaving it altogether, to have taken a quite contrary 
 path. Epiphanius reads the article from which in the masculine 
 gender, referring it to the masculine Greek word signifying ' lot,' 
 though without any alteration of the sense." 
 
 That he might go to his own place. That is, that he might go 
 whither his deserts called him, to shame and perdition, in search of 
 death and an ignominious halter, as the remedy of his despair 
 through the guilt of his conscience. The most learned KnatchbuU 
 would have the Greek words translated, "That he may enter 
 upon his place." As if the sense were, that the person whom thou 
 shalt choose may succeed into the place of him that has deserted it, 
 that is, into the apostieship of Judas, and that "his own" may be 
 taken for " his," the same worthy author proves out of Ecumenius ; 
 as Budaeus affirms the pronoun suum to be frequently used instead 
 of ^us by Cicero, in imitation of the Greeks, So that, " to go to 
 his place" is the same thing as in the English law phrase, to enter 
 upon, or to take upon one the inheritance. " And this interpreta- 
 tion," adds the same author, "seems to me more agreeable to 
 reason than that of those who understand the words as spokeU of 
 Judas; as if Luke would say, that Judas went into his place, 
 that is, into hell. Nor can I believe that ever any such thing 
 entered into the thoughts of the evangelist. But I admire with 
 Chrysostom the prudence of the evangelist; who does not reproach 
 nor insult over any person. Which argues that Chrysostom did 
 not believe that St. Luke had adjudged Judas to hell. For what 
 
32 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLKS [CHAP. II. 
 
 more reproachful could Luke have said, than that he was gone to 
 his place, if he meant hell ? Neither was it for an historian or an 
 evangelist to give his own judgment so severe, but to have left 
 Judas to the condemnation of God. It was enough for him to 
 relate matter of fact, as he promised in the beginning of his 
 gospel; as they delivered them, to us, who from theleginning were eye- 
 witnesses. But who was an eye-witness of Judas's being in hell ?" 
 Thus far, the most accomplished with all manner of learning, Sir 
 Norton KnatchbuU, knight and baronet. 
 
 26. And they gave forth their lots. That is, according to the 
 interpretation of Grotius, " they put their names together into an 
 urn, and into another urn a small roll of paper having the word 
 apostle wrote within, it, together with another blank ; then out of 
 both urns they equally drew two rolls, as in the division of the 
 land. Of this way of casting lots in the choice of a king, whose 
 election God would have to depend upon himself, there is a notable 
 example to be found, 1 Sam. x. 20. Likewise for the discovery of 
 Achan, Josh. vii. 13, &c. See our annotations upon the 11th 
 verse of the prophet Obadiah. 
 
 And the lot fell upon Matthias. That is, divine providence so 
 disposing the lots, the name of Matthias with the word apostle, 
 came forth. See our literal explanation upon Jonah i. 7. 
 
 He was numhered. The Greek word implies, that this event of 
 the lot was approved by the common consent of all the rest ; as 
 they who from thence were certainly assured, that it was the will 
 of God that Matthias should succeed in Judas's room, and from 
 thenceforth was to be called not by the common name of disciple,, 
 but to be dignified with the noble title of apostle. 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 1. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come. According to 
 the Greek, in " the fulfilling the day," that is, the time of the 
 Quinquagesima. The space of fifty days from the paschal day to 
 the festival day itself, which the Christians vulgarly called Pente- 
 cost, is by the Greek and Latin writers generally called Pentecost, 
 or the time of Pentecost. By Ferrand the deacon, as also by 
 
VER. II.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 33 
 
 Cassian it is called Quinquagesima ; ' by Rabanus, and = Honorius 
 of Augustodunum, Quinquagesima Paschalis, to distinguish it 
 from the other Quinquagesima, which is before the Quadragesima, 
 Lent. The sense, therefore, of Luke is the same as if he had 
 said. When the day came, or presently after it wa^. past, wherein 
 the paschal Quinquagesima was completed. For the words of 
 Luke admit either of the two interpretations, as we have observed 
 in our annotations upon Matt. xxi. 1. 
 
 They were all. That is, those hundred and twenty, of which 
 that most noble and most holy college of disciples of Christ at 
 that time consisted ; as is said before, ch. i. 15. 
 
 With one accord. The Greek word is rendered by Beza " with 
 one accord," as in the English; but by the Latin Yulgate inter- 
 preter here, "together:" above, ch. i. 14, "unanimously." Never- 
 theless, we must confess, that the self-same word is often made use 
 of by the Greek interpreters of the scripture to express the simple 
 meaning of the word together, even where there cannot be any 
 agreement of mind- 
 
 In the same place. That is, in the same dining-room or upper 
 chamber, into which the disciples ascended upon their return from 
 Mount Olivet to Jerusalem. See what we have said upon the 
 same place, ch. i. 13. 
 
 2. And there came. That is, upon the first day of the week, the 
 fiftieth from the resurrection of Christ, and the tenth from his 
 ascent into heaven, which that year, according to Usher's Chro- 
 nology, fell upon the 24th of May. This day by the Christians 
 is called, from the Greek word, Pentecost; but by the first 
 Council of Orleans, and by the second of Tours, Quinquagesima.^ 
 
 Suddenly, The ears are the more surprised with a sudden and 
 unexpected noise. 
 
 A sound from heaven. In Greek, " a sound reverberated, or 
 resounding." As if he had said, The sky by the divine power 
 resounded with a sudden noise, as if a violent wind had suddenly 
 begun to blow with unusual violence. But as the four evangelists 
 neither of them say that a dove descended upon Christ at his 
 baptism ; so it is not here said, that there was heard the sound of 
 a vehement wind, but "as it were of a vehement wind." In the 
 
 ' Cap. 214, lib. ii. de Ccenob. Instit. cap. J 8. 
 • Lib. i. de Inetitiit. Cler. cap. 41, 43, lib. iii. gem. Anim.cap. 148. 
 » Can. 29. Can. 17. 
 
34 THE ACTS OF THE HOLy APOSTLES [CHAP. II. 
 
 same manner, in the following verse, the tongues that were seen 
 were said to be seen as it were like fire ; to the end that we 
 may understand that all these things were only visional, which 
 St. Chrysostom observes,' and as we from him have noted upon 
 Matt. iii. 16. 
 
 And filled, &c. See what we have already said upon ch. i. 5, 13, 
 
 Where they were sitting. That is, where they remained together ; 
 
 or where, in a quiet and sedate posture, by the command of Christ 
 
 they expected from him the gift of the Holy Ghost, promised by 
 
 the Father to all believers, Luke xxiv. 49, and Acts i. 24. 
 
 3. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire. 
 The tongue is Mkened to fire and flame, by reason of its resem- 
 blance to the shape: for the aspiring flame of fire is like the 
 tongue put out of the mouth ; and next, because of its resemblance 
 in action : for that as the creatures take hold of and lick in their 
 food with the tongue, so the fire casting forth its flame is said 
 to devour the combustible matter, Isa. v. 24. 
 
 And it sat, &c. That is, and this fire resembling cloven tongues, 
 visibly rested upon every one of the hundred and twenty, who 
 with conjoined hearts and unanimous wishes expected the Holy 
 Ghost, which was to be sent by Christ. 
 
 4. Jnd they were all filled. The women also who were then 
 present in the same place, as appears v. 17 and 18. 
 
 " With the Holy Ghost. That is, with the most excellent gifts of 
 the Holy Ghost, who being promised by Christ made it undoubted 
 to the hearing by the noise of the wind, and visible to the sight 
 by means of the fire resembling the cloven tongues, that he was 
 now come. " Those visible gifts," saith Beza,'' " which in the 
 beginning of the growing church so vigorously flourished, as Joel 
 had foretold, are metonymically understood under the denomination 
 of the Holy Ghost, as being his peculiar effects, according to the 
 doctrine of St. Paul," 1 Cor. xii., &c. ; Acts xix. 2, &c. 
 
 And they began to speak in various tongues. The Greek has it, 
 " in other tongues," according to the English version. That is, in 
 other tongues than they knew before, according to the promise of 
 Christ, Mark xvi. 17 : They shall speak with new tongues. 
 
 As the Spirit gave them utterance. That is, the Holy Ghost 
 governing and directing their tongues, to the end they might 
 speak persuasively and awfully the great .things performed in 
 
 ' Ser. i. de Pentecoste. " Upon John vii. 30. 
 
VER. v.] LITEliALLY EXPLAINED. 35 
 
 Christ and through Christ, either in this or that, in more or fewer 
 languages. But it appears out of 1 Cor. xii, 10, 28, 30, xiv. 
 2, 4, 5, &c., that they are under a mistake who assert that there 
 was any miracle wrought in the ears of the auditory, as if that 
 though the disciples of Christ spake only one sort of language, yet 
 that their speech was understood by all, as if they had spoken 
 distinctly in their several idioms. 
 
 Utterance. The Greek word is interpreted by Tarnovius,' " so 
 to utter a speech that there should be a great efficacy in every 
 word, and much wisdom contained in every period." Paul opposes 
 the same word to those v/ho after the manner of fanatics talk 
 much, but vainly, and to little purpose. Acts xxvi. 25. Beza says 
 also, " That ' they are properly said to utter a speech according to 
 the signification of the Greek word, who speak things sententious 
 and enlivening, such as were those which St. Luke soon after calls 
 the wonderful works of God. As also such as spake not their 
 own thoughts, but by the impulse of Divine inspiration; as it is 
 written of the prophets, 2 Pet. i. 2 1 ; which was that which Luke 
 altogether purposed to express here by this Greek word, and the 
 Latins use to declare by fori a more significant word than loqui, 
 though this distinction is not always observed." 
 
 5. But there were dwelling in Jerusalem. According to the 
 Greek, "inhabiting." That is to say, as the learned Mede ex- 
 pounds it, "sojourning together;" including those who resorted 
 together from other countries to celebrate the feasts of the Paschal 
 Lamb and Pentecost; for which purpose they took up their 
 lodgings in the city, as is apparent by what follows. It is' true 
 that the Greek words denote a fixed and durable habitation. But 
 among the Hellenists, whose dialect the writers of the New 
 Testament imitate, they ^re indifferently made use of for a longer 
 or shorter abiding in one place ; that is, as well for sojourning as 
 for inhabiting : as the two following examples plainly prove from 
 the translation of the Septuagint. The first is Gen. xxvii. 44, 
 where the Greek word oikein, and the Latin word habitare in the 
 Vulgate version, signify to " tarry a few days." The latter example 
 is in 1 Bangs xvii. 20, where Elias speaking of the widow where 
 he was wont to lodge, uses the word katoikein, for sojourning, 
 " with whom I sojourn ;" both the f(5rementioned Greek words 
 
 ' In Meilul. Evang. 
 
36 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY AJOSTLES [CHAP. II. 
 
 answering to the Hebrew jashab, which signifies any sort of 
 abiding or tarrying in any place. 
 
 Jews. That is to say, by religion and birth descended from 
 the seed of Abraham, as appears from ver. 22, 23, 39. For 
 certain it is that Cornelius the centurion was the first of the 
 Gentiles that was converted to the Christian faith. 
 
 Devout men. So were they called, who not at all deterred by 
 distance of place, or diflSculty of travelling, came to Jerusalem to 
 worship God in the temple, according to the command of the law. 
 
 Out of every nation under heaven. That is, out of all nations 
 where the Jews lived up and down dispersed. "For there is no 
 nation in the universal orb where some of our people do not 
 inhabit," says Agrippa the younger, king of the Jews in Josephus., 
 The scattering and captivity of the Jews, was threefold before the 
 destruction of Jerusalem and the burning of the temple by Titus. 
 The first was of the ten tribes under Shalmaneser, which, saith 
 Jerome upon Joel, ch. iii. 6, even at this day inhabit in the cities 
 and mountains of the Medes. Of these were the Jews, in the 
 following verse 9 called Parthians, Medes, and Elamites. The 
 second scattering was of the tribes of Judah and Benjainin under 
 Nebuchadnezzar, a great part of which did not return to Jeru- 
 salem, when it was restored together with the temple by Zerub- 
 babel. From these descended those Jews who are said to have 
 inhabited Mesopotamia, ver. 9. The third dissipation of the Jews 
 was under Ptolemy Lagus, who having destroyed Jerusalem 
 carried away a vast number of Jews into Egypt, who were called 
 Hellenists. The Jews by this threefold captivity dispersed and 
 scattered among the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Egyptians, fled 
 of their own accords to other places and kingdoms ; so that where- 
 soever the apostles travelled to preach the gospel, they found in 
 every city of the Gentiles a synagogue of the^ Jews. Arid St. 
 James directs his general Epistle to those of the twelve tribes, who 
 were dissipated and dispersed through almost all the regions of the 
 world. 
 
 6. But now report being made of this. That is, the fame of this 
 miracle being spread abroad. The Greek word phone, "voice," is 
 not only here but also elsewhere used for fame. Num. xvi, 34- 
 1 Kings i. 40, &c. ' 
 
 ' De Bell. JuH. lib. ii. c. IG. 
 
VER. IX.] LITEK4LLY EXPLAINED. 37 
 
 The multitude gathered together. That the diversity of languages 
 might appear, by comparing them one with another. 
 
 And were confounded, &c. As if he had said. The foreigners 
 stood astonished when they heard the ignorant and illiterate Gali- 
 leans, that had never travelled out of their country to learn foreign 
 languages, dispute with so much gravity and profoundness con- 
 cerning such divine mysteries in their own several native dialects 
 and tongues. 
 
 7. And they were all amazed. Here the principal effect of the 
 miracle is expressed, for that, being astonished at the novelty and 
 the wonder together, they began to inquire the more into it. 
 " And indeed," saith Calvin, " so it behoves us ever with astonish- 
 ment to admire the works of God, that from thence may proceed 
 both consideration and a desire of understanding." 
 
 8. Our language. That is, speaking in the language and dialect 
 proper to ourselves. 
 
 9. Parthians. That is, the Jews who dwelt under the dominion 
 of the Parthians. That many of the Jews lived under the empire 
 of the Parthians is apparent out of Josephus, and the above-cited 
 oration of Agrippa the younger, set down by the same Josephus.' 
 The Parthians, or ParthyaBans, whose country is called Parthyaja, 
 and Parthyene, were a people, who, in a search of new seats, fled 
 out of Scythia into Media. " For," saith Trogus,' " exiles in the 
 Scythian language are called Parthi." Nevertheless, it is more 
 proper to think that the Scythians themselves, and not their 
 fugitives, laid the foundations, of the Parthian people, as Quintus 
 Curtius reports.' This Parthia is bounded to the west by Media, 
 to the north by Hyrcania, to the east by Aria, and to the south by 
 Caramania the desert, as the cosmographer writes.* The metropolis 
 of Parthia was called Hecatompylos, and is thought to have stood in 
 the same place where now stands Ispahan, the seat of the Persian 
 kings. Their kings were surnamed Arsace from Arsaces, either a 
 Scythian or a Bactrian, who was the first that took upon him the 
 dominion of the Parthians, as the geographer asserts. They 
 wintered at Ctesiphon, but spent the summer in Hyrcania, and ,at 
 Ecbatana, according to Strabo, whom the learned call, by wsly.of 
 excellency, the geographer. The same author testifies that the 
 Parthians in his time possessed so large and spacious a territory, 
 
 ' Prologue to his Book of the Wars of the Jews, lib. ii., De Bello Jud. cap. 16, Gr. 28. 
 2 Lib. xli. cap. 1. ' Lib, vi. cap. 2. ' Lib. vi. cap. 15. 
 
38 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. II. 
 
 and ruled over so many nations, that by reason of the vastness of 
 their empire, they were almost equal in power to the Romans.' 
 The first among the Eomans that triumphed over them, was Ven- 
 tidius Bassus, according to Gellius.^ Extraordinary was their 
 manner of fight, therefore famous among the poets, for they fought 
 flying. See Virg. Geor. iii. v. 30; Ovid, de Ar. Am. v. 211. 
 Parthos, or Parthus, is also the name of an Illyrian city, whose 
 inhabitants are called Partheni. But Parthus was a province of 
 Macedonia, whose inhabitants, according to Ptolemy, called by the 
 critics the cosmographer, are famed by the name of Parthyaei ; 
 and according to Pliny, by the name of Parthini, whose single 
 city Eriboea is celebrated by Ptolemy.' 
 
 Medes. That is, the Jews who inhabited in Media. See what 
 has been already said, ver. 5. Media and the Medes were so 
 called from Madai the third son of Japhet, Gen. x. 2.* However, 
 Herodotus asserts, ^ that they were first called Arians before they 
 were called Medes. Media is bounded to the east by Hyrcania 
 and Parthia, and separated from it by the Caspian mountain. To 
 the west lies the greater Armenia and Assyria ; to the south lies 
 Persia ; and to the north the Caspian sea. This Media is, for the 
 most part, mountainous and cold and altogether barren, unless 
 that part of the country which adjoins to the Caspian Straits, 
 which is fruitful of all things necessary for human support, except 
 oil, and therefore called happy and most fertile by the geographer, 
 and by Virgil the most opulent.^ Formerly the Medes were 
 subject to the Assyrians, till Arbaces, viceroy of Media, revolted 
 from Sardanapalus ; and having destroyed Nineveh, erected the 
 monarchy of the Medes, which afterwards lasted under nine kings 
 two hundred and fifty-nine years, and was then translated from 
 Astyages, the last king of the, Medes, to the Persians, by Cyrus 
 his grandchild by the daughter's side. Thomas de Pinedo ob- 
 serves, that the Parthians, Medes, and Persians, are oftentimes 
 indifierently taken one for another by ancient writers. 
 
 Elamites. The Syrian interpreter calls them Elanseans, or 
 Elanites, not the inhabitants of Elane near Eziongaber upon 
 the Red sea, which belongs to Arabia the stony, but of another 
 province of the same name, which Benjamin Tudelensis, in his 
 
 ■ Lib. XV.; lib. xvi. cap. ] ; lib. ii. ' Noct. Attic, lib. xv. cap. 4. 
 
 ■ Lib. iii. cap. 13; lib. iii. cap. 23. <■ Joseph. Ant. i. 5. 
 
 ' Lib. vii. cap. 62. o j^;,,^ xi.— Georg. ii. 136. 
 
VER. IX.J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 39 
 
 Itinerary printed at Leyden, ' places between Persia, Chorasan, 
 Mesopotamia, and Armenia. From Elam the son of Shem, Gen. 
 X. 22, Elimse takes its name, a province of the Assyrians joining 
 to Persia, near Susiana, the chief city of which was Elymais, 
 wherein stood the temple of Diana, opulent in silver and gold, 
 and rich presents, many of which were given by Alexander the 
 the Macedonian king, 1 Mac. vi. This city Antiochus Epiphanes 
 would have sacked for the riches of the temple; for which reason 
 he was struck from heaven with sudden death, says Polybius the 
 Megalopolite, mentioned by Josephus.' Though Josephus relates, 
 that it was more probable that that accident befell him because 
 he would have plundered the temple of Jerusalem. In like 
 manner Menander, an ancient historian, cited by Josephus,'' at- 
 tributes the cause of those rains, which sacred history relates to 
 have fallen upon the pray ers of Elijah the prophet, 1 Kings xviii. 
 45, to the supplications of Ithobalus king of the Tyrians. The 
 same Antiochus endeavoured to take Persepolis, and to rob its 
 temples ; for gold and silver are nowhere safe, 2 Mac. ix. Whether 
 Persepolis and Elymais be the same, I know not. The inha- 
 bitants of the province of Elymae, called by Luke Elamites, by the 
 Syrian interpreter Elanseans, or Elanites, by Strabo and other 
 Elymaeans, and described to be fierce and warlike bow-men by 
 Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, lived upon the spoil, and were the 
 only neighouring people that durst make head 'against the Par- 
 thians, and are said by Strabo, lib. xi., to have exacted tribute 
 from the kings of Persia. These Elymaeans were always subject 
 to their own proper kings, of whom Jeremiah and Strabo make 
 mention. Two of these are upon record, Chedorlaomer is one, the 
 other is Arioch, Gen. xiv. 1 ; Judith i. 6. However, though 
 Strabo rightly distinguisheth the Elymaeans from the Susians, 
 whom Eustathius and Eusebius derive from Shelach, or Sela, 
 the son of Arphaxad, and from the Persians, whom Bochart 
 and Heidegger deduce from Sabtha, the son of Gush; yet Elam 
 is often taken not only strictly for Elymais, but also for all the 
 neighbouring nations lying upon the river Eulaeus, as the Gabians, 
 Carbians, Massabitics, whose provinces the geographer attributes 
 to the Elymaans and the Susians ; for Benjamin Tudelensis in his, 
 Itinerary takes Chuzistan, or the province of Susia, to be the 
 same with Elam. The Arabian interpreter, newly printed at Paris, 
 1 P. 73. ' Antifj. lib. xii. cap. 13. ' Antiq. viii. 7. 
 
40 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. II. 
 
 tenders Elam, Gen, x. 22j by Churestan, which is the same with 
 Chuzistan. Hence Daniel, ch. viii. 2, places Shushan the metro- 
 polis of Susia, in the province of Elam; and Ptolemy, Pliny, and 
 Marcian, seat the Elymteans not far from the mouth of the river 
 Eula3us. And from hence lastly it is that Josephus makes > the 
 Elymaeans to have been the first ancestors of the Persians ; that is 
 to say, that till the reign of Cyrus the Persians were called by 
 the name of the neighbouring people, Elymaeans. But after Cyrus's 
 time, though they often occur under that name, especially in 
 sacred history, yet commonly Persia is not called by the name of 
 Elam, but of Paras, which signifies a horse, because the Persians 
 were of footmen made to fight on horseback by the appointment 
 of Cyrus, as Xenophon relates. 
 
 And who dwell in Mesopotamia. Luke proceeds in a direct order 
 from east to west, in the recital of these people. But in regard 
 the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, and 
 Asia, are comprehended in the former words, ver. 5, that dwell' in 
 Jerusalem, plain it is, that by inhabitants or dwellers is not meant 
 they who had settled abodes, but they who sojourned for some 
 time in Jerusalem. See the former Annot. upon ver. • 5. By 
 Stephen of Byzantium the inhabitants of Mesopotamia are called 
 Mesopotamites ; by Vopiscus, in the Life of Aurelius, Mesopo- 
 tamians. See our notes upon Hosea xii. 12. 
 
 Judea. Strictly so taken, from whose dialect that of the 
 Galileans was much different, as appears by Peter's being be- 
 trayed by his tongue. See our literal explication upon Matt, 
 iii. 5. 
 
 Cappadocia. This to the west is bounded by Galatia, to the 
 south by Cilicia, to the east by Armenia, to the north by part of 
 the Euxine sea, according to Ptolemy.* The Cappadocians, in- 
 habitants of this country, were formerly called Leucosyrians, as 
 Plipy testifies, lib. vi. cap. 3, and Syrians, as Herodotus witnesses.' 
 Before the enlargement of the Koman empire, they were first 
 under the Persians, and afterwards governed by themselves in the 
 reign of Ariaratha, after whom reigned Archelaus, whose daughter 
 Glaphyra married to Alexander the son of Herod the Great, by the 
 relation of Constsntine Porphyrogenitus.* The geographer relates 
 this story somewhat otherwise.' That when the royal line failed;, 
 
 ' 1 Antiq. 6. » Lib. V, cap. 6. ' Lib.' i. cap. 72. 
 
 * Lib. i. Them. 2. b Lib. xii. p. 640. 
 
VEE. IX.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 41 
 
 the Romans, in regard of the common league of friendship be- 
 tween both nations, permitted them to live under their own laws« 
 but that the Cappadocians, sending their ambassadors, refused 
 their liberty, and desired to hare a king imposed upon them. 
 The Romans, therefore, admiring the humour of the people, that 
 [they] were out of love with liberty, sent them a free permission to 
 choose a king among themselves, who thereupon chose Ario- 
 barzanes, whom Porphyrogenitus calls Ariaratha ; whose line 
 failing also after the third descent, Archelaus was imposed upon 
 them by Antonius, no way related to Ariobarzanes. Formerly 
 the nation of the Cappadocians was infamous for wickedness and 
 fraudulency, as also the Cilicians and Cretes, which gave rise to 
 the proverb, " Three Kappas or K's the worst," which was after- 
 wards applied to the three Corneliuses, Sylla, Cinna, and Lentulus, 
 whose proper names were Cornelius. Nevertheless, there is no 
 country so bad, which does not produce some excellent persons. 
 Thus Cappadocia gave to the world three most renowned bishops, 
 Gregory, surnamed the wonder-worker, of NeocaBsarea ; Basil the 
 Great of Caesarea; and Gregory Nazianzen. Formerly it pro- 
 duced Pausanias, who from the place of his nativity is . called 
 Cassariensis, from his country Cappadocian and Syrian, in regard 
 that some comprehend Cappadocia under Syria. The often-praised 
 geographer Strabo was also born in a town of Cappadocia, called 
 Amasia. 
 
 Ponhis. The country of Asia the less, famous for the renowned 
 Mithridates, and Aquila, that exquisite interpreter of the Old 
 Testament. This region is bounded to the west by the river 
 Halys, to the east by the country of Colchis, to the south by the 
 leaser Armenia, and to the north by the Euxine sea, according to 
 Strabo. Ptolemy, varying^in his limits : " Pontus," saith he,' " is 
 bounded to the west by the mouth of the Propontis and the 
 Thracian Bosphorus, to the south by that country which is pro- 
 perly called Asia, and to the north by part of the Euxine Sea." 
 
 Asia. Meaning the Proconsular Asia, which was under the 
 prqconsul, and chief of the seven provinces which constituted 
 the Asian diocese. '' " The Romans," saith Frederick Spanheim 
 the son, "called that particularly Asia which comprehended the 
 country belonging to the Pergamen kings, which lies between the 
 Hellespont, Lydia, and Caria, and comprehends a part of Mysia, 
 • Lib. V. ' Strab, lib, xiii. 
 
42 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. II. 
 
 with the country named ^olis, extending itself on the one side to 
 the Adramitic Gulf, on the other side to the fountains of the river 
 Meander." Of this province, which was more strictly called 
 Asia, the metropolis was Ephesus, the seat of the proconsuls of 
 Asia. The next to Ephesus, in the time of the apostles, was 
 Smyrna ; the same city being also a metropolis : after that, Per- 
 gamus, the seat of the famous king Attalus, as the most learned 
 Spanheim relates in his Introduction to Geography. 
 
 10. Phrygia. In the Asian diocese which was subject to the 
 Asiatic vicar. There was a two-fold Phrygia, of which the one 
 was called the greater and Pacatian, the other the lesser and the 
 healthful. The first was bounded to the north by Bithynia and 
 Galatia ; to the east, by the healthful Phrygia and Pisidia ; to the 
 south, by Lydia, Caria, and Lycia ; to the west, by the proconsular 
 Asia. The metropolis of this country was Laodicea, upon the 
 river Lycus. Phrygia the wholesome was conterminous northward 
 to the greater, toward Galatia and Bithynia. The metropolis of 
 which was Synnada, in the ancient Ionia, a colony of the Dorians, 
 originally descended from the Macedonians, as appears by the 
 ancient coins, according to the relation of the fore-cited Spanhemius. 
 
 Pamphylia. This province was the utmost limit of the Asian 
 diocese to the south, toward the sea-shore, from thence called the 
 Pamphilian Sea. It is bounded to the east by Cilicia and part of 
 Cappadocia; to the west, by Lycia; to the north, by Galatia. 
 " Formerly," saith Spanheim, " comprehending Pisidia and Isauria, 
 it was under one and the same governor with Lycia, in the reign 
 of Constantine the Great; but at length made consular under 
 Theodosius the younger, and divided into two parts ; the first part 
 whose metropolis was Sida, and the second whose chief city was 
 Perga." Moreover, although that in Pamphilia and the rest of 
 the provinces already mentioned the Greek language was fre- 
 quently used, yet there was another dialect proper to every 
 country, and differing from that of the adjoining provinces. There- 
 fore Strabo affirms that the Cibyrates made use of four dialects, 
 the Pisidic, Grecian, Lydean, and Solyman. The Syrians also 
 spake two languages at that time, as also the Jews, for they used 
 both the Greek and Syriac. Nay, they might be said to make use 
 of three languages, in regard the Latin was also spoken among 
 them, as the learned Salmaslus observes. 
 
 Egypt. Of Egypt, thus the learned Michael Baudrand : " Egypt 
 
VEE. XX. J LITEllALLY EXPLAINED. 43 
 
 is a most famous country of Africa, not of Asia, under the do- 
 minion of the Turks ever since the year 1517. It extends in 
 length from the Mediterranean Sea to Syene. The river Nile 
 runs through the middle of it, whose inundations make it fertile. 
 To its east lie the deserts of Arabia ; to the west, Lybia ; to the 
 south, Ethiopia ; and to the north, the Mediterranean Sea." 
 
 And the parts of Lybia round about Cyrene. The -upper Lybia 
 was called Pentapolitan, from the number of her cities, of which 
 the names were Berenice, Arsinoe, Ptolemais, ApoUonia, and the 
 most famous of all, Cyrene, from which all the upper Lybia is 
 sometimes called Cyrenaic. " The bounds of this Cyrenaic Lybia," 
 saith Spanheim, " were the greater Syrtis to the west ; the country 
 of the Psylli and the desert Lybia to the . south ; and Marmaric 
 Lybia to the east." See our annotations upon Amos ix. 7 ; Matt. 
 xxvii. 33. 
 
 And strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes. That is such of the 
 Romans as sojourned in Judea, as well Jews by birth as proselytes. 
 " At Rome," saith Grotius, " there were many Jews, as Cicero and 
 Horace tell us. Also many women and freed men joined them- 
 selves to them, as Tibullus, Ovid, and Philo witness." 
 
 11. Cretes. Saith the above-mentioned Spanheim, "Crete, 
 seated between the Lybic and Egaean sea, to the south of the 
 Peloponnesus, and to the east of the island Carpathus, was one of 
 the first that were illuminated with the light of the gospel by the 
 preaching of St. Peter, Acts ii., and the great pains of Paul and 
 Titus." But the most learned Lightfoot believes, ' that by Cretes 
 are understood here the inhabitants of that region of Palestine 
 which we have already observed to be called Creth by the Syrians, 
 in our notes upon Wisdom ii. 5, because the Cretes are here joined 
 with the Arabians, who are contiguous to the land of Palestine. 
 
 Arabians. Arabia is a country of Asia, neighbouring upon 
 Africa, bounded to the north by Syria and the river Euphrates, to 
 the east by the Persian Gulf; to the west, by the Arabian Gulf; 
 and to the south, by the Arabian Sea, or part of the Indian Ocean. 
 It is threefold; the desert Arabia, where the Israelites abode 
 forty years ; the Happy, or spice-bearing ; and the Stony, famous 
 for the city of Krac, or Harach, which in scripture is called Petra 
 of the Wilderness ; and for Mount Sinai, where God promulgated 
 the law by Moses, which mountain by Ethnic writers is called 
 ' In Disquis. Chorograph. set before his Notes upon St. John's gospel. 
 
44 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. II. 
 
 Casius. Wherefore Solinus calls the Arabians, ' a people famous 
 for the Mountain Casius, where was the temple of Jupiter, who 
 from thence was entitled Casius. There also lay interred the 
 body of Pompey the Great, whose monument was sumptuously 
 built by Adrian, as Elius Spartianus records in the life of Adrian ; 
 moved thereto, perhaps, by that famous distich, for Adrian was a 
 learned person : 
 
 " Lieinius' tomb is large, but Cato's small ; 
 Pompey has none ; believe we gods at all !" 
 
 There was also another Mount Casius in Syria, which is the reason 
 of some confusion among writers. They who desire more of 
 Arabia, may read Strabo, Ptolemy, and Pliny. 
 
 We have heard. In the Greek, " we do hear," as in the English 
 version ; that is to say, with our own ears. 
 
 Speaking in our tongues. Not that when one voice was uttered 
 many other echoes as it were dispersed themselves; but that the dis- 
 ciples of Christ spake in the proper languages of them that heard. 
 
 Tlie wonderful works of God. Which God had prepared before 
 the foundations of the world, to be given to the faithful by Christ. 
 Those wonderful works are called glorious things, Psalm Ixxxvii. 3. 
 
 12. What meaneth this ? That is, to what intent is aU this ? 
 
 13. Others mocking. In the Greek, "cavilling." Learn from 
 these cavillers, that there is no miracle so great, but scurrilous and 
 impious loquacity will find a quarrel to reproach it. 
 
 They are full of must. These things being done upon the day- of 
 Pentecost, at what time there is no new wine or must, properly so 
 called. Must seems here to be taken for any sweet wine, or wine 
 boiled out of the must. 
 
 14. Eut Peter standing up with the eleven. Armed with boldness, 
 and trusting in the assistance of the newly received Holy Ghost. 
 
 Lift up his voice. That he might be heard by all, in such a 
 numerous assembly of auditors. 
 
 Ye men of Jiidea. Peter being about to preach forth Christ to 
 the mutinous multitude, does not presently begin from the prophecy 
 of Joel, but first removes the false report spread by some, that 
 they who spake in various languages, were in the extravagancies of 
 their wine. And presently, by the pleasing address of. Ye men of 
 Judea, courts the goodwill of t;he auditory. For it was an appella- 
 
 ' Cap. 46. 
 
VER. XVII.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 45 
 
 tion plausible to those who professed the Jewish religion. Ye men 
 of Judea, in regard that they excelled all other nations for many 
 reasons ; to wit, in regard of the law given from heaven, the 
 honour of the prophets, and the worship of the true God. 
 
 And all you that live in Jerusalem, He addresses himself to 
 these dwellers in Jerusalem particularly, because they were both 
 in greater number, and of greater quality than the rest. 
 
 Be this known unto you. As if he had said. Attend with heed to 
 what I am about to say. 
 
 15. Seeing it is hut the third hour of the day. Though such be the 
 shame of drunkenness, that it abhors the light, and that they who 
 are drunk are drunk in the night, 1 Thess. v. 7 ; yet there are not 
 a few who, like swine, as soon as they rise do make haste from their 
 beds to their cups. Against whom the prophet darts his Woe be to 
 you ; woe he to you that rise betimes in the morning to follow strong 
 drink, Isa. v. 11. And though Josephus relates' that the Jews 
 upon festival days were never wont to dine till the sixth hour, 
 that is noon, yet that custom was not observed by all ; there 
 being many breakers -of the commandments of God, and violaters 
 of human customs, such as lived in Isaiah's time, chiefly upon 
 festival days, upon which the Jews were commanded to rejoice 
 before the Lord, Lev. xxiii. 40. The words of Peter are therefore 
 to be understood as if he had said, that they were more pious and 
 devout than to be drunk by nine o'clock in the morning, at what 
 time there is no man but moderately temperate who is not fasting. 
 The Chaldee paraphrase upon Eccles. x. Id: "After they have 
 -offered the usual sacrifice, let them eat bread at the fourth hour, 
 which with us is at ten in the morning. Rabbi Salomon Jarchi : 
 ' at the fourth hour,' saith he, ' which is the hour of eating, at what 
 time all people retire to take their meals.' " " 
 
 16. But this, &c. As if he had said. But it happens to these 
 persons what Joel had foretold by the spirit of prophecy. In the 
 same manner the Jews refer it to the times of the Messiah, as 
 R. Saadia testifies : ' " Then shall remain a gift of prophecy, 
 among our people, so that our sons and our servants shall pro- 
 phecy, according to that of Joel, and afterwards I will pour forth 
 my Spirit, &c." 
 
 17. In the last days. That is, in the times of the Messiah, 
 
 1 In Vit. sua. ' In gloss, ad fol. 83, tract. Talmud Baba Metsia. 
 
 ' Lib. Emounotli, cap. 8. 
 
46 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. II. 
 
 whioh were the last days of Jerusalem and the Jewish govern- 
 ment. Lufce follows in the citation of this place, and some others, 
 the Hellenist interpreters, though not exactly, the words being 
 sometimes changed and transposed; which [transposing] Moses 
 does also, reciting the decalogue in Deuteronomy. Moreover, by 
 this prophecy of Joel, and by others of -the same nature, God 
 promised that he would endue those that believed in him with a 
 larger proportion of divine knowledge, under the New Testament, 
 than he had done under the Old. But he did not signify that he 
 would do it alone, and without any other means; and that there would 
 be no further use of the holy scripture. But that on the contrary, that 
 extraordinary help, the infusion of the Holy Spirit [should be given] 
 (dreams and visions should chiefly all tend to that), that the mind 
 of God, speaking in the scripture, might be the sooner understood ; 
 to the end, that no person who should with attentive devotion 
 search them, and implore the assistance of the Holy Spirit, should 
 stand in much need of the instruction of another, to understand 
 those things which are necessary to be known for salvation. ^ 
 
 Upon all fiesh. That is, upon all conditions and sexes believing 
 in Christ, and ready to lead their lives according to his precepts. 
 Wherefore, saith Peter, The Lord has given his Holy Spirit to those 
 that obey him, ch. v. 32. 
 
 Shall prophesy. As, ch. xxi. 9, 10, 11, the four daughters of 
 Philip the evangelist and Agabus. 
 
 Shall see visions. That is to say, caused from above, as did 
 Ananias and Peter, ch. ix. 10; x. 11. Says Macrobius upon 
 Scipio's Dream ; " There are five principal diversities and names 
 of things which people seem to see in their sleep. For either it is 
 a dream, or a vision, or an oracle, or an inspiration, or a phantasm, 
 which Cicero calls visum, as oft as hie needed make use of this 
 word." See pur literal explanation upon Joel ii. 28. 
 
 18. And I, &c. See our annotations, Joel ii. 29. 
 
 19. And will show wonders. Such were the signs forerunning the 
 extirpation of the Jews, which they suffered under the Romans for 
 rejecting Jesus the doctor of perfect justice [teacher of perfect 
 rio-hteousness], and contemning the doctrine of the apostles, in- 
 spired with his Spirit, and Inviting them to repentance. Such were 
 comets hovering over Jerusalem like flaming swords, chariots and 
 armies rushing together in the air; with like events upon the earth, 
 as slaughters, burning of towns and cities, and other calamities 
 
VEE. XXI.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 47 
 
 that befell the Jews in Galilee and Judea, which use first to por- 
 tend, and then to bring a people's utter destruction. See what 
 we have already said upon Joel ii. 30. 
 
 20. The sun shall be turned, &c. See our literal explication 
 upon Joel ii. 31. 
 
 The great day of the Lord. That is, the great and terrible 
 judgment of Grod upon the refractory Jews. " In the first sense," 
 saith Brenius, " Joel spake this of the destruction by Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, but mystically of the destruction by the Romans ; which is 
 called by way of super-eminency the day of the Lord." Thus also 
 saith Beza, " These things I refer to the nation of the Jews, whose 
 utter destruction being shortly to fall upon the obstinate con- 
 temners of the gospel is foretold, as Christ also positively declares. 
 Matt. xxiv. ; however, joining them with that last day, when the 
 same calamity which formerly befell Jerusalem, shall be the ruin of 
 the whole world, guilty of the same great and outrageous obsti- 
 nacy." Moreover the destruction of the Jews by the Romans is 
 called the great and terrible day of the Lord, as Lightfoot observes 
 in his annotations upon Mark ix. 1 : "It is described as the end 
 of the world. By Periphrasis it is called the last days, or latter 
 times ; that is, the last times of the continuance of this city and 
 government. From that time begins the new world. It is also 
 described as the coming of Christ. His coming in the clouds in 
 glory with the angels ; and then again as the enthroning of Christ 
 and his twelve apostles judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Thus 
 far Lightfoot. Acts ii. 20; 2 Thess. ii. 2, 3 ; Jer. iv. 24, &c.; Matt, 
 xxiv. 29, &c. ; Isa. ii. 2 ; Acts ii. 17; 1 Tim. iv. 1 ; 2 Pet. iii. 13 ; 
 Isa. Ixv. 17 ; 2 Pet. iii. 13; Heb. x. 37; Rev. i. 7; Matt. xix. 28 ; 
 Luke xxii. 30. 
 
 And not able. In the Greek is epiphanes, by which wor(f the Sep- 
 tuagint used to render the Hebrew word hanora, that signifies 
 "terrible." "Nor is it to be questioned," saith Ludovicus de 
 Dieu, " but that from thence that cruel tyrant Antiochus was called 
 Mpiphanes, " terrible, rather than illustrious." This Antiochus is 
 Called by Polybius, Epimanes, that is to say, " furious," or " raging 
 mad." 
 
 21. And it shall come to pass, that all, &c. As if he had said, 
 that whosoever shall in word and deed religiously worship Christ 
 sent by God, shall be delivered from the grievous calamity pre- 
 pared for the Jews. , Thus Paul adapts this prophecy to Christ 
 
48 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. 11. 
 
 our Saviour, Rom. x. 12, 13. But as the invocation of God is 
 not only taken for prayer directed to him, but frequently for any 
 act of divine worship ; so is also the invocation of Christ, or of his 
 name, taken in the same sense. Gen. xii. 8 ; xiii. 4 ; xxvi. 25 ; 
 1 Chron. xiii. 6 ; Psa. Ixxix. 6 ; Isa, xii. 25 ; Jer. x. 25 ; Acts ix. 
 14, 21 ; 1 Cor. i. 2 ; 2 Tim. ii. 22. Now that the Christians 
 were freed from the common calamities of the Jews in the 
 destruction of Jerusalem, we find in Eusebius^:^ "But whereas the 
 whole commonalty and body of believers at the church of Jeru- 
 salem, by oracular foresight inspired into some devout and holy 
 persons, were admonished to depart the city before the war, and 
 seat themselves in a town beyond Jordan, called by the name of 
 Pella: and now all those that believed in Christ, having translated 
 themselves from the forsaken Jerusalem to Pella, then it was that 
 the royal city and capital seat of the nation, being deserted by the 
 holy people, was overwhelmed by divine vengeance, for so many 
 crimes committed both against Christ and his apostles, so that the 
 whole race of those" wicked people perished." See my annotations 
 upon Joel ii. 32. 
 
 22. Jesus of Nazareth. In the Greek, " Jesus the Nazarene," who 
 being conceived, educated, and leading the most part of his life in 
 Nazareth of Galilee, according to the predictions of the prophets, 
 might well be called Nazarene. See our literal explanation. 
 Matt. ii. 23. 
 
 Approved of God. As if he had said. The person whom God by 
 most pow^erful and not to be contradicted proofs, had demonstrated 
 to be by him to you sent, seeing that he wrought so many and 
 such great miracles in your sight, which no man could have 
 efifected but by a divine power. . The same also Nicodemus acknow- 
 -ledged, John iii. 2. Master, said that great senator of the San- 
 hedrim, we know that thou comest from God, for no man can work 
 those miracles which thou dost, unless God were with him. 
 
 Among you, A Hebraism, for "to you," that is to say, to be by 
 him sent to you. 
 
 By miracles, wonders, and signs. A synonym, which figure we 
 make use of when we think one word not sufficient to explain the 
 dignity and value of the thing. But why miracles are called both 
 miracles, wonders, and signs, we have already declared upon Matt. 
 xxiv. 24. 
 
 ' 3 Hist. S. 
 
TER. XXIV.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 49 
 
 In the midst of you. That is, before your eyes. But token he 
 had wrought so many signs before them, they believed not in him, John 
 xii. 37. 
 
 23. This, &c. This Jesus, by the decree of the Father whom 
 he in all things voluntarily obeyed, being surrendered into your 
 power, with an incredible importunity you forced the Romans to 
 nail him to the cross. 
 
 By the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God delivered. In 
 the Greek, "yielded up." "They are said to be yielded up," 
 saith Grotius, " who are delivered up to their enemies." There- 
 fore Christ by the determinate decree of God was given up into the 
 power and disposal of his enemies, whose hostile and inhuman rage 
 God did not predestinate, as the divines do speak, but only fore- 
 knew. " Predestination," saith St. Austin,^ " cannot be without 
 foreknowledge, but foreknowledge may be without predestination. 
 For by predestination God foreknew those things which he was to 
 act; but he may foreknow those things which he himself does 
 not do ; as all manner of sins. For though there are some which 
 are in such a manner sins, as to be the punishment of sins — 
 hence it is said, God gave th^m over to a reprobate mind, to do 
 those things which are not convenient, Horn. i. 28 — ^yet there is no 
 sin in what iS attribute4 to God, but judgment." Thus far St. 
 Austin. 
 
 And by the hands of the wicked. In the Greek, " of the lawless." 
 The Jews called those lawless and sinners which are vulgarly 
 called pagans. But here Peter means the Roman soldiers, who are 
 called sinners. Matt. xxvi. 45 ; Mark xiv. 41 ; Luke xxiv. 7. See 
 1 Cor. ix. 15. 
 
 Ye slew. He that is the author and abettor of murder is said to ' 
 commit the murder. 
 
 24. Whom God hath raised up. Most excellently, St. Austin :- 
 " No dead person is the raiser of himself. He could raise himself, 
 who was not dead though his flesh were dead. For he raised that 
 which was dead ; he who lived in himself raised himself, but was 
 dead in the flesh that was to be raised. For the Father alone did 
 not raise the Son, of whom it is said by the apostles, for which 
 God raised him ; but also the Lord raised himself, that is, his own 
 body ; therefore said he, Destroy this body, and in three days I will 
 raise it," John ii. 19, "But who is so mad," saith the same St. 
 
 ' De PredeBt. S8. cap x. ' Serm. viit. de Verb. Dom. 
 
 E 
 
50 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. 11. 
 
 Austin,' " as to aay, that the Holy Spirit did not operate in the 
 resurrection of Christ, seeing that he operated the man Christ 
 himself?" 
 
 Having loosed the pains of hell. The Greek has, " of death," as 
 in the English version, that is, having loosed the bands of the 
 sepulchre ; or, which is the same thing, having broken the strong 
 cords of death with which Christ had surrendered himself to be 
 bound, laying down his soul that he might re-assume it, Johnx. 17; 
 alluding to the swathings of the dead, or to the cords with which 
 malefactors are bound when led to execution, to prevent their crafty 
 means to escape. From these bands God set Christ at liberty, 
 recalling him to a life never to be ended. " The Hebrew word 
 chebel" saith Sir Edward Leigh,^ "signifies two things, a cord or 
 a fetter, or the torments or pangs, more especially of a child-bearing _ 
 woman. Hence this word occurring to the seventy interpreters, 
 where it certainly signifies cords or bonds, Ps. xviii. 5, see margin, 
 they turn the word, sharp pains ; and so in other places, 1 Kings 
 XX. 31, &c. And here St. Luke following their example uses the 
 words, the pains of death, or as some of the ancients, with the 
 Syriao interpreter, have read, ' of hell.' Where both additions of 
 the words ' loosing' and ' holding,' show bonds or cords to be here 
 denoted by pains." 
 
 It was impossible, &c. As if he had said. He might be bound 
 with the cords of death, but he could not be detained bound by 
 those bonds, though never so strong, who had power to lay down 
 his life, and power to resume it, and only laid it down that he 
 might resume it, John x. 17, 18. 
 
 Of it. That is, either of death or of hell ; in whose bonds being 
 held and bound, he was free to break the cords. For hell in this 
 verse is taken either for the grave, or for the common receptacle 
 of all souls separated by death from the body ; which most of the 
 ancient interpreters, both Jews and Christians, believe to be 
 signified in scripture by the word hell. Hence that of Hilarius,' 
 " This Is the law of human necessity: that the bodies being buried, 
 the souls descend to hell, which descent, to the full finishing of all 
 that belonged to a true man, the Lord himself did not refuse." 
 Moreover, this word hell, taken for the common place of separated 
 souls, the Hebrews call Sheol, the Greeks Hades, and both divide 
 
 * Contra Ser. Ar. cap. xv. » In Supplement. Critic Sac. 
 
 ' In Psalm cxxxviii. 
 
VEtt. XXVI. J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 51 
 
 the place into two parts, of which the Hebrews call the one 
 Paradise, the Greeks Elysium ; the other is by the Greeks called 
 Tartarus, by the Hebrews Gehenna. " Therefore Christ," saith 
 Ja. Windet, "was in Paradise, and by the same way in hell. 
 Therefore St. Austin laboured in vain, and might have spared 
 himself the trouble which he spends upon that question pro- 
 pounded in his Epistle to Dardanus, and elsewhere. And when 
 we believe, itujcording to the Creed, in Christ descending into hell, 
 those are deceived who believe the meaning to be, that he descended 
 into the place of torment, commonly called hell." 
 
 25. For David speaketh concerning Mm. As if he had said. For 
 the Holy Ghost, who spake by the mouth of David, representing 
 the person of Christ, looking upon Christ as being dead, spake 
 these words, Ps. xvi. 8, &c. 
 
 I foresaw the Lord always before my face. That is, the majesty 
 of God represented itself before my eyes day and night, that I 
 might submit myself wholly to his power and disposal. , 
 
 For he is on my right hand that I should not be moved. As if he 
 had said. By his help and assistance, I overcome [in] most difficult 
 labours. " To be at the right hand," saith Genebrard, " is to be 
 prepared and ready to assist." 
 
 26. Therefore. That is, because I have God to assist me in 
 overcoming any hardships or dangers whatsoever. 
 
 Did my heart rejoice. That is, I rejoice with all my heart. 
 " Preterperfect tenses," saith Vatablus, "among the Hebrews, are 
 used for futures and presents." 
 
 And my tongue was glad. The Hebrew has it, " my glory," or 
 " honour." That is, and my gladness excites me to sing a hymn. 
 " Honour or glory," saith Moller, " is taken for the tongue. As, 
 My honour, be not thou united. Gen. xlix. 6 ; that is, I did not 
 approve their crimes with my tongue : nor did I by my command 
 excite them to perpetrate evil. Therefore then is the tongue so 
 called, as being that member particularly framed to celebrate the 
 honour lof God and the praises of men. See Ps. xxx. 12; Ivii. 8. 
 And for that reason they who revile God or men, their tongues 
 are deservedly called dishonour and infamy." 
 
 Moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope. The Hebrew has it, 
 " in safety." As if he had said, Although it may happen that my 
 body may lie prostrate in the cold arms of death, enclosed within 
 the sepulchre, yet my confident hope of returning from death to 
 
 E 2 
 
52 THE ACTS OP THE HOL-J APOSTLES [CHAP. II- 
 
 life affords me tranquillity and security of mind. Saith Kimchi, 
 in Ps. xvi. -9, "While I live my flesh shall remain in safety, 
 because he shall deliver me from all harm." But in a mysterious 
 sense, he believes it to be as if he had said, " After death my flesh 
 shall lie in the grave secure from worms, because they shall have 
 no power over it." 
 
 27. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell. The sense in refer- 
 ence to David is, 1 Sam. xxii. 1, thou wilt not suflfer me to be 
 slain by Saul ; but in relation to the Messiah, of whom David's 
 concerns were types, thou wilt not leave me long in the state of 
 the dead, or, which is the same thing, thou wilt not suffer my soul, 
 laid down for my sheep, to be a long time shut up within the 
 receptacle of souls separated from the body, into which I descended 
 to satisfy the law of death, as Ireneus speaks.' Worthily, there- 
 fore, Grotius : - " True it is," saith he, " that hell is a place sub- 
 tracted from our sight, and when it is understood in reference to 
 the body it signifies the grave, where the body lies without a soul, 
 but in reference to the soul it denotes that region or state wherein 
 the soul remains without the body. Therefore as Dives was. in 
 hell, so was also Lazarus, the regions only being distinguished. 
 For both Paradise and Grehenna, or, as the Greeks called those 
 places, Tartarus and Elysium, were in hell. And that this was 
 the opinion of the Greeks, is most certain, whom Virgil follows in 
 the sixth of his ^neids. Nor let any one question the Jews, for 
 whom I bring Josephus to vouch, who says that the prophet 
 Samuel was raised by the witch out of hell. The same author, 
 speaking of the Sadducees, ' They take away,' saith he, ' all pun- 
 ishments and rewards out of hell.' Again, where he sets down 
 the opinion of the Pharisees, he appoints the seat both of punish- 
 ment and reward in helly under ground, because the infernal 
 regions by the Greeks are called subterranean, either because 
 hell was thought to be under ground, or rather because it is no 
 more in sight than the most hidden recesses which the earth 
 conceals. Josephus,^ reciting the ojtinions of the Essenes, places 
 the souls of the godly beyond the ocean, to which in another place, 
 according to the judgment of the same persons, he allots the most 
 holy region of heaven. But indeed those phrases of speech, under 
 the earth, in the air, beyond the ocean, and what we find in 
 Tertullian, beyond the fiery zone, signify no more than that which 
 
 » Lib. V. cap. 26. ' Upon Luke xvi. 13. = De BelL Jud. lib. ii. cap. 12. 
 
VER. XXIX.] LITERALLY EXfLAINKD. 53 
 
 is invisible, and inaccessible to us." Thus far Grotius, to which 
 he adds that place of St. Ambrose:' " It had been enough to have 
 said to those philosophers, that souls, set at liberty from the body, 
 went directly to Hades, that is, to a place which is not seen, which 
 we call in Latin infemus" And, lastly, the scripture calls those 
 receptacles of separated souls, magazines. 
 
 Thy Holy One. In the Hebrew, "thy bountiful." That is, 
 him who never, nor in no place, found thy bounteousness and 
 loving-kindness withdrawn from him. 
 
 To see corruption. That is, to be corrupted. Thus to see death 
 is to die, Luke ii. 26. The Hebrew word nrnif, which properly 
 signifies corruption, or putrefaction, as the two great apostles, 
 Peter here, and Paul, ch. xiii. 34, urge the emphasis of it, is 
 nevertheless very often taken for a ditch or pit, where dead bodies 
 lie putrefying. So the Greek word whereby Luke expresses the-^ 
 Hebrew word, is by the interpreters of the Old Testement, not 
 only used to denote bare corruption, but also the place of putre- 
 faction, Ps. Ivii. 6, and xciv. 13. " To see the pit," saith Vatablus, 
 " is to be laid in a pit to suffer putrefaction," Ps. vii. 15 ; ix. 15 ; 
 Prov. xxvi. 27. The sense, therefore, of this half verse in refer- 
 ence to David is. Thou wilt not suffer me, being through thy 
 benignity appointed to reign, to die a sad death by the hand of my 
 enemies; in relation to the Messiah typified by David, Thou wilt 
 not suffer me, toward whom thou bearest a love most singular and 
 ineffable, to lie so long in the grave, Ijll my body be rotten. 
 
 28. Thou hast made known to me the way of life. In the Hebrew, 
 " Thou wilt make . me know the path of life." In respect of 
 David, it signifies. Thou wilt open me a most certain way to deliver 
 me from the death designed me by my enemies. In respect of the 
 Messiah, Thou wilt bring me back from death to perpetual and 
 immortal life. 
 
 Thou shalt make me full of joy. That is, thou shalt heap joy 
 and comfort upon me. 
 
 With thy face. As if he had said, being by thee beheld with a 
 benign and gracious aspect. 
 
 29. Men and brethren. A kind compellation to gain the affections 
 of the hearers. Neither does Peter in the least deny the cited 
 words of Ps. xvi. to be anywise understood of David ; but urges 
 them to be so uttered by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, that 
 
 ' De Bono Mortis, cap. 10. 
 
54 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. II. 
 
 literally and properly they are not to be understood of David, but 
 of Christ, of whom David [was] made a representation. 
 
 Of the patriarch David. Patriarch, is a compound Greek word 
 oipatria, signifying "family," and arche, "beginning." However, 
 every father of a family is not called a patriarch iy the Hellenists, 
 but only they who in Hebrew are called the heads, or chief of the 
 fathers; that is, the fathers of the fathers of a family, and the 
 founders of the whole family aJid kindred. They are called the 
 heads of the fathers, Exod. vi. 25 ; and 1 Chron. vs.. 9, patriarchs. 
 And thus David is properly called a patriarch, because he was the 
 founder of the royal family; which is called in Greek patria, 
 "lineage," Luke ii. 4. And so below, ch. vii. 8, 9, the 
 twelve sons of Jacob are called patriarchs, because the several 
 tribes derived their names from them, as being the founders of 
 their race, and deduced their original from them. So Abraham is 
 called a patriarch, Heb. vii. 4, because the whole race of the elect 
 people of God descended from his loins. There were also other 
 patriarchs improperly so called, not in respect of pedigree, but in 
 regard of their superiority and precedency. Thus they, whom the 
 author of the Chronicles calls princes of the tribes of Israel, 1 Chron. 
 xxvii. 22, the Greeks call patriarchs of the tribes, and in this 
 sense also King David, advanced to the most supreme degree of 
 dignity, might be styled a patriarch. Such were the patriarchs 
 improperly so called, whom the Hellenist Jews, after the destruc- 
 tion of Jerusalem, chose for their chieftains. "Therefore," says 
 the learned Heidegger,^ " Hadrian to Severianus the consul makes 
 mention of the patriarch of the Jews dwelling in Alexandria.'' 
 Epiphanius also relates in his disputation against the Ebionites, 
 • That some part of the Jews in his time inhabited the city of 
 Tiberias, who acknowledged a head or supreme, to whom they 
 gave the title of patriarch; to whom also were joined several 
 assistants, who were called apostles.' From which custom to think 
 that Christ gave to his disciples the name of apostles, is a gross 
 mistake of Baronius,* as Casaubon learnedly makes out. But in 
 the Christian church, as being a spiritual family, after the passion 
 of Christ several bishops were called fathers, and archbishops 
 patriarchs j that is to say, chief among the fathers. Whom it was 
 lawful to suffer, if not as fathers, at least as pedagogues in Christ, 
 
 * Exercitat i. Hist. Patriarch, n. 6. » Vopiac. in the Life of Saturnin. 
 
 ' Ad Annum '62, a. S. 
 
VEK. XXXI.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 55 
 
 1 Cor. iv. 15. But the ambition of these persons increasing, the 
 chief archbishops, whom they called bishops of the highest seat, 
 usurped this title to themselves; till at length four of them 
 obtained this title to be conferred upon them principally above all 
 the rest ; the patriarchs of Rome, of Alexandria, of Antioch, and 
 Jerusalem; to whom was added at length the patriarch of Con- 
 stantinople, made the second, by reason of the new Rome's dignity." 
 
 Is dead. He died on the feast of Pentecost, if we may believe 
 the Jerusalem Talmud. 
 
 His sepulchre. With which the bones and ashes of David are 
 covered. 
 
 30, Of the fruit of his loins. The words are taken out of the 
 132nd Psalm, ver. 11, where the Greek has it, "of the fruit of 
 thy belly;" that is, by the birth of thy wife. The same sense 
 answers to both. There is added here in the Greek text, "to 
 raise Christ according to the flesh." But there is no reason 
 appearing why this addition, which the Greek copies have, and 
 Chrysostom has expressed, should be brought into the least sus- 
 picion of being untrue. " For," saith the learned Ludovicus de 
 Dieu, "when Luke does not relate what was singly sworn to 
 David, but what David as a prophet knew to be sworn to him, it 
 did not behove him barely to recite the words of the promise, but 
 to explain how David as a prophet understood them. God had 
 promised to David, that he would settle in his throne one of the 
 fruit of his loins ; that David, as a prophet, knew to be nothing 
 else but that God would raise Christ according to the flesh, from 
 the fruit of his loins, to sit upon his throne." 
 
 To sit upon his throne. Christ is said to sit upon David's throne, 
 because he was designed by God to be his successor, who after a 
 celestial and divine manner should reign over the house of Jacob, 
 that is, the people of God, over whom David had received from 
 God the earthly dominion. For which reason Christ himself 
 affirms that he has the key, that is, the power and empire of 
 David, though his throne be not established upon earth, but 
 translated to heaven, and that all powers both in heaven and 
 earth are subjected to his empire, together with angels, good and 
 evil, all people, tongues, nations, and even death and hell itself. 
 
 31. He seeing this before. As if he had said, David understand- 
 ing by the spirit of prophecy, that it was pronaised him that Christ 
 should be raised from his seed, by the same prophetic knowledge 
 
56 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. II. 
 
 foretold that the soul of Christ should not be long left in a con- 
 dition separated from the body, nor his body remain so long in the 
 sepulchre as to be reduced to dust, before it should be raised, Ps. 
 cxxxii. and 2 Sam. vii. ; Ps. xvi. 
 
 32. Whereof loe are witnesses. As if he had said, "We all attest 
 that this Jesus was called from the dead, not by report, but by 
 those certain signs, of which we were all sensible by seeing, hear- 
 ing, and feeling. 
 
 33. Tlierefore being by the right hand of God exalted. As much 
 as to say, this Jesus being taken up into heaven by the divine 
 power. 
 
 And by the promise, &c. That is, and having received the gift 
 of the Holy Ghost, which he as Mediator between God and man 
 had often promised us, this has he largely and plentifully be- 
 stowed upon us, as by our sudden speaking of languages we never 
 learnt is apparently demonstrable to you. 
 
 34. For David did not ascend into heaven. That is, to the 
 heavenly throne, which is typified by his earthly throne. 
 
 But he saith himself. So Christ, Matt. xxii. 43 ; Mark xii. 36 ; 
 and Luke xx. 42. Hence it is clear, that it was a thing confessed 
 and apparent to the ancient Jews, that the 110th Psalm contained 
 prophecy concerning the Messiah, and that David was the writer 
 thereof. " And indeed," saith Grotius, upon the foresaid place of 
 Matthew, " the inscription in the Hebrew copies is, A hymn of 
 David, which alone sufficiently argues that it is not to be attri- 
 buted] to Eliezer, or any other writer in the times of Hezekiah. 
 For though we should grant that the Psalms' titles were not added 
 by their own authors, yet they appear to be of very great anti- 
 quity ; and to enervate the credit of them, not by argument, but 
 at our own conceited pleasures, [were] to be mad for love of con- 
 tention. The Septuagint render the word Ledavid, " to David ;" but 
 the paraphrasts and other Jews render it better " of David " in the 
 second case. For if we should otherwise interpret it, there would 
 be none of the Psalms which might certainly be thought David's. 
 Whereas the Jews themselves do all confess, that several of the 
 Psalms having the same inscription, Ledavid, were nevertheless 
 written by David." 
 
 The Lord said. to my Lord. That is, the Eternal Father be- 
 spake the Messiah to be born of me according to the flesh, who 
 nevertheless ia my Lord, because he is the only begotten Son of 
 
VEU. XXXVIII.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 57 
 
 the Eternal Father. Rabbi Saadias' testifies also that the Messiah 
 is here called Lord by David. 
 
 Sit thou at my right hand. That is, sit thou and reign in the 
 heavenly throne, as the apostle explains it. He does not say, 
 stand before me, but sit; which signifies regal and judicial power. 
 Neither does he say, sit at my feet, but at my right hand ; that is, 
 be thou next in power to me, 1 Cor. xv. 25 ; Heb. x. 12, 13. 
 
 35. Until I make, &c. "The word Mnft7,"saith Genebrard, "uses 
 to be taken emphatically for emn until, and signifies continuance, 
 not [to the] exclusion of future time, to which it is by no means 
 opposed ; as if he had said, reign with me also until I have put 
 thy enemies under thy feet; also, all the time that seems to be 
 contrary and opposite to thy reign; also, before I have subdued 
 thy enemies at thy feet, even before the devU, death, the wicked, 
 and all sin be utterly extirpated. For it is not to be questioned 
 but that at all other times Christ shall reign. Observe, therefore, 
 that by this and the like particles, the scripture and the Hebrew 
 language affirm what might otherwise be called in question, Ps. 
 cxxiii. 2, Our eyes are fixed upon the Lord, until he shall have 
 compassion upon us. That is, even until or before he shows us his 
 mercy; that is, in our time of distress. Matt, xxviii. 20, 1 am with 
 you until the end of the world ; that is, even until the end of the 
 world, before which time, it seems, many things may happen to 
 fall out contrary to it." 
 
 36. Assuredly, &c. That is, let this truth be to you most 
 certain and undoubted, that this Jesus whom you demanded to' 
 the most ignoble and ignominious death of the cross, is appointed 
 by God the Messiah, promised both in the law and the prophets, 
 and invested with all power both in heaven and earth. 
 
 37. What shall we do ? That is, by what means shall we obtain 
 pardon of so heinous a crime committed by us, when we demanded 
 this Jesus, constituted Lord of heaven and earth, the Messiah 
 promised in the law and the prophets, to be put to the scandalous 
 and ignominious death of the cross. 
 
 38. Bepent. The Greek, "Be wise again," or "return to per- 
 fect understanding." As if he had said. So do you repent of the 
 fact, that you may not only change your thoughts, but also your 
 lives for the better, and compose yourselves to live according to 
 the rule of his divine precepts. "Nothing makes true repentance," 
 
 ' Upon Dan. vji. 13. 
 
58 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. II. 
 
 saith St. Austin,' " but the hatred of sin and love of God." See 
 my annot. upon Matt. iii. 2, 8, in that edition" which I dedicated 
 to the Kight Honourable Henry Compton, Lord Bishop of London, 
 whose most ardent zeal for true religion and virtue, and most 
 liberal and munificent charity both to me and the rest of the 
 French ftotestants, no oblivion can ever be able to obscure. 
 
 And be baptized, &c. That is, according to the command of 
 Christ, let every one of you, struck with a real sorrow for his 
 sins, be plunged in water ; because that sacred immersion has been 
 instituted by Christ, like a certain signet, diploma, or patent, by 
 which he confirms the remission and utter defacing of their 
 sins to all those who seek to him with an unfeigned faith, as the 
 only Physician of their souls ; so that their sins shall never more 
 be remembered or imputed to them. 
 
 The sacred ceremony of baptism is not to be performed by the 
 sprinkling only, or pouring on of a little water, but by the 
 plunging of the whole body of them that are to be baptized; as, 
 first, the proper signification of the Greek word baptizo declares. 
 " This," saith Casaubon, ^ " was the rite of baptizing, that persons 
 were plunged into the water, which the very word baptizo 
 sufficiently demonstrates. Which as it does not extend so far as 
 to sink down to the bottom, to the hurt of the person, so is it not 
 to swim upon the superficies. Therefore we are apprehensive that 
 it is not without cause what some have disputed, that baptism 
 ought to be administered by plunging the whole body into the 
 water, for they urge the word baptize." See our annot. chap. i. 
 ver. 5, and our literal explication. Matt. iii. 6 and Mark i. 5. 
 
 Secondly. The example of Christ, Matt. iii. 16, and Mark i. 9, 
 Whence the Synod of Calcuith, a.d. 816,* where Wulfrid, arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury presided. " Let," saith he, " the presbyters 
 beware, that when they administer the sacrament of baptism, they 
 do not pour water upon the heads of the infants, but let them be 
 always plunged in the font, according to the example of the Son 
 of God himself, who was thrice plunged in the waters of Jordan. 
 Thus mi^st this ceremony be performed according to order." See 
 our lit. expl. Matt. iii. 15. 
 
 Thirdly. The constant practice of the universal church till the 
 time of Clement V., who was crowned pope anno. 1305, under 
 
 > Serm. 7, De Temp. ' [Londini, 1678.] ' Upon Matt. iii. 6. 
 
 ♦ Can. 11. [Wilkins, i. 179.1 
 
YER. XXXVIII.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 59 
 
 whom first of all the second Synod of Kavenna approved the 
 abuse introduced into some churches about a hundred years before, 
 that baptism without any necessity should be administered by 
 aspersion. Hence it came to pass, that contrary to the analogy, 
 or intended mystical signification of this sacrament, all the west 
 for the most part has in this age the use of rhantism, that is, 
 sprinkling, instead of baptism, as Zepper speaks, to the great 
 scandal of the Greeks and Russians, who to this day plunge into 
 the water those they baptize, and deny any one to be rightly 
 baptized who is not plunged into the water, according to the 
 precept of Christ, as we may find in Sylvester Sguropulus, and 
 Cassander.' " The custom of the ancient church was not sprink- 
 ling, but immersion, in pursuance of the sense of the word 
 baptizing in the commandment, and of the example of our blessed 
 Saviour ;" saith Dr. Jeremy Taylor." " The Greek word baptein," 
 saith Salmasius in the notes of divers upon Sulpitius Severus,' 
 "from which the word baptizein is derived, signifies immersion, 
 not sprinkling. Nor did the ancients otherwise baptize than by 
 single or treble immersion. In the Ghreek church at this day, the 
 person to be baptized is plunged over head and ears." The same 
 thing does Peter Avitabile testify of the Asian Christians inha- 
 biting Iberia and Colchi. " Only they who are bed-ridden," saith 
 Salmasius, " because they lie down, were baptized as convenience 
 would permit, not as they who plunge their heads under water, 
 but by pouring the water upon their whole bodies. Thus Novatus 
 was baptized in his sickness by effusion all over, not by im- 
 mersion."* Gregory Nazianzen relates many and various names 
 of this sacrament,* among which are these two, baptism and 
 washing. And adding the reason for these appellations, " it was 
 called," says he, "washing, because thereby sin is washed away; 
 and baptism, in regard that sin is thereby signified to be buried." 
 For, as saith St. Ambrose,^ " Water is that wherein the body is 
 plunged, to wash all sin away. There all vice is buried." Which, 
 in the book inscribed, " Eeformation of the Ecclesiastical Laws," 
 printed at London, 1641, is expressed in these words, " While we 
 are plunged in the water, the" death and burial of Christ is recom- 
 mended to us, that we openly testify that sin lies dead and buried 
 
 > Concil. Florent. sect. ix. cap. 9, and Lib. of Infants' Baptism, p. 693. 
 
 > Ductor Dubit, Ub. iii. cap. i. reg. IS. numb. 9. ' St. Martin's Life, n. 16. 
 ♦ Euseb. 6, Hist. cap. 43. ' Orat. 40. « Lib. De Initiandis. 
 
60 THE ACTS OF THE HOLTt APOSTLES [CHAP. II. 
 
 in US. For, as saith St. Bernard, immersion is a representation of 
 death and burial." But to substitute in the room of immersion, 
 either sprinkling, or any other way of applying water to the body, 
 to signify the same thing, is not in the power of the dispensers of 
 God's mysteries, or of the church. For that, as Tho. Aquinas 
 excellently well observes, " It belongs to the signifier to determine 
 what sign is to be used for the signification ; but God it is, who 
 by things sensible signifies spiritual things in the sacraments." 
 The church has no more power than was derived to it from the 
 apostles. Now the apostles were endued by Christ after his 
 resurrection with authority to preach throughout all nations the 
 observance of all his precepts, Matt, xxviii. 20. But never was 
 there any power granted to them to change the least tittle in any 
 of the conimands of Christ, much less of adding any new by their 
 own authority. 
 
 Lastly. There is another thing that evinces the necessity of 
 plunging the parties to be baptized, for that St. Peter asserts, 
 1 Pet. iii. 20, 21, the genuine end of baptism was not to represent 
 the inward washing away from sin, which may be represented by 
 any exterior washing of the body, but to express the death and 
 resurrection of Christ, as also our own, and our belief of both 
 resurrections, as the most famous Sir Norton KnatchbuU, in his 
 learned Notes, printed at Oxford, A.r*. 1677, with the licence of 
 the vice-chancellor, observes upon that place of Peter, whose 
 words, though long, I cannot but transcribe, they are so full of 
 truth and weight. "The sense and meaning of Peter is," saith 
 he, " that baptism, which now saves us by water, that is, by the 
 assistance of water, and is anti-typical to the ark of Noah, does 
 not signify the laying down of the filth of the flesh in the water, 
 but the covenant of a good conscience toward God, while we are 
 plunged in the water, which is the true use of water in baptism, 
 thereby to testify our belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ ; 
 so that there is a manifest antithesis between these words hy water, 
 and by the resurrection, nor is the elegancy of it displeasing. As if 
 he should say, the ark of Noah, not the flood, was the type of 
 baptism, and baptism was an anti-type of the ark ; not as baptism 
 is a washing away of the filth of the flesh by water, wherein it 
 answers not at all to the ark ; but as it is the covenant of a good 
 conscience toward God by the resurrection of Christ, in the belief 
 of which resurrection we are saved, as they were saved in the ark 
 
VER. XXXVIII. J UTEKALLY EXVLAINED. 61 
 
 of Noah. For the ark and baptism were both a type and figure of 
 the resurrection, so that the proper end of baptism ought not to 
 be understood as if it were a sign of the washing away of sin, 
 although it be thus oftentimes taken metonymically in the New 
 Testament, and by the fathers, but a particular signal of the resur- 
 rection, by faith in the resurrection of Christ. Of which, baptism 
 is a lively and emphatical figure, as also was the ark out of which 
 Noab returned forth as from the sepulchre to a new life, and 
 therefore, not unaptly called by Phllo, ' the captain of the new 
 creation.' And then, the whale's belly, out of which Jonas after a 
 burial of three days was set at liberty ; and the cloud, an,d the 
 Red Sea, in which the people of Israel are said to have been 
 baptized ; that is, not washed, but buried ; for they were all types 
 of the same thing as baptism, not of the washing away of sin, 
 but of the death and resurrection of Christ, and of our own. 
 To which truth the apostles, the fathers, the scholastics, and all 
 interpreters agree. The thing is so apparent as not to need any 
 testimonies ; but because there are not a few, who do not vul- 
 garly teach this doctrine, it will not be superfluous to produce 
 some of those innumerable testimonies, that I may not seem to 
 speak without book. And first, let us begin with St. Paul : 
 Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, 
 were baptized into his death ? Therefore, we are buried with him by 
 baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead hy 
 the Father of glory, so we also should walk in newness of life, Kom vi. 
 3, 4. See also, CoL ii. 12. Else what shall they do who are 
 baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? 1 Cor. xv. 29. As 
 if he had said. If there be no resurrection, why are we baptized ? 
 In vain does the church use the symbol of baptism, if there be no 
 resurrection. The like testimonies frequently occur among the 
 fathers : ' That believing in his death, we may be made partakers 
 of his resurrection by baptism.' ' Baptism given in memory of 
 the death of our Lord.' ' ' "W-e perform the symbols of his death 
 and resurrection in baptism.' ^ ' We know but one saving baptism, 
 in regard there is but one death for the world, and one resurrection 
 from the dead, of which baptism is an image." ' Hear Paul ex- 
 claiming. They passed through the sea, and were all baptized in the 
 chud and in the sea. He calls baptism the .passage of the sea, for it 
 
 ' Ignat, Epist. ad Tral. Id. Epist. ad Philadelph. ' Justin Martyr. 
 
 ' Basil the Great. 
 
62 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. II. 
 
 was the (flight of death caused by the water.' ' ' To be baptized 
 and plunged, and so to return up, and rise out of the water, is a 
 symbol of the descent into hell, and return from thence.' ^ ' Bap- 
 tim is a pledge and representation of the resurrection.' ^ ' Bap- 
 tism is an earnest of the resurrection.' * * Immersion is a repre- 
 sentation of death and burial.' * Innumerable are the testimonies 
 which might be added ; but these I think sufficient to prove that 
 baptism is an image of the death and resurrection of Christ, (from 
 whence we acknowledge the mystery of our religion, his deity 
 and humanity, Kom. i. 4,) and of all the faithful, who are baptized 
 in his faith, from death in sin to newness of life, which, if they 
 lead in this world, they have a most assured hope that being 
 dead they shall hereafter rise to glory with Christ. Which things, 
 if they be so, I beseech you, what affinity is to be seen between a 
 burial and a washing, that Christian baptism should be thought to 
 drawits original from Jewish lotions and divings? For if it were 
 true that the end of our baptism were to signify a washing 
 or ablution, or if it were true that the Jews of old did admit 
 their children or proselytes into their church by the adminis- 
 tration of any diving, as it is asserted by many learned persons of 
 late days, I confess it might be a probable argument that our 
 baptism was fetched from the divings of the Jews. But to prove 
 that our baptism is indeed an image of death and resurrection, not 
 of washing, enough has been said. But as to their argument who 
 would have' our baptism to be derived from the Jewish lotions, as 
 there is nothing of certainty in it, so is it so far from being 
 grounded upon aoy authority of scripture, that there are hardly 
 any footsteps to be found thereof in the Old Testament. They 
 deduce the original of baptism from the Hebrew word 033, which 
 signifies " to wash," or " cleanse," Exod. xix. 10. But the rabbins, 
 if I am not deceived, make use of the Hebrew word ^jn^D, which 
 signifies immersion, thereby making it appear that they owe the 
 notion of that word to the Greeks, or rather to the Christians. 
 For what affinity is there between lotion and immersion ? Besides 
 that, we find some to have been baptized in sand. But the thing 
 is so uncertain, that it cannot be said of the rabbins that there were 
 not several among them who differed very much about this 
 matter ; for, in the very text cited by the forementioned learned 
 
 ' Basil of ^eleucia. ' Chrysostom. ' Ambrose. 
 
 ' Lactantiui. * Bernard. 
 
VEK. XXXVIU.J LITERALLY EXPLAIKED. 63 
 
 men. Rabbi EHezer expressly contradicts Eabbi Joshua, who was 
 the first that I know of who asserted this sort of baptism among the 
 Jews. For Rabbi Eliezer, who was contemporary with Rabbi 
 Joshua, if he did not live before him, asserts that a proselyte cir- 
 cumcised and not baptized, was a true proselyte, for so we read of 
 the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that they were circum- 
 cised, but not baptized. But Rabbi Joshua affirms, that he who 
 was baptized, not he who was circumcised, was a true proselyte. 
 To whom shall I give credit? To Eliezer, who asserts what 
 the scripture confirms, or to Joshua, who affirms what is nowhere 
 to be found in scripture? But the rabbins upheld Joshua's side, 
 and what wonder was it ? for it made for their business, that is, 
 for the honour of the Jewish religion, that the Christians should 
 borrow their ceremonies from them. But when I see men of 
 great learning in these times fetching the foundations of truth 
 from the rabbins, I cannot but hesitate a little. For whence was 
 the Talmud sent us? (They are the words of Buxtorf, in his 
 Synagoga Judaica,) * that we should give so much credit thereto, 
 that from thence we should believe that the law of Moses either 
 can or ought to be understood ? ' Much less the gospel, to which 
 they were professed enemies. For the Talmud is called a ' laby- 
 rinth of errors, and the foundation of Jewish fables.' It was 
 brought to perfection, and held for authentic five hundred years 
 after Christ; therefore it is unreasonable to rest upon the testimony 
 of it. And that which moves me most, Josephus, (to omit all the 
 fathers that lived before the Talmud was finished) who was also a 
 Jew, and contemporary with Rabbi Eliezer, who also wrote in 
 particular of the rites, customs, and acts of the Jews, is altogether 
 silent in this matter ; so that it is an argument to me next to a 
 demonstration, that two such eminent persons, both Jews, and 
 living at the same time, the one should positively deny, the'other 
 make no mention of baptism among the Jews. Besides, if baptism 
 in the modern sense, were in use among the Jews in ancient 
 times, why did the Pharisees ask John Baptist, Why dost thou 
 baptize^ if thou art not Christ, nor Elias, nor that prophet? John i. 
 25. Do they not plainly intimate that baptism was not in use 
 before, and that it was a received opinion among them, that there 
 should be no baptism, till either Christ, or Elias, or that prophet 
 came. How then there should be so much affinity between bap- 
 tism and the divings of the Jews, that the one should be sue- 
 
64 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY A.POSTLES [cHAP. H- 
 
 "cessive to the other by any right or pretence, is altogether, I 
 confess, beyond my faith. They say that Arrian calls a Jew 
 ' dipped ;' but I, as his commentator does, beHeve that he spake 
 confusedly, and that he rather meant a Christian than a Jew, as m 
 another place he calls the Christians, Galileans : likewise, Lubm 
 upon Juvenal, Sat. iii. v. 14, observes, that there, by Jews, are 
 meant Christians, who being expelled the city by Domitian, were 
 forced to betake themselves to the woods that were sacred to 
 heathenish superstitions. Therefore, that I may conclude, I say 
 with Alexander de Hales, tinctio, that is 'dipping,' is the formal 
 ca;use of baptism." Thus far the most learned, and highly de- 
 serving of sacred writings. Sir Norton KnatchbuU, knight and 
 baronet. " Now," saith Grotius, " that the ancients made use of 
 the word tinffere instead of baptizare, is not to be wondered at, 
 seeing the Latin word tingere is properly the same in signification, 
 and frequently used for mersare, ' to dip or to plunge 
 
 Hence it is that Magnus, in St. Cyprian, doubts whether they 
 are to be accounted rightly initiated Christians, who are only 
 initiated by sprinkling or pouring, in cases of sickness or weakness. 
 To which Cyprian answers, " That whatever benefit accrues by the 
 saving sacrament, that sprinkling, or pouring upon, necessity so 
 enforcing, and God indulging, affords to the believer." " And this 
 is the sense and law of the Church of England ; not that it be 
 indifferent, but that all infants be dipped, except in the case of 
 sickness, and then sprinkling is permitted. And, therefore, 
 although in cases of need and charity, the church of England 
 does not want some good examples in the best times to counte- 
 nance that permission, yet we are to follow her command, because 
 that command is not only according to the meaning and intent of 
 the word ' baptize,' but agrees with the mystery of the sacrament 
 itself. For we are buried with him in baptism, saith the apostle. 
 The old man is buried, and drowned in the immersion under water, 
 and when the baptized person is lifted up from the water, it 
 represents the resurrection of the new man to newness of life. 
 In this case, therefore, the contrary custom, being not only against 
 an ecclesiastical law, but against the analogy and mysterious 
 signification of the sacrament, is not to be complied with, unless 
 in such cases that can be of themselves sufficient to justify a 
 liberty in a ritual and ceremony; that is, a case of necessity." 
 Thus the learned Jeremy Taylor, bishop of Down. 
 
VGK. XXXVm.J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 65 
 
 But the holy martyr Cyprian binds nobody to his opinion con- 
 cerning those that are sprinkled, or poured upon, in case of sickness 
 or weakness. "Wherein," saith he, « our moderation doth hinder 
 nobody from thinking what he believes, and doing what he thinks." 
 Yea, verily, Cornelius, the Eoman bishop and martyr, contem- 
 porary with Cyprian, in a synod of fifty bishops, questioned 
 whether sprinkling or pouring upon the sick or weak might be called 
 a baptism or no : as we may see in his epistle to Fabius, bishop 
 of Antiochia.! Indeed, that the sick as well as the healthy were 
 wont to be plunged, "which is properly to be baptized," says 
 Pamelius in his Notes upon Cyprian's Epistle to Magnus, besides 
 other proofs I omit [in order] to be brief, the acts of several saints 
 do testify; as in the acts of St. Sebastian, the martyr, we find 
 that Tranquillinus, a nobleman, afflicted with the gout, was so 
 baptized by Polycarp the presbyter, and restored to health by his 
 baptism. Also a paralytic Jew, who having long tried the physi- 
 cian's art in vain, bethought himself of the application of Christian 
 baptism, and being brought in his bed to the font or dipping place, 
 at the appointment of Atticus, who succeeded Chrysostom in the 
 Constantinopolitan see, was plunged over head and ears, which 
 being done, he was immediately freed from his distemper, and 
 restored to perfect health. " Therefore, if, rejecting the errors of 
 human contention, we return with a religious and sincere faith to 
 evangelic authority and apostolic tradition, we shall find' it most 
 safe for them who by necessity, and altogether necessary for them 
 who lying under no necessity were only sprinkled or poured upon, 
 to be obedient to Christ, who commanded neither sprinkling nor 
 effusion, but immersion, and to be plunged into the water ac- 
 cording to his institution, who is made to all that obey him the 
 cause of eternal salvation, Heb. v. 9. Nor is there any reason 
 why they should be afraid of repeating baptism, or of the scandal 
 of any church : " because," as St. Gregory says most excellently 
 well,^ "that is not said to be iterated, which is not certainly 
 demonstrated to have been rightly and duly done." And as he 
 says in another place, " if there be an offence taken at the truth, 
 it is much better that offence be taken, than that the truth should 
 be deserted." * The customs of churches ought to submit to the 
 words of Christ, not the words of Christ to be wrested to the 
 
 ' Apud Niccphorum, lib. vi. cap. 3. ' Socrates, lib. vii. cap. 4. 
 
 • Lib. i. Ep. 7. ' * Horn. 7, in Ezechiel. 
 
 F 
 
66 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. II. 
 
 customs of the church, in regard the words of Christ are the 
 foundation upon which all church customs are to be built, that 
 they may be safe and laudable. Whatsoever savours against the 
 words of Christ, savours against the truth ; and as TertuUian says, 
 "Whatever savours contrary to\truth is heresy, though it be an 
 ancient custom." It is in the power of God to pardon those that 
 err out of simplicity. " But because we erred once, we are not 
 always to go on in our errors," as St. Cyprian admonishes well j ' 
 "it being more proper for the wise, and those that fear God, to 
 obey the manifest and open truth freely, and without delay, than 
 obstinately and pertinaciously to resist it." Scotus having alleged 
 the judgment of Alexander the Third, touching the baptizing^ of 
 those of whom it was doubted whether they were baptized or no, 
 takes an occasion to recommend three maxims." The first is, 
 " Where there is a possibility, the safest way is to be chosen." 
 Secondly, " Where there is no possibility, the next to the safest 
 way is to be made choice of." Thirdly, "When impossibility 
 ceases, everything is to be supplied which impossibility would not 
 admit." These maxims, so agreeable to reason, whoever intends 
 to follow will never question but that they ought to be baptized, 
 if they have not received that baptism ordained by Christ, but 
 only the rhantism, that is, the sprinkling substituted in its room 
 by a vulgar use, or rather abuse, as Luther calls it. See chap. viii. 
 38. "Nor is it to be doubted," saith that famous divine, John 
 Forbes,' "but that they are again to be baptized who before have 
 only received a vain washing, and not the true sacrament of 
 baptism. And though it be not so great as the papists imagine, 
 yet is the necessity of this sacrament very great, and the profit 
 and advantage very considerable." 
 
 In the name of Jesus Christ. That is, professing a faith in 
 Christ not feigned, as we may collect from chap. viii. 37. See our 
 annotations upon the place. Or, in the name of Jesus Christ is the 
 same with in Jesus Christ ; as St. Paul speaks, Rom. vi. 3 : Are ye 
 ignorant that whosoever of us are baptized in Christ Jesus, accord- 
 ing to the Greek, " into Christ Jesus," we are baptized in his death, 
 the Greek has it, " into his death." Upon which words, Eulogius 
 of Alexandria :* " To be baptized into Jesus Christ, signifies to be 
 baptized according to the precept and tradition of Christ ; that is, 
 
 ' Epist. ad Jubaian. ' 4 Sent. dist. iii. q. 4, num. 10. = Instruct. Hist, 
 
 n. 10, cap. 14, n. 13. • Lib. ii. Coiitr. Novatian. apud Photium in Bibliotheea. 
 
VKR. XXXVIII.] LlTEllALLV EXPLAINED. 67 
 
 into the Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost. And that other, into 
 his death, is typically representing his death in baptism." The 
 same patriarch, in the same place, a little before, " What is said 
 ia the Acts of those that had received the baptism of John, that 
 they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, denotes that 
 they were baptized according to the institution and doctrine of the 
 Lord Jesus : as also when it is said in another place, that they 
 were baptized into Christ and the death of Christ, we ought to 
 understand that the same sense is thereby signified ; that is to say, 
 they were baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy 
 Ghost. For so the Lord Jesus Christ both taught and commanded 
 his disciples to baptize." John Jewel, bishop of Salisbury :' " To 
 baptize," saith he, " in the name of Christ, is so to baptize, as Christ 
 instituted, commanded, and ordained. But those words, in the 
 name of Christ, signify no more that baptism was administered in 
 the only name of Christ, not of the Father and Holy Ghost, than 
 these words,. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, argue that he was a 
 servant of Christ only, and not of the Father and Holy Ghost 
 also : or as if those words which Paul spoke to the keeper of the 
 prison, believe in Jesus Christ, should be thought to free him from a 
 necessity of believing in the other two persons of the Trinity." 
 Moreover, if there be any credit to be given to Pseudo-Abdias the 
 Babylonian, the apostles in the Infancy of the church, when they 
 baptized, used this form, "I baptize thee in the name of the Father, 
 and of his Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost." Perhaps, to 
 the intent, that the name of Jesus Christ, which was odious to the 
 Jews and Gentiles, might be advanced into honour, in regard that 
 the Holy Ghost was given in baptism upon the invocation of his 
 name. " Peter," saith Cyprian,^ " makes mention of Jesus Christ, 
 not as if the Father were to be omitted, but that the Son might 
 be joined to the Father." Hence, St. Austin uses this example to 
 weaken his adversaries' objection, where that Arian gainsays the 
 Holy Ghost to be the Creator, because it is said all things were 
 made by the Son :*^ "If," saith he, "because the Spirit is not 
 named, therefore thou thinkest the Spirit of God not to be a crea- 
 tor, by the same reason you may as well say, they were not bap- 
 tized in his name, to whom St. Peter speaks. Repent, and let every 
 one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, because he does 
 
 • Sect. 9. Confut. Harding. ' Epist. 73, ad Jubaian. 
 
 ' Lib. ill Against Maximin, bishop of the Avians, cap. 17. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. II. 
 
 not add, and of the Holy Ghost nor in the name of the Father, 
 because he Is not there named. But if they were commanded to 
 be baptized in the name of Christ, though the Father and the Holy 
 Ghost were not mentioned, yet we understand that they were not 
 otherwise baptized than in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy 
 Ghost ; why, dost thou not apprehend, when it is said of the Son, 
 all things were made hy him, that the Holy Ghost also, though not 
 mentioned, is there likewise understood?" Thus St. Austin. "Cer- 
 tainly," saith Facundus, bishop of Hermia,' " the apostles baptized 
 In the name of Jesus, though not only of the Lord Jesus, that 
 Is, in the name of the Son only, but also of the Father and Holy 
 Ghost. And from hence, I gather, that when baptism was cele- 
 brated, the very words' consecrated to the celebration of that 
 ordinance were used. But In a relation it sufficed to mention only 
 the name of the Lord Jesus to distinguish it from other divings. 
 But, therefore, I believe that of all the three Persons," the name of 
 Jesus Christ Is only assumed to denote the new baptism, because 
 we are by baptism buried with him Into death. Yet would It not 
 be, said, unless the Lord Jesus Christ were one of the Trinity." 
 
 In remissio7i of your sins. That Is, to seal the remission of your 
 sins, either received, or to be received by the full assurance of the 
 conscience. Therefore, the most learned Ames :* " The remission 
 of sins consists in the sentence of the offended God, nor can be 
 attributed to any outward ceremony, unless it be as to a sign or a 
 seal whereby that sentence of God is manifested to us." Says 
 Bonaventure,^ "As the royal letters, sealed with the king's seal, are 
 of high dignity, power, and value, and are said to do great things, 
 yet there Is not In them any absolute force, but only an ordain- 
 ment through the efficacy of the royal power ; the same thing Is to 
 be understood of the sacraments. And thus speak the texts of the 
 holy fathers according to common acceptation." 
 
 And ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. That is, ye shall 
 be Indued with the prophetic spirit, a specimen of which ye saw in 
 the diversity of languages. " For," saith Calvin, " this place ought 
 not to be understood of the grace of sanctification, which is gene- 
 rally conferred upon all the godly.'" According "to the usual Hebrew 
 phrase, the Prophetic Spirit is called the Holy Spirit, which by 
 their own confession failed among the Jews after the second year 
 
 • Lib. i. To JuBtin the Emp, cap. 3. ^ Bellarmin. Enervat. torn. iii. cap. 3. 
 
 ' 4 D. I. Art.i. Q. 4. 
 
VEIL XLI.j LITEEALLY EXPLAINED. 69 
 
 of Darius the son of Hystaspes, but was in a more ample measure 
 restored by Jesus Christ, according to the prophecy of Joel. 
 
 39. To you, &c. As if he had said, For you who believe the 
 gospel preached by me, together with your posterity that shall 
 believe, and all that shall obey the call of God, are comprehended 
 in the number, to whom belongs the abovementioned promise by 
 the mouth of Joel. 
 
 Who are far off. That is, aliens from the commonwealth of 
 Israel. Peter, most skilful in the scriptures and now enlightened 
 by the Holy Ghost, knew very well that the call of the Gentiles 
 was to be ; yea, he had learned it also from Christ, Matt, xxviii. 
 19; Acts i. 8. But at what time, and under what conditions, he 
 was ignorant. Therefore, below, ch. xi., when the Gentiles were 
 not yet called, he shunned their converse as polluted ; but having 
 known the will of God, that they were to be called without the 
 observation of the Mosaical law, he presently made it his business 
 to go amongst them. 
 
 Even as many as the Lord our Ood shall call. That is, whoever 
 shall obey the voice of God calling to them. " For," saith Grotius, 
 " in words that signify a benefit, the acceptation of the benefit 
 ia frequently understood. Thus the appellation of called is taken, 
 1 Cor. i. 24 ; Jude 1. Thus the word, to be revealed, is taken, Isa. 
 xxxiii. 1. Thus God is said to give repentance, 2 Tim. ii. 25. To 
 give bread from heaven, John vi. 32. To give a heart, Deut. xxix. 4; 
 and elsewhere, many others of the same kind." See our annota- 
 tiens on Joel ii. 32, upon the words, Whom the Lord shall call. 
 
 40. And with many other words, &c. As much as to say, And 
 he was urgent, and pressed them with exhortations, followed them 
 close, persuaded, and earnestly entreated them to separate them- 
 selves from the rest of the Jews that were unwilling to believe in 
 Christ, and contumaciously refused the divine grace that was offered 
 them, to prevent their being involved with them in the same 
 destruction. 
 
 41. They then who gladly received his words were baptized, Wa- 
 lafridus Strabo, who in the ninth century was abbot of Augia the 
 Eich, in the diocese of Constance, in his work Of the beginning 
 and increase of ecclesiastical things, ch. xxvi. : " You might ob- 
 serve," saith he, "that in the primitive times, the ordinance of 
 baptism was only administered to those, who through perfection of 
 body and mind had attained to this : that they knew and under- 
 
70 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. II. 
 
 stood what profit they received by baptism, what was to be pro- 
 fessed, what to be believed, and lastly, what was reserved for those 
 that were born again in Christ." Amba Macaire, bishop of Memphis, 
 who was secretary to Cosmus, the third of that name, patriarch of 
 the Cophti, or Christians of Egypt, and lived in the eighth century, 
 says, as Father Vansleb reports in his History of the Church of 
 Alexandria, ch. 23, that in the primitive times, baptism was not 
 administered in the church of Alexandria but once a year, and that 
 was upon Good Friday, and only to those of thirty years of age. 
 Curcellaeus, our countryman,^ " Baptism of infants," saith he, " in 
 the two first centuries after Christ was altogether unknown, but 
 in the third and fourth was allowed by some few ; in the fifth and 
 following ages it was generally received into custom." See our 
 annotations upon ch. viii. 37. But from thence, that the Jews who 
 were circumcised in their infancy, before circumcision was abrogated, 
 were here baptized by the order of Peter, it appears, that by bap- 
 tism and circumcision two covenants altogether differing, were to 
 be sealed ; of which the one was with those who by the law of 
 nature were born of the seed of Abraham ; the other with those 
 who by the gift of faith, like Abraham, were spiritually re-born, 
 as that great divine, eminent for all manner of learning, Nehe- 
 miah Cox, by most weighty and solid arguments has demonstrated 
 in his excellent discourse of the covenants that God made with 
 men before the law. 
 
 Were added. That is, to the body of the church, which then 
 consisted of a hundred and twenty disciples. 
 
 Souls. That is. Persons, which in other places we are wont to 
 call " heads," by synecdoche of the member. 
 
 About three thousand. There is no wonder to be made, that 
 three thousand persons should be plunged in one day by Peter, 
 a fisherman, and used to the water, in regard that in the beginning 
 of the fourth century, Gregory, the first bishop" of the Armenians, 
 baptized in one day, by immersion, no less than twelve thousand, 
 as we read in his authentic life, and which also Isaac, patriarch of 
 the same nation, confirms in his first invective. St. Bucherius i^ 
 " The Lord," saith he, " calls fishers to the apostleship, because 
 such were of necessary use, who being accustomed to the water, 
 were skilled both in fishing and diving ; therefore he did not 
 
 ' Iristitut. Relig. Chiietian. Lib; i. cap. 12. 
 ^ Serm. in Die Sancti. Andrese. apud Novarin. 
 
VJiR. XLII.] UTiSHALLY EXPLAINED, 71 
 
 ordain them to change their art, but only made them fishers of a 
 far nobler degree." That person, famous for his most exquisite 
 learning, both divine and human, James Benignus Bossuet, for- 
 merly bishop of Condon, tutor to the most serene dauphin, and 
 now prime almoner to his most serene consort, and bishop of 
 Meaux, speaking of the three thousand baptized by Peter :' " The 
 great number of converts," saith he, " is no argument that he ' 
 baptized them by aspersion, as some conjecture ; for besides that 
 there is no obligation upon us to believe that he baptized them 
 all in one day, certain it is that St. John the Baptist, who baptized 
 no less, baptized by immersion: and his example gives us to 
 understand, that for the administration of baptism to a great mul- 
 titude, they chose those places which were well stored with water ; 
 besides that the baths and purifications of the ancients, principally 
 of the Jews, rendered that ceremony easy and familiar at that 
 time. In short, we do not find in scripture that any were other- 
 wise baptized than by immersion, and we are able to make out by 
 the acts of the councils, and by the ancient rituals, that for 1300 
 years together they baptized in that manner throughout all the 
 churches, as much as was possible for them so to do." 
 
 42. And they persevered, &c. That is, and they continued assi- 
 duously and diligently. 
 
 In the doctrine of the apostles, That is, in hearing the apostles' 
 teaching. 
 
 And in communication of breaking bread, and in prayers. In the 
 Greek, " And in communication, and in breaking of bread, and in 
 prayers ;" which the learned divine, Joseph Mede, renders : "And 
 in communication, that is, in breaking bread and in prayers." So 
 that the conjunction and after communication, is not conjunctive, 
 but explanatory, as frequently in other places. Hence the Syriac 
 translates the words, "And they did conununicate in prayer, and in 
 breaking the eucharist." The service of the ancient Christians, 
 baptized according to the precept of Christ, consisted of these three 
 parts ; hearing the word, public prayers, under which was, by a kind 
 of synecdoche, comprehended thanksgiving, ch. iii. 1 ; xvi. 13 ; 
 Luke xviii. 10, 11; Phil. i. .3, 4 ; and celebration of the Lord's 
 supper. " Breaking of bread," saith the famous Lightfoot, " among 
 the Jews signifies that particular action, with which dinner or sup- 
 per began ; but I do not remember that ever I observed it applied 
 
 ' In tractat. de Commun. sub binis spedebus. 
 
72 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. II. 
 
 by the Talmudlsts to the whole meal. And I suspect that what 
 Beza affirms, is rather upon trust than upon proof: 'It came in 
 custom,' says he, 'that their mutual ordinary food, even their 
 feasts, which they often made together, were understood under the 
 name of breaking of bread ;' which if true, I must ingenuously 
 acknowlege my own ignorance; but if not true, then breaking of 
 bread, both in this and the following 46th verse, cannot be under- 
 stood of ordinary food, but of the eucharist, which the Syriac in- 
 terpreter expresses in terms ; and the parallel is that of ch. xx. 7 ; 
 1 Cor. X. 16." But there is a synecdoche of the member in this 
 phrase, for a part of the Lord's supper is set down for the whole, 
 as the drinking of the cup, 1 Cor. xii. 13. But the breaking of 
 bread represents the bitter pains which Christ suffered upon the- 
 cross, wherewith his body was as it were broken and bruised, for 
 such torments in scripture are called breakings or fractures, Prov. 
 vi. 15 ; Isa. xxx. 26 ; xxxviii. 13 ; Dan. xi. 26, &c. Whence we 
 collect, that the ceremony of breaking the bread in the Lord's 
 supper is not a thing indifferent; but whereas it tends to set 
 forth the end of the Lord's supper, it is altogether to be used 
 according to the example of Christ and his apostles. See Matt. 
 xxvi. 26 ; 1 Cor. x. 19 ; xi. 24. . The English translation is less 
 approved by the learned Mede, who refers the Greek, word koivid- 
 vla, to the preceding word aTroCTroXwv, and translates it, "The 
 fellowship of the apostles." 
 
 43. A)id fear, &c. As if he had said. They that were not yet 
 converted by the preaching of the apostles stood amazed and 
 astonished at the novelty of the growing church, and the many 
 signs and wonders wherewith the apostles corroborated the force 
 and energy of their sermons. 
 
 44. Jnd all, &c As much as to say, But all the believers joined 
 together in brotherly love, and converted their estates which they 
 had in propriety to the common good of all. 
 
 45. Possessions, &c. That is. The rich sold what they had, to 
 supply the necessities of the poor. " They were Jews that did so, 
 and none but Jews that did so. Show me the like among the Gren- 
 tiles when the gospelcame among them. Which of all St. Paul's 
 Epistles gave any such precept, or intimates any such thing ? But 
 as for the Jews, they who once believed in Christ, believed also 
 the woeful destruction of their own nation to be within a few 
 years after, and therefore they thought good, while there was yet 
 
VEtt. XLVI.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 73 
 
 time, to improve their lands and possessions to the best use, which 
 they should not many years enjoy. And the occasion was now fit, 
 at the first preaching of the gospel and gathering up a church to 
 Christ, to furnish the apostles and others for this service and 
 employment. And therefore, when the gospel Avas also spread 
 among the Gentiles, the apostles were so careful to make collec- 
 tions in the churches for the relief of the poor saints in Jerusalem, 
 even those who at the first had disfurnished themselves of all, and 
 at whose charge, as may be supposed, the gospel was at the begin- 
 ning preached among the Gentiles." Thus, the most learned Joseph 
 Mede.' See Rom. xv. 26, 27 ; 1 Cor. xvi. 1 ; 2 Cor. viii. 9. 
 
 46. Continuing daily with one accord in the temple. That is, they 
 met daily in the temple, with a brotherly unanimity, to worship 
 God in public. 
 
 And breaking bread from house to house. The Greek hath 
 katoikon, which the Syriac and Arabic interpreters take to be 
 opposed to the temple, as if it were singly said, " at home, or in 
 private," whereas by others it is expounded "at several houses," 
 that is, sometimes at one house, and sometimes at another. Sal- 
 masius says, "That the ordinance of the Lord's supper was 
 celebrated in the private houses, where they feasted together. 
 Katoikon is from one house to another, as katapolin is from town 
 to town. For the Jews eat their legal passover every one in his 
 own house, in imitation of which Christ instituted his ordinance, 
 and ordered it to be eaten at the same hour of supper. Those 
 suppers, as is well known, were called agapes, 'love-feasts,' 
 whether celebrated in the church, or in the houses of private 
 persons. In both places they were partakers of the sacrament of 
 Christ's body and blood, after they had supped. Hence agape, 
 ' love-feast,' is taken for the eucharist itself by an ancient author, 
 who calls himself falsely Ignatius, in an Epistle to the Smymeans. 
 'It is not lawful without the bishop to baptize, or celebrate the 
 love- feast,' says he; that is, the Lord's supper. To celebrate 
 private love-feasts, the richer sort invited the brethren to their 
 houses, and then according to custom celebrated the Lord's supper 
 after the end of the love-feast. From which love-feasts, the custom 
 continued a long time of blessing and receiving the eucharist from 
 house to house. In the fourth century it appears to have been 
 
 •I 
 
 1 Serm. 28, upon Prov, xxx.'8, 9. 
 
74 THE ACTS OP THE HOI.Y AVOSTLES [cHAP. II. 
 
 still administered by several bishops and presbyters in private 
 houses. Which by their last canon, save one, was prohibited by 
 the fathers of the Council of Laodicea, ordaining that no oblations 
 should be celebrated in private houses. This was in the year 364. 
 But the fathers of the Synod of Gangra, which was some twenty 
 years before that of Laodicea, condemned Eustathius, because he 
 would not allow the private love-feasts' of that sort, at which, 
 without doubt, they received also the sacrament. 'If any one,' 
 say they, canon ix., 'despises these cordial entertainers of the 
 poor at their love-feasts, who out of respect invited the brethren 
 to their houses, and refuses out of contempt to be partakers of 
 such biddings to supper, let him be an anathema.' For it is to 
 those private love-feasts that the canon of the Laodicean council 
 without question has reference, forbidding oblations In private 
 houses. For In those love-feasts, which were only entertainments 
 of private persons, inviting the faithful brethren to their houses, 
 was also celebrated the oblation, that Is, the eucharist. For with 
 the brethren, they invited also the bishops or elders, by whom, 
 according to the custom of that time, the bread and wine was 
 blessed into the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ. 
 Nevertheless the Laodicean canon did not take away the private 
 love-feasts, but only the custom of communicating the Lord's 
 supper therein. For in the 28th canon of the same synod, the 
 clergy and laity invited to the love-feasts are forbid to take any 
 parts of the victuals; that Is to say, according to the Greek way 
 of speaking, to carry any part home to their own houses. So 
 they were not forbid to go to the love-feasts, but to carry any 
 part away. By the same council the people were restrained from 
 celebrating their love-feasts in the temples, in which public love- 
 feasts most certain It is that the eucharist was wont to be taken." 
 These love-feasts seem to have their original from the sacred feasts 
 of the Jews, Neh. viii. 10 — 12. 
 
 Did eat their meat with gladness, and singleness of heart. That is, 
 cheerfully and temperately; to refresh, and not oppress nature. 
 See TertuUian, Apologet. cap. 39. Some there are who, with 
 Chrysostom, believe that the love-feasts were wont to follow the 
 celebration of the Lord's supper; whereas, on the contrary. It is 
 apparent that the sacrament of the Lord's death concluded the 
 supper, by the custom, which remained in Africa, upon the 
 anniversary night of the Lord's supper : as appears by the Councils 
 
VER. XLVII.J LITEllAIXy EXPLAINED. 75 
 
 of Carthage, 3 Can. 29, 6 Can. 9, and by the Epistle of St. Austin 
 to Januarins, cap. 9. 
 
 47. Having favour with all the people. That is, they were 
 grateful and acceptable to the very strangers, who convinced by 
 the splendour of the virtues which they beheld in them, applauded 
 those things which they could not yet imitate. 
 
 And the Lord added such as should be saved. That is, such as 
 had separated themselves from the common impiety of men. 
 
 Daily. As much as to say, the multitude of those daily 
 increased who had freed themselves from the snares of impiety, 
 and joined themselves to the church of Christ. 
 
 CHAPTEK III. 
 
 1. But Peter. In the Greek, " at the same time Peter," or as 
 others render it, " but as soon as Peter." 
 
 At the ninth hour of prayer. That is with us, about three of the 
 clock in the afternoon ; which as it was the ordinary hour of 
 sacrificing, so was it also of prayer. As to the times of sacrificing, 
 thus Josephus:* "Twice every day, to wit. In the morning and 
 about the ninth hour, the priests sacrificed upon the altar." As to 
 the hours of prayer, thus Drusius : " The ancient custom was to 
 pray thrice a day. Evening, morning, and at noon mil I pray 
 and cry aloud, Ps. Iv. 17. "Which hours they reckon to be the 
 third, sixth, ninth. The third answers our nine in the morning, 
 the sixth our twelve at noon, and the ninth our three in the after- 
 noon." And that there were no more than three hours of prayer- 
 time among the Jews, Kimchi clearly demonstrates upon Ps. 
 xxxiii. 8, which also Daniel seems to confirm, who was wont to 
 pray thrice a day, Dan. vi. 10. E. Menachem adds also, that the 
 third hour was set apart by Abraham, the sixth by Isaac, and the 
 ninth by Jacob. Nor shall you find any other distinctioris of 
 hours, wherein the scripture makes mention of set prayers. In 
 the third hour the Holy Ghost descended upon the disciples of 
 Christ, ch. ii. ver. 15. In the sixth hour Peter ascended into the 
 upper room to prayer, ch. x. ver. 9, and at the ninth hour Peter 
 
 • 14 Antiq. 8. 
 
76 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CUAP. III. 
 
 and John went to the temple. Whence Tertullian notably infers,^ 
 "That saving always that there is no time limited, but that 
 Christians are at liberty to pray everywhere, and at all times, yet 
 that those hours, as they . were the most remarkable in human 
 affairs, dividing the day, distinguishing business, and made known 
 by public sound, so were they the more solemn for the celebration 
 of divine worship." 
 
 2. At the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful. This was in 
 the first circuit of the temple, called the court of the Gentiles, 
 which Herod added to the rest. It was overlaid with Corinthian 
 brass, which was much more shining and beautiful than gold.*' 
 
 4. Look on us. By which words Peter gives to understand that 
 he was to expect the benefit as well from John, as from him. 
 Hence the lame person is said in the next verse to have given 
 special heed to them, as expecting to receive something from them 
 both. And so the miracle of the cure was by both equally accom- 
 plished, though Peter only spake. 
 
 6. Silver and gold have I none. That is, I have no money at all. 
 But what I have. That is to say, sound and perfect health. 
 
 In the name of Jesus Christ. That is, by the virtue and power 
 of Jesus Christ. This form was used in miraculous cures, and 
 casting out of devils, Mark ix. 28. 
 
 7. The bases lal jSoffsie] received strength. That is, the soles of 
 his feet, which the Latins call vestigia, as well as the footsteps, or 
 prints of the feet. 
 
 8. And leaping up, he stood. It refers to the prophecy of Isaiah, 
 ch. XXXV. ver. 6, Then shall the lame leap, as an hart; that is, with 
 an extraordinary nimbleness. 
 
 Walking and leaping. He could not compose himself to an 
 ordinary pace through the excess of his joy. Thus speaks a 
 classical author,^ "Rejoicing, and full of gladness, he expressed 
 his joy by jumping." 
 
 10. Were filled with wonder and amazement. This would Virgil 
 express thus : " With minds astonished, fixed they stood." 
 
 11. But when they saw. In the Greek and English version. But 
 when the lame person that was healed held Peter and John. " Thus," 
 saith Beza, "it runs in all the Greek copies that we have seen, as 
 also in CEcumenius. But the exemplars of the old edition are 
 here erroneous in two manner of readings. For some write, ' but 
 
 > Lib. de Jejun, = Joseph, de Bell. Jud. lib. vi. cap. 6. = Apiileius, lib. x. 
 
VER. XI. j » LITEEALLY EXPLAINED. 77 
 
 when they saw.' Others, ' but when they held ;' arid these words, 
 ' the lame man being healed,' are all left out, both by them and by 
 the Syriac and Arabic interpreters. But the Greek word kratein, 
 here does not signify to take hold of, but so to hold a thing fast as 
 not to let it escape out of the hand. Which argues that the lame 
 person was loth to depart from them, either out of affection to 
 those that had cured him, or out of fear of becoming lame again, if 
 he should forsake their company." Thus Servius observes that 
 Virgil makes use of the Latin tenere, for "to stay" and "embrace." 
 To the porch which is called Solomon's. So the first court of the 
 temple was called, which was also the court of the Gentiles, in 
 regard the Gentiles had liberty of entrance into it. It was called 
 Solomon's Porch, because there was in that court the repaired 
 porch toward the east part of the temple, which, though never 
 finished and made perfect, bare Solomon's name. Of which Jose- 
 phua,' "That porch belonged to the outward temple, hanging over 
 a steep valley, supported with four hundred cubits of wall, built of 
 very white four-square stones. The length of every stone was 
 twenty cubits, and the depth six : the work of King Solomon, who 
 first built the whole temple." Upon which place of Josephus, the 
 learned Lightfoot makes this observation in his chorographic dis- 
 quisition before St. John. " There is no need of a commentary 
 upon these words. The eastern porch was of the first foundation 
 by Solomon. He speaks plainly enough which, and where the 
 porch of Solomon was; that is, upon the out-wall of the temple 
 toward the east. But the royal p^rch stood upon the south wall:" 
 which received its royal name from King Herod, as Lightfoot. 
 upon the same place a little before observes. The same famous 
 author, in his Hebraic Hours upon the Acts of the Apostles,' « If 
 you distinguish between porch and porch, Solomon's was the 
 eastern, and the Toyal the southern porch. But if you would 
 have the whole court to be comprehended under the name of 
 Solomon's porch, though it seems s6mewhat more obscure why it 
 should be called a porch, and why Solomon's, yet may it not be 
 Incongruously here admitted. But -whether it take its name from 
 Solomon's porch, strictly so called, as being the most noble 
 because anciently built by Solomon, or whether because Solomon 
 consecrated that court in his temple by sacrifices, 1 Kings viii. 63, 
 or whether because Solomon filled up immense valleys to make a 
 ' Antiq. 20,8. " Chap. iii. ver. U, ' 
 
78 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSl'LES [CHAP. III. 
 
 space even for this court? — whatever be the reason, we do not 
 deny but this whole court may be called by that name, though as 
 we have elsewhere showed, the porch itself, in a strict sense, was 
 only a part, and the eastern porch of that court." 
 
 12. As though by our virtue. That is, as though by any wonder- 
 working efficacy, or virtue inherent, or inbred in us. 
 
 Or power. In the Greek and English version, holiness. That 
 is, or by any faculty divinely ingrafted in us, for our piety toward 
 God. 
 
 We had made this man to walk. That is, we had been the cause 
 that this lame person, by a supernatural effect, should walk upon 
 his feet. 
 
 13. The God of our fathers. From whom proceeded the true 
 and heaven-born religion. 
 
 Has glorified his Son. That is, in the miracle by us wrought, 
 has been pleased to illustrate the glory of Jesus, who is the 
 Messiah promised in the law and the prophets. " This surname," 
 saith Grotius, upon Matt. xiv. 33, " the Son of God, appears com- 
 monly given to the Messiah. For, says Nathaniel, Master, thou 
 art that Son of God, thou art that King of Israel, John i. 50. 
 That is to say, from the second Psalm, which the ailcient Hebrews 
 interpret according to the mystical meaning of the Messiah. 
 Therefore where Christ is by Peter said to be the Son of the 
 living God, Mark and Luke content themselves with the word 
 Christ alone. Add to these Matt. xxvi. 63 ; Heb. v. 4, 5. But 
 how God the Father called Christ his beloved Son, see our literal 
 explanation upon Matt. iii. 17. 
 
 Whom. That is, the Messiah promised to you by God, and so 
 openly professing himself to be, Mark xiv. 62. 
 
 You delivered up. To be put to death by Pilate. This properly 
 belongs to the Jewish senate. See Mark xv. 1 ; John xviii. 30. 
 
 And denied in the presence of Pilate. This relates to the people 
 of the Jews. As much as to say. You would not acknowledge 
 him before Pilate to be the Kihg Messiah. 
 
 He determining to let him go. That is, though Pilate himself, a 
 Gentile, and an unjust magistrate, adjudged him innocent, and so 
 fit to be acquitted, and dismissed. 
 
 14. But you. Born and bred in the true worship of God, to 
 whom this Jesus, who is the promised King Messiah, was sent. 
 
 Denied the Holy One. That is, you abjured him who is the 
 
VEU. XV.J LITEllALLY EXPLAINED. 79 
 
 Holy of Holies, and our just Lord, or our Justice, Dan. ix. 24 ; 
 Jer. xxiii. 6. 
 
 And you required a murderer to be granted unto you. That is, 
 when it was in your power and choice whether you would have 
 released this Jesus, a person of absolute innocence and integrity, 
 or Barabbas convicted of manifest murder, you required that 
 homicide to be dismissed in your favour. 
 
 .15. But you killed the Author of life. That is, by your urgent 
 instigation, you compelled Pilate to condemn the Prince of Life to 
 death. The Greek word, as Erasmus observes, consists of words 
 contrary to themselves, being compounded of one word signifying 
 beginning, and another word derived from the end, as much as 
 to say, beginner and ender: therefore Christ is said to be the 
 Beginner and Ender of eternal life. For as the learned John 
 Davenant, bishop of Salisbury, observes upon Col. iii. 4, " He 
 promised us this life, he merited it, he prepared it, he will grant 
 it. He promised in the name of the Father, Fear not, little flock, 
 for it has pleased the Father to give you the hingdom, Luke xii. 32 ; 
 and in his own name, / give eternal life to them, John x. 28. He 
 merited it. God hath sent his only begotten Son into the world, that 
 we might live through him, 1 John iv. 9, and v. 11. He hath pre- 
 pared us for this, and this life for us. He hath prepared and 
 fitted us for this life by his Spirit. He hath made us meet to be 
 partakers of the lot of the saints in light, Col. i. 12. He hath 
 enlivened us by Christ, through whose grace ye are saved, Eph. ii. 5. 
 He hath also prepared this kingdom for us by his ascension. / 
 go to pfepare a place for you, and when I have prepared it, I will 
 come again and take you with me, &c., John xiv. 20. Lastly, He 
 will grant to his own this crown of eternal life. Thou hast given 
 him power over all flesh, that to as many as thou hast given him, he 
 should give to them eternal life, John xvii. 2. There is laid up for me 
 a crown of justice, which the Lord will give me, 2 Tim. iv. 8. Christ 
 is therefore truly called our Life, that is the Author or Cause of 
 our life eternal. And being consecrated, he is made the Author of 
 eternallife to all that obey him, Heb. v. 9." 
 
 You hilled. Every one is reputed to have done that what 
 another does in his favour. 
 
 Wliom God raised from the dead. See annot. on ch. ii. 24. 
 
 Whereof we are witnesses. When Peter called himself and his 
 fellow disciples the witnesses of Christ's being raised from the 
 
80 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. III. 
 
 dead, it signifies that with their own eyes they saw Christ when 
 he was risen. 
 
 16. And through faith, &c. As much as to say, and through a 
 firm persuasion of the divine power of Jesus, this man whom we 
 see, and knew to have been lame from his mother's womb, now 
 upward of forty years of age, has obtai^ed from Christ the sound- 
 ness of his soles and ankles. 
 
 Has made this man strong. By the consolidatian of his feet and 
 anklebones. Look back to ver. 7. 
 
 His name. That is, the efiective power of Christ. "Name," 
 saith Grotius, " is here taken for virtue and power," 
 
 And faith, &c. As if he bad said, by his firm persuasion of the 
 divine power of Christ, which through Christ arises to that God 
 of whom you profess yourselves the adorers, this perfect soundness 
 is conferred upon him from above, before you all. "When he 
 says, faith which is by him, by that word he means, that our faith 
 no otherwise ascends to God, but as it is founded in Christ. 
 Therefore then our faith looks to Christ, and relies upon him," 
 saith Calvin. See 1 Pet. i. 21. 
 
 17. Through ignorance ye did it. That is, more through a dull 
 and supine ignorance of the person, than any designed malice, you 
 and the senators of your great Sanhedrim wrested from Pilate that 
 unjust sentence, whereby he judged Christ, the Son of the living 
 God, to the torment of the cross. However, this ignorance does 
 not excuse your sin, but abates something of the heinousness of it, 
 and renders it the more easy to be pardoned by God. Hence 
 Christ doing that upon the cross which intercessors use to do, 
 omitting what was to be blamed in the fact of the Jews, applies 
 himself to that which in some measure tended to lessen the offence. 
 Father, says he, forgive them, for they know not what they do, Luke 
 xxiii. 34. 
 
 18. God, &c. As if he had said, but God, who wisely disposes 
 all things by counsel and reason, by means of your dull and sottish 
 ignorance brought that to pass which he knowingly and willingly 
 had decreed and foretold by his prophets, that Christ should suffer 
 to expiate the sins of mankind. Saith Tertullian,i " The scrip- 
 tures declaring that Christ could suffer death, at the same time 
 affirm that he could be unknown. For unless he had been 
 unknown, he could not have suffered." 
 
 ' Lib. iii, against Marcion. 
 
VEH, XX.J LITEHALLY EXPl.AINKD. 81 
 
 19. Repent therefore. As much as to say, therefore let your 
 repentance be great, in regard ye have offended God. " Repent 
 of your errors, having found the truth. Repent of your affection 
 to those things which God loves not," as Tertullian speaks.' 
 
 And be converted^ He that repenteth hath no better refuge 
 than the utter change of his purpose. " True repentance is to 
 commit nothing to be repented of, and to be sorry for it when any 
 such thing hath been committed. This is the satisfaotion of 
 repentance, to root out the causes of sins, and to give no ehtrance 
 to their suggestions," saith Gentiadius of Marseilles, in his book of 
 Ecclesiastical Dogmas, cap. iv. See my annotations upon Joel ii. 
 12; Matt. iii. 8. 
 
 Tliat your sins- may be blotted out. Not that our repentance or 
 works merit anything at the hands of God, or are so perfect that 
 they can abide the test of his rigorous justice, but because that 
 G-dd under this condition has decreed to make us partakers of 
 salvation purchased by the blood of Christ. " Therefore let the 
 wicked man relinquish his ways, let him relinquish his evil 
 thoughts, which cause him to despair of remission of sins, and 
 according to the saying of the prophet. Let him be converted to the 
 Lord, for he will abundantly pardon, Isa. Iv. 7. For there is 
 nothing wanting in Him, whose mercy is omnipotent, and whofee 
 omnipotency is altogether merciful. And so great is the benignity 
 of his omnipotency and the omnipotency of his benignity, that 
 there is nothing which he will not, or cannot remit to a true 
 penitent," saith Fulgentius.*^ The same author in the same place, 
 a little further: " For such is the justice of God, that he condemns 
 the perverse, and saves the converted. Whence, saith he, be con- 
 verted to me, and I will save you, Isa. xlv. 22." But yet for no other 
 cause is God moved to pardon the converted, but out of his mere 
 free love which he bears to mankind. And this love, which was 
 as it were extinguished by their sins, is again rekindled by the 
 intercession and obedience of the Son of Gbd, "who remaining 
 still just, was made mortal. By taking upon him the punishment 
 and not the guilt, he cancelled both the guilt and the punishment," 
 saith St. Austin.^ 
 
 20. That when the times of refreshing shall come. In the Greek, 
 " That the times of refrigeration may cOme. It is usual to the 
 Greeks to make use of otriDg av with their aorists, for the simple 
 
 ' De Pcenitcnt. cap. 4. ' Epiet. 7, to Venantia. ' Serm. 37, De Verb. Dom. 
 
 G 
 
82 THE ACTS 01' THE HOLY APOSTLES [OHAP. HI- 
 
 particle ut, "that," as you may see below, ch. xv. 17; Matt. vi. 5; 
 Luke iii. 35. Hence the Syriac and Arabic interpreters under- 
 standing that the Greek Sttwc av joined only in this text -the 
 second proposition with the first, they have translated it by the 
 copulative, " and," thus, " And the times may come that ye may 
 have rest from the sight of God, and he may send to you Jesus 
 Christ, who was prepared for you." The sense'is, That your sins 
 registered in the memory of God being utterly defaced, the day. 
 of refrigeration, that is, of consolation, may shine upon you. 
 As he is said to burn with grief, who is afflicted with a sharp 
 sense of pain, so is he said to be refrigerated when consolation 
 alleviates his torment. The Ethiopic version explains, the "times 
 of refrigeration" by the "times of mercy." The most learned 
 and modest Lightfoot;i "I might perhaps," saith he, "betray 
 my ignorance in the Greek language, if I should acknowledge 
 that I do not understand by what authority of that tongue, the 
 most learned interpreters have rendered the words, either, ' that 
 when they shall come,' as the vulgar Latin, Erasmus, and the 
 interlineary ; or, ' when they shall come,' as the English, French, 
 and Italian ; or, ' after that they shall come,' as Beza. But I am 
 not ashamed to confess I understand not, since it agrees with the 
 idiom, why they do not render, 'that they may come.' Thus 
 oTTwc a.v, is taken simply for ut, 'that,' Ps. ix. 15, xcii. 8, cxix. 
 101. And thus it runs here, 'Eepent ye, therefore, and be con- 
 verted, that your sins may be blotted out, and that the times 
 of refreshment may come, and God may send you Jesus Christ.'" 
 Thus far Lightfoot. 
 
 From the presence of the Lord. That is, with the propitious 
 favour of God. The famous Knatchbull renders it, " From the 
 anger of the Lord." And so refrigeration from the presence of 
 God seems to be the same as a flight from his wrath to come, 
 Matt. iii. 7. See our annotations upon the place. 
 
 And he shall send. The construction requires that, with the 
 most learned Ludovicus de Dieu, Heinsius, and Lightfoot, after 
 the Syriac and Arabic interpreters, we render the Greek aorist in 
 this place by the present tense, " may send.'' That is, may reveal 
 by the comfortable preaching of the gospel, than which nothing 
 can be more pleasing and grateful to afflicted and- trembling con- 
 sciences. "What," saith Lightfoot, in the place forementioned, 
 
 * In his Hebraic Hours upon this verse. 
 
VER. XX. j LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 83 
 
 "can be more fully and plainly said, if our interpretation be 
 admitted, to answer the conceptions of the auditors, had they 
 objected against those things which Peter said; is it so? Is 
 Jesus, whom we crucified, the true Messiah ? Then all hopes . 
 of refrigeration by the Messiah are vanished, since the Messiah 
 himself is vanished and gone ; there is an end of the expectation 
 of Israel's comfort, if there be an end of him that should be the 
 Comforter. Not so, says Peter, for the Messiah and comfort shall 
 be restored to you upon your repentance, yet so that the Messiah is 
 still to remain in heaven. He shall be sent to you in his com- 
 forting and refreshing word, and in his graces and benefits, if 
 ye repent. The parallel is that of Acts xiii. 47, We turn to the 
 Gentiles. For so has the Lord commanded, saying, I have appointed 
 thee to he a light to the Gentiles. I have appointed thee ; whom ? 
 Paul or Barnabas ? No, but thee, Christ ; sent and shining in the 
 doctrine of Paul and Barnabas. So ch. xxvi. 23 : Christ risen, 
 from the dead is said, to show light unto the people and to the 
 Gentiles." So Ephes. ii. 17. It is said of Christ, after he had 
 suffered the death of the cross for mankind, that he came and 
 preached peace to those that were afar off, that is, to the Gentiles ; 
 and to them that were nigh, that is, to the Jews. 
 
 Who was preached unto you. In the Greek and English, Who 
 was before -preached unto you, St. Chrysostom reads it, " Who was 
 before ordained," as the ancient Greek copies, which Beza says he 
 has read; which the Arabic and Syriac interpreters seem to have 
 followed, while they turn the words, "who was prepared;" and 
 Tertullian rendering it, " who was pre-designed." The Ethiopia 
 seems to have read, it otherwise in his Greek copy, seeing that he 
 renders it, " AVTio was fore-anointed." But the first and vulgar 
 lection is to be preferred. He who was before preached. " For," 
 saith Lightfoot, in his Hebraic Hours upon this place, "the 
 discourse and meaning of Peter relates to preaching ; for he shall 
 send you Christ by preaching, as he was preached before. Now, 
 you are to understand that the apostle in this discourse speaks of a 
 threefold time. 1. Before the coming of Christ he was promulr 
 gated by Moses, and by all the prophets from Samuel. 2. When 
 he came, at what time God showed him to the world, raising him 
 up a Saviour, then he sent him to you, ver. 26, first of all, by his 
 doctrine to convert you from your iniquities. 3. When he as- 
 cended into heaven there to remain ; yet then he shall send him 
 
 G 2 
 
84 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. IH. 
 
 to you again upon repentance, by the preaching of his word, as 
 before he was made known by preaching. 
 
 Jesus Christ. That is, Jesus, who is the Messiah or Christ 
 promised in the law and the prophets, for the redemption and con- 
 solation of Israel. 
 
 21. Whom the heaven must receive. These words carry an ambiguous 
 sense if you look upon the grammatical construction ; and may 
 signify as well that heaven is received by Jesus, as that Jesus is 
 received into heaven. But when you consider the meaning of 
 the speaker and the context of the words, it is not probable they 
 should admit of the first exposition. For Peter, speaking of the 
 Jews, by whose importunity Christ was put to death, dissuades them 
 from expecting his corporal presence upon earth. Who, as the same 
 Peter says, 1 Epist. iii. 22, is gone into heaven, and sits at the right 
 hand of God, and whom the heaven must receive, not as a prison, but 
 his own most glorious palace and mansion, more befitting his divine 
 majesty than the earth, wherein he lived during the time of his 
 mortality. Now, by heaven is meant, not that part of the sky 
 which is visible to our &ight, but the third heaven. Paradise, the 
 seat and habitation of God, that inaccessible light which God 
 inhabits. For Christ ascended ■ above all the visible heavens, 
 Ephes. iv. 10, and sits at the right hand of the majesty of God in 
 the highest altitudes, to prepare a place for us in the house of his 
 Father, John xiv. 2. 
 
 Until the times of restitution. According to the Greek as 
 Hesycliius interprets it, " until the times of a full finishing or 
 achieving." TertuUian translates it, '-'until the times of exhi- 
 bition ;" and thus he cites this place, " Until the times of the exhi- 
 bition or settilig forth of all things, which God spake by the 
 mouths of his holy prophets." ' . In like manner CEcumenius ex- 
 plains it, " till all things be finished or performed." Lightfoot 
 also admirably expresses the sense of this verse in these words : '' 
 "Jesus, the heavens both contain and shall contain as to his 
 person, till all these things be brought to pass or effect. There- 
 fore do not continue in the error of the generality of our erring 
 people, to expect his personal presence upon earth." Hence, it is 
 apparent that Peter meant the time that Jesus should abide 
 in heaven, according to what' he with the rest of the apostles had 
 heard from the angels before, ch. i. 11. As if he had said, Christ 
 
 ' Lib. de Resiir. Carnif. » Heb. Horis, upon Matt. xvii. 1 1", 
 
VER. XXll.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 85 
 
 being gone into heaven, shall there remain till all the predictions of 
 the prophets shall be fulfilled; and those being fulfilled, he shall 
 return from heaven to earth to judge the quick and the dead. 
 
 Since the world began. That is, of old, of ancient times, lea. 
 Ixiv. 4; Jer. ii. 20. 
 
 22. For Moses, &c. Although this place in the first and more 
 gross sense may be understood from Deut. xviij. 15 of any prophet 
 endued with foreknowledge, whom God should raise up at any 
 time, after Moses, among the people, to the end they might obey 
 him, as speaking by a divine inspiration, so he did not seduce 
 them from the worship of the true God, and from true piety ; 
 yet, in the more exquisite and mystical sense, it contains the pro- 
 phecy of Christ, the Head and Chief of all the prophets, to whom 
 all the rest were but forerunners ; and than whom there was none 
 more glorified, by those .signs -by which God was pleased to have 
 his prophets distinguished. Which mystical sense of this place, in 
 the time of Christ and his disciples, was also admitted by the 
 Jews, as appears by this text, and below, ch. vii. 34, and by many 
 places of the gospel, and particularly by the words of the Sama- 
 ritan, and those other of the people who were about to crown 
 Christ, John iv. 25, vi. 14, This is really that prophet that should 
 come into the world. For the Messiah was properly understood by 
 him that should come, Luke vii. 19. 
 
 A Prophet. That is, one who shall proclaim to men the will of 
 God, as yet concealed in mystery.. 
 
 - Shall the Lord your God raise. That is, shall the Lord your 
 God give, present, send. 
 
 Of your brethren. As much to say, Not a stranger, but one of 
 your own nation, born of the posterity of Israel, and your relation 
 by the tie of blood and kindred. 
 
 Like unto me. So the Jews, comparing the Messiah with Moses, 
 speak in these words, ■ " As the first Redeemer, so shall be the last 
 Redeemer." But Christ was not only like to Moses for the 
 wisdom of his doctrine and the greatness of his miracles, but he 
 exceeded him also in honour and glory. 
 
 Him shall ye hear. That is, ye shall believe in all his promises, 
 and obey all his commandments. Therefore are none of the 
 sayings of Christ to be called in question, nothing to be omitted 
 which he commanded, nor anything to be altered at men's pleasure. 
 
 ' Midraich Koheleth, ad cap. i. v. 9. See Eusebius, Demoii!.t. Evang. lib. iii. ; 
 
86 THE ACTS OF THB HOLY APOSTLES [OHAP. III. 
 
 Now, since there is no place in the law that more manifestly points 
 at Christ, I believe that Christ refers to it, when he says. Who 
 believes in me, as the scripture has said, John vii. 38. This, the 
 Father, with a heavenly voice, declared openly of Christ, and 
 commanded all to hear him^ Matt. xvii. 5. Admirably, therefore, 
 Grotius upon that place of Matthew : " Those things which follow 
 in Moses are to be observed, as if it had been said, You have 
 yourselves desired of God not to act among you by signs of 
 terror ; God consents to your petition; and therefore the Word is 
 made flesh. He made himself of no reputation, and took upon him 
 the form of a servant. Behold him who, while he excels Elias in 
 vehement zeal toward the house of God, at the same time exceeds 
 Moses in meekness. Neither thunders, nor clouds, nor fires from 
 heaven bear witness of him; but the cheering light and affable 
 voice of the Father." 
 
 23. Every soul. That is, whoever shall refuse to hear Christ, 
 who is confessed and manifestly appears to be recommended by 
 Moses as the chieftain of all the prophets, Deut. xviii. 15, 19. 
 
 Shall be destroyed [from among the people. He does not deserve 
 to be numbered among the people of God who refuses Christ for 
 his master, by whom alone GoH instructs us ; so that he cuts hinl- 
 self off from the body of the church who refuses to submit to the 
 head of it. And, indeed, eternal destruction is prepared for all 
 those that will not obey Christ, as the apostle witnesses, 2 Thess. 
 i, 8, 9. 
 
 24. And all the prophets, &c. As if he had said. And all the rest 
 of the prophets after Moses, in a long succession of time from 
 Samuel who led their sacred chorus ; therefore the Jerusalem Tal- 
 mud^ calls Samuel, " The master of the prophets." 
 
 Have spoken and proclaimed. In Greek and English, "foretold," 
 or " declared before." 
 
 Of those days. Wherein God has chosen to procure the salva- 
 tion of his people "^by the Christ whom we preach. But how or 
 in what manner Samuel nominally foretold of Christ, does not 
 appear in scripture, unless we refer hither what we read about the 
 anointment of David, who was to be a type of the future Mes- 
 siah when he was elected king of the Israelites by the divine 
 choice of God, 1 Sam. xvi. 8, 13. But frequently the prophets that 
 lived after Samuel among the Israelites prophesy concerning Christ. 
 
 ' Hagigah, fol. 77, 1. 
 
VEIL XXVlJ L1TEIIALI,Y EXPLAINED. 87^ 
 
 Among the rest, most remarkable is that of the prophecy of Nathan, 
 2 Sam. vii. 12, &c., not to mention those that are frequent in the 
 Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and other writings of the prophets. 
 
 25. Ye are the children, &c. As if he had said, Ye are those to 
 whom belong the oracles of the prophets, and the covenant made 
 with the ancient progenitors of the Hebrews, Abraham, Isaac, and 
 Jacob, Gen. xxii. 18 ; xxvi. 4; xxviii. 14 ; according to the Hebrew 
 phrase, whereby to be said the son of any thing, signifies the same 
 thing as to belong unto, or to be partaker of. Hence Matt. ix. 15, 
 The sons of the bridegroom, or of the nuptial chamber, are said to 
 be those that lead the bridegroom into the chamber ; or who looked 
 after the garnishing of the chamber. The sons of this world, Luke 
 XX. 34, that is, who lead a mortal life ; to whom are opposed the 
 sons of the resurrection, that is, those who shall rise to blessed im- 
 mortality, and are the sons of God, that is, partakers of divine 
 felicity. Thus there is mention made of the sons of the kingdom 
 of light and darkness, Matt. vili. 12 ; 1 Thess. v. 5. But here by 
 the word " of prophets," is meant, their prophecies, by a metonyme 
 of the cause. 
 
 Saying to Abraham. Oen. xxii. 18 ; which he repeats to Isaac, 
 and lastly to Jacob, Gen. xxvi. 4 ; xxviii. 14. 
 
 And in thy seed. As if he had said. From thy offspring shall be 
 born the Saviour of all men, of what nation soever, who shall 
 believe in him. See Gal. iii. 8, 14, 16. 
 
 26. Unto you, &c. As if he had said. He, who by this promise 
 was foretold that he was to be born from the oflFspring of Abra- 
 ham, is Jesus the Son of God, whom being already born the Son 
 Man, God has sent to you, his kinsmen, that first, the benefits 
 he is to bestow upon those that believe in him, might be oifered 
 to you -before the. rest of the nations, that thereby every one 
 of you might be excited to reform his conversation. See ch. 
 xiii. 46. 
 
 Raising. That is, presenting, bringing forth In open view, 
 making him conspicuous by most excellent endowments and gifts. 
 It refers to the prophecies of Moses before mentioued, ver. 22. 
 Hence, to rise, or be raised, is attributed to the prophets, Deut. 
 xlii. 1; xxxiv. 10, &c. ; see ch. xiii. 12; Judges 11. 16, 18; ill. 2, 
 15 ; Ezek. xxxiv. 23; Amos. il. 11. 
 
 To bless you. That is, to offer you the highest of blessings. 
 Under the word blessing Is comprehended all manner of felicity 
 
88 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. IV. 
 
 with which God hath [blessed us], and shall bless us through Christ, 
 as remission of sins, eternal life, and all other celestial advantages. 
 In turning, &c. That is, That he may excite every one of you 
 to change your vicious and corrupt custom of living, into a pure 
 and undefiled conversation. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 And the captain of the temple. That is. Who was the chief of 
 all that had the charge of guarding the temple. For every night 
 the temple was guarded by twenty-four companies, that keep watch 
 in twenty-four places : to wit, the priests in three places, and the 
 Levites in all the rest. Now that the chiefs or overseers of these 
 watches are signified by the name of captains, Luke xxii. 40, the 
 famous Lightfoot does nowise question. He also believes, that to 
 these watches or guards, that of Pilate referred, Ye have a watch. 
 Matt, xxvii. 65. As if he had said. Ye have watches of your own, send 
 some of those to guard the sepulchre. To this the same author 
 adds, " I take the captain of the temple, distinctly and for pre- 
 eminency so called, to be the same with the man of the mountain's 
 house, that is the governor of the mountain's temple, who was the 
 chief of all the chief officers of the watches. For, as Maimonides 
 observes, there was one chief ruler who commanded all the watches, 
 who was called the governor of the mountain's house. He went 
 the rounds all night, having lighted torches carried before him. 
 And when he met with any of the watch that stood not upright 
 upon his feet, the captain said to him, 'Peace be with thee:' upon 
 which, if he found him asleep, he waked him with his cudgel. He 
 had also power to burn the garments of him that slept. There- 
 fore it was a common saying at Jerusalem : What's the stir here ? 
 Sure the Levite is beaten, or his clothes are burned, because he 
 slept in his watch." 
 
 Sadducees. That is, who placed all their hopes in this life, and 
 therefore thought they could not be too severe against those that 
 disturbed the peace of the people, wherein their own quiet was so 
 much concerned. " Add," saith Grotius, " that if Jesus had risen 
 from the dead, the victory had been apparently on the side of the 
 
VER. VI.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 89 
 
 Pharisees, in the great controversy between those two sects." See 
 ch. xxiii. 6, 7. 
 
 2. Being grieved. In the Greek, " being vexed or troubled." 
 Through Jesus. That is, Through the power and efficacy of 
 
 Jesus, who rose from the dead, the first-fruits of them that slept ; 
 the dead shall rise, 1 Cor. xv. 20, 23. 
 
 3. Put them in hold. Not in a public prison, as ch. v. 18, but 
 into private custody, as below, ch. xxiv. 23. That is, they did not 
 commit them to prison, but into the hands of some private person, 
 to be kept diligently. 
 
 4. Five thousand. Or, according to the Greek and Syriac, about 
 five thousand. Thus behold Peter, of a catcher of fish become an 
 expert fisher of men : at two or three casts of his net catching about 
 five thousand disciples. 
 
 5. Their rulers. I find the senators of which the great San- 
 hedrim consisted, frequently called rulers or princes, ch. iii. 17; 
 Luke xxiv. 20 ; John iii. 9, &c. 
 
 And elders. That is, according to the interpretation of Grotius, 
 senators of the city of Jerusalem. For there were at Jerusalem, 
 besides the great Sanhedrim, two other lesser ones, of which we 
 have spoken upon Matt. v. 21. Though the senators of what San-- 
 hedrim soever were named elders, yet, when the senators of the 
 great Sanhedrim are thus named, there is most commonly added, 
 " of the people," to distinguish them from the elders of towns, or 
 senators of lesser Sanhedrims. 
 
 And scribes. That is, assistants to the elders for counsel and 
 advice, as being men skilled in the law. 
 
 6 And Annas. This president of the Sanhedrim is by Josephus' 
 called Ananus, the son of Seth, advanced to the high priesthood 
 in the room of Joazar by Cyrenius, and deposed by Valerius 
 Gratus. He had five sons, who all enjoyed the high priesthood, 
 which never happened before to any man, as Josephus observes. '^ 
 His son-in-law, Joseph, surnamed Caiaphas, was now high priest 
 and father of the Sanhedrim. For though the chief priests were 
 generally in the great Sanhedrim, yet they are commonly named in 
 particular by reason of their great authority. 
 
 The high priest. Since it is plain that Caiaphas was advanced 
 to -the high priesthood by Valerius Gratus, about the fourth year 
 of Tiberius, before Pilate came to the government of Jewry, and 
 
 ' Aiitiq. xviii. 3. ' Aritiq. xx. 8, 
 
90 THE ACTS 01' THJi HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. IV. 
 
 removed by Vitellius towards the end of Tiberius's reign, when 
 Pilate left • Judea ; it may deservedly be questioned, why Annas 
 here, and Luke iii. 2, is called high priest : to which Casaubon 
 answers, because that Annas had already borne that high dignity. 
 Scaliger and BuUinger say, that Annas was so called, because he 
 was next to Caiaphas, and his segan, vicar, or lieutenant-general in 
 all the sacred ministry. But Baronius says, it was because he was 
 prince of the grea,t Sanhedrim. 
 
 " Certainly," says Blondel, a person, of inexhausted learning, 
 "there were among the Jews not only many priests, but many 
 chief priests, when David had distinguished the posterity of Aaron 
 into twenty-four families, who were to officiate in the sacred 
 ministry by turns. Over every one of these families there was a 
 chief, who is_ called the head of the paternal house in the Talmud. 
 The same person was called chief priest in respect of his classis. 
 Hence it is that they are called chief priests in the gospel, and 
 in Jeremiah elders of the priests. Matt., ii. 3 ; xvi. 21 ; xx. 18; xxi. 
 19, 23, 25 ; Mark viii. 31 ; x. 33; Jer. xxix. 1. 
 
 " Over these twenty-four families were two chiefs, of which the 
 first was called properly the high priest, and many times singly, 
 priest. His vicar might indeed have been numbered among the 
 chief priests at the beginning; but whether he alone by himself 
 were at any time called high priest, I much question. Certainly 
 BuUinger ought to have proved it, before he affirmed that Annas 
 was called high priest because he was the high priest's vicar. 
 
 " In scripture this vicar is called the second priest, not the first. 
 2 Kings XXV. 18 ; Jer. Iii. 24. The Chaldee paraphrast renders it, 
 segan. Therefore we read in the Talmud,' that the segan and 
 high priest officiated according to their lots. Not that they were 
 chosen by lots, but that they distributed one with another by lots 
 several of the sacerdotal functions. And a little after, 'as often 
 as it happened that the high priest was suspended from his func^ 
 tion, the segan was ordered to officiate for him.' 
 
 " Out of the 2 Kings xxiii. 4, it seems that it might be gathered 
 that there were many second priests, seeing it is said there in 
 the plural number, "the priests of the second order;" but the Chal- 
 dee paraphrast translates in that place, 'And the segan,' in the 
 singular, because often the plural number ia used for the sin- 
 gular. 
 
 ' Joma. fol. 30. 
 
VEIi. VI.] LITEllALLY EXPLAINED. 91 
 
 "If Annas was vicar to Caiaphas, as BuUinger will have it, 
 how comes it to pass that by the evsmgelists Annas is always 
 set before Caiaphas? In the 2 Chron. xxxi. 12, the ruler over 
 the treasury of the sanctuary is called nagid, ruler, Cononiah, and 
 Shimei his brother the next. Were it proper there that Shimei 
 should be called nagid and be set before Cononiah ? 
 
 " If Annas were called high: priest, because he had formerly 
 officiated in that dignity, how comes it to pass, that among so 
 many others, who had borne the same office, only Apnas should 
 be mentioned ? How comes it to pass, that he that had been high 
 priest should be always set before him that is yet high priest ? 
 These expontifices were indeed called pontiffis for honour's sake, 
 but never any public acts were marked with their names. 
 
 " Therefore, here, I prefer iax Baronius before Casaubon, Sca- 
 liger, or Bullinger either, who asserts Annas to be called high 
 priest because he was president of tie- great Sanhedrim, which 
 by the Hebrews was called nasi. And the person next to him 
 was called. The father of the house of justice. These two chiefs 
 of the Sanhedrim were both styled priests, because they were over 
 many priests. Hence, if I mistake not, we read that the sons of 
 David were priests, 2 Sam. viii. 1 8 ; that is, according to the Chal- 
 dee paraphrast, grandees ; and, indeed, _they were grandees, be- 
 cause both David's sons were presidents or princes of the great 
 Sanhedrim." Thus far Blondel, which will be more plain out of the 
 following words of Selden : — 
 
 " We are to understand," saith he, " that those titles of high or 
 chief priests, which denote a certain function or dignity in the 
 form of the Jewish government at that time much impaired, 
 denoted either a sacred function, or civil dignity, which the high- 
 priest enjoyed above the rest. Where mention is made together 
 of the high-priest, and of the sacred function proper to the dignity, 
 there that very person is signified who obtained the peculiar 
 digriity, that is, the high priesthood derived together with the 
 sacred function from Aaron. But where mention is made not at 
 all of the sacred function, but altogether of the civil government 
 of the high-priests, that is, as they governed with an authority 
 limited by the Romans, — as in many places of the gospel, and of the 
 Acts of the Apostles— there it seems very probable that the 
 high priests are designed by that title, not as they were advanced 
 to the sacred dignity, but as they presided in the civil admlnistra- 
 
92 THE 'ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. IV. 
 
 tion. Such a difference concerning the title is to be observed in 
 some ancient synods, where mention is made of counts. Now the 
 dignity of count was altogether belonging to the emperor's court, 
 and as it had no reference to the synods, being a dignity within 
 the emperor's palace or court, so, as the counts had in the synods 
 the delegated power of Csesar, that title has no relation at all to 
 the palace or to its first notion. But we meet in the first action 
 of the council of Chalcedon with these two phrases : — ' Give the 
 counts,' and 'the counts entered in.' Where the notion of counts, 
 however a word generally used, shows that singular and particular 
 dignity in respect of which they who were counts presided in the 
 council, instead of the emperor's ; not at all its vulgar acceptation 
 for that other dignity, by which they belonged to the emperor's , 
 palace. Insomuch, that I think that by the high priests they 
 were no more understood as high priests in respect of their sacred 
 function, where they are mentioned in the places speaking con- 
 cerning the civil administration, than we understand by counts in 
 that synod their particular dignity, either in the council-house, or 
 elsewhere in the emperor's palace. Hence with licence to con- 
 jecture L shoiald think, that Annas and Caiaphas, both together 
 styled high priests by St. Luke, were not so styled to note their 
 dignity of the sacred function, but their civil government, as well 
 as of the others they are joined with for that year there mentioned. 
 That is to say, that Annas was prince of the Sanhedrim, as 
 Baronius will have it, and Caiaphas father thereof. Let us sup- 
 pose that there were such two jurisdictions of counts in the synod 
 before mentioned, or in any other, for we hear of counts also in 
 the synod of Ephesus. If any One had noted the year of Cassar's 
 reign in the acts of the synod, and had added, for example's sake, 
 under Irenaeus and Dionysius counts, certainly no man would have 
 believed them to have been there named counts from that jurisdic- 
 tion they enjoyed according to the vulgar and original notion of the 
 word, but from the jurisdiction they had obtained since, as according 
 to the custom of that age, some others being dignified witL the title 
 of counts. Which being admitted, it is easy to judge why in the 
 gospel Annas and Caiaphas help mutually so much one another in 
 their proceedings against Christ, both under the title of high 
 priests. That is to say, as they by reason of their dignity and 
 kindred of the high priest, as then the times were, presided in the 
 manner aforesaid in the Sanhedrim, where the prosecution com- 
 
VKK. VI.] LITEllALLY EXPLAINED. ' 93 
 
 menced ; which may not be unfitly said of Annas the high priest, 
 and Caiaphas, with other senators of the Sanhedrim, mentioned in 
 Acts iv. So that the reason is easily given, why XDaiaphas, by 
 Josephus said at that time to have been invested with the sacred 
 dignity as the successor of Aaron, is set after Annas. For the 
 father was alway second to the prince of the Sanhedrim. Neither 
 was the office of prince or father of the Sanhedrim perpetual, but 
 translated from one to another, as occasion required. Which is 
 apparent out of the Talmudic title, Horjaoth, ch. iii, and other 
 treatises of the rabbles. And perhaps at that time it was annual, 
 lest the prolongation of that authority might be a prejudice to the 
 rest of the kindred of the high priest. And hence, perhaps, that 
 other question is to be resolved concerning the high priesthood of 
 Caiaphas, noted by his year in the Gospel of St. John. For as 
 the plural number of high priests, in the sacred. relations of the" 
 administration of civil concerns, signified judges and presidents of 
 courts, as it has been said already, so the title of high priest in the 
 singular number, with the account of his year, may seem to denote 
 the prince of the Sanhedrim. So that in the fifteenth year of 
 Tiberius, Annas was prince, and Caiaphas was father of the San- 
 hedrim, Luke iii. 1, 2. But in the Passion year Annafl was 
 father, and Caiaphas prince. Afterwards Annas as being most 
 eminent among his people again prince, and Caiaphas father, as in 
 Acts iv. And certainly Ananias the high priest. Acts xxiii. 5, 
 where he presides in the Sanhedrim, is acknowledged prince of the 
 people, which perhaps was the same thing with prince of the 
 Sanhedrim. There are many other places in the New Testament 
 to be expounded perhaps, by such an observation. Nor let any 
 one pbjeijt, that thereby it might come to pass, that the high priest 
 advanced to the dignity of the sacred function, should give place 
 to the prince of the Sanhedrim in the time of his being only 
 father, and, consequently, be inferior to him in that state of com- 
 monwealth. For that was so true, as to the civil administration of 
 government, of which we discourse, that the high priest himself 
 was not only obnoxious to the jurisdiction of the great Sanhedrim, 
 but also of the inferior Sanhedrims, as is frequently to be seen in 
 the Talmud and other writings of the Jews. So that it is no 
 wonder that he, as a member of the great Sanhedrim, should 
 be but next in authority to the prince of the Sanhedrim. It 
 is to be noted also, that the mast learned rabbles instruct us,' 
 
 ' Juchasin, folio 169. 
 
94 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. IV. 
 
 that the two names of those by whose hands in former times 
 their oral law was delivered, are so to be understood in the 
 solemn numbering of them, thaf the one denotes the prince, the 
 other the father of the Sanhedrim. So that it is no new thing to 
 believe that these two were more particularly joined than the rest, 
 and were named together in matters of great moment. And 
 frequently among the Talmudists mention is made of Ezra, and of 
 such others with their Sanhedrim, in the management of business, 
 as if then they were customarily to be taken for princes of the 
 Sanhedrim." Thus far the learned Selden. 
 
 And John. Whom Lightfoot conjectures to have been the 
 famous Jochanan Ben Zaccai the priest, ' who is said to have Hved 
 a, hundred and twenty years ; and forty years before the destruc- 
 tion of Jerusalem, when the gates of the temple opened of them- 
 selves, is reported to have said,' " O temple, why dost thou disturb 
 thyself, I know thou shalt be destroyed, for so Zechariah has 
 prophesied : Open . ihy~ doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour 
 thy cedars, Zeeh. xi. 1." " After the destruction of Jerusalem,'' 
 saith Lightfoot,^ " he got leave of Titus, that Jabneh might receive 
 aind retain the Sanhedrim. There he presided himself two or five 
 years, for the certain number is disputed." 
 
 And as many as were of the kindred of the priests. . In the Greek, 
 "of the high priest," as the common English translation hath, and 
 the Syriac and Arabic version also. That is, " whose ancestors," 
 saith Grotius, "not long before enjoyed the high priesthood, 
 which great nobility caused them to be admitted into the great 
 Sanhedrim." 
 
 7. By what power. As much as to say. By -whose effectual 
 virtue, or by whose command and authority have ye cured this 
 person lame from his mother's womb ? 
 
 8* Filled with the Holy Ghost, That is, moved and excited by 
 a certain inspiration of the Holy Spirit, according to the promise 
 of Christ, Matt. x. 19, 20 ; Luke xxi. 14, 15, who promised his 
 apostles, that when they were brought before presidents, kingSj 
 and magistrates, that utterance and wisdom should be given to 
 ihem, which all their adversaries should not be able to withstand ; 
 for that they should not speak themselves, but the Spirit of the 
 Father should speak within them. 
 
 9. If. This particle is here put for "since," or " seeing that." 
 
 ' Juchasin, folio 60. » Joma. folio Sf). ' In Centur. Chorographic. before Matt. 
 
"^-R- X.] LITHEALLY EXPLAINED. 95 
 
 We this day be examined. That is, "be indicted," according to 
 the Syriac; or "be brought before the judges," according to the 
 interlineary gloss ; or « be reproved," according to the Latin inter- 
 preter of Irenseus ; or, as Lyranus expounds it, " be brought to 
 ju(%ment as malefactors." In the Greek, as Grrotius interprets 
 the word, he examined. 
 
 Of the good deed done to the impotent man. That is, because we 
 have done the same person a kindness. 
 
 By what means he is made whole. As if he had said. To answer 
 by whose power and authority, this man lame from his mother's 
 womb has received the ability of walking and sound health. 
 
 10. By the name. That is, by the power and authority. 
 
 Whom ye crucified. By the hands of the Eoman soldiers. 
 Thus David is said to have killed Uriah, as is there added, by 
 the sword of the children of Amman, 2 Sam. xii. 9. 
 
 Whom. By your means put to so cruel and ignominious a 
 death. 
 
 God. Who will show himself as opposite \o your deeds and 
 endeavours, as you were to his counsel and will. 
 
 Raised from the dead. That is, delivered from death, restored 
 to life. 
 
 This. To wit, Christ Jesus typified by David. 
 
 Is. That is to say, like David. 
 
 The stone which was set at nought. That is, rejected, contemned, 
 and refused, as no wise fit, even to be used in the most vile part 
 of the building. 
 
 Of you builders. By you, the senators of the great Sanhedrim, 
 and of the city of Jerusalem, to whose care and guardianship, the 
 religion and commonwealth of the people of God is entrusted. 
 
 Which. To wit, being raised from the dead. 
 
 Is become the head of the corner. That is, is advanced by God to 
 so high a dignity, that like the chief corner-stone he supports and 
 sustains the whole weight of the spiritual building. Most ad- 
 admirably and learnedly has that equally most religious and 
 eminently lettered Divine, Doctor Simon Patrick, Dean of Peter- 
 borough, whose signal and sincere charity I have often experienced, 
 expressed the literal and mystical sense of this verse, in his golden 
 paraphrase upon Ps. cxviii. 22 : " He whom the great men and 
 rulers of the people regected, 1 Sam. xxvi. 19, as the builders of a 
 house do a stone that is not fit to be employed in it, is now 
 
96 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. IV. 
 
 become our King, to whom we must all join ourselves if we hope 
 for safety. In whom we see a figure of that glorious King, who 
 shall hereafter be in like manner refused, Luke xix. 14, xx. 17, 
 and then be by God exalted to be Lord of all the world, and the 
 foundation of all men's happiness." See our literal explication, 
 Matt. xxi. 42. 
 
 12. Neither is there. As if he had said. In this Christ alone, God 
 -hath put the salvation of all men, even their eternal salvation, 
 " which is not to be attained but by the mediator of God and men, 
 the man Jesus Christ," as saith Leo the Great., 
 
 For there is no other name. That is, any other person. So 
 ch. i. 15. Name is taken for person. And here there seems to be 
 some reason why the word name is made use of, because in 
 dangers and vows they are wont to be invoked, and their names to 
 be expressed from whom we expect assistance and safety. 
 
 Under heaven. That is, in any place whatever. A synecdoche 
 of the species for the genus, that is, "place under heaven" for "any 
 place." For as often as we discourse concerning human things, 
 men being under heaven, and their place here spacious and large, 
 whatever we allege not to be under heaven we look upon to be 
 nowhere. 
 
 Given among men. That is, given by God to mankind as their 
 Saviour. 
 
 Whereby we ynust be saved. That is, through whom we ouo'ht to 
 seek our salvation, or through whom we must of necessity obtain 
 our salvation, if we intend to be saved. 
 
 13. Boldness. That is, freedom of speech and presence of 
 mind. 
 
 Unlettered. That is, without the knowledge of good letters and 
 honest learning ; for the apostles knew their letters, and had read 
 the scriptures, and retained them by heart r but they were not 
 versed in harder studies, by which the minds of men are fraught 
 with understanding. 
 
 And idiots. That is, plebeians, men of mean and inconsiderable 
 fortunes, as 1 Sam. xviii. 23 : A poor man and lightly esteemed, 
 or "contemned and abject," is rendered by the Chaldee para- 
 phrast, "a poor man and an idiot." And ch. xxiv. 14, where 
 David in contempt calls himself a dead dog and a flea, the 
 Chaldee paraphrast renders it " weak, and idiot." 
 
 ' Ep. 83, ad Palestin. 
 
V£K. XIX.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 97 
 
 15. Aside out of the council. That is, without the council- 
 house, where the Sanhedrim was assembled. 
 
 17. Let us straitly threaten them. This translation expresses 
 perfectly the meaning of the - Greek text, which has, " let us 
 threaten them with threats." 
 
 In this name. That is, by the command and authority of Jesus 
 of Nazareth. 
 
 At all. That from that time forward they should neither speak 
 nor preach anything, pretending the authority of Jesus of Naza- 
 reth, so as that anything should be said to be divulged by his 
 command. 
 
 19. Whether it be right. That is, whether it be allowable by 
 the law of honesty and reason. 
 
 In the sight of God. Who though men be never so blind, will 
 never suffer any one to be preferred before him. 
 
 To hearken unto you more than unto God. Thus the young man 
 answered Antiochus, commanding him to eat swine's flesh against 
 the law of God, 2 Mac. vii. 33, / will not obey the king's command- ' 
 ment, but I will obey the commandment of the law that was given 
 unto our fathers by Moses. It is recorded that Polycarpus upon 
 his martyrdom said, " We have learnt to give honours which are 
 due to emperors and powers established by God, and which are 
 no impediment to our salvation." Of the mother of the family, 
 thus Clement of Alexandria : " She shall obey her husband in all 
 things, nor shall she do anything without his consent, unless what 
 she believes to be a help to attain virtue and salvation." Of 
 children, thus St. 'Paul, Eph. vi. 1, Children, obey your parents in 
 the Lord. That is, according to the exposition of Chrysostom, 
 " In what ye offend not God." Quintilian : ' "It is not necessary 
 for children to do all those things which their parents command. 
 There be many things which cannot be done. If thou com- 
 mandest thy son to give a contrary sentence to his opinion. If 
 thou desirest him to witness a thing of which he knows nothing. 
 If thou commandest me to burn the capitol, or seize the castle, it 
 is lawful for me to answer, These are things which must not be 
 done." The same author in another place: " All manner of 
 obedience is not to be given to parents, otherwise there would be 
 nothing more pernicious than received benefits, should they oblige 
 us to all manner of servitude." Jerome also," "If a master," 
 ' Declam. 271. ' In Tit. ii., cited by Gratian. 
 
 H 
 
98 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. IV. 
 
 saith he, "command those things which are not contrary to the 
 sacred scriptures, let the servant be subject to the master. But if 
 he command those things that are repugnant to it, let him rather 
 obey the Lord of the spirit, than the master of the body." 
 Again,^ " If it be good which the emperor or governor commands, 
 let him obey the will of the commander ; but if it be evil, answer 
 from the Acts of the Apostles, We ought to obey God rather than 
 men. Acts v. 28. The same is to be understood concerning ser- 
 vants toward their masters, wives toward their husbands, and 
 children toward their parents, that they ought only to be obedient 
 to their masters, their husbands, their parents, in those things 
 which interfere not with the commands of God." The same 
 Gratian in the same place, out of St. Austin's sixth Sermon upon 
 the words of the Lord: Whosoever resists the power, resists the 
 ordinance of God. "But what if he command that which it 
 behoves thee not to do ? Here, indeed, out of fear of powers 
 contemn power. Observe the degrees themselves of human thingSi- 
 If the governor command anything to be done, is he not to be 
 obeyed? Nevertheless, if the proconsul command the contrary, 
 thou verily dost not contemn the power, but choosest, to obey the 
 more supreme authority. Again, if the proconsul command one 
 thing, and the emperor command another, can any person doubt 
 but that the latter is to be obeyed, the first to be disobeyed ? So 
 if the emperor command one thing -arid God another, what think 
 ye ? Pay your tribute, obey me, right ; but not in the idol 
 temple. He forbids obedience in idol temple. Who forbids? 
 The higher power. Pardon me ; thou threatenest me with impri- 
 sonment. He with hell-fire. Here faith is to be made use of as a - 
 shield, by which thou mayest resist all the fiery darts of the 
 enemy." The same author in the same place :^ "The emperor 
 Julian was an infidel. Was he not an apostate, a wicked person 
 and an Idolater? Christian soldiers served a heathen emperor. , 
 But when It came to the cause of Christ, they only acknowledged 
 him, who was in heaven. When he commanded them to worship 
 idols, and offer Incense to them, they preferred God before him. 
 But when he bid them take the field, and march against such a 
 nation, they obeyed him immediately. They distinguished their 
 eternal Lord from their temporal lord. And yet in obedience to 
 their eternal Lord they were subject to their temporal lord." 
 The same Gratian in the same place,' out of Isidorus : " If he who 
 
 ' In Tit. iii. ' Cap. 98, Ex August, in Psa. exxiv. 3. ' C. 101. 
 
VER. XXi] LITEIULLy EXPLAINED. 99 
 
 is in authority has done, or commanded any one to do what is 
 prohibited by the Lord, or has omitted, or commanded any precept 
 to be omitted, the sentence of St. Paul is to be brought to such a 
 one's mind, where he says, GaL i. : Though either we or an angel 
 from heaven preach to you any other gospel, than that which we have 
 preached unto you, let him be accursed. If any one prohibit you 
 from doing what is commanded by Grod; or, on the other side, 
 command that to be done which God prohibits, let him be 
 accursed of all that love God. He that is in authority, if he 
 speak or command anything which is contrary to the will of God, 
 or contrary to what is expressly commanded in scripture, let him 
 be accounted as a false witness of God, and a sacrilegious psrson." 
 The like to all these things contained in cap. 101, are to be read 
 in the rules of St. Basil briefly disputed, cap. 114, 103. See 
 also the Book of the Institutes of the Monks, written by the same 
 St. Basil, 0. 14, 16. 
 
 20. For^ we cannot, &c. That is. It is not by any means lawful 
 for us, or we cannot in conscience ; or our conscience does by no 
 means permit us, against the revealed wiU of God, to conceal what 
 we have seen and heard. Thus " not to can," is taken for " not 
 to be lawful," frequently in scripture, as may be seen, Gen. xliii. 32; 
 1 Cor. X. 21. We are to take notice, saith Curcellaeus, our coun- 
 tryman, "that this speech does not always denote a true (and 
 properly so called) want of power, or inability, but sometimes a 
 vehement aversion of the mind from any thing. As when Peter 
 and John say. Acts iv. 20, We cannot but we must speak those things 
 which we have seen and heard: and John, 1 John iii. 9, Whoever is 
 born of God cannot sin ; also where the Lord Jesus testifies of the 
 angel of the church of Ephesus, Apoc. ii. 2, that he could not bear them 
 which are evil. Not that it was impossible for all these to do those 
 things which are spoken of in those places, but because they had an 
 abhorrency from such actions. Which was the reason why the Jews 
 could not believe in the doctrine of Christ, John xii. 39. For 
 finding it to be repugnant to their carnal desires, they were so 
 averse to it, that they would not admit it, though they could easily 
 have done it, had they been so minded. With which he openly 
 reproaches them, when he says, John v. 44, How can ye believe who 
 receive honoitr one of another, and seek not the honour which cometh 
 from God only f See our annotations upon Amos iii. 8. 
 
 21. So when tiiey had further -threatened them. That is, when 
 
 H 2 
 
100 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. IV. 
 
 they had charged them upon pain to forbear speaking and teaching 
 in the name of Christ. 
 
 How they might. That is, under what specious pretence. 
 
 Glorified God for that which was done. In the Greek, "gave 
 glory to Grod." We find here the people more rightly judg- 
 ing of divine things than they who challenged to themselves the 
 chief authority in sacred things ; for the people acknowledge the 
 miracle and praise God for it. The elders, pontiffs, priests, and 
 doctors of the law, do not only refuse to acknowledge it, and go 
 about to' deprive it of its deserved praise, but also wickedly deem 
 it worthy of punishment. 
 
 22. Forty years old, &c. Luke here declares, that all whom 
 their passions had not blinded could not but judge this cure of the 
 lame person a most wonderful miracle, in regard he had been lame 
 from his mother's womb for forty years together and upward, 
 for diseases of long continuance are not easily eradicated : inso- 
 much, that though they are not natural, they at length become a 
 second nature, getting a head, and hardening with age. 
 
 23. Tliey went to theirs. In Greek as in English," " to their 
 own." That is, to the rest of the Christians ; for no men are so 
 peculiarly the Christians' as the Christians themselves. A Chris- 
 tian is to a Christian his domestic, his kinsman, his brother. 
 
 24. And when they had heard. That is, the threats of the Sanhe- 
 drim, or of the council of the chief of the Jews. They did not 
 betake themselves to tears, nor despond in their minds ; nor, de- 
 spairing of a good cause, did they go about to abandon it ; but 
 being destitute of human aid, they betook themselves to implore 
 the assistance of Heaven, believing that then chiefly to begin, when 
 the other forsakes them. 
 
 With one accord. The consent of pious people, and unanimity of 
 mind, is of great efficacy in prayer to move God. See Matt, xviii. 
 19, 20. 
 
 They lifted up their voice. With a fervent zeal and a generous 
 ardour of mind. 
 
 To God. There are no arms for Christians to use against the 
 magistrate when he endeavours to oppress the truth, and the pro- 
 fessors of it, by his authority and force, but prayers to God for 
 the magistrate and his salvation. That is to say, that through the 
 mind-changing and heart-converting power of God, he may be 
 reclaimed from opposing the truth : or if he have threatened any 
 
VER. XXV.] LITJJRALLY EXPLAINED. 101 
 
 thing to the professors of it, to prevent him from putting it in 
 execution. 
 
 Lord. To whose divine power all beings in nature are obe- 
 dient. 
 
 Thou. To whose clemency, for succour, we thy suppliants have 
 betaken ourselves. 
 
 Art. In the Greek and vulgar English is added, " God," or, 
 "the God." 
 
 Who, &c. As if he had said, whom the creation of all things 
 demonstrates to excel in immense power and infinite strength. 
 
 25. Who. As if he had said. Who to thy demonstration of 
 power to help, hast added thy promise of assistance, that resting 
 upon thy promise and power togethier, we may implore thy aid with 
 certain hope of obtaining it. 
 
 By the Holy Ghost.^ That is, foretelling future things by thy 
 divine instinct and inspiration. 
 
 Of thy child. That is, thy servant, as it is rendered in the com- 
 mon English translation. 
 
 Why, &c. As if he had said. Why rages the wicked and violent 
 design to destroy the kingdom set up of God ? For it shall prove 
 no more effectual than if a fly opposed an elephant, or if any one 
 should go about to throw down the sun from heaven. In the 
 literal sense this is to be understood of the kingdom of David, 
 typifying the kingdom of Christ. David beheld himself encom- 
 passed on every side with most potent enemies, the Philistines, 
 Moabites, Sabteans, Damascenes, Ammonites, and Idumseans, and 
 beset with powerful hosts, 2 Sam. v. 17 ; viii. 1, &c.; x. 6, &c. 
 However, David derides the vain^endeavours of all their threaten- 
 ing numbers to deprive him of a kingdom so firmly assured to him 
 from Heaven. But in a mystical sense, the Holy Ghost speaking 
 by the mouth of David, reproaches the ridiculous malice of the 
 world for daring to invade Christ and his chtirch ; whereas God 
 has ordained by his inviolable decree, though the universality of 
 men, both high and low, combined in an impious and nefarious con- 
 spiration, oppose Christ and his church, yet all their fury will 
 come to nothing. And that this mystical sense of the second Psalm 
 
 ' This is not in the vulgar English, but it is in the Greek original. [Some Greek copies 
 read a Sia arojiaTOQ AatiS rraiioq aov iv TlvevftaTi ayiifi- — others, o Sia nvtvitaros 
 ayiov Sia. tTTo/t, K.r.X. Wicliffe's version of 1 380 follows the last reading. Cranmer's 
 Bible of 1539, the first. It is also found in the Douay version.] 
 
102 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. IV. 
 
 belongs to the Messiah, both Eabbi David Kimchi, Saadias Gaon, 
 Jarchi, and -others acknowledge. 
 
 26. Stood up. As if he had said, the princes mentioned in the 
 places last cited, wickedly conspired against the irresistible decree 
 of the omnipotent God, and against David, solemnly anointed by 
 the command of God, 2 Sam. viii. 10 ; 1 Sam. xvi. 13 ; 2 Sam. ii. 
 4; V. 3. Those princes were the type of all those, who, refusing 
 to be subject to the Lord Christ, are violently carried forth to their 
 own destruction to make opposition against God,, whose pleasure 
 it is to reign in Christ's person. Now, David being by the com- 
 mand of God anointed king, was an adumbration of the Son of 
 God, Jesus the Messiah, or Christ, that is, the anointed by the 
 Eternal Father, to the priestly, prophetical, and kingly dignity, 
 not with terrestrial oil, but with celestial gifts of the Holy Ghost, 
 Isa. Ixi. 1. . 
 
 The kings of the earth. Thus by way of extenuation he calls 
 those princes who were enemies to David, and to Jesus Christ, who 
 was typified by David: and to them he opposes God, whose dwelling 
 is in the heavens, whose vast power is not confined to those narrow 
 bounds that limit human force. 
 
 27. Were gathered together. As if he had said. For these ene- 
 mies of David were types of Herodes Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee, 
 and Pontius Pilate, governor of Judea, who, though in other 
 things there was no good correspondence between them, they con- 
 sented together with heathens and Jews, to the destruction of 
 Christ, Luke xxiii. 
 
 Child. When it is spoken of Jesus, Hilary and Ambrose trans- 
 slate the Greek word, iraiBa, " son," as Erasmus notes upon this 
 place. 
 
 Whom thou hast anointed. That is, whom thou hast inaugurated 
 king, priest, and prophet, by the unction of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Herod and Pontius Pilate. By virtue of a Hebraism peculiar 
 to the Scripture, they who have a derived and deputed power are 
 called kings. 
 
 With the Gentiles. That is, with the Ethnics, who were either 
 counsellors with, or officers under Pilate, who was the Roman 
 governor of Judea. 
 
 And the peoples of Israel. The Jews are called the peoples of 
 Israel, in the plural number, not only because they consisted of the 
 twelve tribes, each of which constituted as it were a distinct 
 
TEE. XXVII. J LITERAIXY EXPLAINED. 103 
 
 people : as Isaac prayed for Jacob, Gen. xxviii. 3, and God him- 
 self promised. Gen. xlviii. 4; but also because they were a mul- 
 titude equally as numerous, as if many nations had been conjoined 
 together, Judg. v. 14. 
 
 28. To do, &c. As if he had said. That they being permitted to 
 give way to their own passions, whatever thou hadst ordained in 
 thy eternal wisdom might come to pass ; that is to say, that thy 
 Son should be brought to the shameful death of the cross by the 
 hands of the wicked, for the salvation of mankind. " The wicked," 
 saith Junius, " execute the will of God, when they least dream 
 of it : they execute the will of God : nevertheless they are not 
 exempted from fault." For God contributes nothing to the impiety 
 of the wicked, though he let loose the reins of their malice, and 
 out of his most profound wisdom direct their fury rather against 
 one than another, and give them the power to execute. 
 
 Thy hand. That Is, thy power. God, in regard of his omnipo- 
 tency, wills nothing but what he can do ; and when It Is his plea- 
 sure to defend. In vain the enemies of truth lay their ambushes 
 against, the professors of It. "Therefore there Is nothing done 
 unless the Omnipotent will have It done, either by permitting 
 it be done, or by doing it himself:" saith St. Austin, Enchlrid. 
 cap. 95. 
 
 And thy counsel. The counsels of men often come to nothing, 
 because they cannot effect what they have a desire to do : but the 
 counsels and determinations of God never fail. " For," as Austin 
 says, Enchlrid. cap. 96, " as easy as it Is for the omnipotent to do 
 what he pleases, so easy Is it for him not to permit what he has no 
 mind should be done." 
 
 Determined to be done. In the Greek, " prellmited to be done." 
 " For," saith Simon Grynseus, a person excellently well read In the 
 Greek and Latin, "the Greek word signifies to prellmit, or to 
 circumscribe, as It were, within a space or circle." Moreover, It 
 is to be observed, that this whole eight and twentieth verse may 
 be aptly joined with the words of the verse last preceding, whom 
 thou hast anointed, In this manner: "For Pontius Pilate and Herod 
 have really gathered together, with the GentUes and people of 
 Israel in this city, against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou 
 hast anointed to do what thy hand and counsel decreed to be done." 
 Which is an egregious sense of the words, and most exactly agrees 
 with the series of the context. " For thus," saith the famous divine 
 
104 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLBS [cHAP. IV. 
 
 of our age, Stephen Curcellaeus, " the apostles were desirous to 
 show their confidence in God, by openly professing that all the 
 endeavours of the enemies of Christ to disturb the propagation of 
 the gospel, should be of no eifect ; nor should they be able to 
 hinder, but that what God had decreed should be done by Christ 
 and his servants for the salvation of the world, should be duly per- 
 formed and executed. Neither ought that transposition of the 
 words offend any one, or seem unusual, seeing that there be many 
 such in the scriptures. Of which it will be sufficient to bring two 
 or three examples. Kev. xiii. 8, we read: And all that dwell 
 upon the earth shall worship the beast, whose names are riot written in 
 the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
 world. Where the last words, from the foundation of the world, 
 are not to be connected with the preceding words, the Lamb slain, 
 but with the more remote words : thus, whose names are not written 
 from the foundation of the world, in the booh of life of the Lamb 
 slain. See also a harder trajection, Luke ii. 34, 35, where thp last 
 words. That the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed, are to be 
 connected with these, and for a sign that shall be spoken against, 
 though there be an interposition of these words between : Yea, a 
 ■sword shall pierce through thy own soul also. See also chap. iv. 5, 
 where you are to read. And the devil, taking him up into an high 
 mountain in a moment of time, shewed him all the kingdoms of the 
 earth ; not as it is vulgarly pointed, " he showed him all the king- 
 doms of the earth in a moment of time." For that could not be done ; 
 besides that it was contrary to the design of the devil, which was to 
 detain the Lord Jesus for some time at least in the contemplation 
 of the glory and splendour of those kingdoms, to excite his desire 
 and ambition, not to show him passant, as it were a flash of 
 lightning. Lastly, where you find any parentheses inserted in 
 scripture, there those transpositions are always to be found ; which 
 is so frequent in the Epistles of St. Paul, that you meet with three 
 or four in the first seven commas of his Epistle to the Eomans; 
 concerning which thing interpreters may be consulted, and among 
 the rest, Beza, and Piscator, under the word trajectio. 
 
 29. And now. The adverb of time, and now, is a collective, or 
 rational conjunction, inferring a conclusion out of what precedes, 
 and is here used for "therefore," or "for this reason." As Gen. 
 iv. 11, 21, 23, and in other places. 
 
 Lord, behold their threatenings, &c. As if he had said. Assuage 
 
VBll. XXXII.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 105 
 
 the threats of the magistrates, lest they break forth to the op- 
 pression of the truth; and that thy servants, boldly and intrepidly, in 
 defiance of those threats, may preach the doctrine of Christ, and show 
 thy might and power to work miracles, as often as we shall humbly" 
 beseech thee to do it for the sake of thy holy son Jesiis. This 
 manner of inspiring fortitude into the ministers of Christ, ceases at 
 this day ; seeing that the force of the miracles formerly wrought 
 by the apostles, still remains in its full vigour and efficacy. 
 
 30. And when they had prayed. In the Greek, "while they 
 were yet praying." That is, they had scarce finished their suppli- 
 cations. 
 
 The place was shaken. To the end the disciples might laiow that 
 God was at hand by this testimony of his divine presence; and 
 certainly understand that their prayers were heard according to 
 the promise of Christ, John xiv. 13. Whatever ye shall ask the 
 Father in my name, that is, trusting in my promises and merits, 
 that will I do ; that is, I will take care that ye shall obtain it : and 
 John xvi. 23 ; Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatever ye shall ask 
 the Father iri my name, he will give it you. Something like this 
 passage of the shaking of the place, you find in Virgil. ', 
 
 " See where the omen comes, by heaven distilled, 
 Into your breasts with fear and horror filled. 
 Scarce had I spoke, when on a sudden all 
 The massy pile seemed ready just to fall ; 
 The temple thresholds, sacred laurel shook, 
 The mountain too a quivering ague took." 
 
 And they were alljilled with the Holy Ghost. That is, they felt 
 the power and efficacy of the Holy Ghost more vigorously 
 operating in their hearts at that time than before, and found 
 themselves possessed of the promises of Christ: Whosoever hath, 
 to Mm shall be given, and he shall have more abundance ; and every 
 branch in me that beareth fruit, my Father purgeth it, that it may 
 bear more fruit, Matt. xiii. 12; John xv. 2. 
 
 And they spak^ the word, of God with boldness. As if he had 
 said. And now no longer terrified, or hindered by their fears, they 
 spread the word of God more boldly and freely. 
 
 32. And the multitude, &c. As much as to say. And among so 
 many thousands who had embraced the faith of Christ, such was 
 the concord and unanimity of mind, that there was not the least 
 
 ,' ' ^n. iii. ver. 89, &c. 
 
106 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. IV. 
 
 appearance of dissension in the whole number. This happy 
 concord Christ himself declares should be a mark and badge of his 
 disciples; and prays the Father to infuse it into them, that the 
 world might know that he had sent him, John xiii. 15 ; xvii. 
 21, 23. 
 
 Of one heart and of one soul. A proverbial manner of speech, 
 signifying the most perfect consent of minds, 1 Chron. xii. 38, 
 All the rest of Israel were of one heart to make David kinff ; 2 
 Chron. XXX. 12, And in all Judah they hand of God was to give 
 them one heart to do the commandment of the l\ing andj of the 
 princes, hy the word of the Lord; Jer. xxxli. 39, / will give them 
 one heart and one way, that they may fear me. That is, I will 
 cause them tmanimously to profess one religion. Aristotle, in 
 Diogenes Laertius, putting the question. What a friend was? 
 answers, " One soul inhabiting in two bodies." And so Cicero : ' 
 " That law of just and true friendship is very ancient, that friends 
 should always will the same thing.' Neither is there any more 
 certain tie of friendship than the consent and concord of counsels 
 and wills." 
 
 Neither any of them, &c. As if he had said, Nay, this sacred 
 and praiseworthy concord among believers brake forth into 
 external liberality, so that none of them privately enjoyed his 
 estate or goods, which used to be estimated at the price of money, 
 without regarding the necessities of others ; but as their occasions 
 required, they also freely granted the use of them to those that 
 wanted. 2 " This is by a spiritual birth to be truly born the sons 
 of God. This is according to the heavenly law, to imitate the 
 equality of God the Father. For whatever is God's is in common 
 for our use. No man is prohibited from the participation of 
 his benefits, but all mankind equally enjoy his bounty and 
 goodness. Thus the day illuminates all alike; the sun shines, 
 the showers water, the wind blows upon all alike. Sleep is the 
 same to all, and the light of the stars and moon is common to all. 
 By which example of equality, whoever is a possessor of land 
 upon earth, and shares his Income and revenues with the brother- 
 hood, while he Is common and just in his free and voluntary 
 largesses, he Is an imitator of God." 
 
 33. And with great power. As if he said. But the resurrection 
 of Christ, the foundation of all Christian religion, and of our 
 
 * In Orat. pro Plane. » Cypi. sub finem lib. de Opere et Eleem. 
 
VER. XXXVI.J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 107 
 
 hopes therein comprehended, the apostles did not only vigorously 
 and constantly maintain in words, but also, as they had prayed 
 before, confirmed by the signal and astonishing miracles they 
 wrought by the power of Jesus Christ by them invoked. 
 
 And great grace was upon them all. That is, the apostles were 
 pleasing and acceptable to all. See ch. v. 13. 
 
 34. Neither was there. The reason is given why the apostles 
 were so acceptable to all; because they were so liberal and 
 bountiful to all. 
 
 That lacked. That is, who was destitute of the necessary 
 support of human life. 
 
 For as many. See our annot. ch. ii. 45. 
 Sold them. That is their lands or farms. 
 
 35. And laid them down at the apostles' feet. To wit, according 
 to the custom of those who surrendered anything to the will and 
 disposal of another. From which custom the manner of speaking 
 is taken, Ps. viii. 6. Cicero, speaking of money paid in court, 
 says,' "A hundred pound of gold was paid down in the court 
 before the feet of the praetor." The same author in three of his 
 Offices : " The fishes were cast down before the feet of Pythius." 
 
 And distribution was made. As much as to say. Whatever was 
 necessary to every one for food, raiment, and physio, was dis- 
 tributed to every particular person, so that in the whole assembly 
 of believers there was none neglected or despised for his poverty, 
 or that appeared to be swelled and puffed up with his riches. 
 
 36. And loses. Joses, Josetus, Josephus, and Joseph are one 
 and the same name, with various terminations, as Drusius, Grotius, 
 and others observe. 
 
 Who was sumamed Barnabas. This surname is a Syriac com- 
 position, from the name Bar and Nabia, or by abridgment Naba, 
 the third person of the future of the verb bia, " to comfort." 
 And thus Barnaba signifieth " the comforting son ;" the Hebrews 
 and Syrians, using often the future for the present participle, as 
 Lud. de Dieu observes. Nor was this surname given him by the 
 common people, but by the apostles themselves, which redounded 
 to his greater praise. The names whicbwere given to the apostles 
 by Christ did not want a happy portending ; nor did they doubtless 
 want the same which were given to others by the apostles, being 
 filled with the Holy Ghost. Neither is it a small honour to be 
 
 . - ' Oral, pro Flac. 
 
108 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. IV. 
 
 approved, and well charactered by persons eminent in the church 
 for their divine gifts and piety. Whefefore, all men ought to 
 labour, not so much to be applauded by those most excellent 
 persons (lest it might be looked upon as the effect of ambition) 
 as to deserve those praises, and in the first place, to be a cause of 
 consolation and rejoicing to all pious and holy men, by their piety 
 and singular good deeds. 
 
 A Levite. We know the Levites had nothing of their own, and 
 therefore the tenths were given them for an inheritance. Num. 
 xviii. 21. We also know that the lands adjoining to the cities 
 given them in possession could not be sold. Lev. xxv. 34. There- 
 fore, the farm that Barnabas sold was some land which some virgin - 
 of another tribe brought either to him or his father in marriage. 
 For, as Grotius observes upon Jer. xxxii. 7, " The women, if they 
 had no brothers, were their parents' heiresses ; and if the next of 
 kin would not marry them, they did marry to others."- 
 
 And of the country of Cyprus. Cyprus, in the Hebrew, Copher, 
 an island famous for having so many names, as also for its extent, 
 fertility, situation, wealth, colonies, cities, and admission of 
 Christianity, was bounded to the west by the Pampfiilian Sea, to 
 the south by the Egyptian and Syrian, to the east by the Syrian, 
 to the north by the narrow strait of Cilicia, according to Ptolemy ;* 
 by which it seems most probable that it was forced away by 
 nature from Cilicia, rather than from Syria, as Pliny delivers. ^ 
 Anciently it was the seat' of five kingdoms, as the same Pliny 
 testifies.^ But from the time that the Ptolemies obtained the 
 government of Egypt, Cyprus also was reduced under their 
 subjection, by the frequent assistance of the Romans. But when 
 the last Ptolemy, the uncle of Cleopatra, who reigned in Strabo's 
 time, [proved] proud and ungrateful to his allies, the Romans 
 expelled him, took the island into their own possession, and re- 
 duced it into a Pretorian province. The principal cause of its 
 ruin was Publius Claudius Pulcher, who, falling into the hands of 
 the Cilician pirates, then very powerful at sea, and being required 
 to pay his ransom, sent the demands of the pirates to the king, 
 to the end that he should send the money, and redeem him. He 
 sent indeed, but so small a sum that the pirates were ashamed to 
 receive it, and so sending the king his money back again, they set 
 Claudius at liberty, without paying any ransom. Who, being thus 
 
 ' Lib. V. cap. 14, " Lib. ii. cap. 88. ' Lib. v. cap. 31. 
 
YER. I.j LITEKALLT EXPLAINED. 109 
 
 freed, was not unmindful of returning the favours he had received 
 from both. So that being made tribune of the people, he obtained 
 that Porcius Cato might be sent to eject the king out of Cyprus. 
 Who hearing of Cato's coming, prevented the ignominy by laying 
 violent hands upon himself. However, Cato taking possession of 
 the island, sold all the king's proper goods and furniture, and sent 
 in the money to the public treasury of the Eomans, which filled 
 the treasury of Rome with a greater mass of money than ever any 
 triumph of her commanders.' From that time the island was 
 made a Pretorian province. Some time after that, Anthony de- 
 livered it to Cleopatra and her sister Arsinoe, but Anthony being 
 overthrown, all his orders were made utterly void, as Strabo 
 testifies, lib. 14. 
 
 37. Having land. That is, by marriage. For the Levites had 
 no other lands of their own, except what they had by their wives, 
 as we have observed upon the preceding verse. A memorable 
 example to others is this alienation of his dowry land by Barnabas, 
 not to supply his own, but the wants of others. For a small 
 farm of this nature used to be very highly valued by the pos- 
 sessors, insomuch that they were unwilling to part with it, and 
 they seem to sell their lives to the purchaser that bought it. 
 Therefore, it was a high piece of liberality and charity, to alienate 
 an estate only to gratify others. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 1. But a certain maji, &c. The particle " but" denotes an 
 opposition, and connects the beginning of this chapter, with the 
 latter part of the foregoing. For Luke there, having declared the 
 liberality of the believers of the church in Jerusalem by that 
 eminent and special instance of Barnabas, who sold his small 
 possession which he enjoyed by way of dowry, and brought the 
 whole price of it to the common stock: he now illustrateth the 
 same by a different, and in some respects, contrary example, and 
 by the divine vengeance pursuing it. As if he should say, But 
 
 ' Florus, lib. iii. cap. 9. 
 
110 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. V. 
 
 Ananiaa and Sapphira his wife were otherwise affected, who 
 having sold their possession, kept back part of the price, &c 
 
 Sold a possession. The Ethiopic renders the Greek word sig- 
 nifying possession, "vine," as also he doth the word signifying 
 " land," in ver. 8 ; likewise the word signifying " field," ch. i. 
 18 ; the reason is, because most of their possessions in the land 
 of Canaan were vineyards. Hence the seventy render the Hebrew 
 word signifying vineyards, "possessions" and "lands," Prov. 
 xxxi. 16; Hos. ii. 15 ; Joel i. 11 ; 1 Chron. xxvii. 27. 
 
 2. And kept back. That is to say. He, through a malicious 
 deceit, saved somewhat by stealth. 
 
 His wife also being privy to it. Supply, " and willingly ap- 
 proving it." 
 - And brought. Ananias alone, Sapphira his wife being absent. 
 
 A certain part. Of the price for which he had sold his land. 
 
 And laid it at the apostles' feet. Dissembling that he had brought 
 the whole sum for which he sold his possession, hoping also that 
 his fraudulent dissimulation should not be known. 
 
 3. Why hath Satan filled thine heart ? As much as to say. How 
 oouldst thou persuade thyself to give room in thy -heart to that 
 most inconsiderate and foolish rashness suggested by Satan ? To 
 fill the heartj in scripture phrase, is to make bold ; as Ludovicus 
 de Dieu hath demonstrated, from Esther vii. 5 ; Eocles. viii. 1 1. 
 " Boldness," saith he, " fiUeth the heart, and swells it up with , 
 burning spirits, which breaking out to the external members, 
 especially the tongue, and the hands, drives them on to the most 
 daring attempts ; for a heart full of spirits fears nothing." And 
 the same author a little after saith : " There is a twofold fulness ; 
 one of faith, whereby the heart of believers, being filled with holy 
 spirits, from the most sure promises of God, doth confidently, and - 
 without fear despise all adversity ; the other of boldness, whereby 
 the heart of the profane being filled with rash spirits, proceeding 
 from a vain hope of safety, dares without fear adventure upon any 
 evil." This was Ananias's case here, whose heart the devil had 
 so filled with this spirit of boldness, that very confidently, and 
 without fear, he ventured to lie to the Holy Ghost. 
 
 To lie to the Holy Ghost. That is to say. That thou should labour 
 to deceive the Holy Ghost ; or, as learned John Piscator explains 
 it, " Us the apostles, in whom the Spirit acteth, and to whom he 
 reveals what is necessary for the edification of the church, by a 
 
VER. IV.] LITEKALLY EXPLAINED. Ill 
 
 figuure called metonymia adjuncti" So also Grotius : " He is 
 said," saith he, " to lie to God, or the Holy Ghost, who hopes that 
 he can deceive the apostles who are instructed by the Holy Ghost." 
 
 Arvd to keep hack part of the price of the land. That is to say. 
 Laying but a part of the price of the possession sold by you at the 
 apostles' feet, you would in tlie mean time dissemble you laid the 
 whole, thinking your hypocrisy could be hid, and that the apostles, 
 though filled with the Holy Ghost in the day of Pentecost, could 
 in nowise discover the cheat. 
 
 4. While it remained, &c. As much aa to say. Was it not in 
 thy power either not to have sold thy possession, or, having sold it, 
 to keep the whole price, or a part of it, to thyself? what then did 
 drive you on thus to obey the devil's persuasions, that having 
 secretly withdrawn part of it, and laying it aside, and laying 
 another part at the apostles' feet, that you by hypocrisy and 
 lying, should dissemble, that you brought the whole, and laid it at 
 the apostles' feet ? Do not think that we who are men, are only 
 mocked with thy deceitful hypocrisy, seeing this mocking tends 
 to the reproach of the Holy Ghost, even as much as if thou hadst 
 intended by thy deceit to mock the Holy Ghost, who is God, 
 seeing we by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost discover the secrets 
 of the hearts. Likewise Paul, after he had said, what precepts he 
 gave to the Thessalonians by the Lord Jesus, and upon what 
 condition God had called them, he adds, 1 Thess. iv. 8 : He there- 
 fore that despiseth these things, despiseth not man but God, who hath 
 also given unto us his Holy Spirit. That is to say, seeing it is he 
 who gave us the Holy Ghost, by whom we are governed, and by 
 whose influence it is evident that we speak. "Men then are 
 opposed to the Holy Ghost; they are also opposed to God; 
 therefore the Holy Ghost is God, ver. 4. For he to whom 
 Ananias chiefly lied, or whom he chiefly endeavoured to deceive, 
 the same is God; but the Holy Ghost is he whom Ananias chiefly 
 endeavoured to deceive, or to whom he lied ; it follows then that 
 the Holy Ghost is God," saith learned Christopher Wittichius, in 
 his learned Book called Causa Spiritus Sancti. 
 
 Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. That is to say, thou 
 hast not endeavoured to deceive men only, but, above all, the Holy 
 Ghost, who is God, and who reveals to us things secret. See 
 such expressions in Exod. xvi. 8; 1 Sam. viii. 7; Luke x. 16; 
 1 Thess. iv. 8. 
 
112 THE ACT3 OP THU HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. V. 
 
 5. And Ananias hearing these words. And not being able to 
 endure, their sharpness, as Origen excellently noteth.^ 
 
 Fell down, and gave up tlie ghost. Ananias and Sapphira fell 
 dead at Peter's feet, because that mocking the apostles, inspired by 
 the Holy Ghost, they mocked the Holy Ghost, or God himself. 
 So Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, were swallowed up by the earth, 
 because they rose up against Moses, Numb. xvi. And of those 
 children, mentioned 2 Kings il. 24, two she-bears out of the wood 
 destroyed forty and two, not so much for mocking Elisha as bald, 
 as for mocking him being the prophet of the true God. ' Also 
 Elymas for resisting Paul is struck with blindness^ Acts xiii. 11. 
 Now, whether Ananias and Sapphira were by the righteous 
 judgment of God condemned to eternal punishment, seeing scrip- 
 ture is altogether silent, we cannot determine. TertuUian and 
 Ambrose affirm it, Origen and some other fathers deny it ; but we 
 judge it pious ignorance to be willing not to know what God was 
 not willing to make known to us. 
 
 And great fear came upon, &c. As much as to say, As many as 
 heard that God punished the lying and hypocrisy of Ananias with 
 sudden death, were seized with great reverence to the majesty of 
 God, "that they might very earnestly shun the heinous oflfences so 
 punished. 
 
 6. And the young men arose. Supply " who were of lusty 
 bodies," as Apuleius speaks. 
 
 And carried him out. The Greek word for carried him out, 
 signifies, "they trussed him together," because, as the famous 
 Lightfoot saith, " They not having grave-clothes ready, they 
 trussed the dead body together as well as they could, and having 
 carried him thence, buried him." 
 
 7. His wife not knowing what was done. Hence Lightfoot 
 observes the reason why the Greek word "to truss together," is 
 used in the verse preceding. "For if," saith he, "they who 
 carried him out of the room, where he fell down dead, had carried 
 him to his own house or lodging, there to get him a winding sheet, 
 his wife could not be ignorant of what had come to pass; but, 
 (Tvvi(TTsi\av avTov, they bound and trussed him up as he was in 
 his clothes, and so carried him out, and buried him." 
 
 Came in. That is, where Peter and the rest of the believers 
 were gathered together. 
 
 ' Tract, viii. upon Matt. 
 
TER. XIII.] LITEBALLY EXI'LAINKD. 113 
 
 8. Whether ye sold your land for so much. As much as to say. 
 Whether or not did ye sell your possession for any more than that 
 sum of money which your husband gave to us. 
 
 Yea, for so much^ That is, for no more. 
 
 9. How is it, &c. As much as to say. To what end did ye 
 invent this deceit, as if you would put it to trial, whether the 
 Holy Ghost, dwelling in us, and who by us governs the church, 
 did know all things ? God is said to be tempted in scripture, as 
 often as anything is done with an evil conscience ; for then, though 
 it be not so designed and intended, yet the deed itself seems to be 
 as it were of set purpose, to try whether God be just, all-knowing, 
 and omnipotent. 
 
 Behold, &c. In these words Peter does not imprecate Sap- 
 phira's death, as Porphyrins falsely alleges; but by his gift of 
 prophesying, he foretells the judgment of God that was coming 
 upon her. 
 
 10. Then fell she down. That (to wit) the present revenge, 
 executed upon her and her husband, might be an example to 
 others. 
 
 11. And great fear came, &c. As much as to say. The whole 
 church, and all who heard the report of this present judgment upon 
 Ananias and Sapphira, were seized with a high reverence of God. 
 See above, ver 5. 
 
 12. And by the hands of, the apostles. A Hebrew phrase 
 common in scripture ; that is to say, by the apostles, or the 
 apostles' labour and ministry intervening. 
 
 Avumg the people. That is, publicly and openly, the people 
 being present and looking on ; and upon many of the people, that 
 they might entice some to the faith, and confirm others in the 
 faith. 
 
 And they were. All this must be enclosed in a parenthesis till 
 we come to the sixteenth verse, where what now hath been spoken 
 concerning the miracles wrought by the ministry of the apostles is 
 continued. 
 
 With one accord. That is to say, with " brotherly concord," as 
 Livy speaketh. 
 
 All. To wit, who were joined to the church. 
 
 In Sohxmm^s porch. Of which, see above, oh. iii. 11. 
 
 13. And of the rest. To wit, who heard the apostles preach, but 
 had not as yet embraced the faith of Christ. 
 
114 THE ACTS or THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. V. 
 
 Durst no man join himself to them. The Greek hath, "glue 
 himself to them," meaning that none of these hearers durst any- 
 way familiarly converse with the apostles, for the fear which they 
 conceived from the prodigious fate of Ananias and Sapphira, which 
 as yet was fresh in their memory. 
 
 But the people magnijied them. As much as to sajj Yet that put 
 no stop to the progress of the gospel, because the pec^le had a 
 greater esteem for the apostles. 
 
 14. The more, &c. As much as to say, Yea, many of both 
 sexes were daily, more and more, added to the number of the 
 believers, although none of those that were added durst at that 
 time, for fear, be very familiar with the apostles. 
 
 15. In beds and couches. Couches, in Latin grabbed, are known 
 to have been little beds, in which the ancients used to rest at noon, 
 and because these couches were easier carried, in them the sick 
 were put when they were to be brought into public, that by a 
 miracle they might be healed. 
 
 The shadow, &c. " What," saith Baronius,i " is the shadow of 
 Peter but the express image of his body ? And certainly from no 
 other but such images formed from shadows, did the art of painting 
 take its original, that from these you may see that the religious 
 worship of images was in that primitive church first of all con- 
 secrated in Peter's shadow by the special providence of God, 
 working by that shadow so many and so greai miracles." But 
 this Baronius's shadow of reasoning will as soon vanish as we 
 observe, that we nowhere read that even Peter's shadow itself was 
 ever worshipped by those whom by its touch Peter restored to 
 health. " It is perverse and absurd that the image of man should 
 be worshipped by the image of God ; for whatsoever he worshippetb 
 is worse and weaker," saith Lactantius.^ St. Agobard, bishop of 
 Lyons, in the beginning of his book concerning Images: " If," saith 
 he, "the work of God's hands must not be worshipped and adored 
 even to honour God, how much more the works of men's hands 
 are not to be worshipped and adored, even to honour them whose 
 likenesses they are said to be ?" 
 
 Peter passing by. Who, though he had no greater gift of 
 miracles than the rest had, yet he was made better known than 
 they because he was seen to act and speak when the rest were 
 silent, and seemed to do nothing. 
 
 > A. D. 34, n. 275. » Lib. ii. Div. Inst. cap. 18. 
 
VER. XX. J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 115 
 
 And be delivered from th&ir infirmities.^ This is not in the vulgat 
 Greek copies, neither doth the Syrian interpreter read it. 
 
 16. ^ multitude out of the cities round about. That is, much 
 people out of the towns lying round about Jerusalem. 
 
 Vexed with unslmk spirits. That is, wearied, and after a strange 
 manner tormented, with these evil spirits. 
 
 17. Then the high priest rose up. As much as to sayj Then 
 went the chief, or prince of the Sanhedrim out, to see what the 
 matter was. 
 
 And all they that were with him. That is, the rest of those that 
 were of the same sect of religion as the prince of the Sanhedrim 
 was. 
 
 Which is the sect of the Sadducees. That is, they who adhered 
 to their opinions. The words sect and heresy are of a middle 
 signification. At that same time the Sadducees had the chief 
 authority in the government. As to their tenets in matters of 
 religion, see what we have said, Matt. iii. 7. 
 
 Were ^lled with indignation. That is, enraged with rash and 
 unruly fury, for that they saw the apostles by their preaching to 
 the people the resurrection of Christ from the dead, did strike at 
 the very root of their heresy ; wherefore the Sadducees thought it 
 for the interest of their cause if by force they could get the 
 apostles and their doctrine suppressed, lest that the people em- 
 bracing the doctrine of the apostles, their authority should be 
 despised, and their heresy exploded. 
 
 18. And laid their hands upmi the apostles. That is, they seized 
 them. 
 
 20. Go, stand and speak in the temple. That is, preach con- 
 stantly 'and freely to the whole multitude of the people, and to all 
 in common, in the most famous and public place of the city. 
 
 The words of this life. Which Christ renewed after his death. 
 " There is no need that these words should- breed difficulty to any 
 man,""saith Lightfoot, "if he observe these words in ver. 17j 
 which is the sect of the Sadducees. For, the words of this life, are 
 words which assert this life (to wit, the resurrection), which the 
 Sadducees deny. For the controversy was about the resurrection 
 of Jesus. Heinsius thinks that in these words there is a Hebraism. 
 
 ' [Latin Vulgate ; Et liberarentur ab infirniitatibus Buia. Cranmer's version of lfi39 
 reads : Arid that they myght all be ieVyuered from their wfyrmytyes. Wioliffe's version 
 and that of Rheims also pVfe this sentence.] 
 
 I 2 
 
116 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. T. 
 
 ' The Hebrew word used for life, r^^n, signifieth,' says he, ' among 
 other things, an assembly or company.' It will appear from what 
 precedes, that here it is spoken either of all the apostles, or most 
 of them, or at least tbeir assemblies. That place, Ps. Ixxiv. 19, is 
 known. Forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever : and before. 
 Deliver not the soul of thy turtle dove to the multitude, where you 
 have twice the Hebrew word n'^n, which the Hellenists in divers 
 places have, diversely rendered. If you consider the word, it 
 signifies life, Ps. Ixviii. 10, Thy congregation hath dwelt therein, 
 where, if you render the Hebrew verbatim, instead of thy congre- 
 gation, or the congregation of thine, you must render thy life. 
 Therefore the words of this life, is the same as the discourse of 
 your company, or conversation." 
 
 21. And: when they heard. The divine command given them by 
 the ministry of the angel. 
 
 Called the council together. That is, the senate of the people, or 
 the great Sanhedrim. 
 
 And all the senate of the children of Isra£l. That is, the whole 
 senate of the city of Jerusalem. See what we have said above, 
 ch. iv. 5. The word which is rendered senate in the Greek, is in 
 the Hebrew elders. And Hesychius expressly makes the Greek 
 word rendered senate, and the word rendered presbytery, to be one 
 and the same. 
 
 24. The high priest. That is, the prince of the Sanhedrim. 
 
 The captain of the temple. See what we have said above, ch. iv. 1, 6. 
 
 Chief priests. That is, the heads of the sacerdotal families. See 
 our literal explanation of Matt. ii. 4. 
 
 Heard these things. To wit, from the officers which they sent to 
 bring the apostles out of prison. 
 
 Whereunto this would grow. That is, whither it did tend, or 
 what it did mean. 
 
 26. Brought them without violence. That is to say, not as they 
 used to drag felons (unwilling to come) to judgment, but after the 
 manner that even honest men sometimes are called to appear in 
 judgment. 
 
 For they feared. The captain and his servants. 
 
 The people. To wit, who for the so many and great miracles 
 wrought by the apostles among them, and the favours they who 
 were healed received by them, as also for the singular integrity of 
 their conversations, were highly esteemed by them. 
 
TER. XXX.] ■ UTEKALLY EXPLAINED. 117 
 
 Lest they should have been stoned. By the people, who took it in 
 ill part that violent hands should be laid upon such holy men, 
 endued with such divine virtue. 
 
 28. Did not we straitly command you? That is, we did most 
 strictly, and with most weighty threatenings forbid. 
 
 That ye should not teach in this name. That is, in the authority 
 of Jesus of Nazareth, whom the rulers of the Sanhedrim hated 
 and despised so exceedingly, that they wsuld not so much as 
 mention his name. 
 
 And behold. Notwithstanding of all our threatenings. 
 
 And intend, &c. As much as to say. Yea, also ye intend to 
 stain our reputation with the reproach of an ungodly slaughter ; 
 as if we had unjustly condemned that Jesus of Nazareth to the 
 death of the cross. "The Hebrews," saith Grotius, "express 
 slaughter, the guilt of slaughter, and the punishment of slaughter, 
 by blood." 
 
 2&. Th£ other apostles. To wit, who, as his associates, spake 
 the same things with Peter. 
 
 To obey, &c. To this agreeth that decree of Plato in his 
 Phaedrus, " It is lawful for no man to desert that office to which 
 God hath assigned him." From hence, that we ought to obey God 
 rather than men, Lorinus well inferreth, " That we ought to obey 
 men'&-commands when they do not contradict God, who gave them 
 authority to command." Hence also Bernard says weU,i "Whether 
 God, or man who is God's vicegerent, command- a thing, we are 
 certainly to obey with the same care, and behave with a like 
 reverence, whensoever man commands nothing contrary to God." 
 See what we have noted above, ch. iv. 19. 
 
 30. The God of our fathers. That is, the God who entered into 
 covenant with our fathers. 
 
 Raised up Jesus. This manner of speaking is frequent in scrip- 
 ture, that God raised up prophets, judges, or other ministers, which 
 he was to make use of for some great work. " Which is as much 
 as to say," saith Calvin, "as that the best nature's excellency is 
 weak, except God endue them with peculiar gifts to whom he 
 entrusts any great and noble office." Perhaps this manner of 
 speaking alludes to that notable place of Moses>^I>eut. xviii. 15, 
 which Peter cited above in his first sermon, ch. iii. 22. 
 
 Whom ye slew, and hanged upon a tree. That is, whom ye put 
 * Lib. De Frscep. & Disp. cap. 12. 
 
118 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [OHAP. V. 
 
 to a shameful death upon the cross. In allusion to that pl^ce, 
 Deut. xxi. 22, 23. 
 
 31. Him hath God exalted a Prince, and a Saviour. There is an 
 ellipsis here of the preposition in, so that the sense may l^e, that 
 Christ, whom you have condemned to be shamefully hanged, him 
 hath God exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, or hath constituted 
 in the supreme degree of honour, that he might be more fully and 
 perfectly the Prince of life, to wit, eternal, and the Captain of 
 salvation. See above, eh. iii. 15 ; Heb. ii. 10, v, 9. 
 
 With his right hand. That by the right hand of God here, being 
 a metaphorical expression, is understood his power and great 
 virtue, is clear unto aU. "If ever since the creation God did 
 manifest it, surely it was in this work of Chrjgt's exaltation. 
 Whence Paul dpth deservedly celebrate it in these words: And 
 what is the e:^ceeding greatness of his power to us-%eard loho believe, 
 according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in 
 Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own 
 right hand in heavenly places, Eph. i. 19, 20. For what can be 
 conceived more noble than to endow with immortality a man that 
 was born like other men, subject also to the same infirmities with 
 them, except only sin, and then set him above all the heavenSj and 
 to put all things under his feetj as Well in heaven as in earth, that 
 he might govern and manage them at his pleasure ? For it 
 appears by the circumstances, that all these things are compre- 
 hended under Christ's ascension and exaltation to heaven, and not 
 a mere lifting up to heaven, sucb as was Epoch's before the lq,w, 
 and Elias's under the law, who neither died before they were 
 lifted- up, nor attained to any dominion after. For these, although 
 they' were preludes and types of Christ's ascension, as of oprs also, 
 yet were they infinitely short of it." ^ 
 
 To give, &c. As much as to say, that gf his great mercy he 
 might bring his people to repentance ; and by forgiveness of sin, 
 which follows repentance quickened by faith, reconcile them to 
 himself, Calvin saith well, "Eepentance is indeed a voluntary 
 conversion. But whence cometh this willingness, except th^t 
 God change our heart, that of stony it may become fleshy; of hard 
 and stubborn, tractable ; and, lastly, of crooked, straight ? But 
 this is done when Christ by his Spirit renews us ; neither is this 
 the gift of one moment, but must be daily increased all our life, 
 
 * Curcgl. Instit. lib. v. pap, 16, n, 16. 
 
VBU. XXXIl.] LITEEALLY EXPLAINED. 119 
 
 till we fully adhere to God, whicli will be at last, when we shall 
 have put off our flesh. It is indeed a beginning of repentance 
 when a man who first was averse from God, renouncing the world 
 and himself, begins a new life. But because (though once upon 
 the way) we are far from the mark, we must daily be advancing. 
 Both which we obtain by Christ. For even as he beginneth 
 repentance in us, so he gives us perseverance. This is indeed an 
 inestimable grace; but it would profit little unless joined with 
 remssioa of sins. For Christ firgt found us enemies to Goi and 
 the corruptions which make the dissension between him and us do 
 always stick to us, so that he might jiistly be displeased, with us 
 rather than favourable to us. But justification consists in this, if 
 God impute not our sins to us. Therefore this latter grace ought 
 never to be separated from the former. Yea, the gospel will be 
 lame and corrupt, unless it consist of these two members : that is, 
 unless men be taught that they are reconciled to God by Christ, 
 by the free imputation of his righteousness, and by the new birth 
 of his Spirit transformed to newness of life, Thus we have, in 
 short, how salvation is to be obtained in Christ." 
 
 .32. And we are his witnesses of these things. As much as to say. 
 Now it becomes us not upon any account to suppress these things 
 which I have gpoken, seeing we are constituted witnesses pf them, 
 and so by virtue of our office are bound to pjibliah and proclaim 
 them openly to all. See above, ch. i. 8 ; Luke xxiv. 48 ; John 
 XV. 27. The Greek hath words here for things, but the sense is 
 the same ; for by words Peter understands things themselves, aftcf 
 the Hebrew manner of spea,king : to wit, those things of which he 
 briefly spake before, that is, whatever respecteth the dignity and 
 office of Christ, or man's salvation depending thereon. 
 
 And so is also the Holy Gliost. As much as to say, Nor indeed 
 do we the apostles only witness these things, but also the Holy 
 Ghost himself, who is a witness beyond exception, to whom by 
 right ye are bound to assent, however ye refuse to give credit to 
 us. The apostles alone for integrity and innocency of life were 
 worth credit ; but lest the stubbornness of men might leave any 
 pretext to cloak their unbelief, God would add to this testimony 
 another greater, to wit, the testimony of his Spirit. This very 
 testimony of the Spirit is joined elsewhere with the testimony of 
 the apostles, John xv. 26, 27 ; Heb, ii. 3, 4 ; but we must not 
 think that the Holy Spirit did bear witness apart from the 
 
120 THE ACTS OT THE HOLY APOSTLES [OHAP. V. 
 
 apostles, but by the apostles ; to wit, by their miracles and divine 
 discourses proceeding from his inspiration. Such an inspiration 
 also did at that time most evidently manifest itself in the apostles, 
 while with such readiness of mind they spoke of so wonderful 
 things, no ways fearing the power or threatenings of the great men. 
 After the like manner it is said, Eev. xxii. 17, And the Spirit and 
 the bride say. Come. That is, the Bride inspired by the Spirit 
 saith, Come. 
 
 Whom God hath given. That is, the gifts of which Holy Spirit 
 God hath given largely and plentifully. 
 
 To all that obey him. To wit, Christ ; that is, to all that believe 
 in Christ, and endeavour to frame their conversation hereafter 
 according to the rule of his word. 
 
 33. They were cut to the very heart. That is, they were ragingly 
 angry. The Greek word here, StsTrpiovro, and also ch. vii. 54, 
 saith Hesychius, is, " They raged with anger, they were very 
 angry." 
 
 Took counsel to slay them. That is, they consulted among them- 
 selves to. kill the apostles, who were personally present, and took 
 notice fif it. 
 
 34. A J Pharisee. The sect of the Pharisees was in greatest 
 esteem- among the Jews, and was gentler than the rest in punishing. 
 
 Gamaliel, a doctor of the law. Or a public professor. Concern- 
 ing this judge of the great Sanhedrim, Lightfoot saith thus: 
 "Eabban Gamaliel the first, called commonly and for distinction, 
 Rabban Gamaliel the old, was Praeses of the Sanhedrim, after his 
 father, Rabban Simeon, the son of Hillel, [and] Paul's master, 
 and the thirty-fifth receiver ofthe traditions, and therefore for this 
 reason might well be called doctor of the law, as being keeper and 
 conveyer of the traditions received at Mount Sinai, were it not 
 that the rabbins of the inferior order enjoyed the same title. He 
 died eighteen years before the destruction of the city, and Rabbi 
 Simeon, his son, took his chair, who perished with the city." 
 
 Commanded to put forth the apostles a little space. That is, he 
 commanded them to retire a little out of the council, lest by his 
 words they might become bolder. 
 
 35. Take heed, &c. As much as to say, do not act with such a 
 great heat, but rather have a special care, lest in your preposterous 
 zeal you may do somewhat to these men in this business whereof 
 afterward you may repent. It is not probable to me that Gamaliel 
 
VEE. XXXV. 3 LIlliaALLY EXPLAINED. 12l 
 
 spake ttus as if lie approved the doctrine of the gospel, or would 
 undertake its defence, but seeing all the rest stirred up with fury, 
 being a gentle and moderate man, he by his discourse moderates 
 their excess. "In the meantime," saith Capellus, "his disciple 
 Paul most cruelly raged against the church of Christ, and wasted 
 it, and Maimonides' attributes a fact to Gamaliel far different (as 
 it seems) from this advice, for he saith, that when he saw heretics 
 so abound in his days (meaning Christians, there being none other 
 at that time among the Jews' that might be supposed to have been 
 so called), he composed a form of prayer, in which God was 
 requested to extirpate the heretics, which form he put with the 
 other forms of prayer in the Jewish liturgy then used, that it 
 might be ready in every one's mouth. If this fact be true, it 
 seems to argue such an enraged spirit against the Christians, and 
 hatred at the Christian religion, to have been in this man, as suits 
 not well with this advice of his, which Luke gives here an account 
 of; except that one would think to reconcile Maimonides and 
 Luke by saying this was Gamaliel's mind and judgment, that 
 although the apostles and their followers were heretics, and even 
 dangerous, yet they were not to be suppressed by human violence, 
 nor the counsels of human policy, but the whole of it should be 
 committed to the wise providence of God, that their rooting out 
 must be looked for from God, and not hastened by human con- 
 trivances, and therefore that for this purpose he composed that 
 prayer, and added it to the rest in the daily liturgy, whereby God 
 was besought to root out these men if they were ungodly and 
 heretics ; that if they were not from God, he himself would in a 
 way and manner most agreeable to his own providence and wisdom 
 disappoint and overturn their designs. As to Paul, Gamaliel's 
 disciple, that bitter persecutor of the church of Christ, two things 
 may be answered, to wit, that Gamaliel himself was indeed at first 
 of the same disposition with Paul against the apostles and their 
 followers, which was cruel and fierce, but that then he had 
 changed his thoughts, God having inclined his heart to milder 
 courses, which often comes to pass, or that afterwards Paul 
 dissented from his master, as being of a hotter temper, and there- 
 fore of a more angry and' hostile spirit against those who he 
 thought would overturn the Jewish religion received from their 
 fathers, for which he was a great zealot." 
 
 ^ In Sum. falm. lib. ii. Tract, de Orat. & Bened. Sacerdot. 
 
122 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. V. 
 
 36, For before these days rose up Theudas. Theudas is not a 
 Greek, but the Hebrew name min, which the Syrians pronounce 
 by a dipthong Theuda, as they call Thomas, Thaumas, and Joseph, 
 Jauseph, as Grotius noted, " Luke," saith Henry Valesius,* " or 
 rather Gamaliel in Xiuke, saith expressly that Theudas rose up but 
 very l^itely, yea, in these same days wherein he spake. For before 
 these days rose up Thmdas, which words demonstrate the thing to have 
 been done very lately, for so both Greeks and Latins use to speak 
 of a thing lately fallen out, as may be proved by many instances. 
 For before these days, then, is as much as in these days, for the 
 Greeks and Latins say, before the third day of the kalends, for the 
 third day of the kalends, Wherefore when Luke subjoins, after 
 this man rose up Judas, nothing else is meant by it than that 
 Theudas was older than Judas the Galilean. Which gloss, 
 though at first it seems somewhat hard, yet it is altogether 
 necessary, and most true, neither does it want examples, fpr as 
 often as we reckon from the last, which is nearer us, we must 
 make the first last, and the last first. For that reason TertulHan, 
 in his Apologetic, hath used the word retro, to say " a good while 
 ago," in times past ; and retrosior, for "ancienter," and nevertheless 
 retrd in Latin is the same as post, " afterward." 
 
 " But because Casaubon denies that ever the Greeks spake so, 
 we produce a witness beyond all exception, which is Clemens 
 Alexandrinus,2 who spea,ks in the very same manner that Luke 
 does; for having observed almost all the heretics to have broken 
 out about the time of Hadrian, and to have come even to the 
 reign of Antoninus Pius, as Basihdes and Valentine, he subjoins, 
 'for Marcion lived about the same time with Basilides and Valeur 
 tine, but he, as the elder, was conversing with themj being yet 
 young.' He adds then, 'After whom, Simon for a while heard 
 Peter preach.' Who sees not in this place of Qlemens, that 'after 
 whom,' is the same with ' before whom ?' For neither was Siinon 
 the Sorcerer after Marcion, but rather lived long before him, as is 
 constant among aU. But certainly Clemens, while he makes a 
 catalogue of heretics, reckoned them first who were the last, and 
 put Simon the last of all. But also geographers describing the 
 situation of lands and names of people, speak after the same 
 manner: for they say, after these are those, that is, above these 
 
 1 Upon Euseb. book ii. ch. ] 1. » In lib. vii. Strom, towards the end. 
 
VEE. XXXVI.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 123 
 
 those are placed. And so much against Casaubon's opinion,* whp 
 thought that Theudas, of ^hom mention is made in the Acts, to 
 have been older than Judas. But one will perhaps say, that from 
 what we have argued, it seems to be abundantly evinoed that 
 Theudas was not older than Judas of Galilee; yet nevertheless 
 that Theudas, whereof Luke speaks, must be distinguished from 
 that Theudas mentioned by Josephus, 20th book of his Antiq., 
 toward the end of ch. 2. ; for the first Theudas, of whom Gamaliel 
 speaks in that oration which he had in the Jewish council, did 
 raise a tumult in Judea about the time of Christ's passion. But 
 the other, of whom Josephus speaks, stirred up sedition after the 
 death of King Agrippa, while Cuspius Fadus governed Judea, 
 about the fourth year of the reign of Claudius Augustus, Seeing, 
 then, that Gamaliel had this speech a little after Christ's resur- 
 rection, and before Stephen's martyrdom, that is, about the latter 
 end of Tiberius's reign, he could not at all have spoken then of 
 that commotion which Theudas made while Claudius reigned. 
 We cannot meet this objection any other way, unless we say that 
 Josephus was mistaken in making Theudas's sedition later thaa 
 he ought. For that there were two Theudases, who feigned 
 themselves prophets, one after another, stirring up the Jews to 
 hope for new things, I can no ways be persuaded. Liet Ijukei and 
 Josephus be compared, where both of them speak of Theudas, and 
 it will plainly appear that they both meant one and the same man. 
 Certainly all circumstances agree so exactly in both narratives, 
 that Josephus seems to have commented upon Luke. One differ- 
 ence there is as to the time, which yet is not of such moment that 
 we should invent two Theudases ; for if as often as we meet with 
 such differences in the narratives of ancient writers, we would 
 distinguish persons and things, we must beware, lest unadvisedly 
 we make two men of one. How much more safe is it, when we 
 find two writers differing among themselves, to say that one of 
 them is in a mistake, which since it is wicked to affirm of the 
 scripture, the whole blame must be laid upon Josephus." Light- 
 foot saith,'' "Admit only that Josephus errs in computing the 
 times, and the whole difficulty is removed. And truly, I see not 
 upon what account we owe that reverence and modesty to 
 Josephus, as to wrestle so much for his reputation. Another 
 Theudas must be found out, or the pointing of commas altered, 
 ' Exercitat. 2. cap. 18. * In Horis Heb, 
 
124 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. V. 
 
 or some other, I know not what, absurd plaster must be applied, 
 rather than Josephus must be accused of a mistake, who yet is 
 found often to trip and reel both in history and chronology. I 
 would therefore think Josephus's Theudas to be tramaliel's, but 
 that Josephus, mistaking the time, stained a true history with 
 -false chronology." 
 
 ' Saying he was somebody. That is, boasting himself to be -some 
 great and eminent deliverer of the Jews from the servitude, with 
 which the Romans oppressed them. This history Josephus relates 
 thus,' (and after him Eusebius.^) While Cuspius Fadus governed 
 Judea, a certain juggler named Theudas, having gathered together 
 a great multitude of men, persuaded them to carry away their 
 goods, and follow him as their captain to the river Jordan, and 
 being, as he himself said, a prophet, made them believe by his 
 power he would divide the water, and so they might have easy 
 passage. By such speeches he deceived many. But shortly after 
 Fadus suppressed their madness, having sent some troops of horse 
 against them, who having suddenly surprised them, killed some, 
 and took others prisoners. Theudas himself was also taken by 
 them, whose head they cut off and carried to Jerusalem. 
 
 And brought to nought. That is, all their endeavours vanished. 
 
 37. After this man. These words are the same with " before 
 this man," as we showed in the verse immediately preceding 'out of 
 Valesius's notes upon Eusebius. 
 
 Rose up Judas of Galilee. Of him Josephus saith thus,* (and 
 out of him Eusebius *) : Judas the Gaulanite, born in the town of 
 Gamala, having joined one Saddock a pharisee in his society, 
 stirred up the people to revolt ; both of them saying that the tax 
 was nothing but a mark of manifest bondage ; and encouraged the 
 whole nation to defend their liberties. The same in the second 
 book of the Jewish Wars, c. 7. " At that time a certain Galilean, 
 named Judas, stirred up the inhabitants to revoltj openly up- 
 braiding them, that they should thus endure to pay tribute to the 
 Romans, and own, besides God, some mortal men to be lords over 
 them," The same Josephus calls ^ this Judas the Gaulanite, Judas 
 the Galilean. Perhaps he was commonly believed thus, because 
 that in Galilee he chiefly stirred up his tumults, though Gaulan 
 and Gamala belonged not to Galilee, but to Perea, or the region 
 beyond Jordan. 
 1 Antiq. XX. 2. » Hist. lib. ii. cap. 1 1. a ^nt. xviii. 1. * Hist. i. S. ^ Antiq. xviii. 2. 
 
TER. XXXVII.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 125 
 
 In the days of the taxing. That Is, while Publius Sulpitius 
 Quirinius, or Cyrenius, taxed Judea. Scaliger (saith Valesius) 
 saith,' " That Luke speaks not here of the first taxing, under 
 which Christ was born, but of the second, which was made after 
 Archelaus's banishment ; and sharply reproves Eusebius for con- 
 founding these two taxings among themselves. But Scaliger 
 himself is very greatly mistaken ; who being seconded by no 
 author, would obtrude two taxings upon us, while both Josephus 
 and Luke himself avouch there was but one. For Luke saith not 
 of the second taxing, but only of the taxing : intimating that there 
 was but one taxing. Origen also, in his first book against Celsus, 
 agreeth with Eusebius, in these words : ' After him, in the days of 
 the taxing, at which time Jesus was born, Judas a certain Gali- 
 lean nlade many of the people to revolt to him.' Therefore 
 Scaliger's censure must attaint Origen, for he aflBrmed the same 
 that Eusebius did. For Origen distinguished not two taxings of 
 Judea. Moreover, Eusebius agreeth very well with himself, for 
 that having followed evangelic authority, he made that taxing of 
 Quirinius to fall about the birth of Christ, it follows that he 
 should apply the insurrection of Judas the Galilean to the same 
 time, wherein, indeed, he difiers from Josephus, but agreeth 
 exceeding well with Luke and with himself. If so be that any 
 will choose to embrace our opinion, there shall no difference be 
 found- between Luke and Josephus. For we say that the taxing 
 at the time Christ was born, began when Herod reigned in Judea, 
 and that it was ended by Quirinius, when Archelaus, Herod's son, 
 waa banished. In which very time we say that Judas's insur- 
 rection fell out in Judea, to wit, after Archelaus's banishment. 
 Surely, before Archelaus's being deposed, there was no ground 
 why Judas should stir up the people to revolt; for that the 
 Koman magistrate would not tax there, where the king was a 
 friend, and an ally of the people of Rome ; neither were the Jews in 
 any hazard of being slaves to foreigners, while they had a king of 
 their nation and religion. Whence it appears, that the taxing 
 and insurrection of Judas the Galilean, could not fall out till after 
 Archelaus's banishment." Thus far Valesius in his notes upon 
 Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History, book i. ch. 5. 
 
 The same Valesius, in the same place a little before: "Josephus," 
 saith he, "does indeed mention the taxing made by Quirinius in Syria 
 ' Lib. vi. de Emen. Temp, and in Anim. in Euseb, 
 
126 THE ACTS OF THB HOLY APOSTLES [OHAP. T. 
 
 and Judea, as soon as Archelaus was banished. But he speaks not of 
 this taxing, which Luke in his gospel says, ch. ii. 1, 2, was made, 
 when Herod was yet reigning. But indeed it seems to me that 
 an error hath crept into Luke's text in Quirinius's fiame> and 
 that for Quirinius the name of Sentius Saturninus ought to be 
 restored. For this man, as Josephus testifieth, was governor 
 about the latter end of Herod's reign. TertuUian also writeth,* 
 that Judea was taxed by Sentius Saturninus. Whence it appears, 
 that in TertuUian's time, some have read in Luke's gospel Satur- 
 ninus for Quirinius. Besides, it is strange tha;t Josephus should 
 have pretermitted the first taxing, who yet was so accurate in 
 prosecuting the history of his. nation, that he reckons all the 
 governors of Syria; for he mentioneth both Sentius Saturninus 
 and Quintilius Yarus his successor. When Eusebius understood 
 this, it was his judgment that it was the same taxing that Luke 
 and Josephus mentioned ; but that Josephus was mistaken^ who 
 thought this taxing to have happened after ArChelaus's banish- 
 ment. Therefore the same Eusebius^ placeth that tumult of 
 Judas the Galilean, which followed upon the taxing made by 
 Quirinius, about the time of Christ's birth, and the end of Herod's 
 reign. Neither was Eusebius so stupid as not to see Luke and 
 Josephus to disagree among themselves in setting down the time 
 of this taxing, ,it being evident even to the blind. But in this 
 discord he for respect to the gospel, chose to disbelieve Josephus, 
 and to follow Luke, which opinion is indeed far more likely and 
 probable than that of Scaliger, who thinketh there were two 
 taxings of Judea both made by Quirinius. But in this opinion of 
 Scaliger's, many things not very probable do occur. Firstj it 
 behoved Quirinius to have been twice sent to Syria for one and 
 the same purpose, to wit^ to tax. First> about the time of Christ's 
 birth, then about ten years after. But it is not probable that one 
 man should be twice sent to govern a province. It is certain that 
 Josephus, that accurate historian, when he mentions Quirinius's 
 coming to Syria and Judea, saith not that ever he came to Syria 
 before, or that any taxing was biefore that time made either by 
 him or any other Boman judge. But if the taxing had been 
 made already, why is it done again by the same man ? for if it had 
 been rightly made, and without fraud, it was no ways necessary it 
 should be done again ; but if not well, justly it behoved to send 
 
 ^ Lib. iv., contra Mareion. cap. 19. ' In Chronico. 
 
VEB. XXXVII.]- LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 127 
 
 another who should make a more just taxing. Further, how could 
 that former taxing be made by a Roman magistrate, while Herod 
 reigned, seeing that the senate had declared Herod to be king of 
 Judea by an undoubted right ; neither had the Roman magistrate a 
 right to act anything by authority in Judea, so long as king Herod 
 lived. I pass by, that in the last days of Herod, wherein Christ 
 was born, Saturninus and Varus, but not jQuirinius, were Caasar's 
 deputies in Syria. These be the arguments whereby I am chiefly 
 inclined to think Scaliger's opinion not probable, who argues for 
 two taxings. Neither doth it withstand that Luke saith, that the 
 taxing which was made a little before Christ was born was the 
 first, for by it is only meant that this was the first time wherein 
 the Romans taxed Judea, neither 'was there ever any taxing 
 before. It is also false what Scaliger saith, that the latter taxing 
 belonged to Axchelaus's tetrarchy, and was for his goods only. 
 Yea, Josephus saith expressly^ that Quirinius was sent by Ca3sar 
 to tax throughout Syria and Judea. Petavius followed Scaliger's 
 opinion,^ to which he adds this only, that both these taxings were 
 made by Quirinius, being sent with an extraordinary power to 
 Syria. But both Luke and Josephus, their words refelthis; for 
 Luke saith. When Cyrenius was governor of Syria, and Josephus 
 hath : 'To do justice among the people ;' which cannot be said 
 but of the ordinary governor. Casaubon, in his Exercitations, 
 takes the same course to reconcile Josephus and Luke. But indeed 
 in my judgment all of them have lost their labour, for oiie of 
 them must needs be in a mistake, which, since it is heinous to say 
 of the evangelist, it is safer>to lay the cause of the mistake upon 
 the Jewish writer. Which, if it seem somewhat harsh to any, 
 there remains yet this one way of reconciling them, which we 
 mentioned already, that in Luke's text we restore Saturninus 
 instead of Quirinius, and that we say the taxing in his time was 
 made, not by the Roman governor, but by King Herod himself. 
 It might also be said that this taxing M'as indeed finished and 
 perfected, when Quirinius was governor after Archelaus's banish- 
 ment; yet it began long before, towards the end of Herod's 
 reign, at which time Christ was born. Thus also the difference 
 that appears between Luke and Josephus is taken away. By this 
 means Luke and Josephus agree excellently well togiether, for the 
 evangelist calls that taxing which began to be made about the 
 
 * In fine 17 Ant. and init. 18. ' In Rat. Temp. 
 
128 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLUS [CHAP. V. 
 
 time of Christ's birth, Herod being yet alive, the taxing of the 
 governor Quirinius, because it ended at length under Quirinius. 
 This, indeed, ia my opinion is the fittest interpretation of that 
 gospel text in Luke, being such as supposeth only one taxing to 
 have been made, not two : as Scaliger, and others following his 
 opinion, contrary to the faith of history, have devised." Thus far 
 the learned Valesius. 
 
 Drew away much people. That is, made many df the people 
 revolt from the Romans. 
 
 After him. That is, to him. 
 . He also perished. As much as to say, saith Origen, ' " Who after 
 he was punished himself, his doctrine also was overthrown, except 
 some few remainders." 
 
 38. Refrain from these men. That is. Have nothing to do with 
 them, as Matt, xxvii. 19. 
 
 Of men. That is, of men's devising. 
 
 And let them alone. To this word must be joined that part of 
 the verse immediately following, Lest haply ye be found even to 
 fight against Qod. 
 
 For if this council, &c. The construction requires that these 
 words and the following, till the fore-cited part of the next verse. 
 Lest haply ye he found, &c., should be enclosed between two 
 parentheses. 
 
 It will come to nought. That is, it is not so firm as that it can 
 stand, 
 
 39. Ye cannot overthrow it. That is, ye wUl labour in vain to 
 overthrow it, forasmuch as whatever is of God must stand in spite 
 of all men. BuUinger in his commentaries upon this place, highly 
 extols this counsel of Gamaliel's. But if we believe Calvin, 
 " Gamaliel drew a perverse consequence from true principles, 
 because that which only should be applied to faith, he does mis- 
 apply to outward duty and way of acting. And so he not only 
 overthrows all political order, but also he enervates the discipline 
 of the church." Castellio, in his Vatican, answereth Calvin thus : 
 " Seeing the business was about a matter of religion, which was 
 yet then in controversy, and not about any crime expressly for- 
 bidden by the law, Gamaliel could not, though he had been a 
 Christian, have given the Jews a better advice. First, his reason 
 was true ; if it was not from God, it would fall of itself, according. 
 
 ' Lib. i, cont. Cels. 
 
VER. XXXIX.] LITEKALIA EXPLAINED. 129 
 
 to that of Christ : Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not 
 planted shall be plucked up : let them alone, &c., Matt. xv. 13. And 
 of David, who would not kill Saul when he might, 1 Sam. xxiv. 6. 
 Also the examples which Gamaliel produceth are true. Now 
 whereas Gamaliel feared that they should fight against God, that 
 came afterward to pass ; which, if they had followed his advice, had 
 never been." And a little after, " Whereas Calvin saith that this 
 advice of Gamaliel's is such as would overthrow all political order, 
 and enervate church discipline, he saith not true; for the dis- 
 cipline of the apostles was not quite without nerves, though it had 
 no such nerves as Calvin speaks. Also political order is in force in 
 sins that are certain, and without, controversy. In the law of 
 Moses the seventy elders judged in smaller and more easy causes, 
 and brought the more hard and difficult to Moses, and he consulted 
 with God concerning them. So may it also be done now. Adultery, 
 manslaughter, false witness, and other certain and known crimes, 
 may without hazard be judged. But for heretics the matter is 
 controverted (for if it were not controverted, it would not be 
 debated any more than murder), and therefore to be referred to 
 the oracle. Therefore as Moses waited the time of the oracle, and 
 yet did not in the meanwhile overthrow the political order, so we 
 are to wait the time of God's judgment, which will be a certain 
 oracle in this controversy. Yet God in the meantime will make 
 use of the service of his ministers in things not controverted." 
 These are Castellio's words, with which agree these choice words 
 of the sermon preached before the House of Lords, on -Nov. 5th, 
 1680 : " Of societies of men. Christians of all others are mostj" 
 averse from ways of violence and blood, especially from using any 
 such ways upon the account of religion : and among Christian 
 churches, where they differ among themselves, if either of them 
 use these ways upon the account of religion, they give a strong 
 presumption against themselves that they are not truly Christians." 
 Thus far the Right Reverend Bishop of St. Asaph, William Lloyd, 
 a man of excellent parts, great erudition, singular piety and be- 
 nignity, to whom I do, and shall all my lifetime acknowledge myself 
 to be extremely bound. " We do not," says Gregory Nazianzen,' 
 "brand our enemies with reproaches as many do, covering the 
 weakness of their reasons and arguments with foul language, as is 
 said of the cuttle fish, that it vomits its ink in the water to escape 
 
 ' Orat. 32' 
 K 
 
130 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. T. 
 
 the fisher, but we make it appear by this infallible proof that we 
 fight for Christ, because we fight with meekness and humility, as 
 Christ did." Salvianus, a presbyter of Marseilles, speaking of the 
 Arians,' whose heresy every orthodox man abhors : " They are 
 heretics," says he, " but they do not know it. They are heretics 
 with us, but with themselves they are not such ; for they so far 
 judge themselves Catholics, that they defame ourselves with the 
 brand of heretical overthwartedness. What therefore they are to 
 us, we are the same to them. The truth is with us, but they pre- 
 sume it be with themselves. God's honour is with us, but they 
 think that what they believe is for his honour. They are ungodly, 
 but this they think to be true godliness. They err, but they err 
 with a good intention, thinking that they both honour and love 
 God. Though they have not an orthodox faith, yet they think it 
 to be a perfect love of God, and how they shall be punished for 
 this heterodox error in the day of judgment, none can know except 
 the Judge. In the meantime, God, as I think, therefore lengthens 
 his patience to them, because he sees, that although they believe 
 not aright, yet they do err only out of love to a judgment which 
 they suppose to be religious." 
 
 40. And to him they agreed. To wit, that they should not kill 
 the apostles ; but not that they should send them away untouched; 
 which yet was fit and agreeable to what Gamaliel spoke. 
 
 And when they had called, &c. As much as to say, when they 
 had called in the apostles, whom before they commanded to go 
 aside, or be carried out of the council, and lest the council should 
 seem to assemble against them as innocents, and guilty of no crime, 
 they punished them with that judicial punishment of forty stripes, 
 enjoined Deut. xxv. 2, 3, which was inflicted upon the disobedient, 
 and was commonly called by the Hebrews, 'a striking.' The Jews, 
 by the Romans' permission, had power to correct their own in 
 Judea and some neighbouring places, even with strokes. 
 
 They commanded, &c. As much as to say, they strictly forbade 
 them, that they should not henceforth preach the gospel of Christ, 
 and that they should speak nothing to any man that tended to 
 the praise of Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 41. And they. To wit, the apostles, were dismissed by the San- 
 hedrim, after being basely beaten, as Christ foretold, also remem- 
 bering his command. Matt. x. 17, 21, 35 ; xxiii. 34; Mark xii. 5 ; 
 xiii. 9; Luke xii. 11 ; Matt. v. 11, 12; Luke vi. 22, 23. 
 
 ' Lib. V. De Provici. 
 
VER. XLII.] LITJSRALLY EXPLAINED. 131 
 
 Departed from the presence of the council ryoicing. By these words 
 is meant, that the apostles did with so much constancy of mind 
 endure these persecutions, that they not only did not complain, but 
 also greatly rejoiced. The most pious, and eminent for learning. Dr. 
 J. Sharp, Dean of Norwich, who formerly, by his own beneficence, 
 and the liberality of the Eight Hon. Lord Heneage Finch, late high 
 chancellor of England, did frequently and largely supply my wants, 
 in that famous sermon made before the lord mayor and aldermen of 
 the city of London, upon Michaelmas day, a.d. 1680, saith most 
 truly and elegantly of the just man : " Let what will happen to 
 him, he is full of peace and joy, for he hath met with no disap- 
 pointment of his designs. His great aim was to please God ; and 
 his conscience from God's word assures him that he hath done it, 
 and he hath nothing to do further, but to wait for the happy time, 
 when the secrets of all hearts will be revealed, and every man's 
 conscience and actions will be made manifest, and then he doubts 
 not to receive approbation and praise, and a great reward in that 
 day of the Lord Jesus ; and so much the rather, because this light 
 affliction wherewith he is now exercised, he is assured, will work for 
 him a fiir more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 2 Cor. iv. 17." 
 That they were, &c. As much as to say, that they had this sin- 
 gular proof of the grace of God, to be afflicted for Christ's sake, 
 and the propagating of his kingdom, Phil. i. 16. " Here," saith 
 Calvin, " the cause should be respected which associates us with the 
 Son of God, who not only with his glory swallowed up the 
 dishonour of the world, but turned its reproaches, mockeries, and 
 abuses to a great honour. 
 
 42. And daily, &c. As much as to say, but the apostles, relying 
 upon the protection of Christ, nowise frighted with the adversaries' 
 threats or punishments did, contrary to the unjust prohibition of 
 the Sanhedrim, preach the gospel of Christ, not only sometimes, but 
 daily, not only from house to house, that is privately in every house, 
 but also publicly in the most famous place of the city, the temple. 
 " He," saith Calvin,, " that accounts himself happy when he suffers 
 for Christ, let him never faint, though he should undergo hard 
 trials. For the apostles were in a manner armed with stripes, that 
 without fear they might hasten to death. Woe therefore to our 
 wantonness, who, as soon as we have suffered the least persecution, 
 like soldiers discharged from service, presently surrender the torch 
 to others." 
 
 K 2 
 
132 TpE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. VI. 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 1. The number of the disciples. That is, of sueh as believed in 
 Christ; and so the church's wealth increasing, her affairs increased 
 also. 
 
 Multiplied. To wit, daily in Jerusalem. 
 
 There arose a murmuring. As it ordinarily happens in a great 
 multitude. 
 
 Of the Grecians. The Greek text hath Hellenists. The holy 
 writers of the New Testament did call all Gentiles by the name of 
 Hellenes, when religion was treated of. And so I am apt to think 
 that they were called Hellenists, who either themselves, or their 
 forefathers, having been addicted to the superstition of the Gentiles, 
 were, being proselyted, engrafted into the Jewish nation- 
 
 Against the Hebrews. They seem to be called Hebrews here, 
 that were sprung from the Jews' line. Clemens Alexandrinus 
 and Chrysostom call them, " Hebrews from the very first original." 
 
 Were neglected. That is, were not enough supplied. To wit, 
 the Hellenist's widows, who were either sick or burdened with 
 children, were worse entertained than the Hebrew widows were, 
 in their daily distributions of necessaries for food and raiment. 
 Salmasius saith, that the cause of this murmuring made by the 
 Hellenists, was : " That they lamented their widows to be passed 
 by in the daily ministration, because doubtless the Jewish women 
 were chosen, and taken to that office." The Ethiopic rendered it, 
 "Because they saw their widows serve daily. It seems, the 
 despising of the Hellenist's widows consisted in this, that the daily 
 labour of serving the poor was laid upon them. 
 
 2. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples. That is. 
 The apostles convened the whole flock of believers in Christ, that 
 in such a multitude there might be enough, out of which the 
 deacons might be chosen, and that the election might be by the 
 votes of the whole church. 
 
 And said. To wit, to the whole congregation of the disciples, 
 or believers. 
 
 It is not reason. That is, it is neither convenient nor expedient. 
 
 That we should leave the word of God. That is, be less taken up 
 in propagating the doctrine of the gospel. 
 
VKR. v.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 133 
 
 And serve tables. That is, That we should apply ourselves to the 
 care of serving the poor among believers in bodily necessaries. 
 Here is a figure called synecdoche, expressing the thing containing 
 for the thing contained, tables, for the meat and drink used to 
 be laid on tables. Also of the part for the whole ; that is, even 
 for every thing else besides meat and drink that belonged to bodily 
 sustenance. And so, to serve tables is the same as to look after 
 things necessary to maintain the bodily life. 
 3. Look ye out. That is, advisedly choose. 
 Men of honest report. That is, whose faith and uprightness is 
 unquestionable. 
 
 Full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom. That is, abundantly 
 furnished with spiritual wisdom, or wisdom proceeding from the 
 Holy Ghost. 
 
 Whom we may appoint over this business. That is, whom we may 
 appoint to take care of the poor, as the oflScers among the Jews 
 called Parnesim in each synagogue. See Lightfoot's Horas 
 Hebraicae, in Matt. iv. 23. 
 
 But we, &c. As much as to say, we, being liberate from this 
 care of overseeing the poor among the faithful, in things pertaining 
 to the bodily life, may with all care attend our office, either pro- 
 nouncing what the church must say after us in public prayers 
 to God, or instructing the people. 
 
 5. And the saying pleased, &c. As much as to say. And so, by 
 the advice of the apostles, were seven stewards chosen by the 
 common consent of the whole church, to take the care of tTie poor, 
 and of distributing the church's money. Their names were 
 Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and 
 Nicolas a stranger, or proselyte of Antioeh. From their Greek 
 names it appears that in this election chief respect was had to the 
 Hellenists. The first church of Christ was made up of Jews only, 
 none of the Gentiles being as yet either called or admitted to it. 
 It consisted of two sorts, to wit, Hebrews, who were such from 
 their first original, and of Hellenists, who in respect of their 
 lineage and nation, were Greeks, that is. Gentiles, but by circum- 
 cision-were incorporated into the Jewish nation. ," The first seven 
 deacons of the church," saith Salmasius, " were chosen out of the 
 number of the Hellenists, who were all of them, except one, born 
 at Jerusalem. And seeing the Hellenists were proselytes, and 
 six of them bom at Jerusalem, Luke reckons the seventh last, 
 
134 THE ACTS OF THB HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. TI. 
 
 whom he telleth us was a proselyte of Aiitioch. If it were simply 
 read in Luke, 'and Nicolas a proselyte,' it would be nowise 
 doubted but we should understand the other six to have been 
 Jews, and not proselytes, but since he adds a proselyte of Atitioch, 
 who can doubt but that the rest'were likewise proselytes, though 
 not of Antioch, but of Jerusalem ? for these things came to pass in 
 Jerusalem." 
 
 6. Whom they set before the apostlesi To wit, that by their 
 authority and blessing they might be confirmed. 
 
 And when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. Here 
 the form of election is set forth, which was also in the primitive 
 institution of the church used in making bishops, or presbyters. 
 The church presented men of great wisdom and piety to the 
 apostles or their delegates, who were greatly endued with a spirit 
 of discerning, to be ordained, who, after having tried them, prayed 
 to God that he would bless them in the new oiEce to which they 
 were appointed, and ^endue them with such wisdom, as they might 
 with great success manage the same. Those prayers being ended, 
 they laid hands on them, in token of the ministries being com- 
 mitted to them. Sometimes also the Holy Ghost did by the 
 prophets point out by name such as he would have chosen to this 
 or that ministry. Acts xiii. 2 ; 1 Tim. i. 18 ; iv. 14. 
 
 7. And the word, &c. As much as to say. Such was the power 
 of the Holy Ghost speaking by the apostles and working miracles, 
 that every day many, and among them some even of the priests in 
 Jerusalem, which Christ's own preaching did not bring in to 
 embrace, at least to profess the faith, did now (having overcome 
 all respect to carnal fear and vain-glory) adjoin themselves, to the 
 number of the believers, and obeyed the precepts of faith, or 
 doctrine of the gospel. 
 
 8. Full of faith and power. That is, eminent for the faith and 
 virtue of miracles. This, manner of speaking is not unusual in 
 scripture, to say they are fuU of the gifts of God, in which the 
 strength and grace of the Spirit doth notably discover and show 
 itself. 
 
 9. There arose. By rising, Luke means those of whom he 
 speaks to have opposed the doctrine of the gospel; not to have 
 dragged Stephen presently to judgment, but to have first debated 
 with him concerning the religion he taught. These opposers of 
 Stephen were either Hellenists, or strangers, who lived in Jerusalem, 
 
"VEE. IX. J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 135 
 
 either about their affairs or for studying. The Jews tell us there 
 were four hundred and eighty synagogues in Jerusalem. 
 
 Of the Libertines. Suidas : " Libertines, the name of a nation." 
 Moreover, In the first collation of Carthage' is mentioned one 
 Victor, bishop of the church of Libertina in Africa or Numjdla. 
 The learned Junius suspects some corruption to have been made 
 in the letters of the word Libertines ; for he notes, that they were 
 those strangers who, as Epiphanius witnesseth, called holy houses 
 Ubrathas, 2t,nA the parishes belonging to it, with the whole convent, 
 lahras; "for," saith he, "all these belonging to one synagogue 
 were called lebratkenun, and from thence corruptly the synagogue 
 was called the synagogue of the Libertines." 
 
 And Cyrenians. What Cyrene was, whence they were called 
 Cyrenians, see pur literal explication on Matt xxvii. 33, and Amos 
 ix. 7. Josephus testifies ^ that there were many Jews in Cyrenia. 
 
 And Alexandrians. Alexandria the metropolis of Egypt, whence 
 these Alexandrians came, was built by Alexander, from whom it 
 took its name. Ptolemy Philadelphus adorned it with a library 
 of seventy thousand volumes; but men famous for learning and 
 wisdom, who were its inhabitants, were a greater ornament to it. 
 Among which were renowned Philo the Jew, of whom was that 
 proverb, "Either Philo Platonizeth, or Plato Philonizeth;" Apion 
 the Grammarian, whom Tiberius Caesar called "the cymbal of 
 the world ;" and Pliny, " the trumpet of public fame ;" Didymus 
 the Grammarian; Claudius Ptolemeus, though some say that 
 Pelusium was his country; Appian the Historian, therefore 
 called the Alexandrian ; Clemens the Presbyter, surnamed Alex- 
 andrinus ; Origen^ of whom it is said, " Where well none better, 
 where ill none worse;" Athanasius, Cyril, DidymUs, surnamed 
 the Blind; and others whose names I do not now remember. 
 Alexandria is now by the Turks, under whose yoke it groans, 
 called El Iskanderieh, by corrupting the name of Alexander, whose 
 corpse, Quintus Curtius' saith, was transported thither from 
 Memphis. Ptolemy's famous library, as Ammianus Marcellinus * 
 saith, was burnt when the city was destroyed under Julius Caesar. 
 The Jews had equal privileges in Alexandria with the Macedonians. 
 See Grotius upon 3 Maccabees. 
 
 And of them of Cilicia. Cillcia, now Carmania, was one In 
 Constantine's time; then It was divided into two parts, the first 
 
 > Mem. 201. » Antiq. xvj. 10. ' Lib. *. cap. 10. * Lib. xxii. cap. 41.^ 
 
136 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. VI. 
 
 of which was called " Cilicia the first, a champaign (or level) 
 ground, and consular," saith Spanheim, Introd. ad Geog.^ Sac. 
 " It had upon the west Isauria, upon the east the second Cilicia, 
 upon the south the sea of Cyprus; the- metropolis of it is Tarsus, 
 the head of the nation, a colony of the Romans, a free city, having 
 the privilege of a Eoman city ; whence that of Paul of Tarsus 
 below, ch. xxii. 28."" The second Cilicia, called also Trachea, 
 having upon the north Mount Taurus, upon the east Comagene, 
 upon the south the Issick Gulf, which had its name from the town 
 Issus between Syria and Cilicia, famous for the victory obtained 
 there by Alexander against Darius ; where also Cicerq, as he 
 reports of himself,^ was called emperor, and boasteth that he had 
 the same tents which of old Alexander had. This was a province 
 ruled by the emperor's lieutenant sent thither with a garrison ; 
 but its metropolis was Anazarba or Anazarbus, otherwise called 
 Diocaesarea. There is mention made of this second Cilicia in the 
 acts of the council of Chalcedon. 
 
 And Asia. See what we have said above, ch. ii. 9. 
 
 10. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit. That 
 is, the wisdom suggested to him by the Holy Ghost. The particle 
 and is put in the beginning of the verse instead of " but," which 
 is frequently done in other places of scripture. 
 
 By which he spake. As much as to say, by which Stephen's 
 tongue and iiis mind while he was speaking were directed, according 
 to Christ's promise. Matt. x. 20; Luke xxi. Ii5. Beza witnesseth, 
 that in a most ancient Greek copy of his is added here. Because 
 they were reproved by him with all boldness, that is, with all 
 freedom. 
 
 11. Then. To wit, when they could not resist the truth. 
 They suborned. The old Latin interpreter expresseth it by the 
 
 word submiserunt, in which sense the best Latin authors use the 
 verb immittere. See Gellius 4 Noct. Attic 18, Sallust. Catil. 
 Plin. lib. vi., epist. 13. 
 
 12. 7%e elders. That is, the senators of the Sanhedrim. 
 To the council. The Greek hath it Sanhedrim. 
 
 13. And set up false loitnesses. They are also said to be false 
 witnesses who give a false construction to what hath been truly 
 spoken, and turn it to a crime ; as they here turn that to wicked- 
 
 » We contradict this, moved ty the reasons of Grotius upon that place. 
 » 2 Ep. X. 5. Attic. 20. 
 
VJER. II.J LITERALLY EXPLAIKED. 137 
 
 ness and blasphemy, which according to truth was foretold of the 
 destruction of the temple, and the ceasing for the most part of the 
 rites depending thereon. See Luke xix. 43, 44. David inveighs 
 against such witnesses in the person of Doeg, Ps. liL 2 — 5, 
 compared with 1 Sam. xxii. 9 — 13. 
 
 Blasphemous words. That is. Base and reproachful. 
 
 Against this holy place. That is. Against the temple of God. 
 Acts XXV. 8; Matt. xxvi. 61. 
 
 14. A nd shall change the customs. That is, The legal ceremonies, 
 which typified Christ to come, and the gospel law. 
 
 15. Saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. That is, 
 they beheld his face full of reverent and serene gravity. 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 1. The high priest. That is, the chief of the Sanhedrim. 
 
 Are these things so ? As if he had said. Are these things true 
 which they say and witness against thee ? 
 
 2. And he said. Seeing Stephen was accused, because that he, 
 moved by divine instinct and inspiration, had foretold the destruc- 
 tion of the temple, and the abolishing of the legal ceremonies, 
 that he might demonstrate and evince that there was no evil in 
 that, he, briefly running over all ancient history even to their 
 times, covertly intimateth, that the favour of God was restricted 
 to no place, not even to the temple or tabernacle ; and also that 
 the Jews, if they did sufficiently lay to heart their own doings, 
 and those of their nation, had no reason to be offended at this 
 prediction. 
 
 Men, brethren, and fathers. If we may give credit to the famous 
 Salmasius, " Stephen, who was a-proselyte, calls the Jews brethren, 
 as being partaker of the same promises with them, an observer of 
 the same law, a worshipper of the same God. He -calls them also 
 fathers, because proselytes, being their disciples from Avhom they 
 had the law, were accounted, as it were, their children, and they 
 as their fathers." But the apostle Paul, who was not a proselyte, 
 but a Jew by nation, useth the same compellation to the Jews 
 below, ch. xxii. 1. It is more reasonable therefore to say, that 
 
138 THE ACTS OF THE HOLT APOSTLES [CHAf. Til. 
 
 both Stephen a proselyte, and Paul a Jew by birth, call the 
 younger among them brethren, and the older fathers. 
 
 The God of glory. Hebrew, « The King of glory." Ps. xxlv. 
 7. That is, the omnipotent and glorious God, King of kings. 
 
 Appeared unto our father Ahraham. Stephen might use this 
 expression, not only as a Christian, but also as a Jew, or a prose- 
 lyte of the Jewish religion. " The God of the Jews, who calls 
 himself the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and of Jacob, is 
 also the God of Jhe proselytes ; for the proselytes worshipped one 
 and the same God, and bound themselves to observe the same law 
 -with that which he gave to the Jews. If they could call the God 
 of the Jews their God, as well as the Jews, who can deny that 
 they could call Abraham their father ? But seeing Abraham, by 
 the promise made by God to him, was called the father of nations ; 
 those nations, whose father he was called by God, could be no 
 other than those which the Messiah purchased to God the Father 
 by his own blood. And there is no doubt but the Christians at 
 this day may call Abraham their father." Thus far the renowned 
 Salmasius. 
 
 When he was in Mesopotamia, That is, while he yet abode at 
 Ur of the Chaldees. " Not to mention the fables of the Hebrews, 
 who change Ur into an appellative name, I do not approve of their 
 opinion, though it seem more probable to Bocha?t,* who places Ur 
 towards the mountainous parts of Armenia, in the confines of Syria, 
 and more northern Mesopotamia, where by the name Ur, they de^ 
 note a Persian castle.^ For neither does the name of Chaldsea seem 
 to be extended so far ; nor had Abraham then coms from the east, 
 but rather from the north. Neither can a demonstrative argument 
 be drawn from the similitude of names (such as is that of the 
 Persian castle in Marcellinus, whither he reporteth that Cassianus 
 and Mauritius came), as Bochart himself elsewhere observes. Isaac 
 Vossius, a very learned man, will have Ur to be the same with 
 Chebar or Chobar, at the confluence of the Chabor and Euphrates; 
 but the way is nearer from that place into Syria ; nor was it need- 
 ful for those that were journeying to Canaan to go up into Charran, 
 nor was that a city of Chaldsea. Therefore it is uncertain whether 
 it be Ura, mentioned by Pliny,' in the turning of Euphrates to- 
 ward the east, and Babylonia ; or Ouria, spoken of by Eupolemus, 
 
 • Phaleg. lib. ii. cap. 6. = Amm. lib. xxv cap. 26. ' Lib. «. cap. 24, 
 
VEE. II. j LITBRALLY EXPLAINED. 139 
 
 a city of Babylonia, according to Eusebius;' but according to 
 Ptolemy, situate near Euphrates, in Babylonia; or the city Orchoa, 
 or any other city of Chaldsea, whose name was changed. But the 
 Chasedim, Chaldaeans, who were the issue of Chesed the son of 
 Nahor, Gen. xxii. 22, seem to be mentioned by a prolepsis, Gen. 
 xi. 31, as are the names of Bethel, Dan, &c." Thus far the most 
 renowned Frederick Spanheim, the son, in his introduction to 
 Sacred Geography. The most learned Usher, bishop of Armagh, 
 is of opinion that the word Chasedim is rather an appellative of a 
 sect, denoting diviners and magicians, than the proper name of a 
 nation. The fortune-tellers in Chaldsea itself, are also found dis- 
 tinguished by that name, Dan. ii. 2, 10 ; iv. 7 ; v. 11. " Stephen," 
 saith Heidegger, "reckons Mesopotamia the same with Chaldsea. 
 For this reason certainly, that that part of Mesopotamia which lies 
 next to Syria, is in the scriptures also mentioned under the name 
 of Chaldaea. And Pliny, lib. vi. 26, declareth that some part of 
 Babylonia, yea, Babylon itself, was comprehended within the 
 bounds of Mesopotamia." Babylon, the head of the Chaldaic nations, 
 for a long time enjoyed the greatest renown in the whole world ; 
 on which account the rest of Mesopotamia and Assyria was called 
 Babylonia. And the same Pliny a little after : " There are also 
 cities in Mesopotamia, Hipparenum, and this of the Chaldees, as 
 also Babylon near the river Narraga, which gave name to a city." 
 The Persians demolished the walls of Hipparenum. The Orchens, 
 also a third sect of the Chaldaeans, were placed in the same situ- 
 ation, turned toward the south. " Moreover, Tremellius is of 
 opinion that Orchoe is the same with XJr. The same Pliny'' also 
 declareth, that Mesopotamia is bounded on the east with Tigris, 
 on the west with Euphrates, on the south with the Persian Sea, 
 and on the north with the mountains of Taurus; so that not only 
 all encompassed by the two rivers, but also all places situate by 
 their banks, are to be comprehended in Mesopotamia. Possibly 
 the words of Josephus^ tend also to the same purpose, where, 
 speaking of Abraham, he saith, 'When the Chaldaeans and the rest 
 of the Mesopotamians rose up against him, he determined to 
 transmigrate himself, and relying upon the good will and favour of 
 God, he went and dwelt in the land of Canaan.' It is therefore 
 apparent, that Abraham's native country TJr, may rightly be as- 
 cribed both to Mesopotamia and also to Chaldsea." Thus far 
 » Piap. lib. ix. ' Lib. vi. cap. 27. » An. i. 7- 
 
140 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. Vll. 
 
 Heidegger.' " Babylon," saith Lightfoot, " may also be said to 
 be in Mesopotamia, partly, because it was situate betwixt the two 
 rivers, Euphrates and Tigris, but especially, according to scripture 
 idiom, because it was on the other side of the river. Which that 
 it is observed by the vulgar interpreter, you may see from Josh, 
 xxiv. 3, where for that which' is in the Hebrew, ' And I brought 
 Abraham your father from beyond the river,' he has, ' I brought 
 therefore your father Abraham from the borders of Mesopotamia.'" 
 Eratosthenes, in Strabo, lib. iii. saith, " That Mesopotamia is 
 comprehended with Babylonia in a great circle by Euphrates and 
 Tigris." 
 
 Before he dwelt in Charran. As if he had said, Abraham 
 was indeed as yet in Mesopotamia when the Lord appeared to 
 him, but at Ur of the Chaldees, not at Gharran. Abraham de- 
 parting from Ur of the Chaldees with his father's house, came 
 to Charran, "not with an intention to abide there, but to go 
 over to the land of Canaan," as saith Torniellus, A.M. 2113, No. 
 3. But when he was come to Charran of Mesopotamia, an eastern 
 city, not far from Uz, where Job afterwards inhabited, his father 
 Terah was seized with a distemper, whereof he died ; hence his 
 duty to his father, now a dying, who had given himself as a guide 
 and companion of this pilgrimage on the account of religion, 
 detained and kept back Abraham from accomplishing his begun 
 journey, and so he dwelt in Charran till Terah accomplished the 
 days of his pilgrimage, being now two hundred and five years of 
 age, as it is related, Gen. xi. 31, 32, by way of anticipation. 
 "Mesopotamia,^ where the Euphrates runneth close by it, to- 
 wards the south and east, is adjoining to Arabia the Desert, being 
 only parted from it by the river, so that there are indeed some 
 cities (such as even at this day are Ana, or Anna, of the largest 
 and most famous of that country), some whereof on this side of 
 the river are accounted cities of Mesopotamia. Hence they have 
 one and the same language, religion, and customs ; the nature of 
 the ground is the same, being plain and barren, and running 
 out into waste deserts, producing the same herbs and twigs ; the 
 same emir also, or prince of the Arabians, extending his dominion 
 a great way in Mesopotamia. Whence it is, that the southern 
 part of Mesopotamia is by Xenophon, lib. i. Anabas., Pliny, Hist. 
 
 ' Hiat. Sac. Patriaro. torn. i. exercit. 23, num. 45, & torn. ii. exercif. 3, num. 6. 
 ' Frid. Spauhem. Hist. Job i. cap. 7, n. 4. 
 
VER. II.] LlTERALtY EXPLAINED. 141 
 
 lib. V. cap. 24 ; Strabo, Geogr. lib. xvi. and others, reckoned a part 
 of Arabia. But now Charran, the place of Nahor's abode, called 
 by Josephus Xapav, also Charrhai by Stephen, Ptolemy, and Sozo- 
 men ; Xappav in the Acts ; by Jerome Aran, as also Carrae, if it 
 be the same city with that of the Roman writers of the Crassian 
 overthrow, Charan by the Geog. of Nubia, called also Nahor, 
 from Nahor who built and inhabited it, Gen. xxiv. 10, is situate 
 in that part of Mesopotamia, which the river Chabora water eth, 
 between Euphrates and Ascorus ; for by holy writ we may learn 
 that Charran lay in the way that leadeth from Chaldea into 
 Canaan, Gen. xi. 31. So that it is altogether more southerly, 
 towards Arabia the Desert, and Syria Palmyrena, or Aram Tsaba. 
 For the way from Ur of the Chaldees to Palestine is from the 
 east to the west, except where to avoid the unpassable places of 
 Arabia travellers turn toward the north, through that part of 
 Mesopotamia that is more southerly, which is to the northward 
 of Chaldffia. Again, the country of Charran was said to be east- 
 erly in respect of Palestine, Gen. xxix. 1. Hence it is certainly 
 in the southerly part of Mesopotamia, which borders with that part 
 of Arabia where the inhabitants dwell in tents, according toihe 
 style of the scripture and the insight of maps. For the northern 
 parts of both the Syrias and the country of Assyria are not said to 
 be eastward but northward. Hence we may discern their mistake, 
 who will have Charran to be situate a great way towards the north 
 and the mountains of Armenia, about the 36th or 37th degrees of 
 latitude, and who confound it with Edessa, or Orfa, as E. Benjamin, 
 Peter Appian, Jacob Ziglerus, Joseph Moletius, and others. 
 And the Carrae that are there marked toward the Assyrians, 
 whence Lucan called them the Assyrian Carr^, as in the book of 
 Tobit they are placed between Nineveh and Eaghes, are of neces- 
 sity altogether different from the Charran of Nahor, and Abra- 
 ham. Charran, therefore, in Mesopotamia was situated betwixt 
 Babylonia and that part of Syria which led into Palestine ; hence 
 it lies more towards the south, not far from the river Euphrates, 
 as the Chaldean paraphrase hath it. The Nubian geographer 
 confirms this, who will have Harran to be more southerly than 
 the city of Aleppo, about 31 degrees north latitude. Hence 
 Arias Montanus, on Gen. xxiv. 10, declareth the city Padan to 
 be in that tract nearer to Babylonia, which more truly was the 
 country in which Charran the city of Nahor was situate; nor 
 
142 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. VII. 
 
 was it contiguous to Palestine, ■ as Adrichomius will have it In 
 the theatre of the H0I7 Land, which, as being in Mesopotamia, 
 is rather contiguous to Arabia the Desert, as this is extended north- 
 ward to Euphrates, wherein we have placed Job's habitation ; yea, 
 those of the east do declare that Charran in Abraham's days was 
 inhabited by the Sabsean Arabians, as also the famous Hottinger 
 in his Oriental History, chap, viii., out of Kesseus the Muham- 
 medan." 
 
 And he said unto him. To wit, when he was addicted to the 
 superstition and idol-worship of the Chaldaeans, or as those of the 
 east say, of the Zabians, Jos. xxiv. 2. 
 
 3. Get thee out of thy country. The uninterrupted tenor of the 
 words sufficiently importeth, that he speaketh' of one call, when 
 Abraham dwelt at Ur of the Chaldees, where he was born and 
 brought up. The call itself, together with the promise, is extant; 
 Gen. xii. 1, 2, 3. Stephen, indeed, left out the promise, because 
 it was not needful to touch upon every particular. 
 
 Come into the land which I shall show thee. He promiseth that he 
 will at length show him the land, which he did not express in the 
 call itself. Hence also, Heb. xi. 8, Abraham is said to have gone 
 out, not knowing whither he went. If Abraham knew not whither 
 he went, the land towards which he must go could not be shown 
 him till after his setting out ; whence is it that, by a prolepsis, 
 Abraham is said to have set out from Ur of the Chaldees, to- 
 gether with Terah his guide in his pilgrimage, and Sarai and 
 Lot his companions therein, that he might go into the land of 
 Canaan? Torniellus answers, in the year of the world 2113, 
 No. 3 : " That it might very well be, that Abraham when he 
 set out, knew that God would have him go to the land of Ca- 
 naan ; but that he did not know whether God would have him to 
 •settle there, or go further to some more remote country, and there- 
 fore he came into Charran, not with a design to settle there, but 
 to pass over towards the land of Canaan, firmly believing that 
 there the Lord would show him the land whereto he must go, 
 and in which he must abide ; even as a little after it truly came 
 to pass. For when he came to Sichem in the land of Canaan, 
 he heard from God, Gen. xii. 7 : To thy seed will I give the 
 land. 
 
 4. Then. To wit, after Abraham understood both God's com- 
 mands and promises. 
 
TER. IV.J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 143 
 
 He came out of the land of the Chaldeans. As if he had said, 
 he utterly forsook his father's house, and together with his father, 
 Sarai and Lot, departed from Ur of the Chaldeans. Stephen will 
 have Mesopotamia the same with Chaldea. "The Arabians," 
 saith Ludovicus de Dieu, " are still of opinion that Chaldeu- be- 
 longs to Mesopotamia." For the geographer of Nubia, in the 
 sixth part of the fourth climate, where he describeth Mesopotamia, 
 saith, " that Bagdad extendeth thither, which is that we now call 
 Babylon the metropolis of Chaldea ; whose province Benjamin of 
 Tudela in his Itinerary, concludeth to be Beretz Sinear, in the 
 land of Shinar, which is, Chaldea." But although God's call 
 commanding Terah, together with Abraham, Sarai, and Lot to 
 depart from Ur of the Chaldeans, was directed to Abraham, yet 
 because Terah was father of the family, therefore. Gen. xi. 31, 
 the business of migration is ascribed to him, not to a son of his 
 family, as Scaliger' hath rightly observed. 
 
 And dwelt in Charran. "For no long time," saith the most 
 eloquent of the Jews, Philo, in his Book of Dreams. Augustine, 
 de Civ. Dei, xvi. says, that Abraham's departure from Ur of the 
 Chaldeans, and from Charran, fell out in one and the same year ; 
 which Josephus confirms,, while he writeth, Ant. i. 8 : That 
 Abraham left Chaldea when he was seventy-five years of age. 
 " Moses, speaking," saith Heidegger, " of Terah, Abraham, and the 
 rest that went with them to Charran," saith. Gen. xi. 31, Dtb' t3i»';5 
 and they dwelt there. And of Terah, indeed, that when he was 
 aged two hundred and five years, he there put a period to his last 
 day. But Moses hath not expressed how long Abraham and the 
 rest of his companions dwelt there : yet it is probable, that he did 
 not stay long there, yea, not a whole year, that he might not seem 
 refractory to the divine call. For what else but sickness and 
 infirmity of body could deter Terah from accomplishing the 
 journey he had undertaken, whom piety towards God caused to 
 forsake his native country, and his own house ? What also but 
 dutifulness toward his dying father, who on the account of re- 
 ligion had given himself for a guide and a companion in this 
 pilgrimage could hinder Abraham, whose ready obedience in obey- 
 ing the divine call is so much spoken of in the scripture, from 
 going straight into the land of Canaan ? For that Terah, either 
 taken with the pleasantness of the place, as Aben Ezra fondly 
 
 ' In Elencho. Pareano. 
 
144 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. VII. 
 
 imagines, or making a relapse unto his old idolatry, as others 
 allege, tarried at Charran, and would not accompany his son, is as 
 like a fiction as may be. Nor are we much moved with Petavius's, 
 Bonfrerius's, and Harvilleus's arguments, by which they would 
 evince that Abraham dwelt at Charran several years. First, say 
 they, Stephen saith Abraham dwelt in Charran, KarotKija-at Iv 
 Xappav. But it is probable, that by the word dwelt, some years 
 are denoted. Secondly, Abraham is said. Gen. xii. 5, to have 
 gotten souls, that is, to have purchased slaves, beasts, and cattle, 
 whereby his goods were increased. Now in purchasing these, and 
 gathering them together, there must of necessity several years be 
 spent. Thirdly, Abraham called Charran his own land. Gen. 
 xxiv. 4. But he would not have called it his own land, if he had 
 not dwelt in it for some years. For who would call that his own 
 land which he only passed over? These arguments have no 
 solidity in them. Not the first ; for let us suppose that Terah and 
 Abraham departed from Ur of the Chaldeans toward the latter 
 end of the spring, and that Terah's sickness interrupting them, 
 they continued there all the summer and winter following, and 
 then that Abraham again parted from Charran in the beginning of 
 the next spring ; was not the interval of time long enough, that 
 he might be said to have dwelt there ? So he who hires a house 
 for six months, although a lesser time, is yet no less said to have 
 dwelt there, than he who has continued his habitation in it for six 
 years. And the Hebrew word 3ffi, as also the Chaldaic a^ln;, sig- 
 nifies not only " to dwell," but also " to sit ;" so that the shortest _ 
 stay in a place is enough to say these words of an inhabitant. 
 Not the second, for there is no necessity why we should rather 
 understand Moses of gathering together riches, slaves, and cattle 
 brought forth in his house, than of procuring by emption slaves, 
 cattle, and other things, whereby his patrimony left by his father 
 might be increased. And this acquisition, in how small a time 
 might it be performed ? Not the third, for neither does Abraham 
 call Charran his own -land, but Aram Naharaim, or Mesopotamia, 
 as appears. Gen. xxiv. 4, compared with ver. 10. But not 
 Charran only was in Mesopotamia, but also Ur of the Chaldeans, 
 as we have shown above. 
 
 And from thence, &c. Terah, Abraham's father is said to have 
 lived two hundred and five years, when he died at Charran, Gen. 
 xi. 32. But Abraham, whom Stephen here saith plainly not to 
 
VER. IV.J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 145 
 
 have gone from Charran till after Terah'a decease, Gen. xii. 4, is 
 said expressly to have been seventy-five years of age when he 
 departed from Charran. If we subtract these seventy-five years 
 from the two hundred and five of ferah's age, the remainder will be 
 a hundred and thirty years. Abraham was therefore born in the 
 hundred and thirtieth year of Terah. And therefore when in 
 Gen. xi. 26, Terah is said at the seventieth year of his age to have 
 begotten Abram, Nahor, and Haran, the meaning is, Terah began 
 to beget three sons, Abraham, the first in merits and dignity, but 
 the youngest by birth ; the second, Nahor ; Haran, the third, whom 
 many will have to have been the eldest of all, seeing he was 
 father to Melcha the wife of Nahor, and Jescha, whom the He- 
 brews think to be Sarah, Abraham's wife. Abraham, therefore, 
 after the death of his father went forward to the land of Canaan, 
 according as the Lord had commanded him when he was yet in Ur 
 of the Chaldeans, taking with him Sarai and Lot, who came with 
 him from Ur of the Chaldeans, and all the substance that he had 
 purchased at Charran. Josephus, Ant. i. 8, reports, that Abraham, 
 in his journey from Charran to Canaan, made a stop at Damascus, 
 and reigned there ; his words are these : " Nicolaus the Damascene, 
 in the fourth book of his history writeth thus : ' Abraham reigned 
 in Damascus when he was a stranger, as one who had come with 
 an army from the country situate above Babylon, which is called 
 Chaldea.' " Nor much different is that of Justin,^ Trogus Pom- 
 peius's Epitomist. " The city had its name from Damascus, king 
 thereof. After Damascus, Azelus, then Adores, and Abraham 
 and Israel, were kings thereof." "But," as Pererius excellently 
 reasoneth,^ " Abraham had sinned grievously, nor had he fulfilled 
 the command of God, whereby he was enjoined to depart from 
 Mesopotamia into Canaan, as was fitting, if he had attempted not 
 only to stay at Damascus, but also making light account of God's 
 promises, to purchase himself a kingdom. Add that Abraham 
 every where professed himself a pilgrim and stranger ; and Jacob 
 acknowledged the same of himself and his forefathers. He there- 
 fore had nowhere a proper seat and habitation, much less a 
 kingdom." Nor does the account of time permit that Abraham 
 should be said to have made any long stay at Damascus, that he 
 might reign there. For, seeing the year in the which he departed 
 from Charran was the seventy-sixth year of his age, and the same 
 ■' Hist. Philip, lib. xxxvi. " On Gen. xii. 11. 
 
 L 
 
146 THE ACTS OP THK HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. VII. 
 
 Abraham, after he had dweilt ten years in Canaan, took Hagar to 
 wife, of whom in the eighty-sixth year of his age he begot his son 
 Ishmael, Gen. xvi. 15, 16, it appears that he went direfctly frora 
 Mesopotamia to Canaan, and that he nowhere fixfed any settled 
 ■habitation till he came to Canaan. Moreover, whether he had 
 obtained that kingdom by force or entreaty, he wo'uld not so soon 
 have deserted it, especially when he was- constrained by famine to 
 tmdertake a journey to Egypt ; nor would the sacred writers have 
 neglected to give some hints of a passage so considerable^ and 
 which ^tould have tended so much to the glory of the Jews. 
 
 5. And he gave him not, &c. Stephen proposes two things here 
 to be considered in Abraham, whereby God did mightily exercise 
 his faith. First, That he transported him into Canaan, ■vfrhich the 
 Jews now iiihabit, and yet gave him no possessionj not so much as 
 a 'foot-breadth. Secondly, That he promised to give this land to 
 him and his seed, when as yet he had ho seed. 
 
 6. And God spake, &c. As if he had said. But God foretold to 
 Abraham, seized with a deep sleep and fearj.:Gen. xv., that his 
 seed should be a stranger in a land that is not theirs ; that is, in a 
 strange land, and should be in bondage and afflictiofl there four 
 hundred years. That these four hundreds years are to be com- 
 puted from the hundredth ■ year of Abraham in the which he 
 begat Isaac, or the hundred and fifth year in which a separation 
 was made of Abraham's seed,- and an appointing of Isaac heir, 
 Ishmael being banished, Geh. xxi., is beyond all question; for in 
 this prophecy (in which he appointeth four hundred , years for the 
 wandering, affliction, and bondage of his posterity) God maketh 
 express mention of the seed that should wander, be afflicted, and 
 in bondage; and therefore these four hundred years cannot be 
 thought to have had a being, before that seed was appointed or 
 actually differenced and determined. But the time from Abra- 
 ham's removing into Canaan to the year of the Israelites' departure 
 from Egypt is computed to be four hundred and thirty years. 
 Hence Paul, Gal. iii. 17, plainly reckoneth four hundred and 
 thirty years from the promise made to Abraham, Gen. xii., when 
 he was about to depart from his native country, to the publishing of 
 the law which was On the third month after the children of Israel's 
 departure out of Egypt.' "The years of 'the pilgrimage of the 
 children of Israel," saith Heidegger, " are described by Moses, 
 Exod. xii. 40, aiB'iai, And the sojourning of the children of Israel, - 
 
VilE. Vll] LrtEllALLY EXPLAINED. 147 
 
 *^i^, thai gejbuHttd in Epypt, dmttmed four hmdted and tMfty 
 yaurs. Oil iVldch place Dr. Usher,' Bishop of Atmagh,' leai'nedly 
 dbsdtves three "thiilgs especlSilly. First, " Thstt the word aiSi?3, 
 ks genfcTally it dehdtes atly hstbitation, so When it is referred to 
 foreigilers ittid strangers it signifies a pilgrimage. ' Heiiee With the 
 Hebrews Si^ifn denoteth a ebjourner and pilgriitii and Abraham 
 himself, Gen. xsiiii. 4, saith that he was Siis'irria a strtinget and 
 pilyrim. And Gen. ixi. 34, instead of ijn ^^^ CJh&ldee has 
 nrtihi. And ch. "ixviii. 4, ihs'tead of T'^ja VTIi^^fii? the same has 
 'Th*ih"in NVTK >i\ Setsondly, That the land of Canaan, as it was 
 feccounted the laid of the sojourning of Abraham, Isaacj and Jacob, 
 so also of the Israelites that descended from them ; to Wit, by 
 reason of that Strict tie of kin that is betwixt forefathers and their 
 posterity. And trtlly God had promised tO -those three patriarchs, 
 Abraham, Isaafc, and Jacob, that he Would give them this land of 
 their pilgrifiaagfej to be by them heritably possessed, Ps. cv. 11, 
 Which aftel'Wards was accomplished in their posterity. As there- 
 fore the possession of the posterity is attributed to the forefathers ; 
 so also the pilgrimage of the forefathers is attributed to this 
 posterity. Instances of this you may, see Ps. Ixvi. 6; Hos. 
 xii. 4; Amos v. 25; Judgi x. 11, 12; Acts vii. 42. Thirdly, 
 That seeing the Hebrews have no cases, the pronoun "ii^!< here has 
 an ambigtious refefeiice. Hence it is that the Vulgate Latin 
 'edition, the Pdlyglott BibleS, the Eoyal of Antwerp^ and the 
 Jay an of Paris, read in this place : " But the dwelling of the 
 children of Israel, who sojourned in EgJ^t, was for four hundred^ 
 and thirty years." Whereas other copies of the same edition 
 have i " The dwelling of the children of Israel, whereby they 
 abode in Egypt." To which latter acceptation of the relative 
 pronoun detetmifling the chronography, seeing it attributes four 
 hundred and thirty ye^ars to the sojourning t)f the children of Israel 
 in' Egypt, which Was a shorter time by half, the former is altft- 
 gether to be preferred, which remotes that 'inconvenience, and 
 gives us only a prosopogfaphy, or a description of them whose 
 entire pilgrinflftge, bfeginning at thS seveinty-sixth year of Abra- 
 ham's age, is cofltinued thence to the going forth out of Egypt for 
 the space of four hundred ye^rs. But the reason why Moses 
 takes that descriptibn of the Israelites from their sojourning in 
 Egypt, was, because that pilgrimage of the patriarchs was both 
 ' Chronol. Sac. lib. ii. cap. 8. 
 L 2 
 
148 THE ACTS OF TUB HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. VIL, 
 
 but of a few only, and frequently interrupted, and less obvious to 
 men's view, to wit, when they were but small in number, yea, 
 very few, and strangers in it, and went from one nation to another, 
 and from one kingdom to another people, Ps. cv. 12, 13. But 
 this sojourning of their children in Egypt comprehended a great 
 multitude of men, was stable, and much spoken of by all. " For 
 three things," as Pererius noteth, " made the sojourning of the 
 children of Israel in Egypt observable and famous. First, The 
 preferment of Joseph, during whose life the people of Israel were 
 in very great repute. Secondly, Their notable aud admirable 
 increase after Joseph's death, though they were afflicted with a 
 most heavy bondage. Thirdly, Their deliverance, and going forth 
 out of Egypt, accompanied with so many and great miracles." 
 
 The Greek has thus translated that place of Exod. xii. 40, 
 " Now the pilgrimage of the children of Israel, whereby they and 
 their fathers wandered in the land of Canaan, and in the land of 
 Egypt, continued four hundred and thirty years." Thus have the 
 Alexandrine manuscript, the Complutensian, and Aldine editions. 
 And it appears that it was read so of old by Eusebius in his 
 Chronicon, Quintus Julius Hilarion, in his small book of the 
 duration of the worlcl,^ Austin, q. 47, in Exodus, and Sedulius in 
 Gal. iii. Moreover, in the very time of the apostles, Dositheus 
 delivered this place of Exodus to his Samaritans, thus new par- 
 geted out of the Greek translation : " Now the sojourning of the 
 children of Israel, and of their fathers, whereby they sojourned in 
 the land of Canaan, and in the land of Egypt, was four hundred 
 and thirty years." George Syncellus' saith, " The computation of 
 four hundred and thirty years of the pilgrimage of Israel in the 
 lands of Canaan and Egypt, according to God's prediction to 
 Abraham, takes its beginning, by the common suffrage of the 
 interpreters and historians, from the seventy-fifth year of Abra- 
 ham's age." Moreover, not only Eusebius, and other Christian 
 chronographers, divide the space of four hundred and thirty years 
 into two equal intervals, but Josephus' also, and before Christ's 
 .days, Demetrius, not Phalereus, but the younger, fiova whom 
 Alexander, surnamed Polyhiptor, relateth that from the time that 
 Abraham was chosen from among the nations, and came from 
 Charran into Canaan, unto the coming of Jacob into Egypt was 
 
 ' [De Mundi Duratione in Galland's Bibliotheca Patrum, vol. viii. p. 285.] . . 
 ' I Chron. p. II7. ' Ant. ii. 6. 
 
VER. VI.] LITERALLY SXPLAINED. 149 
 
 two hundred and fifteen years. Which sum of two hundred and 
 fifteen years may be made up out of the scriptures without siny 
 difficulty. For Abraham went to Canaan when he was seventy- 
 five years old. Gen. xii. 4. From tlie time that Abraham went to 
 Canaan to the hundredth year of his age, in the which he begat 
 Isaac, Gen. xxi. 5, are twenty-five years. From Isaac's nativity 
 to that of Jacob, Gen. xxv. 26, sixty years. From Jacob's 
 nativity to his going down with his whole family into Egypt, 
 Gen. xlvii. 9, a hundred and thirty years. All which years added 
 together make up the sum of two hundred and fifteen years. As 
 to the other two hundred and fifteen years past in Egypt till their 
 going out thereof. Bishop Usher describes them thus : from Jacob's 
 going down into Egypt until the death of Joseph are seventy-one 
 years. Thence till the birth of Moses sixty-four. Thence to the 
 Israelites going forth out of Egypt eighty, Exod. vii. 7. All 
 which years joined together make up the two hundred and fifteen 
 years of the sojourning of the Israelites in Egypt. 
 
 Shall bring them into bondage, Augustine, Civ. Dei, lib. xvi. 
 cap. 24. "As it is written of Terah, Abraham's father ; 'and his 
 days at Charran were two hundred and five years ;' not that they 
 were all passed there, but because they were there finished, so 
 likewise it is therefore here added. And shall bring them into 
 bondage, and will afflict them four hundred years, because in that 
 same affliction the number is completed, not because it was all 
 performed there." The same Augustine, Q. 47. on Exodus saith, 
 " What God said to' Abraham, Know of a surety that thy seed shall 
 be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and they will bring them into 
 bondage, and oppress them four hundred years, is not to be under- 
 stood so, as if the people of God were to continue in that most 
 grievous bondage for the space of four hundred years ; but because 
 it is written. In Isaac shall thy seed be called, the four hundred and 
 five years are computed from the year of Isaac's nativity, until the 
 year of the outgoing out of Egypt. If therefore you subtract 
 from the four hundred and thirty years the five and twenty which 
 intervened betwixt the promise and the birth of Isaac, it is no 
 matter of admiration, if the scripture would express the four 
 hundred and five years by the even sum of four hundred, seeing it 
 uses so to denominate time, that that which a little exceeds or 
 comes short of the sum of the more perfect number, be not 
 computed. What therefore he says, They will bring them into 
 
16Q THE ACXg OF THE HQ^y A?OSTLES [CHA?, VII. 
 
 bomiaffej arid oppress them) is not to be riefprFgii to the four hundred 
 years, as if tjiey should keep them in bondage so many years ; but 
 the fpur hundred years are to be referred to this, Thy seed shall be 
 a stranger in a land that is net theirs ; for that seed; was a stranger, 
 whether in the lapd of Canaan, or that of. Egypt, until they 
 received for their inheritance the land, agcprding to Grpd's promise, 
 which was accomplished after that they were delivered out of 
 Egypt : so that a hyperbaton is here understood, and, the order, of 
 the words should be thus: "Know of a surety that thy seed shall 
 be a stranger in a land that is not theirs four hundred years ;" bi?t 
 that this is supposed to be interposed, " and they ■yv^ill bring them 
 into bondage, and oppress thenoi 5" so that this interpQsition doth 
 not belong to the four hundred years. Fov it was in the latter 
 part of the years of this sum, that is after the death of Joseph, 
 that the people of Crod laboured under that grievpus bondage." 
 
 7. And the nation to fvhem tjiey shall $e in bondage will I judge. 
 That is, I will punish. Tojvdge is frequently used for "to punish," 
 2 Chron. xx, 12, Our God, wilt tjiou not therefore judge tliern 9 
 Ps. ix. 19, Let the nations be judged in thy sight, And hence judg- 
 ment is put for " punishnieut," Prov. xix, 29, Judgrp.ents are pre- 
 pared for scorners, that is, punishments. So Expd. xii. 12, Against 
 all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment, that is, I ■^ill inflict 
 punishment upon all the gods of Egypt. 
 
 8. Axtd he gave him a testament Greek, " a covenant." As if he 
 had said, after he had made those excellent promises he commanded 
 Abraham and his posterity to be eirctinicised ; that the same cirr: 
 cumQJ&ion might be as it were a seal of the covenant entered intc^ 
 with Abraham and his natural seed. "Xhis," saith Grrotius, 
 " makes for Stephen's purpose, that the observance of circumcision 
 might not be believed to be the cayse of the promises," 
 
 And so. To wit, after he was circumcised. 
 
 He begat Isfioe. Not by the power pf nature, but by virtue of 
 God's promise jnade tO him, that Isaac, giveii on account fif the 
 promise, might be aij eaynest and shadow pf the grace that ifyas tq 
 be given by the gospel. 
 
 The patriarchs, That iSj the fathers pf the ti^srelye tribes of 
 Israel. See above, ch, il. 27, 
 
 9. And the patriarch? rnoved with envVi Here Stephen briefly 
 hints at the emulation of the patriarcHg, froni whom the Jewg 
 boast^ of their original, to vf%%, that they, out pf a detestali 
 
VEK. XI. J LITEHALLY EXPLAINED. 151 
 
 hatred and envy sold him to the Midianite merchants, Gen. xxxvii. 
 28, who was ordained by God a saviour for them, that they might 
 carry him into Egypt. " This js," saith Casaubon, " that selling 
 of slaves, which the ancients called tir l^.ajwy^, .when the slaves 
 were sold on that condition, that they should be transported into 
 remote countries." Moreover, Stephen covertly insinuates, that 
 after the same manner Jesus was delivered by the envious 
 multitude of the Jews to the Romans, that, he might be crucified. 
 
 Aad God was with Mm. As if he had said, but God turned the 
 evil, wherewith Joseph's brethren oppressed him, to his good. 
 Gen. 1. 20. As it also fell out in your envy agaipst Jesus who 
 was crucified, above, ch. iii. 8. 
 
 10. Gaxe him favour and wisdom. A figure of speech called 
 hendyades, that is, he made him gracious for his wisdom. Gen. 
 xli. 39. 
 
 In the sight of Pharaoh. That is, with Pharaoh king of Egypt, 
 whom the Egyptian priest .Manetbo called Mephramuthosis. 
 Justin also, out of Trogus, lib. xxxvi., c. 2, declareth that 
 Joseph was entiiely beloved by Pharaoh. " Epr," saith he, " being 
 most quicksighted, he was the first that invented the knowledge 
 of dreams, and nothing either of divine or bupian aiFairs escaped 
 his knowledge, so that he foresaw the barrenness of their lands 
 many years before it came to pass; and all Egypt had perished 
 with the famine, if the king had not at his admonition commanded 
 by an edict, that the corn $hpuld be laid up in store for several 
 years ; and his proofs were suchj that they seemed not to proceed 
 from men, but to be oracles given from God." 
 
 Ife made him governor over Egypt. That is, he advanced him to 
 the chief place of authority in the kingdom. Gen. xli. 43. 
 
 And over all his house. That is, according as Grotius interprets 
 it, " He made him also master of his court, such as the high 
 stewards were to the French of old, and to the Greeks of Con- 
 stantinople, the KvpoTfaXarqi, so called because the care of the 
 palace was committed to them." So God hath set Jesus Christ 
 over his heavenly cgurt, an^ hath given hinj supreme power next 
 to himself. 
 
 11. Now there came a dearth, &c. That is, "When sufficient 
 pj:/?vision was made in Egypt for a famine, a grievous scarcity of 
 corn vjexe^ sorely ^he whple earth," as Sulpicius Severus expresseth 
 it, ^ac. Hist, lib. i. So now a hardness of heart, blindness of 
 
152 . THE ACTS OF THE HOLK APOSTLES [cHAP. VII. 
 
 mind, and a famine of the heavenly bread, came upon those who 
 are called Egyptians by a certain figure of speech, who profess the 
 Christian religion externally ; aud upon the Jews, who would 
 drive away, exterminate, and cast out Christ. 
 
 12. He sent our fathers Jirst That is, in the first year of the 
 famine. As if he had said, Jacob pinched with famine sends his 
 ten sons for corn into Egypt, keeping Benjamin his youngest son 
 with him at home. " So," saith Daniel Brenius, " in the first 
 embassage, whereby the Jews are hitherto compelled to be as it 
 were disowned of God in Egypt, spiritually so called, Messiah the 
 deliverer, although by them desired, yet is not acknowledged, 
 because they were not yet aright affected for the evil of rejecting 
 him, and the judgments they thereby brought upon themselves." 
 
 13. And in the second. To wit, year of the famine, when Joseph's 
 brethren returned to him for corn. 
 
 Known, &c. That is, he made himself known to them. Gen. 
 xlv. 1. And so Joseph's kindred was made known unto Pharaoh 
 or Mephramuthosis. " The manifestation of Joseph to his brethren 
 when they returned to him the second time," saith the now cited 
 Daniel Brenius, " doth typically represent to us, that the Jews at 
 last brought under with calamities, at the second time, when the 
 gQgpel of Christ shall be again preached, and his name spread 
 throughout the whole earth, shall acknowledge him for the Messiah, 
 and God on the other side, owning them for the Messiah's brethren, 
 will make them partakers of his good things through him." 
 
 14. Then sent Joseph, &e. As if he had said, at the command 
 of king Mephramuthosis, Joseph sends back his brethren furnished 
 with chariots, provision, and presents, to bring thither his father 
 and his whole family, with all expedition : " forewarning them 
 that the famine would continue five years longer," as saith Sul- 
 picius Severus, Sac. Hist., lib. i. See Gen. xlv. 
 
 Threescore and ^f teen souls. That is, consisting of seventy -five 
 persons. " Interpreters have been at very much pains," saith the 
 famed Ludovicus de T)ieu, "to reconcile this place with that of 
 Gen. xlvi. 26, where Moses makes mention only of seventy souls of 
 Jacob's house, that went dowm into Egypt. But there is no great 
 difficulty in it, if we say that the places are not parallel. For 
 Moses makes his account, wherein, together with Jacob, only his 
 posterity and those that proceeded out ' of his loins, are compre- 
 hended, his sons' wives being expressly excepted, ver. 26. For 
 
VJSR. XIV.] LlTEllALLY EXPLAINED. 153 
 
 which reason, not only those who actually entered Egypt with him, 
 but also Joseph and his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, are 
 comprehended in the number of seventy, although they were in 
 Egypt long before ; because, both as proceeding out of Jacob's 
 loins, and being as to their original of the land of Canaan, they 
 were strangers in Egypt, and so were deservedly reckoned, as if 
 they had gone down into Egypt with Jacob. And it is of singular 
 moment in that catalogue, that Judah's two grand-children by 
 Pharez, to wit, Hezron and Hamul, although they were not then 
 born, as may be gathered from the series of time, but afterwards 
 in Egypt, are comprehended in that number, ver. 11, that they 
 might supply the place of the two sons of Judah, Er and Onan, 
 then deceased. For which reason also, Numb. xxvi. 21, whereas 
 in the rest of the tribes, not the grandchildren but only the 
 children make up the princes of the families, in the tribe of Judah 
 alone, not only his sons, Selah, Pharez, and Zerah, but also his 
 grandchildren, Hezron and Hamul, are made princes of the fami- 
 lies of Judah, as if added to his sons. But none of these things 
 have place in Stephen's discourse ; for he does not give a genealogy 
 of Jacob's race, but only an account who they were that Joseph 
 sent for from the land of Canaan into Egypt. His words are. 
 Then sent Joseph, and called Jacob his father unto him, and all 
 his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls. He sent for more than 
 proceeded out of Jacob's loins, but did not send for all that came 
 out of his loins. First, therefore, Judah's two grandchildren are 
 to be excluded there, then Joseph himself with his two sons ; for 
 he could not send for those, as not yet born, nor himself and his 
 sons, as already dwelling in Egypt. Therefore if we subtract 
 these five, and then Jacob their father, who is mentioned apart by 
 Stephen, there remain of Moses' number of seventy, but sixty- 
 four : to wit, the eleven brethren, one sister Dinah, and fifty-two 
 sons of the brethren, to which, if we add the eleven wives of the 
 eleven brethren, which undoubtedly Joseph sent for together with 
 their husbands, and which belonged to the kindred, ye have his 
 whole kindred, seventy-five souls. The Ethiopic renders it, « And 
 Joseph after that he knew that, he commanded that they should 
 call his father, and all his kindred. And there came unto him 
 seventy-five souls.' Which version excludes Joseph and his 
 children, because they could not be said to come unto him ; but in 
 that he errs, that he includes Jacob also in the number of the 
 
154 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY ii-OSTLES [cHAP. VII. 
 
 seventy-five souls, as coming also with the rest to Joseph. For 
 that number agreeth only to his kindred. Nor does it militate 
 anything against Trhat is said, that most are of opinion that the 
 ten sons of Benjamin, who are comprehended by Moses in the 
 number of the fifty-two grandchildren of Jacob, Gen. xlyi. 21, 
 were at that time either none or few of them born, and therefore 
 they could not be rightly said to have been sent for by Joseph. 
 For it may be answered, that his sons, though born afterwards^ 
 might be rightly added to the number, lest he only among all the 
 brethren should be reckoned without children. But there is no 
 necessity to recur to that, seeing he was of that age then that he 
 might have had so many children. For Joseph was thirty years 
 of age when he was first brought before Pharaoh, Gren. xli. 46. 
 Betwixt which time and Jacob's entrance into Egypt intervened 
 seven years of plenty and two of famine, Gren. xlv. 6. Now 
 when Joseph was thirty-nine years of age, Benjamin might be of 
 the age of thirty-seven ; at which age, especially where polygamy 
 had obtained, why might not he be father of ten sons ? Hence it 
 may be collected, that neither is there any error to be imputed to 
 Mpses' text from Stephen's words, nor to Stephen's words from 
 Moses' te?t, but that both spoke very well according to their 
 different intent. Hence it also follows, that the text of the 
 Seventy interpreters is corrupted, which, in Gren. xlvi. 27, instead 
 of seventy has seventy-five. Which seems certainly to have lieen 
 done by some Christians, who when they could not reconcile the 
 place of Stephen with the words of Moses, and did believe that 
 by all means Stepben was to be credited, they altered the Greek 
 text of Moses, or rather corrupted it, that it might be at least 
 demonstrated whence Stephen had these things. There are 
 mfinifest signs of corruption. For, first, all the Hebrew oopiesi 
 Jo.sephus (AnticJ. 4), and the ancient Latin interpreter, read only 
 seventy, Secondly, The Seventy interpreters themselves, Deut. 
 X. 32, where this story is repeated, do agree with the Hebrew, 
 and number only seventy. Thirdly, That they might varnish the 
 27th verse we have mentioned, with the more likeness sf truth, 
 they have corrupted also the 20th verse, where contrary to the 
 faith of all the Hebrew copies, the Samaritaii, and ancient Latin, 
 they have added five others of Joseph's posterity, to wit, Machir 
 the son of Manasses by his concubine Syra, and Gilead, Machir'e 
 son, Manasses' grandson ; as also' Ephraim's two sons, Shuthelah 
 
VBE. XVI.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 155 
 
 and Taam; and Edem, one son of Shuthelah, Ephraim's grandson. 
 But instead of Taatn, Augustine, Civ. Dei, lib. xvi,, cap. 40, has 
 Bareth, from 1 Chron. vii,, in which chapter it is also to be 
 observed, that there is neither mention made of Taam nor Edem, 
 and that the sons of Manasses, Machir, and Ephraim, -vyere 
 reckoned more than five. Wherefore did they theq pitch upon 
 only five of them to put into Moses' catalogue ? Because they 
 who would supply Stephen's number in Moses did not stand in 
 need of more. But the same persons, not very consistent with 
 themselves, ver. 27, added to Manasses and Ephraim, with their 
 five sons and grandsons, two others, although without their names. 
 For instead of that which is in Moses, • And the sons of Joseph 
 who were born in Egypt were two souls,' the Seventy have ' nine 
 souls ;' whence at last was the number of the fiftyrseven souls to 
 be collected ; so that all things in that verse are most corrupt, and 
 worthy of no credit. Nor can any greater absurdity be imputed 
 to Stephjen, than that Joseph sent for not only himself, and hist 
 two sons present with him, but also his three grandsons, and two 
 of their sons, who were born long after." 
 
 15. So Jacob went down into Egypt. Jacob, being strengthened , 
 after his sacrifices offered to God, went down into Egypt with his 
 whole family, in the beginning of the third year of the famine, 
 being now aged one hundred and thirty years. Gen. xly,, xlyi., 
 xlvii. ; and Deut. xxvi. 5. 
 
 16. And were carried aver into Sychem, &c. As if he had said, 
 the bones of the patriarchs, who went down with Jacob into 
 Egypt, were first indeed transported to Sychem, but thence to 
 Hebron, and interred in the sepulchre which Abrahana, Gei}. xxiii. 
 16, bought from the sons of Epbron- And thus at Sychem indeed 
 were the empty monuments, as Hieronymus an eye-^witness testi- 
 fies in the epitaph of Paula, but in Hebron were the true sepul- 
 clires of the patriarchs, of which Jpsephus saith, Antiq-j lib- ii., 
 cap. 4, "But his brethren died after they had livpd happily in 
 Egypt, whose bodies, after some time, their posterity tind children 
 buried at Hebron. But they transported the boijes of Joseph 
 afterwards, when the Hebrftws departed ouit of Egypt into 
 Canaan." Whence it may be concluded that the bodies pf th^ 
 eleven patriarchs were buried at Hebron, ^pd that bpfore their 
 departure out of Egypt : but that Joseph's bones were transported 
 into Canaan long after, at their departure.. For although he does 
 
156 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. VII. 
 
 not say that the bodies of the eleven patriarchs are buried in 
 Hebron immediately after their death, but fisTo. xpovov, " a time 
 intervening;" yet he says, that Joseph's bones Only were trans- 
 ported iiarspov, "afterwards," when they were departed out of 
 Egypt. The interring of the former, therefore, was performed 
 before the departure. " Which," saith the famous Lud. de Dieu, 
 "the very series of Stephen's discourse seems to evince. For 
 when he had first spoken of the death of Jacob, then of the death, 
 transportation, and burial of the patriarchs, he subjoins, that then 
 the time of accomplishing the promise made to Abraham drew 
 near, and that the people, increased to a great number, incurred 
 the king's hatred, and were by Moses, after they had suffered most 
 heavy afflictions, brought out of Egypt, which truly are so recited, 
 that they seem to have happened after the interment of the 
 patriarchs." 
 
 In Sychem. Sicemus, or Sicima, sometime the metropolitan 
 city of Samaria, was situated on mount Gerizim, according to 
 Josephus.' " And seeing," saith he, " he was kindly entreated by 
 all he came near, the Samaritans who then held the metropolis 
 Sicima, situate on Mount Gerizim, and inhabited by the apostates 
 of the Jewish nation, seeing that Alexander did entreat the Jews 
 so magnificently, they resolved also to profess themselves Jews." 
 Benjamin of Tudela gave them the same situation in his Itinerary, 
 by whom it is called Nebelas, that is, Neapolis, for so they called it 
 in his days. Pliny also, lib. v. cap. 13, makes mention of Neapolis 
 among the towns of Samaria, which formerly was called Mamortha, 
 saith he. Its name was altered from the Hebrew into a Greek 
 form ; for it is in the Hebrew Shechem, whereof mention is made. 
 Gen. xxxiii., xxxiv., where it is declared that Simeon and Levi 
 the sons of Jacob, for the rape committed on their sister Dinah by 
 the king of Shechem's Son, took it, and destroyed all the males 
 together with the king and his son. Afterward Abimelech, Judg. 
 ix. 45, rased it to the ground and sowed it with salt. But Jero- 
 boam king of Israel rebuilt it, and dwelt in it, as it is declared in 
 the History of the Kings, 1 Kings xii. We read, Gen. xxxiii. 19, 
 that Jacob purchased a parcel of Kind from the sons of Hamor 
 the father of Shechem for a hundred kesithis, that is, sheep or 
 lambs. Here Joseph, whose issue obtained the propriety thereof, 
 is said to have been buried. Josh. xxiv. 32. In the same place 
 
 * In Calce lib. xi. Antiq. 
 
VER. XVI.] , LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 157 
 
 God renewed his covenant with the Israelites a little before the 
 death of Joshua ; the Israelites gathered together, besought Eeho- 
 boam that he would remit the rigour of their yoke ; and Christ had 
 a conference with the woman of Samaria at Jacob's well. It was 
 of old a city of refuge, and the metropolis of the Levites. 
 
 And laid in the sepulchre. As if he had said, They were carried 
 from the land of Sychem to Hebron, and laid in the burying-place 
 purchased by Abraham of old for four hundred shekels. 
 
 Of the sons of Hamor. These words are not construed with the 
 verb bought, but with the more remote were laid, and so the pre- 
 position of, does not denote the sellers of the burying-place, but 
 the place itself, from whence the patriarchs were carried forth to 
 their burial to be laid in the sepulchre which Abraham bought. 
 The famed De Dieu expounds of the sons of Hamor, " by the help 
 and assistance of the sons of Hamor, the father of Sychem." 
 " For," saith he, " seeing that interment happened when strange 
 people had all the power in the land of Canaan in their hands, and 
 so the Hebrews might incur danger, when they were interring the 
 bodies of their fathers, they very wisely first made their application 
 to Sychem, and they not only demanded the assistance of the sons 
 of Hamor, but also, that they might the more safely accomplish it, 
 they committed the whole business to them, to do in it as they 
 thought fit." So of the sons of Hamor, &c., is not to be construed 
 with hought, but with are laid, which opinion I confess is prevalent 
 with me, for Josephus's authority, Antiq. ii. 4." 
 
 Hamor the son of Sychem. A Hebraism, that is, Hamor of 
 Sychem, or the Sychemite. In the Greek it is an elliptic speech, 
 Emmor of Sychem, which may be variously supplied according to 
 the various acceptations of the word Sychem, by which sometimes 
 a person, sometimes a place, is designed in the scriptures. If it 
 be taken for a place, it is plain that inhabitant is understood ; if it 
 be referred to Emmor alone, or if it be referred to the sons of 
 Emmor, which I rather think, inhabitants is to be supplied. So 
 that the meaning is, from the sons of Emmor the Sychemites, that 
 is, from the Emmorrean inhabitants of Sychem. But if Sychem 
 here be taken for a person, thei word father is to be supplied, and it 
 must be rendered with the learned Beza, "from the sons of Hamor, 
 the father of Sychem." For Emmor or Hamor was Sychem's 
 father, not his son, as appears from Gen. xxxiii. 19 ; Josh. xxiv. 32. 
 Nor is there any reason why the Greek words cannot bear that. 
 
158 THE ACTS OF THE H0L1 APOSTLES [cHAP. VIl. 
 
 «eeing the like oeciirs in approted Greek writers. Herodotiia iri 
 Clio, "ASparog 6 FopSUu) rov MiSitiJi " Adrastus the Nephew of 
 Gordius, who was father to Midas." Thalia, Kupcie 6 KafifUdiw, 
 " Cyrus, Cambyses's father." iEIianus, xiii. var. 30, '0Xi//i7ridc fi 
 AXegavSjoovj " Olynipias, Alexander's Mother." Steiph. de Urbi on 
 the word AaiSaXa. 'H Se TroXig aird Aaid&Xov rov ^iKclpoi) -fi iv 
 AvKiq, "Daedala, a dty of Lycia biiilt," or as the learned Tho. de 
 Pinedo has rendered it, "was so ca,lled by DBedailus, Icarus's father/ 
 Also Luke xxiv. 10^ Mapla 'IdK(u6ov, Mart/ the mother ofJarhei, is 
 rightly rendered by the Syrian and both the Arabics, out of Mark 
 XV. 40, where it is expressed. 
 
 17. The time of the promise. That was to be perfbfnied. 
 Which God had sworn to Abraham. The famous manuscript of 
 
 Englatidj and the Vulgate Latin tead, " had eonfessed." That is. 
 Which God had made to Abrahain, dnd confirmed by an oath, 
 Maimonides saith, that every earnest affirmation of God is balled 
 an oath. Such is knowing know, Gen. xv. 13, that is, ktibw 
 assuredly. 
 
 The people grew and tnultiplied in Egypt. As if he had said. 
 There was an incredible multiplication of the Israelites from the 
 time that Jacob went down to Egypt, so that in the space of 
 about 216 years, of seventy men 603,550 males were deSceflded, 
 and those above the age of twenty years, besides 22,000 Levites, 
 and the infants that were drowned alid destroyed by Pharaoh, 
 Exod. xxxviii. 26 ; Numb. i. 46, 47, iii. 39, the devices of the 
 Egyptians being set at nought by God. There are not wanting 
 other instances of a speedy increase. Mankind did so increase in 
 250 , years after the flood, that in the army of Ninus against the 
 Bactrians there was 700,000 foot, and 200,000 horse, according to 
 the relation of Diodorus'Siculus out of Ctesias. 
 
 18. Till another king arose, &c. Bishop Usher, in his Afinals on 
 the year of the world 2,427, saith : " Eataesses Miamun is that new 
 king who knew not Jostiph ; born after his deiath, willingly casting 
 off the remembrance of his benefits. And by his advice the 
 Egyptians, who were affaid of mischief from the Israelites, kept 
 them under with hard boiidage; besides their domestic and rural 
 service they had ' also the building of the king's store-houses im- 
 posed upon them, to wit, the cities Pithom and Eaatnsis, or 
 Eamessis, Exod. i. 8, 14; Acts vii. 18, 19y one of which Mercator 
 
visa. XX.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 159 
 
 thinks was eo named from the king and builder thereof, the other 
 possibly from the queen. 
 
 19. The same dealt subtilly with our kindred. That is, craftily, of 
 free men making them vile slaves. 
 
 And evil entreated our fathers. Tp wit, very severely. 
 
 80 that they cast out their young childrent As if he had said. So 
 that they were forced to expose their young children that were 
 males to the raging waters. " The wicked king," saith Usher, 
 " after he had in vain commanded Shiphrah aad Puah, the Hebrew 
 midwiveS) to make away the male infatnts privately, published an 
 inhuman decree to drown them in the river, Exod. i. 15 — 22, in 
 the time that intervened betwixt the birth of Aaron and Moses." 
 
 To the end that they might not be quickened. That is. That they 
 might not be preserved alive. Zwoyoi/Eiv, " to bring to life," as 
 with the Hebrews, trnrr, the Syrians, •'HN, and the Arabics, H*n», 
 signifies not so much " to give life anew, as to preserve that is 
 already in being." See Exod. i. 17, 18, 22. Ezekielj a most 
 ancient Jewish poet, whom Clemens Alexandrinus, Strom, i., and 
 Eusebius, lib. ix. Prepar. Evang. have made mention of, in his 
 tragedy of Moses, published in Greek and Latin by Frid. MOrellus 
 at Paris, 1609, hath excellently expressed the import of this verse 
 in these words : — ' 
 
 " But cruel Phar&oh, 'gainst us wholly bent, 
 Did many cunning stiatagetas invent 
 Ub to enthral ; our lives a burden were ; 
 In making bricks, our bodies daily wear. 
 While he did many fenced cities rear. 
 Next must the tender parent, his dear son 
 In seven-stream 'd Nilus' rapid waters drown." 
 
 20. In which time. To wit, when the Israelites by the king's 
 command were compelled to drown their children immediately 
 when born. 
 
 Moses was born. Usher, on the year of ihe world 2433, saith, 
 " Jochebed, forty years after the death of her father Levi, brought 
 forth Moses to Amram his nephew, her husband. For Moses was 
 eicfhty years of age when he spoke to Pharaoh to let the Israelites 
 go out of Egypt, Exod. vii. 7, and forty years after their outgoing, 
 when he died in the 12th month, he was a hundred and twenty 
 years of age, Deut. xxxi. 2 ; xxxiv. 7." 
 
 • [Ezekiel appears to have been a Jew, and to have lived at the court of the PtoleUiies 
 of Alexandria about the second century before Christ.] 
 
160 THE ACT8 OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. VII. 
 
 And he was exceeding fair. This Terence would have expressed, 
 " And he was of so beautiful a countenance that none exceeded 
 him," The Latin word, grains, aariioQ, saith Grotius, is from the 
 Greek in Exod. ii. 2, where it is in the Hebrew, sia, " beautiful." 
 " To God," which is added here in the original, is a Hebraism, 
 Crt^^xl^, "to God," that is, very beautiful.' See our annotations 
 on Jonah i. 2, on these words. The great city. Justin, out of 
 Trogus, lib. xxxvi. cap. 2, makes mention of the comeliness and 
 beauty of Moses. Of which Josephus thus. Ant. lib. ii. cap. 4, 5,\ 
 " None was so indiiferent a spectator of beauty, who would not 
 admire the beauty of Moses, and many that met him when he was 
 carried in the streets were so taken with his -beauty, that they not 
 only looked on the countenance of the child, but also forgetting 
 other business m&,de it their work to satiate themselves with 
 beholding him. For such was the child's beauty, that it as it were 
 captivated and detained the beholders." 
 
 And nourished up. As if he had said, the great affection of 
 Moses' parents overcame all their fears, and so, contrary to the 
 wicked edict of the king, they hid him three months at home, 
 Exod. ii. 2 ; Heb. xi. 23. 
 
 21. Jnd when he was cast out, &c. As if he had said. When 
 by reason of the diligent inquisition made by the king and their 
 Egyptian neighbours, the child could not longer be hid, his mother 
 put him in a basket of bulrushes daubed with slime and pitch, and 
 laid it in the flags by the river side ; Miriam, or Mary, Moses' 
 sister standing afar off, and expecting the event of it. Being so 
 laid out he was found by Pharoah's daughter, who, as Josephus, 
 Ant. ii. 5 ; Epiphanius, in Panarium, and others say, was called 
 Thermutis. She delivered him to be nursed by Jochebed his 
 mother, who was brought to her for that purpose by the child's 
 sister that stood by the river side, and adopted him for her son, 
 Exod. ii. 8. "And thus the hands of Pharoah's daughter preserve 
 a revenger of her father's cruelty," saith Augustine. Philo addeth, 
 "that Thermutis was Pharaoh's only heiress, and that she had 
 been long married, and because she had no children, she gave out 
 that she was with child, that it might be believed that she brought 
 forth Moses, and not that she adopted him." This possibly is 
 hinted at Heb. ii. 24, where it is said, that Moses when he was 
 
 ' [Kai riv aariloQ rif Qt<} : and was a proper child in the sight of God. — Tjndale'3 
 version. And was acceptable unto God. — Geneva version.] 
 
VBR. XXII.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 161 
 
 grown, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Yet 
 in Josephus, Ant. lib. ii. c. 5, Thermutis acknowledgeth before the 
 king her father, that Moses was not born her son, but taken up : 
 "Whom I have resolved to adopt for my son, and to make him 
 thy successor in the empire and government." The same Josephus 
 addeth, "that Moses in his infancy cast upon the ground, and 
 trampled upon with his feet, the crown when it was put upon his 
 head by the king of Egypt in jest. Hence he was in great danger 
 of his life by the instigation of the Egyptian priestsj but was 
 preserved by Thermutis. 
 
 22. Was learned, &c. In Ezekiel, the tragic poet, Moses is 
 introduced speaking thus of himself: — 
 
 " Us while a child most carefully she bred, 
 And royally in disciplines instructed. 
 And as she had been my mother nourished." 
 
 Moses. That he was named Joachim at his circumcision, and 
 when he was received into heaven Melchi, Clemens Alexandrinus 
 Strom, i. reporteth, but whence he had it is uncertain. In Philo's 
 Antiquities, he is said to have been called Melchil by his mother. 
 Thermutis called him Moses, that is, " drawn out," or taken out, to 
 wit,of the waters of the Nile, from Tip'a, "he drew out," "he brought 
 out," Exod. ii. 10. Josephus believes that Moses was so called 
 from the Egyptian word Mw, "water," and varig, "preserved," which 
 comes from yiBin. From Maj also is Monius, as Abenezra affirms 
 he was called by the Egyptians. " Yea," saith the most learned 
 Hoffman in his Universal Lexicon, " in some verses of Orpheus he 
 is called vSpoyEvrjCt that is, vSaTojevfjc, as much as to say, 'born in 
 the water.'" But Salmasius, Ep. Ix., thinketh that the etymology 
 of Moses is plainly Egyptian, and verbally it importeth, saith he, 
 "taken out of the water,'' as an old poet in Eusebius affirmeth, 
 that is MiDvcn; for Mwov in that language signifieth water, m, to 
 take. 
 
 In all the wisdom of the Egyptians. The wisdom of the ancient 
 Egyptians chiefly consisted in hieroglyphics and mathematics. 
 The invention of geometry, seeing by reason of the inundation of 
 the Nile the bounds of their lands could scarce be distinguished, 
 is attributed to them. 
 
 And i^as mighty in words and deeds. As if he had said. And he 
 was a man e?(actly accomplished with all learning and virtue. 
 
 M 
 
162 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. VII. 
 
 23. And when he was full forty years old. Bereschlth Rabba, fol. 
 115, col. 3: "Moses lived forty years jn Pharaoh's court, and 
 forty in Midian; and the same number of years he ministered unto 
 Israel." See also Shemoth Kabba, fol. 118, col. 3. Wbat Moses 
 did till he was forty years old, the scripture nowhere declareth. 
 Josephus reporteth ' that he was a general in the Ethiopia war, 
 and that when he besieged Saba, he married the king's daughter, 
 by name Tharbis, who was deeply in love with him. Whatever 
 there be of this war, which Theodoret and others say is fabulous, 
 there is no doubt but that Moses has omitted many things con- 
 cerning himself, out of humility. For it is not probable that he 
 gave himself over to laziness and slqggishness during the forty 
 years that he lived at court like a prince. 
 
 It came into his heart to visit, &c. As much as to say. By a new 
 and extraordinary impulse of the Spirit he was moved to visit his 
 brethren the Israelites, whose spirits were broken with the rigour 
 of their bondage. Philo saith, that Moses used frequently to visit ■ 
 his brethren the Israelites that were groaning under their burden, 
 and that he supported them with comfort, and dealt with the task- 
 masters to be gentle towards them: and that he was thereupon 
 suspected by the king and his court to be one that affected 
 innovations. 
 
 24. And seeing one of them. To wit, a Hebrew, whom Rabbi 
 Solomon, by what authority I know not, affirmeth to have been 
 the husband of Shelomith the daughter of Dibri of the tribe of 
 Dan, that is mentioned Lev. xxiv. 11. 
 
 Suffer wrong. That is, wrongfully beaten, Exod. ii. 11. Some 
 think that this Egyptian who beat the Hebrew > was one of the 
 king's governors, who took account of the Israelites' work, and 
 punished those that were slack. The Jews add, that this Egyptian 
 committed adultery with the wife of that Israelite, who while he 
 was inveighing against this injury of the Egyptian with words, 
 had his mouth stopped by the Egyptian with stripes. 
 
 He avenged him. That is, by a just revenge he provided for his 
 security. For at that time there was no judge who could redress 
 the injury, and the injury was urgent and could not admit of delay 
 of time. Yet many of the ancient fathers, amongst whom 
 Augustine, lib. xxii., against Faustus, cap. 20, et seq., do accuse 
 Moses of too great zeal and precipitancy. QEcumeniu% on the 
 
 * Antiq. lib. ii, cap. 5. 
 
V£ll. XXVI. J LITEEALLY EXPLAINED. 163 
 
 Epistle of Jude, saith, that the devil contended chiefly about the 
 body of Moses as unworthy of burial on that reason chiefly, for 
 that he killed the Egyptian unjustly. 
 
 Smote the Egyptian. The scripture hath not expressed the 
 manner how he smote him. The ancient Hebrews, as Clemens 
 Alex. Strom, i. testifies, do also fictitiously and fabulously report, 
 that the Egyptian was not killed by Moses with any external 
 weapon, but by the bare pronouncing of the name Jehovah against 
 him ; as Peter did kill Ananias and Saphiras by a mere word. 
 Sulpicius Severus saith,^ " Moses, when he was come to a man's 
 age, seeing a Hebrew beaten by an Egyptian, moved with grief, 
 revenging his brother's wrong, kicked the Egyptian to death." 
 
 25. For he supposed, &c. As if he had said, he thought that 
 they would understand, when they saw him so ready to defend his 
 brethren when wronged by their enemies, that they were to be 
 delivered afterwards by God from the tyranny of the Egyptians 
 by his means; which yet they did not understand. By this 
 testimony of Stephen, Moses seems to have killed the Egyptian 
 on this account, as being acquainted with his call to deliver the 
 Israelites from the grievous bondage of the Egyptians ; which the 
 scripture is silent in, Exod. ii. 12. This Augustine observed in 
 his second question on Exodus. 
 
 26. And the next day. That is, the next day after that Moses 
 killed the Egyptian, and covered him with sand after he had killed 
 him. , 
 
 He shewed himself to them as they strove. That is, he saw two 
 Israelites quarrelling, [conspexit duos Hebrseos rixantes] as the 
 Vulgate Latin interpreter renders it, Exod. ii. 13. Jonathan and 
 Eabbi Solomon say, that these two Hebrews that contended were 
 Dathan and Abiram. 
 
 And he would have set them at one again. Greek, And he forced 
 them to peace, {avvrika<ii.v avTovQ ej? slpjjvrjv.J That is, he used 
 all means to reconcile them. " The name of the effect," saith 
 Grotius, "is given to the endeavour;" and the word signifying 
 as it were, " violence," denoteth the earnestness of the agent, as 
 avayKatyUv, "to constrain," Luke xiv. 23; and iragatiaZitr^ai, "to 
 use forceable means," Luke xxiv. 29. See the like expressions. 
 Gen. xix. 3, xxxiii.ll, in the Vulgate Latin 12; Matt. xiv. 22; 
 Mark vi. 45 ; Gal. ii. 14. 
 
 1 Sac. Hist. lib. i. 
 M 2 
 
164 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. Vll. 
 
 Saying, &c. He does not cite the very words which Moses, 
 Exod. ii. 13, is said to have spoken to him that did the wrong to his 
 neighbour, but he expresses the sense very well. "For," saith 
 Grotius, " there he is called 6 irXrjcrfoe, ' neighbour,' who is here 
 called 6 aStX^oc, brother, countryman, descended of the same 
 ancestors." 
 
 27. But he that did his neighbour wrong. He, in the original 
 Hebrew, is called wicked who has an evil heart and malicious mind. 
 "Equity commandeth," saith, Aristotle in his book of the Art of 
 Oratory, " that we make a diflference betwixt injuries and faults, 
 as also betwixt faults and misfortunes. Misfortunes are, which 
 can neither be provided against, nor are committed with a malicious 
 mind ; faults, which might have been prevented, yet are not done 
 out of malice; but injuries are done both designedly and mali- 
 ciously." 
 
 Who made thee, &c. Chrysostom, on 2 Cor. vii. 13, saith of 
 Moses : " Even before he had brought out the people with his 
 hand, he led them by his actions ; wherefore that Hebrew was 
 very foolish in that he said to him, Who made thee a ruler and 
 a judge over us? "What sayest thou? Thou seest the deeds, and 
 dost thou make controversy of the name ? Just as if one that 
 saw a physician cut exactly according to art, and so help a dis- 
 tempered member of the body, and then should say unto him, 
 Who made thee a physician ? Who gave thee a power to cut ? 
 My art, good man, and thy disease. So, also, his skilfulness made 
 Moses a judge. For to govern is not only dignity, but also an 
 art, and that, indeed, the sublimest of arts." The same master 
 of the church handling this subject on Eph. iii., in the end, saith, 
 " Thy injustice, thy cruelty hath made me a ruler and a judge." 
 
 29. Then fled Moses at this saying. As much as to say, Moses, 
 understanding by this upbraiding language that it was publicly 
 known that he killed, though justly, the Egyptian that wronged 
 the Hebrew, and fearing what might befall him, by reason thereof, 
 he fled. "The Egyptians," as Grotius observeth, "esteemed the 
 Hebrews as slaves, yea, as beasts, whom they would have every 
 one persuaded to be incapable of injury." 
 
 And was a stranger in. the land of Madian. That is. And he 
 was an exile in the land of Madian. Eusebius maketh mention^ 
 of two cities of that name. The first is beyond Arabia, towards 
 
 'In locis. 
 
V4SR. XXX.] LITEKALLY EXPLAINED. 165 
 
 the south, in the Desert of the Saracens, to~the east of the Red 
 Sea : whence they are called Madiansei, and the country, Ma- 
 diansea. The other is near Arnon and Areopolis, whose ruins are 
 only to be shown now. A learned author under the name of 
 Jerome writes,^ that Moses was an exile in the latter. 
 
 Where he begat two sons. As if he had said. Where, after 
 having taken to wife Sephora or Zippora, daughter to Hobab or 
 Jethro, niece to Raguel, he begat two sons of her, Gersom and 
 Eliezer : as Sulpitius Severus expresseth it, book i. Hist. Sac. 
 
 30. And when forty years were expired. To wit, during his exile 
 at Madian. 
 
 There appeared to him. To wit, to Moses while he kept the 
 flock of Jethro his father-in-law. 
 
 In the wilderness of Mount Sina. Where there were excellent 
 pastures. To the south of Judaea are Sinim, Isa. xlix. 12; Sinseans, 
 as the Vulgate interpreter has translated Sini, Gen. x. 17; whence 
 the barren country of Sin, and in it Mount Sinai has its name, 
 Exod. xvi. 1. Moreover it is certain, that the same mountain is 
 called both Horeb and Sina, or Sinai, yet so that towards the 
 east it is properly called Sinai, or Sina, but that part that looks to 
 the west, Horeb. 
 
 An Angel. Hebrew, Exod. iii. 2, An angel of Jehovah, that is, 
 an angel acting in the name of the most high God. 
 
 In aflame of fire in a bush. Greek, " In a flame of fire of the 
 bush." That is, the species of the flaming fire did show that God 
 came in his ambassador to revenge the injuries the Egyptians had 
 done to his people ; but the bush not consumed, was a type of that 
 same people that should be preserved alive amidst all these calami- 
 ties caused by the wicked. 
 
 .31. When Moses saw it. To wit, the burning bush not con- 
 sumed. 
 
 He wondered at the sight Astonished at the strangeness of this 
 miracle. 
 
 And as he drew near. To the bush. 
 
 To behold it. That is, that he might look more nearly into it. 
 
 The voice of the Lord came unto him. As if he had said. The 
 angel, the messenger of the Lord, spake to him to this purpose. 
 In divers and sundry manners God spake to the fathers, but 
 
 ' In loc. Heb. Act. Afost. 
 
166 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. VII. 
 
 at length, in the last days, he began to speak to us by his Son, 
 Heb. i. 1. 
 
 32, / am the God, &c. Athanasius says,' " But that angel was 
 not the God of Abraham, but God spake in the angel ; and it was 
 the angel that was seen, but God spake to him." The author of 
 the Answers to the Orthodox, in Justin Martyr, Quest, 112:" The 
 angels who in God's stead appeared and spoke to men, were called 
 by the name of God himself, as that which spoke to Jacob, and to 
 Moses. Yea, men also are called gods. It is given to both by 
 virtue of the office enjoined them, both to be in the stead, and 
 bear the name of God. But when the office is fulfilled, they are 
 no more called gods, who only obtained that name on the account 
 of some work they were to do," 
 
 The God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of 
 Jacob. When God is said to be the God of any, it is to be under- 
 stood [that God is] a special favourer and bountiful patron of him, as 
 sufficiently appears from that form of the covenant. Lev, xxvi, 12, 
 I will be your God, and ye shall be my people, which Paul cites, 2 Cor, 
 vi, 16; and from the peculiar covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, 
 and Jacob, Gen. xvii. 7, 8, Now they had some good things mea- 
 sured out unto them in this life, but mixed with many troubles. 
 For neither had they any settled place of their own, but wandered 
 up and down with their families and flocks, and were also fre- 
 quently tossed with the injuries of men and fortune. Hence 
 also Jacob called himself a stranger and pilgrim, when he spoke 
 to Pharaoh, which the author to the Hebrews very pertinently 
 insisteth on, ch, xl, 13, It remains, therefore, that God was the 
 God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not only when they lived on 
 earth, but also when God spoke these things to Moses, For, as I 
 have said, nothing had befallen them in this life which could answer 
 the magnificence of so great a name. But, besides, we much 
 more do good to him, if we can, for whose sake we do good to 
 others. God wants not power, and he says that he will bless their 
 posterity for the sake of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; much more, 
 therefore, will he do good to them. But they who are dead are 
 not capable of a benefit, if they are always to continue in the 
 state of death. It follows, therefore, that they are to be restored 
 unto life, as Christ from hence evinced against the Sadducees, 
 Matt, xxii. 32 ; Mark xii, 27 ; Luke xx, 38, that he may in a 
 
 * Orat. 6. 
 
VER. XXXIV.] LITERALLY EXPLAINEB. 167 
 
 peculiar and special manner be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and 
 Jacob, that is, may be beneficial to them. Moreover, Abraham, 
 Isaac, and Jacob, as we have observed on the forecited place of 
 Matthew, do not not signify the soul, which is only a part of 
 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but the person, consisting both of 
 soul and body, to which life and death are properly attributed. 
 But seeing the promises of God are no less certain than things 
 that are now in being, in God's account, who is both willing and 
 powerful to raise them from the dead, they are reckoned as risen 
 already, according to that, Luke xx. 38 : For all live to him. Origen, 
 book iv. against Celsus, saith, "that the names of Abraham, Isaac, 
 and Jacob, joined with the name of God, had so great virtue, 
 that not only were they intermixed by their posterity with their 
 holy prayers, and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob called 
 upon in driving away evil spirits, but were also made use of by all 
 charmers, and those who dealt in magic." 
 
 Durst not consider. That is, behold, as it is in the English, or 
 contemplate. For as Grotlus observes, "words belonging to the 
 internal and external senses are applied promiscuously to both." 
 In the Hebrew, Exod. iii. 6, it is. And Moses hid his face, 
 because he was afraid to look upon God, 
 
 33. Then said the Lord unto him. That is, the angel sent by 
 Ggd. Philo saith, that God in the promulgation of the decalogue 
 spoke not by himself, but, "filling a certain rational mind with a 
 clear knowledge, which forming the air, and attenuating it as it 
 were in likeness of flaming fire, uttered a distinct voice, as the 
 breath goes through a trumpet." 
 
 Put off, &c. This, Exod. iii. 5, is declared to have been said to 
 Moses before that God told him by the angel sent by him, that he 
 was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. See what we have 
 said on Eccles. v. 17. 
 
 34. / have seen, I have seen. As if he had said. With my eyes 
 intently fixed I have stedfastly looked upon it. God is said to see 
 the affliction, and hear the groans of a people, when he raiseth 
 them up, and refresheth them when they are sorely perplexed and 
 almost spent with grief; as, on the contrary, he is said to shut his 
 eyes, not to hear their cry, to turn his back, when he seemeth to 
 neglect them when they cry. Thus when God is said to descend, 
 saith Calvin, "there is no need that God should move himself locally 
 to bring help to his people ; for his hand is stretched out through 
 
168 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. VII 
 
 heaven and earth ; but this is spoken with respect to our senses ; 
 for when he did not regard the affliction of his people, to our 
 apprehension he might seem to have been absent, and to have had 
 his care exercised about some other thing in heaven. Now he 
 declareth that the Israelites shall be sensible that he is near them." 
 And now I am come, &c. As if he had said. Go therefore to 
 Amenophis, father to Sethosis, or Eamesis, and Armais, and son to 
 Eamessis Miamun, who succeeded his father, who died in the 
 sixty-seventh year of his reign, in the kingdom of Egypt, nine- 
 teen years ago, and show thyself a leader in restoring thy people 
 to their liberty. That the same man whom the Egyptians called 
 Amenophis, father to Sethosis, or Ramessis, and Armais, was by 
 the Greeks called Belus, the father of Egyptus and Danaus, 
 Bishop Usher hath most clearly collected out of Manetho, on the 
 year of the world 1494 : " And truly the time assigned to Belus 
 by Thallus the chronographer, 322 years before the destruction of 
 Troy, according to the relation of Theophilus of Antiochia and 
 Lactantius, does exactly jump with the age of our Amenophis. 
 Although the mythologists, confounding Belus the Egyptian and 
 Belus the Assyrian, Ninus's father, do fable that this Belus, who 
 was drowned in the Bed Sea, transplanted colonies from Egypt 
 into Babylonia." Thus far the most renowned Usher in the now 
 cited place. 
 
 35. This Moses, &c. Moses who was appointed by God to be a 
 saviour to the Israelites, is at the first rejected by them, in this 
 typifying Christ, whom at his first coming the greatest part of the 
 Israelites refused to acknowledge. Nor in any other respect is 
 Moses here called \vrpu>Trig, "a redeemer," but because after many 
 and strange miracles wrought by him in Egypt, when at last the 
 first-born of the Egyptians were slain by the destroying angel, he 
 preserved the people of God by the blood of the Lamb and 
 brought them safe out. " And so," saith Lud. de Dieu " he gave 
 a type of that true price and that true redemption, which believers 
 rejoice to have been purchased for them, by the death of the 
 First-begotten of all the creation, and by the blood of Christ the 
 immaculate Lamb." 
 
 Se7it hy the hands of the angel. A Hebraism. That is, giving 
 him a command by an angel. 
 
 36. He brought them out. He largely publisheth, both the good 
 deeds Moses did for the people, and the honours conferred on him 
 
YER. XXXTTIl.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 169 
 
 by God ; that so the stubbornness of the people against him might 
 appear the more base, and it might be less to be wondered at, if 
 those who were come of such ungrateful parents were so unnatural 
 and inhuman towards Jesus Christ. 
 
 Shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt. The royal 
 palace of Egypt was at that time Zoan, that is, as the Chaldaaan 
 paraphrast interprets it, Isa. xix. 13, Tanis, whence has its name 
 the Tanitic mouth of the Nile, which some call Saitish, as Strabo 
 testifies, lib. xvii. Asaph testifieth that the miracles were done 
 there by Moses, Psal. Ixxviii. 12, 
 
 And in the Red Sea. The commoner sort of the literate world 
 think that was called so because its waters are red, whereas this 
 sea according to Q. Curtius ' differs nothing from others in colour; 
 the same in the same place saith, "It had its name from King 
 Erythrus, for which reason the ignorant thought that its waters 
 were red." Agatharcides affirmeth the same in his collections, out 
 of book i.,* Of the Eed Sea. This Erythrus, from whom they 
 say it had its name, was Esau, who from his redness was called 
 Edom, Gren. xxv. 25. These are of equal signification, Erythrus 
 in the Greek, Edom in Hebrew, Ruber in Latin, Red in English, 
 Rouge in French. Hence by the Greeks it is called 'EpvOpa 
 ^a\a(T(ra, in Latin Rubrum Mare, in English Red Sea, in French 
 Mer Rouge; but in the Holy Scripture it is called tjlD 0;, "the sea 
 full of weeds," because it abounds in sea reits f it runs by the land 
 of Edom, that is, Idumea. In this sea Solomon set out that fleet 
 whereof mention is made in 1 Kings ix. 26. ' 
 
 In the wilderness forty years. This time answereth to those 
 years in which Christ, after his offering up himself on the cross for 
 us, which was typified in the paschal sacrifice, did continue to 
 invite the Jews to faith and repentance, by miracles wrought by 
 <Tod through the ministry of his apostles. 
 
 37. This is that Moses, &c. As if he had said, this very same 
 Moses, Deut. xviii. 15, gave you signs whereby to discern a true 
 prophet, and so he commended Jesus to you in whom those signs 
 do shine much more gloriously than in other prophets. See what 
 we have said above, ch. iii. 22. 
 
 38. fFas in the church, &c. As if he had said, In the assembly 
 and meeting of the people in the wilderness, he was a Truch-man * 
 
 ^ Lib. viii. cap. 9. ' Apud Photium in Bibliotheoa, cod. CCL. 
 
 ' \_Reils, sea or river weeds.] * \_Truch-man, an interpreter.] 
 
170 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. VII. 
 
 betwixt the angel that spoke to him in Mount Sina, and our 
 fathers who stayed at the bottom of the same mountain. See 
 Exod. xix. " That which is immediately subjoined," saith Beza, 
 "about his conferring with the angel in mount Sina, and receiving 
 the tables of the law, doth manifestly seem to denote a certain 
 special convention of the people, to wit, that history which is 
 mentioned in Exodus, from chap. xix. to xxxv." 
 
 With the angel which spake to him. In God's name, and by his 
 special appointment. Josephus saith, i " Seeing we have received 
 our principal tenets, and the most holy part of our laws from God 
 by angels." The law was given by angels, by the ministry of a 
 Truch-man, to wit, Moses, that it might be of force until the 
 promised Seed should come, Gal. iii. 19. And the writer to the 
 Hebrews prefers the gospel to the law in this, that the gospel was 
 given by Jesus Christ, whereas the law only by angels, Heb. ii. 2. 
 " In which place," saith Grotius, " they are called angels, with a 
 number denoting a multitude, whereas Stephen only said angel, 
 because such is the custom of those visions, that one angel sustains 
 the name and person of God, and the rest are as it were his 
 attendants. See Gen. xviii. 13 ; Luke ii. 13. Compare 1 Thess. 
 iv. 16, with Matt. xiii. 39, 41, 49. Whence is it, therefore, that 
 the angel who gave out the law saith, (Exod. xx.) " I, Jehovah :" 
 as also other angels who were sent about matters of great 
 concern do speak. Even after the same manner as heralds do 
 proclaim the judge's words, as saith Augustine, 2 Trin. 2, and in 
 like sort they suffer themselves to be addressed ; so Moses saith 
 that God, Jehovah, spoke to him in the bush, Exod. iii. 14, and he 
 that spoke called himself n;™ "i^^, which is an explication of the 
 word nirr% But Stephen saith that the angel of the Lord was seen 
 by Moses in the burning of the bush, and that by the authority of 
 Moses himself, Exod. iii. 2." 
 
 Who received the lively oracles. That is, he received from God 
 the doctrine of life and salvation, to deliver it to us ; nor did he 
 deliver anything to us, but what he was commanded from above. 
 
 39. To whom our fathers would not, &c. As if he had said, but 
 our fathers, not so much rebellious against Moses as against God 
 himself in his person, " turned their minds to the profane rites of 
 the Egyptians," as Lactantius expresseth it, Instit. lib. iv., e. 10. 
 That the worshipping of beasts obtained in Egypt long ago, and 
 
 * Antiq, xv. 8. 
 
VER. XXXIX. J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 171 
 
 tliat it began to be in use before the Israelites went up out of 
 Egyptj is plain from Exod. viii. 26 (in the edition of the Hebrew 
 bible by Athias, ver. 22) ; where, when Pharaoh or Amenophis, 
 father to Sethosis or Eamessis and Armais, said unto Moses and 
 Aaxon, " Go and sacrifice to your God in this land," they answered, 
 that they should, sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians, that 
 is, sheep and oxen, which the Egyptians abused to abominable 
 idolatry. For the sacred writers used to call the idols of the 
 Gentiles abominations, as you may see, Deut. vii. 25, xii. 30, 31 ; 
 2 Kings xxii. 13; Ezra ix. 1 ; Isa. xliv. 19 ; or, the abomination 
 of the Egyptians, that is, a sacrifice which the Egyptians will 
 abhor, who wiU never suffer those living creatures which they wor- 
 ship, to be killed for an offering ; and in this sense the Vulgate 
 and Chaldee interpreters understand it. The Egyptians also 
 erected in their temples the statues of those living creatures which 
 they worshipped when alive. Pomponius Mela, lib. i., cap. 9, 
 saith, " They adore the statues of many living creatures, but 
 much more the living creatures themselves." Strabo, lib. 17, 
 where he speaks of their temple, saith, "But no image, or at least 
 not in the likeness of a man, but that of some beast." And 
 therefore king Mycerinus hid his daughter in the cavity of a 
 wooden ox, covered with gold, to which the Saites daily sacrificed 
 by burning all /sorts of sweet-smelling things.* And Stephanus, 
 de Urbibus, on the word busiris saith, " It is commonly reported 
 that Isis buried Osiris there, laying him in a wooden ox, and 
 therefore the city was called Busosiris." "He will have," saith 
 the most famed Bochart,^ " Osiris, buried there by his mother Isis, 
 to have been shut up in a wooden ox, whence the city was first 
 called Busosiris, and then afterward by contraction Busiris. There- 
 fore that learned man is mistaken, who aflSrms that the Egyptians 
 worshipped only live animals, not their effigies, and that the images 
 of oxen are nowhere read to have been made use of in their wor- 
 ship. Moreover, that the Israelites, while they were in bondage 
 to the Egyptians, did also serve their gods, Joshua xxiv. 14; Ezekiel 
 XX. 7, 8 ; xxiii. 3, 8, expressly testify. From whence it seems to 
 follow that the Israelites imitated the customs of the Egyptians, 
 when they worshipped the molten golden calf in the wilderness." 
 To which the words of Stephen, in this and the following verse, 
 have a very near reference, Their hearts turned bach again into 
 
 • Herodot. lib. ii. c.ip. 130. * Hierozoic. p. i. lib. ii. cap. 34. 
 
172 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. VII. 
 
 Egypt, saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us, &c., and 
 they made a golden calf." Eightlyj therefore, Lactantius saith' of 
 the same Israelites : " They turned their minds to the profane 
 rites of the Egyptians. For when Moses their leader went up 
 into the mount, and tarried there forty days, they made an ox's 
 head of gold, which they called Apis, which might go before them 
 for a sign." And Jerome, on Hos. iv. " It seemeth to me, that 
 therefore, both the people of Israel made that calf's head, which they 
 worshipped in the wilderness, and Jeroboam the son of Nebat set 
 up his golden calves, that they might retain that which they had 
 learned in Egypt, in their superstitious worship, to wit, that Apis, 
 and Mnevis were gods, which were worshipped in the shape of 
 oxen," And Augustine, Ps. Ixxiii. " The calf which that un- 
 faithful and apostatizing people worshipped, seeking after the gods 
 of the Egyptians." And Basil of Seleucia, Orat. vi. " They wor- 
 shipped a calf in the wilderness, even as they did in Egypt." By 
 the way, note, that instead of an ox or a calf, Lactantius said, an 
 ox's head, and Jerome, a calf s head, as Tertullian against the Jews, 
 cap. i., "When the ox's head came forth to them." And Cyprian, 
 Of the excellency of patience, " that he might call an ox's head, and 
 an earthly figment the guides of his journey." And Ambrose, Of 
 repentance, lib. i. cap. 8, " casting behind their backs their faith, 
 they worshipped a calf's head." And on Exodus, " The calf's head 
 was made." Also, " But the following things will inform us where- 
 fore the calfs head went out." Also, " Moses brake the tables of 
 the law, and stamped the calf's head." And Optatus, lib. iii. " In 
 the days of Moses the children of Israel worshipped a calf's head." 
 And Jerome, on Hos. vii. " They made a calf's head in the wilder- 
 ness." And on Amos v. " They formed the gold into the shape 
 of a calf's head." And Augustine, in Ps. Ixi. " A calf's head 
 was the body of the wicked." And Isidorus, Orig. lib. viii. cap. 
 xi. where, speaking of the Egyptian Apis, "The Jews made, the 
 image of this head to themselves in the wilderness." And- the 
 sentence of the fathers of the seventh synod about the use 
 of images, "When they inconsiderately made a calf's head." 
 And Eutychius of Alexandria :i "They took their wives' orna- 
 ments, and melted them, and there came forth out of them a 
 calf's head." Which will excite the reader's admiration, seeing, 
 if I mistake not, in ten several places of the scripture it is i 
 
 '■ Lib. iv. cap. 10. 2 Hist. lib. i. p. 106. 
 
TEE. XL. J LITERALLY EXPLAINED, 173 
 
 that the Israelites made and worshipped a calf, and that Moses 
 bruised the calf, but no where is it to be read the head of a 
 calf. Yet there is no reason why any should imagine that this 
 idol, according to the opinion of the ancients, had the head only 
 of a calf, the rest of it resembling a man, such as was BowKspwv, 
 the feminine representation of Isis in Herodotus. For a head 
 of an ox, or calf, signifies nothing else but an ox, or a calf." 
 So Iliad, ^ ver. 260, in the plays at Patroclus's funeral, "Achilles, 
 for rewards to the gamesters, caused to be brought out of the 
 ships, horses and mules, and the strong heads of oxen," that is, peri- 
 phrastically, oxen, as the scholiast observes there. Again, in the 
 hymn on Mercury, Apollo's oxen, taken from him by craft, are 
 thrice called strong heads of oxen. Which Yirgil, ^neid. v. 61, 
 62, imitates thus : 
 
 Alcestes, of the Trojan offepting gives. 
 
 Of 'a bounty, every ship two heads of beeves ; 
 
 two heads of beeves, that is, two oxen." Thus far the universally 
 learned Samuel Bochart. 
 
 40. Make us gods to go before us. No sentence could contain in 
 itself a greater absurdity ; • seeing they cannot be gods that are 
 made by men ; nor could images be said to go before them, which 
 have feet and walk not; yet there is no need of thinking that 
 monster of polytheism to be insinuated by this expression ; for the 
 plural is used for the singular, as when the Israelites say of one 
 calf, Exod. xxxii. 4 ; These be thy gods, O Israel, which have 
 brought thee out of the land of Egypt. So in the Hebrew original 
 Abraham, who acknowledged one only God, yet said. Gen. xx. 13: 
 The Gods made me wander from my father's house. And, Gen. 
 xxxv. 7, Jacob called the place Bethel, because the Gods were 
 there seen by him. And David, Ps. xlix. 2, Let Israel rejoice in 
 his Makers. And Solomon, Eccles. xii. 1, Remember thy Creators. 
 The Philistines also, though they knew that they worshipped but 
 one God in Israel, yet when they were struck with his terrors, they 
 said. Who mil deliver us out of the hands of these mighty Gods? 
 These are the Gods which smote the Egyptians, 1 Sam. iv. 8. And 
 therefore Jonathan understood these things as spoken of one God. 
 So likewise Theodoret, Quest. 1, on 1 Kings. Nor is it to be 
 doubted, but the Israelites intended the same in these words. 
 These are thy gods, Israel, which the following words plainly 
 shew, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. By which words 
 
174 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. VII. 
 
 they did not signify that they were delivered by this idol, which 
 they knew to be void of life, and but lately made ; but that they 
 might not seem idolators, they would be believed to worship the 
 true God in this idol. Which very thing Aaron had respect to, 
 Exod. xxxii. 5, when he called the feast dedicated to that calf, the 
 feast of Jehovah, as if the worshipping of that calf had been the 
 worshipping of God. That Micah also, who had the molten 
 teraphim, and Jeroboam who made the calves, pretended the same, 
 appears from Judg. xvii. 3, 13 ; and 1 Kings xii. 28, which yet 
 was but a vain subterfuge, nor did it acquit them from the crime 
 of idolatry before God. That the Israelites so understood these 
 words, "These are thy gods," is evinced by these of Neh. xi. 18. 
 The^ made themselves a molten calf, and said, This is thy god ivhich 
 brought thee out of Egypt, that is, an image or symbol of that only 
 God, who in very deed performed what he promised to our fathers, 
 and delivered thee from the Egyptian bondage with a strong hand, 
 and stretch ed-out arm. 
 
 For this Moses, &c. The people took occasion to ask this of 
 Aaron, from Moses' stay on Mount Sina, whence he did not return 
 till forty days were expired, Exod. xxiv. 18, which things, though 
 they are plain in holy writ, Exod. xxxii. 1, yet are strained to a 
 different sense by the Jews. For on the Hebrew words. And the 
 people saw that Moses tarried, TD'iSiia, the Talmudists have it thus,' 
 " Do not read ^i?5i3, tarried, but "^li isn, that is, six are come, viz. 
 hours. For when Moses went up to the mount he told the 
 Israelites, I will return at the end of forty days, in the beginning 
 of the six hours, from which the fortieth day beginneth. When 
 therefore these forty days were expired, Satan came to trouble the 
 world, and said unto them, where is Moses your teacher? They 
 answered that he was gone up into the mount. But saith he, the 
 six hours are expired wherein he promised to retuVn ; which when 
 they did not value, he added, that Moses was dead. But when 
 they were no more moved at that, he showed them the figure of 
 his coffin ; and then they said to Aaron, As for this Moses, the 
 man that brought us out of Egypt, we know not what has befallen 
 him." In Bereschith Rabba, sect. 41, the devil is said to have 
 shown Moses himself hanging between heaven and earth. In 
 Jonathan's paraphrase, they conjectured, that Moses was con- 
 sumed in the mountain, whereon fire glistered from the face of 
 
 • Tract, de Sabbat, cap. 9, p. 89, A. 
 
VEE. XLI.j LITEKALLY EXPLAINED. 175 
 
 God. Therefore as being now deprived of their leader Moses, 
 they ask visible gods which may go before them. Moreover, if 
 we may give credit to the Tanchuma, fol. 46, those men who asked 
 this were not Israelites, but the forty-thousand men who went xip 
 out of Egypt with the Israelites, and the two Egyptian magicians, 
 Jannes and Jambres by name. But these are but foolish inventions 
 to vindicate their ancestors from the crime of idolatry, when none 
 who has not quite lost his senses but may smell out their deceit. 
 For if instead of IS'iJ^ia we read toi23 "i»*3, the sentence will be in- 
 coherent, nor will these words agree in the least with the follow- 
 ing. Besides it supposes, that in Moses' time the days were 
 divided into hours, which Is plainly contradictory to all history. 
 For other nations have learned the division of the day Into twelve 
 hours. Invented by the Babylonians, long after, as we are informed 
 by Herodotus, and others ; this especially is to be considered, that 
 if Moses by divine instinct did foretell at what time he would 
 return, he returned at the very moment he appointed, nor was 
 there any reason why their patience should be wearied out by his 
 delays. Lastly. There Is nothing more false than that only the 
 strangers, who joined themselves to the Israelites when they came ■ 
 out of Egypt, asked gods from Aaron. For, Exod. xxxll. 1, it is 
 said, the people came together to Aaron; and ver. 3, that all the 
 people brought their ear-rings to him. For we know not, say they, 
 what is become of this Moses who brought us out of Egypt, But 
 Moses brought only the Israelites properly out of Egypt; the 
 others followed them voluntarily. But also, ver. 8, they are called 
 Israel; ver. 13, The seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; ver. 14, 
 The people of God. Therefore the Levltes when they executed 
 vengeance to punish the guilty, did not kill only strangers, but their 
 brethren, sons, friends, neighbours, sparing none that came in their 
 way ; because the guilt was universal. With good reason there- 
 fore does Stephen upbraid the Jews with this, that their fathers 
 said to Aaron, Make us gods, &c. 
 
 41. And they made a ealf, &c. On that very same day in which 
 the people desired that they might have an idol made after the 
 manner of j;he Egyptian superstition, Aaron, whether overcome 
 with fear, or some other preposterous affection, hearkening to the 
 mad multitude, contrary to the express words of the law, Exod, 
 XX. 23, commanded them all, without respect to sex, to bring their 
 ear-rings, and when they were brought melted them in a vessel fit 
 
176 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [oHAP. VII. 
 
 for that purpose, and presented the calf that came out of it to the 
 people, built an altar to it, and appointed a solemn feast to be kept 
 the next day, as it is more fully declared, Exod. xxxii. Hence, 
 Deut. ix. 20, it is said, that God was mightily incensed against 
 Aaron, and was about to destroy him, and would certainly have 
 cut him off had not Moses interceded for him. 
 
 And offered sacrifice unto the idol, &c. The Israelites came 
 together according to Aaron's appointment early next morning, 
 worshipped the calf, and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings 
 to it, and the people sat down to eat and dnnk, and rose up to play, 
 Exod. xxxii. 6. For they worshipped this idol after the same 
 manner that they did the true God. Except that of all the kinds 
 of sacrifices the sin-offerings were only omitted, which yet they 
 stood most in need of. And how guilty sover they were, yet they 
 thought they had performed their sacred rites aright, and their 
 consciences were benumbed with acting so great wickedness. 
 Feasting and festival plays were appendices of the sacrifices, even 
 in the worship of God. For whereas sacrifices were either burnt- 
 offerings, or sin-offerings, or peace-offerings; in burnt-offerings all 
 the sacrifice was burnt; in sin-offerings a part of it fell to the 
 priest's share, who only feasted on it ; in peace-offerings the offerers 
 according to their right retained a certain portion of the sacrifice, 
 that they might call together their friends, if they so thought fit, 
 and be merry with them. For in these feasts the Israelites were 
 commanded to rejoice before the Lord, Deut. xii. 7; xvi. 11, yet 
 not with a light, lascivious, and petulant, but with a pious and 
 moderate joy, conjoined with a praising God's name, as in the 
 presence of the all-seeing God. And that plays were also then 
 used, appears by David's example, whom Michal out at a window 
 spied dancing, and playing, after he had offered sacrifices before 
 the ark, 2 Sam. vi. 16 ; 1 Chron. xv. 29. But whereas Plato ' 
 saith, that some dance eju/xeXwc, with a modest and becoming 
 motion of the body, others TrX-nfifiikwg, immodestly and unseemlily : 
 undoubtedly David's dancing was ififiiXua, modest, and composed, 
 not desultory and light. "But idolaters," saith the most renowned 
 Bochart,5! " were so bad personators of the faithful in this point, 
 that they did not contain themselves within these bounds. For 
 these sacrificial feastings frequently ended in drunkenness, or 
 lasciviousness, or contention, riots, beatings, and slaughters. 
 
 • Lib. vii. De Leg. ' Hierozoic. p. 1, lib. ii. cap. 34. 
 
VEK. XLI.J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 177 
 
 Therefore the ancients attribute the first rise of drunkenness to 
 these feasts. And Aristotle ' saith, that fiidieiv, signifying « to be 
 drunk," was called so in the Greek, because, fisrd rh Sfveiv, after 
 their sacrifices were performed they drank more liberally. To the 
 same purpose is that which Seleucus writes, that in the same place 
 feasts were called ^otvai, Sn Siii Sieoig olvoxKrOai Mv iweXifx^avov, 
 because they " thought it was their duty to drink largely for their 
 gods' sakes;" and ^aXlai, 6ti ShQv xaptv vXiiovro, &c., because 
 « they were congregated or came together for the sake of their gods." 
 For otherwise, it was not of ancient custom to set before any, wine 
 or delicacies in any abundance, unless it were done for the gods. 
 To which that gradation of Epicharmus has respect, "After 
 sacrifice was feasting, after feasting tippling, which to me seems 
 very delightful, from tippling proceeded frowardness, of froward- 
 ness came railing, of railing strife, from strife condemnation, whence 
 fetters, stocks, and fines." Where the Israelites are said, after they 
 had sacrificed, to have sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play, 
 the Rabbles by the word " play," understand mostly these things. 
 For besides these indecent plays, the Tanchuma will have two 
 others to be designed in this place, to wit, whoring and shedding 
 of blood. The former he proves from Gen. xxxix. 14, 17, where 
 Potiphar's wife accuseth Joseph, as if he had come pns^ to play 
 with her, or to mock her, that is, to force her. The latter out of 
 2 Sam. ii. 14, where Abner saith to Joab, speaking of the twelve 
 Benjamites, who were joined with the like number of David's 
 soldiers. Let the young men now arise, Iprrto"''), and play before us : 
 play, that is, let them fight and fall on to one another's overthrow. 
 As if that most fierce engagement in which twelve pair of young 
 men destroyed one another, was looked on by the spectators only 
 as a play, as the encounterings of fencers at Rome. Whence the 
 ancient Hebrews in Kimchi say, "Because the people made no 
 account of the blood of the young men, as if it had been a play, 
 therefore they were punished, and fell by the sword; to wit, in that 
 battle which is mentioned, v. 17. But I see no reason why the 
 Israelites should be believed to have played thus after their worship- 
 ping of the calf, that is, to have fallen either into uncleanness, or 
 into murdering one another. I confess, that these have oftentimes 
 been the consequents of drunkenness ; but I find that the Israelites 
 did eat and drink, yet not to drunkenness. But, Deut. xxix. 5, 6, 
 
 * Apud Athen. lib. ii. 
 N 
 
178 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. VII. 
 
 they are said to have had no wine nor strong drink, that is, inebriating 
 liquor, all the forty years they were in the wilderness. Therefore, 
 whereas in the Greek version, Exod. xxxii. 18, Moses, coming 
 down from the mount, saith to his servant Joshua, ^wvjjv i^apx°v- 
 Twv olvov iji) ttKovu), ' I hcar the voice of them that are singing 
 through wine,' that olvov, whencesoever it has crept in, is a mere 
 gloss, of which neither the Hebrew text nor other versions have 
 the least appearance of. For in the Hebrew it is only W'S. 'ip, ' I 
 hear the voice of them that sing,' or, that sing one after another. 
 I think therefore that some of the Greeks have rendered it, (ptovrjv 
 l^apxo^'^'^v, others, (pwvfiv ovovd, for which the half-learned have 
 written olvov, and thus made up of both, (jxovrfv i^apxovrwv olvov. 
 So that the ovovO might be instead of the Hebrew rniy, as it might 
 be read before the vowels were written down, and be written by 
 them who were ignorant of the force of the Hebraism. For it was 
 not unusual with them merely to copy words that were unknown 
 to them. The Samaritan renders it 'the voice of sinners,' as also 
 the Syriac, for instead of niij? they read it niDij^. Truly therefore 
 the Greek scholiast, the Samaritan, 'I hear the voice of sins.' 
 Nor ought that to have been suspected by Drusius.", Thus far 
 the most exquisite in all kind of sciences, Samuel Bochart. 
 
 42- Then God turned. That is, God turned his back on them. 
 " It is an active verb for a reciprocal," saith Grotius. 
 
 And gave them up to worship the host of heaven. That is, he 
 gave them over to their lusts, that instead of one idol they might 
 invent innumerable. 
 
 As it is written in the book of the prophets. To wit, the twelve 
 lesser, which were written and bound up in one book or volume, 
 by reason of their brevity. 
 
 Have ye, &c. See our literal explanation on Amos v. 25. 
 
 43. Yea, ye took up. &c. That which is here declared, that the 
 Israelites carried about with them in waggons and litters the images 
 of Moloch or Remphan, was done by them when they yet abode 
 in the wilderness, to wit, when they, enticed by the wiles of the 
 Moabitish and Midianitish women, worshipped Baalpeor, or Bel- 
 phegor, the god of the Moabites, and as I think, of the Midianites 
 also, and offered sacrifices to it. Num. xxv. ; Ps. cvi. For Baal and 
 Moloch, or Melech, or Molech, are names common to all the gods, 
 which were distinguished and differenced by epithets, as you may see 
 by comparing 2 Kings xviii. 34, and Isa.xxxvi. 19, with Isa. xxxvii. 
 
VBR. XLIII.] LITEUALLY KXPLAINED. 179 
 
 18. Whence also the god of the Ammonites, who is commonly 
 called Moloch, is called Baal, Jer. xix. 5, and elsewhere ; neither 
 will ye almost find the name Moloch used peculiarly for the god 
 of the Ammonites in the scripture, but where the naming or men- 
 tioning of the Ammonites either goes befpre, or immediately 
 follows ; wherefore it is called Melcom or Milcom, with a pronoun 
 relative to the Ammonites. Yet Theodoret, on Ps. cv. hath 
 observed, that Baal or Bel is in a special manner attributed 
 to Saturn. Suidas, on Beelphegor, saith, " Beel is Saturn, but 
 Phegor is the place where he was worshipped, whence he is 
 called Beelphegor." Servius, on -ffineid. 1, saith, " In the Car- 
 thaginian tongue, Baal signifies God ; but by the Assyrians, 
 Bel, by a certain use peculiar to sacred things, is called both 
 Saturn and Sol." Also with the most learned, Moloch is the same 
 with Saturn, especially in these words of Amos, cited here by 
 Stephen, where the same is called in the Hebrew original ^vs, 
 and in the Seventy interpreters paifav. He upbraids them there- 
 fore, because they carried about with them the tent and image of 
 the star Saturn, which they wrought for themselves, that they might 
 worship them as types and figures of their God, when yet thj true 
 God will not be worshipped by a visible or external shape. See 
 our literal explication, Amos v. 26, on which place Grotius 
 speaketh thus : " As Moloch is an Ammonitish name, so Kiun is 
 an Arabic or Persian, which Abehezra saith is also written Kivan, 
 and that it is with them the same as Saturn. The same is called by 
 the Syrians Remmon, 2 Kings v. 18, to wit, because it was in the 
 highest orb, as Tacitus speaketh. As Kiun was also pronounced 
 Kivan, so Eemmon was also Remvan ; which the Greeks, having 
 lost the use of the letter F, wrote pa/xfav or psfifav, which is 
 their true writing. But Moloch, Kiun, or Kivan, are called gods, 
 because although they were referred to the same star, yet they had 
 divers names, habit, and worship, as the Moon and Diana with the 
 Greeks. Many men also were related to the same star among 
 different nations : and Moloch was of the shape of a king, Kivan 
 of a star." 
 
 Beyond Babylon. In the Hebrew, Amos v. 27, And I will remove 
 youheyond Damascus. See our literal explication there. The most 
 renowned Samuel Petit, renders the place of Amos otherwise: "And 
 
 N 2 
 
180 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. VII. 
 
 I will carry you away farther than Damascus is carried, away." Now 
 the inhabitants of Damascus, Amos i. 5, 2 Kingsxvi. 9, were carried 
 over into Kir, which Samuel Petit himself doubts not but was in 
 Babylonia, and he suspects that that city of Babylonia, which by 
 Ptolemy in the fourth table of Asia is called Chiriphe, had its, 
 name hence : but the prophet does foretell that the Israelites 
 should be carried farther than those of Damascus were, for these 
 were carried into Babylonia; but they should be carried farther 
 than into Babylonia, to wit, into Media. See 2 Kings xvii. 6. 
 
 44. Tabernacle, &c. He aggravates the wickedness of the Jews, 
 because, when they had both the place and manner of divine wor- 
 ship prescribed by God, both in the wilderness and in the promised 
 land, they hankered after external figures with a preposterous abuse 
 of the true and pure worship. As if he had said. The tabernacle 
 indeed was set up by Moses at the command of God, which should 
 bring men back to its heavenly archtype, which Moses saw in the 
 mount. Excellently saith Calvin, " For God does not regard 
 external rites, but precisely as they are symbols of heavenly 
 verity." 
 
 Of witness. They who translate iVin ^n«, "Tabernacle of 
 the congregation," may be reconciled with them who render it, 
 " Tabernacle of the witness or covenant," provided it be so called, 
 not so much in respect of the people that came together there to 
 God, as in respect to God himself, who was there made known to 
 the people by the declaration of his testimonies and covenant, and 
 as it were met there with them. " For so," saith Lud. de Dieu, 
 "God himself explaineth it, Exod. xxix. 42, where there is a reason 
 given why it is called t^to ^n'A, because ^''N "lai^ rttst^ 05^ iV^N 
 ClB', / will meet you in that place, that I may speak with you there. 
 You see that God meets that he may speak, and indeed, that I 
 may speak with thee, to wit, Moses, which might be done without 
 any assembling of the people. Nor was this name given to the 
 tabernacle from D^li*?, ' a porch,' which was the place the people 
 met in, but from T?"in, ' the most holy place,' where was the ark, 
 where God met with Moses and the high priest; whence Exod. 
 XXV. 22, "niyis"!, and I will meet thee there, to wit, at the ark, 
 and I will speak with thee at the propitiatory." Thus far De Dieu. 
 Hence the ark is called, the ark of the covenant, and the ark of the 
 testimony, or, n'ljjn • the testimony ' absolutely. The tabernacle is 
 
VJSR. XLV.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. , 181 
 
 also called, Num. ix. 15 ; xvii. 23, " the tabernacle of the testi- 
 mony, or witness." Also Exod. xxviii. 21 ; and Numb. i. 50, "the 
 dwelling place of the testimony."' 
 
 According to the fashion that he had seen. That Moses is said to 
 have seen a " fashion," the Spirit of God thereby signifies, that we 
 must not devise forms at our pleasure, but that all our senses 
 should be fixed on the form shown by God, that all our religion 
 may be formed according to it. " The godly," saith Calvin ex- 
 cellently, according as he usually doth, " receive nothing but from 
 the word of God ; but others think anything lawful they have a 
 mind for, and so they make their own pleasure a law, when yet 
 God approves of nothing but what he himself has appointed." I 
 pray God that all that are called by the name of Christians may 
 judge by this most sound rule in their controversies about religion, 
 and then all their judgments and opinions would easily agree. 
 
 45. Bringing in. That is, as the Arabic excellently translates 
 it, " When they had received that," to wit, from those who died 
 in the wilderness. So Matt. xxvi. 27, Taking the cup, that is, 
 when be had taken the cup, or as it is rendered, Mark iv. 23, 
 having taken the cup. See what we have said on Matt, xxvii. 48. 
 
 Our fathers with Jesus. That is, with Joshua, who at the 
 death of Moses succeeded in the government, appointed by God, 
 and who in name and deeds performed by him typified Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Into the possession of the Gentiles. Greek, Iv ry Karaaxiau twv 
 idvuv ; which the Syriac renders periphrastically, " into the land 
 which God gave them for a possession among the Gentiles." 
 Grreek interpreters promiscuously use Iv, "in," with the ablative, 
 and Etc, "into," with the accusative, because the Hebrews put 
 the letter ^ for both the prepositions, but KaraaxEaig is used for 
 mCT, mrrN, and n^ro, and rather signifies the land itself which is 
 obtained and possessed, than the taking or acquisition of it. 
 
 Whom God drove out before the face of our fathers. That is, at 
 the arriving of our fathers. This manner of speaking is to be 
 seen, Deut. ii. 21, 22, and often elsewhere: which the authors of 
 the inscription that Procopius Gazensis saw in Africa have 
 imitated, " We are those who fled from before the face," that is, at 
 the coming " of Jesus the robber, the son of Nave," that is. Nun. 
 
 Even in the days of David. In the Greek, as also the English, 
 it is, " unto the days of David." As if he had said, and so the 
 
182 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. VU. 
 
 tabernacle of the testimony was flittering and wandering until 
 God declared to David by an angel from heaven, that he had 
 chosen the threshing-floor of Arauna, or Oman, the Jebusite for a 
 sure and fixed seat for the ark, 1 Chron. xxi. 
 
 46. Who found, &c. As if he had said. This David obtained 
 by the singular favour of God, that when he was earnestly 
 
 ■ desiring to build a settled seat for the ark of the Lord, God 
 showed him the place chosen for that purpose. 
 
 And desired. Earnestly and most desirously : binding himself 
 with a vow, Ps. cxxxii. 3, that he would in no time or place lay 
 aside that solicitous care in searching out the place appointed by 
 God for building the temple, until he found it by divine revelation. 
 This vow of David's was according to to the will of God, in 
 regard God had promised, Deut. xii. 5, that he would choose to 
 himself a certain place, which should be the sanctuary seat, and 
 had added a command that the people should frequent what place 
 soever he should make choice of, and there perform the external 
 rites he had prescribed in the law. But the vows of the papists 
 are partly ridiculous and foolish, or even impossible, and partly 
 manifestly impious, because they are made out of an opinion of 
 merit, and to created things ; therefore David's vow does in nothing 
 justify, them. 
 
 Tabernacle. That is, a habitation, or place, not designed for a 
 short abode, as a tent, or tabernacle properly so called is, but like 
 a house intended for a certain and settled dwelling, Ps. cxxxii. 5 : 
 Until I find out a ■place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God 
 of Jacob. That is, until I find the place appointed by God for 
 building the temple,in which, as in a certain seat, the ark of God 
 may be put, to the end that he who delivered Jacob powerfully 
 from dangers, may be worshipped with a constant reverence, by 
 the people frequenting his worship according to his institution, 
 Deut. xii. It is expressed maaffla, tabernacles in the plural 
 number, because the temple had three division, Ps. Ixviii. 26. 
 
 47. Solomon, &c. As if he had said, The place designed for 
 the building the temple, was indeed shown to David, but not be, 
 but his son Solomon was permitted to build that temple, 1 Kings v. 
 
 48. But the Most High, &c. As if he had said. But Solomon, 
 while he was a building the temple, knew very well that God 
 could not be included in such a structure, as he expressly 
 prefaced in that solemn prayer which he made, 1 Kings viii. 27, 
 
VER. LI.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 183 
 
 which afterwards is more dearly expressed, Isa. Ixvi. 1, 2, to wit, 
 that all things are filled with the majesty of God, and that they 
 wrong him who dream that he is tied to a temple made with 
 hands, and after a childish manner think that they deserve at his 
 hands by doing of things of nothing. 
 
 49. The heanen, &c. As much as to say, I, who am every- 
 where, and govern all things, have no need of a temple made by 
 men ; I called indeed the temple, which Solomon set about at my 
 command, my rest, Ps. cxxxii. 14, not that my glory is compre- 
 hended in its narrow bounds, or that I delight in a visible and 
 fading building, but that I would have that to be the sign and 
 pledge of my presence to those who worship me with an inward 
 purity of heart, and a sincere affection of godliness. See our 
 literal explication, Matt. v. 34, on these words. Is God's throne. 
 
 50. Hath not, &c. The meaning is. All things which ye be- 
 hold anywhere are made by me, and are therefore at my disposal. 
 "By these words," saith Calvin, " the prophet intimateth, that 
 God has no need either of gold or costly ornament of the temple, 
 or sacrifices. Whence it follows that his true worship does not 
 consist in ceremonies. For he desires none of those things which 
 we offer to him on their own account, but only that he may 
 exercise us in the study of godliness. Which argument is more 
 largely handled, Ps. 1. For although it is a shameful stupidity to 
 think to feed God with sacrifices, yet if hypocrites were not over- 
 whelmed therein, they would not lay so great a stress on trivial 
 things. Whatsoever worship is not performed in spirit, is un- 
 savoury in God's account. Therefore let us know that God 
 seeketh us, not our possessions, which we obtain from him ynly at 
 his pleasure, by his free grace. And hence it is also manifest, 
 what a vast difference there is betwixt true religion, and the carnal 
 inventions of men." 
 
 51. Of a stiff neck. In the Greek, as also the English, "stiff- 
 necked :" that is, untractable and refractory. See our literal 
 explication on Hosea iv. 16. " Seeing Stephen does not give 
 direct answers to the heads of his accusation, I willingly am of 
 their mind," saith Calvin, " who think that he would have spoken 
 more, had not his discourse been tumultuously interrupted. For 
 we know what a consistory of judges he had. Wherefore it is no 
 wonder if they forced him to hold his peace, with their tumultuous 
 noise and mad outcries. And we also see that of purpose he used 
 
184 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. Til. 
 
 long circumlocutions, that he might lenify them as wild beasts. 
 But it is very probable that their rage was stirred up when he 
 showed them that they had grievously corrupted the law, that 
 their temple was polluted with superstitions, and that there was 
 nothing that remained pure among them, by reason that they, 
 resting in bare types, did not worship God spiritually; because 
 they did not refer their ceremonies to the heavenly type. But 
 although Stephen did not immediately go about to vindicate 
 himself, but did endeavour by degrees to soften their fierce spirits ; 
 yet he spoke very pertinently to purge himself of the crime they 
 impeached him for. These were the two principal heads of his 
 accusation: that he had spoken blasphemy against God and his 
 temple ; that he had endeavoured to abrogate the law. Stephen, 
 that he might dissolve these calumnies, beginning his discourse 
 from the calling of Abraham, showeth that the Jews had no 
 advantage of the Gentiles by nature, by proper right, or by merits 
 for their works ; but only by free gift, to wit, because God had 
 adopted them in the person of Abraham. It makes likewise very 
 much for him, that the covenant of salvation was made with 
 Abraham before there was a temple, ceremonies, or circumcision 
 itself; which things the Jews so much gloried in, that they 
 thought there could be no true worship performed to God, no 
 holiness without them. He afterwards declared how wonderful 
 and manifold the goodness of God had been towards Abraham's 
 race, and on the other hand how wickedly and perversely they had 
 rejected the grace of God, as much as lay in them. Whence it 
 plainly appears that it cannot be ascribed to their merits that they 
 are reckoned the people of God, but only because God of his own 
 good pleasure chose an unworthy people to himself, and did not 
 cease to do good to them, though ungrateful. By this means 
 their high and proud spirits might have been subdued, and reduced 
 to humility, that being stripped of their foolish pride they were 
 'puflFed up with, they might come to the Mediator. Thirdly, he 
 showed that an angel was prases in giving out the law, and that 
 Moses did so discharge his oflSce, that he said other prophets should 
 arise after him : yet of whom of necessity there was to be some 
 chief and prince, who should put an end to all their prophecies 
 and predictions, and bring them to a full accomplishment. Whence 
 it is collected that they were not at all Moses' disciples, who did 
 reject that doctrine that was promised, and held forth in the law, 
 
TER. LII.J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 185 
 
 together with its author. Finally, he shows that all the old 
 worship which was prescribed by Moses, was not to be accounted 
 of for itself, but ought rather to be referred to another end, be- 
 cause it was made with respect to a heavenly archtype : but that 
 the Jews were corrupt interpreters of the law, in that they took 
 every thing in a carnal and earthly sense. Hence it is evinced 
 that there was no wrong done to the temple or law, because Christ 
 is brought in as the end and verity of both. But seeing the state 
 of the case did especially depend upon this point : that the worship 
 of God did not properly consist of sacrifices and outward things, 
 and that all rites did nothing else but shadow out Christ, it was 
 Stephen's purpose to insist chiefly on this point, if the Jews would 
 have permitted it ; but when he came to the main point, they were 
 highly enraged, and would not give audience any further, he could 
 not make application of what was spoken, and instead of an 
 epilogue, he was forced to conclude with a bitter rebuke." 
 
 Uncircumcised in hearts and ears. As if he had said. Whose 
 hearts are full of vicious affections, and whose ears are shut and 
 obdurate to all sound doctrine. The Jews are in the same manner 
 upbraided. Lev. xxvi. 41 ; Jer. vi. 10, ix. 26. 
 
 Ye always resist the Holy Ghost. In the Greek it is, " Ye fall 
 down cross its way." That is, ye stubbornly despise the Holy 
 Ghost speaking in the prophets, and you set yourselves in oppo- 
 sition to his admonitions, as those do who stop one in his journey. 
 This is ■>■}(? "^ to walk across one's way. Lev. xxvi. 22, 23, 24, 
 40, 41. Stephen seems to have had respect to Isaiah Ixiii. 10. 
 With this agreeth that sharp upbraiding of Jer. vii. 24, &c. Ezek. 
 XX. from ver. 5 to the end of the chapter. Nor is the promiscuous 
 multitude only accused of rebellion before God, but the priests, 
 princes, and prophets are upbraided with the same crime, Jer. ii. 8; 
 V, 31; vi. 13; viii. 10; x. 20, 21; xxii. 21, 22; xxiii. 1, 2, 9, 11 
 — 31; xxxii. 30, 32; Ezek. viii. 12; xxii. 25; Hosea iv. 1; 
 Micah iii. />, &c. Zeph. iii. 1 ; Zech. vii. 11 ; Mai. ii. 8, 11 ; iii. 7. 
 As your fathers did, so do ye. As if he had said, you children 
 have succeeded your fathers in the same wickedness. 
 
 52. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? 
 Excellently Lactantius,> " Prophets were therefore sent by God, 
 both that they might be setters forth of his majesty, and chastisers 
 of men's wickedness. But the precepts of justice are unpleasant 
 
 ' Instit. i. 4. 
 
186 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. VII. 
 
 to the vicious and evil livers. Therefore they, whq were both 
 accused of sin, and forbid to do it, put them to death, after they 
 had most cruelly tormented them. 1 Kings xix. 10, Elias com- 
 plaineth thus, They have slain thy prophets with the sword, and I, 
 even I only am left, to^ wit of all thoge who came to the knowledge 
 of Ahab's court, and they seek my life to take it away. Neh. ix. 26, 
 They slew thy prophets which testified against them, to twun them to 
 thee. See Matt. v. 12 ; xxi. 35 ; xxiii. 31, 33 ; Luke vi. 23 ; xiii. 34 ; 
 Heb, xi. 37. 
 
 And they killed. To wit, your fathers, degenerated from the 
 piety of our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 
 
 Which shewed before of the coming of the Just One. That is, the 
 messengers that" were sent before the face of Christ that was to be 
 born, "who," as Drusius expresseth it, "is here in a peculiar 
 manner called the Just One ; possibly, because he was innocent, 
 when he was put to death. For p'!"?? is a law term, signifying a 
 supposed guilty person that is yet innocent ; to which is opposed 
 yiO'i, vJToSiKa, a person that^is accused as guilty, and is so indeed, 
 as in that place of David, Psa. cix. 7, Ui2"n nS; 1tD5?i|rr3, when he shall 
 be judged, that is, when he shall contend in judgment, let him be con- 
 demned." 
 
 Of whom ye, &c. As if he had said, but ye with a combination 
 of wickedness did most wickedly conspire against Christ himself, 
 the author of righteousness and salvation, nor left ye any means 
 unattempted to bring about his death. See above, ch. iii. 13. 
 
 53. By the disposition of angels. Greek, "at the appointment of 
 angels,'' that is, angels in the name of God ordaining and enjoin- 
 ing the observation of the law. So the law is said to have been 
 ordained by angels, Gal. iii. 19. And, Heb. ii. 2, it is called the 
 word spoken by angels. And although the law was given principally 
 by one angel sustaining the name and person of God, yet because 
 this was done in a stately manner, many troops of angels having 
 attended him as apparitors, the promulgation of the law in Mount 
 Sina is rightly ascribed to angels. 
 
 54. They were cut to the heart. As if he had said, they were 
 enraged with a mad fury, and that unruly and head-strong fury 
 against Stephen broke forth into a gnashing of teeth, as a vehe- 
 ment and violent fire does into a flame. See what we have said 
 above, ch. v. 33. 
 
 55. But he being, &c. As much as to say, but Stephen armed 
 
VEE. LVII.] LITEEALLY EXPLAINED. 187 
 
 with an invincible power of the Spirit, lift up his eyes to heaven, 
 and straight saw a certain resplendency representing the Divine 
 Majesty, and Jesus triumphing in that flesh in which he was 
 abased. 
 
 56. / see the heavens opened. The opening of the heavens is a 
 sign previous to visions, Ezek. i. 1. Some of the Hebrews will 
 have nothing else signified by the opening of the heavens, but 
 that any thing is done, or showed by a heavenly power. But the 
 pagans thought that the heaven was also opened by heavenly 
 portents. Livy, lib. xvii. saith, " That the heavens were divided as 
 it were with a great gaping : and that a great light shined out where 
 it was open." And on that of Virgil,' "I see heavens part 
 asunder in the middle," Minellius saith, " That it was divided and 
 opened with a great chasma, or gaping.' Servius :" " Among other 
 prodigies, heaven was said to have parted asunder." 
 
 And the Son of man, &o. A Hebraism, as if he had said, I see 
 that man Christ Jesus, whom, as despised and the lowest of men, 
 you think destroyed by death, enjoy the government of all things 
 in heaven. Christ appears to Stephen not sitting, but standing on 
 the right hand of God, that he may thereby signify that he is ready 
 to afford him help in that conflict of his for his name. Yet in most 
 other places the phrase of sitting on the right hand, or right hands 
 of God is used, as more fltting to signify the glorious state of 
 Christ, to wit, that majesty and power of ruling all things, which 
 he obtained after his ascension into heaven, before which all must 
 stand and be judged. Augustine saith, that Christ is said to sit, as 
 a judge; and to stand, as our advocate with the Father. 
 
 57. Then they cried out with a loud voice, &c. As if he had said. 
 Those of the multitude who were standing by, when they heard 
 this declaration of Christ's glory, breaking out with a horrible 
 noise, as if it had been intolerable blasphemy, they shut their ears, 
 either by putting their fingers therein, or the flap of the ear, I 
 mean, that lowest, and soft part of the ear which the Greeks call 
 AajSoc, fromXa/xj3av£iv, "to take," because the ancients pulled the ear 
 on that part, that they might give any a caution ; hence the poet,^ 
 
 "Then PhoebuB, thus 
 Nipping my ear, advised." 
 
 The Hebrews call this part in a sheep S'la, Amos iii. 12 ; in a man 
 
 Tj^Fi, Exod, xxix. 20, and frequently in Leviticus ; and n;?»N, tail, 
 
 ' jEneid. ix. ver. 20. ' In Augural, lib. " Viig. Eel, vi. ver. 3, 4. 
 
188 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. VII. 
 
 in the writings of the Rabbins. Humanists call the flap of the 
 ear, laria, laiina, or lamna : the ancient glossary, lana, Xo/3oe 
 biTiov. the glossary of St. Benedict, Lannee, Xo)3ot: Phlloxenus's 
 Lexicon, Xofibi- wriov, lamna. Of the flap of the ear the Talmud ' 
 speaketh thus, " Wherefore is the whole ear hard, but the flap soft ? 
 That if any hear an immodest word, he may bow his flap, so as to 
 shut his ear." In the same place, speaking of the pointed figure 
 of the fingers, " Wherefore is there in men's fingers a point like to 
 that of a key ? That if any hear an indecent word, he may put 
 his fingers into his ears." 
 
 And ran upon him with one accord. As if from a judgment of 
 zeal, which, while the commonwealth retained its liberty, they 
 according to the law used against the authors of idolatry, who 
 openly, in the view of many, had given themselves to it. These 
 were presently, without any respite to be stoned, Deut. xiii. 9, 10. 
 " But," saith Grotius, " these men sinned two manner of ways in 
 this particular ; first, against the law, which even while that was a 
 free commonwealth, would not have that popular judgment prac- 
 tised, save only upon the authors of idolatry, which Stephen was 
 not ; and then against the Romans, who had taken away from them 
 all right in matters of life and death. And the boldness of those 
 men whom Josephus calls zealots increasing daily, both incensed 
 the Romans, and was the occasion of the destruction both of their 
 city and temple." See the same Grotius on the now cited place 
 of Deuteronomy, and book 10th of the Right of War and Peace, 
 chap. 20, Num. 5, 9. 
 
 58. And cast him out of the city, and stoned him. That is, and 
 after they had cast him out of the city, they stoned him as a 
 blasphemous person. Rabbi Moses de Kotzi ' doth thus describe 
 the ceremony of stoning by tradition : " The wise men say that a 
 man used to be stoned naked, but not so a woman; that their' 
 clothes used to be pulled off' at four cubits distance from the place 
 where they were stoned, their secret parts being only covered 
 before. The place of stoning was twice the height of a man, to 
 which place he that was to be stoned went up with his hands 
 bound. Then one of the witnesses beating him upon the loins, 
 threw him headlong upon the earth. By which, if he was not 
 killed, the witnesses lifted up a stone that was set there ; it was 
 just so much as two men could carry, which one of the witnesses 
 
 > In Tract, mains, fol. 5, 2. ' Pracept. Jubente, 99. 
 
VBK. LTtll.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 189 
 
 rolled down upon him with violence. And if there was life still 
 left in him, all the people stoned him." Talmud Hieros. fol. 23, 1, 
 Babyl. Sanhed. fol. 42, 2, " The place of stoning was without the 
 council house, according to that of Lev. xxiv. 14, ' Carry out the 
 blasphemous person without the camp.' Tradition. The place of 
 stoning was without the three camps. Glossary. The court was 
 the camp. of divine presence, the mountain of the temple, the 
 camp of the Levites: Jerusalem, the camp of the Israelites." 
 E. Moses Maimonides, in the treatise of the Edifice of the temple, 
 0. 7, n. 7, saith, " There were three sorts of camps in the wilder- 
 ness, that of the Israelites, which was divided into four partitions ; 
 that of the Levites, of which mention is made Num. i. 50, And 
 shall encamp round about the tabernacle ; and that of God, without 
 the gate of the court, in the tabernacle of the covenant." And in 
 reference to these afterwards ; " that space which lay betwixt the 
 gate of Jerusalem and the mountain of the temple, answered to 
 the camp of the Israelites; the space betwixt the gate of the 
 mountain of the temple and the gate of the court, which was the 
 same that was called Nicanor's gate, answered to that of the 
 Levites: and the space that was about the gate of the court, 
 represented the camp of God." My brother Lewis Du Veil, in 
 his most elegant Latin translation of the same Maimonides on the 
 treatise of the manner of going up to the temple, c. 3, num. 2, 
 hath most learnedly noted : " That that is true, we may learn from 
 the apostle, who in the last chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
 ver. 11, 12, 13, speaketh thus: For the bodies of those beasts, whose 
 blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned 
 without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the 
 people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth 
 therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach." 
 
 And the witnesses. To wit, that they might be in readiness to 
 cast the first stone, according as the law enjoined, Deut. xvii. 7, 
 "Although therefore," saith Beza, "all these things were done 
 tumultuously, and that not without violation of the governor of 
 the province's authority, yet they would seem to do nothing but 
 what the law of God enjoined them. Josephus, Antiq. xx. 8, 
 declareth that while Albinus Festus's successor governed Judea, 
 Ananias the high priest with the like boldness caused James, the 
 brother of the Lord, to be stoned; on the account of which wicked- 
 ness the priesthood was taken from him, and conferred on one 
 
190 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. VII. 
 
 Jesus." Excellent is that of Calvin, on the now cited place of 
 Deuteronomy : " Not without reason would God have the guilty 
 die by their hands, by whose testimony they were condemned. 
 Executioners were not made use of among the people of ancient 
 times, that in punishing the wicked there might be a greater sense 
 of religion, modesty, and reverence. But God especially committed 
 this charge to the witnesses, because the tongue of a great many 
 is precipitant, not to say blabbing, so that they would make no 
 scruple to kill one with their words, whom they durst not so much 
 as touch with their finger. It was therefore an excellent expedient 
 for restraining this lightness, not to receive the testimony of any, 
 unless his hand were ready to execute judgment." 
 
 Their clothes. To wit, their upper or outer garments. Greek, 
 TO iiiaria. Lud, de Dieu, on John xiii. 4, saith, " Although to Ifxanov 
 in the singular number signifieth sometimes a cloak, yet to, IfiaTia 
 in 'the plural number, is not, that I know of, used to signify one 
 cloak. Nor is there any fear of their being naked. For seeing 
 in those hot countries they made use of most fine stuff, they put 
 on several garments one upon |another, that the force of the sun- 
 beams might not easily penetrate them, which yet they easily put 
 off, when they had occasion so to do. Next to the body was 
 n:in3, ' the shirt ;' above it O'^Diaa, * the breeches ;' over it xbaDN, 
 'the robe,' a garment that hung down to the ankle; to which was 
 added mja, ' the girdle,' wherewith they girded it, that it might 
 not hinder them in their walking ; above all these was, b-ya or 
 taitana, 'the cloak.' Suppose then that our Lord laid aside his 
 cloak and robe, it is rightly expressed in the plural number, to. 
 Ifiaria, 'his clothes,' and yet he was not naked. But also our 
 Lord is rightly said to have been naked by a phrase usual among 
 the Eastern nations, where he is said to be naked who hath put off 
 his robe, although at the same time he hath both his shirt, or inner 
 coat, and breeches on him. Thus King Saul sang naked before 
 Samuel, 1 Sam. xix. 24. Thus Peter was naked in the boat, 
 John xxi. 7, who therefore is said to have put on kiriv^vrrfv, 
 not certainly his innermost garment or shirt, but, as its name 
 intimates, that which was put on above the other, to wit, his 
 robe, which, as we said, was made fast about them with the girdle; 
 whence it is also said, rov hrtvSvTJtv SiE^uiaaro, 'he girded his 
 upper coat.' " 
 
 Youriff man. Saul, who is here called vsavlac, " a young man," 
 
VER. LIX.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 
 
 191 
 
 was, according to Chrysostom, upwards of thirty years of age 
 when he kept the clothes of the witnesses that were laid down at 
 his feet. And truly, a little after, when he was converted to the 
 faith of Christ, he is called by Ananias, avjjp, « a man," ch. ix. 13. 
 Nor is it likely the high priest would have conferred so much 
 power on a young man, when he was yet under tutors, against the 
 Christians. See the same ch. ix. 2 ; and Paul himself below, ch. 
 xxvi. 4, testifieth that he spent all his youthful years among the 
 Jews before his conversion. Estius on the Epistle of Philemon, 
 saith, " That Saul the persecutor was called a youth, or rather 
 a young man, veavlav, from the age of youth, which reaches 
 to the thirty-fifth year, or as others say, even to the fortieth." 
 Cicero, when he pleaded Sextus Roscius's cause, calls himself a 
 young man, when yet at that time, according to Gellius,' he was 
 twenty-seven years of age. Antonius, bishop of Grass, in France, 
 in the life of Paul, writeth that he was thirty-three years of age 
 when he persecuted the church of Christ. From that time to the 
 eleventh year of the reign of Nero, when Paul in bonds wrote the 
 Epistle to Philemon, by Onesimus his servant, according to bishop 
 Usher's chronology, were thirty years ; and therefore, Paul, then 
 above the age of sixty, does rightly call himself Paul the aged, 
 seeing as we have noted on Joel i. 2, he who was sixty years old, 
 was called an old man by the Hebrews. 
 
 W^iose name was Saul. This Hebrew, born of the Hebrews, 
 descended of the tribe of Benjamin, born at Tarsus in Cilicia 
 (which city, that it was then famous for the study of philosophic 
 and liberal sciences, is confirmed by the authority of Strabo)^ by 
 sect a Pharisee, and the son of a Pharisee, did at this time apply 
 himself to the study of the law in the synagogue of the Cilicians 
 at Jerusalem, and frequented the school of Gamaliel, a doctor of 
 the greatest repute among the Pharisees ; being a strict observer 
 of the law of God, as also of the traditions of their fathers. See 
 below, ch. xxi. 39; xxii. 3; xxiii. 6 — 34; xxvi. 4, 5. 2 Cor. xi. 22. 
 Gal. i. 14, Phil. iii. 5, 6. 
 
 59. And they stoned Stephen, calling. To wit, upon the Lord 
 Jesus, as is plain by the subsequent words. The most learned 
 Curcellseus saith, ^ " There is no small weight in these words of 
 Christ, John xiv. 13, 14 : Whatsoever 'ye shall ask : and. If ye 
 shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. For he could not hear 
 * Lib. XV. cap. 28. ' Lib. xiv. ' Institut. lib. v. cap. 21, num. 21. 
 
192 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. VII. 
 
 the prayers of his servants, and grant what they ask, if he had no 
 power. Hence it appears that that, If ye ash anything in my 
 name, is to be understood of prayers immediately directed to him ; 
 as if he had said. If ye ask anything of me, relying on my power 
 and promise. Otherwise there is no question but we may, yea, it 
 is our bounden duty to direct our prayers to God the Father, in 
 the name of Jesus Christ, as we are taught, John xvi. 23. But 
 of such prayers it is not spoken in this place. Therefore also 
 Stephen made no scruple to call upon Him, even while he was a 
 dying, saying. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Where they ridicu- 
 lously shift, who will have the word Jesu to be of the genitive 
 case ; as if Stephen had not directed his prayers to Jesus himself, 
 but to Grod the Father, who is the Lord of Jesus. For, besides 
 that Jesus Christ in the writings of the New Testament is always 
 denoted by the name of Lord, to distinguish him from God the 
 Father, even the use of the Greek tongue doth not permit that in 
 that phrase, Kupis 'Ijj(70u, the latter word 'Ijjctou should be of the 
 genitive case ; for then it must have had an article prefixed to it, 
 and been expressed tov 'Ijjo-ou, to distinguish the person of Jesus 
 from God the Father ; otherwi'fee there is no person skilful in that 
 language, who can take that phrase otherwise than in the vocative 
 case, as Rev. xxii. 20." 
 
 60. And he kneeled down. As was usual in fervent prayers, 
 especially in datigersi 
 
 Lord, &c. " The blessed Stephen," saith Ambrose,' " by his 
 faith did not seek Christ upon earth, but viewed him standing on 
 the right hand of God : there he found him where he sought him 
 with devotion of mind. But Stephen not only sees Christ in 
 heaven, but toucheth him also by his martyrdom. For he toucheth 
 the Lord while he prayeth for his enemies, and as it were holding 
 him with his faith, he saith. Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. 
 Understand therefore how great glory there is in true devotion. 
 Mary Magdalene, John xx. 17, though standing near our Lord, 
 does not touch him : Stephen, while upon earth, toucheth Christ 
 in heaven ; she seeth not a present Christ among the angels : 
 Stephen among the Jews beholdeth his Lord while absent.'' 
 
 Lay not. Greek, (XTnaigQ. " Verbally rendered," saith Grotius, 
 " it is ' weigh not.' " So Ezra viii. 25 — 32 ; Job xxviii. 15 ; Jer. 
 xxxii. 9, 10; Zech. xi. 12. This verb [(jTavai, "to account, or 
 
 * Ser. £6, De Tempore. 
 
TER. I.j LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 193 
 
 appoint," is instead of the Hebrew ijp"!?', which, 1 Kings xx. 39, is 
 translated rltiv, 'to weigh;' Exod. xxii. 17, airorkiv, 'to render;' 
 Isa. Iv. 2, Ttfiaa^tti, ' to weigh.' Anciently money was heavy brass, 
 which used first to be weighed, and then paid. Thence orafljuoe, 
 in Greek, a weight, in Latin, libripens, impendia, expenscB, pendere, 
 pensiones, and the like. But because in balancing accounts, that 
 which I charge another with, does discharge me as much as if I 
 had weighed it, that is, paid it, hence it is that i&rdtr^ai, signifies 
 ' to charge.' And by reason of the similitude which sins have 
 to money-debts, as he is said to " pay punishments'' who suffers 
 them, so he is said ' to charge,' or ' impute,' who will exact them, 
 'not to impute,' who will not exact them. But in this place, 
 charge not, or /ay not, imports thus much. Do not make so great 
 an account of this sin, as to block up their way to conversion, even 
 as in that saying of Christ, Luke xxiii. 34." 
 
 He fell asleep. That is, he died. 
 
 In the Lord. That is, For the Lord, or for Christ's cause. The 
 Hebrews do so use ^. In the Lord, is not in the Greek text. 
 
 CHAPTER Vni. 
 
 1. Saul, &c. Being about to speak of the persecution of the church 
 of Jerusalem, forthwith he mentioneth Saul, who was the principal 
 cause of that persecution, therewithal declaring upon what account 
 he was induced to persecute the faithful members of Christ who 
 lived at Jerusalem, viz., because he did consent to the death of 
 Stephen, or rather, because he was, as the Greek text hath it, 
 avvevioKwv, " delighted together :" that is, as a zealous Pharisee, 
 together with the stoners of Stephen, he was delighted at his 
 death, of which in the foregoing chapter. So that truly, after he 
 once tasted the blood of the faithful, he thirsted more insatiably 
 after the same, and was the more provoked to lay his hands on 
 them. 
 
 At that time. That is, about that time. 
 
 In the church. That is, against the church. ^ 
 
 All. Who had embraced the faith of Christ, and consisted of 
 Bome thousands. 
 
 o 
 
194 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 Were scattered abroad throughout the countries of Judea and 
 Samaria. That is, through the towns and villages of Samaria, 
 strictly so called. Some of these believers so scattered abroad, 
 not long after went unto Damascus, below chap. ix. 19, 25, 
 among whom was Ananias, a religious man according to the law, 
 and having a testimony of all the Jews that dwelt thereabouts ; 
 below, chap, xxii. 12. Some went unto Rome itself peradventure, 
 and among these Andronicus and Junius, kinsmen of Saul the 
 persecutor, and who before him embraced the faith of Christ, 
 Kom. xvi. 7. Some finally went even unto Phoenice, Cyprus, and 
 Antioch, preaching the word of the Lord unto the Jews only, 
 below, chap. xi. 19, to those, viz., that were scattered abroad in 
 those places among the nations, James i. 1 ; 1 Pet. i. 1 . 
 
 Except the apostles. Who stayed at Jerusalem, that with an 
 invincible constancy they might there profess themselves to be the 
 witnesses and preachers, by the special appointment of God, of 
 those things which they did assuredly know by hearing and seeing 
 of Christ, the Saviour of mankind. 
 
 2. They took care, &c.' As if he should have said. The devout 
 men took care of Stephen's burial together, and did witness both 
 by words and great store of tears, how grievously and bitterly 
 they took his death, who did in no ways deserve it at their hand. 
 Which, notwithstanding, it is not once to be doubted but that they 
 did do it moderately enough, seeing they were well acquainted with 
 the precepts of Christ, which among other things also did forbid 
 immoderate grief. See 1 Thess. iv, 13. 
 
 3. Saul, &c. Luke returneth again to describe the persecution 
 of the faithful of the church of Jerusalem, as if he should have 
 said. In so great outrageousness of the bloody Jews against the 
 church of Christ, Saul did more waste it than the rest : for having 
 received power from the Sanhedrim, not only when the saints 
 were put to death by him did he give his voice against them, but 
 also he, entering into every house, and hailing thence both men 
 and wom«n, did bind them and commit them into prison, and did 
 beat them often through all synagogues, and so for fear he forced 
 some to blaspheme by denying Christ ; he persecuted others, con- 
 stant in the faith, to death. So cruel and furious is the vehemency 
 of the zeal which is not according to knowledge. See below, 
 
 * [Geneva version : Then certeyne men fearing God carted Steuen amongs them to be 
 buried. Rheims: And deuout men tooke order for Sieuens funeral.} 
 
VER. IX. J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 195 
 
 ch. ix. 13, 21, xxii. 4, 5, 19, xxvi. 9, 10, 11; Gal. i. 13, 23; 
 Phil. iii. 6 ; 1 Tim. i. 13, 
 
 4. Therefore they that were scattered abroad. For the perse- 
 eution raised at Jerusalem. 
 
 Passed over. That is, travelled over divers places. 
 
 Preaching the word of God. That is. Preaching and declaring 
 wherever they came the doctrine of Christ, confirmed hy his and 
 his apostles' miracles. Which manner of preaching of the gospel 
 is granted to any Christian that is well catechized in the Christian 
 doctrine; yea, rather charity, which we owe to others estranged 
 from it, and the love of spreading the glory of God, requireth the 
 self-same from every Christian. 
 
 5. Philip. He, who above, ch. vi. 5, is reckoned the second in 
 the register of deacons, and below, ch. xxi. 8, is called an evan- 
 gelist. 
 
 Going down unto the city of Samaria. That is to say. Coming 
 down into Sebaste, which commonly was called Samaria, or, if we 
 credit famous Lightfoot's conjectures, into Sychem, which at that 
 time was the metropolitan, or mother city of all Samaria. See 
 what we have spoken of Samaria above, ch. i. 6. 
 
 Did preach Christ unto them. That is, did bring tidings of the 
 comfortable gospel of Christ to the inhabitants of that city. 
 
 6. And the people gave heed, &c. As if he should have said, A 
 great multitude of men and women, with one accord did consent 
 unto the doctrine preached by Philip, having heard the miracles 
 which elsewhere he had wrought ; and having seen those which he 
 did work, while they did see him. 
 
 7. Many, &c. As if he should have said, Because many 
 possessed with evil spirits were released from their tyranny, the 
 devils themselves showing that they were thrust out of the 
 possessed against their will, and very many others that had p^alsies, 
 or lame hands or feet, were healed. 
 
 8. And there was great joy in that city. Both for the benefit of 
 the cures, and for the grace of the gospel. 
 
 9. But there was a certain man called Simon. By surname 
 Gltheus, from Gitta, a village of Samaria, where he was born. 
 
 Which before time. That is, before Philip the deacon had como 
 down from Jerusalem to Samaria, 
 
 Was in the city. Of which the former verse makes mention, 
 A sm-cerer. That is, working such effects by diabolical art, 
 
 o 2 
 
196 THE ACTS OK THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 which he could not work, neither by a divine, nor natural 
 power. 
 
 Seducing the nation of Samaria. As if he should have said, And 
 by this means it came to pass that he enchanted and bewitched 
 the nation of the Samaritans. ' 
 
 Giving out that himself was some great one. That is, loftily 
 boasting. The scholiast of Horace upon the first epistle of the 
 second book: "Like a conjurer, let him promise to do great 
 things." 
 
 10. To whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest. 
 That is. All for the most part believed his enchantments, not only 
 the Samaritans of the baser and poorer sort, but also of the more 
 worthy and higher sort. There is no respect here had, by the 
 words of the least and greatest, to age, but unto the state or con- 
 dition, as Deut. i. 17 ; Ps. cxv. 13. 
 
 .Saying, &c. As if he should say, That they were so fuUy 
 persuaded that Simon himself was that power of God, which every 
 nation worships as the highest. " Simon did say," salys Irenseus, 
 in his first book, ch. xx., " That he was the highest power, that is, 
 he who is Father above all things." 
 
 11. And to him they had regard. As if he should say, Simon 
 had so great authority among the Samaritans. 
 
 By his sorceries. That is, by his magic bewitchings. 
 
 Had bewitched. That is, had driven them unto madness. Satan 
 can work so much by his instruments upon the minds of men, 
 when God permits him. 
 
 12. But when they believed. To wit, the Samaritans, being 
 delivered from their madness. 
 
 Preaching the things, &c. That is, to him preaching that most 
 blessed heavenly state, which by the grace of God, through the 
 merits of Jesus Christ, they were about to obtain, who did most 
 steadfastly believe the promises of the same Christ, and did most, 
 constantly obey his precepts. Luke above, ver. 5, did more briefly 
 express the sum of the gospel by the preaching of Christ ; here 
 more fully, by the preaching of the kingdom of God, and of the name 
 of Jesus Christ; but the sense in both places is the same; for 
 Christ brings us back, reconciles, restores us into favour with 
 God : afterwards regenerates us by his Spirit ; that Satan being 
 overthrown, God may reign in us, and that we, being renewed 
 unto spiritual righteousness, and dead unto the world, may live a 
 
VER. XIV. J LITEKALLY EXPLAINED. 197 
 
 heavenly life in the earth, and at length may obtain eternal 
 blessedness in the heavens. 
 
 They were baptized. That is, they were dipped in the water, 
 according to Christ's command, Mark xvi. 16. 
 
 Both men and women. Who, viz., did profess themselves to 
 have embraced the Christian religion ; but not infants, who seeing 
 they do not at all understand the gospel preached, they cannot 
 consent unto it, that is, they cannot believe. See what we have 
 said above, oh, ii, 38, 41, and what we shall say below, ver. 37, 38. 
 
 13. Then Simon. That man in times past so perverse, and 
 notoriously wicked. 
 
 Himself believed also. The doctrine of the gospel preached by 
 Philip, to wit, with a temporary faith, if those things be true 
 which the fathers have written concerning the same Simon. See 
 Mark iv. 17 ; Luke viii. 13. 
 
 And when he was baptized. That is, and when he had professed 
 his faith publicly, by being dipped in the water, according to 
 Christ's commandment. 
 
 He joined himself to Philip. That is, he departed not from 
 Philip's side, and gave heed both continually and daily to his 
 preaching. 
 
 Beholding the signs and miracles which were done. That is. The 
 miracles which were wrought by Philip through the power of 
 God, for the confirmation of the doctrine preached by him. 
 
 Being amazed, wondered. Such truly is the force of the Spirit 
 of God, that it can move the hearts of the most wicked men, and 
 draw them into amazement. 
 
 14. When. As if he should have said, But the apostles, who, 
 as is said above, ver. 1, tarried at Jerusalem when the rest of the 
 faithful were scattered abroad from thence, being informed of the 
 conversion of the Samaritans unto the faith of Christ, sent Peter 
 and John out of their company unto Samaria, by consent of them 
 all, to the end that they might lay their hands on the Samaritans, 
 and so might give them the singular gifts of the Holy Spirit, as 
 appears by that which follows. By the way, hence we may see 
 that Peter was not a monarch of the apostolical college and of 
 the whole church, for the ambassador uses not to be greater and 
 higher than he that sends him. I do reckon the pope will not 
 suffer himself to be sent in embassy anywhere by his cardinals and 
 fellow bishops. 
 
198 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 15. Who. Peter, to wit, and John. 
 
 When they were come. Yiz., unto the city of Samaria, in which 
 Philip the deacon had preached the gospel of Christ. 
 
 Prayed for them. The Samaritans. Hence we may see that 
 the power of bestowing the gifts of the Holy Spirit is not in the 
 power of the apostles, but in the power of God and Christ ; for 
 otherwise there was no need of Peter and John's prayers. 
 
 That they might receive the Holy Ghost. That is, those excellent 
 gifts of the Holy Spirit, with which everywhere they who be- 
 lieved in Christ, and not only they who were to preach the gospel 
 and govern the church, were then wonderfully gifted ; that having 
 obtained the gift of prophesying, and speaking with divers tongues, 
 they might confirm the doctrine of Christ, which then was new. 
 See above, ch. ii. 38, and below, x. 44 — 46, xix. 6 ; 1 Cor. 
 xii. 8—10. 
 
 16. For as yet he was not come upon any of them. As if he 
 should say, None of these Samaritans as yet was gifted with those 
 excellent gifts, in which God did present, or show, as it were, 
 the visible presence of his Spirit for a time to his church, that he 
 might confirm the authority of his gospel for ever, and that he 
 might witness that his Spirit is to be alway the chief ruler, and 
 director of believers. 
 
 Were baptized, &c. As if he shotild say, Although they had 
 now believed in Christ, and had professed publicly their faith, by 
 being baptized with water, according to the commandment of 
 Christ. And hence we may see that those extraordinary gifts of 
 the Holy Spirit, are neither tied to the sincerity of faith, nor to 
 baptism of water lawfully received, so far are they from being 
 conferred by any virtue of faith or baptism of water. 
 
 17. TTien laid they their hands. Many nations had a custom, 
 but chiefly the Jews, to point out the most excellent things, not 
 only with Avords, but also with visible signs ; hence ariseth laying 
 on of hands, when by prayers the divine power was invocated for 
 another. See Gen. xlviii. 14, 15; Matt. ix. 18, xix. 13, 14; 
 Mark x. 16 ; but God was wont to give this honour to his prophets, 
 as to bestow his gifts upon others, at the prayers of the prophets, 
 of which prayers imposition of hands was a symbol. So Moses 
 was commanded to lay his hands on Joshua, that he by that means 
 might receive the larger gifts of the Spirit at the prayers of 
 Moses, Numb, xxvii. 18, 20. Naaman, the Syrian prince, con- 
 
VtiR. XX.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 199 
 
 joineth calling on God's name with laying on of hands, 2 Kings 
 V. 11. Even so, God, being called upon by his apostles, did 
 bestow those singular gifts at the laying on of their hands, with 
 which he gifted the most part of the faithful, at the beginning of 
 the preaching of the gospel, that they might be a most sure sign 
 of the faith of those that were converted to Christ, and an un- 
 doubted token of the verity of the doctrine of Christ. " Let us 
 remember," excellently says Calvin, " that the laying on of hands 
 was the instrument of God, at which time he did give the visible 
 graces of his Spirit to his own. But since the church hath been 
 deprived of such riches, to wit, the visible graces of his Spirit, 
 laying on of hands would be but an unprofitable image." 
 
 And they received the Holy Ghost. As if he should have said, God 
 did give unto the Samaritans converted unto Christ, and dipped 
 into the water, according to his precept, at the prayers of the 
 apostles, and their laying on of hands, the graces of his Spirit, 
 wherewith they, being gifted, could prophesy, and do wonders, 
 such as are mentioned, 1 Cor. xii. 
 
 18. And when he had seen, &c. That is, when Simon Magus 
 perceived that those on whom the apostles laid their hands, did as 
 surely receive the gifts of the Spirit, as if those gifts had been 
 in the apostles' power, he will buy this power of giving those 
 peculiar graces unto them on whom he should lay his hands. And 
 indeed, because Simon did reckon the heavenly gift such a vile 
 thing, that he first under the gospel did attempt to purchase it 
 with money, the giving and receiving of an earthly price for an 
 holy and spiritual thing is called simony, q. 1, c. 1, Presbyter ; 
 and q. 1, c. 3, Altare. The canonists, notwithstanding, out of the 
 opinion of the schoolmen, called the buyers of holy things, simo- 
 niacal persons, the sellers Giezites, from Giezi, Heb. Gehazi, the 
 servant of Elisha the prophet, 2 Kings v. 20, &c. 
 
 19. Give me, &c. He will not buy the gifts of the Holy Spirit, 
 that were commonly given to believers, but that gift wherewith 
 the apostles alone being endued, to wit, that at their prayers those 
 gifts were bestowed on whomsoever they laid their hands, as if that 
 could be prized that is dearer than all gold. 
 
 20. Thy money, &c. As if he should say. Thy money offered 
 to such a wicked [use, being as it were altogether infected and 
 polluted with the contagion of the wickedness of thy profane mind, 
 abide with thee, and perish with thee in the same destruction. 
 
200 THE ACTS OF THD HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 which unless thou repent, shall surely befall thee ; seeing that thou 
 dost so contemptuously undervalue the Spirit of 'God, that thou 
 wouldest set to wicked sale his inestimable gift, given freely unto 
 us to illustrate the glory of Christ by our ministry. Bede, and 
 the common gloss have observed, that the words of Peter are not 
 so much a curse as a threatening, or threatening prediction ; but 
 that it is conditionally to be understood in respect of the person 
 of Simon, is made manifest below, ver. 22. 
 
 21, Thou hast, &c. As if he should say, For neither as thou art 
 now disposed, canst thou be either partaker or sharer of that eternal 
 life which we do preach. Peter gives an account why he thundered 
 forth a detestable prediction against Simon Magus so confidently, 
 even now in the foregoing verse. 
 
 In this preaching. To wit, preached by us, of obtaining eternal 
 life, by a sincere and lively faith in Christ. This preaching is 
 everywhere called the gospel and the word of God. See above, 
 ver. 4, 14. , 
 
 For thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Many who are 
 not of a right heart in the sight of God, oftentimes excel in gifts 
 of the Spirit, for neither did the perverseness, and hypocrisy of 
 Judas the traitor hinder, him to excel in the gifts of the Spirit : 
 neither had the gifts of the Spirit been so corrupted, 1 Cor. xiv. if 
 their hearts had been sincere and estranged from all wickedness. 
 Peter, therefore, doth not give the cause why Simon could not 
 partake of the gifts of the Spirit, as those do suppose, who do 
 think by the name of preaching, to be signified, by a Hebraism, 
 the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but why he could not obtain eternal 
 life, promised in the gospel and preached by the apostles ; because 
 truly God is the searcher of hearts, who doth not save any, except 
 the upright in heart; he seeth his heart to b,e wicked and perverse, 
 and by crooked windings or backgoings, to have turned from the 
 sincerity of the gospel. 
 
 22. Repent therefore, &c. As if he should have said. If there- 
 fore thou wilt be acquitted of that punishment which doth abide 
 for thee, repent forthwith of thy wickedness; and, having cast off 
 all perverseness and hypocrisy, do thou uprightly and sincerely 
 direct all thy actions up to the rule of the doctrine of the gospel 
 preached by us, and come to God, to entreat him that he would 
 mercifully pardon that guileful device of thy heart, to abuse 
 wickedly the gifts of his Spirit into profane gain. The particle, ' 
 
VER. XXIV. J UTEllALLY EXPLAINED. 201 
 
 if perhaps, in this place does not signify any doubt, but how much 
 difficulty and labour Simon is to have in entreating against the 
 punishment of his wicked deed. "Therefore," says Calvin, "Peter 
 does not strike a fear upon Simon that might subvert or overthrow 
 this confidence of obtaining in his heart, or trouble him; but 
 causing unto him an undoubted hope, if he should beg it humbly, 
 and from his heart, only for the cause of stirring up of ferventness, 
 ^putteth him in remembrance that pardon for the heinousness of 
 his offence was difficult. It is necessary that our faith shine 
 before us in going to God : even that it may be the mother of 
 praying." 
 
 23. In the gall of bitterness, &C. Gr. tie jag xokriv iriKgiag. 
 The interpreters take tic, in, with the accusative case for iv, in, with 
 the ablative, which elsewhere I confess is necessary, whether it 
 may be so here, I doubt ; for tt? may contain a Hebraism, as it is, 
 Isa. i. 31, and the strong shall be ■np'i>,for tow, that is, as tow, and 
 his work for a spark, that is, as a spark. 2 Cor. vi. 18, / shall be 
 unto you tig ■jraTipa,for a father, that is, as a father, and ye shall be 
 unto me, tig v'lovg koI ^vjaTipaq, for sons and daughters, that is, sons 
 and daughters. So in this place, Peter saith more emphatically, 
 that Simon is the pure gall of bitterness, and a mere bond of 
 iniquity, than to be in the gall of bitterness, and bond or band of 
 iniquity. As if he should say, I see thee wholly, how great 
 soever thou art, to abound with sins, and to be entangled almost 
 with inextricable vices. In the words of Peter there are two very 
 elegant metaphors, whereof the first seems to be taken out of 
 Deut. xxix. 18; xxxii. 32; the other to be taken out of Isa. Iviii. 
 6, See the like phrases, 2 Tim. ii. 26 ; Heb. xii. 15. 
 
 24. Pray ye to the Lord for me. Simon did feel that he was 
 such within as Peter did say. Therefore when he did judge Peter, 
 and his fellow John, to be signally honoured with grace and love 
 by our Lord Jesus, and to be dear unto God, he will use their 
 prayer as they did use Job's prayer, who did injure him. 
 
 That none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me. 
 To wit, above, ver. 20 ; but although one only, Peter, is said to 
 have spoken, John, notwithstanding, did approve of his words, or 
 spoke like to them. " Now," says Calvin, " a question doth arise, 
 what is to be thought of Simon ? The scripture leads us no further 
 than unto a conjecture, that he yielded unto the rebuke, and being 
 touched with the sense of his sin, fearing the judgment of God, 
 
202 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. VIII. 
 
 afterward betakes himself unto the mercy of God, and com- 
 mendeth himself to the prayers of the church. These being cer- 
 tainly not the least signs of penitence, therefore we may conjecture 
 he did repent ; and that, notwithstanding the ancients with one 
 consent do write that he was a grievous adversary to Peter after- 
 ward, and that he did dispute with him three days at Rome. 
 There is a written disputation that goes under the name of 
 Clement, but which contains such unpleasant dotings, that it is a 
 wonder Christian ears can bear it. Afterwards Augustine showeth 
 unto Januarius, that there were divers and fabulous reports spread 
 about that matter in his time at Rome : wherefore there is nothing 
 safer than having renounced uncertain opinions, simply to embrace 
 what is written in the scripture. What elsewhere we have read 
 written concerning Simon, may deservedly be suspected for many 
 causes." Epiphanius counteth it among the heresies of Simon, 
 that he said the Old Testament was from an evil god ; when, 
 notwithstanding, a great many other fathers do write of him, that 
 he did say that he himself was the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
 Spirit, and in the person of the Father he did give the law to the 
 Jews upon Mount Sinai, and that he did appear in the person of 
 the Son in the time of Tiberius, and did suffer an imaginary death, 
 and that afterwards he did descend in fiery tongues in the person of 
 the Holy Spirit upon the apostles; and that Christ neither did come, 
 nor did suffer any thing by the Jews. Again, others do write 
 that he did teach that he himself was God, and descended in 
 Samaria as the Father, and did appear to the Jews as the Son, in 
 the rest of the nations he did descend as the Holy Ghost. Ignatius 
 unto the Trallians, calls Simon Magus, " The first begotten son of 
 the serpent, that was the prince of wickedness." Justin Martyr 
 telleth us ^ that at Rome, in the island of ^sculapius in the river 
 of Tiber, betwixt the two bridges, that the same Simon was 
 rewarded with a statue and altar, having this inscription in Latin 
 letters, "To Simon, the holy God." Photius says, in his Epist. 
 xxxviii., that Simon did carry an image of Christ about him. 
 Epiphanius, Haer. 21, telleth us, that he brought in the worship 
 of images. We may see in Bede, in the fifth book of his His- 
 tory of England, chap, xxviii., thaf^a certain kind of shaving 
 was invented by him. From him, says Augustine,' did come the 
 
 ' Apol. 2, ad Antoninum. ' Hjer. 39. 
 
VER. XXV.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 203 
 
 Angelics, so called, because they did worship angels religiously, 
 whom the apostle rebukes, Col. ii. 18. The which heresy, Theo- 
 doret writes, that it did arise in the apostles' time, on the cited 
 place of the blessed Paul : and that the thirtieth canon of the 
 council of Laodicea, is to be understood concerning the same 
 heretics, who in the same country of Asia did build oratories to 
 St. Michael the archangel. From him did also proceed the CoUy- 
 ridians, who did worship Christ's mother with divine honour ; wit- 
 ness Epiphanius. Simon did say that how many soever believed in 
 him, do not fear the threats of the law, but act whatsoever they act 
 as freemen : for they were not to obtain salvation by good works, 
 but by grace. Theodoret declareth that of him in his Abridgment of 
 Heresies. It is manifest, out of Origen's book against Celsus, that 
 the disciples of Simon did deny Jesus to be the Son of God; and 
 the same Origen, in his sixth book against Celsus, testifies unto us 
 that he did shun martyrdom, and without difference worship idols. 
 The same Simon is reported to have had for a companion of his 
 crimes one Selene, that is, the moon, or as others call her Helen, 
 a harlot of Tyre, whom after he had taken out of the custom-house, 
 that he might commend her to all, as Numa Pompilius his Egeria, 
 he did call her goddess, the Holy Spirit, and divine good pleasure, 
 and did affirm that of her he did beget angels, and that the Trojan 
 war in time past was undertaken for her, who is that lost sheep 
 whom he came down from heaven for to seek, having disguised 
 his form of god, that the angels that are over every one of the 
 heavens might not know him. Let the belief of all these, and 
 other things, which are reported of Simon, lie upon the authors' 
 credit. 
 
 25. And they indeed. To wit, Peter and John, who were lately 
 sent thither from Jerusalem. 
 
 Testified, and preached the word of God. As if he should say. 
 After they had faithfully uttered what things they had learned from 
 our Lord Christ, that the sure authority of the gospel doctrine, 
 preached by Philip the deacon, might continue, and flourish, as a 
 well-witnessed and authentical verity. Hence it is manifest there- 
 fore, that not only Peter and John came down to Samaria, from 
 Jerusalem, that they might enrich the Samaritans with the gifts of 
 the Holy Spirit, but also that they might establish them in the 
 faith they had even now received, by approving of the doctrine of 
 Philip. 
 
204 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 And preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans. As 
 if he should say, they preached the gospel in many of the towns of 
 the Samaritans, through which they went. 
 
 26. And the angel, &c. Our Lord Jesus in his unparalleled 
 clemency and mercy useth one of the heavenly messengers, who 
 now are subject unto him since he is gone into heaven, 1 Pet. iii. 
 22, to communicate that knowledge that bringeth salvation unto 
 men. 
 
 Spake unto Philip. Viz., the deacon, and now an evangelist, 
 who in Samaria first preached the doctrine of Christ, and declared 
 it to be true by miracles. 
 
 Arise, &c. The angel neither speaking any thing rashly, nor 
 concealing any thing craftily, expresseth unto Philip whither he 
 must go to try his obedience, and shows him what Christ would 
 have him to do ; with what profit, and unto what end, he hideth, 
 and keepeth it secret from him. So whosoever, committing their 
 success unto the Lord, shall go wherever he shall command him, 
 he shall find by experience that it shall happily prosper, whatever 
 thing he undertaketh at his command. 
 
 Unto Gaza. Gaza is the pure Hebrew word, n|y. This name 
 signifies " fortified, strong." The Seventy are wont to pronounce the 
 letter ain by g, and sometimes they omit it, whence this city of 
 Phcenicia is called Aza, or Gaza ; in ancient times it did belong to 
 the Philistines, afterwards to the Jews, for Judah took it, Judges 
 i. 18; afterwards in process of time Alexander the Great did van- 
 quish it, in besieging of which, he received a wound upon his 
 shoulders, as Arrian doth write in his second book concerning 
 Alexander's expedition, whose situation he doth thus describe, 
 " Gaza is distant from the sea about twenty furlongs, and there is 
 a sandy and deep ascent unto it ; and the sea that is near the city 
 is slimy ; the city itself is great, and situated on a high hill, and 
 compassed about with a strong wall, it is the utmost inhabited to 
 one that goeth out of Phoenicia unto Egypt, at the entrance of the 
 wilderness." At length Alexander king of the Jews, who also 
 was called Janneus, Aristobolus's brother, did demolish it : witness 
 Josephus.- Samson, or Simson, of old a judge of the Hebrews, 
 did make this city famous by his noble acts, and death. Judges xvi.; 
 from the situation of this, the new Gaza is little distant, as we 
 learn by Justus the Hebrew, and Dominicus Marius Niger in his 
 
 ' Antiq. lib. iii. c. 21. 
 
VEE. XXVII.] LITKEALLY EXPLAINED. 205 
 
 fourth book. It was called Constantia, in the time of Constantlne 
 the Great, from Constantia his sister, as Eusebius informeth us in 
 his Chronicle. From this town were Procopius Gazseus, also 
 Timotheus Gazseus, who, as Suidas writes, flourished under 
 Anastasius the emperor. Nathan, the false prophet, did arise 
 in it about the year of our Lord, 1666, who together with his 
 false Messiah, Sebathai Sebi, did deceive the foolish Jews, not 
 those whom 
 
 " Titan of better clay their inwarda framed." 
 
 Men, and more especially fools, do believe what things they do 
 desire. 
 
 This is desert. A Hebraism, that is, which is desert. Some 
 refer this unto the way, which in respect of the other way, leading 
 to the same place, was not very common, for the wilderness of 
 Maunt Casius lies between them, as Strabo does write in his 
 sixteenth book. Others rather unto the ancient Gaza, which 
 remained desert from Jamneius, or Jannseus's time. Strabo, 
 who flourished about the time of Tiberius, beareth witness that 
 this Gaza was not inhabited about the time Luke wrote these 
 things ; in that, notwithstanding, he was deceived, that he did think 
 it remained desert from the time of Alexander the Great. 
 
 27. And he arose, and went, &c. As if he should say. Being 
 about to obey the voice of the angel, he went presently whither 
 he was commanded. 
 
 And behold a man of Ethiopia. That is, a certain man of Ethiopia, 
 which, as it is thought, is now called the kingdom of the Abyssines. 
 Zaga Zabo, bishop of the Abyssines, in Damianus k Goes ; " We," 
 says he, "did receive baptism almost before all other Christians, 
 from the eunuch of Candace, Queen of Ethiopia, whose name was 
 Indich." Irenaeus in his third book, ch. xxi. Eusebius in his second 
 book, ch. i. Hierome on Isaiah li. testify, that the seeds of the 
 gospel were sown by this eunuch among the Ethiopians, and were 
 afterward adorned, and further spread abroad among them by 
 Matthew the Evangelist. 
 
 An eunuch. This Greek name is derived from evvrj, which 
 signifies a bed, and ex^j I have: which signifies a groom of the 
 chamber. 
 
 Powerful. Greek, Swdarrig- Cicero uses this Greek word in 
 his eleventh Philippic oration, Seneca in his Thyeste. It is 
 
206 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 rendered by Tertullian in his book concerning the resurrection 
 of the flesh, potentator, that is, a man of great authority. 
 
 Under Candace qtieen of the Ethiopians. Pliny, in his sixth book 
 of his Natural History, ch. xxix. saith that Candace was a common 
 name to all the queens of Ethiopia, which had passed unto them 
 for many years since. Ludovicus de Dieu says, " That this queen's 
 proper name was called Lacasa; the catalogue of the Ethiopian 
 kings doth affirm it, which, Marianus Reatinus doth subjoin unto 
 his grammar; although little credit be to be given unto that 
 catalogue, because it is stuffed very full of fables and trifles." 
 
 Who had the charge of all her treasures. The Greek word is 
 thought to be a Persian word, signifying riches, moveable goods, 
 a common treasure, and whatsoever thing we possess. That 
 eunuch then was the keeper of the queen's money, or principal 
 officer of the queen's treasure, which is wont to be called treasurer. 
 The Ethiopian interpreter addeth, that this eunuch was governor 
 of the city of Gaza. 
 
 And had come to Jerusalem for to worship. This eunuch had 
 come to sacrifice to the true God in the place consecrated by 
 the law to his solemn worship, being either a Jew by descent, 
 although born in Ethiopia, or a proselyte ; for Cornelius was the 
 first-fruits of the uncircumcision, below, ch. x. 
 
 28. Was returning, &c. As if he should say. And after the 
 sacrifices were ended at Jerusalem, he was incontinently carried 
 home again into Ethiopia in his own chariot, and was reading in 
 the prophet Isaiah. It is an excellent pattern of godliness, that 
 so great a potentate did, even while he was in his journey, 
 earnestly read the holy scriptures, although ,he was but a layman, 
 as they commonly call it, aq^ a politician. For the reading of the 
 holy scriptures is even commended to those, as Deut. xvii. 18, 19 ; 
 Josh. i. 8. 
 
 29. Said, &c. As if he should say. But the Holy Spirit did 
 speak these words to Philjp within. Go near unto the chariot, and 
 join thyself to its side. 
 
 30. Running thither, &c. As if he should say, Philip having 
 cheerfully obeyed the Holy Spirit, toOk an opportunity to reveal 
 the truth of the gospel unto him from the reading, whereunto he 
 did see the potentate earnestly bent. 
 
 31. And he said. How can I, &c. He speaks not of any testi- 
 mony of scripture, nor of things commanded and forbidden, which 
 
VEE. XXXII.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 207 
 
 are clear of themsel-ves, and that stand in need of no explication ; 
 but concerning mystical prophecy, which, as long as it is not 
 accomplished, or although the accomplishment be come, being 
 unknown to any, is not well enough understood ; but if an inter- 
 pretation be made upon the present accomplishment, by a man 
 filled with the Spirit of God, the prophecy is very easy to be 
 understood, even as this potentate did know, and perceive pre- 
 sently the meaning of a very abstruse, and hard place, once only 
 proposed to him by Philip. " Nobly," says AuguBtin,i " and 
 profitably hath the Holy Spirit so modified the holy scriptures, 
 that by very clear places he might satiate our hunger, by the 
 more dark rub off our contempt or loathings ; there is almost 
 nothing searched out of these obscurities, which may not be found 
 plainly spoken elsewhere," Therefore in explaining the obscurer 
 places of scripture, the more learned are to be consulted, who are 
 much exercised in them ; but they are so to be consulted, that 
 they may make plain and evident to those that consult them, that 
 their exposition fe the genuine and true sense of the scripture, but 
 not impose upon their consulters to yield to their interpretation 
 before they have tried it. For here Philip did inquire of the 
 potentate whether he did sufficiently understand what he did 
 read ; we must therefore know, and understand those things which 
 we are to believe. 
 
 And he desired Philip, &c. Great was the modesty and hur 
 manity of this potentate ; who not only suffered himself patiently 
 to be inquired at by a stranger, and mean born man, as it did 
 appear, but did confess his ignorance frankly and freely, did 
 invite him most lovingly to come Up into his chariot to sit, and 
 confer with him, and to expound unto him the scriptures that he 
 did not understand. 
 
 32. The place. Greek Treptoxi?) from the Greek verb wipii\w, 
 which signifies " I contain," or embrace, that is, a sentence com- 
 prehended, or shut up in a full compass and measure of words, 
 which they commonly call a section or period. 
 
 As a sheep, &c. The meekness and patience of Christ, when he 
 was to die to purge away the sins of men, is described by the 
 similitude of a sheep and a lamb, taking patiently their shearing, 
 and slaughter itself, when the most part of other creatures, while 
 
 ' Doct. Christ, ii. 6. 
 
208 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. VIII. 
 
 they are led unto the slaughter, use to cry out, and wrestle 
 against it. 
 
 , So opened he not his mouth. As if he should say, So he who, 
 John xviii. 6, overthrew a great band of men by one word, when 
 he was taken and led away, was bound, beaten with whips, nailed 
 to the cross, did not threateningly complain, or speak angry words. 
 See 1 Pet. ii. 23. 
 
 33. In his humiliti/ {Greek, "in his humiliation") his judgment 
 was taken away. That is, by a base and detestable wrong, or 
 oppression of him, he was condemned, and delivered up unto death 
 against all law. The Hebrew has, Isa. liii. 8, He was taken from 
 straining and judgment. That is, after he was bound by the 
 wicked sedition of the Jews, and condemned by the sacrilegious 
 voice of Pilate, he was lifted up upon the cross. See John iii. 14, 
 xii. 32, 34, the Seventy seem. to have read in the Hebrew text, 
 "laDffia npb tisj?3, instead of n;?^ asiriKn?'! isi??? , 
 
 JHis generation, &c. As if he should say, Who can express in 
 words the wickedness of that generation wherein he lived, who 
 did proceed to so great a wickedness and ungodliness, that unde- 
 servedly they did condemn him to a cruel death ? " These 
 words, and such like, are frequently among the Jews," says Light- 
 foot.' " In the generation in which the son of David shall come, 
 the synagogue shall be a brothel-house, Galilee shall be destroyed, 
 and Gablan shall be wasted. The wisdom of the scribes shall be 
 corrupted, good and merciful men shall fail, and truth Itself shall 
 cease, and the face of that generation shall be as the face of dogs. 
 K. Levi says : That the son of David shall not come, but in a 
 generation in which there shall be impudent faces, and which, 
 shall deserve destruction. R. Jannay says : When ye shall see 
 generation after generation, railing and blaspheming, then look for 
 the feet, that is, the coming of the King Messiah." Thus far 
 famous Lightfoot. 
 
 For his life shall be taken from the earth. Hebrew, Isa. liii. 8, 
 Because he was cut off from the land of the living. That is. They 
 slew him most undeservedly with an untimely and violent death. 
 See Daniel ix. 26 ; Luke xxiii. 31. These words of the pro- 
 phecy are put in the preterperfect tense, whereas they have the 
 signification of the future. The Jews did understand excellently/ 
 well from these things prophesied here by Isaiah, that the Messiah 
 
 1 Midrae Schir. fol. 1 73. 
 
VER. XXXm.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED, 209 
 
 should suffer pains, straits, reproaches, finally a violent death, and 
 shameful punishment ; but when they did know for a certainty by 
 the predictions of the prophets, that both the highest honours 
 were prepared for him, and the greatest power, and a kingdom 
 also, they do suppose they can marvellously well prevent the 
 discrepancy of the prophecies, in which the two comings of Christ 
 are predicted — ^the one humble artd base, the other noble and 
 honourable — if so be they can devise two Messiahs: the one to 
 come of that ancient Joseph, the son of Jacob by Rachel, which 
 Messiah should be called Nehemias, the son of IJziel; that this 
 should be unhappy, and appointed to miseries and a bloody death, 
 in fighting against the wicked and monstrous Armillus : that the 
 other should spring of the lineage of David, and be the restorer 
 of the kingdom of Israel, and abound in gldry, and gather the 
 dispersed in Israel, by whom the Messiah son of Joseph, is to be 
 raised unto life again, after that God hath discomfited Armillus, 
 and all Armillus's army, with fire and brimstone sent down from 
 heaven. " This doctrine," says Huetius, eminent in every sort of 
 learning, " is delivered in the sixth book of the second part of the 
 Talmud, which is concerning the feast of tabernacles, ch. v. ; and 
 the same. doctrine is found both in Bereschith Habba, and in E. 
 David Kimchi, and Aben Ezra, and E. Makir in his Aromatic 
 Powder, and in a great many later rabbins. In which it is mar- 
 vellous to think how great an error hath deceived them. There 
 is prophesied one Messiah's two comings ; they look for two 
 Messiahs' one coming. Of the which fiction of theirs, if any shall 
 inquire a reason from them, they will either give none or a foolish 
 one. They allege these words of Isa. xxxii. 20, Blessed are ye 
 that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox 
 and the ass. They expound that sowing to be money given to the 
 poor, which who shall give, they say he is worthy of Elias, and 
 both the Messiahs. They think Elias is noted by the word 
 immittentes, " that send forth," because it is written in Mai. iv. 5, 
 BeJiold I will send Elias the prophet. They expound the foot of the 
 ox to be the Messiah that is to come of Joseph, because Moses 
 beino- near to death spake of Joseph, Deut. xxxiii. 17, His beauty 
 is like the firstling of his bullock : but they expound the ass to be 
 the Messiah son of David, whom Zecharias did predict, ch. ix. 9, 
 that he should be poor, and carried on a she- ass. It is tedious to 
 me to rehearse those trifles, which notwithstanding are to be found 
 
 P 
 
210 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. TITI. 
 
 in Bereschith Eabba ; but it is profitable to know the madness of 
 this sect thoroughly. The later rabbins should have been 
 ashamed to grow wise; therefore they follow the authority of 
 their fathers. But even this very self-same testimony out of 
 Bereschith Eabba reproveth their error, where they acknowledge, 
 out of the Prophecy of Zecharias, that the Messiah son of David 
 is to be poor. Therefore Aben Ezra acknowledges himself to be 
 ignorant whether Zecharias doth point at the Messiah there or 
 not: whereas Saadias Gaon will have Zecharias to prophesy there 
 of that Messias, to whom Daniel, ch. vii. 14, promiseth power, 
 riches, and an eternal kingdom. The other place of Moses, in 
 which Joseph is compared unto a firstling bullock, and which they 
 do attribute unto the Messiah son of Joseph, is applied unto the 
 Messiah son of David, in the Midrash Thehillim. The Jews say 
 that Jacob did prophesy these words concerning the Messiah son 
 of David, Gen. xlix. 10 : " Till he come who is to be sent, and 
 he shall be the expectation of the nations." And these words, 
 Ps. Ixxil. 17 : And all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed in 
 him ; all nations shall magnify him. But in the book of the 
 Talmud, entitled Sanhedrim, the same testimonies are referred 
 unto that Messiah, of whom Isaiah spake, ch. liii. 4, Surely he hath 
 borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, R. Solomon Jarchi, in 
 his Expositions upon the Gemara of Sanhedrim, and R. Moses 
 Alschech say, that the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah belongs unto 
 the Messiah son of David, in which are told the griefs, reproaches, 
 death of the Messiah, the which opinion, B,a. Isaac Abrabanel 
 retains in some places. This indeed doth teach that the Messiah 
 son of David, is signified in those words, which are, Isa. xi. 3, 4 : 
 He shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the 
 hearing of his ears, but with righteousness shall he judge the poor. 
 But the same book of Sanhedrim teacheth that the Messiah, whom 
 Isaiah foretelleth there, shall be punished by God. The Messiah 
 that is sprung of Ruth, is the self-same that was the nephew 
 of David ; notwithstanding we read in Ruth Rabbathi, that a 
 kingdom and calamities are portended unto this Messiah in these 
 words, which are in Ruth ii. 14 : Come hither, and eat of the bread, 
 and dip thy morsel into the vinegar. Therefore some rabbins of no 
 small note do agree that there is one only Messiah to come twice." 
 34. Answering. That is. Beginning to speak, or having begun. 
 See our literal explication. Matt. xi. 25. 
 
VER. XXXVl.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 211 
 
 Of himself. These things in some manner in a typical sense 
 may not badly be understood of Isaiah himself, who suffered many 
 evils in Manasses's time. But they are understood of another in 
 a full and perfect sense, to wit, of Christ, that suffered griefs, 
 reproaches, and a bitter death, that he might give us eternal 
 salvation. 
 
 35. And opening, &c. As if he should say. But Philip having 
 begun' a long oration from this place of Isaiah, which was before 
 his hands, he took an occasion to instruct the Eunuch about Jesus, 
 in whom this and other predictions of the prophets are fulfilled in 
 an excellent manner. He told him that that Jesus who was born 
 of the family of David, born of a virgin at Bethlehem, and 
 suffered a bitter death for our offences, was raised from the dead, 
 to sit at the right hand of God the Father, whose only begotten 
 Son he is, and that none is to obtain eternal salvation, but those 
 who, earnestly repenting of their sinful condition, believe in Jesus 
 himself, and obey his precepts. And that those that do profess 
 his faith and repentance, ought to be dipped into the water accord- 
 ing to Christ's appointment, that the remission of sins may be 
 sealed unto them by this holy dipping, which remission -is freely 
 granted to every repenting sinner, when he does believe in Christ. 
 
 36. And as they went on their way. That is, while they went 
 forward in the Eunuch's journey to Gaza from Jerusalem. 
 
 They came unto a certain water. Eusebius, in his book of Hebrew 
 places, which Jerome did translate and augment, saith, "Bethsur is 
 in the tribe of Judah, or Benjamin, and at this day is called Beth- 
 soron, a village to us in the twentieth mile, as we travel from 
 -^lia to Hebron, near which there is a fountain that springeth at 
 the foot of the hill, and is sucked up by the same ground in which 
 it ariseth. And the Acts of the Apostles do tell us that the 
 Eunuch of Candace the queen was baptized in this fountain by 
 Philip. And there is also another village called Bethsur, in the 
 tribe of Judah, distant a thousand paces from Eleutheropolis." 
 
 See, here is water, &c. It doth manifestly appear that the eunuch 
 among other things was taught by Philip, that baptism in water 
 was of necessity to be taken by them, who, repenting of their sinful 
 life, do embrace the faith of Christ, as a holy rite appointed and 
 commanded by Christ himself, that it might be in itself a figure 
 of new life, and a seal of the remission of sins obtained through 
 Christ. 
 
 p 2 
 
212 THli ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 37. If thou believest. That the eunuch is not permitted to be 
 baptized, unless he had professed a sincere faith in Christ, it doth 
 sufficiently enough declare how truly great Basil hath spoken in 
 his book on the Holy Spirit, ch. xii. " Faith and baptism are the 
 two means of salvation, inseparably cleaving together ; for faith is 
 perfected by baptism, but baptism is founded by faith, and by the 
 same names both things are fulfilled. For as we believe in the 
 Father, Son, and Holy Spirit : so also we, are baptized in the name 
 of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and indeed there goeth 
 before a confession leading us "unto salvation: but baptism fol' 
 loweth, sealing our confession and covenant." But the covenant 
 of God is his promise of giving us eternal life, and our answer is 
 our promise of worshipping God according to his will revealed to 
 us. The same church's teacher, in his third book against Euno- 
 mius : " Baptism is the seal of faith ; faith is the confession of the 
 God-head ; it is necessary we should first believe, then be sealed 
 with baptism." According to this rule of scripture, and agreeing 
 with reason itself, the most part of the Greeks in all ages, even 
 unto this day, retain a custom of delaying infant baptism, till they 
 themselves can give a confession of their faith, as Grotius hath 
 noted on Matt. xix. 13. But especially the sixth canon of the 
 synod of Neocsesarea is to be observed, whose words are as follows: 
 " Concerning a woman with child, that she may be baptized when 
 she pleases; for her baptism concerns not her child. For everyone 
 is to give a demonstration of his own choice in a confession." For 
 however the interpreters draw it to another purpose, it does appear 
 that the question was made of women big with child, because it did 
 seem that the child was baptized together with the mother, which, 
 notwithstanding, ought not, nor used not to be baptized, except of 
 its own proper election and profession. And to this purpose are the 
 words of Balsamo : ^ " The unborn babe cannot be baptized, because 
 it is not come to light, neither can it have a choice in making con- 
 fession, which is required in holy baptism." And Zonaras, " The 
 babe will then need baptism, when it can choose." But the synod 
 doth determine that baptism of a woman great with child, doth 
 therefore rightly proceed, because her baptism concerns her alone, 
 who can confess what she believeth, and not the child in her womb. 
 But that synod of NeocEesarea was held before the first Nicene 
 synod; for we read the name of Basil, Bishop of Amasia, subscribed 
 
 ' In Compen. can. tit. 4, 
 
VEE, XXXVII. J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 213 
 
 to the Neocaesarean synod, who suffered martyrdom under Llci- 
 nius, as Eusebius writes in his Chronicle. Gregory Nazianzen, in 
 his fortieth oration, which is upon holy baptism, treating of those 
 who die without baptism, gives us an instance in those to whom 
 baptism was not administered, by reason of infancy. And the self- 
 same Nazianzen, though he was a bishop's son, being a long time 
 bred up under his father's care, was not baptized, till he came to 
 man's age, as he doth teach us in his life. In like manner Basil 
 the Great, that was born of very devout parents, and instructed 
 unto godliness from his childhood, was not baptized until he was a 
 man, if any credit be to be given to his life, that goes about under 
 the name of Amphilochius. John of Antioch, called afterward 
 Chrysostom, was born of Christian parents, as the truer opinion 
 is, tutored by the famous Bishop Meletius, was yet not baptized 
 till he was one and twenty years of age. Hierom also, Ambrose, 
 and Austin, who were born of Christian parents, and consecrated 
 to Christian discipline, even from their childhood, were not 
 baptized before they were thirty years of age. Hence it doth 
 manifestly appear, " That the wisest of our fathers in Christ did 
 not come unto baptism until they were come to a strong and 
 confirmed wit and age;" as Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Down, 
 observeth in the 12th sect, of the Life of Christ, in the sermon on 
 Kepentance, n. 20. TertuUian, in his book of baptism, ch. xviii. 
 gives advice to infants to come unto Christ to be instructed, not 
 to be baptized before they have understood the force of baptism. 
 " Therefore," says he, " for the condition, and disposition, also age 
 of every person, the delaying of baptism is more profitable : yet 
 chiefly about little ones. What need is there of sureties to be 
 brought in danger, who even themselves may break their promises 
 through mortality, and be deceived by the increase of an evil 
 disposition ? Indeed the Lord saith, Do not ye hinder them to come 
 unto me. Let them come, therefore, while they grow to years, 
 let them come while they learn, and while they come let them be 
 taught. Let them become Christians, when they are enabled to 
 know Christ. Why doth innocent age hasten to the remission of 
 sins ? Men will deal more warily in worldly affairs, so that they 
 who are not trusted with an earthly inheritance, are trusted with 
 a heavenly : let them know to ask for salvation, that thou mayest 
 appear to have given it to him that desireth." Ludovicus Vives 
 
214 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. VIII. 
 
 affirms,' "None, except grown to man or woman's estate, were 
 wont to be baptized." The famous Bishop of Meaux, J. B. Bossuet, 
 in his French treatise of the Holy Supper under both kinds, p. 
 127 : "As touching infants, the pretended reformed (so the papists 
 in France do call the protestants who follow Calvin's opinions) say 
 that their baptism is grounded on the authority of the scripture ; 
 but they bring ua no place out of it, expressly affirming it, and 
 what consequences they draw out of the same, they are very far 
 fetched, not to say very doubtful, and too deceitful." One nameless 
 person, a very learned man, answering to the treatise of this learned 
 bishop, saith, p. 92: "As for the custom of baptizing infants, I 
 Confess we nowhere read anything expressly and particularly writ- 
 ten in the gospel, from whence the necessity of psedobaptism can 
 be shown: and that those places of the gospel, by which it uses to 
 be proved, at the most do prove that that custom of baptizing of 
 infants is lawful and permitted, or rather not impermitted or un- 
 lawful. If all the anabaptists rested in that opinion, neither 
 condemned that custom of wickedness and sacrilege, reason would 
 be on their side, neither would they say anything which should 
 not be founded on the common principles of all protestants. The 
 primitive churches did not baptize infants; the learned Grotius 
 hath made plain and proved that, in his notes on the gospel. That 
 doth most plainly appear by the very rite of baptizing used in the 
 Roman church. For baptism is to be asked before the person to 
 be baptized enter into the churchy which the surety does in the 
 infant's name ; a clear and distinct confession of faith is required, 
 which the same surety rehearseth in the infant's name ; a renounc- 
 ing of the world, its pomps, the flesh and the devil, is to be 
 promised, which the surety, or as they call it, the godfather 
 promiseth for the infant ; is not this a clear argument, that of oldi, 
 the persons who were to be baptized; asked for themselves, baptism 
 in their own name, of their own choice, and profess their faith, 
 and were wont to renounce their former life, to consecrate the 
 remainder of their life in this present mortal flesh to Jesus 
 Christ ?" Curcellseus says, in his dissertation of original sin, num. 
 56, " that the custom of baptizing infants, was brought in without 
 the commandment of Christ, and did not begin before the third 
 age after Christ was born ; in the two former ages no sign of it 
 
 ' In Aug. Civ. i. 27. 
 
VEE. XXX VII, J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 215 
 
 doth appear." This custom being brought in, was much more 
 frequent in Africa than in Asia and other parts of the world, and 
 with a certain greater opinion of necessity, unto which they did 
 fall, who did expound of baptism, that of Christ, John iii, 5 : 
 Except a man be bom of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into 
 the kingdom of God, &c., as if it did also include infants ; wjiereas, 
 notwithstanding, our Lord Jesus speaketh unto those only that 
 were come to age, in the person of Nicodemus, and doth declare 
 how greatly they stand in need to be born again of the Spirit and 
 of water: that is, of the Spirit purifying their hearts. Christ, 
 indeed, by this metaphor, alludeth unto the baptism of water that 
 was sometime to be commanded by him, but did think only of the 
 baptism of persons grown to years of understanding, seeing he 
 commanded. Matt, xxviii. 19, that those that were to be baptized, 
 dbould first be instructed in the faith. " For it cannot be that the 
 body receive the sacrament of baptism, except the soul receive the 
 verity of faith beforehand," as Jerome hath observed on that place 
 of Matthew. See what we have noted above, upon ch. ii. 41. 
 
 With all thy heart. That is. With an earnest desire of thy heart, 
 and an unfeigned faith. " The scripture," says Calvin, " oftentimes 
 taketh the whole heart, for the sincere, and unfeigned heart, unto 
 which is opposed a double heart. So there is no need that we 
 should imagine them to believe perfectly, who believe with their 
 whole heart, when there may be a weak and small faith in him, 
 who notwithstanding shall have an upright heart, and free from 
 dissimulation. So it is fit to take that which David glorieth of, 
 that he doth love the Lord with all his heart. Philip truly did 
 first baptize the Samaritans, whom as yet he knew to be far 
 distant from the mark. The faith, therefore, of the whole heart, 
 is that, which having lively roots in the heart, nevertheless endear- 
 voureth to grow daily." 
 
 Thou mayest. Hence we may gather how absurd their opinion 
 is, who think that by baptism, faith is produced in infants new 
 born, and destitute of the use of all reason. For if baptism cannot 
 do it in those that are come to years, it can much less do it in 
 infants. Neither can it be said, except very absurdly, that they 
 do believe in Christ, or in his gospel, when there does not indeed 
 appear even the least shadow of faith in them. They do not 
 know their parents by any token, and know not what dif- 
 ference there is betwixt their right and left hand, how then are 
 
216 THE ACTS OF THE HOT.Y APOSTLES [cHAV. VIII. 
 
 ' they able to understand the least things of the mysteries of the 
 kingdom of heaven, which are the objects of our faith ? They do 
 not consent unto any human thing; can they then assent unto 
 divine things ? They do frame no resolution in their mind as yet, 
 can they then frame that resolution of leading their lives according 
 to the gospel ? Neither is their opinion much sounder, who do not 
 ascribe any act of faith to infants, but yet nevertheless attribute 
 some seeds of faith. For what is that seed ? In the seed lieth 
 the whole strength and substance of the thing that is to arise from 
 thence. Is there any such like thing in infants ? Does this virtue 
 show itself of its own accord in them when they grow ? No, truly, 
 unless they be instructed in the doctrine of the gospel. But they 
 say, Without faith it is impossible to please God, Heb. xi. 6, therefore 
 we must judge either that infants have faith, or that they are 
 damned eternally if they die in their infancy. Famous Curcellseus 
 says,'^ " It is a foolish consequence, as if truly it did not appear, that 
 this, as all the rest of the precepts of the gospel, belongs to those that 
 are grown two years only, and are, capable of instructions, either of 
 virtue or of vice, and that it doth oblige them alone. Truly faith is 
 not more necessary unto salvation, than the observation of the rest of 
 the precepts of the gospel, and to live after the Spirit, not after the 
 flesh. Since then infants can be Baved without these, why not also 
 without faith ?" The holy scriptures do show, 2 Sam. xii. 18, that 
 David's little son, begotten of Bathsheba by adultery, died the 
 seventh day after his birth. David did not mourn for him being 
 dead without circumcision, who mourned for him before he died. 
 Ambrose says in his funeral sermon on the death of Valentinian, 
 " He did weep that he might not be taken from him : but left off 
 to weep after he was taken away, whom he knew to be with Christ. 
 And that ye may know that to be true which I assert, he did weep 
 for Amnon his incestuous son, that was murdered, he mourned 
 for Absalom the parricide, when he was slain : he did npt think it 
 needful to mourn for his innocent son, because he knew that they 
 died for their wickedness, but did believe that this should live for 
 his innocency." This proof of St. Ambrose doth show that that 
 was no special privilege revealed to David concerning that infant; 
 but that David did take that ground of consolation from the com- 
 mon law, which doth comprehend all the infants, at least of 
 believers, dying in their infancy. 
 
 ' Institut. vii. 8. 
 
VER. XXXVIII.] LITERALtY EXPLAINED. 217 
 
 / believe that Jesus Christ is t/ie Son of God. As if he should 
 have said, I unfeignedly believe from my soul and heart that Jesus 
 Christ is the only begotten Son of the eternal God, the Redeemer, 
 and Doctor of the world, promised in the law and prophets, who 
 reconciled the Eternal Father to us by the sacrifice of his death, 
 and swallowed up by the shining of his gospel these sparks which 
 did glister in the Old Testament, that whoever should hear him, 
 and should lead his life up unto the rule delivered by him, should 
 obtain eternal salvation by his intercession and merits. Hence it 
 IS manifest, that to be baptized in the name, or unto the name of 
 Jesus Christ, is no other thing than to be baptized upon profession 
 of faith in Christ, without hypocrisy, and upon promise that he 
 doth embrace the doctrine revealed by him in the scriptures, with 
 an earnest desire of heart, and will reform and correct his manners 
 according to it. 
 
 38. And he commanded the chariot to stand still. That is, And 
 he commanded the chariot driver to stop the chariot. 
 
 And they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch. 
 Both he that was to baptize, and he that was to be baptized went 
 down into the water, because he ought not only to sprinkle him 
 with water, but to dip him into the water, Christ commanding 
 ^airriafiov, dipping, but not pavTKXfiov, sprinkling. The Roman 
 order, published with the writers concerning ecclesiastical ceremo- 
 nies, saith; " The presbyters enter into the fountain within unto the 
 water, and the males are first baptized, and then the females." 
 Luther in his Latin tom. i., printed at Wittenburg, fol. 71, con- 
 cerning the sacrament of baptism : " The name 'baptism' is a Greek 
 word, it may be turned a dipping, when we dip something in water, 
 that it may be wholly covered with water ; and although that 
 custom be now altogether abolished among the most part, for 
 neither do they dip the whole children, but only sprinkle them 
 with a little water, they ought altogether nevertheless to be 
 dipped, and presently to be drawn out again. For the etymology 
 of the word seems to require that. And the Germans also call 
 baptism tauff, from deepness, which they call tieff in their tongue, 
 as if it were meet that those be dipped deeply, who are baptized. 
 And truly if ye consider what baptism doth signify, ye shall see 
 the same thing to be required; for it signifieth this, that the 
 old man and our nativity, that is full of sins, which is wholly of 
 flesh and blood, may be overwhelmed by the divine grace : there- 
 
218 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. VIH. 
 
 fore the manner of baptism ought to answer to the signification of 
 baptism, that it may show a sure and plain sign of it." The 
 same, torn. ii. in Latin, concerning Babylon's Captivity, fol. 79. 
 " The other thing," saith he, " which belongs to baptism, is the 
 sign or the sacrament, which is the dipping itself into the water, 
 from whence also it hath its name ; for, to baptize, in Greek, is to 
 dip, and baptism is dipping. For it has been said, that signs are 
 appointed according to the divine promises, which resembled that 
 thing which the words do signify, or as the later writers say, ' the 
 sacrament effectually signifieth.' " And a little afterwards : " That 
 the minister dippeth a child into the water, signifieth death. 
 That he again bringeth him out of it signifieth life. So Paul 
 expounds, E.om. vi." And a few words afterwards : " That there- 
 fore washing from sins is attributed to baptism, it is truly indeed 
 attributed, but the signification is softer and slower than that it 
 can express baptism, which is rather a sign both of death and 
 resurrection. Being moved by this reason, I would have those 
 that are to be baptized, to be altogether dipped into the water, 
 as the word doth sound, and the mystery doth agnify." John 
 Bugenhagius Pomeranus, both a fellow and successor in the 
 ministry of Luther at Wittenburg, whom Thuanus and Zanchius 
 witness to have been a moderate, very godly, and very learned 
 man, doth afiirm about the end of his book, published in the 
 German tongue, in the year 1542. " That he was desired to be 
 a witness of a baptism at Hamburgh, in the year 1529 ; that 
 when he had seen the minister only sprinkle the infant wrapped 
 in swathing clothes, on the top of the head, he was amazed; 
 because he neither heard nor saw any such thing, nor yet read 
 in any history, except in the case of necessity, in bed-rid persons* 
 In a general assembly, therefore, of all the ministers of the word 
 that was convened, he did ask of a certain minister, John Fritz 
 by name, who was sometimes minister of Lubeck, how the sacra- 
 ment of baptism was administered at Lubeck ? who for his piety 
 and candour did answer gravely, that the infants were baptized 
 naked at Lubeck after the same fashion altogether as in Ger- 
 many. But from whence and how that peculiar manner of bap- 
 tizing hath crept into Hamburg, he was ignorant." At length 
 they did agree among themselves that the judgment of Luther, 
 and of the divines of Wittenburg, should be demanded about this 
 point : which thing being done, Luther did write back to Ham- 
 
VER. XXXVIII.] LITEEAI.LY EXPLAINED. , 219 
 
 burg, "that this sprinkling was an abuse which they ought to 
 remove." Thus plunging was restored at Hamburg. 
 
 Common fonts, big and large enough, were in ancient times 
 fitted and accommodated to dipping, in the which fonts, by 
 conduits, or certain inferior passages, the water overflowing upon 
 the baptized, did run away, as is manifest even by this memorable 
 history of Socrates, which we do here bring in.' A certain 
 deceiver, a Jew by nation, counterfeiting himself to be a Christian, 
 was oftentimes baptized, and by this sort of cheat had scraped 
 together much money. When he had deceived many Christian 
 sects by this craft, for he had been baptized both by the Arians 
 and Macedonians, having none more whom he could deceive, at 
 length he came to Paul bishop of the Novatians, and affirming 
 that he had an earnest desire to be baptized, he pirayed the bishop 
 that he would be pleased to baptize him himself. He indeed 
 praised the Jew's will and desire, but did deny that he could give 
 him baptism, before he had been instructed in the principles of 
 faith, and besides all this, had fasted many days. But the Jew, 
 who contrary to his wish or expectation was compelled to fast, did 
 80 much the more urge that he might be baptized. The bishop 
 therefore not willing to offend him with a longer delay, when he 
 pressed, and urged him to it, prepares the things that are necessary 
 to baptism. And when he had brought a white garment to the 
 Jew, and commanded the belly of the font to be filled with water, 
 he brought the Jew thither, as if he were going to baptize him. 
 But a certain secret virtue and power of God made the water 
 suddenly to vanish. But when the bishop, and those who were 
 present, suspecting nothing of what then was done, they did think 
 that the water ran out by some secret passage underneath, where 
 it was wont to be let out, they fill the belly of it again, after they 
 had carefully stopped all the passages. And when the Jew was 
 brought again to the font, the water did again altogether vanish. 
 Then Paul said. Either, O Man, thou deceivest, or hast unknowingly 
 received the sacrament of baptism before. When therefore a great 
 many men flocked together to see this miracle, one that knew the 
 Jew, found him to be the self-same man that was baptized before 
 by bishop Atticus." Hereto belongs also what the Magdeburg 
 Centuriators do relate of Eathold.^ " In the year of the Lord, say 
 they, 718, Eathold, general of the Frisians, was brought unto this 
 1 Hist. Eccl. vii. 17. ' Cent. viii. 6. 
 
220 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. VIIT. 
 
 by the preaching of bishop Wulfran, that he was to be baptized. 
 When he had entered into the font with one foot, drawing back 
 the other foot, he asked where the most part of his ancestors were ? 
 whether in hell, or in paradise ? And hearing that more were in 
 hell, drawing back his foot that was in the water: 'It is better,' says 
 he, ' that I follow the greater part then the fewer.' And being so 
 deceived by the devil, promising that he would give him three 
 days hence matchless gifts, the self-same third day he perished with 
 a sudden and eternal death. Sigebertus. Henry of Erford does 
 relate the same out of the Acts and Monuments of Wulfran, chap, 
 xxvi. Burgomensis says that it was in the year 729." Hither also 
 pertaineth the history of Constantine, who from hence got the sir- 
 name of Copronymus, because when he was baptized in his infancy, 
 be defiled the waters of the holy font with his excrements, in the 
 year of Christ 720. "We have a like example in the emperor 
 Wenceslaus, the son of Charles the Fourth, who was born at 
 Norinburg the 28th of September, in the year 1361 : for 
 he also is reported to have defiled the water with his dung, when 
 he was baptized. Moreover it is reported that while the water 
 that was to be applied to the baptism of Wenceslaus was warming, 
 the pastor's house by Saint Sebald was set on fire, and burned out. 
 Which things certainly could not happen, if both the Copronymus's, 
 the one in the west, and the other in the east, had been sprinkled, 
 and poured with a little water, being wrapped up in their swaddling 
 bands and clouts. About the end of the eleven hundredth- year 
 after the birth of Christ, Odo, or Otho, bishop of Bamberg, who 
 first preached the gospel to the inhabitants of Pomerania, as 
 Suffridus his assisting presbyter doth witness ; ' " When there were 
 three fonts built, he did so order, that he himself should baptize the 
 male children alone in one of the fonts, and the rest of the priests, 
 the women apart, and the men apart. What manner of fonts these 
 were, and after what fashion all were baptized, is declared there 
 after this manner : ' The good father caused the administration of 
 the sacrament to be done with so much diligence, also with so great 
 neatness and honesty, that nothing indecent, nothing to be ashamed 
 of, nothing ever might be done there, which might not please any 
 of the gentiles. For he commanded very big hogsheads to be 
 digged a little deep into the earth, so that the mouths of the 
 hogsheads did stand above ground unto the heighth of a man's 
 
 ' A pud Aiidrcam S. Michaelis Abbatem in Othonis Actis, lib. ii. cap. IS. 
 
VEK. XXXVIII.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 221 
 
 knee, or less, which being filled with water, it was easy to descend 
 into them. And he caused curtains to be hanged about the hogs- 
 heads upon small pillars set up, and cords put into them, that each 
 hogshead might be enclosed all about with a veil in manner of a 
 circle: but a linen cloth did hang upon a cord put through it, 
 before the priests, and his fellow ministers, who stood on the one 
 hand, to administer the sacrament, that so all things being very 
 modest on every side, there might not be any thing censured as 
 folly or filthiness in the sacrament, lest the honester sort of persons 
 should withdraw themselves from the sacrament of baptism for 
 shame' sake." The author proceeds, and declareth the thing yet 
 more clearly in this manner. " When therefore all did come to be 
 catechized, the bishop speaking unto them all, commonly with a 
 speech that did agree to such, and setting one sex over against 
 another, on the right hand, and on the left, anointed the catechized 
 with oil : afterward biddeth them go from the font. Therefore they 
 coming unto the entrance of the curtain, they one by one only did 
 enter in with their godfathers, and presently the godfathers did 
 receive the garment, with which the person to be baptized was 
 clothed, and the taper, when he went down into the water, and 
 they holding it before their face, until they did restore it again to 
 him, when he came out of the water. But the priest, who did 
 stand at the hogshead, when he had rather heard, than seen, that 
 there was somebody in the water; having removed the vail a 
 little, with thrice dipping of his head, did perfect what belonged 
 to the sacrament of baptism, and when he had anointed him with 
 liquor of chrism on the crown of the head, and a white garment 
 being put on him, and when he had drawn back the veil, he com- 
 manded the person that was baptized, to come out of the water, 
 his godfathers covering, and putting on him the garment which 
 they did hold. Neither did the diligence of Otho in the winter 
 time, neglect to find out what was most convenient for the season, 
 to wit, he celebrated the sacrament of baptism in warm baths and 
 in hot water with the same neatness and observation of modesty, 
 with the hogsheads set into the earth, and curtains applied, frankin- 
 cense, and other odoriferous spices sprinkling all things." This 
 most accurate diligence of Saint Otho proveth, that the prudence 
 of those men was contrary unto all good order, who after a thou- 
 sand and three hundred years after Christ, did change baptism, 
 that is, dipping, appointed by Christ, into rhantism, that is, sprink- 
 
222 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. VIII. 
 
 ling, brought into its place with great boldaess, lest those that were 
 to be baptized ia cold countries and seasons, if they should be 
 plunged according unto Christ's commandment, might fall into 
 diseases, or be chilly with cold ; for the heating of the water might 
 be a sufficient remedy against this evil, or danger, as the above 
 quoted excellent divine, and reformer, John Bugenhagius in his 
 aforementioned German book, doth urge more at large. "An- 
 ciently, (when rhantism was not yet substituted for baptism,)" says 
 the English Chrysostom of this age, " Those who were baptized, 
 put off their garments, which signified the putting off .of the body 
 of sin ; and were immersed, and buried in the water, to represent 
 the death of sin ; and then did rise up again out of the water, to 
 signify their entrance upon a new life ; and to these customs the 
 apostle alludes, Kom. vi. &c." Thus the very reverend John 
 Tillotson, D.D. dean of Canterbury, a man of great liberality 
 toward the poor (which I myself profess with a grateful mind, that 
 I have oftentimes had experience of it,) commended by all good 
 men for the excellency of his wit, the uprightness of his mindj the 
 purity of his manners and doctrine, in a grave and famous sermon 
 on 2 Tim. ii. 19. "Christians," says another doctor in divinity, 
 who excels in every sort of learning, and zeal of true piety, " being 
 plunged into the water in baptism, signifieth their undertaking, 
 and obliging themselves in a spiritual sense to die, and be buried 
 with Jesus Christ (which death and burial consists in an utter 
 renouncing and forsaking of all their sins,) that so, answerably to 
 his resurrection, they may live a holy and godly life." So that 
 reverend minister of the gospel, Edward Fowler, canon of 
 Gloucester, in his admirable book concerning the scope of the Chris- 
 tian religion, doth interpret the force of the words of the apostle, 
 B,om. vi. 4. Deservedly therefore that most learned Anonymus 
 protestant of France, who answereth to that tractate concerning 
 the communion under two kinds of my lord James Benigne 
 Bossuet, the famous bishop of Meaux, saith, pp. 24, 25, "It is 
 most certain that baptism hath not been administered hitherto, 
 otherwise than by sprinkling by the most part of protestants, but 
 truly this sprinkling is an abuse. This custom, which without an 
 accurate examination, they have retained from the Eomish church, 
 in like manner as many other things, makes their baptism very 
 defective. It corrupteth its -institution, and ancient use, and that 
 nearness of similitude, which is needful should be betwixt it and 
 
VEU. XXXVIII.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 223 
 
 faith, repentance, and regeneration. This reflection of M. Bossuet, 
 deserveth to be seriously considered, to wit, that this use of plung- 
 ing hath continued for the space of a whole thousand and three 
 hundred years, that hence we may understand that we did not 
 carefully, as it was meet, examine things which we have retained 
 from the Roman church; and therefore since the most learned 
 bishops of that church do teach us now that the custom established 
 by most grave arguments, and so many ages, was first abolished by 
 her, this self-same thing was very unjustly done by her, and that 
 the consideration of our duty doth require at our hands, that we 
 seek again the primitive custom of the church, and the institution 
 of Christ." The same person there a little afterward : " Though 
 therefore we should yield to M. Bossuet, that we are convinced by 
 the force of his arguments, that the nature and substance of bap- 
 tism consisteth in dipping, what may he hope for from us, but that 
 we profess ourselves obliged to him by no small favour, and thank 
 him that he hath delivered us from error, when we greatly erred 
 in this thing? And as we are resolved indeed, to correct and 
 rectify this error, so we desire earnestly with humble prayer and 
 supplication of him, that he would correct and mend that error 
 of taking away the cup from the laics coming unto the holy 
 supper. Does Monsieur Bossuet think that the protestants will 
 have a greater respect of that custom which they have found not 
 to be lawful, and that by the most weighty, and solid arguments, 
 than of the institution of Jesus Christ, and that to let Borne get 
 an opportunity of boldly and freely breaking the laws of Christ 
 by the pernicious imitation of our example ? Far be that wicked 
 frame of mind from them ; they are straiter bound by the authority 
 of their holy master,- than to despise his voice, when his sound 
 Cometh to their ears : My sheep follow my voice ; and again, I do 
 know my sheep. None, except wolves lurking under a sheep-skin, 
 refuseth, and turneth from it." So far our most learned Anonymus, 
 which is most agreeable to his admonition unto the papists barring 
 the laymen from the holy cup, in the preface of his forecited 
 answer to the treatise of the bishop of Meaux concerning the 
 communion under both kinds. "There is no place therefore for 
 cogging in these things, for those that pretend the specious title 
 of received custom for the day's practice, when Jesus Christ and 
 his gospel is not the custom, but the truth. From the beginning 
 it was so, says the same Jesus unto them, who did object unto him 
 
224 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 the worst and cursed cnstom of their ancestors. When we shall 
 be presented before the judgment of Christ, he will not judge his 
 disciples by custom, but by the lively and effectual word of his 
 gospel. Neither should any be taken with a vain hope of framing 
 an excuse from the authority of the church, because all the 
 authority of the church is from Christ, granted unto her for that 
 intent and purpose, that she might procure a religious obedience to 
 his laws, and heavenly precepts, but not that she might break, 
 repeal, and cancel them." Thus far the Anonymus our country- 
 man, whose sound reasoning hath made the booksellers generally 
 suppose him to be Monsieur de la B,oq-ue, the most famous pastor 
 of the reformed church which is at E.ouen, whom his writings do 
 show to be inferior to none in godliness and learning. Heidegger 
 in his Historico-Theological Anatomy of the council of Trent, p. 
 2, upon the canons of twenty-first session, saith, " There is in the 
 church no more power of changing the rites of the sacraments 
 appointed by Christ, than there is power of changing his word and 
 law. For as this his word contains a sign audible, so those rites 
 do contain a visible sign of his divine will." Let us shut up all 
 therefore with that most holy martyr Cyprian, in his sixty and- 
 third epistle to Csecilius : " Yerily it becometh us to obey and to 
 do what Christ hath done and commanded to be done, when he 
 himself saith in the gospel : If ye do whatsoever I command you, 
 henceforth I will not call you servants, but friends. And that 
 Christ alone ought to be heard, the Father also beareth witness 
 from heaven, saying : This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
 pleased, hear ye him. Wherefore, if Christ alone be to be heard, 
 we ought not to give ear to what another before us did think meet 
 to be done, but what Christ did first do, who is before all: for 
 neither ought we to follow the custom of men, but the truth of 
 God, seeing God speaketh and saith by Isaiah the prophet: 
 Without cause they do worship me, teaching the commands and doc- 
 trines of men. And again our Lord in the gospel repeateth 
 the self-same thing, saying: Ye reject the commandment of God, 
 that ye may establish your own tradition. Julius, the first Roman 
 bishop of this name, in his epistle to the bishops through Egypt, - 
 and Paschal the Second, in his epistle to Pontius, abbot of Cluny, 
 do check those who did give unto the people dipped bread for the 
 perfecting of the communion, seeing that in the first celebration, 
 and institution of the eucharist, Christ did give bread and wine 
 
VEE. XXXIX.] LITEUA-LLY EXPLAINED. 225 
 
 apart unto the apostles, and Paschal doth absolutely command that 
 they should not depart from that custom in any thing, by a human 
 and new institution, the which custom Christ did keep and com- 
 mend. "We may see the words of Julius in Gratian. ' God grant 
 that in like manner all that are called Christians, and either 
 ignorantly, or simply by a human and new institution, have 
 changed baptism (or retained the change of baptism), dipping, that 
 is, appointed by Christ, into rhantism, that is, sprinkling, against 
 the apostolical and evangelical discipline observed by our ancestors, 
 by the space of a thousand and three hundred years in all places, 
 now having seen the light of the verity clearly, may return unto 
 the root and original of our Lord's tradition, neither may there be 
 any other thing done by them henceforth, than what our Lord did 
 first for us, and did command to be done by us in his gospel. See 
 what we have noted above, chap. ii. 28. 
 
 And he iaptized him. To wit, Philip immersed the eunuch into 
 the water, according to Christ's command. 
 
 39. And when they were come up out of the water. As if he should 
 say. But as soon as the eunuch had received of Philip baptism, or 
 the sacred dipping. 
 
 The Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip. Some copies have 
 in this place, " The Holy Spirit came upon the eunuch, but the 
 angel of the Lord caught away Philip." As also Jerome hath 
 cited in his Dialogue of the Orthodox, and Luciferian, and Grotius 
 hath noted after Erasmus, and Beza. If we do follow that, it will 
 be needful to acknowledge that without any laying on of hands, 
 the eunuch did receive that extraordinary gift of the Holy Spirit 
 which Cornelius, with his household, received also before baptism ; 
 below, ch. X. 44, 47. Men did believe of Elias's disappearing of 
 old, that he was caught away by the Holy Spirit, and transported 
 to some other place, 1 Kings xviii. 12; 2 Kings ii. 16. But if this 
 be understood of an angel, the same happened to Philip, as the 
 writer of the last addition unto Daniel, ch. xiv. 35, 38, believed to 
 have happened to Habakkuk the prophet. But Philip was carried 
 by the Spirit, or by an angel of the Lord, not out of the body, but 
 in the body, as Paul speaks, 2 Cor. xii. 2. The eunuch seeing it, 
 that he might be confirmed in the faith in Jesus Christ, by that 
 miracle that was added unto the doctrine. 
 
 And the eunuch saw him no more The Christian religion is said 
 
 * De Conse''. Hist. lib. H. cap. cum omne. 
 
 Q 
 
226 
 
 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. VIII. 
 
 to have been sown in Ethiopia by this eunuch, when he returned 
 thither, which religion is in some measure now retained by the 
 Abyssines, though mingled with errors and Jewish ceremonies. 
 See what I have observed above, upon ver. 27, and what I have 
 spoken concerning Ethiopia, upon Amos ix. 7. 
 
 But he went. Greek, yop, " for." A reason is given why the 
 eunuch did see Philip no more, to wit, because he travelled in the 
 journey he had entered upon unto Ethiopia, rejoicing in the 
 knowledge of the -gospel, which he had attained unto by Philip's 
 means, who was offered to him by a special providence of God ; but 
 now Philip was carried to another place, where there was need of 
 his ministry. 
 
 40. Was found. That is, did appear, and was seen. Esth. viii. 5, 
 Who were found; that is, were present. Exod. xxxv. 23, With 
 whom were found; that is, were, or did appear. Mai. ii. 6, Arid 
 iniquity was not found in his lips ; 1 Pet. ii. 22, Neither was ffuile 
 found in his mouth; that is, it was not. We have the verb find, 
 for to see, Gen. iv. 13, .14, and elsewhere, in many places. "And, 
 therefore," says Grotius, "NSn is translated by iSeTv, to see." Jer. 
 xxiii. 11; Lam. ii. 9; Matt. i. 18, She was found with child, that 
 is, she appeared great with child. 
 
 At Azotus. Greek, iig, with the accusative, for iv, with the 
 ablative, as above, ver. 23. Azotus, Heb. li'niliN, was first subdued 
 by Joshua, Josh. xi. 15, afterward it was one of the cities of the 
 five provinces of the Philistines, famous for the teuiple'of Dagon, 
 whereof . there is mention made, 1 Sam. v. 4, and by the death of, 
 Judas Maccaba3us, who died about it, witness Josephus, Antiq. xii. 
 19, where it is falsely read 'A?a for 'A^torou, as appears from 1 Mac. 
 ix. 15 ; afterward Jonathan, the brother of Judas Macoabaeus, 
 took it, and burnt it with the temple of Dagon, 1 Mac. x. 84; 
 Josephus, Antiq. xiii. 8. Tartan, general to Sargon, king of the 
 Assyrians, took it of old, whom the Hebrews do expound to be 
 Sennacherib, Isa. xx. 1. It wasa very strong, fortified city, for it 
 sustained the siege of Psammetichus, king of Egypt, by the space 
 of twenty-nine years, by whom, at length, it was taken^ as 
 Herodotus writes, book ii., where he calls it a great city of 
 Syria, because under Syria was comprehended Palestina, Judsea, 
 Phoenicia, and Idumsea. It was famous, also, by the Arabian 
 merchandise, whose market town it was, as Mela doth report ; ' 
 
 ' Lil'. i. ca]!. 10. 
 
^^!:R. i.] literally explained. 227 
 
 also Ptolemy, in his fifth book of Geography, ch. 16, aad Pliny, 
 Hist. Nat. V. ch. 14, have made mention of it. The women of this 
 city are called, Neh. xiii. 23, npii^iB'N, Azotides, whom the Jews 
 took for wives, and their sons did speak the language of Ashdod, as 
 is manifest out of the same chapter, ver. 24. Azotus is reported to 
 be distant from Gaza, (concerning which, above, ver. 26,) forty miles. 
 And passing through, &c. As if he should say. Having gone 
 from Azotus to Caesarea of Palestina, he did preach the gospel in 
 all towns through which he went, even unto the end of his under- 
 taken journey. This Csesarea was at first called the Tower 
 of Strato, it was. magnificently repaired by Herod the Great, 
 adorned with porches and temples; it was called by the same 
 Herod, Caesarea, in honour of Augustus Caesar, as Josepbus wit- 
 nesses, Antiq. xv. 13. It was perfected the tenth year after it 
 was begun, as the same Josephus tells us, Antiq. xvi. 9. Eusebius 
 Pamphilius owed his birth to this city, and was afterward bishop 
 of the same. In like manner Acacius, (who lived in the time of 
 the eophister Libanius,) whose life we have in Eunapius Sardinius, 
 and Procopius the rhetorician and historian, secretary of Belisarius 
 captain of Justinian the emperor, and fellow companion of all his 
 wars, of which he wrote the history. There was also another 
 Cajsarea, different from this, toward Paneas, which, in Matt. 
 xvi. 13, and Josephus, Antiq. xx. 8, is called Csesarea Philippi, it 
 is called by Ptolemy, in his fifth book, ch. 15, Caesarea Panias, 
 which King Agrippa the younger, when he did enlarge its terri- 
 tories, he changed its name, and in honour of Nero, called it 
 Neronias, as Josephus doth write in the place even now cited. 
 See our literal explication. Matt. xvi. 13. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 1. But Saul. Like a bloody wolf. See what is spoken above, 
 ch. viii. 13. 
 
 Breathing out threatenings and slaughter against tlie disciples. A 
 Greek phrase. That is. From the bottom of his heart breathing 
 out cruelty against the disciples of Christ.- So Cicero said, " Cati- 
 line, raging with boldness, breathing out wickedness, wickedly con- 
 triving the ruin of his country." 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. IX. 
 
 Went unto the high priest. That is, to the prince of the highest 
 banhedrim, who perhaps, as yet, was the same Annas, of whom 
 above, eh. iv. 6. 
 
 2. And desired of Mm. As also of other senators of that 
 great Sanhedrim, as may be seen below, ver. 14, and ch. xxii. 5 ; 
 xxvi. 12. 
 
 Letters. That is, letters from the senate. 
 
 To Damascus, pi?^^, or, as it is read, 1 Chron. xviii. 5, pippi?? 
 Damascus, or, Darmascus, a most famous city of old, the head and 
 royal seat of Syria, surnamed Damascena, as the most eloquent of 
 the prophets, Isaiah vii. 8, witnesseth. It was situated below 
 Mount Hermon, from whence flowed two rivers, Amana or Abana, 
 and Parpar or Parphar, which Stephanus Byzantius calls Bardinis ; 
 the rest of the Greeks seem to call it Chrysorrhoas. Amana ran 
 through the midst of the city, but Parpar did glide without the 
 city, as Benjamin Tudelensis witnesseth in his Itinerary. There is 
 also mention made of these two rivers, 2 Kings v. 12. See our 
 literal explanation upon Amos i. 5. The builder of Damascus 
 lieth in the grave of antiquity, notwithstanding that Josephus 
 said,^ that Uz, the son of Aram, and grandson of Shem built it. 
 Jerome also, in his questions upon Genesis, where he enumerates 
 the posterity of Shem, speaks as if he were of the same opinion. 
 But a little after, speaking of Eliezer of Damascus, Abraham's 
 servant, he saith there : " They say, that by this man, Damascus 
 was both built and named." The same in the beginning of his 
 seventh book upon Isaiah : " We read first the name of Damascus 
 in Genesis, who before Isaac was born in Abraham's house, and 
 was esteemed his heir,' if Sarah had not had a son by the promise. 
 It is expounded either a kiss of blood, or a drinker of blood, or 
 the blood of hair cloth." " But if," saith the same authol-, upon 
 Ezek. xxvii., " Damascus be interpreted a drinker of blood, and 
 that tradition of the Hebrews be true, that the field in which the 
 parricide Cain slew his brother Abel, was in Damascus, whence 
 the place was marked with this name ; then Paul with just cause 
 went to Damascus after the slaughter of Stephen, the first martyr 
 for Christ, that he might bring the believers in Christ bound to 
 Jerusalem ;" that, to wit, he in the same place might imitate the 
 deeds of Cain towards Abel's followers. Damascus bred a good 
 many famous men, among which, Nicolaus Damaseenus, a Peripa- 
 
 ' Ant. lib. i. cap, 7, toward the end. 
 
VJiR. II.J UTISIULLY EXPLAINED. 229 
 
 tetic philosopher is the chief, who among other things did write a 
 universal history of eighty books according to Suidas, a hundred 
 and twenty-four according to Josephus, a hundred and forty-four 
 according to Athenseus,' of which a few fragments are remaining. 
 He was very familiar with Herod the Great, also very much beloved 
 of Augustus Caesar, so that after him he called either dates nicolai, 
 as it is in Athenseus ; Plutarch, sympodacdn ; Pliny, Isiodore in 
 his Glosses, adhelmus ; or a kind of cake, according to Serenus 
 Sammonicus, Hesychius, Milesius, Photius, and Suidas.- Joannes 
 Damascenus, was of this city, who of a Jew became a Christian, 
 in the year of our Lord 461 ; and another John, surnamed Manzur, 
 whom Suidas extols to the skies, the Greeks being very prodigal 
 in their own praise. " Although indeed," saith Vossius,'' " Dama- 
 scenus was a most learned man, and of great fame, yet in many 
 things he was over credulous. His histories, related in his sermons, 
 show this. Baronius doth truly acknowledge that his writings are 
 of very uncertain credit, and that he abodtnds with many fictions; 
 which opinion of his Casuabon confirms,* where he remarked many 
 gross errors. In others of his writings he does not appear judicious; 
 as, for example's sake, when he tells us of Falconilltes' soul, that 
 she, by the prayers of St. Thecla, the first martyr, was delivered 
 from the punishments of hell, although she died in the heathen's 
 errors and idolatry. Likewise where he saith, that the soul of the 
 Emperor Trajan was exempted from infernal punishments, by the 
 prayers of Gregory the Great. Both which you may read in 
 Damascenus, in his oration of those who died in the faith." This 
 man was a great defender of images against the emperor Leo 
 Isaurus, and his son Constantine, the fifth of that name, surnamed 
 Copronymus ; in a synod of three hundred and thirty-eight bishops, 
 oonvocated by the same Constantine, held at Constantinople, a.d. 
 754, which also was called the seventh oecumenic synod, he with 
 Germanus and George, sometimes patriarchs of Constantinople, 
 was condemned as an idolater and worshipper of wood and images, 
 as appears from the acts of that synod, which are inserted in the 
 sixth acts of the second synod of Nice. Amongst his own he. was 
 called Chrysorrhoas, for his eloquence. He died a.d. 760. The 
 Damacene prunes are also famous, which were wont to be carried 
 
 > Lib. vi. p. 249. 
 
 ' Lib. xiv. Lib. viii. q. 4. Lib. xiii. «ap. 4. Lib. de Virgin, and Coel. Rhodigin, lib. 
 vi. cap. S. 
 ' De Hist. GrEcis, lib. ii. cap. 24. * Exercit. 13, adver. Baron, sect. 38. 
 
230 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. IX. 
 
 from the city Damascus to Rome, together with small figs called 
 cottana, of which Juvenal, Satyr, iii. 85. By the way, we may 
 observe, that this kind of small figs was so called, as Hesychius 
 witnesseth, Korrava, from the Hebrew word, ilap, " little." Hence, 
 Martial saith elegantly :' ". These cottana, which have been sent to 
 thee in a round turned pannier, if they were bigger, they would 
 be figs." This name cottana, among the Cretians, signified also 
 a virgin, as witnesseth the same Hesychius, in the forScited 
 place, which is deduced from the same root, nsjjp, "little," to wit, 
 " girl." If you desire to know more of this most ancient city, you 
 may consult the Itinerary of Benjamin Tudelensis, and Hoffman's 
 Universal Lexicon. 
 
 To the synagogues. How great a multitude of Jews was at 
 Damascus, may be gathered from what Josephus saith :^ that under 
 Nero ten thousand Jews unarmed, being by chance gathered in the 
 public baths, were there oppressed, and slain by the inhabitants of 
 Damascus. It is very probable that many of the Jews converted 
 to Christ, did, to avoid the persecution stirred up at Jerusalem, fly 
 to Damascus ; therefore, Paul not being content to have vexed 
 them at Jerusalem, he willingly undertook the pains to prosecute 
 them thither. For the Governor of Damascus, under Aretas, the 
 king of Arabia the Stony and Damascus, was a great favourer and 
 abettor of the persecutor of Christ's disciples, as appears from 
 2 Cor. xi. 32. 
 
 That if he found any, &c. As much as to say, that a licence 
 and liberty might be given him to bring all such as he found pro- 
 fessors of the Christian religion, without difference of sex, bound 
 as malefactors to Jerusalem. " The Romans," saith Grotius, 
 "allowed the Sanhedrim the privilege of taking, and beating, not 
 only over the Jews of Palestine, but also without Palestine, where 
 there were synagogues that willingly acknowledged the jurisdiction 
 of the Sanhedrim in matters pertaining to religion." 
 
 Of this way. That is, of this sect and institution, as below, ch. 
 xix. 9, 23 ; xxii. 4 ; xxiv. 14. 
 
 3. There shined round about him a light from heaven. Like 
 lightning brighter than the sun, as may be seen below, ch. xxii. 6; 
 xxvi. 13. 
 
 4. And he fell to the earth. Because he was struck, and as it 
 
 ' Lib. xiii. Epigram 28. » De Bell. Jud. lib. ii. cap. 25. 
 
YE.R. V.J LITEKALLY EXPLAINED. 231 
 
 were blasted, with the brightness of that light sent to him from 
 heaven. 
 
 He heard a voice. To wit, descend from heaven with that light. 
 
 Saying. To wit, in a Hebrew dialect, as Paul himself saith 
 below, ch. xxvi. 14. 
 
 Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? Augustine saith elegantly, 
 as his manner is:' " The Head being to ascend into heaven, he 
 commended his members upon earth, and departed. Now you do 
 not find Christ speaking upon earth. You find him speaking but 
 in hesfcven, and from heaven itself. Why? Because his members 
 were trod upon on earth. Therefore he said from above to Saul 
 the persecutor, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? I ascended 
 into heaven, nevertheless I lie upon earth, as yet. I sit here at 
 the right hand of the Father ; there I am hungry, thirsty, and a 
 stranger, as yet." Believers are the mystical body of Christ, and 
 his mystical members; hence whatever is done to them, Christ 
 takes it as done to himself. See Matt. xxv. 40, 45; Luke x. 16. 
 
 5. Who art thou, Lord? As much as to say. Whose voice do I 
 hear? 
 
 And the Lord said. As much as to say, Christ, who was in 
 heaven, and spake from heaven itself, answered. 
 
 I am Jesus, &c. As much as to say, You hear the voice of that 
 Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest, while you pour out 
 your rage and storms of your wrath upon my servants. 
 
 It is hard. That is, it is a very troublesome and vain labour. 
 " If thou beatest the pricks with thy fists, thou hurtest thy hands," 
 says Plautus.^ 
 
 To kick against the pricks. The Greek and Roman writers fre- 
 quently use this proverb against such as attempt a thing that will 
 happen ill to them. For if oxen being thrust and galled with the 
 goad, while they draw the plough or cart, should kick, while they 
 would hurt the goad, they do but hurt themselves, because as the 
 scholiast upon Pindarus, in the end of his second Pythia, saith, 
 " They are more sorely stricken," and beating their heel against the 
 sharp goad, they are pricked again with its point. Therefore, by 
 this proverbial phrase the Lord Jesus declares that Saul's wrestling 
 against him was to his own great hurt, so that if he desisted not 
 from applying himself to ruin the Christians, it would come to pass 
 that he should die a sad death. 
 
 * Tract. 10 in Epist. Joannis. ' In Trucul. act. iv. sc. 2, ver. SS.. 
 
232 THE ACTS OF THE HOIY 4P0STI,ES [CHAP. IX. 
 
 6. And he trembling and astonished, &c. As much as to say. But 
 Saul being terrified with the brightness of the heavenly light, and 
 the voice which came from heaven, puts off his wolf-like fierceness, 
 and puts on a sheep-like disposition, and also freely and willingly 
 gives himself to do the commands of the great Shepherd of souls, 
 whom he lately despised. For the Lord Jesus sends him to the 
 city of Damascus, that he might there be taught of him what he 
 himself would have him do, to whom he should commit that 
 charge from heaven, 
 
 7. And the men which journeyed with him. That is, they who 
 were Paul's companions in his journey to Damascus. 
 
 Stood speechless. That is, being astonished at the strangeness of 
 this admirable thing, they stood unmoved, or, that I may use 
 Virgil's phrase, "they stuck immoveable to the ground." To 
 stand, here denotes not a posture of the body, but a mere staying, 
 and is opposed to going forward, not to lying prostrate, seeing 
 below, ch. xxvi. 14, that Paul's companions fell upon the earth. 
 So Gen. xix. 17: Neither stay thou in all the plain, that is, do not 
 tarry nor delay. Lev. xiii. 37: If the scall be at a stay, that is, 
 spread no farther. 
 
 Hearing a voice. To wit, sent from heaven, which beat upon 
 their ears, although, as it is said below, ch. xxii. 9, they understood 
 not the meaning and signification of the words; either because they 
 were not skilful in the Hebre-.v dialect, wherein Christ spake to 
 Saul, as may be seen below, ch. xxvi. 14, or, because they indeed 
 heard the sound of the voice, but, in the meantime, did not exactly 
 take up the words of that sound. "They heard," saith famous 
 Lightfoot, " Hp, 'a voice,' but they heard not "ia"j, a ' word.'" The 
 like happened, John xii. 29. Therefore "to hear," below, ch. xxii. 9, 
 is put for "to understand," as Gen. xi. 7; xlii. 23; Deut. xxviii. 49; 
 2 Kings xviii. 26; Isaiah xxxvi. 11; Jer. v. 15 ; 1 Cor. xiv. 2, 21. 
 
 But seeing no man. Although they Kfted up their eyes to heaven, 
 whence the voice came, that they might see who spake to Saul. 
 " This," saith Beza, " is the force of the word Sriuiguv in this place. 
 For otherwise it were no wonder that they saw none, who being 
 struck with fear, durst not lift up their eyes." Saul only saw Him 
 who spake to him, as Dan. x. 7. 
 
 8. And Saul arose from the earth. The Greek hath it, "He was 
 raised up," as Daniel was, Dan. viii. 18. 
 
 And when his eyes were opened, he saw no man. That is, his eye- 
 
VEU. X.] LITliEALLY JEXPLAINED. 233 
 
 lids, which were shut, being separated, he saw nothing at all, 
 because his eyes were dazzled with the great brightness of that 
 heavenly light which shone round about him, ver. 3, as appears 
 from the verse immediately following, and ver. 12, 17, 18, and 
 below, ch. xxii. 11. 
 
 But they led him hy the hand. As blind men are usually led. So 
 Saul, who intended to lead the disciples of Christ bound from 
 Damascus to Jerusalem, he himself is led, as it were, bound to 
 Damascus. 
 
 9. And he was three days without sight. It is probable that in 
 these three days wherein he was deprived of his bodily sight, the 
 Lord Jesus did make known to him the doctrine of the gospel by 
 internal visions, that he might truly say, that he did not receive, 
 nor learn the gospel from any mortal man, but by Jesus Christ, 
 who sits at the right hand of the Father, revealing it to him. Gal. 
 i. 12. 
 
 And neither did eat nor drink. As the Jews of old, for three 
 days. Esth. iv. 16. This he did, partly to give an outward 
 testimony of his inward repentance for his former doings, partly 
 to be excited to pray with fervency. For TertuUian saith well:' 
 " We are much more powerful in spirit, and lively in heart for 
 spiritual things while fasting, then when that dwelling-house of 
 the inner man is stuffed with food, and overwhelmed with wine." 
 The Jews were forbidden to drink upon that day wherein they 
 fasted: so that it was accounted a breach of their fast, if they 
 should swallow a drop of wine or water. They allowed one to 
 waoh his mouth, and wipe it, provided he did spit it out again. As 
 may be seen in "Jiiy F?;©, in the Treatise of a Fast. They except 
 from this concession, that fast which they keep upon the day of 
 pardon, which they call Jom Kippur, and upon the ninth day of 
 the fifth month, which they call Ab ; upon these days they think 
 it not lawful to wash the mouth. 
 
 10. And there was a certain disciple. CEcumenius calls this 
 Ananias a deacon, and thinks him to have been one of the seventy 
 disciples who adhered to Jesus Christ, while he was conversant 
 upon earth, next to the apostles. Augustine will have him a 
 presbyter. Dorotheus writes, that afterward he was made bishop 
 of Damascus. 
 
 ' Adv. Psych. 
 
234 THE ACTS OT' THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. IX. 
 
 In a vision. Divinely excited. See what we have said above, 
 ch. ii. 17. 
 
 Behold, I am here, Lord. A Hebraism, that is, I am ready to 
 receive, and do thy commands. 
 
 11. Go into the street which is called Straight. That is, into that 
 street of Damascus, which is called Straight, the Greek,s call it 
 JEuthia, perhaps, because it was plainer, and straighter than any 
 other street of that city. 
 
 Of Tarsus. That is, born in Tarsus, in that most famous city 
 of Cilicia. See below, ch. xxi. 39 ; xxii. 3. 
 
 For behold he prayeth. Luke shows that Saul, during his three 
 days' fast, was continually taken up in praying. 
 
 12. And he hath seen a vision. To wit, Saul, with the eyes of 
 his mind. They are the words of Luke, telling that Saul saw 
 Ananias laying his hands upon him at that very time, wherein the 
 Lord spake to Ananias concerning Saul. " It is a vision," saith 
 Macrobius, " when one seeth that which falls out in the same 
 manner that it appeared to him." Suetonius, in the life of 
 Augustus : " M. Cicero, having pursued C. Ctesar into the capitol, 
 by chance told his former night's dream to his intimates, that a 
 child of a comely countenance being let down from heaven in a 
 golden chain, stood at the door of the capitol, and that Jupiter gave 
 him a scourge ; afterward having on a sudden seen Augustus, 
 whom, as yet being unknown to the most part of them, his uncle 
 Caesar had called to the sacrifice, he affirmed it to be him, whose 
 image appeared to him in his sleep." In the same place a little 
 before, of Q. Catulus : " And the next day having met Augustus, 
 being otherwise unknown to him, beheld him not without admira- 
 tion, and said he was most like the boy of which he dreamed." 
 Thus Ovid says : " As I dreamed to see men by order, such do I 
 perceive and see by order." Apuleius saith,' " I presently per- 
 ceived one of the holy priests, beside the mark of his foot, also in 
 the rest of his habit and carriage agreeing exactly with a night 
 image, whom afterwards I knew to be called Asinus Marcellus." 
 Which places, though taken out of the writings of heathens, do 
 most fitly illustrate this narration. For although Luke mentions 
 only his name, and the laying on of hands, yet it is probable that 
 Saul did see Ananias, as if he did view him with his eyes, to wit, 
 
 ' Asin. Aurei. lib. xr. 
 
VER. XVI.j LITERALLY EXPLAINEP. 235 
 
 his countenance, stature, and all the rest of his complexion : and 
 therefore when he recovered afterwards his sight, he knew them to 
 agree perfectly with his vision. See what we have said above, 
 eh. ii. 17. 
 
 And putting his hands on him, &c. See what is noted above, 
 viii. 17, and below, ver. 17. 
 
 13. How much evil he hath done to thy saints. The Christians 
 are frequently so called, partly, because by the very profession of 
 Christ's doctrine, and of their faith in him, they are selected from 
 the common sort of unbelievers to be God's peculiar people, whom 
 God himself, by the merits and intercession of Christ, appointed to 
 endow with a heavenly inheritance ; partly, because by their pro- 
 fessed holiness of life, they are eminent beyond all other mortals, 
 if they be not only Christians in name, but really such. 
 
 14. And here, &c. As much as to say. And (omitting his other 
 villainies) he now cometh with power to bind all such as have 
 given up their names to thee. 
 
 From the chief priests. That is, from the princes of the San- 
 hedrim. For it is a synecdoche, whereby the whole great San- 
 hedrim is designed by its noblest part. 
 
 That call on thy name. To call on Christ, or the name of Christ, 
 is to give up his name to Christ, and to profess himself his disciple. 
 So below, ver. 12, and 1 Cor. i. 2, To name the name of Christ, is 
 put in the same sense, Eom. xv. 20 ; 2 Tim. ii. 19. 
 
 15. He is a chosen vessel unto me. A Hebraism. That is, a 
 most choice instrument, " a vessel for God's use," saith Rabbi 
 Israel. " Neither," saith Grotius,' " did Polybius, speaking of 
 Damocles, use the word, (jk£voq, a vessel, in another sense ; for this 
 man was a most profitable vessel for service, and most fit for busi- 
 ness." Compare 2 Tim. ii. 20, 21. 
 
 To bear my name. That is, that he might be a publisher of my 
 glory. 
 
 Before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel. As 
 much as to say, that by his preaching, my name may be famous 
 among the nations, yea, and among their kings, as well as among 
 the Jews. This refers to these places, Isa. Ixix. 6 ; Jer. i. 10. 
 
 16. For I will show unto him, &c. As much as to say, I will 
 .foreshow him how many things he must undergo for preaching my 
 name; to wit, popular hatred, the rage of the Gentiles, prisons, 
 
 ' Ad Psal. Ii. 
 
236 THE ACTS OF THK HOLY APOSTLES [OHAP. IX. 
 
 gtripes, hunger, thirst, shipwreck, and a cruel death; and yet he 
 will preach 'my name, and willingly sujBfer what he did to others 
 for my name's sake. 
 
 17. He entered into the house. To wit, into Judas's, where Saul 
 lodged, as above said, ver. 11. 
 
 And putting his hands on him. Putting on of hands is a visible 
 sign of prayer. Whence below, xxviii. 8 ; Jas. v. 14 ; health 
 restored by a miracle is attributed jointly to both. 
 
 The Lord, &c. As much as to say, Christ sent me, who am 
 but a common disciple, not an apostle, to interpret unto you his 
 wiU, that by his grace you may receive the sight which you lost, 
 being dazzled with the brightness, of the heavenly light; which 
 shall be unto you a sign of an inward vision that you shall receive 
 from Christ himself, through the abundant communication of the 
 gifts of the Holy Ghost, without any human help, as soon as you 
 shall recover your bodily sight. 
 
 18. As it had been scales. Which, when Saul's eyes were dazzled 
 with the heavenly light, were congealed, and hardened of the 
 humours which fell from his brain. 
 
 And he arose, and was baptized. After Christ's institution^ by 
 Ananias's advice, as may be seen below, xxii. 16. 
 
 19. And ichen he had received meat, he was strengthened. He did 
 not refresh his body, though spent with three days' fasting, until he 
 had abundantly satisfied his soul, enlivened through faith, by 
 receiving baptism. 
 
 Certain days. For as Paul himself writes. Gal. i. 17, he in a 
 short time went out of Damascus (which then was under the domi- 
 nion of the Arabians) unto Arabia, which is the first nation 
 wherein Paul preached the gospel, being like Moses in this, who 
 had his first station in Arabia, after he had left Egypt. So the 
 prophecy, Isa. Ixii. 16, is mystically fulfilled. 
 
 With the disciples which were at Damascus. That is, he joined 
 himself with Christ's followers ; there were a good many such at 
 Damascus, since the time of that dispersion, of which above, ch. 
 viii. 3. 
 
 20. And straightway, &c. As much as to say, without any delay 
 he taught in the assemblies of the Jews at Damascus, that Jesus 
 of Nazareth is the Messiah or Christ, promised in the law and the 
 prophets, by weighty and solid arguments, which he learned from 
 no man, but from Christ himself. Compare ver. 22; Gal.i. 15, 16. 
 
VEE. XXIT.] LITEUALLY EXPLAINED. 237 
 
 21. That he is the Son of God. He saith presently, ver. 22, 
 That this is very Christ. It seems this surname was commonly- 
 given to the Messiah. For Nathaniel saith, John i. 49, Rabbi, thou 
 art the Son of God, thou art the hing of Israel, to wit, out of the 
 second Psalm, which the ancient Hebrews, in the abstruse sense, 
 interpreted of the Messiah. Therefore, where Peter in Matthew, 
 xvi. 16, calls him Clirist the Son of the living God, Mark and 
 Luke satisfied themselves with the name Christ. And no wonder, 
 seeing, as Origen saith excellently, " What was divine in that man 
 Jesus whom we understand, the very same was the only begotten 
 Son of God." 
 
 Is not this, &c. As much as to say. Is Saul also among the 
 prophets? 1 Sam. x. 11. 
 
 TTiat destroyed all them that called upon this name in Jerusalem. 
 That is, ra.ged with great cruelty against all Christ's disciples at 
 Jerusalem. " The Greek word," saith Grotius, " which is rendered, 
 'destroyed,' signifieth to ' vex.' Paul useth the same word in this 
 history," Gal. i. 13, 23. 
 
 And came hither. To wit, to Damascus. 
 
 22. But Saul increased the more in strength. To wit, in know- 
 ledge and liberty of speaking. Whence in some copies is added, 
 " in speech." 
 
 And confounded the Jews. As much as to say. And being thus 
 strengthened by the Holy Ghost, he confuted, reproved and con- 
 vinced the Jews. 
 
 Proving. Greek, avfifii^d^wv : Supply, avrovg, " them," that is, 
 " teaching them," as the Arabian turns it : " teaching them for 
 certain," as the Ethiopia renders it. It answers to the Hebrew 
 word, y3n, which is rendered " to instruct, to cause to understand," 
 Isa. xl. 14 ; Dan. ix. 22 ; and the word, yiin, that is rendered, " to 
 make known," Exod. xviii. 16; Deut. iv. 9; Isa. Ix. 13; also nlin, 
 "to teach," Exod. iv. 12, 15; Lev. x. 11; Psa. xxxii. 10. '2v/ji(5i- 
 (id^iiv, is properly" to join things by art, that by an indissoluble 
 tie they may stick together. But he who teacheth any other, allures 
 him to himself, and by persuading and convincing him, does, as it 
 were, knit and glue him to himself. Hence, in Hesychius, avfi- 
 BlBiimg is interpreted " persuasion, doctrine, faith ;" avfjj5i(5dTO, 
 " let him teach ; " avfi^i^aaQivTiQ, " those that have been taught." 
 Hither belongeth that of Paul, 1 Cor. ii. 16, Who hath known the 
 mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him ? Greek, avfi^i^d(ju 
 
238 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. IX. 
 
 avTov, that is, as Lud. de Dieu interprets it, " that he may thus 
 convince him by his reasons, as to knit him^ and, as it were, glue 
 him to himself." 
 
 23. And after that many days were fulfilled. By those many 
 days are. to be understood the three years which Paul spent in 
 Arabia, whither, as we observed above, ver. 19, out of Gal. i. 17, 
 he was gone soon after his conversion, although Luke, who was not 
 with him, does not make mention of this journey. " Paul," saith 
 Capellus, Gal. i. 17, "denies that he came to Jerusalem to the 
 apostles, immediately after his conversion, but affirms that he went 
 straight from Damascus to Arabia, and from thence returned to Da- 
 mascus. Lastly, that after three years he came to Jerusalem. These 
 three years must be begun nowhere but at Paul's conversion, that 
 by this Paul might testify that he came not to Jerusalem, until the 
 end of three years after his conversion, to them which were apostles 
 before him. This being granted, it must needs be that Paul spent 
 not those three years in Damascus, but in Arabia. For if a great 
 part of them Avas spent at Damascus, seeing that Damascus was 
 distant from Jerusalem but a very few days' journey^ and that 
 there was great commerce betwixt the Damascenes and the Jews 
 at Jerusalem, how could it be, when Paul came from Damascus to 
 Jerusalem, that all the believers did avoid him, not knowing that 
 he was converted to the faith of Christ ? Hence, then, it seems a 
 strong argument may be drawn, that Paul, immediately after his 
 conversion, went from Damascus to Arabia, and that he spent those 
 three years there, after which time, when he came to Damascus, 
 and immediately had snares laid for him by the Jews, that being 
 let down in the night-time by the wall in a basket, he came to 
 Jerusalem; and that at first the faithful fled from him, because 
 he spent all the time since his conversion in Arabia, among that 
 people who had little or no commerce with those of Jerusalem. So 
 that thus they might be ignorant of his conversion, which could 
 not so easily be, if Paul had spent those three years, or the most 
 part of them, at Damascus." 
 
 The Jews took counsel to kill him. By a judgment of zeal; of 
 which we spake above, ch. vii. 57. 
 
 24. And they watched the gates. The Jews, to wit, of the city, 
 that he might not escape and be gone. See how soon that which 
 Christ foretold above, ver. 16, is fulfilled. 
 
 25. Let him down by the wall. As Kahab of old did the spies : 
 
YliU. XXIX.J LTTEUALLY EXPLAINED. 230 
 
 she let them down by a cord through the window, Josh. ii. 15. 
 So also David was let down through a window, 1 Sam. xix. 12. 
 Clemens Alexandrinus, Strom. 4, 7, saith excellently, " What 
 hazards must be undergone, and what shunned by him, who neither 
 wisheth for nor feareth death, Christ hath left to be judged by 
 God's glory, and the use of men." " Although a Christian fly, he 
 flieth not for fear, but obeying his Master's command, Matt. x. 23, 
 and keeping himself pure for the salvation of others, to whom he 
 may be useful," says Origen against Celsus. 
 
 Let him doum by the wall in a basket. With cords, as Jeremiah, 
 Jer. xxxviii. 6. 
 
 26. And when Saul was come to Jerusalem. Paul the apostle 
 going to Damascus was converted to the knowledge of the heavenly 
 truth, and faith in Jesus Christ. " This year," saith Cameraritis, 
 " is put the first of his apostolic office, and it falls in the thirty- 
 fifth year of Christ, and the twentieth of Tiberius's reign. The 
 second year he went to Arabia, and from thence having come to 
 Damascus, he fell into danger, whence he was delivered, being let 
 down by a wall in a basket. This year is now Paul's third year, 
 and of Christ the thirty-seventh, and that time falls in with the end 
 of Tiberius's reign. Upon the thirty-eighth year of Christ, and 
 the first of Caius Csesar, and his own fourth year, he came to 
 Jerusalem to see Peter." See Gal. i. 17, 18. 
 
 He essayed to join himself to the disciples. That is, he end ea- 
 voured to become acquainted with them, and converse with them> 
 as believers do with one another, above, ch. v. 13 ; and below, 
 ch. X. 28. 
 
 27. But Barnabas. Of whom above, ch. iv. 36. 
 
 Brought him to the apostles. To wit, which were at Jerusalem ; 
 to Peter, to see whom he mainly came thither, and to James the 
 Lord's brother, Gal. i. 15, 19. 
 
 And declared. To wit, Barnabas. 
 
 How he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. 
 That is, openly and publidy preached Jesus and his doctrine. 
 
 28. And he was with them. That is, with Peter and James. 
 Cominy in and going out. That is, executing his apostolical 
 
 office. See of this manner of speaking above, ch. i. 21. 
 
 29. Jnd he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus. As much 
 as to say, he strongly maintained the cause of Christ. 
 
 And disp uted against the -Grecians. Who they are that are here 
 
240 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. IX. 
 
 called Grecians, Hellenists, we have explained above, eh. vi. 1, and 
 it'is no wonder that Paul, as being of Tarsus, did dispute with them 
 peculiarly, and by themselves, and that with the greater desire, 
 because in that controversy raised by the very same men against 
 Stephen, they found none more for their faction than this same 
 Paul. " Him also," saith Beza, " they slandered, that when he 
 could not obtain marriage of the high priest's daughter, being 
 moved with anger, he embraced the Christian religion. Many such 
 like fables doth that murdering spirit invent this day against the 
 faithful servants of God, both alive and dead." Ebion the heresiarch 
 certainly, as Epiphanius relates, Haer. 30, slandereth Paul; that 
 being a Greek, and his father also being a Greek, he should have 
 gone up to Jerusalem, and that having tarried there a short 
 while, he fell in love with the high priest's daughter, and hoping 
 to enjoy her in marriage, was circumcised, and embraced the 
 Jewish religion : but that his hope being frustrated, he was en- 
 raged with anger and wrath against the law. The very simplicity 
 -of the truth, wherewith the Holy Spirit has again and again sealed 
 the history of Paul in the holy scriptures, refuteth enough the 
 gross calumny of Ebion against him. 
 
 But they went about to slay Mm. Inhuman and cruel hypocrisy 
 and superstition, when they find themselves unable to resist the 
 truth, they, like ravenous beasts, with blind and precipitous 
 violence run on to persecute it. 
 
 30. They brought him. Who was forewarned by a vision that 
 he should leave Jerusalem, as may be seen below, ch. xxii. 17, 18. 
 The Syriac adds, « In the night." 
 
 To Ccesarea. To wit, Philippi, situated about Mount Lebanon, 
 at the meeting together of Jor and Dan, where Jordan hath its 
 beginning. See what we have noted concerning this city above, 
 ch. viii. 4 ; Matt. xvi. 14. 
 
 And sent him forth to Tarsus. A most famous city of Cilicia, 
 where Saul himself was born, as may be seen below, ch. xxi. 39, 
 xxii. 4. Of this city Strabo saith, " Tarsus is situated in a plain ; 
 it was built by the Argivi, who with Triptolemus wandered, 
 seeking for lo. The river Cydnus passeth through it to the very 
 place where young champions exercise their strength. Its fipringa 
 not being far distant from it, and its channel running through a 
 huge valley, whence presently the river falls into the city; the 
 river is cold and sharp, whereby it cures both men and cattle that 
 
VEU. XXXIV.J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 241 
 
 are troubled with the gout, or thickness of sinews. They of 
 Tarsus were so addicted to the study of philosophy, and that 
 discipline which they call encyelia, that they outstripped Athens, 
 Alexandria, and any other place that can be named, where there 
 were schools and exercises of philosophers and of learning." 
 Tarsus brought forth men eminent for learning, among others' 
 Hermogenes, who wrote with great praise of the art of rhetoric, 
 whose work is yet extant. Stephanus Byzantius saith i that 
 Tarsus was built by Sardanapalus the last king of the Assyrians. 
 Others, in Dio Chrysostomus,^ say it was built by heroes, or giants. 
 Ammianus Marcellirius saith'' that Perseus, the son of Jupiter, 
 and Danaes were the builders of Tarsus, of which judgment was 
 Solinus, and Lucan, who therefore calls it Persea. 
 
 31. Then had the churches rest. To wit, the heat of persecution 
 being assuaged, when the violent and furious rage of the church's 
 enemies, which was stirred up at the sight of Saul, was laid. 
 There is no war contrary to the church's peace, but persecution. 
 
 And were ed^ed. That is, and were confirmed, as Paul useth 
 the word, 1 Cor. i. 10. 
 
 Walking in the fear of the Lord. ■ A Hebraism, that is, most 
 reverently worshipping the Lord. The like construction is in 
 1 Mac. vi. 23, 59. 
 
 32. Passed throughout all quarters. That is, went about from 
 one place to another, encouraging the brethren. 
 
 Which dwelt at Lydda. Lydda, which was afterwards called 
 Diospolis, is a city of the tribe of Ephraim, not far from the 
 Mediterranean 'Sea, upon the confines of the tribe of Dan. It is 
 also called "vh in the Hebrew text, 1 Chron. viii. 12. This city, 
 as Josephus relates,* its inhabitants being gone up to Jerusalem, 
 to the feast of tabernacles, was burnt by Cestus. Benjamin in his 
 Itinerary saith, that Lydda in his time was called XTKO, now it is 
 commonly called St. George. 
 
 33. Named Eneas. Eneas, or as the poets pronounce it Aineias, 
 is the Greek interpretation of the Jewish name Hillel. 
 
 34. Arise, and make thy bed. He is not commanded to rise and 
 walk, but he himself (not another, as was usual) who for eight 
 years' space could not move one of his members, is commanded to 
 rise, make up, smooth, and fit his bed for lying in, which was dis- 
 ordered, uneven, and troublesome to lie upon, as it useth to be by 
 
 * Lib. xiv. = Cap. 41. ' Lib. iv. * Bell. Jud. lib. iv. cap. 23. 
 
 R 
 
242 THE ACTS OF THE HOLTf APOSTLES [CHAl'. IXv 
 
 the tossings of sick people ; this was a sure argument that strength 
 ■was restored to his members. 
 
 35. Saron. Saron, or Sarona, or Saronas, is the name of a region 
 beyond Jordan, upon the borders of the tribes of Dan and 
 Ephraim, upon the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, fi'om Joppa, 
 even to Csesarea of Palestine, rising below Lydda, of which region, 
 1 Chron. xxvii. 29, and Isaiah xxxiii. 9. See our literal explana- 
 tion on Cant. ii. 1. The metropolis of this region was called 
 Lesharon, or Lasharon, which belonged to Saron. Whence among 
 the kings conquered by Joshua, Josh. ixii. 18, there is. The king of 
 Lasharon. The Vulgate Latin, Pagninus, and the English in- 
 terpreter, judged rightly that the letter lamed did belong to the 
 denomination of the city, as also in the Judaic map, j\~<^. is a 
 royal city, upon a hill called the Hill of Saron, in the tribe of 
 Ephraim. Luke seems here to call this place the Saron, by an 
 emphasis, for there is another city called Saron, beyond Jordan, in 
 the tribe of Gad, upon the river Arnon, of which, 1 Chron. v. 16, 
 
 36. Tahitha, lohich by interpretation is called Dorcas. That is, 
 whose proper Syrian name Tabitha, from the Hebrew "32?, a roe, 
 was by the Greeks expressed by their proper name Dorcas. " She 
 was called Dorcas," saith Grotius, "among the Greeks, even as 
 Thomas, Didymus : Cephas, Peter : " see below, ver. 39. 
 
 Full of good works, and alms-deeds which she did. A Hebrew 
 phrase. That is, marvellously given to every praise-worthy work, 
 chiefly to ofBoes of charity, by which our neighbours are helped, 
 and the poor's wants supplied. 
 
 37. Whom, when they had washed. The custom of washing the 
 bodies of the dead, was used by Greeks, Latins, and Hebrews. 
 -3Elian writes of the lUyrian Dardans, " That they were only 
 Avashed thrice in their whole life, to wit, after they are born, when 
 they are married, and when they die." In Euripides, Creon king 
 of the Thebans calls Jocasta to wash the body of her son. Misenus 
 the truriipeter is washed, and anointed, before he is buried, in 
 Virgil, JEn. vi. ver. 218, 219. Where Servius cites out of 
 Ennius: "A good woman washed and anointed the body of 
 Tarquinius." Maimonides, in his Abridgment Talmudic, called 
 rrptn l', book 4, of the fourth part, ch. iv., of Mourning and 
 Mourners. "It is," saith he, "the custom in Israel, about the 
 dead and their burial, that when any is dead, they shut his -eyes, 
 
 ' Var. Hist. lib. iv. c.ip. 1. 
 
AEU. X.XXIX.J LITERALLY EXPLAlNiD. 243 
 
 and if he hath hia mouth open, it roust be shut, tying a ligature 
 about his jaws, that it open not again, the place at which he voids 
 his excrements is stopped, but this after the body is washed. Then 
 he is anointed with ointments made up of divers kinds of perfumes, 
 and his head being shaved, the body is rolled up in white linen, 
 prepared for the purpose, which are not of great value, that an 
 equality may be kept betwixt the rich and the poor. Also the face 
 of the dead, before he be put in the coflSn, is covered with a hand- 
 kerchief, the price of which must not exceed the fourth part of a 
 shekel," which fourth part is equal to an Attic drachma, and to 
 the Koman denary ; and is equivalent to sevenpence half-penny of 
 the now English money. " Being then put into the coffin," saith 
 Maimonides further, "he is carried upon men's shoulders, even to 
 the burying place, and there before the body be buried, there are 
 some things read, which have been written by their ancestors for 
 this purpose, whereby divine, justice is set forth, and the sins of 
 men exaggerated, for which they deserved death, and God is en- 
 treated that he may exercise his justice, so as not forget himself to 
 be merciful. Then the corpse, together with the bier, upon which 
 it lay upon its back, being put in a cave, is covered. Lastly, they 
 go to the mourners, and something is recited by them for their 
 comfort. Which being ended, every one goes to his business, 
 neither doth there any difference appear betwixt the rich and the 
 poor, the noble and the ignoble, neither in the burial of the dead 
 nor in the comfort of the living." 
 
 38. And forasmuch as Lydda was nigh unto Joppa. There are 
 said to be six miles betwixt Joppa and Lydda. See what we have 
 said of Joppa in our literal explanation, Jonah i, 3. 
 
 39. Shewing the coats and garments. That is, woven works, the 
 monuments of her hands, as Virgil speaks. The words in the 
 Greek signify eoats and cloaks. 
 
 Which Dorcas made while she loas with, them. So it is in the 
 Greek, but the Vulgate interpreter takes the words, as if it were 
 said, " which she njade for them," So also Cyprian, in his book of 
 alms and works, doth take them. " Tabitha," saith he, " being- 
 very much given to the doing of good works and alms-deeds, 
 ■when she was sick and dead, Peter is called to her lifeless corpse ; 
 and when according to his apostolical humanity he came, the 
 widows stood about him weeping, and requesting, showing the 
 cloaks, and the coats, and all the garments which tliey had taken 
 
 K 2 
 
244 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. IX. 
 
 before, neither did they intercede for the dead with their own 
 words, but with her works. Peter knew that what was thus asked, 
 might be obtained ; and that Christ's assistance would not be want- 
 ing to praying widows, when he himself was clothed in the person 
 of those widows. "When therefore he prayed upon his knees, and 
 this fit advocate for the poor and widows had presented to God the 
 prayers addressed to him, having turned about to the body that lay 
 already washed upon a table, Tabitha, saith he, rise in the name of 
 Jesus, Christ. Neither did He, who said in his gospel that he would 
 give whatever was asked in his name, fail Peter, but brought pre- 
 sent help. Death therefore is suspended, and her spirit restored ; 
 and to the wonder and astonishment of all, the revived body is 
 restored to the light of the world; so powerful were the deserts 
 of charity, such was the efficacy of good works. She who gave 
 supplies to the 4abouring widows merited, that is, obtained, to be 
 restored to life by the prayer of the widows." The ancient ladies 
 used to make woven garments with their own hands, as Servius 
 hath noted upon JEneid xi. 74. See 1 Sam. ii. 19; Prov. xxxi. '13; 
 Tobit ii. 11, &c. 
 
 40. But Peter put them all forth. That is, commanded them to 
 go forth, that, being solitary and retired, he might pray with greater 
 freedom. 
 
 And kneeled down and prayed. That all the parts of him might 
 be employed in the worship of God, and that the outward exercise 
 of the body, might help the weakness of the mind. " It is our 
 part," saith Calvin, "as often as we kneel, that the inward sub- 
 mission of our heart answer the ceremony, that it may not be vain 
 and deceitful." 
 
 Tabitha, arise. This speaking to the dead body, doth more clearly 
 hold out the power of God in raising the dead, than if in the third 
 person it should be said, Let this body be enlivened, and revive 
 again. Therefore Ezekiel, holding out the deliverance of the peo- 
 ple under the type of the resurrection, ch. xxxvii. 4, Dry hones 
 saith he, hear the word of the Lord. And Christ, John v. 25, 
 The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that 
 shall hear shall live. That was the real voice of Christ, which, 
 being sent out at Peter's mouth, restored her spirit to Tabitha's 
 body. The circumstances which follow, are put to confirm the 
 truth of the miracle. 
 
 42. Believed, &c. Now the fruit of the miracle appears manifold. 
 
VER. II.] LITiillAiLY EXPLAINED. 245 ■ 
 
 For God comforted the poor ; a pious matron is restored unto the 
 church, in whose death there was a great loss, and many are called 
 to the faith. For though Peter was the minister of so great a 
 miracle, yet he keeps not men to himself, but directs them to 
 Christ. 
 
 43. With one Simon a tanner. It was a custom, even among the 
 learnedest of the Jews, to learn some trade, so that when it was 
 requisite, they might sustain themselves, and not burden others. 
 So Rabbi Jose was a skinner, Kabbi Jochanan a shoemaker,. Rabbi 
 Juda a baker. Rabbi Meir a scrivener. Josephus saith,' of Asinasus 
 and Asilaeus, Jews in Babylon, " Their mothers set them to learn 
 the weavers' trade, which is not esteemed indecent to those nations, 
 where even men are makers of yarn." So the apostles were fishers 
 after Christ's resurrection. Paul, .who was trained up in sacred 
 and profane learning at Tarsus and at Jerusalem, made tents, as 
 well as Aquila, born in Pontus; below, ch. xviii. 3. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 1. There was in Cesarea. Which, in the time of the Romans, 
 was the head city of Palestine, as we learn from Tacitus, lib. viii. 
 Cornelius the centurion, who is spoken of here, was made bishop 
 of this city by Peter, as Isidore saith in his Chronicle, or rather 
 Lucas Tudensis in his additions to it. 
 
 Cornelius. This name shows him to be a Roman, or at least of 
 Italian extraction, and in him began to be fulfilled the prophecy of 
 Isaiah, ch. ii. 4, 11. 
 
 Centurion of the band, which is called the Italian band. That is, 
 of the Italian legion. " The Italian legion," saith Grotius, " is on 
 an ancient stone, which Lipsius on Tacitus, Hist. ii. mentions, and 
 Tacitus himself oftentimes." 
 
 2. A devout man, and one that feared God. That is, a worshipper 
 of the true God, according to that which reason and the law of 
 Moses did teach him to be most agreeable to inward godliness. 
 Such are called "holy amongst the nations" by the Talmudists; 
 " devout Greeks," below, ch. vii. 4. 
 
 ' Antiq. lib. xviii. cap. 12, 
 
246 THE ACTS OF THK HOLY APOSTLES [cilAP. X. 
 
 With all his house. Cornelius dkl govern his family in the fear 
 of the Lord, contemning the fear of danger, which might thence 
 foUoAY, for the Jewish religion was very odious in those days: 
 neither was it lawful for any Roman to embrace any strange 
 religion as they called it. " Wherefore," saith Calvin, very well, 
 " although the sincere profession of the gospel is much at this day 
 decried, yet that fearfultiess is too criminal, if, on the account of 
 that unjust hatred, any one should not dare dedicate his family, by 
 a holy institution, to Grod's worship." 
 
 Giving much alms to the poor. That is, To all poor Jews, whom 
 he loved the rather for that they worshipped the one true God, 
 and with open bowels did bestow what God's goodness had afforded 
 him. 
 
 And praying to God alway. That is. Assiduous in pouring forth 
 prayers to the one true God, to which the daily benefits of God do 
 invite us and stir us up. 
 
 3. He saw in a vision evidently. Not in dreams but waking, 
 with corporeal eyes, not ravished in spirit without himself, as it 
 happened to Peter after, ver. 10, and ch. xi. 5. 
 
 About the ninth hour of the day. That is, about the hour of 
 evening prayer and sacrifice. See our notes above, ch. iii. 1. 
 
 An angel of God. Out of God's goodness, an angel and an 
 apostle are sent to the centurion, who had rightly made use of the 
 heavenly gifts bestowed on him, that he might be enriched with 
 the full light of the gospel. 
 
 4. What is it. Lord? As if he should say. Command what thou 
 wilt. Lord, I will obey thy commands. 
 
 Are come up for a memorial before God. That Is, thy alms and 
 thy prayers have been pleasing to God. The phrase is taken from 
 the legal incense. " For," saith Grotius, " that is properly called 
 rrna'TN, in Greek fivri/ioawov, 'a memorial,' Leviticus and elsewhere. 
 And the smoke of the incense is said to ascend. Rev. viii. 4. But 
 this incense was a type of prayers. Rev. v. 8 ; viii. 3. Prayer, say 
 the ancients, is carried up by two wings, fasting and the works of 
 mercy." 
 
 5. And now. That is, now therefore. The angel shows him the 
 apostle, and the apostle shows him Christ. 
 
 6. He shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do. That is, as it is 
 expounded, ch. xi. 14 : Who shall speak words to thee, in which 
 thou and all thy family shall be saved. As if he should say, he 
 
VEli. IX.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 247 
 
 will instruct thee in the knowledge of Christ (which is the only- 
 way to salvation), that thou, and thy whole house, may be saved. 
 God uses no other way, but the instrument of preaching, to instil 
 into men the knowledge of the gospel. " This is God's ordinary 
 way which he hath established, arid we may not expect another," 
 most truly saith (and proves it, from Eom. x. 14) my dearest 
 wife's uncle, the Kev. Samuel Gardner, Doctor of Divinity, one of 
 his majesty's chaplains in ordinary, in his grave and learned sermon 
 on the dignity and duty of the ministers of the gospel, printed in 
 1672. 
 
 7. A soldier, fearing God. All the domestics of Cornelius feared 
 the Lord, as is said before, ver. 2, but all the soldiers which were 
 under his command, were not godly and religious. We have a like 
 TTapaXXriXtffjuoc of soldiers and domestics. Matt. viii. 9. 
 
 Of them that waited on him. That is, tliey waited before the 
 doors to receive his commands. Ovid, speaking of a lover and a 
 soldier, saith, 
 
 " This tends his mistfesa's, but that his captain's, doors." 
 
 8. Wlien he had declared all these things to them. Cornelius 
 explained all things to his soldiers and servants, the more to 
 encourage them to perform a command, which they saw was more 
 God's than man's. " He doubted not," saith Calvin, " to trust 
 those with this great secret, whom lie had before trained honestly 
 up." 
 
 9. Peter went up to the house-top. Greek, "to the roof of the 
 house." The Jews built the roofs of their houses flat, not spire- 
 wise. Jerome, in his epistle to Sunia and Fretela, says, "that 
 in the eastern provinces, that is called BtJitia, which the Latins call 
 tectum. For, in Palestine and Egypt, or in those places where the 
 holy bible was writ or interpreted, their houses are not ridged but 
 flat roofed, which at Rome they call leads or balconies, that is, flat 
 roofs supported by beams placed across." The Vulgate translation 
 uses this word for a house, Prov. xxi. 9 ; xxv. 24. Anselm, on 
 Matthew, fol. 45 : " In Palestine they used to make their roofs 
 flat, not coped. Even so the temple of Solomon was made flat 
 above, and in the circuit of the gallery there were grates, lest any 
 one should unawares fall down : and the doctors had there their 
 seats, that they might from thence speak to the people." 
 
 To pray. To wit, secretly, and without interruption. Suetonius 
 
248 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. X. 
 
 says of Augustus, " If at any time he desired to do anything in 
 secret, and without interruption, he had an apartment above for 
 that purpose," &c. 
 
 Ahout the sixth hour. That is, as the famous Drusius interprets 
 it, " The time of prayer, which they call the prayer of sacrifice, or 
 of oblation ; which began at half an hour past six, and lasted till 
 half an hour past nine. It was also the hour of dining, therefore 
 in the book, whose title is Principium Sapientia, it is called the 
 time of refreshment. Before this prayer they tasted not of any- 
 thing, and it was of great esteem amongst the ancients." See what 
 is said above,' ch. ii. 15, iii. 1. 
 
 10. Would have eaten. Greek, "tasted;" that is, eaten. "A 
 metonyme of the designed effect," saith Piscator; "for we taste 
 meats for this reason, that, if they please us, we may eat them." 
 From hence we may gather, that the Jews were wont to dine at 
 mid-day, (which with them was the sixth hour,) and Josephus in 
 his own life, says that this was the hour of their dinner on their 
 sabbath. See before, ch. ii. 15. 
 
 He fell into a trance. That is, he was entranced, or without 
 himself, that he minded not what was done about him, neither had 
 he any sense of any outward thing, but was wholly intent upon 
 his internal ideas. " 'E^iorao-S'at in this place is," saith Price, (as 
 saith Apuleius in his Apology,) "to be astonished even to the for- 
 getfulness of things present, and the memory being by little and 
 little removed from corporeal things, is made' intent upon that 
 nature which is immortal and divine." Augustine says of his 
 mother. Confess, ix. 5, she suffered a defection of mind, and for a 
 time was estranged firom noticing things present. 
 
 11. And he saw heaven opened. That is, heaven seemed to him to 
 be divided, as it were with a wide opening; and that way it 
 opened, a covering, like a great sheet, did descend to him bound at 
 four corners, hanging from heaven down to the earth. "But," , 
 saith Grotius, " that sheet seemed to hang from heaven to signify 
 our liberty indulged from heaven." See what have said before, 
 ch. vii. 56. 
 
 A certain vessel, as it had been a sheet. Greek, o-keuoc ti wq 
 b^ovriv. " Although 1 am not ignorant," saith the most famous 
 Ileinsius, "how large signification the ''h'3 of the Hebrews and the 
 Vas of the Romans hath, yet I had rather in this place call it 
 involucrum, a cloak, or something like it; ukvooq, wq 6^6vr\v, a 
 
VER. XII.J LITEUALLY EXPLAINED. 249 
 
 cloak, as it were a sheet, especially since o^ovii is' used by the 
 Greeks for a cloak. Hesychius, the most learned of interpreters, 
 65i6vai, every thing that serveth to cover. It may be he alludes 
 to the '^a of the Hebrew shepherds, which was either a cloak, or 
 a satchel, in which they used to put their meat and cups, out of 
 which they drank, and their other necessaries. Such a one is that 
 of Zech. xi. 15, o-keDoc iroifiivog ait-dpov, the vessel of a foolish 
 shepherd. Although there the Greeks render vessels in the plural 
 number." 
 
 Knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth. That is, 
 being bound at the four corners to hang from heaven to earth. 
 
 12. Wlierein were. Not in reality, but in appearance, as says 
 Cyril of Alexandria, lib. ix. against Julian. 
 
 All. That is, all sorts. 
 
 Four-footed beasts of the earth, and creeping things. Greek, 
 " Four-footed beasts, and wild beasts, and creeping things." The 
 word nlnn?, four-footed beasts, in the Vulgate Latin edition is 
 taken in as large a sense here as amongst the naturalists. But in 
 the Greek text it only comprehends domestic creatures, and which 
 are wont to be kept for the common use of men, as camels, horses, 
 asses, dogs, oxen, sheep, hogs, and others of that kind : and there- 
 fore is added, and wild beasts. The Hebrew noun npna is taken 
 foiur ways : first, for any brute creature, as when it is only opposed 
 to man, as Ps. Ixxiii. 22. Whence it is, that the serpent is also 
 ^.eckoned amongst the JTiana, Gen. iii. 14. Secondly, for any 
 four-footed beast, somewhat big, which brings forth young ones 
 alive, when it is opposed to birds, reptiles, and whatsoever liveth 
 under the water. But wheresoever nara and n;n are opposed, as 
 Gen. i. 25, then nana signifies beasts of burden, flocks, or any 
 domestic cattle, and n;n wild cattle, whose other name Vl Ps. 1. 11, 
 Ixxx. 14, seems to be taken from their motion. Because the 
 Hebrew ri and Arabic hazaza, signifies " to move," or, " move 
 one's self." For the tame and gentle animals have their pastures 
 ascertained by their owners, and are fed at home : on the contrary, 
 the wild cattle wander *about here and there for their food, and 
 (as the philosopher says) Uke shepherds, are forced from place to 
 place for their food. But it appears from 1 Sam. xvii. 44 ; Isa. 
 xviii. 6 ; Jer. xxvii. 33, that wild beasts are also often compre- 
 hended under nian:?. Moreover in Deut. xiv. 4, 5, stags, roes, 
 buffaloes, &c., are reckoned amongst the species niaris which the 
 
250 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY AVOSTLES [CHAP. X. 
 
 law alloweth to be eaten. Lastly, in Job xl. 10, the noun nmrj^, 
 a sea-horse, is of a plural termination, but singular sense. 
 
 Creeping t.hing.i. A creeping creature, or reptile is called topTl, 
 " from treading the ground," and S-ii|J, from plenty, and hn} from 
 the slowness of its motion. The noun reptiles, Gen. ix. 3, and in 
 other places is often taken for anything that treads. Sometimes 
 it is opposed to four-footed beasts and birds, and so it includes 
 fishes, as here, and Lev. xi. 46 ; Rom. i. 23. For a water-animal 
 in the Hebrew phrase is called d':'?? niCOT n;ri, "a creature creeping 
 in the waters." For although nnte), " to swim," is proper to water- 
 creatures, whence they are called vtjkto, " swimmers," Wisd. xix. 
 18, yet the scripture says they creep in the waters, but never 
 says they swim." " Everything that swims," saith Ambrose,' 
 " has the figure, or nature, of a creeping thing, For although, 
 when they have plunged themselves into the bottom, they seem to 
 cleave the water, yet when they swim on the top, their whole 
 body creeps, and is drawn over the uppermost parts of the water. 
 Also amphibious creatures, which have feet and the use of going, 
 yet when they are on the top of the waters, they do not walk, but 
 swim ; neither use they the sole of the foot for treading, but as an 
 oar for creeping. Lastly, in scripture every creature is said to 
 be a reptile, which is neither a four-footed creature, somewhat 
 big, nor a bird, nor a fish. So Moses places amongst reptiles the 
 small four-footed creatures, as mice and moles. Lev. xi. 29, or all 
 that are without blood, or creep upon their bellies, as worms, 
 whether they fly, as, besides some locusts, flies, butterflies, &c., 
 whether four-footed as locusts, or have many feet, as the worm 
 scolopendra, Lev. xi. 42. 
 
 Fowls of the air. That is, birds. " A bird," saith Bochartus, 
 «' is a two-footed creature, winged and feathered. It diflfers much 
 from a four-footed creature, having neither hairs, lipSj teeth, horns, 
 nor fore-feet, but it hath ns:, ' feathers' for hairs, and "ipia, a 'beak' 
 for lips and teeth, O":???, 'wings* for the fore-feet, and for horns 
 some of them have n^?"i3 ' a comb.' Also birds want brows, eye- 
 brows, nostrils, and ears. The owl and bustard have feathers for 
 ears, the rest have holes. Inwardly they have neither reins nor 
 bladder, and therefore their urine and dung are excerned at one 
 passage. What in cattle is the nap, 'the maw,' Dent, xviii. 3, that 
 in birds is nxna, ' a crop,' Lev. i. 16. There also rrSiJ, as some will 
 
 ^ Hexaem, lib. v. cap. 1. 
 
VF.ll. XIV.J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 25 1 
 
 have it, is the belly of a bird, which the Hebrews in other places 
 call 'm3, from Jer. li. 34. 
 
 1 3. ^nd there came a voice unto him. To wit, from heaven ; by 
 which voice God purified those things which were before unclean, 
 and abrogated the law which concerned the choice of living crea- 
 tures, that he might withal inform him that no sort of people is 
 forsaken of God. 
 
 Kill, and eat. That is, kill all these, and without making any 
 difference, eat of them all. As God, by this voice from heaven, 
 did show that he gave the Jews converted to Christ, the liberty of 
 eating of all sorts of meats; so it also signified that there was 
 no reason to abstain from communion with strangers, after that 
 through God's assistance, by their faith in Christ, they were purged 
 from their idolatry, and evil manners, and had wholly devoted 
 themselves to piety. For the pale, or the common wall of the 
 ceremonial law, which forbade a closer communion betwixt the 
 Jews and Gentiles,- being removed, there was no reason that souls 
 joined by holiness to Christ and to God, should be any longer 
 separated from one another. 
 
 14. Not so, &c.. Ezekiel, being commanded to taste an unclean 
 thing, ch. iv. 14, gave a like answer. Daniel and his companions, 
 Dan. i. 8, 12, chose rather to feed on pulse alone, than be defiled 
 by the king's meat. Eleazer, 2 Mace. vi. 18, though they would 
 have constrained him to eat swine's flesh, by forcing it into his 
 mouth, chose rather to endure the greatest extremities, than in 
 this respect obey the king. " Do not (says he in Josephus) esteem 
 this a small sin, to eat defiled meat ; for the case is the same, 
 whether thou transgress in great or small matters, for by both the 
 law is alike despised." Seven brothers, with their mother, imitating 
 Eleazer's constancy, having, for the same cause, suffered very 
 much, ended their lives in martyrdom. These things are described, 
 2 Mace, vii., and in Josephus's book of the Maccabees. 
 
 Common and unclean. That is, profane or impure. For when 
 God had chosen the Jews for his own people, he prescribed them a 
 form of livin.ff, which should distinguish them from the profane 
 gentiles. Therefore whatsoever was in use among the gentiles 
 against the rule of the law, was called common, or unclean ; for 
 nothing was thought sanctified or pure, but what God had ordained 
 for the use of his people. 
 
 What God hath cleansed do not thou call common. As much as 
 
252 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. X. 
 
 to say, Now when God has abolished and abrogated his laws con- 
 cerning unclean meats, do not thou, out of a foolish scruple, abstain 
 from any sort of meat, as if they were profane or impure. That 
 this distinction of beasts into clean and unclean (used even before 
 the flood. Gen. vii. 2) is by Christ taken away, is evident, not only 
 by this voice to Peter, uttered from heaven, but from Matt. xv. 11; 
 Eom. xiv. 14, &c. ; 1 Cor. x. 25—27 ; Col. ii. 16, 17, 20, 21 ; 
 1 Tim. iv. 4 ; Tit. i. 5. Therefore if any one does yet use this 
 distinction of meats, as besides the Jews, the Arabians, and Maho- 
 metans do, he limits himself by an idle scruple, nor uses that 
 liberty which Christ by his death has procured us. The verb Npn, 
 which is here translated koivovv, is properly "to pollute, improperly 
 to esteem, or declare a thing polluted," as it is after expounded, ver. 
 28, Koivov rj uKa^aprov Xiyeiv, " to call a thing common or un- 
 clean." 
 
 16. This was done thrice. To signify the immutableness of the 
 divine purpose, which was to be thoroughly imprinted in his mind. 
 
 And straight the vessel was received up into heaven. The sheet let 
 down from heaven, represents the church culled by Heaven from 
 among the Jews and Gentiles, made clean by faith, which in its 
 spiritual birth, as it were, descends from heaven. Rev. iii. 12; xxi. 
 2. And as this sheet was taken up into heaven, so are they to 
 return to heaven. 
 
 17. Now while Peter doubted in himself what this vision, lohich he 
 had seen, should mean. That is, while Peter was considering with 
 himself what this vision sent him from heaven should signify. 
 
 19. The Spirit said unto him. That is, the Spirit commanded 
 him. ipN, " he said," oftentimes with the Hebrews, but always with 
 the Arabians, is as much as "to bid, to command." Such is that, 
 Luke xii. 13, Speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance 
 with me; that is, command my brother to divide the inheritance 
 betwixt us. 
 
 20. Doubting nothing. To go thither, where these men fetch 
 thee, although he that sends for thee be not a Jew. 
 
 For I have sent them. The Spirit is said to do that which he 
 commanded by the angel before, ver. 5. " Hence," saith Calvin, 
 " we are warned that the consciences of men cannot be assured that 
 they do that which they do safely otherwise, than as being taught 
 by the word of God, they propose to themselves to do nothing 
 without his advice or command." 
 
VEP. XXIV.J LITEEALLY EXPLAIKED. 253 
 
 21. But Peter going down to the men. To wit, as is supplied in 
 the Greek text, who were sent to him from Cornelius. 
 
 22. Of good report among all the nation of the Jews. That is, not 
 only recommended by the praises of this or the other man, but of 
 the whole Jewish nation. Solinus of Scipio Nasica: "He was 
 adjudged a good man, not by a private testimony, but by the 
 attestation of the whole senate." 
 
 To hear words. That is, commands, or what he ought to do, as 
 before, ver. 6, the angel spoke. So D^i^T " words," seventy inter- 
 preters call IvToKaQ, " commands," Deut. xvii. 19; Jer. xix. 15, &c. 
 
 23. Some of the brethren. Peter pi-udently takes six of the 
 brethren in his company, that they might be witnesses of what he 
 did. See after, ch. xi. 12. 
 
 24. But on the morrow. That is, after Peter went from the city 
 of Joppa. 
 
 Having called, &c. Cornelius, like Rahab of Jericho, Josh. ii. 
 12, 13, studies not to keep the benefit of faith to himself, but 
 desired that all his relations and kinsfolks might be made partakers 
 of the same grace with him^ as who, he knew, might be compre- 
 hended under the name of his family. 
 
 His near friends. Vulgate, necessariis amicis. Gellius 13, Noct. 
 Att. 3 : " Those who are conjoined by the law of affinity, and 
 familiarity, are called necessarii festi." " Necessarii," as saith 
 Gallus Elius, "are such who are either kinsfolks, or related by 
 marriages, on whom, above others, friendly kindnesses are be- 
 stowed." Nonius calls necessarii " allies," " Seeing that," says he, 
 "necessitas is affinity, hence those that are allied by marriage, 
 are called necessarii." But that not only allies, but kinsfolks are 
 comprised under this name, is sufficiently manifest from this place 
 of Valerius Maximus, lib. ii. c. 1. " Our ancestors did celebrate 
 a solemn feast, and called it charistia, at which none were present 
 but allies and kinsfolks ; that so, if any quarrel were betwixt those 
 very near friends called necessarii, it might at this sacred feast be 
 quite quashed by friendly peace-makers." Marcellus does dis- 
 tinguish necessarii from friends and neighbours, as if they were 
 bound together by a nearer tie of amity, lib. 4. Epist. Fam. to 
 Cicero. "Amidst the great scarcity of friends, neighbours and 
 intimates {ac necessariorum) who would sincerely have favoured 
 my safety, I was very sensible of your great kindness and good- 
 will towards me." 
 
254 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. X. 
 
 25. And it came to pass that as Peter was coming in. Greek, "But 
 as it happened that Peter entered." That is, when Peter was just 
 now about to enter the house of Cornelius. " For," saith the most 
 famous Beza, " these things w.ere not acted openly, but at Corne- 
 lius's house, and that even at the threshold of his door, as appears 
 from ver. 27, 28. 
 
 26. But Peter, &c. Peter does not admit of a religious reverence 
 to be paid him as God's ambassador, as was in times past given to 
 the prophets; because the Man Jesus Christ, the only Mediator 
 betwixt God and men, is alone possessed of that embassy, and that 
 authority joined to it; all others besides, in the matters of religion, 
 are not lords or masters, but fellow servants and disciples. See 
 Rev. xix. 10; xxii. 8, 9. 
 
 1 myself also am a man. That is, an earthly man, a -minister 
 of that divine and heavenly Man, Christ Jesus, and thy fellow 
 servant. 
 
 27. And as he talked with him. From the threshold of the house 
 where he met him, into the house itself. 
 
 28. How that it is an unlawful thing. That is, it is thought an 
 unlawful thing. 
 
 To keep company, or come unto one of another nation. Seeing that 
 the Jews could not altogether avoid converse and commerce with 
 strangers, tliey oi'dered the matter so, that they neither went to 
 their houses, nor ate with them. On this. account it was that Peter 
 (ver. 21, 22) first speaks before the doors to the men sent by 
 Cornelius, neither brought them into the house, until he was 
 assured they were those of whom he had been warned by God; 
 and, ch. xi. 3, Peter is accused by the Jews, that he had entered 
 the houses of men uncircumcised, and eaten with them. And 
 hence is that in Justin the historian about the Jews : " Because 
 they remember they were driven from Egypt for fear of infection, 
 lest they should for the same reason be hated by the natives, they 
 cautiously avoided communicating with strangers: which at first 
 happening for this reason, became by degrees a matter of discipline 
 and religion." And Apollonius Molo says, " That they do not 
 frequent the company of those who follow a course of life different 
 from the Jews." " Which," saith most famous Selden, " Josephus 
 plainly asserts to be true, whilst he largely defends the same 
 thing from some of the Greek customs about strangers." 
 
 But God hath sliewed me that I should not call any man common 
 
VEE. XXXIII.J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 255 
 
 or unclean. That is, that for the futare no man should be reputed 
 unclean, for being uncircumcised. 
 
 29. Without doubting I came. Greek, "I came without gainsay- 
 ing." Calvin says excellently: "This is the holy silence of" faith, 
 when without remonstrating with God, we quietly undertake what 
 he commands, banishing far from us what contrary arguments may 
 be suggested to us." 
 
 30. Four days ago to this hour. In the Greek is added, "I was 
 fasting." The most learned Ludovicus de Dieu thinks that the 
 present hour is meant, and that in the morning of that day. "For," 
 saith he, " seeing that Joppa is nine miles, or a day's journey, from 
 Csesarea, Peter set forth of Joppa on the day before, and the day 
 after in the morning entered Caesarea, and discoursed with Corne- 
 lius., 'It is four days to that very hour,' saith Cornelius, 'since I 
 betook myself to fasting:' for I translate rjjujjv vijarfuwv, 'I was 
 fasting,' not, 'I fasted.'" 
 
 At the ninth hour I was praying. Greek, "And at the ninth hour," 
 to wit, of that day, on which I betook myself to fasting, ' praying.' 
 
 And behold. When I was very earnest at prayer, and my mind 
 was free from all disturbances, which things are wont to make us 
 more obnoxious to phantasms and visions. 
 
 A man. That is, an angel in the shape of a man. So Moses 
 promiscuously sometimes calls them men, sometimes angels, whom 
 Abraham saw in human shape. 
 
 In bright clothing. "A bright garment," saith Calvin, "was a 
 mark of celestial glory, and as it were a badge of that Divine 
 majesty, with which an angel ought to shine. The evangelists 
 tell us that Christ's garments had such a brightness, wlien he 
 showed his glory to the three disciples in the mount. And they 
 tell the same of the angels, when they were sent to attest Christ's 
 resurrection. For as hitherto God has designed to suit our in- 
 firmities, and commanded his angels to come down in our fleshly 
 shape ; so he allows them some rays of his glory, to make the 
 commands he sends by them reverenced and believed. 
 
 31. Heard. See our notes on ver. 4. 
 
 33, Thou hast well done that thou art come. That is, thou hast 
 done very commendably in coming. See a like phrase of praising, 
 2 Pet. i. 19. 
 
 In thy sight. 'EvwTrtov aov, so the Syriao and Arabian reads it, 
 whereas the vulgar Greek editions have it, ivwwiov tov Snov, "in 
 
256 THE ACTS Oi' THE HOLY APOSTLES [oHAf . X." 
 
 the sight -of Grod." That is, having God before our eyes, whom it 
 is not lawful to mock by dissimulation. 
 
 To hear all things, &c. Cornelius prudently distinguishes 
 betwixt God and man, for he makes God the author of the 
 commandments, but allows man no more but the ministry and 
 embassy. "Thou shalt find us," saith he, "attentive and obedient 
 disciples to all those things God has commanded us by thee : so 
 that he alone shall have the command, thou shalt be only his 
 minister: he alone shall speak, but from thy month." And God 
 prescribes this to all his servants, in the person of Ezekiel, Ezek. 
 xxxiii. 7: And thou, son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto 
 the house of Israel : therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, 
 and warn them from, vie. 
 
 34. But Peter opening his mouth. It is an emphatical phrase, 
 which is wont to be used, when one, after a long' silence, begins to 
 speak, as Job. iii. 1; and of any matter of singular moment, as Psa. 
 Ixxviii. 2; Prov. viii. 6; Matt. v. 2; xiii. 35; and that with an 
 eager vehemence, with an ardour and emotion both of mind and 
 voice, as Judg. xi. 35 ; Job xxxiii. 2 ; Psa. xlix. 4. Thus the 
 apostle would have the Ephesians by prayer to entreat God, that 
 utterance might be given him, that he might open his mouth, 
 Eph. vi. 19, where the words iv avol%u tov arofxaTog, by way of 
 explication, are expounded in the following phrase, Iv wappriaiq, 
 with boldness. 
 
 Of a truth I perceive. That is, what before, being prejudiced, 
 I did not understand. "'Ett' oXri^daQ KaToXafi^avofiai," saith 
 Heinsius, "he may say, who being really persuaded, is forced to 
 change his opinion. Peter was persuaded that it was unlawful for 
 a Jew to converse with Gentiles ; although the Lord in that 
 vision, which is mentioned ver. 11, and afterwards, endeavoured 
 to make him forsake this opinion. Now, being by Cornelius's 
 example, more fully convinced that that was true which was' 
 enigmatically by a vision signified to him, he says that he is 
 £Tr' aXrj^ei'ae KaraXajuj3av£(TSa(, which is, ' conquered by truth,' or 
 ' compelled by the truth to change his opinion.' " 
 
 God is no respecter of persons. That is, there is no man whom 
 God respects for those prerogatives, which may be common as well 
 to the bad as good. " It is to be observed," saith Estius, on Eom. 
 ii. 11, "that this phrase, by which any one is said to be a respecter 
 of persons, which indeed is peculiar to the holy writ, is derived 
 
VER. XXXV.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 257 
 
 from the Hebrews, by whom they are said to take, or accept a 
 man's countenance, or to look upon a man's countenance, who, for 
 some quality they see or know in him, as for his power, riches, 
 nobility, kinship, do so reverence and love him, that for his sake 
 they deviate from truth, justice, and right. Hence is that reviling 
 of the judges, Psa. Ixxxii, 2: How long will ye judge unjustly, and 
 accept the persons of the wicked? Hence the Pharisees and the 
 Herodians, deceitfully endeavouring to entrap Christ, said, (Matt. 
 xii. 16; Mark xii. 14,) We know that thou regardest not the 
 persons of men, but teachest the way of God in truth. For this 
 reason justice is painted blind, because it respects not the faces of 
 men. But because the Greek word 7rpo<rw7rov, the compound of 
 which, 7rpoiTtii7roXj);/'^a, 'respecting of persons,' signifies both the 
 face and person, from thence it happens that the Latin inter- 
 preters sometimes translate it, ' to respect the face," sometimes, ' to 
 respect the person,' when as the Hebrew word D'3J? properly does 
 only signify ' faces.' "Whence also the Syriac translates it, ' the 
 respecting of faces,' here, and James ii." Thus far Estius. 
 
 35. But in every nation, &c. Therefore there was no need that 
 foreigners should follow the legal rites of the people of Israel-,:, to 
 obtain grace with God. That was only requisite to make them be 
 partakers of the land of Canaan and its temporal blessings. But 
 as to the spirituals, it was always true, which Peter here saith. In 
 alt nations, he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted 
 with him ; although through prejudice he had not understood this 
 before. For he speaks of the uncircumcised Gentiles, who did not 
 keep the law of Moses, such as was Cornelius the centurion. For 
 this reason the prophets, when they reprehend the wickedness of 
 idolatrous people, and denounce the judgments of God against 
 them, they never accuse them for omitting circumcision, or keeping 
 of the sabbath, or violating any such like ceremonies,, neither do 
 they advise them to keep them : but only remember their sins 
 against the law of nature. For that covenant did oblige no others 
 besides the Israelites, with whom it was made. Of this, see Isaiah, 
 from ch. xiii. to ch. xxii., and Ezek. from ch. xxv. to ch. xxxiii. 
 Also Obadiah, Jonah, and Nahum. And moreover, when other 
 people were called by the Gospel to the knowledge of the true 
 God, God would not oppress them with the burden of the ceremo- 
 nial law, as after, ch. xv. 
 
 He that feareth him. That is, who fears nothing more than that 
 
 s 
 
258 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES - [CHAP. X. 
 
 -he should commit or omit any thing by which he should alienate 
 God from him, and make him less propitious and favourable to 
 him. 
 
 And worketh righteousness. That is, and liveth purely and 
 incorruptly. 
 
 He is accepted with him. From the favourableness of the 
 acceptor, not from the worth of the deed or doer. " This," saith 
 Austin, " is not occasioned by the weight of man's merit, but by 
 the order of the divine couusel. Hence Paul, 2 Thess. i. 5, does 
 not say the faithful are worthy of the kingdom of God, for which 
 they suffer, but are esteemed worthy, Kwra^iovn^ai, to wit, out of 
 the grace and mercy of God, who will have them reputed such. 
 Neither was Christ's mind otherwise, Rev. iii. 4, although he 
 simply, and without any restriction, calls the faithful worthy to 
 walk with him in white, because he esteemed them so by grace. 
 
 36. The word which God sent, &c. Greek, rov Xoyov ov aTrianike, 
 which also is in Hebrew nbisf ni9'J< na'in-nhj, "This is the word 
 which he sent:" that is, which he signified by a messenger. The 
 particle riN, which forms the accusative case, in such like construc- 
 tions, is as much as the pronoun rrj, with a verb substantive under- 
 stood, and is to be rendered by a nominative case. Examples make 
 this appear : Hag. ii. 5. Dam ^fra niBM na-jn-ni*, Seventy, verbatim, 
 for -iV\T\ m, This is the word which I have covenanted with you. 
 Zech. vii. 7, nin^ n^jj ti^'j* D''':i3ir!-nN xi^n, for rr^x x^rr, Are not those 
 the words which the Lord hath cried? In ch. viii. 17, n3iii"i'3"nij "'S 
 "TiNSi^ T(£?N, for n^N ba r\ysn, "?, For these are all those things 
 which I hate. 2 Kings ix. 18, D'-nan ns nnsi. "■:»<, for Q'^aa'in nran. 
 Thou and I are those who rode on horseback. So in this plate rov 
 \6yov ov cnriaTHXe, is the same as ovtoq 6 Xdyop 6v aTreareiAt, 
 "Which," saith Ludovicus de Dieu, "the Kabbins' most usual way 
 of speaking confirms ; who, when they would say, ovrog 6 Xdyoc 
 ov airiariiXe, say n^ffl iiBN imn "imj*, which is word by word, \6jov 
 ov airidTuXe, the word which he sent you. WN, properly signifies 
 'him,' but is used by them for 'that is.' So Dnv*, is properly 
 ' them,' and is used by the Eabbins for ' they are.' The Syriac 
 translation did well understand the Hebraism of this place, which 
 translates it, ' For this is, the word which he sent.' " 
 
 Declaring -peace by Jesus Christ. That is, when he had foretold 
 the future peace and the reconciliation of God with men by Jesus 
 Christ. " Peter," saith Lud, de Dieu, " seems to have in View 
 
VEK. XXXVII.] LITEEALLY EXPLAINED. ' 259 
 
 that saying of God in Isa. Ivi. 1, Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye 
 judgment, and do justice,, for my salvation is near to come, and my 
 righteousness to be revealed. The peace or salvation which was at 
 hand by Jesus Christ, is there declared, but at the same time the 
 word is sent, that is, the command to the children of Israel, that 
 they should work justice. And so the children of Israel themselves 
 are taught, that those only are truly accepted of God, and even 
 all those, who study righteousness. Because there straight is 
 added. Blessed is the man that doth this, and the son of man that 
 layeth hold on it, whosoever he be, whether Jew or Gentile, with- 
 out any respect of persons. And so he truly says, that that which 
 he had said in the 35th verse is the self-same speech which God 
 had long before sent to the children of Israel, when he declared 
 peace by Jesus Christ, who was to come." 
 
 He is Lord of all. That is, neither is Christ the Lord of one, 
 but of all nations. Moses was the minister of the law, and that to 
 the Jews alone : but Christ is the power of God to give salvation to 
 every one that believeth, to the Jew first and then to the Greek, 
 Hom. i. 16. Hither pertains what Paul says, Rom, iii. 29, Is he 
 the God of the Jews only 9 Is he not also of the Gentiles, &c., and 
 Eph. ii, 14 : For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath 
 broken down the middle wall of partition between us, &c. Hence 
 Luke ii. 14 ^ at Christ's birth the angels declare peace on earth 
 to men ; at his resurrection all power both in heaven and earth 
 is given him, Matt, xxviii. 18; and a little before his departure 
 he commands his disciples that they should preach the gospel to 
 every creature, Mark xvi. 15. 
 
 37. You know, &o. As much as to say, you have heard by 
 fame and report, that there is a rumour spread over all Judea, 
 which first began in Galilee, since that John preached baptism, 
 thereby to stir people's minds to the expectation of Christ. 
 
 For beginning. The causal particle is wanting in the Greek 
 text. And, indeed, deservedly, for it is referred to verbum, " the 
 " word," which here is put for the fame or report of Jesus, which 
 report is said to have begun in Galilee. 
 
 38. Jesus of Galilee, how God anointed him. The particle wc, 
 how, is transposed, as Rom. xii. 3, and the relative, avTov, him, is 
 redundant after the manner of the Hebrews. "But as for the 
 word anointing," saith Beza, "it is derived from the custom of 
 the Jews, whose kings, prophets, and priests used to be anointedj 
 
 s 2 
 
260 THE ACTS OF THE H.OLY APOSTLES [CHAP. X. 
 
 Thence it came to pass that they were said to be anointed by 
 God, on 'whom he had bestowed gifts and virtues." But here is 
 allusion made to the place of Isa. Ixi. 1, cited Luke iv. 18, 
 which also David Kimchi, by a mystical sense, refers to the 
 Messiah. 
 
 fVith the Holy Ghost. That is, with the gifts of the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 ■ And tbith power. That is, power of preaching the gospel with 
 profit and success. 
 
 Who went about, &c. That is, in three years' time he travelled 
 over all Judea, that no corner of it should want his good deeds. 
 
 Oppressed of the devil. That is, troubled with desperate dis- 
 eases. " All diseases," saith Calvin, " are as so many ferulas 
 which God chastises us withal ; but when God, out of his 
 fatherly indulgence, deals mildlier with us, then he is said to 
 smite us with his hand ; but in his heavier punishments he makes 
 use of Satan, the minister of his wrath, and, as it were, his exe- 
 cutioner. And this distinction is to be diligently kept; for it 
 were an absurd thing to say, a man were possessed by the devil, 
 who is only troubled with a fever, or any other common distemper; 
 but the loss of our understanding, raging madness; and other 
 prodigious maladies, are fitly and properly attributed to Satan ; 
 for which reason, the scripture calls those men ' possessed with the 
 devil' who fall suddenly mad, and are hurried with such folly, 
 that they almost seem to be turned into beasts." 
 
 For God loas with him. That is, because God loved him spe- 
 cially, and always heard him. Matt. iii. 17 ; Job xi. 42. 
 
 And we. To wit, the apostles. 
 ' Are witnesses. Eye-witnesses. 
 
 40. And shewed him openly. That is, openly showed him, being 
 arisen from the dead. 
 
 41. JVot to all the people. Who had most cruelly slain him, or 
 delivered him to be slain. 
 
 But unto witnesses chosen before of God. That is, £rst designed 
 by God through Christ. Luke here uses the verb xuporovsiv, 
 which properly signifies, to choose with hands lift up, for, in 
 general, to chose ; which also Grotius observes to be done by 
 Josephus and Philo. 
 
 Who did eat and drink with him. That is who lived with him in 
 the most friendly and familiar manner. 
 
VER. XLIV.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 261 
 
 . After he rose from the dead. These words are to be joined with 
 the end of the foregoing verse, as Camero well observes. 
 
 42. And he commanded, &c. Lest any one should think, that 
 though indeed those things were revealed to the apostles, which 
 in their time were fit to be known, but yef that there were, 
 other things which God would reserve for future ages, we must 
 observe that our Lord Jesus, who is here said to command the 
 apostles to preach to all people that he was^ appointed by God 
 to be the judge of the quick and the dead, did foretell, Matt." 
 xxiv. 14, that the gospel, by which he should judge the world,' 
 should be preached all over 'the whole earth, that it might be for 
 a testimony to all nations, and that then the end should come. 
 Which thing also these words of Paul seem to allude to, that God 
 shall judge the secrets of men according to the gospel by Jesus 
 Christ, B,om. ii. 16, not therefore by any more perfect doctrine or 
 revelation. 
 
 Ordained by God to be the judge of the quick and the dead. A 
 judge, according to the Hebrew custom, does in this place denote 
 such a judge, who at the same time has the dominion and chief 
 power over them to whom he is appointed judge. From whence, 
 Kom; xiv. 9, Christ is said for this end to be dead, and live again, 
 that he might have the chief dominion conjoined with the chief 
 power, as well over the souls of the dead, as over both the bodies 
 and souls of the living. For this, saith he, Christ died and rose 
 again, that he might have dominion over both the living and the dead. 
 
 43. To him give all the prophets witness. Isa. liii. 4 — 6 ; lix. 
 20; Jer. xxxi. 34 ; Dan. ix. 24 ; Mich. vii. 18, 19 ; Zech. xiii. 1 ; 
 Mai. iii. 17. 
 
 Remission. That is, that by the help of Christ alone, all, whether 
 Jews or Gentiles, may obtain remission of sins, who with a sincere 
 mind do embrace Christ, as the pnly SaViour appointed by God for 
 them who live according to his doctrine. 
 
 44. The Holy Ghost fell on all. That is, the gifts of the Holy 
 Spirit were poured out upon all. From whence Peter, below, 
 ver. 47, and ch. xi. 17, concludes that the unoircumcised nations 
 are to be initiated into Christ, and into the church of God by bap- 
 tism ; seeing that God, by the pouring out of spiritual gifts upon 
 them, had made it evident that they were to be received by him 
 through faith only, without a,ny observation of the Mosaical law. 
 The same argument Paul uses. Gal. iiit 2, 5, 
 
262 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XI. 
 
 45. Of the circumcision which believed. That is, six Jews believ- 
 ing in Christ, whom Peter had brought with him. Henceforwards 
 now Luke begins to distinguish the circumcised believers from the 
 uncircumcised, as Paul used to do, calling the former Jews, the 
 other Greeks, as Luke himself below, ch. xix,, xx. 
 
 46. Speaking with tongues. That is, with divers, and those 
 strange ones. 
 
 48. And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. 
 That is, he commanded them, that professing faith in Christ him- 
 self, they should be baptized according to,his institution. 
 
 Then, &ca. That Peter condescended to this request of Corne- 
 lius, and those that were with him, appears from the chapter fol- 
 lowing, ver. 3. Thus, being made a sojourner and guest of the 
 Gentiles, he made it evident that a Jew might lawfully do tbat, 
 which before he thought a sin, that is, eat with Gentiles that 
 feared God. In like manner, he eats with the Gentiles at An- 
 tioch, and after their manner eating all sorts of food, which for 
 that he had left oif afterwards, because of the coming of the 
 brethren of Jerusalem, he was therefore rebuked, by Paul before 
 all the congregation of the faithful. Gal. ii. 11, &c. 
 
 CHAPTEE XL 
 
 1. And brethren. That is, the rest of the faithful. 
 
 The Gentiles, Uncircumcised. 
 
 Contended, &c. Those who of Jews were made Christians, chid 
 Peter, not for that he had preached the word of God to Gen- 
 tiles; for no law or ancient tradition forbade to teach the way 
 of salvation to all who desired to know, and be admitted into it ; 
 but for that he had conversed and sojourned with them for some 
 days. See our notes on ch. x. 28. 
 
 3. Wherefore, &c. The word wherefore here, does not denote an 
 interrogation, but the subject of reproof. 
 
 4. But Peter beginning. That is, being about civilly, as brothers 
 ought to do, to excuse it. 
 
 Expounded to them in order. That is, related the whole order of 
 what was done with truth and sincerity, as Apuleius in his Apology 
 words it. Moreover, the relation is the same which we had in 
 
VEE. XIX.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 263 
 
 the foregoing chapter, and in the same words ; where if any thing 
 in it need explaining, the reader may have recourse. 
 
 12. We entered into, the man^s house. That is, into his house, 
 for entering into which you chid me. 
 
 15. But when I began to speak. As if he should say, whilst I 
 was earnestly discoursing with them, and they believed me. See 
 what we said, ch. i. 1. 
 
 As on us. Apostles and other believing Jews. 
 
 i6. How that he said. That is, what he said, to wit, when he gave 
 us the command concerning the promise of the Father to be ex- 
 pected at Jerusalem, and about our staying there, until we were 
 endued with power from on high ; as you may see, ch. i. 5, com- 
 pared with Luke xxiv. 49. 
 
 John, &c. See our notes on ch. i. 5. 
 
 17. If, therefore, &c. Peter says he cannot deny a brotherly com- 
 munion with the Gentiles, on whom the pouring out of the gifts 
 of the Holy Ghost doth manifest them to be adopted God's 
 children. 
 
 18. They held their peace. That is, they complained no further, 
 knowing the will of God. 
 
 TTien hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. 
 As if he should say. Even God by his Spirit hath circumcised the 
 hearts of those uncircumcised Gentiles, who believe in Christ, 
 without carnal circumcision, as saith Moses, Deut. xxx. 6, and of 
 hearts of stone has made them hearts of flesh, as Ezekiel, ch. 
 xi. 19, saith; that so, being reformed and regenerated, they might 
 obtain eternal life. 
 
 19. And they which were, &c. Now Luke returns to the con- 
 text of the former history. He had hinted before, ch. viii. 1, 4, 
 that after Stephen's death, when the rage of the wicked increased, 
 all of them being terrified fled hither and thither : insomuch that 
 only the apostles stayed at Jerusalem. When by this means the 
 body of the church was rent, it happened that by the dispersion 
 of those that fled, the gospel was spread amongst far distant 
 countries, which before was enclosed, as it were in a barn, within 
 the walls of one city. And so it came to pass, that the name of 
 Christ passing over seas and mountains, became known to the 
 remotest part* of the world. And thus, according to the prophecy 
 of Isaiah, ch. x. 22 : The consumption hath overflown in righteous^ 
 ness. See our notes, ch. viii. 1. 
 
264 TUB ACTS OF THE HOLT APOSTLES [CHAP. XI. 
 
 From the tribulation. That is, from the persecution. 
 
 Under Stephen. Greek, etti SrE^avtj), "upon Stephen," that is, 
 as Erasmus and Beza rightly translate it, "for Stephen." In 
 which sense we say in Latin, super hac re doleo, that is, " for this 
 thing.'' " So," saith Ludovicus De Dieu, " Itti, with a dative case, 
 properly signifies "upon," as also "for," Luke i. 29; SiiTapax^n 
 £7ri T(^ Xoytj) avTov, she was troubled upon, that is, for, or at his 
 saying." Hence we learn, that if the constancy of one man stir 
 up cruelty in the minds of wicked men, the blame of the whole 
 misfortune is unjustly laid on him : neither does Luke mark it as 
 any disgrace to Stephen, when he relates that on his account the 
 church was more than usually persecuted; but rather -a great 
 commendation, that as a valiant leader, h^ had by his own example 
 animated the rest to fight courageously. 
 
 As far as Phenice. Phenicia joins with Syria, and is neighbour 
 to Galilee, and its chief cities were Tyre, Sidon, and Berith. 
 The palm trees of this country were most commendable, which 
 the Greeks call <^oivi%, " Phoenix," from whence it is probable the 
 country derived its name. Here the verses of Sidonius Apollinaris 
 to Cses. Jul. Val. Majorianus, deserve to be inserted : — 
 
 " Each country doth its proper wares supply : 
 Chaldea spikenard, the Indies ivory, 
 Assyria gems, th' Arabia's frankuicense. 
 Sera of wools has store, and sends from thence ; 
 Athos has honey, and Phcenicia palms," &c. 
 
 And Cyprus. See what we have spoken of this country, ch. 
 iv. 36. 
 
 And Antioch. The most famous city of Syria, standing in that 
 part which borders on Cilicia. 
 
 Preaching the word of God to none but to the Jeios only. Being 
 afraid lest, should they preach the gospel to strangers, they should 
 cast children's bread to' dogs. . ^ 
 
 20. Men of Cyprus and Cyrene. That is, inhabitants there, but 
 of Jewish extraction, and educated in the Jewish religion. See 
 our notes, ch. ii. 5, 10. 
 
 Spake unto the Grecians. By a singular impulse of God. 
 "These Grecians," saith Calvin, "are not called ■"EXXjjvec, but 
 'EAXjjvtoTau And therefore many think they were of Jev, ish 
 extraction, though natives of Greece, which thought I do not 
 
YJ5R. XXII.J LlTEllALLY EXPLAINED. 265 
 
 approve of. For those Jews of whom he spoke a little before, 
 since they were partly Cyprians, must needs be reckoned amongst, 
 them; because the Jews- make Cyprus a part of Greece. And 
 Luke distinguishes them from those whom he afterwards calls 
 EXXjjvjorai. Moreover, having said that the word was preached 
 to none but to the Jews, and noted those, who being banished 
 their country, lived in Cyprus and Phenicia : as it were correcting 
 this exception, he says that the Grecians were taught by some of 
 these. Certainly that antithesis makes us expound it as meant of 
 the Gentiles. For Luke shows, that some few did more freely 
 disperse the gospel, because they were not ignorant of the calling 
 of the Gentiles, since that Christ had commanded, Mark xvL 15, 
 that from the time of his resurrection, the gospel should be pro- 
 miscuously preached to the whole world." And the most learned 
 Grotius says, that we should not in this place read 'EXXrivKTrag, as 
 it is in the vulgar Greek copies, but "EXXjjvae, as it is in the 
 Alexandrine copy in England, and as the Syriac, Latin, and 
 Arabic read it. " Besides," saith he, " from the time of the Gre- 
 cian, that is, the Macedonian empire, the Jews, from the prevailing 
 part, called all the uncircumcised "EXXijvsc- So is that word 
 used, 2 Mac. iv. -36. And hence 'EXXijvtKoe x'V"''''''P' ^ Mac. 
 iv. 10, 'EXXriwKai SoKai, 2 Mac. iv. 15; to. 'EXXijvtKa, 2 Mac. 
 vi. 9, 11, 24, strange customs, or the customs of the Gentiles. And 
 in Paul often." 
 
 Preaching the Lord Jesus. The whole sum of the gospel is 
 comprehended in Christ, who reconciles us to the Father, and 
 begets us again by his Spirit, that Satan being overthrown, the 
 kingdom of God may be raised up in us. See our notes, ch. 
 viii. 12. 
 
 21. And the handy Sec. That is, and God was present with the 
 men of Cyprus and Cyrsne, preaching the gospel to the Greeks or 
 Gentiles, and helped them, so that many of the Grecians were 
 stirred up, and persuaded to believe in Christ. 
 
 22. Tidings came, &c. That is, as soon as the fame of the 
 /■conversion of these Grecians or Gentiles came to the ears of the 
 
 church at Jerusalem, which had learnt from Peter that God by 
 evident signs had testified that, together with the Jews, the Gen- 
 tilc3 should by their guidance be called to partake of Christ's 
 grace, the members of that church sent Barnabas, a Cyprian, that 
 he might make a further improvement of the rudiments of faith 
 
266 THE ACTS OF THE HOLT APOSTLBS [cHAP. XI. 
 
 at Antioch, and give form to the building begun, that the church 
 might rightly be established there. 
 
 23. Had seen the grace of God. That is, that the Gentiles, by 
 the free breathing of the divine Spirit, were sincerely converted 
 to Christ. 
 
 With purpose of heart. That is, with firm love. 
 To abide in the Lord. That is, to cleave to Christ, and be tied 
 to his justice. 
 
 24. Full of the Holy Ghost, and of faith. That is, most plen- 
 tifully furnished and adorned with the extraordinary gifts of the 
 Holy Ghost, and above all with a lively faith. 
 
 And much people was added, &c. Now when the number of the 
 believing Gentiles was greater, Luke says they increased by Bar- 
 nabas's persuasion. " Thus," saith Calvin, " doth the building of 
 the church go forward, when with mutual consent they help one 
 another, and what is begun by one is candidly approved of by 
 the others." 
 
 25. Departed, &c. Barnabas was not afraid, so that Christ 
 should be promoted by the prosperous success of the gospel, 
 though Paul's coming should detract something from them. 
 
 26. Christians. John of Antioch, in his Chronologica, says that 
 the name Christian began to be used at Antioch, when Evodius 
 was bishop there. His words are, as Selden translates them : 
 " About the beginning of the reign of Claudius Cffisar, ten years 
 after the ascension of our Lord and God Jesus Christ, Evodius, 
 after St. Peter the apostle, was created bishop of Antioch, a city 
 of Syria the great, where he also was made patriarch. And in 
 his time they were called Christians, their bishop Evodius living 
 with them, and giving them that "name. For Christians before 
 were called Nazareans and Galileans." Evodius, according to 
 Jerome, was created bishop by Peter, in the third year of Clau- 
 dius Augustus, and of the common Christian account, 44. It is 
 certain that about the beginning of Claudius' reign, the believers 
 in Christ were called Christians, as others are wont to be from 
 him whose doctrine they follow ; who otherwise were called 
 disciples, brethren, and believers, and in contempt Nazarseans and 
 Galileans, as from the very words about Claudius, which next 
 follow, may be gathered. But this name, not derived from Christ 
 after the Greek, but Latin form, is by some, toth of the ancients 
 and moderns, said to be that new name, by which the prophet 
 
VER. XXIX.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 267 
 
 Isaiah prophesied that God's servants should be called, ch. Ixv. 15. 
 "But," saith Selden, "though this name had its beginning thus 
 in that place, nevertheless its use does not seem to be so frequent 
 amongst the apostles themselves, or in their language for some 
 years following. For besides that place wherein it is recorded in 
 the Acts, that the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch, 
 it only occurs in these following. King Agrippa to Paul, Almost 
 thou persuadest me to be a Christian. And Peter unto the scattered 
 Jews, But if any suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed. 
 Neither is there any mention of the Christian name in any other 
 of the apostles' epistles, much less are all they to whom they are 
 directed called Christians. But they almost always greet them 
 by the names of saints, believers, or churches, with the addition 
 either of the place, or of Jesus Christ, or of God, or the like, or 
 plainly call them Jews, as in each epistle of James and Peter. 
 Therefore for seven years or thereabouts, after Christ's ascension, 
 as before, none was of those that believed, who were afterwards 
 called Christians, besides Jews by birth, or those who were 
 received of them by the entire right of proselyteship." 
 
 27. But in those days. That is, in the same year in which the 
 believers in Christ, whether Jews and circumcised, or of the un- 
 circumcised Gentiles, began to be called Christians. 
 Came. Greek, Kar^X&ov, came down. 
 
 Prophets. That is, some of those that believed in Christ, who 
 were next to the apostles, and by God's special revelation of some 
 particular mysteries relating to the edification of the church, did 
 foretell things to come. Such as these are also mentioned after- 
 wards, ch. xiii. 1. 1 Cor. xii. 28; xiv. 32; Eph. iv. 11. 
 
 29. And there stood up. That is, begun some sort of action, as 
 before, ch. v. 17 ; Exod. xxxii. 1 ; Deut. xxxii. 38 ; Ezra x. 6, &c. 
 One of them. That is, of the prophets, who came to Antioch 
 from Jerusalem. 
 
 Named Agabus. From the Hebrew ?13?'7, " Hagaba," mentioned, 
 Esdras ii. 45, or 3557, " Hagab," in ver. 46, which next follows in 
 the same chapter of Ezra. 
 
 Signified by the Spirit. That is,~ by the divine breathing of the 
 Spirit. 
 
 That there should be a great dearth throughout all the world. This 
 universal famine, foretold by Agabus, began in the fourth year of 
 Claudius Caesar, in which Herod Agrippa died ; before his death. 
 
268 THE ACTS Of THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XI.' 
 
 as appears by the Chronicle of Eusebius, and by Orosius, lib. vii. 
 c. 6. This famine, still raging in Judea, Helena, queen of the 
 Adjabens, in the confines of Assyria and Mesopotamia, converted; 
 to the true worship of God by a certain Jew, did, by plenty of 
 provisions bought in Egypt, abundantly supply the Jews in their 
 wants, as appears by Josephus, Antiq. xx. 2, 3. Another particular 
 famine at Rome, in the second year of Claudius, preceded this 
 universal one, of which, Dion Cassius, lib. 20. But another hap- 
 pened in the eleventh year of the same Claudius : of which speak 
 Tacitus, lib. xii. c. 43, Suetonius in Claudius, c. 18, and Orosius in 
 the lately mentioned place. 
 
 29. But the discipks. That is, the Christians who lived out of 
 Judea, and more especially the Antiochians. 
 
 As any one was able. That is, according to the plenty every 
 one had. 
 
 Every one purposed. That is, decreed and determined. 
 
 To send ministry. That is, alms, or, as the English version hath 
 it, relief. So the word SioKovia, "ministry," is used for alms,- 
 2 Cor. viii. 4; ix. 1, 2; SioKovtiv, "to minister," Heb. vi. 10, who 
 relieve the poor. 
 
 To the brethren which dwelt in Judea. That is, to the Christians 
 in Judea, especially to those who dwelt in Jerusalem, who had 
 impoverished themselves by selling their possessions, and bestow- 
 ing the money to public uses, as you may see, ch. ii. 45 ; iv. 34. 
 And therefore Paul recommends them sometimes to the Achaians, 
 and sometimes to the Macedonians. 
 
 30. Which also they did. That is, they brought this good 
 purpose to eflPect. 
 
 Sending. To wit, what was gathered. 
 
 To the elders. Greek, Trpoc tovq Trpscr/BuTtpovc- This is the 
 first mention of elders or presbyters in the church. "By the 
 Jews," saith Grotius, " not only those are called D''?iJT, " seniors,' 
 who were chief in the public judgments, but also who presided in 
 every synagogue. The second l^w in the book of Theodosius about 
 the Jews, translates ' presbyters*: ' in another law they are called 
 ' the fathers of the synagogue.' But the whole government of the 
 churches of Christ is conformed to the example of the Jewish 
 synagogue. Even also amongst the Grecians, Dionysius Halicar- 
 nassus, in his second book, saith, ' The ancients were wont to call 
 their nobles and old men, presbyters.'" 
 
VEU. 1.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 269 
 
 By the hands of Paul and Barnabas. For by, the Hebrews say 
 ^:^, "by the hand." There is mention of this ministry being 
 fulfilled after, ch. xii. 25. From whence it appears that Paul 
 omitted this journey, because it did not belong to his purpose, 
 when he tells the journeys to Jerusalem by him undertaken. 
 Gal. i. 18; ii. 1. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 1. About that time. That is, in which the famine foretold by 
 Agabus began, Paul and Barnabas came to Jerusalem, to convey 
 the contribution to the impoverished brethren, as appears by the 
 conclusion of the foregoing chapter, as also by the end of this. 
 
 Herod the king. The grand- child of Herod the Great, by his 
 son Aristobulus, surnamed Agrippa, as the Syriao translation 
 here calls him: on whom Caius Caligula Caesar bestowed the 
 tetrarchies of Philip and Lysanias, with the title of king, and 
 afterwards the tetrarchy of Galilee, which Caligula took from 
 Herod Antipas : to these ClUudius Csesar added Judsea and 
 Samaria; so that he possessed his grandfather's whole kingdom, 
 which had been divided into tetrarchies by Augustus; Jos. Antiq. 
 xix. 4. This Agrippa, in the second year of the empire of Caius 
 Caligula, as he passed through Alexandria, whose citizens bearing 
 an inveterate hatred against the Jews, were much grieved that 
 any of that nation should be honoured with the title of king, was 
 played upon, and scoflFed at in the place of exercise, by the satires 
 of their poets. And a certain madman, named Carabas, was 
 brought into the place of exercise, who night and day used to 
 wander naked through the streets, and so placed, that he might be 
 seen by all. Then they put a paper crown upon his head, and a 
 straw mat upon his body, instead of a robe : for a sceptre one gave 
 him into his hand a piece of a reed taken off the ground. Having 
 thus adorned him with royal robes, and (as stage-players use) 
 transformed him into a king, the young men with poles on their 
 shoulders waited on him as his guard: then some came to pay their 
 respects to him, others desired him to confirm their privileges, 
 others advised with him about the public good. After this, all the 
 bystanders shouted, calling him aloud Marin ; which name in the 
 
270 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XII. 
 
 Syriac language signifies Lord. Philo against Flaccus relates these 
 things. Ahd thus the king of the Jews was derided by others, just 
 as about five years before, they had mocked at the royal dignity of 
 their true Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 , Stretched forth his hands. A Hebraism. That is, he undertook. 
 See Gen. iii. 22 ; Deut. xii. 7 ; Luke ix. 62. 
 
 To vex certain of the church. Because they oppugned the rites 
 and ceremonies of his forefathers, of which Josephus saith he was 
 a religious observer, Antiq. lib. xix, c. 7. 
 
 2. And he killed James. The elder, the son of Zebedee. And 
 so he was the first apostle that was baptized with that baptism of 
 blood, of which Christ speaks. Matt. xx. 23. But Clemens Alex- 
 andrinus adds, from an ancient tradition, lib. vii. Hypotyposeon 
 apud Euseb. ii.. Hist. Eccl, viii., and Suidas, in the word 'HpwSrig, 
 that that very man who had accused James, when he saw how 
 boldly this apostle gave testimony for Christ, did ingenuously con- 
 fess that he also was a Christian. And as they, were both going 
 to the place of execution, he on the way desired pardon of James; 
 and James, after having paused a while, answered. Peace be to thee, 
 and kissed him ; and so they both ended their lives by the stroke 
 of the axe. 
 
 With the sword, nj'^nn, "killing with the sword," or "beheading," 
 was a sort of criminal punishment of the four kinds of death by 
 which the Jews made the guUty suffer, as we have noted upon 
 Matt. XX. 19; Sanhedrim, fol. 3, B : "If those who seduce people 
 to a strange worship, are but few, they are stoned, and their goods 
 are not confiscated ; but if they be many, they die by the sword, 
 and their goods are confiscated." James, indeed, was but one. 
 " But," saith the most famous Lightfoot, " Herod knew Peter, and 
 a great many jnore, who in his judgment did persuade the people 
 to an irreligious worship, and he acts with James, as he intended 
 to act with the rest." 
 
 3. But because he saw it pleased the Jews: -To wit, the death of 
 James. 
 
 4. To bring him forth to the people. That is, to expose and 
 deliver him to the punishment of a public death. 
 
 5. By the church. That is, by the Christians assembled from 
 house to house, as appears from ver. 2, 12. 
 
 For him. That is, for his deliverance. 
 
 6. Bound with two chains. Whereas, otherwise the criminal 
 
VER. IX.] UTEUALLY EXPLAINED. 271 
 
 had only one chain tied to his right hand, which was also tied to 
 the left hand of the soldier, who had the charge of guarding him, 
 as may be seen in Pliny, lib. x. Ep. 30; Seneca, Ep. 5.; et lib. 
 de Tranquil, cap. x. Augustine also seems to hint the same 
 thing upon the 118th Psalm: "Two are bound and sent to the 
 judge, a thief, and one bound with him, one of them a wicked per- 
 son and the other innocent, both of them tied with one chain, but 
 yet far enough from one another." For the chain was of such a 
 length as did not hinder their convenient passing along, "and 
 that there should be no pain, and no danger of the prisoners 
 escaping," as the Theodosian Codex phrases it. 
 
 And the keepers before the door kept the prison. Here is described 
 the diligent efforts of Peter's enemies to keep him securely, that 
 so the power of God in delivering him, might be more manifest. 
 
 7. A light shined. At the approach of the angel, as Luke ii. 9. 
 On the apartment. That is, in that part of the prison, in which 
 
 Peter was chained, which the Syriac translation calls Kn^a, the house. 
 
 And smiting Peter s side. As they do, who have a mind to .rouse 
 any one. 
 
 Quickly. That is, without delay. 
 
 8. (xird thyself. That is, gird thy coat on, as the custom was, 
 Jer. xiii. 1. Peter had lain down in his coat. 
 
 Bind on thy sandals. Dion translates caligas, aTpariwriKa uttoS?)- 
 fiara, " soldiers' shoes." These sort of shoes were mostly used by the 
 Jews, which the Greek text calls o-ovSaXta ; they cover the soles 
 of the feet, and seem to be the same with the shoes called dusty, 
 because, that by reason of their shortness, they did not keep out 
 the dust. 
 
 Cast thy garment about thee. That is, thy outward garment, as 
 those do who are going abroad. 
 
 9. He wist not, &c. As if he should say, he believed all this to 
 be but a dream, because so unlocked for a deliverance did exceed 
 all belief. For when those things happen we most wish for, we 
 can scarcely believe them to have happened; see Gen. xlv. 26 ; Job 
 xxix. 24 ; Psa. cxxvi. 1. So when Flaminius, by a herald declared 
 the Grecians free-men, and only liable to their own laws : " When 
 the people," saith Livy, lib. 33, "heard the herald's voice, their joy 
 was great, as not to be bounded. They could scarce believe that 
 what they heard was real. Being amazed, they gazed at one 
 another, and not trusting their own ears, they fancied all but a 
 
i2l2 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XII. 
 
 'dream, each of them asking his fellow what his thoughts of it 
 were." 
 
 10. But passing by the first and the second watch. The prison in 
 which Peter was, if we may believe Adrichomius, was in the court 
 which encompassed Herod's palace about, (for it was Herod's, not 
 
 -the city's prison,) where the king's soldiers kept guard. Betwixt 
 the gate of this prison and the iron gate of Jerusalem, there were 
 divers entries, which the French call corps de garde, where used 
 to be centries. And therefore the Ethiopia version is the best, 
 " And when they had passed the first and second entry." 
 
 Which opened to them of its own accord. That is said to be done, 
 avTOfiaTWQ, "freely," or of its own accord, which is done without 
 human care or labour, Lev. xxv. 5 ; 2 Kings xix. 29 ; Wisd. xvii. 
 6 ; Mark iv. 28 ; so the Idngdom of Christ is called a stone cut' 
 without hands, Dan. ii. 34. That is, fashioned without the labour 
 or industry of man. And. Homer calls him avroSidaKTog, "self- 
 taUght," whom God hath taught. 
 
 And going out, they passed through one street. Or, one broad way 
 within the city. 
 
 And forthwith the angel departed from him. Leaving the rest to 
 Peter's industry, now he was placed in safety. 
 
 11. Peter coming to himself. His amazement being shaken off. - 
 Now I know, &c. That is, now I perceive that my deliverance 
 
 has happened in reality, not in vision ; and that by the help of an 
 angel sent from heaven by the Lord, lest I should be slain by 
 Herod, as the enemies of the Christian religion, the Jews, desired. 
 
 12. And considerivg. That is, deliberating with himself what he 
 should do. 
 
 He came to the house of Mary. This matron seems to have been 
 a widow, because the house was called hers, without mentioning 
 her husband. Hereby also it appears that whereas, ch. iv. 34, it is 
 said, that as many as had houses sold them, those houses are to be 
 excepted in which they dwelt and met together, as also is shown 
 before, ch. ii. 46. 
 
 Whose surname was Mark. This John Mark, the son of Mary, 
 seems to be called Barnabas's sister's son, Col. iv. 10. Betwixt 
 this man and Paul, there happened a little coldness, ch. xv. 39. 
 But they were soon reconciled, as good men use to be, and then a 
 strict friendship succeeded this coldness. Hence it is that Paul, 
 Col. iv. 11, numbers him with Jesus Justus alone, of the circum- 
 
VER. XV.J LITERALLTC EXPLAINED. 273 
 
 cised, among his helpers, and 2 Tim. iv. 11, desires Timothy to 
 bring him along with him to Rome, as one that would be very- 
 useful to him. 
 
 Where many were gathered together. For seeing that the believers, 
 of whom there was already a great number, could not meet to- 
 gether all in one body, they divided themselves into divers congre- 
 gations in several houses to pray to God for Peter; see ver. 17. 
 From hence it appears, that when necessity and the rage of perse- 
 cutors force us to it, holy meetings, though in the night, are not 
 unlawful ; for that this meeting was held in the night is plain 
 from ver. 6, 18. 
 
 13. The door of the gate. Hebrew ^ylB■^■^n?. Judg. xviii. 16, 
 17; Ezek. xl. 11. "That is called," saith Kimchi in his Book of 
 Roots, " nn?, which is without the doors of the gate. For all that 
 which is within and without, as also the doors, and outward thres- 
 hold, is called "lyip, inasmuch as it is joined to the door post, and 
 upper threshold. But that is called " nns, which is always open, and 
 though the doors be shut, is always left open." 
 
 A damsel came to see. Greek, wTraKoutrot, "to hearken," that is, to 
 spy who it was that knocked at the door so late at night. " She 
 came," saith Grotius, " that she might know by his voice who he 
 was, lest she should rashly let any one in." 
 
 Named Rhoda. Hebrew, hjsnris, " a rose." Many women's names 
 are derived from flowers, herbs, and trees, as ns'ttSiiliJ Susanna, from 
 a lily, nsin, Hadassa, from a myrtle. The Greek name Rhode, 
 ' PoSi), is also mentioned in the fragments of Menander. 
 
 15. It is his angel. That is, a messenger sent from him. So 
 John the Baptist is called an angel, that is, a messenger. Matt. xi. 
 10. The disciples of John sent to Christ angels, messengers, 
 Luke vii. 24. The disciples of Christ sent into a village of the 
 Samaritans, Luke ix. 52. The spies sent by Joshua, whom Rahab 
 entertained, James ii. 25. This is the simple interpretation of the 
 Greek noun ayjiKoQ ; neither have we any reason to think that the 
 believers understood it here otherwise, since they had never heard 
 that heavenly angels needed to knock at the door to obtain entrance ; 
 and they knew it did not agree with the nature of spirits, who with 
 their subtleness can penetrate the most solid bodies. Therefore 
 they thought that the damsel, out of her earnest desire of Peter's 
 deliverance, which all the godly had, had understood the messenger 
 discoursing of Peter, as if he had said, that himself was Peter. 
 
 T 
 
274 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XII. 
 
 16. They were astonished. That is, they were struck with an 
 unlocked for joy. 
 
 17. But he beckoning unto them toith his hand to hold their peace. 
 That isj desiring silence by the beckoning of his hand, as after- 
 wards, oh. xiii. 16 ; xix. 33 ; xxi. 40. Quintilian speaking of the 
 hands, saith, " They are either held up or down, according as we 
 consent or deny." 
 
 How the Lord had brought him out. Peter does not give the 
 honour of his deliverance out of Herod's prison to the angel, but 
 to the Lord of angels, who made use of the angel in it. 
 
 Tell ye to James. An eminent servant of God, and of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, peculiarly selected, together with John and me, to 
 , preach the gospel to the Jews, Gal. ii. 9, and who, sopie believe, 
 governed then the church at Jerusalem. 
 
 And to the brethren. That is, and to the rest of them who live 
 in the strict brotherly fellowship of Christ's disciples. So also in 
 other places, by brethren are meant Christians, as before, ch. ii. 30 ; 
 X. 23 ; xi. 1, 12 ; James i. 2, 9, &c. But Peter would have this 
 deliverance told to ^all the Christians living in Jerusalem, that so 
 he might free theiaj from their trouble about him, and they render 
 thanks to God. 
 
 And going out, he went out into another place. Out of Jerusalem, 
 as it seems. Some say he went towards Antioch, and then by long 
 journeys came to Rome. But Lactantius has recorded in his 
 golden book of the Deaths of the Persecutors, that Peter came 
 not to Rome till the reign of Nero, twenty-five years after Christ's 
 ascension into heaven. Moreover Damascus, to whom is ascribed 
 the Book of the Popes inserted in the first tome of the Councils, 
 says that Peter came to Rome in Nero's time. Therefore what 
 Petavius writes :* " The acts of the rest of the apostles (besides 
 Peter and Paul) not being treated of with any faithfulness or 
 credit worthy of a history, remain in obscurity." This also may 
 deservedly be said of both Peter's bishoprics of Antioch and Rome, 
 of this being extended to twenty-five years, of Peter's acts at 
 Rome, of the popedom there erected, of his contention with Simon 
 Magus, which began there, and of a successor appointed by him. 
 
 Amongst the soldiers. That is, those who guarded Peter. 
 What was become of Peter. That is, what had happened to 
 Peter, that they could not see him in the prison. 
 
 ' Ration, temp. p. i, lib. v. cap. 7. 
 
VKR. XXr.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 275 
 
 Examining the keepers. That is, causing a judicial process to be 
 made about the keepers. 
 
 He commanded them to be brought out. That is, to be haled out 
 to punishment. Pliny, lib. x. Ep. to Trajan, speaking of the 
 Christians, salth, " When they again confessed, and that I had the 
 third time questioned them with threats of punishment, seeing 
 them obstinate,^ I commanded them to be brought out," that is, 
 to be put to death. And this is a common phrase amongst the 
 ancients, as maj' be seen in Seneca de Ira very often, in Suetonius 
 in his Caligula, &c. He that translated the Canons of Petrus 
 Alexandrinus into Latin, for a7ra-)^Qrivai, "to be brought away," 
 reads aTruyflijvat, having translated it "to be choked," that is, to be 
 strangled. 
 
 And going down from Judtsa to Ccesarea. Which before was 
 called Strato's Tower, of which beforCj oh. viii. 40. Josephus 
 likewise makes mention of this journey, Antiq. xix. 7. 
 
 He there abode. In the Greek there is an ellipsis of the adverb 
 tKEi, " there," as also afterward^, ch. xiv. 3. 
 
 20. But he was displeased. Greek, S'Djuo;uax^api', " revolving war 
 in his mind." The Cardinal Baronius was of opinion that Herod 
 was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, two maritime cities 
 of Phoenicia, situate near the borders of this kingdom, because 
 they received Petep in his flight. But this is uncertain, as 
 Tirinus has well noted. See what we have said of Tyre and 
 Sidon, Matt. xi. 20. 
 
 TTieg came with one accord. That is, the ambassadors, by the 
 common appointment of both nations, came to Herod. 
 
 Who was of the king's bedchamber. That is, who had the office 
 of the king's chamberlain. 
 
 Desired peace, &c. That is, they, by their prayers, endeavoured 
 to reconcile the king's mind unto them, because their country 
 could not be nourished, or subsist without the assistance of Judsea, 
 Galilee, and other countries under the power and command of 
 Herod. 
 
 From him. Greek, "from the royal," viz., country, that is, 
 from the country subject to king Herod. 
 
 21. And upon a set day. That is, on a day appointed for this, 
 to wit, the second day of those plays which he exhibited in 
 honour of Claudius Cassar. So Josephus, Antiq. ix. 7, "Arrayed 
 in' royal apparel," as Josephus in the same place saith, " clothed 
 
 T 2 
 
276 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTIJiS [CHAP. XII. 
 
 with a garment all over wrought with silver of admirable work- 
 manship, which reflecting the beams of the sun, shined so bright, 
 that all those that beheld him were seized with reverence and 
 fear." 
 
 Sat upon his throne, Greek, " tribunal." B^/xa, in this place 
 is a certain sort of high seat placed in the theatre, whence 
 Josephus, in the lately cited place, saith, " He came into the 
 theatre." "Every place," saith Grotius, "that is raised higher 
 than the rest, is by the Greeks called jSij^a, and by the Syrians 
 013, which word the Syriac translation here uses." 
 
 Made an oration to them. To wit, to the ambassadors of Tyre 
 and Sidon, that for the future he might keep those people under, 
 
 22. But the people gave a shout. Foolishly flattering him. 
 
 The voice of a god, and not of man. Josephus thus expresses 
 the meaning of this flattering acclamation : " Presently,'' saith he, 
 " these pernicious flatterers shouting, salute him as a god, praying 
 that he would be propitious to them ; that they had hitherto 
 reverenced him as a man, but that now they did acknowledge 
 and confess that there was something in him more excellent than 
 mortal frailty can attain unto." 
 
 23. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him. With a 
 grievous pain about his heart and entrails, as appears from Josephus, 
 Antiq. xix. 7, whose words are these: "Not long after he, look- 
 ing upwards, perceived an owl perched upon a cord, which he 
 thought was dyysXov, a messenger of his misfortune; whereas 
 formerly he had denounced unto him his felicity, and conceived 
 thereupon a most hearty and inward grief; and suddenly he was 
 seized with a terrible griping in his belly, which began with 
 very great vehemency." For when long ago Herod being bound 
 by the command of Tiberius, leaned on a tree, on which an owl 
 sat, a certain German foretol(J that, the face of affairs changing, 
 he should be shortly raised up to the highest dignity. "But 
 yet remember," saith he in Josephus, Antiq. xviii. 8, " that when- 
 soever thou shalt see this bird again, thou shalt die within five 
 days after." Therefore, Agrippa, being near his death, called the 
 same owl dyysXov, "the messenger of evil," whereas, before^ it was 
 the messenger of good. Yet Eusebius hath described the men- 
 tioned place of Josephus, Antiq. xix. 7, about Agrippa going to 
 die, without mentioning the owl, as if Josephus meant the angel. 
 
VER. XXIII.] LITEKALLY EXPLAINED. 277 
 
 by whom Herod is here said to be smitten, which is no small 
 oversight. 
 
 The angel of the Lord. In inflicting evil, God makes use of 
 the ministry of angels, Exod. xii. 23 ; 2 Sam. xxiv. 17 ; 2 Kings 
 xix. 35. 
 
 Because he gave not God the glory. That is, because he had 
 neither reproved nor rejected these impious flatterers, as may 
 be seen in Josephus, Antiq. xix. 7. God did not punish Herod 
 presently for James's death and the ill treatment of other Chris- 
 tians, because in those actions he might have some pretence of 
 ignorance and inconsiderate zeal : but for his sinning against the 
 majesty of the Deity, in not hindering those impious flatterers. 
 
 Eaten of worms. In a very ancient Greek manuscript of Beza, 
 is added, 'in {wv, " as yet alive." Josephus saith that Herod was 
 tormented with the gripes for five days together without inter- 
 mission. Luke tells the cause of those gripes, by the worms 
 gnawing his entrails to pieces, that being alive he might be sen- 
 sible he was not a god. Hence it was, that looking upon his 
 friends : " Behold," saith he,- Joseph. Antiq. xix. 7, " I, whom you 
 esteem a god, am commanded to leave this life, fatal necessity 
 refuting your lie ; and I, whom you have styled immortal, am by 
 death snatched away. But the will of the celestial Deity must be 
 endured. Neither have I lived obscurely, but in such felicity as 
 all may prodaim me blessed." So we read, of Antiochus Epi- 
 phanes, when he was about to die, 2 Mac. ix. &c. "So that worms 
 in abundance came out of the body of this wicked man, and while he 
 was yet living, his flesh dropped oiF amidst his aches and torments, 
 so that the stench of his rottenness was poison to his whole army^ 
 So that he who but a while before conceited himself as high as the 
 stars, could not now be carried because of his intolerable filthy 
 smell. Then it was that he began to abate his haughty pride, 
 beinf smitten by a hidden wound, and admonished by a divine 
 rod to come to know himself, since that his torments every moment 
 grew greater and greater. And when even he himself could not 
 endure his own stink, he spoke thus : It is but just that we should 
 be subject to God, and a mortal man should not in his proud 
 thoughts equalize himself to him." Josephus writes, that Herod 
 the Great, a little before his death, was troubled with crawling 
 worms about his rotten privy members, Antiq. xvii. 8. In the 
 Melpomene of Herodotus, Pheretima, the queen of the Cyrenians, 
 
278 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XII. 
 
 though living, swarmed with worms. In the Beeotics of Pausanias, 
 Cassander the son of Antipater, " his skin was filled with water, 
 and from all parts of his hody, yet alive, worms broke out." In 
 the Pseudomantes of Lucian, the imposter Alexander died as the 
 son of Podalirius, " his foot being putrefied up to the groin, and 
 swarming with worms." Eusebius, Hist. viii. 16, says, that out of 
 the Emperor Galerius Maximianus's bowels came out infinite 
 quantities of worms, which caused a deadly smell. " Dioclesian," 
 saith Cedrenus, " before he died, had his tongue putrefied, and 
 great heaps of worms came out of his jaws." " His body," saith 
 Eutychius Alexandrianus, of the same emperor, "was so full of 
 worms, that it dropped them on the ground, and his tongue, with 
 his jaws, were consumed, and so he died." Concerning Julian, 
 uncle of Julian the Apostate, whose • privy members rotted off, 
 Sozomenus saith, lib. v. cap. 8, " And there the putrefied flesh was 
 turned into worms, and the malignity of his distemper was above 
 the physician's art." Nestorius also, if we may believe Evagrius, 
 lib. i. cap. 1, " having his tongue eaten out with worms, passed out 
 of the miseries of this life, to suffer more grievous punishments, 
 inflicted on him by God's just judgments, and those to last to all 
 eterpity." Like to this, is that which Baronius (out of Surius), 
 A.D. 698, relates of Dodon, who had slain Lambert the bishop of 
 Tongres. " All Dodon's bowels of a sudden putrefied, and he 
 voided them out of his mouth, stinking strangely. At length his 
 body being corrupted by a consumption and by worms, stank so 
 intolerably, that it was thrown into the Meuse." 
 
 He gave up the. ghost. In the fifty-fourth year of his age, the 
 seventh of his reign, and the fourth year of Claudius Caesar, the 
 fifth day after those vehement gripes, which the Lord by his 
 angel infiicted on him, because he had not left God's honour un- 
 touched, as Peter before, ch. x. 26. And Paul and Barnabas 
 hereafter, ch. xiv. 14, 1-5. The children which Herod Agrippa 
 left, were one son named Agrippa, about seventeen years of age, 
 who at that time was educated at Rome by Claudius ; but he had 
 three daughters, of which Berenice was seventeen years old, and 
 married to her uncle Herod, king of Chalcis in Syria. The other 
 two were then virgins; Mariamne, aged ten years, and betrothed by 
 her father to Julius Archelaus, the son of Chalcias ; and DrusiUa, 
 six years old, and betrothed to Epiphanes, the son of Antiochus, 
 the king of Comagena, Josephus, Antiq. xix. 7. 
 
VER. IT.J LITEKALLY EXPLAINED. 279 
 
 24. But the word of God grew and multiplied. That is. This 
 enemy of the servants of Christ being dead in this manner, the 
 preachers of the gospel gathered new strength, and every day 
 more and more were converted to the faith. 
 
 25. IVhen they had fidfilled their ministry. That is. When by a 
 -supply of money sent them by the Antiochians, as before, ch. xi. 
 
 29, 30, they had relieved the necessities of the brethren dwelling 
 at Jerusalem. 
 
 And taken John with them, whose surname was Mark. The son 
 of that matron, which is described by him before, ver. 12. 
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 1. Prophets. Who being by inspiration made privy to hidden 
 things, did also foretell things to come, to know which the church 
 was concerned. 
 
 And teachers. Who did find out, and interpret the meaning of 
 the word of God, which was not obvious to every one. 
 
 With Herod the tetrarch. Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee, 
 is simply called Herod the tetrarch. Matt. xiv. 1 ; Luke ix. 7. 
 
 2. And they ministered. That is. Publicly discharged their 
 office. This office seems to have been that of prophesying and 
 teaching, for in the verse immediately preceding, they are called 
 prophets and teachers. So Cardinal Cajetan understood it. 
 Chrysostom, Theophylact, and CEcumenius render the word 
 XuTovpyovvTUiv, " ministering, " by KJipurTovTOJv, " preaching ; " 
 but the Syrian and Arabian interpret it "Trpofftuxo/xcvwv, " praying." 
 For they restrained here the word Xftroupyttv, to public prayers 
 only, because of the fast mentioned next to it, to which, in the 
 next following verse, prayer is joined. In the same sense, Erasmus 
 renders "sacrificing," for prayers, and the praises of God are 
 esteemed as sacrifices, Heb. xiii. 15. "There is none," saith 
 Beza, "that is indifferently versed in the Greek tongue, who 
 knows not that XEtrovpyav is mainly said of public offices. Hence 
 Paul himself, Kom. xiii., calls magistrates sometimes roO 'S'eou 
 StaKOVovc, and sometimes XEtroupyoi)?." 
 
 And fasted. Fasting is acceptable to God, when it is for a 
 
280 
 
 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XIII. 
 
 good end, to wit, to tame the body, that the mind may be the 
 fitter for works of piety. See our literal explanation, Matt. vi. 16. 
 
 The Holy Ghost said. To wit, to the prophets of the church of 
 Antioch, and by them to the whole church. 
 
 Separate me, &c. The Holy Ghost bids to separate Barnabas 
 and Saiil, not to the Lord, but to himself; whereby is meant that 
 the Lord and the Holy Ghost hath the same virtue and power; 
 which, if he were less than the Lord, he would have said. Sepa- 
 rate Saul and Barnabas to the Lord, or to God. He commands 
 them to be separated to him for that to which he himself called 
 them. He therefore constituted them ministers to himself, he calls 
 them his own servants. But as we cannot be men's servants in 
 such things as concern religion and conscience, so neither can we 
 be the servants of angels : for the same reason which Paul adduces, 
 1 Cor. vii. 23 : Ye are bought with a price, he ye not the servants 
 of men, militates against both these services. The servant of men 
 there is opposed to the servant of Christ, who subjects his whole 
 self, soul and body, to him ; for he redeemed us, and addicted us to 
 Ms service, by the price of his own blood. . He who thus is the 
 servant of Christ, cannot in the same sense be the servant of men ; 
 he is therefore bound by Christ for his servant. So for the same 
 reason he cannot be the servant of angels, who are our fellow 
 servants. Therefore the Holy Ghost, who so bound Paul and 
 Barnabas to his own service, is not an angel, nor a company of 
 angels, but Lord of all, " who hath the same worship and glory 
 with the Father and the Son," as the fathers of the second 
 cecumenic council at Constantinople say in the symbol of that 
 council. 
 
 For the work, :&c. That work whicb they ought to do for the 
 Holy Ghost is described in this chapter and the next, unto the 
 26th verse, where they are said to have fulfilled that work. They 
 were sent by the Holy Ghost to preach the gospel, and bring' 
 many to the obedience of the faith. This work is peculiarly the 
 work of the Holy Ghost, who is the author, and useth to be 
 called the worker of faith, which yet is the gift of God, Eph. ii. 8 ; 
 therefore the Holy Spirit is God, which worketh and produceth 
 that faith in the saints, and so the whole work of regeneration, by 
 the superabundant riches of his grace. 
 
 / have called. That is, appointed, 
 
 3. And when, &c. As much as to say, Having prayed and 
 
VEE. VI.] LXTEKALLY EXPLMNKD. 281 
 
 fasted, they blessed Saul and Barnabas, separated by the Holy 
 Ghost, in the name of God and Christ, by the solemn rite of 
 imposition of hands, and then bade them farewell. " The laying 
 on of hands," saith famous Heidegger, " upon Paul and Barnabas, 
 by the rest of the teachers of the church of Antioeh, does not 
 properly belong to their ordination. For Paul was not called of 
 men, neither by men. Gal. i. 1, 2. It was therefore a token not of 
 their deputation to the ministry, but merely of the church's great 
 desire that Paul and Barnabas should succeed in their ministry." 
 
 They sent them away. That is, they bade them farewell. See 
 Matt. xiv. 15, 22, 23 ; xv. 23. 
 
 4. So they. To wit, Saul and Barnabas. 
 
 Being sent forth by the Holy Ghost. That is. Having taken 
 journey by the command of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Departed into Seleucia. A neighbouring city to Antioeh, built, 
 and so called by Seleucus Nicanor, king of Syria. 
 
 And from thence they sailed, to Cyprus. An island in the Medi- 
 terranean Sea, adjoining to Syria, the country of Barnabas. See 
 above, ch. iv. 36. 
 
 5. And when they were at Salamis. The metropolis of Cyprus, 
 built by Teucris, the son of Telamon, and by him so called from 
 the name of his country. This city was afterwards called Con- 
 stantia, or Constantina, then Nova Justinopolis, or Justinianopolis; 
 and this day it is called Famaugusta. 
 
 They preached the ward of God. To wit, that great gospel of 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 In the synagogues of the Jews. Which were many in Cyprus. 
 The author of the Hebrew places of the Acts, under the name of 
 Jerome : " Salamis, a city in the isle of Cyprus, now called 
 Constantia, which the Jews in the time of Trajan defaced, having 
 kiUed all the inhabitants." The same saith Jerome, in Eu^bius's 
 Chronicle about Trajan's time. 
 
 TTiey had, &e. As much as to say, and John surnamed Mark, 
 of whom above, ch. xii. 12, was their helper* in preaching the 
 gospel. 
 
 6. And when they had gone through the isle. To wit, Cyprus, 
 whose metropolis, Salamis, toward the east, was famous among the 
 nations for the temples of Jupiter. 
 
 Unto Paphos. A city of the same isle of Cyprus, toward the 
 
282 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XIII. 
 
 West, famous for the Temple of Venus, to see which Vespasian 
 longed, Tacitus saith.i 
 
 A false prophet. That is, falsely boasting himself to be a 
 prophet. 
 
 Whose name was Barjesus. Greek Bapir\tsovQ. Seeing this 
 wicked man is said to have been a Jew, the etymology of this 
 word must be taken from the Hebrew tougue. It is therefore the 
 conjecture of the most famous Ludovicus de Dieu, that this 
 impostor's name was nyiffi'' 13, Bapijjo-oJia, and with a very small 
 alteration BajoirjiroSe, which the Arabian hath literally expressed 
 out of the Greek, vxtn'^ 1N3, " the son of health ; " because he pro- 
 fessed the art of procuring health and soundness. So in the 
 Syriac he is called Naiffl 13, " the son of ulcers ; " that is, a phy- 
 sician that professed to cure ulcers ; for ^itt^ffi, signifies only such a 
 tumour as is incident to ulcers and old sores. 
 
 7. Which was with the deputy. The word avS'iiTraroc, properly 
 signifieth a proconsul, or the vicar of the Kioman consul, who 
 governed the province as a deputy. But seeing that he, who 
 governed Cyprus, was not proconsul, but vice-prjetor, here is a 
 catachresis, or abuse of the word. " But," saith Grotius, " it is 
 no wonder that the Greeks, being great flatterers, gave the most 
 honourable title to the governors of their provinces. The name 
 of president is general, which may be here used in the Latin." 
 
 8. Elymas. There are many derivations and significations of 
 this name. " To us it seems," saith Ludovicus de Dieu, " that 
 'E.Xvfiag-'is a Hebrew or Chaldaic name, Naibn, 'a healer, or a 
 curer,' from ol^n, 'to cure,' in which sense it is taken, not only 
 among the Hebrews, but also frequently among the Syrians ; nor 
 doth it differ from nyTO" ~a., ' the son of health,' and xaiffi na, ' the 
 son of boils,' of which above, ver. 6. Neither is it unusual to 
 render the letter n of a most hard aspiration by e, such are "[lin, 
 'EvwX' '^"'"' ^^"^' ^°'' "°^ *'° *^^^"g^ t'^® letter n into ' as/ such 
 as Kaxn, OwjuSe, K3313, Bapva/Bac, K3N-a, Bapa^^ae." 
 
 Sorcerer. Or magician. The Persian name magi, and magician, 
 for sorcery and sorcerers, not evil in themselves, are applied by an 
 abuse to marvellous but wicked arts, wrought by the help of 
 devils, and to those that are given to such arts. See our literal 
 explication on Matt. ii. 1. 
 
 ' Hist, lib . ii. cap. 2. , 
 
VEE, IX.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 283 
 
 For so is his name by interpretation. Which in ver. 6, is Bar- 
 jesus ; therefore Elymas is not the Arabic name ti*^y rendered 
 " sorcerer," and which agrees to all such as are given to magic, 
 seeing the Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic translation do not begin 
 the word Elymas with j? ain, but with x aleph ; but it is an inter- 
 pretation of this sorcerer Barjesus's name, as the test saith, and 
 the Syrian interpreter confirms. See what we have just now 
 cited of Ludovicus de Dieu. 
 
 Seeking, &c. That is, with great study and endeavour he 
 turned aside Sergius Paulus, the vice-prsetor, from receiving the 
 faith of Christ. 
 
 9. Then Saul, who also is called Paul. He hath a twofold name 
 for his twofold relation, his Hebrew name Saul, because he was an 
 Hebrew by birth ; his Roman name Paul, because he had the 
 freedom of a Roman. " Under the same notion," saith famous 
 Lightfoot, " Silas is also called Silvanus, for he also was a Roman, 
 as may be gathered from Acts xvi. 37. The same upon 1 Cor. 
 i. 1. It was common," saith he, "for them in the Jewish nation 
 to be called among the Jews by a Jewish name, but by another 
 name among the ethnics, or by the same name translated into the 
 ethnic language : as Thomas among the Jews, was Didymus 
 among the Greeks, and perhaps Silas among the Jews, was Tertius 
 among the Romans, Rom. xvi. 22, that is, from iBlbiT, and Jason, 
 Secundus. Compare Rom. xvi. 21, with Acts xix. 4, or by some 
 other different name : as he whom Luke calls Herod, Acts xii. 1, 
 is by Josephus called Agrippa; and John is also called Mark, 
 Acts xii. 12. Hence that gloss upon Maimonides in Gerushin, 
 c. 3 : ' Perhaps he hath two names, to wit, a Jewish name, and 
 that by which they who are not Jews called him;' and that of 
 the Jerusolymitan Talmud, in the treatise called Gittin, folio 
 xliii. 2 : ' The Israelites without the land of Israel have the same 
 • names with the Gentiles.' Yea, hear what they say in the same 
 treatise, folio xlv. 3, of the Jews also living in the land of Israel : 
 ' Perhaps one of them hath two wives, one living in Judea, the 
 other in Galilee. And perhaps also he hath two names, one in 
 Judea, another in Galilee : if he subscribe his name by which he 
 is called in Judea, to send her, who is in Galilee away, or subscribe 
 his name, by which he is called in Galilee, to put her away, that 
 is, in Judea, it is no divorce.' It is no wonder, therefore, if Saul, 
 who was born out of the land of Israel, and was a Roman, should 
 
284 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XIII. 
 
 have a Roman name, together with his Jewish name. And it is 
 worth observation, that he being now made the apostle of the 
 Gentiles, does always call himself by his Gentile, never by his 
 Jewish name ; and that Luke writing his Acts doth call him Saul, 
 while the scene of the history was among the Jews, but Paul, 
 while among the Gentiles." 
 
 Filled with the Holy Ghost. As much as to say, finding himself 
 full of a prophetic spirit, that he might foretell God's vengeance' 
 againsf Elymas. 
 
 10. Subtilty. The Greek word jo^StowpY/o, signifieth "easiness of 
 doing," from the word p^Stov, " easy," and IpyaZofiai, " I work :" 
 and so it is taken here by Erasmus for " craftiness," but by others 
 for " a ready boldness for any wicl^dness." 
 
 TTiou child of the devil. As much as to say. Thou who resemblest 
 and imitatest the perverse inclinations and wicked temper of the 
 devil, even as if thou hadst been born of him. - See John viii. 39 
 —41, 44. 
 
 Enemy of all righteousness. ' As much as to say, who art con- 
 trary to all just and righteous things. 
 
 Wilt thou not cease to peroert the right ways of the Lord ? As 
 much as to say. Wilt thou always with thy blasphemous cavils 
 traduce the righteous doctrine which came from God, jfull of equity 
 and goodness, as deformed, vicious, and full of unrighteousness? 
 Paul seems to allude to Hos.' xiv. 10, where see our literal 
 explication. 
 
 11. And now. That is, and now therefore, as above, ch. x. 5. 
 Behold. Besides your expectation. 
 
 The hand of the Lord is upon thee. That is, the terrible hand of 
 a revenging God is lifted up against thee to give thee a terrible 
 blow. 
 
 And thou shalt be Mind, not seeing the sun. The same thing 
 expressed with a double phrase, beats the more strongly upon the 
 ears of the hearers, and demonstrates the efficacy of him that 
 speaketh. 
 
 For a season. Defined and limited. 
 
 And immediately. As much as to say, Paul had scarcely fore- 
 told the imminent stroke of God upon Elymas, when the predic- 
 , tion took effect. 
 
 12. Then, &c. As much as to say, When Sergius Paulus saw 
 the doctrine of the gospel preached by Paul, confirmed by the 
 
■VEE. XV.] LITEHALLY EXPLAINED. 285 
 
 suden blindness of Elymas, its great opposer, he believed the 
 gospel, being struck with admiration, that this doctrine of Christ 
 was joined with such marvellous virtue. 
 
 13. Now lohen Paul and his company. That is, his companions. 
 "When," saith Calvin, "he saith that Paul's companions loosed 
 from Paphosj he in the first place means Paul himself, then the 
 rest, excepting one. Thus by observing that one's delicateness, he 
 praised others, who with unwearied constancy followed Paul." 
 
 They came to Perya in Pamphylia. Perga was one of the most 
 famous cities of Pamphylia, which the Temple of Diana, called by 
 Cicero, "Verrina Sexta," — "The most holy, and moat ancient,"' 
 did beautify. To this temple, as Strabo tells us, lib. 14, there was 
 a sacred gathering every year. Appollonius Pergeus (whose four 
 books of Cones are extant in Greek and Latin, as Andreas Quen- 
 stedt saith, De Patriis lUust. Vir., whence he was called by the men 
 of that age, the great geometrician) owes his birth to this city. Of 
 Pamphylia we have spoken above, ch. ii. 10. 
 
 John. Mentioned above, ver. 5. 
 
 Departiny from them. Perhaps shunning the pains and the 
 danger of the rest of the journey. See below, ch. xv. 38. 
 
 Came to Jerusalem. To his mother. 
 
 14. They came to Antioeh in Pisidia. Which was called the 
 Caesarean Colony, as Pliny saith, Nat. Hist., lib. 5, ch. 27. " He 
 added," saith Beza, "the name of Pisidia to distinguish this 
 Antioeh from that other in Syria, from whence they went." Pisi- 
 dia was to the north of Pamphylia, and it had Lycaonia upon the 
 east, which of old was a part of Pisidia ; upon fhe west, Phrygia 
 Pacatiana, being situated between these two provinces; it was 
 formerly governed by a president, then by a prsetor under Justi- 
 nian; Nov. 24. 
 
 And went into the synayoyue. That is, into the meeting place of 
 the Jews. 
 
 On the sabbath day. The evangelists in Greek use to call the 
 sabbath day sabbata, in the plural, according to the custom of the 
 Septuagint. See their translation, Exod. xx. 10, 
 
 And sat dovm. To wit, to hear something taken out of the law 
 and prophets read, as was usual to be read in the synagogues, 
 according to the most ancient Jewish custom, as may be seen 
 below, ver. 27, and ch. xv. 21. 
 
 15. And after the readiny of the law. The reason why the five 
 
286 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XIII. 
 
 books of Moses only are called the law, are given by the author of 
 ti?iy riD bn, because these books of Moses were given to all ages. 
 But the prophets' sermons are n^aprr '^nm, because they received 
 every prophecy from the Holy Ghost, according to the exigence of 
 the time, or of any fact. "Which reason," saith Ludovicus de 
 Dieu, "is not altogether to be despised." But the five books of 
 Moses, being divided into fifty-four sections, which they call 
 nriBiD, are read yearly by the Jews in their synagogues. They 
 begin the reading of them the next sabbath after the Feast of 
 Tabernacles, and thenceforward they read one section every sab- 
 bath-day, except two, whereon they join two lesser sections, to be 
 read together at once, that so, in a year's time, all may be read 
 over, and may be finished the ninth day of the feast of Taber- 
 nacles, Avhich, therefore, the Jews call niin nnaiB, " the gladness of 
 the law." There are some that do not read over the whole law 
 but once in three years : " but this is not the custom," saith Mai- 
 monides ; in summa Talmudica tract, de precibus, &c., Benedict, 
 sacerdotum, cap. 13. 
 
 And the prophets. Every sabbath day the Jews read a section 
 taken out of the prophets in their synagogues, answering to the 
 lesson read out of the Pentateuch. And they call it the Dismis- 
 sion, because the prophetical section being read, the people are dis- 
 missed. " Antiochus Epiphanes," saith Elias in his Thisbi, " did 
 by an edict forbid the Israelites the reading of the law. What did 
 the Israelites do? They took one section out of the prophets, 
 whose matter was like the things which were treated of in that 
 section of the law which was assigned for that sabbath. As for 
 example, upon that sabbath whereon that section fi*il)N~a, should be 
 read, they read out of the prophecy of Isaiah, ch. xlii. 5, TTius saith 
 the Lord, the Lord that created the heavens, &c. ; but when the sec- 
 tion of JSToah, Gen. vi. 1, was to be read, they substituted a section 
 answering to it out of Isa. liv. 9, For this is as the waters of Noah 
 unto me." And so also of the rest of the sections. But now, 
 though this decree of Antiochus be void, yet that custom of read- 
 ing sections taken out of the prophets, accommodated to the sec- 
 tions of the Pentateuch, is not taken away ; for even to this day 
 they read such sections as these of the prophets, after the section 
 of the law. 
 
 The rulers of the synagogues sent unto them. That is, they who 
 did administer, and oversee the afiairs of the synagogue. Grotius 
 
VEE. XVII.J LITBEALLY EXPLAINED. 287 
 
 upon Matt. ix. 18 : " It is to be observed," saith he, " that men of 
 known goodness were set over the Jewish synagogue, who were 
 called in the Chaldaic language d^DsiD, that is, 'pastors,' which word 
 is also frequently read in Benjamin's Itinerary. Or also D^3"i, 
 ' masters,' as the Syrian put it in Mark, or Q^ffl^isa, which signifies 
 'gatherers,' or ' arbitrators,' which is read in the Syrian in the Acts. 
 The Hellenists called them apxiawayMjovQ, ' rulers of the syna- 
 gogue,' as we are taught from Acts xiii. 13, where mention is made 
 of many rulers of the synagogue in one and the same society. But 
 there was one eminent among them, preferred to the rest for learn- 
 ing, whose proper office it was to expound the law, and to recite 
 the words of the public prayers, as Justin against Trypho teacheth 
 us. Him the Hebrews call rrDaTa, ' the chief,' or also, ?>npn l»^<^, in 
 Syriac NniBiM ir^l, 'the prince of the synagogue,' and by excel- 
 lency, ' archisynagogus,' Luke xiii. ] 4. Philo calls him 6 TrpoeSpoc, 
 ' the prases,' sometimes also 6 Tr^tar^uTaTOQ, ' the eldest,' to whom 
 he attributes the office of explaining the things that were obscure 
 in their books, and of debating the matters, and of reciting before 
 the people the words of the hymn they were to sing. 
 
 Ye men and brethren. Hence it appears that Such as seemed 
 able to preach were extraordinarily invited to it, at least that it 
 was usual to suffer others to do it besides the ordinary rabbins is 
 plain by Christ's example, Luke iv. 15, 17. 
 
 16. Then Paul stood up. That he might be the better heard by 
 the congregation. 
 
 And beehoning with his haud. See what we have said above, ch. 
 xii. 17. 
 
 Men of Israel. That is, ye posterity of Abraham, Isaac, and 
 Jacob, or Israel, who by your birth are reckoned the Lord's people. 
 
 And ye that fear God. As much as to say, And ye who of the 
 Gentiles have embraced the worship of the living God. 
 
 Give ear. Devoutly and religiously. -^ 
 
 17. The God of this people of Israel. Of the people descended 
 of Jacob, who was called, whence also all his posterity are called, 
 
 Israel. 
 
 Chose our fathers. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, peculiarly to be 
 his servants and friends. 
 
 And exalted the people. That is, he blessed the people, which 
 came of them with great increase, Exod. i. 7 : a metaphor taken 
 from buildings which are finished to the top. 
 
288 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. Xlll. 
 
 When they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt. As much as 
 to say, When the people were oppressed by the Egyptians in, 
 whose land they dwelt. 
 
 And with an high arm. That is, with his great power signally 
 exerted. It is a metaphor taken from men, who, when they are 
 to do anything with force, especially to smite one, they use to lift 
 their arm high. 
 
 Brought he them. Lying under a bitter slavery. 
 
 Out of it. To wit, Egypt, when they could hardly bear longer 
 their most heayy bondage in it. 
 
 18. And about the time of forty years. It is 'said about, because 
 there seems one year to be wanting of the complete forty years 
 
 Suffered he their manners, &c. That is. He destroyed not that 
 perverse and obstinate people, while they were in the wilderness, 
 betwixt Egypt and Canaan, which was promised to their fathers. 
 
 19. And when 'he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan. 
 Grod, Gen. xv. 19 — 21, promised unto Abraham ten nations, the 
 Kenites, the Kenizites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, 
 and the Rephaims, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, 
 and the Jebusites. But Paul numbers seven nations only here, 
 which the Israelites by divine assistance overthrew, nor is there 
 any mention of the Kinites, or the Kenites, nor of the Kinizites, 
 or Kenezites, nor of th« Cedmonites, or Cadmonites, in the dis- 
 tribution of the land, and the preceding war. See Deut. vii. 1 ; 
 Josh. iii. 10; xxiv. 11; sometimes six only are mentioned, as 
 Exod. iii. 8, 17 ; Judg. iii. 5 ; Neh. ix. 8, where, besides the 
 Kenites, the Kenezites, and the Cadmonites, in the two first places 
 the Girgashites, and in the third place Rephaim, or the Hivites,. 
 are pnssed over in silence. Rabbi Solomon Jarchi, upon the fore- 
 cited place in Genesis, saith : " There are ten nations mentioned 
 here, but he gave them but seven. And the other three, to wit, 
 the Edomites, the Moabites^ and the Ammonites, who are the 
 Kenites, Kenizites, and the Cadmonites, shall at last fall into the 
 inheritance of the people, because it is said, Isa. xi, 14, They shall 
 lay their hands upon Edom and Moab, and t/ie children of Amman 
 shall obey them." This is the common opinion of the Jews. Others 
 understand by them the Arabians, Salmseans, Nuthfeans; others, 
 Damascus, Asia, and Spain; some also, Asia, Turkey, and Car- 
 thage. But all the Jews with one consent maintain that these 
 three peoples are yet to be subjugated by the Messiah. They 
 
VER. XX. j LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 28 & 
 
 also argue, that seeing they are not already overcome^ the Messiah 
 is not yet come. But passing by Jewish fables, who loving an 
 earthly kingdom, do fancy dreams to themselves, it is very probable 
 that the Kenites and Kenizites, in that interval of time betwixt 
 Abraham and Moses, were either quite extinguished, or lost their 
 name, or were little famous, and so counted among other nations ; 
 for Joshua mentions that nowhere, neither in the division of the 
 land, nor in the account of the nations which he overcame. 
 Eustathius, bishop of Antioch, in Hexaemero, writes indeed, that 
 the Kenites did inhabit the Mounts Lebanon and Amanus, but 
 whence he drew this is uncertain. After the time of Joshua, 
 mention is made of the Kenites, 1 Sam. xxvii. 10 ; xxx. 29. But 
 that they are the same with these, whom God, speaking to Abraham 
 in the forecited place. Gen. xv., mentions, is not certain. As to 
 the Cadmonites, they were the same with the Hivites. They are 
 called D'l^a-ip, « east countrymen," because they dwelt upon Mount 
 Hermon, verging towards the east parts of the land of Canaan. 
 They seem after Abraham's time to have been reckoned with them 
 whom God, speaking to Abraham himself, called Bephaims, as may 
 be gathered from Josh xii. 4, 5. " It is' credible,", saith Masius, 
 upon Josh iii. 10, " that in a most populous country many different 
 kindreds dwelt; and that the same kindreds were not always called 
 by the same names is certain : for they who in the covenant with 
 Abraham are called Eephaims, seem now by Joshua to be called 
 Hivites." 
 
 In the land of Canaan. This most famous country in Asia the 
 greater was inhabited by Chanaan the son of Cham, and divided 
 among his eleven sons and their posterity ; most of them retained 
 their names in Moses' times. It is commonly called by Christians, 
 the Holy Land, namely, because they reverence, with Helena, the 
 mother of Constantine the Great, the ground whereon of old the 
 footsteps of our Saviour were imprinted, Euseb. lib. iii., de Vita 
 Constant. Magn. 42. Its borders are, toward j^the east the river 
 Jordan; toward the west, Egypt and the great sea, which is 
 called the Mediterranean ; toward the south, the desert of Arabia; 
 towar^ the north, Mount Lebanon. 
 
 He divided their land to them by lot. By Joshua their captain, 
 the successor of Moses, with Eleazar the high priest, Josh. xiii. 7, 
 and xiv. 1, 2. 
 
 20. About, &c. We find the number of four hundred and fifty 
 
 u 
 
290 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XIII. 
 
 years constantly kept in the Greek, Latin, Syriac, Ethiopic, and 
 Arabic books ; but the plape and order of the number is various 
 and different in the different editions. " For in the ancient Vul- 
 gate Latin translation," saith the reverend Usher, archbishop of 
 Armagh, Chron. Sac. p. 1, cap. 12, " they are thus rendered : ' He 
 divided their land to them by lot, about four- hundred and fifty 
 years after, and afterwards he gave them judges ;' even as Joannes 
 Mariana testifieth he found it written in some Greek manuscripts, 
 to wit, in the manuscripts of Petrus Taxardup, marquess of 
 Velesio, whichr are greatly suspected to have been designedly both 
 here and otherwhere conformed to the Vulgate Latin translation. 
 But the Alexandrian copy, which we have in Englandj written in 
 great letters, and of far greater antiquity than those cited by 
 Mariana, reads it thus, ' He divided their land to them by lot in 
 about four hundred and fifty years, and after that he gave them 
 judges.' The very same thing is also found in those divers readings 
 which Eobert Stephen added to the New Testament, which he 
 printed in Greek at Paris, a.d, 1568. Also, a certain Greek copy 
 published at Paris, and cited by Beza in his annotations upon 
 this place, agreeing with it, and another manuscript of the new 
 college of Oxford, except only that this wants the pronoun ' their ' 
 after yijv, land: in the other the pronoun 'them' is added after the 
 verb ' he gave.' In all which it is manifest, that those four hundred 
 and fifty years relate not to the continuance of the judges, but to 
 the time of the division of the land. Moreover, some very 
 learned men of our age, as Francis Junius' relates, did think that 
 this circumscription of times doth belong to the former part of this 
 speech, even retaining the vulgar reading of the Greek copies ; to 
 wit, that as they think some fit participle must be understood, as if 
 it were thus read : ' After the four hundred and fifty years weue 
 (ended) he gave judges.' By this means the beginning of this 
 account will depend upon the first words of the apostle's speech, 
 ver. 17, The God of this people Israel chose our fathers. But when 
 God had promised to Abraham, as yet not having a son, that he 
 would give the land of Canaan to his seed, Gen. xii. 7; Acts vii. 5, 
 afterwards Ishmael, his first-born, being excluded, the choice of 
 the fathers was made in Isaac, according to that, In Isaac shall thy 
 seed be called, Gen. xi. 12. Further, from the birth Cjf Isaac until 
 the going of his posterity out of Egypt, there passed four hundred 
 years and five, to which add forty-six years and a half, which were 
 
VEa. XX.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 291 
 
 betwixt that and the dividing of the land, they make up four 
 hundred fifty-one years and a half, which Paul calls about four 
 hundred and fifty years." Famous Ludovicus de Dieu saith 
 somewhat otherwise. " I altogether agree with them,*' saith he, 
 " who will not have reckoned here the years wherein the judges 
 ruled ; (for thus it seems impossible to make the four hundred and 
 fifty agree with the four hundred and eighty years, which were 
 froni the coming out of Egypt to the beginning of the temple of 
 Solomon, 1 Kings vi. 1 ;) but these which passed from the birth of 
 Isaac till the time of the judges, as if it were written. And after- 
 wards, about four hundred and fifty years, he gave judges : to tell, 
 not how long the judges ruled, but when God gave them ; to wit, 
 after these things which were declared, ver. 17 — 19, which were 
 acted in about four hundred and fifty years. The account agrees. 
 For from Isaac to Jacob's birth are sixty years ; thence to the 
 going into Egypt a hundred and thirty ; thence to the coming out 
 of Egypt two hundred and ten ; thence to the entering into the 
 land of Canaan forty ; thence to the .dividing of the land seven 
 years ; which together make four hundred forty and seven years ; 
 that is, about four hundred and fifty, for there are only three 
 wanting. For that in ver. 17, God chose our fathers, is rightly 
 referred to the time of Isaac's birth, because that then God, who 
 had already chosen Abraham of all the people of the earth, did of 
 all Abraham's children choose Isaac, in whose family the covenant 
 should stand, saying, In Isaac shall thy seed be called." 
 
 He gave unto them judges. These judges among the Hebrews 
 were directly like to the Koman interreges, and afterwards to the 
 dictators ; neither did they differ in any thing from the Hebrew 
 kings, but that they had not a guard and royal pomp, and there- 
 fore exacted not taxes nor tributes; nevertheless, they were, as 
 Josephus- speaks, governors with a sovereign power, and therefore 
 are called kings, Judg. ix. 16. They made Abimelech king, that 
 is, judge. When Samson was dead, Judg. xviii. 1, In those days 
 there was no king in Israel, that is, judge. And as the kings had 
 power of killing without the Sanhedrim, as the Talmudic title 
 ■jmruD, and 2 Sam. i. 15, and other places teach; so had also these 
 judges, as appears from the examples of Gideon, Judg. viii. 16, 17, 
 and Jepthah, Judg. xii. 6, which things are rightly observed by 
 Abarbanel in the beginning of the,, boqk of the Judges. Josephus 
 useth also to call those judges by the name of prpphets, because 
 
 u 2 
 
292 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XIII. 
 
 they were immediately given of God, and therefore endued with 
 prophetical gifts. 
 
 Until Samuel the prophet. Who was the last of those judges. 
 21. And afterward, &c. As much as to say. But afterward, to 
 wit, when Samuel had governed the commonwealth one and twenty 
 years, they, after tlie example of other nations, asked a king, 1 Sam. 
 viii, 5, 19 ; and at the importunate desire of the people, God gave 
 them a king in his anger, Hos. xiii. 10, 11, Saul the son of 
 Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, but not of the tribe of Judah, 
 for whom the sceptre seems to have been appointed of old. Gen. 
 xlix. 10. 
 
 By the space of forty years. Seeing that Ishbosheth, when he 
 succeeded his father Saul in the kingdom, was forty years of age, 
 2 Sam. ii. 10, we understand that Ishbosheth was born at the same 
 time as Saul was first privately anointed, then publicly declared king 
 before the people at Mizpeh, 1 Sam. x. 1, 24, 25. " Nor was it 
 long after," as saith Usher in his annals upon the year of the 
 world, two thousand nine hundred and nine, "as appears from 
 i Sam. xii. 12, to wit, about a month after, as it is expressly in 
 the seventy interpreters, and Josephus, Antiq. vi. 5, that Jabesh 
 Gilead was besieged by Nahash, and by Saul delivered, having 
 scattered the Ammonites. Whence at a meeting the whole people 
 had at Gilgal, the kingdom was renewed to Saul, 1 Sam. xi. 14, 
 15 ; Samuel confirming his integrity in the execution of his 
 ofiice, complaining of the injuries done him, terrifying the people 
 with thunder and rain in the time of wheat harvest, and then 
 comforting them by proposing the mercy of God, 1 Sam. xii. 17, 
 &c. Whence it appears that these things came to pass about the 
 feast of Pentecost, and at the beginning of the third month, one 
 ' and twenty years after the ark, which the Philistines had carried 
 away, was restored at the same time of the harvest, 1 Sam. xi. 13. 
 whereby we may gather, that as there were twenty years betwixt 
 the bringing again of the ark and the subduing the Philistinesj 
 from 1 Sana. vii. 2, 13 ; so also that there passed a year betwixt the 
 freeing of the Israelites' land from the Philistines, and Saul's being 
 declared king, is gathered from these words, 1 Sam. xiii, 1, Said 
 reigned one year, and when he had reigned two years over Israel, 
 Whereof a better sense cannot be given than that, — that one year 
 was passed since the subduing of the Philistines by Samuel, when 
 Saul began to reign ; and that he reigned two years after, free 
 
TEK. XXI.J LITEEALLY EXPLAINED. 293 
 
 from the yoke of the Philistines. For in aftertimes Saul was by 
 the Philistines stripped of his authority, and the people of Israel 
 oppressed by them with a heavy and long bondage ; which being 
 at length removed, Saul is said to have taken the kingdom over 
 Israel, that is, to have again recovered it, 1 Sam. xiv. 47. It is a 
 proof that this oppression lasted many years, that it having begun 
 eight years before David was born, yet before it was ended, 
 Samuel named him to succeed in the kingdom of Saul, 1 Sam. 
 xiii. 14 : The Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart, and 
 the Lord hath commanded him to be a captain over his people. For 
 that the Israelites might be past all hopes of recovering their 
 liberty, lest they might have weapons the Philistines carried 
 away all the smiths from them ; so that when the Israelites came 
 to battle, among all them Saul and Jonathan only were found 
 armed with sword and spear, 1 Sam. xiii. 19, 22." Daniel Brenius, 
 in his friendly debate against the Jews, Qusest. 26 : " How," saith 
 he, "is that consistent, which is written. Acts xiii. 21, that Saul, 
 who was the first iing of Israel, reigned forty years when the 
 scripture mentions only two years? Answer. These two years 
 mentioned, 1 Sam. xiii. 1, may be so taken, as not to note the 
 whole sum of Saul's administration, but that time of his govern- 
 ment, until he chose these three thousand, which are mentioned 
 tiiere, ver. 2, otherwise if we will take it absolutely that the 
 whole time of Saul's reign is described, ver. 1, then will arise this 
 difficulty : to wit, how David — who began to reign at thirty years 
 of age, 2 Sam. v. 4, and therefore, if Saul reigned two years only, 
 appears manifestly to have been twenty-eight years of age, when 
 Saul began to reign, and consequently when he killed Goliah, — is 
 advised by Saul, 1 Sam. xvii. 33, not to fight with Goliah, because 
 he was yet but a youth (likewise he is called a youth, ver. 42) ; — 
 how, I say, is he called a youth, being in his nine and twentieth 
 year ? Not to speak of those many battles that are said to have 
 been fought against so many people during Saul's reign, 1 Sam. 
 xiv. 46, and in them the various conflicts betwixt David and the 
 Philistines, 1 Sam. xviiij 25. Then afterward his flight, and his 
 changing of his lurking places so often, because of Saul's mani- 
 fold persecutions. Lastly, David's dwelling among the Philistines 
 one year and four months, 1 Sam. xxvii. 7, compared with ch. xxix. 
 2, where Achlsh saith that David was with him these days or these 
 years, that is, some days or some years, and other things are men- 
 
294 THE ACTS OP THK HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XIII. 
 
 tioned to have fallen out in Saul's reign, all which do abundantly 
 demonstrate that there was more than two years' space betwixt 
 Saul's reign and David's. And these things are thus far so debated, 
 as if that place in Samuel were esteemed entire and incorrupt in 
 the editions which are now extant. But now, indeed, we must 
 know, that the Hebrew copies show "this place to be imperfect, 
 when betwixt the words Schanah and Ben, they leave a void place; 
 for some of them have it thus written, Ben — schana Schaoul. It 
 is probable the numerical note is wanting, which expressed the 
 number of the years of Saul's age when he began to reign; for 
 it is usual in these books of kings to insert the ages of the kings 
 and the tiine of their reign, in the beginning of the history of 
 their acts, as 2 Sam. ii. 10, where we read, thus written: Ish- 
 bosheih, SauFs son, was forty years old when he began to reign 
 over Israel, and reigned two years. Which same thing is done in 
 David and other kings. Hence some Greek copies, supplying the 
 number here, do write : vIoq rpiaKovra Irwv, " son of thirty years." 
 Seeing, therefore, that the beginning of the verse here is judged 
 defective, what wonder is it that the like fault doth happen as 
 to the number in the latter part of it, which defines the time of 
 Saul's reign, and that therefore, the number expressed by the 
 evangelists, who might 'as yet see the place entire, did differ so 
 much from what is this day seen in our copies ? Especially seeing 
 that in the end of the sixth book of Josephus's Antiquities, Saul 
 is said to have reigned eight years while Samuel lived, and two 
 and twenty after his death ; which is a token that of old there 
 was another reading of this place extant, having the notes of the 
 numbers, though not so much differing." 
 
 22. And when he had removed him. That is, Saul being rejected 
 while yet alive, for a punishment of his disobedience, 1 Sam. 
 xiii. 14, 1^ ; xxviii.. 16, 17. 
 
 He raised up unto them David to be their king. That is, that 
 Jacob's prophecy. Gen. xlix. 10, might be made good, he pro- 
 moted David, of the tribe of Judah, hitherto a mean and obscure 
 man, to the kingly dignity, who upon Saul's death should succeed 
 in the kingdom. See the forecited places, and Ps. Ixxvii. 70, 71 ; 
 cxiii. 7, 8. 
 
 To whom he also gave testimony, and said. 1 Sam. xiii. 14 ; 
 Ps. Ixxxviii., in the Hebrew Ixxxix. 20, 21. 
 
 / have found. As much as to say, I have gotten such a "man 
 
VER. XXV.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 295 
 
 as I would wish in the person of David, who, to wit, will do 
 whatever I command him, whereas Saul, against my express com- 
 mand, spared the king of the Amalekites, and the fattest of the 
 cattle. See 1 Sam. xv. 22, 28. 
 
 23. Of this man's. To wit, David's. 
 Seed. That is, posterity and offspring. 
 
 According to his promise. 2 Sam. vii. 12 ; 1 Chron. xxii. 10 ; 
 Ps. Ixxxix. 35 — 37 ;■ Isa. xi. 1, 2 ; Jer. xxiii. 5, 6 ; Micah v. 2. 
 
 liaised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus. That is, he raised the 
 promised Saviour to the people of Israel, which is Jesus, who 
 saves his people from their sins. See Matt. i. 21. God of old 
 raised saviours for Israel, Judg. lii. 9, 15, who delivered them 
 from bodily bondage and earthly miseries ; but he raised up Jesus 
 to be the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him, 
 Heb. V. 9, to confer the causes, means, and ways of repentance, 
 and to grant time and place, and to purchase for repenting sinners 
 a remission of their sins, by his merits and prayers. See what we 
 have said above, ch. v. 31. 
 
 24. Preached, Sic. As much as to say, John as his forerunner 
 had prepared his way, according to the prophecy of Mai. iii. 1, 
 when Jesus was to enter forthwith upon his oflSce, by the preaching 
 of baptism, to testify repeiitance of sin, which not only includes 
 the avoiding of evil, but the following of good, or works of piety. 
 
 Before his coming. The Greek hath it, " Before his entering." 
 That is, before the Lord Jesus had entered upon his office. " So," 
 saith Grotius, " lawyers say-also, ' to enter upon the consulship.' " 
 
 To all the people of Israel. That is, publicly, so that many 
 came to John to be baptized. Matt. iii. 5. 
 
 25. And as John fulfilled his course. That is, saith learned 
 Heinsius, " when John was to execute his ealling." This, Col. iv. 
 17, is called. To fulfil the miitistry that one received from the Lord; 
 Col. i. 25, To fulfil the niord of God; Rom. xv. 19, Fnl/il the 
 gospel of Christ. 
 
 Whom think ye that I am ? To wit, the Messiah, promised in 
 the law and in the prophets ? Paul related not the very words, 
 but the sense which is in John i. 20. 
 
 There cameth One after me. That is, there is one to enter upon 
 his office after me. 
 
 Whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to loose. Petronius said, 
 « To loose the strings of his shoes." The Baptist would express 
 
296 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XIII. 
 
 the basest kind of service. Suetonius in his Vitellius: "He 
 sought from Messalina for a very great office, that she would allow 
 him to pull her shoes oflF her feet." See our literal explanation, 
 Matt. iii. 11. 
 
 26. Wliosoever among you feareth God. See what we have said 
 above, ver. 16. 
 
 To you is the word of this salvation sent As much as to say, we 
 have a command from the Lord to preach to you who are of the 
 stock of Abraham, or taken into his family as proselytes, this 
 saving doctrine of Jesus the Saviour, to which John gave so 
 honourable a testimony. 
 
 27 . For they. This word for Is in this place put for but. 
 
 That dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers. That is, not only the 
 common people at Jerusalem, but also the priests, scribes, and 
 Pharisees, and the whole Sanhedrim. 
 
 Because they knew him not. To wit, to be the promised Messiah. 
 See what we have said above, ch. iiL 17. 
 
 Nor yet the voice of the prophets, &c. As much as to say. 
 Neither understanding the prophecies of the prophets, which used 
 to be read every sabbath to them in the synagogues. See what we 
 have noted above, ver. 15. 
 
 Condemning. Viz., to death, him, to wit, Jesus. 
 
 Fulfilled. That is, brought to pass ; supply, " these voices of the 
 prophets," whereby it was foretold that the Messiah should be by 
 some despised, reproached, mocked, afflicted, pierced, and slain, as 
 Isa, liii. ; Dan. ix. 24, &c. 
 
 28. And though they found no cause of death in him. As much 
 as to say, could find no true crime worthy of death in him who 
 did well explain the law, and bestowed many favours upon the 
 people. 
 
 Yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. That is, they 
 persuaded Pilate that he would adjudge him to death. 
 
 29. And when they had fulfilled all, &c. As much as to say, 
 and when they had brought upon Christ all the punishments and 
 reproaches which the prophets" foretold the Messiah was to suffer, 
 Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, having taken him from the 
 cross, laid him in a sepulchre, John xix. S8, 39. 
 
 30. But God, &c. As much as to say. The Jews at Jerusalem, 
 and those who were chief among them, the priests, scribes, and 
 Pharisees delivered Jesus to be put to death unjustly, but the 
 
VbJR. XXXIII.] LITEEALLY EXPLAINED. 297 
 
 just God being against them, did bring him back from death to 
 Hfe. 
 
 31. He. To wit, Jesus, being raised from the dead. 
 Was seen many days. That is, forty days. 
 
 Who are his witnesses to the people. As much as to say, The eye- 
 witnesses who are remaining, do, to this day, openly and publicly 
 profess that Jesus Christ, being risen from the dead, did appear to 
 them forty days. 
 
 32. And we. To wit, I and my companion Barnabas. 
 Declare unto you, &c. As much as to say. We now preach unto 
 
 you the promise made to our fathers of the Messiah to come, 
 because that God hath now fulfilled it tans who are their children. 
 Time, therefore, persuades and presses us that what he hath ful- 
 filled to us we should declare unto you. 
 
 The promise which was made to the fathers. To wit, Abraham, 
 Gen. xxii. 18 ; Isaac, Gen. xxvi. 4 ; Judah, Gen. xlix. 10 ; David, 
 2 Sam. vii. 12 ; Isaiah xi. 1. 
 
 33. God hath fulfilled. That is, really performed. 
 
 To us their children. That is. To us who are their children. 
 
 In that he hath raised up Jesus. Gloriously, whom they had 
 undeservedly put to a barbarous and ignominious death. 
 
 My Son, &c. Although these words in their literal meaning, do 
 in some respect agree to David as to the figure, who is as it were 
 begotten again of God, that he might be his son, when he was 
 delivered from the snares of his enemies, 2 Sam. v. 12 ; xix. 
 22, the. first-born, or chief among the kings of the earth, who are 
 called the sons of God, Psa. Ixxxii. 6, appointed of God, Psa. 
 Ixxxix. 27, 28 ; yet upon a far more honourable account were they 
 fulfilled in the First-bom from the dead. Col. i. 18, Eev. i. 5 ; in 
 Christ, who was shadowed by David, and called by David's name, 
 Jer. XXX. 9 ; Ezek. xxxiv. 23 ; Hos. iii. 5 ; seeing that, being risen 
 from the dead, all power was given him in heaven and in earth. 
 Matt, xxviii. 18. This Paul teacheth here, and the author of the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, ch. v. 5. " These words," saith Camero, 
 " are not to be so taken as that Christ after his resurrection had 
 begun to be the Son of God, and to be begotten by him, but 
 because that God did then most powerfully declare Christ by his 
 resurrection to be his own Son. For this is the manner of scrip- 
 ture, that, things be then said to be done or born, when they are 
 manifested, and do appear, as when Solomon, Prov. xvii. 17, saith. 
 
298 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XIII. 
 
 A friend is born in a day of adversity ; that is, he then discovers 
 himself, when our straights press us. For, although the Father, 
 also, before the resurrection, gave testimony to him, yet because 
 until his resurrection Christ was as it were encompassted with 
 infirmities, and liable to death, his calling to the mediatory office 
 was somewhat obscure until that day. But when, having laid 
 aside his mortality, he gloriously rose again and ascended into 
 heaven, then did he properly, as it were, openly declare unto all^ 
 that Christ is both his Son,, and called to the priestly office. But 
 Grod, until that very day, as he saw becoming his own wisdom, 
 delayed to make this mystery known. Hence it is that Paul saith 
 in this place, that God at last, after Christ's resurrection, said to 
 him, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten tliee." Justin, in his 
 Colloquy with Trypho : " Saying he was born from thence, whereof 
 it was to come to pass he should be born." From this place of 
 Justin, and from Rabbi David Kimchi, it appears that the Jews 
 of old looked upon the second Psalm as upon a prophecy con- 
 cerning the 'Messiah. 
 
 34. That, &c. As much as to say, But that he raised Jesus 
 from the dead, not to die again, as they which Elijah and Elisha 
 raised did die, that he might be the eternal king of his people, 
 whom he should make eternal partakers of glory with him ; so he 
 said in Isaiah the prbphet, ch. Iv. 3. 
 
 / will give you the sure mercies of David. The Seventy render 
 in Isaiah the Hebrew word ''li?17, "the holies," but 2 Chron. vi. 
 42, they render it " mercies." Therefore holies and mercies are 
 the same, in both are understood the free promises of God made to 
 David. " For which," saith Ludovicus de Dieu, " he will not 
 wonder that the Hellenists called them to. baia, 'holies,' who 
 knows when they would call God "^'pfj, ' bountiful,' they call him 
 ' holy,' Ps. xvii. 28, and render the Hebrew word ipn, indifferentl;^ 
 ' mercy' and ' righteousness ;' and lest any should think that they 
 mean any other thing by ' righteousness,' than they do by ' mercy,' 
 they frequently render nj:']!^, which properly denotes 'righteous- 
 ness,' by ' mercy,' and 'alms,' as 'justice' is also frequently put 
 by the Arabians for ' bounty ;' therefore by the custom of the 
 Hellenists, the ' holies,' the ' righteous,' and the ' mercies ' are the 
 same." Now, that by David, in the place of Isaiah cited here by 
 Paul, is understood the Messiah, is well observed by the rabbins 
 Kimchi and Abenezra. "Therefore," saith famous Lightfoot, 
 
VEE. XXXVIII.] LITEKALLTf EXPLAINED. 299 
 
 " the resurrection of Christ, as the apostle interpl-iets it, is called 
 TO. 8ma Tov Xpiarov iriffTa. God also by the prophet, from whoin 
 these things are taken, promiseth a resurrection, and the benefits 
 of the resurrection of Christ : he promised and foretold his death, 
 (jh. liii. But what mercies are to be expected by a dead Mes- 
 siah, if he should be always dead? His benefits are weak and 
 infirm, if death should put an end to them. Therefore he pro- 
 miseth benefits and mercies which are firm, stable, and shall never 
 end, which shall flow from his resurrection." 
 
 Sure. The Greek hath Uiata, that is, according to Heaychius's 
 interpretation, "firm," and stable. Iti that very sense this Greek 
 word is used by the Hellenists, 1 Sam. xxv. 28 ; 1 Kings xi. 38, 
 and iriffTovv, for to " confirm " and " establish," 1 Chron. xvii. 14. 
 
 35. Wherefore also in another psalm. ■ To wit, Ps. xvi. 1 0. 
 
 He saith. To wit, David himself by the Spirit of prophecy, 
 concerning the promised Messiah which was to come of his seed, 
 and to reign for ever, 2 Sam. vii. 13 ; 2 Chron. vi. 42, directing 
 his speech to God. 
 
 Thou shalt not suffer. See what we have said above, ch. ii. 27. 
 " Although," saith Curcellaeus,! " I deny not but these things were 
 in some respect fulfilled in David, as in the type, when God 
 delivered him from the hands of his enemies, and suflFered them 
 not to take away his life, that he might afterwards rot in his 
 grave ; yet doth it far more eminently agree to Christ, who was 
 but for a short time left in the grave, in which he felt no cor- 
 ruption, nor did he afterwards return any more unto it; when 
 David, who, though he felt no corruption at that time when his 
 enemies intended his death, yet afterward he, as all other men, 
 yielded to the necessity of nature." 
 
 36. After he had served his own generation by the will of God. 
 That is, in governing his people, and advancing religion in some 
 measure. 
 
 Fell asleep, and was laid unto his fathers. That is, died, and 
 was buried, even as his fathers were. 
 
 And saw corruption. That is, and his corpse rotted in the grave. 
 
 37. Whom, &c. As much as to say. But Jesus Christ was iti so 
 short a time restored from death to life, that his body laid in the 
 sepulchre was no ways vitiated with rottenness. 
 
 38. Through this man is preached unio you remission of sins. As 
 
 * Rel. Christ. Institut. lib. v. cap. 3, n. 7. 
 
300 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XIII. 
 
 mucli as to say, It is preached to you by me and Barnabas,that 
 the penitents shall have a free pardon of their sins from God, 
 being reconciled by this only Mediator betwixt God and man, the 
 man Jesus Christ. 
 
 39. And by him. That is, by the merits and intercession of this 
 man, to wit, Jesus Christ. 
 
 All that believe are justified. That is, whosoever shall by a 
 lively faith adhere to Christ as to a teacher sent from heaven, the 
 Redeemer and Mediator of men, shall by his merits and inter- 
 cession, obtain pardon and remission of his sins from God. 
 
 From all things, &c. As much as to say. Seeing the law of 
 Moses gives no hope of pardon, except of sins committed through 
 infirmity or ignorance, but denounceth the punishment of death 
 without mercy upon greater crimes. Numb. xv. 22, &c. ; Heb. x. 
 28; but if any man repenting of his former life, will with a 
 sincere faith embrace Christ, he shall through him be absolved 
 from any sins whatsoever committed against the law of God. 
 
 Be justified. That is, purged and expiated, as Dan. viii. 14, or 
 freed, as Eom. vi. 7. 
 
 Beware, &c. As much aa to say, Therefore take heed, lest if ye 
 embrace not the faith of Christ, the same happen to you which of 
 old happened to your fathers, foretold by Habakkuk, in the book^ 
 of the smaller prophets, to have your city and temple overthrown, 
 and yourselves carried away, for your contempt of heavenly admo- 
 nitions. 
 
 41. Behold ye despisers. The Hebrew original hath OliSi? IK"), 
 Hab. i. 5. Most interpreters render the word tiMia, as a double 
 diction, compounded of a preposition and a noun, " among the 
 heathen." But the Seventy, whom the apostle seems to have 
 followed here, as also the Syrian interpreter, taking it for one 
 single diction, rendered it " despisers," " arrogant," " insolent." 
 " D^iaa," saith incomparable Pocock,i " for a plural taken from the 
 singular Nias, bago, termined like Nisp, kano, ' a zealot,' namely 
 from the root N33, which though we do not find elsewhere in the 
 Hebrew Bible, (which is the only treasure of the pure and ancient 
 Hebrew that remains among us) yet the use of the Arabic lan- 
 guage, added to the authority of these interpreters, doth abundantly 
 confirm me that it hath been used by the Hebrews of old." And 
 a little after : " I believe," saith he, " it will trouble no man more, 
 
 • Not. Misc. ad portam Mosis, cap. 3. 
 
VEE. XLIII.J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 301 
 
 that D^Niaa, is not written with an n altogether latent and idle in 
 the pronouncing, than to see if he will embrace the other reading, 
 written B";ia3, not D'^ilsa, or otherwhere D^ia, not Ciis, or that the 
 same letter, (to wit, n) should often be taken away in other words, 
 where it is radical. The Masora notes that i< is thirteen times 
 wanting in the deriYatives from that one verb N13." 
 
 And wonder and perish. The Hebrew hath, Hab. i. 5, in5?ft!Tl 
 inan. Eabbi Tanchum, in the forecited place of Pocock: "The 
 repeating of the same verb in different conjugations," saith he, " is 
 for confirmation' sake, and perhaps by one of the conjugations he 
 meant admiration, by the other astonishment, confusion, such as 
 admiration at some strange thing useth to beget. Therefore," 
 addeth Pocock, " the simple word nag, seems to signify somewhat 
 more than either rmDin, among the Hebrews, or ijdidn, among the 
 Syrians ; neither is it seldom, I think, that among both the 
 Hebrews and Arabians, increased conjugations signify somewhat 
 less, though different, than the simple theme doth." The Greek 
 hath : " And wonder, and disfigure," supply, as Grotius hath very 
 well observed, "your faces," so that the sense is the same as 
 Matt. vi. 16, "wax very pale," to wit, out of fear. 
 
 For I work, &c. As much as to say. For the work which I am 
 to work in your time, shall be so great, that if any shall at this 
 time foretel it, they will not easily believe him. This the prophet 
 means of God's stirring up the Chaldeans, a fierce nation, to lay 
 Judea waste for the sins of its inhabitants. But the apostle turns 
 and accommodates these words to the Jews of his time for reject- 
 ing Jesus the Messiah sent from God, unless they repented and 
 embraced him whom God hath exalted by faith, and says that they 
 likewise shall be grievously punished by a powerful foreign nation. 
 
 42. The Gentiles besought. That is, such as among the Gentiles 
 did Judaize, and did, therefore, frequent the Jewish assemblies, 
 although they were uncircumcised, such was Cornelius, and at that 
 time not a few ; they, I say, besought Paul and Barnabas. 
 
 That these words might he preached to them. That is, that they 
 might more fully explain what they said of the Messiah, and the 
 benefits that were to be obtained by him. 
 
 43. Now when the congregation was broken up. That is, when 
 the assembly being dismissed, every one went to their own houses. 
 
 Religious proselytes. That is, such as of other nations had come 
 over to the Jewish religion. 
 
302 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [OHAP. XIII. 
 
 Who. To wit, Paul and Barnabas. 
 
 To continue in the grace of God. That is, to persevere in the 
 doctrine of the gospel about Jesus Christ. The doetrine of the 
 gospel is by a metonymy called the grace of God, which is come 
 unto men merely by the grace of God. See Heb. xii. 15; 1 Pet. 
 V. 12. 
 
 44. The word of God. That is, the doctrine revealed from 
 heaven, and preached by Paul and Barnabas, concerning the 
 attaining eternal salvation thirough faith in Christ. 
 
 45. The Jews. Who were obstinately incredulous. 
 
 The multitudes. That is, the multitudes of men which gathered , 
 to hear Paul and Barnabas. 
 
 They were filled with envy. That is, they bursted with envy 
 that foreigners converted to the Jewish religion, were made equal 
 with them. 
 
 And spahe against thos? things which were spoken by Paul. ■ To 
 wit, concerning Jesus Christ and his doctrine. 
 
 Contradicting and blaspheming. ■ " There is," saith Ludovicus de 
 Dieu, " a very emphatical Hebraism in this phrase, such as you 
 have, 1 Sam. vi. 12, which the Seventy render, ' They went going 
 and lowing : ' that is, they went with a constant . lowing ; so they 
 spake against contradicting and blaspheming. That is, with a con- 
 stant blaspheming attending their contradicting." 
 
 46. Waxed bold. That is, fearless; nowise discouraged with 
 the contradiction of their adversaries. 
 
 It was necessary. By Christ's command and example. Matt. x. 
 6 ; XV. 24 ; Luke xxiv. 47 ; and above, ch. i. 8. 
 
 That the word of God should frst have been spoken to you. That 
 is, that forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation to be obtained 
 from God through the only Mediator betwixt God and man 
 Jesus Christ, who is the Messiah promised in the law and the 
 prophets, should first be preached to you. 
 
 And judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life. It is a phrase 
 of Greek elegance, whereby the same is meant as if it were 
 said. Ye contemn and despise eternal life, which is given to men 
 by God, through Jesus Christ alone. 
 
 Lo, we turn to the Gentiles. As much as to say. The preaching 
 of the gospel by our ministry shall be transferred from you who 
 are unthankful, to foreign and uncircumcised nations, in hopes of 
 better growth and fruit there. 
 
"VER. XLIX.J LITERiLLYBXPLAINB]). 303 
 
 47. For so hath the Lord commanded us. Above, oh. i. 8 ; Matt, 
 xxviii. 19 ; Mark xvi. 15 ; Luke xxiv. 47 ; and that to this Saul or 
 Paul there was a command given by Christ concerning his embas- 
 sage, which he was to undertake for Christ to foreign nations, to 
 preach to them the gospel, appears below, ch. xxii. 21 ; xxvi. 17, 
 18; Gai. i. 16; ii. 8. 
 
 I have set, '&c. As much as to say. For what is spoken of 
 Isaiah, as Christ's type in some measure, Isa. xlii. 6, is truly ful- 
 filled in Christ the Lord, whom he did shadow. For the virtue of 
 Christ shall in no case be restricted to the people of Israel only, 
 but as the words of God found in Isaiah, his light will send forth 
 its beams to the far ends of the earth, by the preaching of his dis- 
 ciples, for the salvation of such, who of any nation in any part of 
 the earth shall believe in him. 
 
 48. And when the Gentiles heard this. Fisidians by birth, aliens 
 from the people of Israel, that salvation was promised to them 
 many ages before, by the coming of Christ. 
 
 Tliey were glad. That it was at length fulfilled, which was fore- 
 told so many ages before. 
 
 And glorified the word of the Lord. That is, they praised the 
 goodness of God, which shined forth in the gospel, preached to 
 them by Paul and Barnabas. 
 
 And as many as were ordained to eternal life. That is, as many 
 as were candidates of eternal life, as Mede excellently expounds it. 
 Sermon iii. in Acts xvii. 4, or as many as were sincerely and 
 honestly disposed to perform whatever God requires of nien to 
 give them eternal life. The verb rarro, is used of an army, and 
 pla,cing of soldiers, of the registermg them in order or rank. Hence 
 the books that treat of ordering and drawing up an army are called 
 tactics. And so may Luke's words be rendered here, as Mede 
 excellently notes in the forecited place. " As many as had given 
 up their names to eternal life, believed : or by an ellipsis of a par- 
 ticiple, who were of the band and company of such as hoped, and 
 earnestly endeavoured to attain eternal life; otherwise, as many 
 as were in readiness for eternal life ; finally, and most conveniently, 
 if it be taken in a military sense, and, not of destination or 
 appointment, as many as were ordained to eternal life." 
 
 49. The word of the Lord. That is, the gospel of Christ 
 preached by Paul and Barnabas at Antioch, the metropolis of 
 Pisidia. 
 
304 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XIII. 
 
 Throughout all the region. To wit, of Pisidia. So was spread 
 the doctrine of Jesus Christ, opposed in vain by his enemies, he 
 ruling in the midst of them, Psa. ex. 2. 
 
 50. But the Jews, Obstinately resisting the truth. 
 
 Stirred up the devout. That is, certain women of the Gentiles, 
 who had submitted to the law of Moses. 
 
 And honourable women. Not of the common sort, but nobles. 
 
 And the chief men of the city. As much as to say, these 
 malicious Jews having abused the blind zeal and imprudent sim- 
 plicity of these matrons, by their means instigated the nobility, or 
 chief men of Antioch, against Paul and Barnabas. 
 
 And raised, &c. As much as to say. And they brought the 
 matter so far, that Paul and Barnabas themselves were with a 
 strong hand borne down and afflicted, and at length expelled from 
 the borders of Antioch in Pisidia. 
 
 51. But they, Paul, to wit, and Barnabas. 
 
 Shook off the dust of their feet. By this rite according to Christ's 
 precept. Matt. x. 14; Luke ix. 5, 10, 11, they testified that 
 they, having discharged their duty, were free from the punishment 
 that was abiding the inhabitants of Antioch in Pisidia, for rejecting 
 the doctrine of the gospel which was preached to them. 
 
 Against them. That is, for a testimony against them, as it is, 
 Luke ix. 5. 
 
 And came unto Iconium. The metropolitan city of Lycaonia, 
 situated at Mount Taurus, whereof, among others, the famous 
 Amphilochius was bishop, who under Theodosius the Great was 
 most vehement against heresies, and of an eminent authority, as it 
 doth appear even by the third law, De Fide Catholica. Lycaonia 
 of old, a part of Pisidia, hath Pisidia upon the west, Isauria upon 
 the south, Cappadocia the second upon the east, and upon the 
 north, Galatia Secunda, called also The Healthy. 
 
 52.' And the disciples, &c. As much as to say, but such as at 
 Antioch in Pisidia did believe in Christ by the preaching of Paul 
 and Barnabas, were filled with joy, for the entrance which was 
 opened for them to eternal life, and with the gifts of the Holy 
 Ghost for the sealing of their faith. 
 
VER. VI.J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 305 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 1. And it came to pass in Iconium. Viz., the metropolis of 
 Lycaonia. 
 
 That they went both together. Paul and Barnabas. 
 
 Spake. That is, preached the gospel. 
 
 A great multitude both of the Jeios, and also of Greeks. Whoso- 
 ever -professed not the Jewish religion, were by the Jews called 
 Greeks, since they lived under the Greek or Macedonian empire, 
 dividing all the men of the world into Jews and Greeks, in respect 
 of religion, not of country. 
 
 2. Stirred up. Or incensed, made them evil affected. 
 
 The Gentiles. That is, men professing another religion than the 
 Jewish, whom Luke in the preceding verse calls Greeks, and like- 
 wise did oppose the Jews to them. 
 
 Their minds. That is, their wills, as Psalm xli. 3, in the 
 Hebrew text. 
 
 Against the brethren. So are all believers in Christ called, 
 because they have one Father in heaven, which is God, whose 
 children they are after the spirit, to whom they have got access 
 through Christ, and they themselves have one for another a reci- 
 procal, brotherly love, though they be gathered out of divers 
 nations. 
 
 3. Abode they. At Iconium. 
 
 Speaking boldly, &c. As much as to say, being encouraged by 
 the Lord boldly to preach the gospel, whereby the great grace of 
 God concerning the remission of sins, and the gift of eternal life 
 to such as believe in Christ and repent, is declared ; for the Lord 
 himself approved the gospel preached by them, and did by signs 
 and miracles, wrought by their ministry, vindicate it from reproach. 
 
 4. With the apostles. To wit, Paul and Barnabas. 
 
 5. With their rulers. That is, with their nobles. 
 
 To stone them. To wit, the apostles Paul and Barnabas. 
 
 6. They were aware of it. That is, Paul and- Barnabas were 
 aware of this conspiration against them. 
 
 And fled. According to Christ's precept, Matt. x. 23, lest they 
 might rashly run themselves upon death. 
 
 Unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia. This place may be 
 two ways interpreted : one way is, that he might tell that Lystra 
 and Derbe are cities of Lycaonia ; the other, that he might tell 
 
 X 
 
306 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XIV. 
 
 that they fled to the cities of Lycaonia, and to Lystra, and to 
 Derbe; "Which exposition," saith Drusius, "seems more true: 
 for Lystra and Derbe are cities of Isauria, which although it be 
 near Lycaonia, yet it is distinguished from it. Chrysostom writes, 
 Hom. Tiii., in 2 Tim. iii. 11, that Timothy, Paul's disciple, was of 
 Lystra." But Geisner, in an Authorless Author, that he was of 
 Derbe. 
 
 Round about. To wit, Lystra and Derbe. 
 
 7. And there they preached the gospel. That is, they left not off 
 their office of preaching the gospel which God had imposed upon 
 them. 
 
 9. The same heard Paul preach. That is, preaching the gospel. 
 Who. Paul. 
 
 And perceiving that he had faith to be healed. That is, seeing 
 the lame man stirred up by his preaching, and showing signs of 
 hope that Ms inbred lameness should be healed, 
 
 10. Said with a loud voice. That he might be heard of all that 
 were present. 
 
 11. The gods, &c. As much as to say. The gods are come to us 
 in human shape. This the ethnics believed sometimes to have 
 fallen out, as, may frequently be seen in their poets. 
 
 12. And they called Barnabas^ Jupiter. For Jupiter, in Ovid, 
 Met. i., compasseth the earth in human shape. 
 
 And Paul, Mercurius. Whom Jupiter used to lead with him, as 
 may be seen in Plautus's Amphitruo. 
 
 Because he was the chief speaker. As much as to say. Because 
 it was his charge to speak.' For Mercurius was esteemed as 
 the god of eloquence, and the messenger of the gods; whence 
 Claudian saith' of him : " That he is a god common to the gods of 
 heaven and hell, who alone hath a right and power to enter both 
 into heaven and into hell; and he maintains the communication 
 between the princes of both kingdoms, heaven and hell." 
 
 13. Then the priest of Jupiter, which was before tJieir city. It 
 seems that the temple consecrated to Jupiter, stood near the gates 
 of this city, in which temple the image (rf Jupiter was also seen, 
 seeing Jupiter was accounted the governor and defender of this 
 city. For the idolatrous nations used to dedicate almost every 
 city to the peculiar care and chief tutelage of particular gods. 
 
 Oxen and garlands. Oxen and garlands are oxen crowned with 
 garlands. Minutius, in his Octavius : " The beasts for sacrifices, 
 
 Carm. 33, De Raptu Proserpina, ver. 89, 90, 91. 
 
VER. XV.J LITEEALLY EXPLAINED. 307 
 
 are fattened to be slain, the hosts are crowned to be tor- 
 mented." 
 
 Unto the gates. That is, when he brought the oxen crowned 
 with garlands to the gates of the city where Paul preached, and 
 the lame man whom he restored did sit, or to the door of the 
 house where Paul and Barnabas lodged. "For this was," saith 
 Ludovicus de Diett, " the fashion of their houses in all the eastern 
 countries, that the first door being opened, which looked into the 
 street, you presently come to another covered with a veil, which 
 the Arabians call ' a covering,' lest he that enters, may see into the 
 bed-chamber, where the master of the family stays." 
 
 With the people. That is, a great multitude of the common 
 people following him. 
 
 14. They rent their clothes. Very many nations had this custom, 
 to rend their garments in grief, or vehement anger : first, in great 
 grief and sadness, as may be seen. Gen. xxxvii. 29, 34 ; Num. 
 xiv. 6 ; Judg. xi. 35 ; 1 Sam. iv. 12 ; 2 Sam. i. 11, xiii. 19. Then, 
 when they heard any, especially a Jew, blaspheme. Hence the 
 learned among the Jews gather, that Rabshakeh, the king of 
 Assyria's chamberlain, was a Jew, and apostatized to ethnicism, 
 because king Hezekiah rent his clothes, when his blasphemous 
 words were told him, 2 Kings iix. 1. So Caiaphas rent his 
 garment, when he believed that by Christ's confession God was 
 blasphemed. Matt. xxvi. 65. But they are mistaken, who con- 
 clude from Lev. x. 6 r xxi. 10, that the high priest was altogether 
 forbidden to rend his clothes. For the discourse there is con- 
 cerning mourning over the dead, not of the public and universal 
 mourning of the whole people : that in this case it was lawful for 
 for him to rend his clothes, is evinced from the example of Jona- 
 than the high priest, when he was overcome in battle, 1 Mac. 
 xi. 71. But the most learned among the rabbins say, that the 
 high priest used to rend his garment from the bottom of it, but the 
 rest of the Jews from the top. 
 
 Ran in among the people. Earnestly and vehemently to depre- 
 cate their too great honour. 
 
 Crying out. That is, speaking with a loud voice. 
 
 15. Men, &c. As much as to say, Ye men of Lystra, why 
 would you preposterously worship us mortal men instead of God ? 
 We are liable to infirmities of the same nature with you to whom 
 we preach, that casting away all these feigned deities, with which 
 the world hath hitherto been deluded, ye may turn to that living 
 
 X 2 
 
308 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XIV. 
 
 God, who hath life in himself, and communicates the same to 
 others. 
 
 From these vanities. That is, idols, which are without life, 
 strength, and profit, and therefore are called vain, and vanities. 
 See 1 Sam. xii, 21, xv. 23; 1 Kings xvi. 26; Isa. Ivi. 3; Jer. ii. 6, 
 X. 14, 15 ; xvi. 19 ; Amos ii. 4 ; Jonah ii. 8. 
 
 Which made, &c. The heathenish gods did not make heaven 
 and earth, being all born since they were made. See Jer. x. 11. 
 
 16. Who in times past. That is, in former ages. 
 
 Suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. That is, suffered 
 all nations to live after what manner they pleased, not giving them 
 a law, as he did to the Israelites, to keep them thereby close to 
 their duty and his worship, and seldom sent to other nations than 
 the Israelites prophets to recall them from their errors. 
 
 17. Nevertheless, &c. As much as to say, yet God did not 
 at any time let the nations want a testimony of his goodness. 
 For the benefiits which God by nature, his ordinary handmaid, 
 confers upon men, do every moment reach their senses, and draw 
 the attentive considerers to love and worship the bestower of them. 
 For reason imprinted upon men's hearts, teacheth them that they 
 ought to be thankful to such as are most beneficial and liberal to 
 them, and to worship and honour God greatly for the benefits they 
 daily receive and expect from him. But after what manner God 
 is especially to be worshipped, the same reason with which all are 
 endued, doth abundantly declare ; to wit, that the best worship of 
 God is a pious and honest life, with which he is better pleased 
 than with any gifts, as Persius saith excellently. Sat. 2 : — " Tell 
 me, you priests, what profit do the gods receive of the gold that is 
 consecrated to them in their temples ? Even as little as Venus 
 receives of the puppets that the maids being about to marry offer 
 to her. Why don't we offer that to the gods which the vicious 
 offspring of great Messala cannot offer out of all their great 
 riches ? To wit, an innocent life, conformable unto the divine and 
 human laws, spotless thoughts of our minds, and a heart 
 thoroughly honest and virtuous ; grant that I bring to the altars 
 of the gods true piety and a pure mind, and I shall please the gods 
 with a very small sacrifice, even with a cake made of meal and 
 salt." 
 
 In that he did good. Although the power and wisdom which 
 shine forth in the works of God are suflficient to persuade his 
 being, and that he must be loved, feared, and worshipped ; yet the 
 
VER. XXI.] LITEKALLY EXPLAINED. 309 
 
 despisers of that might seem to be excusable, had they not expe- 
 rienced God to be so beneficial to them. Therefore Paul in this 
 place, omitting to mention God's power and wisdom, he is content 
 to admonish the Lystrians of his great bounty, which they at all 
 times have tasted, that they might know how much they were 
 beholden to him upon that account. 
 
 And gave us rain from heaven. Whereby the earth is made 
 fertile to bring forth fruit. 
 
 And fruitful seasons. Appointed for bringing forth certain fruits, 
 as the spring, summer, and harvest. 
 
 Filling our hearts with food and gladness. Some read it in the 
 Greek, your hearts. Calvin saith excellently : " To fill the heart 
 with food is nothing else but to bestow food, which may satisfy 
 the desires of men. By gladness Paul and Barnabas mean, that 
 God according to his great favour, bestows more upon men than 
 their necessities call for : as if it were said, that food is given to 
 men, not only to repair their strength, but to rejoice their hearts." 
 
 18. And with these sayings, &c. As much as to say, Paul and 
 Barnabas could scarcely with these sayings restrain the Lystrians 
 from sacrificing to them. 
 
 19. From Antioch. To wit, the metropolis of Pisidia. 
 
 Jews. Obstinately unbelieving, who envied Paul and Barnabas. 
 
 Tf^ho persuaded the people. Some copies add, " Saying, that they 
 tell no truth, but lie in everything." 
 
 .And having stoned Paul, &c. As much as to say, Paul, because 
 he was the chief speaker, was so violently assaulted with stones 
 that he was thought dead. This stoning Paul doth mention, 2 
 Cor. xi. 25. 
 
 20. Howbeit as the disciples stood round about him. As much as 
 to say, the Christians came to stand about his funeral, as Apuleius 
 speaketh. 
 
 He rose up, and came into the city. That is, having recovered 
 from the stupefaction which the many wounds he received by the 
 stones had put him in, he raised up himself from the ground, 
 where he lay for dead, and being by the marvellous virtue of 
 Christ refreshed, strengthened, and, as it were, brought to life 
 again, he returned to Lystra. Paul's words", 2 Cor. i. 8- — 10, do 
 seem to relate to this. 
 
 21. Had taught many. The Greek hath it, "Had formed suffi- 
 cient disciples," that is, when they had brought a fit number of 
 auditors over to this, that they might receive the faith of Christ, 
 
310 THE ACTS OF THK HOLV APOSTLES [CHAP. XIV. 
 
 and become his disciples. In this sense the same active verb here 
 used is put. Matt, xxviii. 19, and its passive. Matt, xxvii. 57. 
 
 They returned again to Lystra. Where a little before Paul was 
 assaulted with stones. 
 
 And to Iconium. Whence above, ver. 5, 6, they fled for fear of 
 danger. 
 
 And Antwch. Of Pisidia, whence they were expelled, above, 
 ch. xiii. 50. 
 
 22. Confirming. Gregory the Great saith excellently, lib. xxxi., 
 Mor. in Job xv, " Behold Paul was overwhelmed with stones, yet 
 he is not removed from preaching^ the truth. He may be killed, 
 but he cannot be overcome. He is cast out of the city as dead, 
 but he is found another day within the city, an unhurt preacher of 
 the gospeL O how strong is infirmity within this man ! O how 
 conquering his torment ! O how masterly is his patience ! By 
 the repulse he is stirred up to dispute : by strokes he is raised up 
 to preach the gospel : he is refreshed by his torment to drive away 
 the wearisomeness of his labour." 
 
 Through much tribulation, &c. As much as to say. Whoever 
 enters into the kingdom of God, or labours to live according to the 
 gospel, stirreth up the world's hatred against himself, and therefore 
 must lie in the way of many, yea, and grievous vexations. Which 
 appeared in the Author of this \*^^ay of living, even the Lord Jesus 
 Christ himself, who foretold that the same should befall his followers. 
 Matt. X. 17, 18; xxiii. 34; Johnxvii"33; xvii. 14. 
 
 23. And when they had ordained. Greek, yiiporovy\<savri.Q, when 
 with " stretched out hands they had ordained," or chosen by votes. 
 XEiporovEtv, properly signifieth "to choose with the hand stretched 
 forth." When assemblies for choosing of magistrates were to be 
 kept, they appointed one whom they thought the most fit for that 
 dignity, and having produced him upon the theatre, his name .was 
 proclaimed by a crier, and it was said, " To whomsoever this seems 
 good, or pleaseth, let him lift up his hand;" and then such as 
 approved of the election, by lifting up their hands, testified that 
 the man elected seemed to them a fit man to bear the office of a 
 magistrate, but they who disapproved it kept in their hand; which 
 party soever had the greater number, had the election decreed 
 accordingly. Hence came that word y^i^oTovuv, and he who 
 became magistrate by such suffrages was called ■^(ii.govTovyfTOQ. 
 This EUas the Cretian doth testify upon Gregory Nazianzen, Orat. 
 3; and Zonaras upon the Canons of the Apostles, teacheth us. 
 
VER. XXVI.J LITEBAUiY EXPLAINED. 311 
 
 that first the word x^iporovla did signify the suffrages ; but after- 
 wards (the ancient rites being abolished), was used for consecration. 
 In this sense the word xi^oTovrtSriig is taken, 2 Cor. viii. 19. 
 
 Elders. Famous Frederick Spanheraius in his Isagogjck Epitome 
 to the History of the New Testament : " The bishops," saith he, 
 " which were ordained in every church, were so called from the 
 care, rije swioKoiT^g, of overseeing, as the same are called wpegfiv- 
 TBpoi, elders, from their age and gravity, ttoj/uIvsc, yastors, from 
 their office of feeding, ^iZdaKoKoi, SiaKovoi tov Xoyov, doctors, 
 ministers, from their office of teaching and ministering to Christ, 
 irpoaTarai, riyovfiEvoi, set over, governors, from their right to govern." 
 Compare below, ch. xv. 2, 4, 6, xx. 17, 28 ; Tit. i. 5, 7 ; 1 Thess. 
 V. 12. Irenseus in his Epistle to Victor, bishop of Rome,, in 
 Eusebius, lib. v.. Hist. Eccl., ch. 26: "The elders, who before 
 Soter governed the church that you now govern, were, I say, 
 Anicetus, Pius, Hyginus, Telespore, Sixtus." Irenaeus everywhere 
 calls them elders whom others do frequently call bishops, and to 
 whom he attributes the government of the church of Rome. Also 
 Victor himself in an epistle under his name to an unknown Desi- 
 derius, bishop of Vienne in France, expresseth himself thus, " As 
 thy fraternity hath been taught by the elders who- did see the 
 apostles in the flesh, and who governed the church until thy time." 
 
 And had prayed with fasting. See what we have, said above, ch. 
 xiii. 3. 
 
 They commended them to the Lord. To wit, to be protected. 
 
 24. ,And after they had passed through Pisidia. See what we have 
 said above, ch. xiii. 14. 
 
 They came to Pan^hylia. See our commentary above, ch. ii. 10. 
 
 25. And when they had preached the word in Perga. As much as 
 to say, and when they had preached Christ's gospel in Perga, of 
 which city see our notes, ch. xiii. 13. 
 
 They went down into Attalia. -The city Attalia having its name 
 from Attalus Philadelphus, its builder, is by Strabo mentioned 
 among the cities of Pamphylia, Geog. lib. 14. 
 
 26. And thence sailed to Antioch. The metropolis of Syria. 
 Whence they had been recommended to the grace of. Gody &c. As 
 
 much as to say. Whence having gone forth to preach the gospel, 
 they were recommended to God by the prayers of the church, that 
 he would put forth his grace to advance the labours of the apostle 
 of the Gentiles, whom himself had appointed. See above, ch. 
 xiii. 3. 
 
312 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XV. 
 
 27. Had gathered the church together. Of Christians dwelling 
 at Antioch. 
 
 They rehearsed. Even as such who return from an ambassage 
 use to give an account of what they have done. 
 
 All that God had done with them. An Hebraism, the meaning 
 whereof is, all that God did to them. To wit, what grace he con- 
 ferred upon them, how great help and strength was present with 
 them, in converting men and working miracles. 
 
 28. And there they abode long time. To wit, at Antioch. 
 
 With the disciples. That is. Christians. See what we said 
 above, ch. xi. 29. 
 
 CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 1. And. That is, then, at that time. 
 
 Certain men. Of the Jews professing Christianity, whose ring- 
 leader herein, Philastrius and Epiphanius say,^ was Cerinthus, a 
 disciple of Simon Magus and of Carpocrates. 
 
 Which came down from Judea. Viz., to Antioch, the metropolis 
 of Syria. These persons the apostle Paul, Gal. ii. 4, calls in the 
 Greek text, " Irreptitious false brethren," that is, " False brethren 
 brought in unawares, and who came in privily to spy out the 
 liberty of the church." 
 
 Taught the brethren. To wit, those of the Gentiles which were 
 converted to Christ. 
 
 Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses. That is, 
 according to the rite prescribed by God to Abraham, which Moses 
 describes, Gen. xvii. 10 ; and again commands. Lev. xii. 3. Some 
 books here have it, " Except ye be circumcised and walk after the 
 manner of Moses." So that other ceremonial laws of Moses might 
 be understood to be added, to which they bind themselves, whoever 
 they be that are circumcised, to obey the law of Moses. See Gal. 
 V. 3. 
 
 Ye cannot be saved. That is, obtain eternal salvation. 
 2. VThen therefore Paul and Barnabas. Who had rightly 
 instructed the Gentile converts in the doctrine of Christian 
 liberty, and taught that they were not bound to circumcise 
 themselves. 
 
 Had no small dissension and disputation with them. To wit, those 
 rigid persons, who burning with too great a zeal for the ceremonial 
 
 • De Hseres. cap. 87. Haeres, 28. 
 
VER. II.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 313 
 
 Mosaical laws, contended that Christians were not freed by Christ 
 from that too grievous yoke. 
 
 They determined. Viz., the Christians of Antioch. 
 
 TTiat Paul and Barnabas. Who were as one party in this con- 
 troversy. It is credible that Paul, when it was thus decreed by 
 the church of Antioch that he should go to Jerusalem, was admo- 
 nished by revelation, that he should altogether do what the church 
 had appointed ; for Paul, Gal. ii. 2, speaking of this his journey, 
 saith, that he went up to Jerusalem by revelation. 
 
 And certain others of them. That is, of them who urged the 
 necessity of circumcision. Concerning which matter the Jews 
 themselves were not altogether agreed. For when' Izates, king of 
 the Adia,bene, being instructed in the religion of the Jews by one 
 Ananias, thought he could not be a perfect Jew unless he were 
 circumcised, his tutor dissuaded him therefrom, saying, " That he 
 might without circumcision piously worship God, if he zealously 
 embraced and followed the Jewish institutions; for therein did 
 religion consist rather than in circumcision. But yet the same 
 king, a while afterwards, by the advice of another Jew named 
 Eleazar (whom Josephus reports to have been famous for his skill 
 in the law), did cause himself to be circumcised. Likewise 
 Tryphon the Jew, in Justin Martyr, does not exclude the uncir- 
 cumoised from all hopes, saying, " If thou continue in the course 
 of philosophyi and a blameless life, there remains an hope of the 
 better portion." And this favourable opinion seems to be received 
 amongst the Jews at this day, as may be gathered from Manasseh 
 ben Israel;^ yet Isaac Abrabanel approves' the traditions of the 
 ancients in these words, " Whoever is not circumcised shall inherit 
 hell." It is certain the Jews that lived whilst yet their state was 
 flourishing, had more rigid sentiments in this matter than those 
 whom the sense of calamities hath since humbled and rendered 
 less apt to censure ; for these dare not deny all participation of 
 bliss to the Gentiles in the life to come, though still they esteem 
 that they shall be as much more happy than all other people, as 
 the Gibeonites of old were inferior to them in the land of Canaan ; 
 whence arose their murmuring against Christ, when in theparable, 
 Matt. XX., he seemed to equal the Gentiles with them. 
 
 To the apostles. Those who had daily lived with our Lord Jesus, 
 and followed him as his domestics, whom he was pleased to make 
 witnesses of his resurrection, and to send them through, all the 
 ' Joseph. Antiq. xx. 2. ' De Eesurrect. lib. ii. cap. 9. ^ De Capit. Fidei, cap. 24. 
 
314 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XJ. 
 
 world to preach the gospel, to, whose number Paul was afterwards 
 added, being called to that office after his ascension, as before, ch. 
 ix. So that he was inferior in no respect to any of them, Gal. ii. 9. 
 Some add also Barnabas as one of the apostles, from the foregoing 
 chapter, ver. 13. "The apostles," saith Spanhemius,' "had an 
 equal dignity, and their cure was universal, not of one church only, 
 but of all, Matt, xxviii. 19 ; 2 Cor, xi. 28 ; so that apostles are no 
 more to be reckoned in the order of bishops of a particular church, 
 than the Prjetorian prefects, or vicar generals of old, in the rank 
 of governors of one city or province." 
 
 And elders. In the apostles' age there were presbyteries, or col- 
 leges of bishops or presbyters in every church, " who," saith the 
 same Spanhemius, "had the administration and guidance thereof in 
 common ; to wit, ordinarily, of which presbyters (as there was 
 then distinct gifts), some gave themselves more to the word and 
 doctrine, 1 Tim. v. 17; others to government and discipline, Eom. 
 xii. 8 ; 1 Cor. xii. 28." 
 
 About this question. That is, to consult them, whether circum- 
 cision of the foreskin were necessary to the attainment of eternal 
 salvation ? 
 
 3. Being brought on their way by the church. That is, Paul and 
 Barnabas, and the rest of the deputies of the church of Antioch to 
 Jerusalem, accompanied by the Antiochean brethren some small 
 part of their journey I as afterwards, ch, xx. 38 ; xxi. 15. 
 
 They, passed through Phcenice and Samaria. In which there 
 already dwelt some Christians ; see before, ch. viii. 5, 14, and ch. 
 xi. 19. 
 
 Declaring the conversion of the Gentiles. That is, that very many 
 of the Gentiles in divers places, by their preaching, which God had 
 been pleased divinely to assist, were converted to the faith of 
 Christ. 
 
 And they caused great joy unto all the brethren. This tidings of 
 such numbers of the Gentiles converted caused the faithful much 
 to rejoice. 
 
 4. Received of the Church, and of the apostles, and of the elders.. 
 That is, they were welcomely received, as well as the Christians 
 in general that dwelt at Jerusalem, as particularly by the Apostles, 
 and by the elders, or proper pastors of the Jerusalem Christians. 
 
 5. But there rose up, &c. These are the words of Luke, willing 
 to signify unto us, that there were some Pharisees at Jerusalem 
 
 ' In Epitom. Isagogica ad Histor. N. Test. 
 
TER. VI.] UTEKALLY EXPLAINED. 315 
 
 who believed in Christ, that sided with those who moved this 
 debateat Antiocb, and urged that the Gentiles converted to 
 Christ ought to be oircumcised. For those men whose sect had 
 hitherto been the chief in the Jewish religion, seem to have 
 reckoned, that they were to be uppermost too in the Christian 
 church, and their opinions to prevail against the rest; but others, 
 conscious of their own liberty, gave not place to them for an hour. 
 Gal. ii. 5. 
 
 Of the sect of the Pharisees. In Greek it is, " of the heresy 
 of the Pharisees ;" for that word of old was of a middle significar * 
 tion, and some time iraed in good, sometimes in evil fart ; whence 
 Paul afterwards, ch. xxvi. 5, calls Pharisaism, the most exquisite 
 or strictest heresy of the Judadcal religion ; nay, he gives, Chris- 
 tianity itself the same title, ch. xxiv. 14. 
 
 TTiat it was needful to circumcise them. Those zealots that would 
 have subjected the Gentiles to the yoke of the ceremonial law, did 
 chiefly press circumcision, because they knew that that being once 
 received, there could afterwards nothing hinder their being obliged 
 to the other legal ceremonies ; for there was nothing that did more 
 keep men of riper years from Judaism than the fear of circum- 
 cision ; besides, whoever did take that upon them, did bind them- 
 selves to the observation of the whole law. Gal, v. 3. 
 
 To keep the law of Moses. Viz., the ceremonial, as a condition 
 of obtaining salvation ; for here was no controversy moved touch- 
 ing moral works necessary to salvation. 
 
 6. And the apostles came together. Whether all the apostles were 
 then at Jerusalem, or only some of them, and who, is hard to say ; 
 " For it is certain," saith the incomparable Curcellseus, " that the 
 apostles did remain there a pretty while after the receiving of 
 the Holy 'Ghost; nor did they, it seems, depart thence, before 
 the persecution stirred up at the death of Stephen the first martyr; 
 for all the twelve were yet at Jerusalem, when the choice was 
 made of the seven deacons. Acts vi. 2 ; yet in that grievous perse- 
 cution they did not presently remove, Acts viii. 1. But amongst 
 the ancients there is a constant fame, that the apostles did not 
 long after continue their residence there, but divided the parts of 
 the world between them by lot, to which each of them should 
 repair to preach the gospel ; concerning which may be consulted 
 Origen on Genesis, and Eucherius of Lyons, who write, that the 
 east fell to Thomas and Bartholomew ; the south to Simon and 
 Matthew ; the north to Philip and Thaddeus; the midland regions 
 
316 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XV. 
 
 to Matthias and James surnamed the just; the provinces to the 
 Mediterranean sea to John and Andrew ; the west to Peter and 
 James the son of Zebedee; but all the world alike to Paul: whence 
 in some calendars of the Roman church, the separation of the 
 apostles is celebrated on the fifteenth of July ; but as to the year 
 when the same happened, there is almost everywhere a total 
 silence. There is another division of their work made amongst 
 the apostles, mentioned Gal. ii. 7 ; viz., how the gospel of the un-' 
 circumcision was committed to Paul, and that of the circumcision 
 to Peter ; but that relates not to this place. This council at Jeru- 
 salem seems to have been holden after that first separation of the 
 apostles, and that there were then no more apostles residing in that 
 city but Peter and James, who also alone are said to have delivered 
 their sentence in that council; although I think we ought to 
 add unto them, John, who is mentioned Gal. ii. 9. For that 
 which Paul says there, ver. 1, that he after fourteen years went up 
 to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking also Titus with them, appears 
 by the circumstances which he there recounts, to be meant of this 
 journey which he made thither, that he might be present at this 
 council, whereof we are treating. So that at least four apostles 
 appeared there, Peter, James, John, and Paul, besides those apos- 
 tolic preachers, Barnabas, Judas surnamed Barsabas, and Silas, of 
 whom we find mention, Acts xv. 22 ; as also Titus, as appears, 
 Gal. ii. 2, and other famous men, of whom consisted the church at 
 Jerusalem ; so that there never was a more eminent convention 
 than this, unless when the apostles were all present." Thus Cur- 
 cellaeus. Others conceive all the twelve apostles were here actu- 
 ally present, and that the distribution of the provinces of the world, 
 whicb the ancients speak of, was made afterwards amongst the 
 apostles, when the Gentiles all abroad began to flock into the 
 church. 
 
 And elders. Who are elsewhere called bishops. Presbyters (or 
 elders) and bishops were then the same ; see what is said before on 
 verse the second. But in this council, besides the apostles and 
 presbyters of Jerusalem, there were present other members of the 
 church,', viz., mere brethren, as we find afterwards, ver. 22 and 23. 
 
 7. And when there had been much disputing. On both sides. 
 
 Peter rose up. To make an oration to the synod. 
 
 And said to them. That is, to all the Christians, of what calling 
 or condition soever, that were present in the synod. 
 
 Men, brethren. So Peter calls not only the apostles and elders, 
 
VER. VlIl.J LITERALLY EXPI^INED. 317 
 
 but all other Christians present in the council, being so taught by 
 Christ, Matt, xxiii. 8. 
 
 Ye know that a good while ago. According to the Greek, " from 
 the ancient or first days." The famous Lightfoot doubts not but 
 in these words Peter had respect to what Christ said to him. 
 Matt. xvi. 19, / will give unto thee the keys of the hingdom of 
 heaven : which is, as he the said Lightfoot interprets it : " Thou 
 first shalt open the door of faith to the Gentiles." " Then 
 the Lord chose him, that by his mouth the Gentiles might first 
 hear the word of the gospel, and believe; and this he says was 
 done a good while ago, or in the first days, that is, as he speaks 
 before in the first chapter, ver. 21, in the time when the Lord went 
 out and in among us ; which time is expressed, Luke i. 2, by these 
 words, from the beginning.'^ 
 
 Among us. Who of the circumcision believed in Christ. 
 
 That the Gentiles by my mouth should hear. To wit, first. 
 
 8. And God who knoweth the hearts, &c. As if he should say. 
 Which when I performed, God the searcher of hearts witnessed by 
 a manifest sign, that he had adopted the uncircumcised Gentiles 
 that embraced the faith of Christ, communicating to them the 
 same gifts of the Holy Spirit, which he hath imparted to us who 
 are believers circumcised. It is plain Peter here respects the 
 history of the conversion of Cornelius by his ministry, set forth at 
 large in the tenth and eleventh chapters. "Between the con- 
 version of Cornelius the centurion," saith Curcellaeus,' "and this 
 council of Jerusalem, about twenty years, as most chronologers 
 acknowledge, were elapsed ; and it is very strange, that in so long 
 a space after God, by that most illustrious example, had manifested 
 his will to admit the uncircumcised into his church, and to partake 
 of all spiritual blessings, yet the opinion, that circumcision was 
 still necessary to please God, would not be rooted out of the 
 hearts of the believing Jews ; but the reverence of those rites of 
 the law, as being divinely instituted, had made such impression on 
 their minds, that it was not easy presently to remove them, . aiid 
 to convince them of the liberty purchased for us by the blood of 
 Christ. For even after this celebrated council, the same opinion 
 seems to have remained in many of the church of Jerusalem, as 
 appears. Acts xxi. 20, and other monuments of ecclesiastical- his- 
 tory, particularly in Sulpitius Severus, who in the second book of 
 his Sacred History, treating of the emperor Hadrian, saith : ' That 
 ' In Diatrib. de Esu Sang. 
 
318 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XV. 
 
 then almost all did believe Christ to be God, under the observation 
 of the law.'" 
 
 Purifying their hearts by faith. That is, when he had cleansed 
 the minds of these uncircumcised Gentiles from the sins wherewith 
 they were defiled, by a lively faith on Christ j with which who- 
 soever is endued, presently resolves to renounce all impiety and 
 worldly desires, and to live soberly, justly, and godly in this world. 
 
 10. Now therefore why tempt ye God ? That is, why do you 
 grievously offend God ? " He that offends God,", saith Grotius, 
 "tempts his patience, and he offends him who opposes his will, 
 sufficiently revealed." 
 
 To put, &c. As going about to impose the yoke of all the 
 ceremonies of the law on the necks of all such Gentiles as have 
 believed on Christ, which the Israelites themselves were never 
 able to bear, but with the greatest molestaition. 
 
 The yoke. To wit, of bondage, as Paur calls the legal rites. 
 Gal. V. 1, because they consisted in things indifferent, which of 
 themselves were neither good nor requisite, but depended only on 
 the pleasure of the law-giver, so that they seemed suited rather to 
 the state of servants, than to men of a free condition. It is true 
 the precepts of Christ are also called a yoke, but an easy one ; and 
 a burden, but a light one ; Matt. xi. 30. '* For what," says Sal- 
 vian, " does he require of us, what does he command us to follow, 
 but only faith, chastity, humility, sobriety, mercy, and holiness, 
 all which do not burden, but beautify us ?" 
 
 Of the disciples. That is, of the Gentiles converted to Christ. 
 
 Which neither our fathers, &c. As much as to say, Which yoke 
 of the ceremonial law for the vast multitude of ritual precepts, 
 seemed insupportable to our ancestors, as well as to us. 
 
 Note. We are often said not to be able to do that which we do 
 with grievance and difficulty, as Mark i. 45 ; Luke xi. 7 ; John 
 vi. 60. 
 
 11. But by the grace of our Lord Jesus, &c. Even we ourselves 
 who are Jews originally, having embraced the faith of Christ, are 
 most certainly persuaded, that not by circumcision or other rites 
 of the Mosaical law, but by the gracious reconciliation of us to 
 God, we shall obtain eternal salvation purchased by the sacrifice of 
 the death of Christ. The same Paul teaches, Gal. ii. 15, 16. 
 
 Even as they. To wit, the disciples lately converted to Christ 
 out of the Gentiles, of whom was treated before, v. 7 — 10, do 
 believe that they by the same free gracious benefit exhibited to 
 
VER. XIII.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 319 
 
 them by God in Christ, shall enjoy eternal salvation. "Where 
 note, that relative pronouns are not always referred to that which 
 next goes before, but to that which is chiefly handled in the whole 
 discourse, as you niay see before, ch. vii. 19; x. 6; and in divers 
 other places. Now here that which is principally and professedly 
 treated of, is of those who from heathens were of late made 
 Christians, and not of the ancient Israelites, of whom there was 
 no question moved, but only mention made of them, as by the by 
 in the verse next before going. 
 
 "12. Ml the multitude kept silence. That is, when Peter had 
 finished his speech, aU the brethren, who were there assembled, 
 even those who before did urge circumcision to be necessary to the 
 obtaining salvation, stood silent. Above, ver. 5. 
 
 And ^ve audience to Paul mid Sarnabas, declarinff. Their 
 narrative did much ccmduce to confirm what Peter had delivered, 
 that the Gentiles were not to be bound to observe the ceremonies 
 of the law, since God performing amongst them such great signs 
 and wonders by the ministry of Paul and Barnabas, did plainly 
 enough show that he regarded not circumcision, and other rites of 
 that kind wherein the Gentiles were not initiated, and that in 
 Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but 
 a new creature, GaJ. vi. 15. 
 
 13. And after they had held their peace. To wit, Paul and 
 Barnabas. 
 
 James answered. Answered here is an Hebraism famUiar in 
 scripture, and signifies only, began to speak. This James was the 
 son of Alpheus, and surnamed the Lesser, and the brother of the 
 Lord; " To James (saith Curcellaeus') was the church of Jerusa- 
 lem peculiarly committed, as appears, Acts' xxi., where it is said, 
 that Paul, when he was come to Jerusalem, went to James and 
 the elders of the church. He also seems to have presided, or been 
 chairman in the first council held at Jerusalem, Acts xv., and that 
 because it was celebrated in his peculiar district. For it is he 
 that there in the name of the whole assembly, pronounces the 
 sentence concerning the controversy that was arisen amongst the 
 Gentiles, which is the oflBce of a president. He also at last there 
 consummated his course with martyrdom. Nor need it seem 
 strange, if he to whom (with the rest of the apostles) the whole 
 world was committed, did permit himself to be, as it were, shut in 
 one city ; since by teaching at Jerusalem he did, after a sort, teach 
 ' In Tractat. De Eccles. cap. vSi. n. 9. 
 
320 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XV. 
 
 the whole world, such was the vast concourse of both Jews and 
 Gentiles to that city. See what is said before, chap. xii. 17. 
 
 14. Simm. Viz., Who by Christ was named Peter, see Matt, 
 iv. 18; X. 2; Johni. 43 ; 2 Pet. i. 1. The Hebrew name ryato, 
 is writ both here, and in Luke ii. 25, in Greek letters lLvfiid>v. 
 But the Greeks for the same do use Sfju(oi',a Greek name of like 
 sound, as Eccles. 1. 1, Josephus and others. " But here Luke," 
 saith Grotius, "followed the Hebrew pronunciation, because he 
 brings in an Hebrew speaking to Hebrews. The Syriac here and 
 elsewhere expresses the name after the same manner. They err 
 that think here is meant that Simeon mentioned by Luke, chap. ii. 
 James briefly repeats what had been said by Peter." 
 
 Simeon hath declared. Before, ver. 7. 
 
 How God at the first. To wit, in Cornelius and his relations. 
 
 Did visit. That is, by pouring upon- them his Holy Spirit, 
 declared. 
 
 To take out of them a people for his name. That the Gentiles 
 which before were not his people, he would now take to be his 
 people. See afterwards, ver. 17, and Eom. ix. 25, 26. 
 
 15. And to this agree the words of the prophet. That is, to this 
 sayino- of Simon Peter are consonant the promises, made long 
 since in the writings of the prophets, concerning the Gentiles being 
 to be received for the people of God. 
 
 As it is written. That is, as by this one testimony, amongst 
 many for brevity omitted, which is extant Amos ix. 11, 12, 
 plainly appears ; for there God not only promises, that by his 
 Messiah the house and kingdom of David should be restored to its 
 former state, but also should be advanced to a much greater 
 mao-nificerice, since the Gentiles, aliens to that covenant, should 
 be brought in thereunto, the partition wall of the ceremonies 
 of the Mosaical law being broken down, as is said, Ephes. ii. 
 14, 15. ' 
 
 16. After this I will return. James cites the sense, not the 
 words of Amos: see our literal explication on Amos, ch. ix. 11, 12. 
 In these words respect is had to the words which in Amos preceded, 
 wherein God threatens grievous punishment to the Israelitish sin^ 
 ners. But to those menaces he adds a promise, that it should come 
 to pass, that being reconciled to them he would at that time by 
 himself pre-appointed, visit them again with his benefits. 
 
 / will build again the tabernacle of David. That is, the house 
 or kingdom of David. The Hebrews call every habitation a taber- 
 
VER. XVII. j tlTERALO EXPLAINED. 321 
 
 nacle, because that was the most ancient habitation. The sense of 
 this verse is, as if he should say, The kingdom of David, first 
 divided by the cutting off of ten tribes and afterwards wholly de- 
 cayed, I will restore, so as that it shall again flourish, as in the 
 past times of David and Solomon. This prophecy was first, and in the 
 grosser sense, fulfilled in Zerubbabel, a type of Christ, but was per- 
 fectly accomplished in Christ himself, (and shaU be yet more fully,) 
 when of all the tribes of Israel many submitted, and shall unto 
 the end of the world submit, and adhere unto him, the Son of David, 
 and acknowledge his sovereignty, shadowed by David's throne. 
 See our literal explanation on Amos ix. 11 ; Hos. i. 1 1 ; and ch. iii. 5. 
 
 17. That the residue of men might seek, &c. The kingdom of 
 David shall be restored to so great splendour, that besides the people 
 of Israel heretofore subject to it, the rest of the nations shall submit 
 thereunto, and be numbered amongst the people of God. This in 
 the literal and typical sense was made good when the Maccabees 
 subjected to themselves great numbers of the Ishmaelites, Am- 
 monites, and Moabites, and when Hyrcanus subdued the Edom- 
 ites." But in the mystic sense, intended by the Holy Ghost 
 speaking by the mouth of Amos, it is fulfilled in the conversion of 
 the Gentiles to Christ; that they, together with the Jews embracing 
 Christianity, may sincerely and religiously worship him, and live 
 according to his requirements. This verse is often expounded of 
 the call of the Gentiles in Bereschith Rabbah, Sect. 88. 
 
 Seek. In the Hebrew text of Amos it is, Jirshou "might 
 possess," for which the Seventy read, Jidreshou "might seek;" 
 unless perhaps they took the verb of " possessing," for the study 
 and endeavour of possessing, as it is taken, Deut. ii. 24,.31. 
 
 Ths rest of men. The Hebrew text of Amos is wont to be trans- 
 lated, "the rest of Edom;" but the Seventy took the Hebrew particle 
 eth, which for the most part is set before the accusative, to be here 
 a note of the nominative case, as it is used, 1 Sam. xvii. 34 ; 
 2 Kings vi. 5 ; ix. 25 ; Neh. ix. 32, 34 ; Jer. xxxiii. 5 ; xxxviii. 
 16; Ezek. jxxxix. 14. "And for Edom they seem to have read 
 Adam, or rather," says the famous Ludovicus De Dieu, " as often 
 elsewhere, so here they might think Edom to be taken in a larger 
 sense than for the people properly so called ; for as of the two sons 
 of Rebecca, Jacob represented the church, so the elder son, viz., 
 Esau or Edom, shadowed out all the rest of mankind that were 
 aliens from the church ; for Which reason in the writings of the 
 
 ^ Joseph, Antiq. xii. 11 and 12. Idem. Ant. xiii. 17. 
 Y 
 
322 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XV. 
 
 Rabbins, the Eoman empire, especially as it extended far and wide 
 through almost the whole world, was styled the kingdom of Edom; 
 and to this day, by children of Edom, they mean all Christians. 
 Since therefore here the prophet opposes to the tabernacle of 
 David, that is, the kingdom of Israel, the relics of Edom, they fitly 
 enough thereby understood the rest of men." 
 
 The Lord. The words of Amos as translated by the Seventy, 
 bear no sense, unless understood, as just before was said, of the 
 tabernacle of David restored ; instead of which James puts, The 
 Lord, that is, God the restorer and master of this tabernacle, for 
 whom men seek that tabernacle. 
 
 Upon whom my name is called. See what was said on Amos ix. 
 12. In the Greek, by an Hebrew pleonasm, is added, sir avroiic, 
 upon them, which word, avroiic, is referred to ra Wvrt, "the 
 nations ;" fbr since by nations, are understood men of the nations, 
 there is in the gender of the adjective more regard had to the sense 
 of the substantive, than to the substantive woird. See Matt, xxviii. 
 19; Eom. ii. 14. 
 
 18. Known uxito the Lord are his works, &c. As much as to say. 
 It is nothing strange that God should heretofore, about eight 
 hundred years ago, by his prophet Amos, publish his intention 
 of calling the Geritiles, which now he executes ; for whatever 
 God does, or is kny time to do, was foreseen and ordained by 
 him before the beginning of the world. That " from the beginning," 
 or "before the beginning of the world," are used in one and the 
 same sense, will be evident to any that shall compare, Eph.~i. 4 ; 
 2 Tim.'i. 9, with 2 Thess. ii. 13; Rev. xiii. 8. 
 
 19. Wherefore, &c. As much as to say. Therefore from the 
 word of God I judge, that the importune yoke of legal ceremonies 
 is not to be obtruded upon Gentile Christians, but an epistle exhor- 
 tatory to be sent to them, that they abstain from those things which 
 cannot be done without detriment to piety. Hesychius, a presbyter 
 of Jerusalem, speaks of this our apostle James,' deciding here the 
 controversy of the necessity of observing the ceremonial laws, in 
 this manner : " How shall I celebrate James the servant and 
 brother of Christ; the chief captain of New Jerusalem, the prince of 
 priests ; head of the apostles ; amongst the heads, the crown ; 
 amongst the lamps over-shining ; and amongst the stars the most 
 illustrious ? Peter preaches, James decrees, and a few words 
 despatch the question ; / judge that they should not be disquieted, 
 
 • Apud Photium in Bibliothecii, Cod. 175. 
 
VER. XX.] LITEHALLY EXPLAINED. 323 
 
 &c. I judge, whose judgment, it is not lawful to abrogate, nor 
 deprave the decrees ; for in me the Judge, both of quick and 
 dead, speaketh by my organ; I yield indeed a tongue, but the 
 voice proceeds from him who is the Father of language and giver 
 speech." 
 
 20. Tliat they dbstamfrom the pollutions of idols. That is, from 
 things that have been offered to idols, as appears ver. 29. " Meats 
 offered to idols (saith Curcellseus,') James calls ra aXiayrifiaTa 
 Tb)v uSu>\(Dv, 'pollutions of idols:' for aXiayrifia signifies 'pollu- 
 tion,' but not of- any sort promiscuously, but only that which 
 proceeds from unclean meats, such as were those that Moses's law 
 did forlud unto the Israelites, and specially things offered to the 
 gods of the heathen. Whence God, Mai. i. 7, complains, that the 
 Jews offered upon his altar, aprovg riXiayrt/jifvovQ, 'bread polluted;' 
 and we read of Daniel and his companions, whom Nebuchadnezzar 
 appointed to be fed daily with his victuals and of the wine whereof 
 himself drank, that they resolved not to be polluted from the king's 
 table, nor from his wine, Dan. i. ; because they feared that amongst 
 the same there might be somewhat forbidden them by the law. 
 Lev. xi. Deut. xiv., or offered to idols, touching which they had 
 this command : Thou shalt not make a covenant with the inhabitants 
 of the land [of Canaan^ lest when they have committed whoredom with 
 their gods, and adored their images, some of them should invite thee to 
 eat of what they have sacrificed, Exod. xxxiv. 15. A dangerous 
 example of which there is. Numb. xxv. i., &c. Now things offered 
 to idols may be considered two ways, when the question is put 
 about eating them: — 1. As flesh to be sold in the market, or 
 privately offered to us by an infidel that has invited us, at his own 
 private house. 2. As flesh consecrated to idols, and so having a 
 peculiar sanctity ; especially when, it is eaten in honour of some 
 , certain false god, in the place where idols are kept, as it was the 
 manner to celebrate banquets in the sacrifices of the heathen. 
 And in both these respects they are considered by St. Paul, 1 Cor. 
 viii. and x. As to the former respect, to feed on idolothytes 
 (or things offered to idols) is a thing altogether middling or indif- 
 ferent, provided it be done without administering scandal to the 
 weak, 1 Cor. x. 24, 25, &c. But in the latter regard, it is a thing 
 evil, as being conjoined with the profession of idolatry, or which 
 may at least be so taken by those who know not our mind, and so 
 may give them a grievous occasion of scandal ; and hereunto apper- 
 1 In Diiitriba de Esu Sang. 
 Y 2 
 
324 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XV. 
 
 tain those texts, 1 Cor. x. 20,21; The things which the Gentiles 
 sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God ; but I would not 
 that ye should have fellowship with devils ; ye cannot drink the 
 cup of the Lord and the cup of devils ; ye cannot he partakers of 
 the Lords table and of the table of devib. Where we may see, that 
 the apostle did not look upon it as an indifferent action, and lawful 
 out of the case of scandal, to eat of these things in the idol's 
 temple, but as a most wicked thing, and for which there could be 
 no good plea. But you will say, what then is the meaning of 
 those words, 1 Cor. viii. 9, 11 : But take heed lest this liberty of 
 yours [of eatisg idolothytes] become a stumbling block to the weak, 
 &c. ? I answer, the apostle so speaks by way of concession, in 
 respect of those who boasted of their knowledge, and did defend an 
 action unworthy of believers, viz, their sitting do'frn to meat with the 
 Gentiles in the idol's temple, with thi« vain pretext, that they knew 
 that an idol was nothing, and therefor^ by that which was nothing 
 they could not be defiled ', whose reasonings the apostle here meets 
 with thus : Be it as you say, yet you ought to abstain from those 
 idol-feasts, if it be but for th.e sake of your weak brethren, who, 
 perhaps, do not so well as you understand that an idol is nothing, 
 and to them you may administer a most dangeroxis stumbling-block 
 or scandal; and therefore in frequenting such feasts you sin against 
 your brethren, whom you cast into peril of eternal damnation, and 
 also against Christ himself, who has redeemed them with his death. 
 As for my own part, I am far otherwise minded, for I would ab- 
 stain for ever, not only from those sacrifices, but even from the 
 eating of any sort of flesh whatsoever, rather than offer any offence 
 to my brother. Paul, therefore, for a double cause, would have 
 Christians refrain tlie feasts of heathens kept in their idol temples ; 
 first, because they were in themselves evil, and none could be 
 present thereat without approbation, or seeming to join therein ; 
 and secondly, because by going thither they gave grievous offence 
 to weak brethren. But this last reason he presses chiefly, i Cor., 
 viii., referring the other unto ch. x., where so vehemently (as we 
 have seen) he thunders against those ethnic banquets, charging 
 such as haunt them to be partakers of the table and cup of devils. 
 And the apostle seems to have fallen into this discourse from an 
 occasion administered by the Corinthians themselves, who had con- 
 sulted him by an epistle, 1 Cor. viL 1 ; viii. 1 ; et seq., touching cer- 
 tain matters, and particularly concerning meats offered to idols ; 
 and, perhaps, how the decree of the apostles not long before made 
 
VER. XX.] LIXEKALLY EXPLAINED. 325 
 
 at Jerusalem was to be understood. Here, therefore, [we have] 
 the best interpreter that could be wished of that constitution, from 
 whom we may learn, how far the prohibition of things offered to 
 idols does extend, and what force it has to bind the consciences of 
 faithful Christians. For there being divers kinds oi idolothytes, 
 the question cannot be solved but by using a distinction. Some 
 idolothytes there are from which we are to abstain only for fear of, 
 or to avoid the scajndal that may thence happen to arise ; such are 
 those which are commonly sold in the market, or which are set 
 before us in the private treat& of our friends. But there are 
 other idolothytes from which, we mtist abstain, because it is simply 
 and in itself evil to eat thereof; as those which are eaten in an 
 idol temple, which, is always done with some either open or tacit 
 approbation of idolatry. To this of the latter kind, as being of 
 greater moment, the apostles, np doubt, in their famous council, had 
 chiefly an eye. Yet sometimes it may happen, that to eat of those 
 idolothytes- which are set to- sale in the market, may not be without 
 danger, as we are taught in the kistory of Julian the Apostate, who 
 out of his restless desife to pBopagate the Pagan religion, or rather 
 to vex the Christians, caused all the meat in the shambles to be 
 polluted with sacrifices- offered to his gods, that so the Christians 
 might be forced to feed on idolothytes, unless they would starve ; 
 of which very thing we read in Theodoret thus:' 'He (that is, 
 Julian) first defiled all the fountains, that were either in the city 
 of Antioch or at Daphne (moat famous suburbs of the same city) 
 with wicked consecrations, so that whoever drank the water 
 thereof should likewise be infected with the stains of idolatry. 
 And at last, whatever was exposed to sale in the market he 
 polluted in like manner. For all the bread, flesh, fruits, herbs, 
 and other eatables, he caused to be sprinkled with holy water, 
 which when the Christians saw, though they could not but grieve, 
 lament, and heartily detest those abominations, yet they refused 
 not to eat thereof, in obedience to that rule of the apostle. What- 
 ever is sold in the shambles^ that eat, ashing no question for conscience 
 sake, 1 Cor. x. 25, Otherwise, it is well known how much eating 
 of idol-sacrifices was commonly abhorred amongst Christians ; 
 insomuch that our Lord Jesus layeth Jezebel's charge. Rev. ii. 20, 
 as a most heinous wickedn'ess, that she had seduced his servants to 
 commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And 
 Leo the Great decreed :* " That whether fear or hunger prevailed 
 ' Ecclesiast. Hist. lib. iii. cap. 14. ' Eiiist. lib. Ixxix. cap. 5. 
 
326 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XV. 
 
 with any to eat of things sacrificed, those that did it should be 
 purged by satisfaction of penance.' So in Minutius Felix, when 
 Csecilius. objects to the Christians, 'That they abhorred those 
 pieces of meat which were taken from the sacrifices, and those 
 drinks wherewith there had been libations made on the altars :' 
 Octavius presently answers: 'That we contemn the relics of 
 sacrifices, and idol-offered cups, proceeds not from fear, but is an 
 assertion of our true liberty ; for although everything that is 
 brought forth, as it is the inviolable gift of God, cannot be 
 corrupted by your doings, yet we abstain, lest any should think, 
 either that we give place t« those devils to whom you offer, or that 
 we are ashamed of our religion.' Yea, Augustine shows himself 
 so scrupulous in eating of idolothytes, that he seems to praise a 
 man for choosing to starve rather than touch them ; for thus he 
 writes :' 'It remains that we speak something of that Christian 
 traveller whom you speak of, overcome with necessity of hunger, 
 if he can nowhere find anything but meat that is placed in an idol's 
 temple, and where no other person is present, whether it be better 
 for him to choose to die of hunger, rather than take the food for 
 his refreshment. In which question it doth not necessarily follow 
 that the meat so found is offered to the idol ; for it might, by some 
 travelling that way, and turning in there to refresh themselves, be 
 either by forgetfulness or voluntarily left behind, or set there on 
 some other occasion. Therefore I briefly answer: either he is 
 certain that the meat is idolothyte, or certain that it is not, or the 
 same is unknown. If he be certain it is, it is better he should, 
 with Christian courage, refuse it, even with manifest hazard of his 
 life, as the question supposes. But if he knows it is not, or is 
 ignorant whether it is or no, then let him take it without any 
 scruple of conscience for the use of his necessity.'- Where it 
 appears that Augustine did in iio wise ' esteem the eating of idolo- 
 thytes as a thing indifferent, and from which we are to abstain only 
 for fear of scandal, but looked upon it as a thing altogether evil jn 
 itself, and to be avoided, though no man were privy thereunto. 
 For he supposes no other man to be present, whom there might be 
 danger to offend by doing it, and yet in such a case prefers rather, 
 out of Christian virtue, to abstain, than to do anything unworthy 
 of his calling, though for saving of his life. The same did the 
 ancient Christians that lived amongst the pagans always judge, so 
 that many of them chose rather to die than to pollute themselves 
 
 ' Epist. 154, ad Publicolam. 
 
VER. XX.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 327 
 
 with any such food. In the Roman martyroJogy, on the eleventh 
 of March is celebrated the memory of fourscore martyrs in 
 Campania, who would not eat flesh sacrificed, nor worship the 
 head of a goat. And since abstinence from eating of blood is by 
 the apostles in their decree placed in the same degree of necessity 
 with the avoiding things offered to idols, (of which it were not 
 lawful for us to eat at this day, if we conversed amongst idolaters), 
 we may conclude the former likewise ought not to be counted as 
 only a temporary law, and given to avoid the scandal of the weak; 
 but to be of perpetual duration, even to the end of the world, and 
 that, although there were none that by its violation could be 
 offended." 
 
 Fornication. We take the worcj in its most usual sense, for the 
 carnal commixture of a single man with a single woman ; which 
 commonly amongst the heathens was not looked upon as any sin 
 or evil ; and therefore there was reason to fear, lest some of them 
 who but lately were come over to the Christian profession, should 
 yet take undue liberty therein, unless the same were expressly 
 forbidden. For how light the Gentiles made of this uncleannefes 
 is known from that passage In Terence,' " 'Tis no such heinous 
 business, believe me, for a young fellow to wench a little," &c. 
 And Cicero palliates it after the same manner in his Oration on 
 behalf of Coelius : " lyet something be indulged to his age ; let 
 youth be allowed to be more free ; let not all things be denied to 
 pleasure ; when was not this done ? when was it condemned ? 
 where not permitted?" Nay, severe Cato himself, in Horace,^ 
 when he saw a youth entering the Stews, cries out, " It is fit 
 young men should go down thither." As if it were an argument 
 of their probity and honesty that they went to those public 
 bi'othels, and did not attempt the chastity of other men's wives, &c. 
 And how much some new converted Christians needed a bridle 
 her'ein, appears by the serious exhortations Paul uses to avoid 
 whoredom, 1 Cor. vi. 15.; 1 Thess. iv. 3, 4 ; and elsewhere. 
 
 And things strangled. That is, animals deprived of life, without 
 letting forth the blood. The learned Curcellseus makes some 
 scruple whether this be not an addition to the primitive authentic 
 text; his words are as follow:^ "We read (saith he) the word' 
 TTviKTOv, suffocated or strangled, in the New Testament, which at 
 this day we use, amongst those things which the apostles pro- 
 
 • In Adelph. Act. i. sc. 2. * Hor. i. ser. 2, ver. 34. 
 
 ' In Diatrib. De Esu Sang. ca. 1 ] . 
 
328 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLKS [CH 
 
 hibited to the new converted Gentiles ; but the said word is by us 
 deservedly suspected, since it Is not acknowledged by many of the 
 ancient fathers, yea, by some expressly rejected as supposititious ; 
 of whom the first and most ancient is Irena3us, In his Third Book 
 against Heresies, cap. 12. Where, largely and word by word, 
 writing over this whole place, from verse the seventh to the 
 thirtieth, he makes not the least mention, either in the sentence of 
 James or the apostle's letter, of things strangled, which is a 
 manifest token, that in the book which he used that word was not. 
 For that he did not recite it from his memory is plain by that 
 accurate repetition of the words, In which nothing else Is wanting. 
 Secondly, Tertullian,' where he exactly recounts all other things 
 appertaining to this place, yet makes no mention of these things 
 strangled. Thirdly, Cyprian 2 reciting this text takes no notice 
 hereof. Fourthly, Jerome, ' on the fifth of Galatlans,' writes thus : 
 " In the Acts of the Apostles the history sets forth, that when 
 some arising from the circumcision had asserted that those of the 
 Gentiles that had believed ought to be circumcised, and keep the 
 law of Moses ; the elders which were at Jerusalem, and the 
 apostles, being together assembled, appointed by their letters that 
 the yoke of the law should not be Imposed upon them, nor further 
 observed; but only that they should only keep themselves from 
 things offered to Idols, from blood, and from fornication ; or, as In 
 some copies it is written, from ' things strangled,' or ' anything 
 strangled.' Which note shows that word was not to be found in most 
 of the copies which came to Jerome's hands, and that it was not 
 constantly so read. Fifthly, Ambrose, or whoever was the author 
 of the commentaries which pass under his name, on the epistles ; 
 for on Gal. 11. he says thus : ' Lastly, here are found three com- 
 mands given by the apostles and elders,'whereof the Roman laws take 
 no notice, viz., to keep themselves from Idolatry and blood, as Noah 
 (was commanded), and from fornication, which some sophists of the 
 Greeks not understanding, and yet knowing that blood was to be re-, 
 fralned, adulterate the scripture, adding a fourth command, that is, 
 to abstain from [things] strangled.' Now whatever may be offered 
 to diminish the authority of this commentator, yet none of sound 
 judgment can be persuaded that he would have durst to speak thus, 
 if the word strangled, which he rejects, had been commonly read. , 
 And thence, at least, it appears, that this word strangled was not 
 then in most copies. Sixthly, Augustine recites,^ first out of 
 
 • De Fudic. cap. 12. » Ad Q,uirir. lib. iii. » In Speculo- 
 
VER. XX.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 329 
 
 Acts XV., the words of the apostle's decree, and afterwards out of 
 the twenty-first chapter, those which there James repeats, hut still 
 omitting the mention ' of [things] strangled ;' which that he did not 
 by inadvertency is plain by these words which he adds: 'We see here 
 that the apostles would impose no burthens of the old law, as far 
 as it relates to corporal abstinence, on the believing Gentiles, but 
 only these three things, viz., that they should abstain from what 
 had been oflfered to idols, and from blood, and from whoredom. 
 Whence some think that there are only three deadly sins, idolatry, 
 murder, and fornication, in which last is understood adultery, and 
 all other fleshly mixtures but with a lawful wife.' The seventh 
 witness shall be Pacianus, bishop of Barcelona, who Bellarmine 
 says died whilst Theodosius was emperor. He, in his Exhortation to 
 Repentance, speaks thus, ' It seems good to the Holy Ghost, and 
 to us, to lay no further weight upon you, but this : it is necessary 
 that you keepy ourselves from things sacrificed to idols, and blood, 
 and from fornication, from which abstaining you shall do well ; 
 farewell: this is the whole conclusion of the New Testament.' In 
 which words there is no mention of ' [things] strangled.' The last 
 evidence shall be Gaudentius, bishop of Brixia, in his Treatise of the 
 Maccabees, who mentions indeed things strangled, but not as any- 
 thing distinct from blood, but comprehends them therein. "There- 
 fore (saith he) St. James, with the rest of the apostles, made a 
 decree to be observed in the churches, to abstain from things 
 sacrificed, from fornication, and from blood, that is, from things 
 strangled. They passed by homicide, adultery, witchcrafts, he- 
 cause those things needed not to be named in the churches, which 
 even by the laws of the Gentiles were punished. They preter- 
 mitted also all those minuter legal observations, and established 
 only the things before-mentioned to be observed, viz., that we 
 should not be profaned with unclean meats sacrificed to the devil, 
 nor yet be polluted by the blood of animals strangled, nor violate 
 our bodies, which are the temples of God, by the uncleanness of 
 whoredoms.' 
 
 " All which testimonies manifestly show, that this particular, of 
 things strangled, was not anciently in most copies of the New 
 Testament, or was comprehended in the prohibition of blood, and 
 consequently, that there is some ground, to suspect the same to 
 have been falsified. For which there is this reason of no small 
 moment to be added, that the eating of things strangled, or (which 
 is tantamount) of that which dieth of itself, is by the law of Moses 
 
330 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XV. 
 
 expressly permitted to strangers, Deut. xiv. 21. And yet even 
 the stranger was under pain of death prohibited to eat blood. Lev. 
 xvii. 10 — 12. But it is not credible, that the apostles, who so 
 studiously did remove all the rest of the burdens of the Mosaipal 
 law peculiar to the Israelites from the converted Gentiles, would 
 yet impose upon them any more heavy one, than what all Noah'§ 
 posterity were obliged unto. But this they would have done, if 
 they added a prohibition of things strangled, which belonged to 
 the peculiar discipline of the Israelites ; as also did that accurate 
 manner of killing beasts, and cleansing them from their blood, of 
 which we read, 1 Sam. xiv. 33, 34. Besides, it is not difficult, if 
 care be used, to wash away and separate the blood from creatures 
 strangled, or that die of themselves ; nor would I otherwise, 
 unless that be done, have Christians at this day to eat thereof, that 
 they may show how much they regard this apostolical constitiition. 
 Although I do not think that piety consists in those smaller 
 matters, which relish of Judaism, but that it suffices to avoid sin 
 if never any blood separated from the flesh be eaten." 
 
 And blood. In some Greek copies there is added, " And what- 
 ever they would not have done to themselves, not to do to others," 
 which also is repeated (in those copies) afterwards at the end of 
 the twenty-ninth verse, changing the third person to the second. 
 These additions both Irengeus and Cyprian read in the places (of 
 their works) before quoted ; the Ethiopic interpreter retains them, 
 and the Complutensian edition of the Greek, "which (saith Cur- 
 cellseus) was printed according to the most correct and ancient 
 copies, and deservedly obtains the first place amongst modern 
 editions." 
 
 Concerning the prohibition of blood we shall treat more largely 
 afterwards, ver. 29. This only I here observe, that there is a 
 particular blessing promised to those that abstain from eating of 
 blood, Deut. xii. 25. And that the very same phrase in the 
 commination (or threatening) against blood-eaters used Lev. xvii. 
 10, is made use of again, Lev. xx. 5, where most grievous punish- 
 ment is denounced against idolaters. And that the same is 
 nowhere used besides against the transgressors of any third 
 precept, but only in those two cases of idolatry and eating of 
 blood, is noted by Maimonides. More Nevochim, p. 3, cap. 46. 
 
 21. For Moses, &c. It is beyond doubt, that the intention of 
 James in these words was to give a reason for his, judgment, but 
 to which part thereof it relates is not very plain. Curcellaeus 
 
VEB. XXIi] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 331 
 
 thinks to the last branch. Why it was fit to write in this case to 
 the converted Gentiles, viz., because otherwise, unless it were 
 expressly declared unto them that they were freed from keeping 
 the rituals of the law, they may think themselves still bound 
 thereunto, since they use to be present in the synagogues of the 
 Jews, where the law of Moses, in which the same are strictly 
 commanded, use to be publicly read every sabbath day. Chrysos- 
 tom conceives James here intended to assign a reason, why there 
 was no such reason for writing of this matter to the Jews that 
 had embraced the faith of Christ, as there was to the new-believing 
 Gentiles, because the former might well enough know their duty 
 from the law, which according to ancient custom was read unto 
 them every sabbath in their synagogues. " What (says he') is the 
 meaning of this ? I judge as much as I say with authority, that we 
 ought to write to them, that they abstain from things offered to 
 idols, and fornication, and what is strangled, and from blood. 
 For these, though corporal things, are yet necessary to be observed, 
 because they occasion great evils. And lest any should object, 
 and why should we not write the same things to the Jews ? he 
 adds, Moses from ancient time in every city has those that 
 preach him, that is, Moses continually speaks to them, as being 
 read every sabbath." And a little after : " Moreover he shows 
 that this discourse is not made to please, or to spare them as weak, 
 but the contrary. For it should have been a great shame for the 
 instructors, and a superfluous burden." Hugo Grotius takes the 
 sense of this verse to be thus : " For as to Moses, those which are 
 of the Jews cannot complain that he is contemned by the Gentiles 
 of our religion. Since Moses is read in our assemblies no less 
 than in those of the Jews, as from ancient times has been accus- 
 tomed, and that too on the sabbath days." But to me the inter- 
 pretation of Curcellseus seems most genuine and probable, since 
 those given by Chrysostom and Grotius look more strained. 
 
 Every city. That is, where the Jews or Christians, or both, do 
 dwell. 
 
 Preach him. That is, who publicly read his law to the people. 
 The Greek word Kjjpwa-fftiv, which is translated "to preach," 
 signifies, saith Grotius, " to pronounce with a loud voice, like a 
 crier." As Exod. xxxii. 5 ; Matt. iii. 1 ; and elsewhere often. 
 
 In the synagogues. By these the religious assemblies of the 
 Jews are vulgarly signified, yet Grotius thinks that here it may be 
 ' Horn. 3;i, in Acta Apostol. 
 
332 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XV 
 
 understood of the Christian congregations, as James ii. 2. 
 Theophilus of Antioch speaks thus : " Synagogues, which we call 
 churches." 
 
 Every sabbath day. It was the ancient manner of the Christians 
 (which amongst the Moscovites or Russians, the Syrians, and 
 Melchites, and Abyssines, yet continues) to meet together no less 
 on the sabbath days, commonly called Saturdays, than on the 
 Lord's days, vulgarly called Sundays. So the author of the 
 Constitutions Apostolical, under the name of Clement, bishop of 
 Rome, lib. vii., cap. 23, enjoins ; " The sabbath day and the Lord's 
 day keep ye festivals, or holy, because that is dedicated to the 
 memory of the creation, this of the resurrection." Constantine 
 the Great, as Eusebius witnesses in his Life, lib. iv., cap. 18, 
 ordained : " That all who lived in the Roman empire should, on 
 the days called by the name of our Lord, rest from all work, and 
 should also in like manner keep holy the sabbath days." Gregory 
 Nyssen, in his oration against those that took reproofs unkindly : 
 "With what eyes canst thou behold the Lord's day, who hast 
 despised the sabbath ? Dost thou not know that these days are 
 brethren? So that, if thou undervaluest one thou offendest the 
 other." Asterius, bishop of Amasea, in his Homily of Divorce : 
 " The joining together and concourse of these two days is famous 
 amongst Christians, of the sabbath, I mean, and the Lord's day, 
 which in a circle returning time brings about every week. For as 
 mothers and nurses of the church they both assemble the people, 
 and cause the priests to sit down together to teach them, and so 
 both lead and impel, as well the disciples as their teachers, to the 
 care of soulsv" Socrates in his History, lib. 1 Q, cap. 22, witnesseth : 
 " That all the churches everywhere throughout the world do, as 
 duly as the weeks come about, celebrate the divine mysteries on 
 the sabbath day, except only the church of Rome, and that of 
 Alexandria," And in his sixth book, and eighth chapter, speaking 
 of the tumults which the Arians stirred up at Constantinople in 
 the time of John Chrysostom, he saith, " When the feasts of every 
 week came, to wit, the sabbath and the Lord's day, in which 
 assemblies used to be held in the churches," &c. Sozomen, lib. vii., 
 cap. 19: "Some meet together on the sabbath day, and likewise on 
 the first day of the week, as at Constantinople, and amongst most 
 other Christians. But at Rome and Alexandria they do not do 
 so." Anastasius of Nice : " The sabbath and the Lord's day are 
 days holy and festival. Neither is it lawful on them to fast." 
 
VJfiU. XXI.J LITEKALLY EXPLAINED. 333 
 
 Theodorus Balsamon :' " The sabbath days are by the holy fathers 
 almost in all things made equal to the Lord's days." Hence it 
 came to pass, that as on the Lord's days there was no fasting, as 
 being days of rejoicing, as the Gangrensian Synod teaches. Can. 
 xviii., so neither on the sabbath days, except on one only, which 
 was that before Easter. In the Canons of the Apostles (as they 
 are called, which, though learned men know they deserve not that 
 title, yet they must be confessed to be ancient), the 65th Canon 
 runs thus : " If any clerk shall be found fasting on the holy 
 Lord's day, or on the sabbath, except one only, which next pre- 
 cedes the paschal solemnity, on which Christ laid in the sepulchre, 
 let him be deposed (or degraded) ; but if he be a layman, let him 
 be withdrawn from (or excommunicated.)" Ignatius, in an 
 Epistle to the Philippians, goes higher : " If any one shall fast 
 on the Lcird's day, or on the sabbath day, save only on the sabbath 
 before Easter, he is a murderer of Christ." And to omit for 
 brevity the rest of the testimonies of antiquity, TertuUian, in his 
 4th book against Marcion, saith : " That the sabbath day from the 
 beginning of the world had this privilege, to be free from fasting." 
 Therefore when Justin Martyr and Tertullian deny, that the 
 patriarchs before Moses did sabbatize, it is to be understood not of 
 their assembling together on that day, but of a strict rest during 
 all the day. Ignatius, in his Epistle to the Magnesians : " Let us 
 not sabbatize after the manner of the Jews, enjoying- idleness. 
 For he that works not, let him not eat; and in the sweat of thy 
 brows thou shalt eat thy bread, say the sacred oracles. But let 
 every one of you sabbatize spiritually, applying yourselves with 
 joy to meditation on the law of God, rather than to indulge the 
 body with rest ; admiring the works of God, not eating or drinking 
 superfluously and walking proudly, or pleasing yourselves with 
 dances and unreasonable frolics. And after the sabbath is over, 
 let every Christian keep holy the Lord's day." Origen, Hom. 23 
 on Numbers : " It is necessary that every holy and righteous man 
 should also observe the feast of the sabbath. But what is that 
 feast, unless what the apostle saith, Heb. iv.. There remaineth 
 therefore a sabbatism, that is, a keeping of the sabbath, to the 
 people of God? Therefore leaving the Judaical observation of 
 the sabbath, let us see how a Christian ought to keep the san.e. 
 On the sabbath day nothing ought to be done of all worldly works. 
 Therefore, if thou dost forbear secular emploympnts, and dost 
 
 ' L, Quiest. q. 77- 
 
334 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CUAP. XV. 
 
 nothing worldly, but spendest the time in spiritual exercises, coming 
 to the church, hearing the divine scriptures read and handled, 
 employing thy thoughts on heavenly things, careful of thy future 
 hope, and having the approaching judgment before thine eyes 
 shall have a regard not to things present and visible, but to those 
 that are future and invisible ; this is the true observation of a 
 Christian sabbath." But on the sabbaths, in the assemblies of the 
 primitive Christians, the holy scriptures of the Old Testament 
 were wont to be read to the people, even as amongst the Jews. 
 "Which custom the Synod of Laodicea, which was held about the 
 year 364, altered ; establishing, that on the sabbath days the New 
 as well as Old Testament should be read. Can. 16. 
 
 22. Then it pleased, &c. As if he should say, All that were 
 present at this Jerusalem council, approving the sentence of the 
 apostle James as most equitable. That it might forthwith be put 
 in execution, and the strife kindled at Antioch, which easily might 
 spread itself to other churches, be happily composed, by common 
 consent Judas and Silas, men of principal note and authority 
 amongst the brethren, and of whom there was no suspicion that 
 they were more addicted to either party in this controversy, were 
 chosen that they might go along with Paul and BarnabaB to 
 Antioch, and carry thither the epistle of the synod. 
 
 With Paul and Barnabas. Since they were as it were one party 
 in this controversy touching the observation of the Mosaical rites, 
 and to some might be suspected as less impartial, it was not 
 thought so fit that they should return to Antioch alone. 
 
 Judas who was surnamed Barsaias. Possibly the brother of 
 that Joseph Justus, who was also called Barsabas before, in ch. i. 
 23. 
 
 And Silas. This seems to be he who is called Silvanus, 2 Cor. 
 i. ] 9 ; 1 Thess. i. 1 ; 2 Thess. i. 1 ; and 1 Pet. v. 12. 
 
 Chief men. The Greek has " leading men," that is, of great 
 esteem and authority. 
 
 23. And wrote letters, &c. That is to say, A synodical epistle 
 being written by them to be carried and delivered to the churches, 
 the words whereof were as follow : the apostles, and elders, and 
 brethren, &c. Where it is well noted by Beza, that the copulative 
 is ill left out in the vulgar Latin. For, says he, here the apostles 
 and elders are manifestly distinguished from the rest of the as- 
 sembly, whereas yet the epistle was wrote by the common consent 
 and in the name of them all, the. matter, after the apostles and 
 
Vb;K. XXIV.] LITEllALLY EXPLAINED. 333 
 
 elders had debated it and girerv their advice, being ratified by the 
 general suflrages of the whole church. 
 
 To the brethren, &c. The epistle is addressed to the uncir- 
 cumcised brethren which were in Antioch, the metropolis of Syria, 
 and in the rest of that country elsewhere, and in Cilicia a region 
 next to Syria, in Tarsus the chief city whereof, Paul, who was 
 born there, having been conversant since his conversion to Christ, 
 as appears before, ch. ix. 30, and xi. 25, it is not to be doubted 
 but he had there converted many to the Christian faith. But that 
 which they write to those amongst whom the contest about keeping 
 the Mosaical rites began, was to serve for the instruction of all 
 other Gentiles embracing the faith of Chrisi, in the like case ; and 
 therefore it is said afterwards, ch. xvi. 4, of Paul and Silas, that 
 as they passed through the cities, where there were Christian 
 churches, they delivered to them those decrees, which had been 
 established by the apostles and elders that were at Jerusalem with 
 the consent of the whole church, to be observed. For those were 
 not only cities of Syria and Cilicia; but of many other provinces. 
 And Paul writes to the Corinthians of the same matter, 1 Cor. 
 viii. 10, yea even at this day, and to all Christians wheresoever, 
 this epistle shows, that they are not obliged to observe the cere- 
 monies of Moses's law : nor is there any such notable place in the 
 whole New Testament where the same is so expressly and pro- 
 fessedly taught* 
 
 Greeting. In Greek, ■)(a'ipuv, "To rejoice." The forms of 
 salutations among the Greeks, at the beginning of their epistles, 
 are these: x"'/"""' " t° rejoice," vyiaivnv, " tO be well," and 
 IvirpaTTiiv, "to do well;" the first referring to the mind, the 
 second to the body, and the last to external things ; but before all 
 of them, is implied or understood tuxfTo/, or 'iv\ovTaii such a one, 
 (or they who write the epistle) " desires or wishes." Instead of 
 which, the Latins for the most part use salutent, " greeting," and 
 the Hebrews Di^to, " peace," comprehending in one word all felicity 
 and prosperity, and all good things as well of the mind as of the 
 body, and also those which are called the goods of fortune. Horace 
 imitates this Graecism in that epistle which begins Ceho gaudere. 
 
 24. Certain who went out from us. That is, some converted Jews 
 that went down from Jerusalem to Antioch. See before, ver. 1. 
 
 Troubled you with tpords. That is, by their vain talking and 
 arguing have disquieted your minds. 
 
 Subverting your souls. That ie, rendering your consciences un- 
 
336 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XV. 
 
 certain and doubtful, saying, you must he circumcised and keep 
 the law, to wit, ceremonial, of Moses: for touching that only was 
 the debate, none questioning but that all the moral precepts are to 
 observed and performed by Christians. 
 
 Saying. It is nothing unusual to put the words 'Xkyu) and mttii), I 
 fiay, for I command or require, See Matt. iv. 3 ; Mark v. 43 ; Luke 
 xii. 13; and ch. xix. 15, &c. So the Hebrew word Amar, is 
 taken, 1 Kings xi. 18; 1 Chron- xx. 17 ; Esther i, 10 and 11; and 
 elsewhere. " Whence," Lewis de Dieu says, " that with the 
 Arabians it signifies nothing else but to command." 
 
 To whom we gave no such command. The apostles, and elders of 
 the church of Jerusalem and other brethren, protest that they were 
 neither the authors nor assertore of this doctrine, that requires 
 circumcision and other legal rites to be observed as necessary to 
 salvation. 
 
 26. Men that have hazarded their lives. Above, ch. xiii. 50 ; 
 xiv. 19, 
 
 For the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is, for our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, to propagate his glory and gospel. 
 
 27. Who shall alsd tell you the same things. Which are con- 
 tained in our synodical epistle. 
 
 By mouth. That you may be informed of our unanimous decree 
 both by our writing, and their speaking. 
 
 28. For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us. That is. 
 It seemed good to us, who are inspired with the Holy Ghost. 
 "Hence (saith Curcellseus) appears what authority this apostolic 
 decree ought to have with us, which was not properly dictated by 
 men, but by the Holy Spirit who guided them. For if we greatly 
 esteem the several books of the New Testament, because we are 
 verily persuaded that the writers thereof were inspired by the 
 Holy Ghost, how much ought we to reverence this epistle, penned 
 by so many great men filled with that blessed Spirit? And there- ' 
 fore it is in no wise likely, that therein was treated of only in- 
 different things, and such as for some small time for avoiding of 
 scandal were to be avoided; since the majesty of the authors from 
 whom it came, first of the Holy Ghost, and then of divers apostles 
 and very many apostolic men, persuades the contrary, viz. that 
 therein must be handled doctrines most grave and important, and 
 which tend to the edification of the whole church of Christ, even 
 to the end of the world. Had the decrees of after councils had 
 such great authors, 'Oh! with what out-spread arms would they 
 
VER. XXVIII.J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 337 
 
 have been embraced by all the lovers of divine truth ; but, alas ! 
 in many of them which say, It seems good to the Holy Ghost and us, 
 there presided the spirit of ambition, covetousness, wrath, envy, 
 pride, ignorance, to say no worse, rather than the meek and gentle 
 Spirit of Christ ; what wonder is it then if no good proceeded from 
 thence, but that instead of composing differences they rather mul- 
 tiplied and increased them more and more." 
 
 To lay upon you no greater burthen. By the word burthen are 
 not to be understood the moral precej)ts whose honesty nature 
 alone, and without the help of another tutor, is able presently to 
 teach any one. " For as," saith Curcellaeus, " the political laws of 
 the Gentiles will not release any one from them, so neither will the 
 law of Christ, which is the enjoiner of a more perfect holiness. 
 Nor ought those things to be counted or called a burthen, which 
 are so honest and commendable, that of all that know them, even 
 although none should command them, they ought to be observed. 
 But certain positive laws are called a burthen, which are indeed 
 founded in natural honesty, but yet not so plainly as that iill should 
 forthwith perceive it, and are of a middle nature, between those that 
 are absolutely moral, and such positive laws as depend merely on 
 the will and pleasure of the law-maker, and therefore are neces- 
 sarily to be oft recommended, urged, and inculcated, lest they be 
 unknown or neglected. Of the laws of this sort, whereof Moses 
 delivered many, it seemed good to the apostles to prescribe only 
 those here mentioned to the converted Gentiles, and especially to 
 free them from the yoke of circumcision, which many of them were 
 most averse unto, that so the difficulty of Christian discipline might 
 not retard the course of the gospel, and this agreeable to the sen- 
 tence of Peter and of James before, ver. 10 and 19." 
 
 These necessary things. The Greek has ttX^v tujv iTvavayKt.^ 
 Tovriov. supply 6vT(i)v, "besides these things necessarily," where, 
 " to be observed," is understood. Grotius notes, that the phrase is 
 purely Greek, and by Demosthenes and Plutarch used of things 
 vi^hich by law ought to be done, and so he translates this place 
 thus : ' " Besides those things which 'tis altogether necessary to be 
 done." TertuUian: "Besides those things from which there is a 
 necessity to abstain." Cyprian : " Besides those things which are 
 of necessity." But Salmasius thinks this place corrupted, " For," 
 saith he, " in the Greek it should be read ttXjjv twv lir' avdjKeg 
 TOVTwv, not as vulgarly, liravayK^Q, which in this construction is 
 
 ' Libro de Fanore Trapezitico, p. 440. 
 Z 
 
338 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XT. 
 
 not at all Greek, nor can be made so; but itt' avajKrtQ ix.'^ 'T must, 
 the Greeks commonly say, who also may say iirdvajKeg t;;^w, but 
 here the syntaxis will not bear it." Excellently has that reverend 
 Dr. Edward Stillingfleet, now the most worthy dean of Paul's 
 noted on this text: " That it was not enough for them (the apostles, 
 and elders, and church of Jerusalem) that the things would be 
 necessary when they had required them, but they looked on an 
 antecedent necessity, either absolute or for the present state, which 
 was the only ground of their imposing those commands upon the 
 Gentile Christians." Thus in the preface to his Irenicum, that 
 person of known piety, who has scarce his equal for learning sacred 
 and secular, ingenuity and eloquence, whose liberality to help the 
 pooil- and strangers, I do with all gratitude acknowledge myself to 
 have eminently experienced. 
 
 29. That ye abstain from meats offered to idols. " Christians," 
 salth Justin Martyr, disputing with Trypho, "will undergo all 
 torment and punishment, even death itself, rather than either 
 worship images, or eat of things that are offered unto them." And 
 when Trypho had said, " That there were some who were called 
 Christians, who would eat of the idol sacrifices, and said that their 
 conscience was not bound in that manner : " he answers, " that they 
 do indeed usurp that name, but teach those things which proceed 
 from the spirit that is a seducer." See our notes before, ver. 20. 
 
 And blood. To wit, dressed and gathered together of set purpose, 
 as Zonaras ; or reserved for the nonce, as Balsamon interprets it. 
 The reason why the apostles would that the converted Gentiles 
 should abstain from blood, is assigned by the ancients to be, because 
 they indeed were not obliged by those precepts of Moses which 
 were given to the Israelites, nor by the law of circumcision, which 
 only bound the posterity of Abraham ; yet still they were not free 
 from those commands which God had laid on Adam and Noah, to 
 which Christ added some things, but took away nothing. For as 
 TertuUian speaks : ' "In Christ all things are called back to the 
 beginning, so that faith is reverted from circumcision to the whole- 
 ness of flesh, as it was from the beginning; and the individuity of 
 matrimony (that is, to have but one wife at a time) as it was fpom 
 the beginning, and divorce restrained, because it was not so from 
 the beginning ; and lastly the whole man called back into paradise 
 where he was at first." The same author treating of the apostles 
 forbidding of blood: ^ "As after the deluge, so in the reformation 
 
 ' Libro De Monogamia. 2 Libro De Jejuniis. 
 
VEH. XXIX. J LITERALLY EXPLAINKD. 339 
 
 of mankind still one and the same law sufficed, that they should 
 abstain from blood, the eating of other things being permitted." 
 
 But this is to be understood of mei'e blood, and separated from 
 the flesh, not of a few drops which by chance being not diligently 
 enough cleansed away, may remain in the veins. " And certainly, 
 (saith Grotius) as the observation of this precept (if it be not too 
 superstitiously pressed) is easy, so there are very honest reasons 
 for it. For if we regard what is natural, those nations which use 
 such food are wont to be fierce and wild, as we see in America ; or 
 if we look on what is, moral, it is a most excellent and plain signifi- 
 cation that we ought to abstain from revenge, for he that, revenges 
 himself is said to be fed with blood." Origen adds another cause, 
 "because the devils were believed to be fed with blood." When 
 therefore Paul, 1 Cor. x. 25, saith, What is sold in the market, eat 
 ye, asking no question for conscience sake, must be restrained, as 
 Clemens Alexandrinus advises,' "conveniently to the exception of 
 those things which are mentioned in the catholic epistle of all the 
 apostles, wrote by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, recorded in 
 the Acts of the Apostles, and carried by Paul himself unto the 
 faithful." Hence S. Biblis in Eusebius,'^ being racked to make her 
 confess that the Christians fed upon infants, generously answers; 
 " How should they eat children, when it is not lawful for them to 
 feed on the blood even of brute beasts." The ijuthor of the Ques- 
 tions and Answers to the Orthodox in Justin, q. 145 : " Since," 
 says he, " blood consists of the same things as flesh does, why does 
 God permit the flesh of ajiimals to be eaten but forbids the blood, 
 or eating of the flesh in the blood thereof? Answer, that in that 
 matter also God might separate us from the immanity of beasts, 
 who greedily lick up the blood of those creatures whose flesh they 
 devour." Clemens Alexandrinus^ having related how the Scythians 
 use to drink the blood of their horses, and the Arabians of their 
 camels, adds, " Then may such savage beasts perish, who make 
 blood their food; for it is not lawful for men to touch blood, since 
 their bodies are nothing but flesh trimmed up with blood." Origen, 
 against Celsus, 1. 8, tells us : " That things strangled are animals 
 dead, and the blood not taken otit of them, which they say are the 
 food of devils, with the smell of which they are fed, and therefore 
 these are forbidden to be used by us, lest we should be nourished 
 with the food of devils, and the evil spirits should be nourished 
 with us, if we feed as well as they upon strapgled things." The 
 
 ' Stromata, lib. iv. ' Hist. v. 1. " Psedagog. lib. iii. cap. 3. 
 
340 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. X.Y. 
 
 same father on Matt. xv. says : " That he is fed by faith, who 
 believes that what he eats was neither offered in the sacrifices of 
 idols, nor [strangled, nor blood." And at another place : i " Thou 
 seest that this law of refraining from blood, which was given in 
 common to the children of Israel and to the strangers, must also 
 be observed by us, whom the scripture useth to call proselytes and 
 strangers." Tertullian in his Apologetic, ch. ix., coming to refuto 
 the scandals of the Gentiles who charged the Christians with 
 killing of infants and eating them, does it thus : " Let your error 
 blush to object this to the Christians, who allow not so much as of 
 the blood of animals at our tables ; nay further, who abstain from 
 things strangled and that die of themselves, lest we should in any 
 kind be defiled with blood at least, which is hidden within the 
 guts. Lastly, Even you yourselves amongst the trials of Christians 
 are wont to bring to them some puddings well filled with blood ; 
 well knowing that to them that is unlawful by which you would 
 have them exorbitate ; and how comes it to pass that you should 
 believe those whom you know to abhor the blood of a beast, are 
 yet so greedy of human blood, unless you have by experience 
 found the latter to be sweetest?" So Octavius in Minutius Felix : 
 "It is neither lawful for us to behold homicide: nor to hear 
 of it, and so wary are we from meddling with human blood, 
 that we admit not the blood of beasts among our viands." In 
 the book called the Apostle's canons, wherein are contained 
 the most ancient customs of the church, the sixty-third canon 
 runs thus : " If any bishop, priest, or deacon, or any of the 
 Holy order shall eat flesh in the blood thereof, or anything that 
 died of itself, or taken by wild beasts, let him be degraded, for 
 these things the law forbids ; but if he be a layman let him be 
 excluded from communion." The Council of Gangres, A.C. 325, 
 Can. 2 : "If any shall condemn a man that with piety and faith 
 shall have eaten of any sort of flesh, which is not defiled with 
 blood, or offered to idols, or strangled, as such a one who 
 for such promiscuous eating is excluded from hopes of salvation, 
 let him be anathema." Behold ! here the fathers being to assert 
 the use of flesh against certain heretics, do yet except blood and 
 strangled, and idol-offered. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catech. 4, " The 
 apostles and elders write a common general epistle to, all the 
 Gentiles, that in the first place they forbear meats consecrated to 
 idols, and next from blood and what is strangled : for many rude 
 
 ' In Epist. ad Rom. lib. ii. cap. 2. 
 
VJiE. XXIX.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 341 
 
 and savage people, living brutishly, do like dogs delight to lick up 
 blood, and like the wild beasts of the wilderness, abundantly 
 devour things strangled." Pacianus, Bishop of Barcelona in his 
 Exhortation to Repentance, tells us: "That it is the epitome of 
 the New Testament to abstain from idolothytes, blood, and what is 
 strangled, and that to do otherwise is a great sin." See what we 
 cited out of Chrysostom before, ver. 21. In the Second Council 
 of Orleans, a.c. 536, Can. 19, 23, it was decreed : " That Catholics 
 who revolt to the worship of idols, or that by unlawful presump- 
 tion, make bold to taste of meats consecrated to the honour 
 of idols, shall be repelled from the assemblies of the church ; as 
 also those who feed on anything that which being killed by the 
 biting of beasts or by any disease, or other chance is strangled." 
 Theodoras, (as some will have him) Archbishop of Canterbury, in 
 his Penitential ; " Beasts that are worried by wolves or dogs are 
 not to be eaten, unless by chance whilst they are yet alive they be 
 first killed bysome man: but let them, as well as a hart or buck 
 that are found dead, be given to the dogs and swine : so likewise if 
 birds or other creatures be strangled in nets or gins, they are not 
 to be eaten, nor if an hawk have seized them and they are found 
 dead ; because in the Acts of the Apostles we are commanded to 
 abstain from fornication, blood, things strangled, and idolatry. 
 He that eateth any such flesh as either died alone, or killed by any 
 beast, let him do penance forty days." In the Council of Rouen, 
 Anno 682, it was ordained, " that inquiry should be made, whether 
 any one had eaten blood, or anything that died of itself, or was 
 worried to death by any beasts," In the sixth general synod 
 (which was held A.D., 692, under Justinian the second emperor of 
 that name surnamed Ehinometus, at Constantinople, in a vaulted 
 apartment of the emperor's palace, which apartment was called 
 TruUum, whence it is called Synodus TruUana)^ the sixty -seventh 
 canon runs thus: " The holy scripture enjoins us, that we abstain 
 from blood, from things strangled, and from fornication. Justly 
 therefore we condemn those who by any art dress or prepare the 
 blood of any animal and so eat it : he that is guilty thereof, if he 
 be a clerk let him be degraded; if a layman excommunicated." 
 Bede, in his book of the Remedies of Sin, c. 14 : " Whoever shall 
 unwittino-ly eat of anything that died of itself, let him repent 
 
 ' Burchard. Deer. lib. xix. cap. 85, 88. Et Regino, lib. ii. De Eccles, Dist. cap, 369, 
 compared with chap. 371, 372. 
 
 ' Rfgino, Ibidem, lib ii. n. 46. Burchard, lib. i. cap. 94, m. 45. 
 
342 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOS't'LES [cHAP. XV. 
 
 twenty days ; he that is poor or dull, and shall eat anything 
 ( raudatum) stolen or unjustly come by, let hina do four days' 
 penance : but for those that do these things knowingly, be they 
 sick or well, let them do penance forty days; those that do it 
 often, let them do forty days or a years' penance; which place of 
 Bede Salmasius in his book, De Fo^nore Trapezitico, amends, and for 
 fraudafum, ' stolen,' reads suffocatum, ' strangled,' or afratum, which 
 is a kind of pudding : yet in the Penitential of Theodorus we find 
 a passage agreeable to that first text of Bede,i ' If any one shall 
 knowingly eat anything stolen, or plundered, or unjustly come by, 
 if he be poor let him do penance seven days ; if rich forty.' " 
 Clearer yet to our purpose is that which the same Regino, lib. i. 
 cap. 300, has out of the Penitential of Theodorus or Bede : " Hast 
 thou eaten of anything that died of itself or worried by beasts ? 
 do penance forty days ; the like if thou hast eaten blood." So 
 Zachary, Bishop of Rome, in his twelfth Epistle to Boniface, 
 Archbishop of Mehtz, forbids those beasts to be eaten which were 
 either strangled or taken by other beasts. The Synod of Worms 
 under Ludovicus Pius, cap. 64 : " if an animal be wounded, and 
 tasted by wild beasts, and a man fitids it before it be dead and kill 
 it, he may lawfully eat thereof; but if it be dead first, let its flesh 
 be thrown away." And ch. 65 : " Animals which are worried by 
 wolves and dogs, are not to be eaten by any but dogs and hogs. 
 Nor is a deer or goat if found dead : but of fish you may eat, 
 because they are of another nature ; but birds and other creatures 
 if they are strangled in nets are not to be eaten." Rabanus 
 Maurus, Archbishop of Mentz, upon Leviticus, lib. v. cap. 8 : "It 
 is therefore necessary to keep this commandment literally, and in 
 nowise to eat blood ; for thou wilt find that the same thing is also 
 commanded by the apostles." Most remarkable is that ordinance 
 of the Emperor Leo the Sixth of that name, surnamed the Philo- 
 sopher, B.C. 886, Cons. 58 : " Although God both of old by Moses 
 the law-giver coiuiiianded that blood should not be eaten, and by 
 the preachers of grace declared that men ought to abstain from 
 such food ; and although the eating thereof as well under the New 
 Testament as the Old, hath ever been condemned as an infamous 
 and unlawful thing, yet to that degree of obstinacy or rather mad- 
 ness are men grown, that they refuse to yield obedience to either 
 law, but on the contrary some for gain, and some for gluttony, do 
 with the highest impudence contemn the command, and turn 
 
 ' Regino, Ibidem, cap. 370. 
 
VEIL XXIX. J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 343 
 
 blood, whereof we are forbidden to eat, into a food. For informa- 
 tion hath arrived at our ears, that stuffing blood into guts, as in 
 bags, they presume to eat the same as usual meat ; which our 
 Imperial Majesty judging not fit to be tolerated, nor enduring that 
 both the divine precepts and the honour of our commoiiwealth 
 should be violated by such an ungodly invention of men, whose 
 Avhole devotion is for their belly, doth hereby ordain and command, 
 that no person shall dare practise that wickedness in any kind 
 either for his own use, or to defile others by selling them such 
 detestable food. And let him know, whoever he be that shall 
 henceforth be found to contemn the divine command, and convert 
 blood into food, whether buyer or seller, lie shall forfeit all his goods; 
 and after he shall also have been severely whipped, and his head 
 for dishonour shaven close to the skin, he shall be sent in perpetual 
 banishment." Regino, abbot of Pruym in the diocese of Triers i* 
 " If any one shall eat the blood of any animal, let him do penance 
 forty days. The. faithful are to be admonished that none of them 
 presume to eat blood." 
 
 " For in the beginning, when license to eat flesh was granted by 
 God to man, we find blood is forbidden: for the Lord says to 
 Noah and his sons : Every thing that, moveth and liveth shall he to 
 you for food, except ye shall not eat Jlesh with the blood : which not 
 only is very often re-inforced in the old law, but also in the New 
 Testament; the apostles upon great deliberation write to the 
 Gentiles of the primitive church, that they should keep themselves 
 from the defilements of idols and fornication, and what is strangled 
 and blood, which Jerome expounding, saith : ' That these com- 
 mands according to the letter belonging to every Christian, that he 
 eat not what dies of itself, whether of bird, or beasts, to wif, 
 where their blood is not poured forth, which the Apostle's epistle 
 sent from Jerusalem necessarily requires. Nor what is taken and 
 killed by any beast, for that' too is likewise strangled : and from 
 blood, that is, not to eat it with the blood : if therefore these things 
 were written to such as came over from heathenisna as the very 
 rudiments of faith, and were sufficient as to the salvation of those 
 who by inveterate custom had wallowed in impiety and unbelief, 
 with what face can any think light of transgressing them ? Espe- 
 cially considering that blood and things strangled are there equalled 
 with idolatry and fornication: whereby all are taught what a 
 grievous sin it is to eat blood, since it is compared with idols and 
 ' De Eccl. Discip. lib. ii. cap. 373, 374. 
 
S44 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XV. 
 
 ■whoredom : therefore if any shall violate these commands of the 
 Lord and his apostles, let him be suspended from the communion 
 of the church, until he shall worthily have repented." 
 
 These canons have I alleged under the name of Regino, because 
 he has not informed us from whence he collected them. Amongst 
 the canons of the British church, collected by Sir Henry Spelman, 
 the fifty-second canon made under Edgar, king of England, A.D. 
 967, requires that no Christians eat blood of any kind. Adam of 
 Bremen, in the fourth book of Eccles. Hist. Ca. 20, amongst 
 other errors of the Pagans wherewith Adalbert archbishop of 
 Bremen complained that the Christians of that place were infected, 
 even unto his days, reckons these : " That they licentiously did 
 use to eat things that died of themselves, or were strangled, and 
 also the blood, as well as the flesh of cattle that draw or bear 
 burdens, as mules, asses, and horses." Johannes Zonaras cites the 
 fathers of the beforementioned sixth council held in TruUo at 
 Constantinople, whose sixty-seventh canon we cited before, and 
 proves out of Genesis, that they followed the- authority of the 
 divine scripture. Theodore Balsamon on tlie same canon saith : 
 " The Latins, without distinction, eat things strangled, and as I 
 hear, the people of Adrianople do use the blood of animals in cer- 
 tain dishes." And on the sixty-third of those that are called the 
 apostles' canons : " As for those creatures which are taken by 
 hawking or hunting and are strangled, how they are eaten by some 
 (that is, how they dare eat them) I do not understand. Otto, 
 bishop of Bamberg, in the year 1124, as Conrad, abbot of Ursperg 
 witnesses, having converted the people of Pomerania, enjoined 
 them " not to eat any thing unclean, that is, nothing that died of 
 itself, or was strangled, or offered to an idol, nor yet the blood of 
 any animal." And to this 'day among the Christians the Greeks do 
 refrain eating of blood, as it is certain from the testimony of Nilus 
 archbishop of Thessalonica, in his book of the primacy of the pope ; 
 and of Jeremy, the second of that name, patriarch of Constanti- 
 nople. The same thing we are assured of the Muscovites and 
 Russians by Sigismund baron of Heberstein ; of the Abyssiaes by 
 Damianus k Goes; and of the Maronites inhabiting in Syria and 
 Egypt, by Edward Brerewood. From all which proofs which I 
 have here brought, it is evident, that there is no opinion at this day 
 disputed amongst Christians, which has been so constantly and uni- 
 verssjly believed as this, that we are still obliged to abstain from 
 blood. Neither, indeed, do those other texts of scripture, which 
 
YER. XXIX.J LITEEALLY EXPLAINED. 345 
 
 only in general grant liberty to feed on all things, make any thing 
 against this particular and express apostolical prohibition of blood ; 
 for It is well known that general laws ought to be limited and 
 restrained by particular ones. 
 
 And what is strangled. That is, the blood being not taken out, 
 as Origen saith, in his 8th book against Celsus. See what we 
 have said before, ver. 20. " The Greeks," saith Grotius, " and 
 other nations, as we learn from two places in Athenseus, esteemed 
 things strangled amongst their chiefest dainties, that is, such flesh 
 wherein the blood was carefully preserved and kept in, that the 
 same might be boiled together, and so eat more delicately ; which 
 thing was also against the law of not eating blood." And that in 
 Africk, in Austine's time (as he tells us in his 32nd book against 
 Faustus the Manichee, cap. 13), those were laughed at who made 
 it a religious scruple to eat things strangled, " is no argument," 
 saith Curcellaeus excellently, "of their error, but rather of the 
 profaneness of those who mocked them, and undervalued and con- 
 temned the commands of God, as often we see happen at this day. 
 So those that desire baptism might be administered not by 
 sprinkling, but, as in the ancient church it was used, by an 
 immersion of the whole body into the water, are scoffed at. And 
 because they are thus derided by men that have very little or no 
 religion, others are ashamed to approve and practise it, though 
 convinced it ought so to be done." 
 
 And fornication. This sin was prohibited to the Israelites, Deut. 
 xxviii. 17. In some copies there is added: " And those things 
 which ye would not should be done to yourselves, do not you do 
 to others," as we noted before, ver. 20. 
 
 From which heeping yourselves you shall do well. The most 
 ancient copies add, ^ipo/xtvoi iv irvevfxaTi ayitjj), which the ancient 
 interpreter of Irenteus renders, " walking, in the Holy Spirit. " 
 And TertuUian, in his book of Pudicitia: "You being born or 
 carried by the Holy Ghost." 
 
 Farewell. As the Latins at the close of their epistles use the 
 imperative vale or valete, so the Greeks the verb ippwao or 'ippwa^i, 
 but this is wanting in those ancient books, wherein are the last- 
 mentioned words, ftpo/xtvoi, &c. 
 
 30. So when they (that is, Paul and Barnabas) were dismissed 
 (that is, by the Synod of Jerusalem), they came to Antioch, the 
 metropolis of Syria. 
 
 They delivered the epistle. Synodical of the Council of Jerusa- 
 
346 THE ACTS 01? THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XV. 
 
 lem, to the brethren of the church at Antioch being assembled 
 together. 
 
 31. Which when they (that is, the brethren of Antioch) had read, 
 they rejoiced for the consolation. That is, they rejoiced for the 
 comfort received by that epistle, whereby they were freed from 
 the burthen of all legal ceremonies, and were only to observe those 
 things which were altogether necessary. 
 
 32. Being prophets also themselves. That is, instructed with the 
 gifts of the Holy Spirit, whereby they were able to apprehend 
 and interpret the true sense of the word of God, where it was not 
 to every one obvious, they being thus qualified as well as Paul and 
 Barnabas. 
 
 Did with many words exhort and confirm the irethren. As much 
 as to say. They did more largely from the word of God propose to 
 the Antiochean Christians comforts against dangers and difficulties, 
 that neither their faith nor piety might waver, or fluctuate with 
 uncertain errors. 
 
 33. And after they had tarried, &c. When those sent from the 
 church of Jerusalem had for some time continued at Antioch, they 
 had leave from the Antiocheans- to return back to those that sent 
 them, with wishes of peace, in which word the Hebrews compre- 
 hend all things happy and prosperous. But whereas it is commonly 
 read even in the Greek copies, that they were let go in peace from 
 the brethren unto the apostles, Trpoc roue airouToXov^, the Alex- 
 andrine manuscript, and many others read it more truly thus : 
 Trpoe awoaTiiXavTaQ avTovQ, To those who had sent them; as also the 
 vulgate Latin has it. " I conceive," saith Beza, " that in this place 
 by apostles ought to be understood the church of Jerusalem in 
 general, not those peculiarly so called, of whom it is probable very 
 few were then at Jerusalem, and perhaps none but James ;" for 
 this was some pretty while after the synod held there. 
 
 34. Notwithstanding it pleased Silas to continue there still. As 
 much as to say. Yet after they had leave to return, Silas thought 
 fit of his own accord to remain a little while with Paul and 
 Barnabas. 
 
 And Judas returned alone to Jerusalem. These words, in most 
 common Greek coi^ies, are only understood, but in some they are 
 expressed. 
 
 35. Paul also, and Barnabas continued, &c. That is, they stayed 
 at Antioch after the departure of Judas, where with many others 
 mentioned before, ch. xi. 19, 20, 27, 28, and ch. xiii. 1, they daily 
 
VEK. XL.J LITJSllALLY EXPLAINED. 347 
 
 preached the doctrine of Jesns Christ contained in the gospel, and 
 inspired into them by the Holy Ghost. 
 
 36. In every city where we have preached. Viz., of Syria, Pam- 
 phylia, Pisidia, Lycaonia, and Lycia. 
 
 And see how they do. That is, whether tliey continued stedfast 
 in the faith received, and grow and profit in godliness. 
 
 And Barnabas determined to take with them John, &c. To be their 
 companion in this journey proposed by Paul. 
 
 38. But Paul thought not good to take him with them. The Ethi- 
 opic translates it, " But Paul desired Barnabas not to take Mark." 
 Concerning this John Mark, see before ch. xii. 12. 
 
 ffHio departed from them from Pamphylia. See ch. xiii. 13. 
 And went not with them to the work. Viz., of preaching the 
 gospel through the several towns of the Lesser Asia. 
 
 39. And the contention. In Greek, irago^vafioQ, " a sharp com- 
 motion," or "stirring up." That is, by an eager dispute between 
 Paul persuading what was more just, and Barnabas diesiring what 
 was more kind, there arose an incensing to anger, and an offence, 
 but without any hostile hatred or malice. 
 
 TJiey departed asunder. As Abraham and Lot did, yet con- 
 serving still their friendship, Gen. xiii. 9. This contention arising 
 by human weakness between these two apostles, otherwise most 
 agreeing, did by the divine providence' produce this good : that 
 those two eminent preachers of God's word being separated, and 
 taking different journeys into places remote from each other, they 
 the more promoted the common work of their Lord and Master, 
 and further propagated the doctrine of the gospel. 
 
 Barnabas took Mark. Who was his sister's son. Col. iv. 10. Yet 
 the supposititious Dorotheus Tyrius, in his little book of the Life 
 and Death of the Prophets, Apostles, and Disciples of Christ, 
 distinguishes this Mark from him mentioned. Col. iv., making one 
 bishop of Byblos, the other of ApoUonias. 
 
 40. And Paul chose Silas. That is, for the companion of his 
 journey and ministry. 
 
 Ajid departed. That is, from Antiochi 
 
 Being recommended, &c. That is, commended to God by the 
 prayers of the Christians there, that God would bless his journey 
 and labours with prosperous success. " We may," saith Calvin, 
 "from the context collect, that in this contest Paul's conduct was 
 most approved of by the church ; for when Barnabas went away 
 with his companion, there is no mention of the brethren, as if he 
 
348 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XVI. 
 
 had privately withdrawn himself without taking leave of them ; 
 but Paul is recommended by the brethren to the grace of God, 
 whence it appears that the church rather took part with him than 
 with Barnabas in this matter." 
 
 41. And he went through Syria. The chief city whereof was 
 Antioch, from whence he set forth. 
 
 And Cilicia. In which Paul himself was born. 
 
 Confirming the churches. In the Christian faith and godliness. 
 
 Commanding them to keep the precepts of the apostles and elders. 
 Viz.j expressed in the apostolical decree before ver. 29. But note 
 these words are not in our English translation, as being not in the 
 Greek text, nor in the Syriac version ; yet as to the thing itself, 
 that the same was done by Paul, there is no doubt to be made, 
 since that epistle from Jerusalem was directed to the brethren of 
 Syria and Cilicia, who walking in peace and tranquillity, had been 
 troubled and perplexed with scruples by those that urged the 
 necessity of circumcision and other legal ceremonies. See before, 
 ver. 23, 24, and afterwards, ch. xvi. 4. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 1. Then went he to Derbe and Lystra. Cities of Isauria, of 
 which see above, ch. xiv. 6. 
 
 And behold a certain disciple. That is, a Christian. 
 
 Was there. Either at Derbe or at Lystra. 
 
 The son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed. 
 That is, whose mother Eunice, as also his grandmother Lois, being 
 of the Jewish nation and religion, believed in Jesus Christ, 2 Tim. 
 i. 5. 
 
 But his father was a Greek. And, as it is apparent, uncircum- 
 cised, not suffering Timothy to be circumcised while he was a child, 
 though begotten by a Jewish mother, 
 
 2. fVhich. To wit, Timothy. 
 Brethren. That is, Christian. 
 
 3. Him loould Paul have to go forth with him. That he might be 
 his companion iq his travels, and his helper and his work-fellow in 
 the gospel. Acts xix. 22 ; Rom. xvi. 21 ; 1 Thess. iii. 2. 
 
 And took and circumcised him, because of the Jews, &c. Paul did 
 not therefore circumcise Timothy, because he laid any weight upon 
 
VEH. Vr.] LITEKALLY EXPLAINED. 349 
 
 circumcision, or thought it necessary to salvation, Gah v. 6, seeing 
 Paul himself teacheth expressly, the Jews who have embraced 
 Christ to be no further bound to the ceremony of circumcision ; 
 but because he hoped by his pains many of the Jews not yet con- 
 verted might be converted to Christ, who would avoid Timothy 
 being son of a Jewish mother, as an imitator of his profane father, 
 if he had neglected circumcision, by which the Israelites were 
 distinguished from the rest of the people of the earth, for they 
 knew he was begotten by a father who was a Gentile. 
 
 4. And as they went through, &c. As much as to say. As they 
 went through the cities wherein the Christian churches were, they 
 delivered them those things which the Synod at Jerusalem had 
 decreed as necessary to be observed by those of the Gentiles who 
 were become Christians. Above, ch. xv. 21, 29. 
 
 5. And the churches, &c. As much as to say, And so the 
 churches advanced in the received faith of Christ, and were 
 augmented, the multitude of young converts daily increasing. 
 
 6. When they had gone throughout, &c. As much as to say. 
 Having travelled through Phrygia and Galatia, provinces of the 
 lesser Asia, they were forbidden by the inspiration of the Holy 
 Ghost to preach the gospel in Asia the Proconsular, or Asia pro- 
 perly so called, a region of the same lesser Asia, which borders 
 upon the -^gean sea, and_ hath upon the north Bythinia, upon the 
 east Phrygia, and upon the south Caria ; see what we have said 
 of Phrygia and Asia the proconsular, above, ch. ii. 9, 10. Galatia 
 otherwise called Gallograecia, is a region of the lesser Asia, border- 
 ing upon Phrygia, so called from the Gauls, who having lost their 
 country, burned Kome, and laid waste Italy, fixed their residence 
 here, where of old the Phrygians did inhabit. " It was a procon- 
 sular province," saith Spanhemius in his introduction to his Sacred 
 Geography, " divided into the first and the second under Theodo- 
 sius ; the first Galatia had upon the east Helenopontus, upon the 
 south Galatia Salutaris, or the healthy, upon the west Phrygia, of 
 which, as Strabo witnesseth, of old it was a part, and upon the 
 north Paphlagonia. Its metropolis was Ancyra, distinct from the 
 Ancyra of Phrygia,' wherein of old was held the Ancyran synod. 
 Galatia the second, called also Galatia the healthy, was governed 
 by the emperor's lieutenant, and as it hath been said already, laid 
 more to the south and east than the first Galatia ; it had Paphla- 
 gonia and Honorias upon the north, upon the south Pisidia and 
 Lycaonia ; its metropolis was Pessinus called also Pesinus." Now 
 the reasons why God would not that the gospel should at that 
 
350 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XVI. 
 
 time be preached by Paul and Timothy in the proconsular Asia, 
 whose metropolis was Ephesus, are hid from us. He might have 
 had many, either that he would make use of their ministry some 
 where else, or that he had appointed some other to that work. 
 Whatever it is, certainly the reason is not to be brought from God's 
 absolute decree of reprobation, as Calvin upon this place doth ; for 
 it is certain that the gospel was at least soon after preached in this 
 place, and that by Paul himself, so that Demetrius the silver-smith 
 did greatly lament the admirable progress of the gospel in Asia 
 by Paul's ministry, saying, ch. xix. 26 : Ye see and hear that not 
 alone at Ephestis, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath per- 
 suaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods 
 lohich are made with hands. 
 
 7. After they were come to Mysia. Mysia is a region of Asia the 
 lesser, upon the Hellespont, bordering upon Troas ; whose inliabi- 
 tants were called Mysi and Mysii, and in the ^olic dialect Mysadii, 
 saith Stepbanus. These Mysians were men of a base temper, so 
 that they made the place become a proverb, for when they spake of 
 a man of no worth, they called him 'last of the Mysians;' and 
 because he who once comes to be contemned is exposed to the 
 rapine and injury of others, therefore from that nation flowed 
 another proverb, " The prey of the Mysians." This second Aristotle' 
 made use of, as Cicero did of the first proverb in his oration for 
 Lucius Flaccus: " For,'' saith he, "As I suppose your Asia consists 
 of Phrygia, Mysia, Caria, Lybia; whether then is this proverb, 
 ours or yours, ' A Phrygian is made better by stripes ?' for is not 
 this your common saying of all Caria, if you were to do anything 
 with hazard, ' That it should be chiefly done in Caria ? For what 
 is more common and famous among the Greeks, than if a man be 
 brought to despite, to say, 'He is the last of the Mysians.' " Strabo 
 places also a people called the Mysians in Europe, at the confines 
 of Pannonia upon the river Danube, and thinketh that the Mysians 
 in Asia took both their name and original from them ; but these 
 in Europe are by Pliny called McEsi. Mysia is divided into the 
 lesser, or Hellespontic, lying towards the Hellespont, and hath 
 Troas upon the south ; and the greater, which is called ad Olym- 
 pum, or Olympenica, where live the people called Olympeni. It is 
 bordered upon the west with Mysia the lesser and Troas, upon the 
 east with Bithynia, upon the south with Asia Proconsular, or Asia 
 properly so called. Ptolemy makes also the European Mysia 
 
 1 Rhetoric, lib. i. 
 
VER. IX.} LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 351 
 
 double, the higher and the lower; but the European Mysia is more 
 properly called Mcesia. 
 
 They essayed to go into Bithynia. Bithynia is a region of Asia 
 the lesser, which, making one province with Pontus (Pontus lying 
 eastward of it, and Bithynia westward) it is bounded upon the 
 north by the Euxine Sea, upon the east by Galatia, upon the 
 south by Asia properly so called, upon the west by the Propontis. 
 " Bithynia," saith Thomas de Pinedo, " is a region upon Pontus, 
 of old called Cronia, then Thessalis, then Meliande, as witnesseth 
 Pliny,' in which author I think Mariandyne ought to be read for 
 Maliande, for so was Bithynia called of old, as Eusebius telleth in 
 his Chronical Canon, where at number 594 are these following 
 words : ' Bithynia was built by Phoenix, being first called Marian- 
 dyne.' Upon which place Scaliger, to whom few are like in 
 erudition, saith, that it was not well said in Latin, Condere Bithy- 
 nium ; but his opinion deceived him, for the phrase is common 
 both among Greeks and Latins, as I have noted elsewhere ; I will 
 not therefore make needless repetitions lest I become wearisome 
 to my reader." Servius saith' also, that Bithynia was called Beb- 
 ricia. Pliny the younger governed this province with a proconsular 
 power under Trajan. The most famous cities in Bithynia were 
 Nicomedia, which Ammianus Marcellinus calleth' the mother of 
 the cities of Bithynia; Nice, famous for two councils, called by 
 Strabo* the metropolis of Bithynia, and Chalcedon, where was a 
 council celebrated of six hundred and sixty bishops, A.C, 451. 
 
 But the Spirit suffered them not. As much as to say. But the 
 Lord Jesus Christ revealed to them, that he would not that at that 
 time they should go to Bithynia. 
 
 8. Came dawn to Troas. Troas is thought by some to have 
 been the Mediterraneous part of Phrygia, whose chief city was 
 Ilium called Troy, but others think that the town is noted bearing 
 the name of the same region, of which Pliny : * " The chief place 
 of Troas was Amaxitus, then Cebrenia and Troas, itself called 
 Antigonia, now Alexandria, a colony of the Romans." It seems 
 it may be gathered from ch. xx. 6, and 2 Tim. iv. 13, that it was 
 this city Troas whither Paul came to preach the gospel of Christ, 
 as is clear, 2 Cor. ii. 12. 
 
 9. There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying. 
 That is, there appeared, as it were, the likeness of a man clothed 
 
 1 Lib. ,. cnp. 32. ' ^neicl, lib. v. ver. 537. ' Lib. xvii. cap. 13. 
 
 * Geogr. lib. xii. ' Niit. i!ist. v. 30, 
 
352 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XVI. 
 
 with a Macedonian garment, and speaking in the Macedonian 
 language. ^ 
 
 Come over into Macedonia, and help us. To wit, by the preaching 
 of the gospel of salvation. Macedonia, one of the largest regions 
 in Europe; is bounded upon the east with the ^gean Sea, upon 
 the south by Thessaly and Epirus, upon the west by the Ionian 
 Sea, upon the north by Mount Scardus and Orbelus. It is said 
 to have taken its name from Macedo the son of Jupiter, begotten 
 by Thyia, Deucalion's daughter. It was also called Ematia and 
 Macetia, whence its inhabitants are called Macetes, and if it be a 
 woman, Macetis. The most famous cities of Macedonia were, 
 Thessalonica for its bigness, Ege for the sepulchres of its kings, 
 and Pella for Alexander's birth. The most famous of its rivers 
 was Strymon, of its mountains Athos, which, because it is situate 
 between Macedonia and Thrace, it is by some annexed to Thrace. 
 The kings of Macedonia boasted that they were descended of 
 Hercules. Hence, instead of a crown and kingly purple, they 
 appeared prowned with the skin of a lion's head, in which orna- 
 ment they delighted more than in any precious stones. This 
 kingdom began to flourish in king Caranus, it was enlarged by 
 Philip, Alexander the Great's father; but it increased to such 
 greatness under Alexander himself, that he subdued Asia, Armenia, 
 Iberia, Cappadocia, Syria, Egypt, India, Phcenicia, Media, and 
 Persia, and at length all the east and India. At last it decayed 
 under Perseus the son of Philip, who being overcome by Paulus 
 ^milius the consul, lost his kingly dignit}"^, together with his 
 kingdom ; such a difference of fortune these two men showed, 
 both Philip's sons — the one, like lightning, conquered all those 
 nations, but the other lost the kingdom itself, and was carried 
 captive, with his wife and children, to Rome by iEmilius, and 
 since, Macedonia was reduced to the form of a prefecture, as Pliny 
 relates.' 
 
 10. Immediately we endeavoured. From this and many places 
 following, it appears that Luke, who wrote those Acts of the 
 Apostles, did attend Paul as his companion from Troas, if not from 
 Antioch. 
 
 Assuredly gathering. " The word in the original," saith Hesy- 
 chius, " signifieth ' conferring,' that is, saying one to another." 
 Ludovicus de Dieu saith : " That the word is also' rendered by 
 Hesychius, 'to make to join,' to induce in love and assent, in which 
 
 ' Hist. Nat. iv. 10. 
 
VEIL XI.] LITEllALLY EXPLAINED. 353 
 
 Bignification it is also takeij intransitiyely, as in Plato de Eepub., 
 lib. vi., according to the interpretation of Budseus, and so the 
 Greek word may here be fitly rendered : ' consenting, unanimously 
 determining.'" 
 
 To preach the gospel unto them. To wit, to the inhabitants of 
 Macedonia. 
 
 11. We came vnth a straight course. The Greek hath it, "We 
 sailed with a prosperous wind." As below, ch. xxi. 21. 
 
 To Samothracia. Samothracia is an island in the ^gean sea, bor- 
 dering upon Thrace, not far from the mouth of the river Hebrus, 
 with a city of the same name. The Latins frequently call it 
 Samothracia, as Virgil, jEneid vii. 207. 
 
 This island was before called Dardania, from Dardanus the son 
 of Jupiter, begotten by Electra ; who, because of his brother Jasius 
 whom he had killed, fled thither from Italy. It was also called 
 Leucadia, because it appears whitish to the spectators afar off. 
 Afterwards Thracia, from the Thracians which inhabited it. And 
 lastly, it was called Samothracia, because that after the Thracians 
 the Samians dwelt therein. Pliny saith,' that this island was the 
 fullest of commodious harbours of any of the rest, and is raised up 
 upon the mountain Saoce; wherefore it was also called Saocis, 
 saith Hesychius. ^ Strabo saith likewise, it was called Melite 
 and Samos; but at this day it is commonly called Samadrachi. 
 The Sacrifices of the Samothracians were most famous amongst 
 the Ethnics of old, the ceremonies of which Pliny calleth most 
 holy f therefore Germanicus in Tacitus was taken with desire of 
 seeing the sacrifices of the Samothracians, but the north winds 
 crossing him made him change his purpose.* The Samothracians 
 were called the kinsmen of the Romans, because Dardanus carried 
 away the household gods from Italy to Samothrace, and from thence 
 to Phrygia ; which afterwards JEneas carried back from Troy to 
 Italy, saith Servius. ^ The Samothracian rings were likewise 
 famous, which were either all iron but overgilded, or gold, but 
 with a little iron head, that the iron might be instead of the jewel, 
 as may be seen in Pliny .^ Hence those rings are called Samo- 
 thracia ferrea, by Lucretius, lib. 6. The ancients believed that 
 those Samothracian rings had some preservative virtue; as also the 
 natural rings of the Greeks, which were hollow and void within, 
 as Artemidorus writes. In the ceremonies of the priest of Jupiter, 
 
 ' Nat. Hist. iv. 12. '^ lab. x. ' Lib.'xxxvi. cap. 5. 
 
 ' Annal. lib. ii. ' /Ene\A. iii. 12. « Nat. Hist. lib. xxxiii. 
 
 A A 
 
354 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XVI. 
 
 it is written, " Do not use a ring unless it be hollow and void." 
 That famous grammarian Aristarchus is said to have been a Samo- 
 thracian, who challenged such a right in Homer's verses, that he 
 would let none pass in Homer's name, but such as he approved of ; 
 whence the censors of other mens' writings are called Aristarchi. 
 
 And the next day to Neapolis. A sea town of Macedonia upon 
 the confines of Thrace, at the Gulf Strymonicus, which now is com- 
 monly called Christopoli. 
 
 12. And from thence to Philippi. This city is placed betwixt 
 Mount Pangseus and the coast of the Mgeaxx sea. Some adjoin it 
 to Thessaly, others to Thrace, and others to Macedonia; for that 
 those regions were joining. It became most famous by the fight of 
 Augustus and Antonius with Brutus and Cassius, Caesar's mur- 
 derers. Stylax speaking of Thrace saith, that this city was first 
 built by Callistratus the Athenian, which, when afterward it was 
 repaired by Philip king of Macedon and father of Alexander the 
 Great, was called PhUippi. It was formerly called Datus or 
 Datum; also Crenides from K^yivai, which signifies fountains, be- 
 cause of the many fountains that spring there, as witnessetM 
 Appian;! "Next to Thessalonica and subject to it was the city 
 Philippus or Philippi, betwixt ApoUonia and Amphipolis, famous 
 for Paul's Epistle, the first fruits of the Christian Church, and, as 
 is commonly thought, Epaphroditus's episcopacy ;" saith Frederick 
 Spanhemius, in his introduction to Sacred Geography. 
 
 Which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia colony. These 
 words must be read so, neither must there be any distinction put 
 between city and colony, as those learned men, Bertremus Cornel- 
 lius and Hugo Grotius, have noted. Such as go to Macedonia 
 from the Isle of Samothrace, the first city they meet that is a 
 colony upon the coast of Edonis (which is a part of Macedonia, 
 situated upon both sides of the river Strymon, not far from its 
 mouth, on the confines of Thrace) is Philippi. " Neapolis," saith 
 Grotius, "is a city of Edonis, which is a part of Macedonia, in 
 which also is Philippi ; " but Neapolis is in the Strymonic Gulf 
 itself, Philippi farther toward the inner part of it. 
 
 Of that part of Macedonia. That is, that part of the country of 
 Macedonia, to wit, Edonis. 
 
 A colony. To wit, of the Romans, which was much esteemed, 
 because of the many prerogatives granted to the inhabitants of the 
 colonies. "Paul," saith Grotius, "chiefly followed the colonies,! 
 
 1 De Bell. Civil, lib. Iv. 
 
VEE, XII1.J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 355 
 
 because there were most men there, and that of divers nations." 
 Celsus saith,' the Philippian colony enjoyeth the privilege of Italy. 
 Ulpian : * in the province of Macedonia the Dirreachens, Cassan- 
 drians, Philippians, Dienses, and Stobenses enjoyed the same 
 privileges with theltalians. 
 
 Ahiding certain days. The Greek verb here used {SiaTpl(ib>, 
 Siarpi/Sovrse)} signifies not only simply to tarry in any place, but 
 to be instant in working, to be bent upon a thing with greatest 
 endeavour, as Aretius noted upon John iii. 22. Hence, "exer- 
 cise," is called in Greek, Smrpi/Sr), whence we may see, that Paul 
 with his companions tarried some days at Philippi to preach the 
 gospel. 
 
 13. And on the sabbath. That is, upon a certain sabbath. 
 
 fFe went out of the city. Either because the Jews made choice 
 of a place remote from the multitude for their meetings, or be- 
 cause they were not allowed to meet within the city. 
 
 By a river side. To wit, by the river Strymon, as some will have 
 it, of which Pliny saith :' " The River Strymon is the border of 
 Macedonia rising in Hemo, a mountain of Thrace. It is observable 
 that it emptieth itself in seven lakes before it diverts its course." 
 They being afterward gathered into one channel, it runs by 
 Amphipolis into the Gulf of the jEgean Sea, which also from it 
 is called the Strymonic Gulf. 
 
 Where prayer was wont to be made. The Greek word, kvo/xi^eTO, 
 is rendered, " was wont," by Beza and Piscator, and is also so used 
 frequently by Greek authors, as Henricus Stephanus confirms by 
 instances. I would not strain the word if I should render it, " it 
 was reported," or, " it was thought," to wit, by us : that is, " we 
 thought," as the Ethiopic renders it. " Budaeus telleth out of Plato," 
 saith Ludovicus de Dieu, "that vofii^t^rdai is used to be taken 
 fear ' to be esteemed and in fame.' " 
 
 Prayer. The Greek word, ttjooo-euxiJj rendered, prayc?-, signifies 
 both " prayer" and the "place of prayer." Hence the scholiast in- 
 terprets the word Trpoo-Euxi?, tised by Juvenal, Sat. 3, " A place 
 wherein the Jews pray." Philo calls the synagogue irgoaivxv^ 
 because there the law was read and prayer was made. "But also," 
 saith Grotius, "in such places as had no synagogues, to wit, where 
 the number of the Jews was small, or where the magistrate did 
 not tolerate synagogues, the Jews had places appointed for prayer, 
 far off from the multitude, and especially by the river and sea 
 ' In Leg. Colon. D. De Cens. ' In Lege, in Lusitania, eodem tit. ' Nat. Hist. lib. iv. 10. 
 
 A A 2 
 
356 . THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XVI. 
 
 side." We also gather from the next, ch. xvii., that at Philippi, 
 there was no synagogue. " At Sychem, now called Neapolis," saith 
 EpiphaniuSj' " the place of prayer is in a plain about two stones 
 cast without the city, made in the form of a theatre under the open 
 heaven, by the Samaritans, who endeavour to follow the Jews in 
 all things ;" for the Jews, as Chrysostom noteth, did not only pray 
 where the synagogue was, but also without it in a place as it were 
 appointed for that end. 
 
 And we sat down and spoke. They used to sit down when they 
 began a long discourse. 
 
 Unto the women which resorted thither. In the Jewish syna- 
 gogues the women are separated from the men by a grated wall. 
 
 14. A seller of purple of the city of Thyatira. That is, born 
 in the city of the Thyatirians. " Thyatira," saith Strabo,' " a 
 coloay of the Macedonians, which some say was the last of the 
 Mysians." Ptolemy calls it a metropolis, lib. v. c. 2. The author 
 of that book which treats of the places of the Acts of the Apostles, 
 under Jerome's name, saith, " Thyatira, a city_ of Lydia, which is 
 a province of the lesser Asia, once famous for JEsculapius's temple; 
 of which that Lydia, the seller of purple, who at Philippi em- 
 braced the faith of Christ, was a citizen." Pliny describeth the 
 province of Lydia thus : ' " Lydia overspread with the windings of 
 the river Meander, reacheth above Ionia, and borders with Phrygia 
 upon the east, with Mysia upon the north, and with Caria upon 
 the south, being formerly called Mseonia." Stephanus also ad- 
 joineth Thyatira to Lydia, and saith, it was called the furthermost 
 city of the Mysians. Pliny saith:* "It is washed by the river 
 LycuSj and sometimes surnamed Pelopia and Eurippa." 
 
 Which worshipped God. That is, devout, and as is credible, a 
 proselyte, who, having left the Ethnic, embraced the Jewish 
 religion ; for so were such proselytes used to be called. Supra ch. 
 xiii. 33 ; infra ch. xvii. 4. 
 
 Heard. To wit, our holy conference with the women. 
 
 Whose. Religious w^oman desirous to be saved. 
 
 Heart the Lord opened. As much as to say, God did inwardly 
 knock at her heart, that she might obey the outward call which 
 she had by Paul's preaching. According to that which the 
 royal psalmist saith, Psa. xxv. 14 : The secret of the Lord is with 
 them that fear him, and he will shew them his covenant. And Christ 
 
 ' In Heres. Massalianorum. « Lib. xiii. » Nat. Hist. lib. v. 39. * Ubi supra. 
 
VEK. XV.J LITBEALLY EXPLAINED. 357 
 
 Jesus, John vii. 17 : If any man tvill do, his will, he shall know of 
 the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself; 
 meaning that he who desirest to be certain of the truth of religion, 
 ought first to be possessed with an ardent desire to do the will of 
 God, and that then God would not suffer him to be tossed with 
 doubtings, but would reveal to him what he ought to follow in 
 order to his salvation. Yet it cannot be said for certain that Lydia 
 alone believed Paul's preaching, for that Luke's making mention 
 of her only seems only to tend to show what moved Paul with 
 his company to go to her house. 
 
 That she attended to the things that were spoken of Paul. Calvin 
 saith excellently : " The manner of speaking is to be noted, that 
 Lydia's heart was opened, that she might attend to the words of 
 an external teacher ; for as preaching alone is nothing else but a 
 dead letter, so upon the other hand we are to take heed that no 
 false imagination, nor the likeness of any secret revelation take us 
 off from the word, whence our faith depends, and in which it 
 resteth. For many that they may enlarge the grace of the Spirit, 
 devise I know not what enthusiasms to themselves, that there may 
 be no use for the external word; but the scripture allows not such a 
 divorce, which joins the ministry of men with the secret inspiration 
 of the Spirit. Except Lydia's mind had been opened, Paul's preach- 
 ing had but been literal, yet God does not inspire her naked revela- 
 tions only, but reverence to his word. That the word of man which 
 otherwise would evanish in the air, might penetrate into the soul 
 endued with heavenlv light. These fanatical men are therefore 
 mistaken, who under pretext of the Spirit cast off external doc- 
 trine. We therefore must observe the temperature made here by 
 Luke, that we can profit nothing by the bare hearing of the 
 word without the grace of the Spirit, and that the Spirit is con- 
 ferred on us, not to beget contempt of the word, but rather to 
 instil the faith of it in our minds, and write it in our hearts." 
 
 15. And when she was baptized. Calvin saith notably : " Hence 
 it appears how effectually God in a little moment of time wrought 
 upon Lydia's heart; for it is not to be doubted but she truly 
 embraced the faith of Christ, and gave up her name to him before 
 she was admitted to baptism by Paul." 
 
 And her household. That is, and her domestics, who believed 
 the preaching of the gospel, were baptized also. " Lydia," saith 
 Calvin, " had not the hearts of all her family in her hand, so as 
 at her pleasure to convert whom she would to Christ ; but the 
 
358 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XVI. 
 
 Lord blessed her holy endeavours, so that her domestics became 
 obedient." 
 
 She besought us. That is, she prayed and obtested us with many 
 prayers. 
 
 Saying, if ye have judged me to he faithful to the Lord. As much 
 as to say, Seeing ye have approved my faith in Christ by the seal 
 of baptism. The particle "if" denotes not doubting but confirming, 
 and signifies "seeing, forasmuch as." See Matt. xii. 27; John 
 X. 35; xiii. 32 ; xviii. 8 ; Gal. v. 25; 1 Pet. i. 17, &o. So Cicero," 
 " I would have thee, if thou think me less diligent to learn what 
 passeth in the commonwealth than thou, to write to me whatever 
 comes to pass." Also "if" is put for "forasmuch as," by Virgil, 
 Georgic 1, ver. 7, 17, as Servius has noted. 
 
 Come into my house and abide there. That is, lodge with me. 
 
 And she constrained us. By her prayer that we should go in 
 and lodge with her. So the two disciples that were going to 
 Emmaus, Luke xxiv. 29, constrained Jesus by friendly persuasions, 
 instantly intreating him to tarry with them. So also by earnestness 
 of entreaty the guests were bidden to be compelled, Luke xiv. 23 ; 
 so Gen. xix. 3, Lot compelled the angels to come into his house; so 
 also by their prayers his servants compelled King Saul to eat, 1 Sam. 
 xxi. 23. So Lucius Apuleius:* "By chance she greatly pressed 
 that I should be with her at her little supper, and when I would have 
 excused myself as being chargeable, she denied me leave." And 
 again,^ " Milo, my host, adjuring me by the great force, virtue, 
 and power of this day, that I should engage to sup with him 
 this day, neither went he away himself, nor suffered me to be 
 gone." 
 
 16. To prayer. Or to the place of prayer: the word in the 
 Greek signifieth both. 
 
 A damsel. That is, a little maid servant. 
 
 Possessed with a spirit of divination. So the Syriac interpreter 
 hath it ; but the Greek hath it, " a spirit of the Python.'" Plutarch 
 saith,* " That all men that were accused as having a spirit of for- 
 tune-telling were called Pytham. Famous Bochart^ proves that 
 Pethen is an asp, and seeing in Egypt asps grew to the smaller 
 bulk of a dragon, which is five foot, that the Hebrew word Pethen 
 was common to the dragon and the asp. "And to this," saith 
 he, "the Greek name Python, which the poets give the dragon 
 
 ' Ad Attic. V. 14. « As. Aur. lib. ii. • Lib. iii. 
 
 * Lib. De Def. Orao. » 2 Hieroz. iii. S. 
 
VER. XVII.] LITEllALLY EXPLAINED. 359 
 
 that was killed in Parnassus, doth allude. Yet Ephorus hath written 
 that it was not a dragon but a man; from whom Strabo reports ' that 
 Apollo with arrows killed a fierce man named Python, surnamed 
 Draco, after that for a long time he had infested the inhabitants of 
 Parnassus with murders and robberies. The same man, instead of 
 Python, is named Delphynes by Suidas after ApoUonius.'' If I see 
 anything in this darkness, this man was a great robber in Phocis, 
 whose true name was Delphynes; Python was a surname given 
 him by the Phoenicians, who then inhabited the neighbouring 
 Boeotia, because of the tumults which he stirred up, and the rob- 
 beries he committed. Indeed, with the Arabians who have phe 
 instead of pe, ^because they want the letter p, the word phathana, 
 signifieth ' to stir up tumults ; ' phithna, ' sedition, slaughter ; ' 
 phathan, ' seditious, a thief, or robber ; ' but the same man is of a 
 robber made a dragon by the inventors of fables, because in Syriac 
 pithun or pethen signifieth a dragon, and therefore is he also called 
 Python. From this Python were the Pythian plays, and the city of 
 the Delphs, Pytho or Phython, and Apollo himself called Python. 
 Macrobius saith,' that the Greeks prattle that this name Python was 
 given to the god for killing the dragon. Therefore the spirit of 
 Python, Acts xvi. 16, is the spirit of Apollo, by which demon it was 
 believed that woman-conjuror was possessed. Hence the very con- 
 jurors themselves, who were of old called Euryclees, are now called 
 Pythones, saith Plutarch, In his book of the Cessation of the Oracles. 
 In this sense the Hebrews, instead of Python, write Pythom, by a 
 small change of the word, and dream that those kind of soothsayers 
 did not speak out of the belly, but out of the armpits." See, pray, 
 Maimonides's Treatise concerning Idolatry, cap. vi. 
 
 Which brought her masters much gain. Perhaps to her master 
 and mistress. 
 
 By soothsaying. That Is, by receiving the rewards of her sooth- 
 saying from those who consulted her concerning hidden matters, 
 as things stolen, the success of a journey, and the like. The 
 scholiast observeth upon Aristophanes : " That Eurycles did, as 
 speaking out of his belly, foretel true things to the Athenians by 
 the help of the demon which was in him. Hence all soothsayers 
 are called ventrlloqui and Euryclitae, from Eurycles the first 
 author of the thing." 
 
 17. The same followed Paul and us. Silas, Timothy, and Luke, 
 Paul's companions. 
 
 ' Lib. ix. ' Argon, lib. ii. ver. 708. Lib. i. cap. 20. 
 
360 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XVI. 
 
 These men are servants of the Most High God. An unclean 
 spirit sometimes speaketh truth, but not for a good end. When an 
 evil man counterfeits good, then is he most evil. 
 
 Which show unto us. Philippians. 
 
 The way of salvation. That is, the way by which eternal 
 happiness is to be attained. 
 
 18. And this did she. That is, reiterated it. 
 
 But Paul being grieved. That the truth should be rendered sus- 
 pected by the testimony of a lying spirit so often repeated. See 
 what we have noted upon Mark i. 25. 
 
 Turned. To the damsel that had the spirit of divination. 
 
 To the spirit. To that spirit of divination, to wit, which possessed 
 this damsel. 
 
 I command thee, &c. As much as to say. Using the power given, 
 Mark xvi. 17, by the authority which Jesus Christ, and I from 
 him, have over you, I command you presently to come out of that 
 woman. 
 
 And he came out the same hour. As much as to say. That unclean 
 spirit being dashed with the authority of Christ, presently obeyed, 
 Paul commanding him to come out of the damsel whom he 
 possessed ; as presently it was evident in her by the effects. 
 There are examples of the power of casting out devils by Christ's 
 authority, granted by him to his servants, to be seen above, ch. v. 
 16, and viii. 7. 
 
 19. And when her masters saw. To wit, the master and mistress 
 of the possessed damsel, or also her master's children. 
 
 That the hopes of their gains was gone. That is, that no hope 
 remained, the damsel being left by the spirit of divination, that 
 they could get any more riches by her art of soothsaying. 
 
 They caught Paul and Silas. Who being stirred up by a holy 
 zeal, and by the instinct of the Spirit of God, did cast the unclean 
 spirit out of the maid, although it flattered them. 
 
 And drew them into the market place unto the rulers. That is, to 
 the governors of the city, keepers of the public peace and judges 
 of the guilty. 
 
 20. And brought them to the magistrates. The words in the 
 original signify, " Captains of the guard," who had the chai'ge of 
 seizing, punishing, and imprisoning the guilty, the sentence, to wit, 
 of the rulers, that is, of the judges preceding. Others will have 
 those who were called princes or rulers in the preceding verse, to 
 be called in this verse with a more honourable title of magis- 
 
VER. XXIII.J litehally explained. 361 
 
 trates, and in both places they understand the duumvirs of the 
 colony. 
 
 Saying, These men, &c. They slandered the holy men as 
 troublers of the public peace, while they sought to revenge their 
 own private loss, for which they were much grieved ; so of old the 
 ungodly Ahab slandered the godly prophet Elias. 1 Kings xviii. 17. 
 
 Being Jews: Whose name was hateful to the Homans, because 
 of their different religion and manners. 
 
 21. And teach customs. The Romans, among the laws in the 
 twelve tables, ordered : " Let none have gods apart, neither let 
 new or strange gods be privately worshipped, unless publicly 
 received. Let the customs of the country and family be observed ; 
 let sacred private things always continue. Therefore it was given 
 in charge to the vEdiles, that they should observe lest any other 
 than the E,oman gods should be worshipped, nor after any other 
 manner than that of the country." ^ 
 
 Being Romans. That is, our city being a colony of the Romans, 
 and therefore are we called by the name of Romans. 
 
 22. And the multitude rose up together against them. As much 
 as to say, And they were stirred up against Paul and Silas, who, 
 though innocent, were charged with forged crimes by the master 
 and mistresses of her who had the spirit of divination, as also by 
 her master's children. 
 
 And the magistrates. The Greek hath it, " The captains of the 
 soldiers or of the guards," as above, ver. 20. 
 
 Rent off their clothes, &c. As much as to say. Not regarding 
 their cause aright, they commanded the officers both to tear off 
 the innocent men's clothes, and to scourge their bodies with rods. 
 It was a custom among the Jews, as you may read in the Mishna 
 in the treatise Macoth, as also among the Romans, as is to be seen 
 in Livy, Plutarch, and other historians, not to take off the clothes 
 of such as were to be whipped, but to tear them off, that their 
 bodies might be naked to receive the lashes. 
 
 23. And when they had laid many, &c As much as to say, Paul 
 and Silas being beaten with many strokes, the duumviri, or magis- 
 trates of the city, commanded them to be led to prison. Adding 
 further, their commands to the jailor, that he would keep them 
 close, lest they might escape, and so they not be able to punish 
 them farther. 
 
 The jailor. The Greek hath it, " Keeper of the prisoners." 
 
 * Liv. lib. iv. 
 
362 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XVI. 
 
 Paulus Juris-Consultus calls him, " Governor of the prison ;" 
 Ambrose, " The deputy of the prison ; " others, " The jailor." 
 Now, the Greeks think the jailor spoken of here to have been 
 Stephanas whom Paul mentions, 1 Cor. i. 16, and xvi. 15, 17 ; but 
 this is uncertain, because Stephanas, with his house, is called " the 
 first fruits of Achaia." But Achaia is a distinct and separate 
 region from Macedonia, where the jailor lived, at Philippi, where 
 he was converted to Christ : unless one should say that he was 
 born in Achaia and removed to Philippi, whence perhaps he 
 returned back again to Achaia, to wit, to Corinth. 
 
 24. Who. To wit, the jailor. 
 
 Thrust them into the inner prison. That, to wit, being inclosed 
 within so many gates, they might be the more securely kept. 
 
 Made their feet fast. The word in the original is, " He guarded 
 their feet," that is, made them secure. " By a metonymy," as 
 Grotius saith, "for a guard secures us." 
 
 In the wood. That is (as it is interpreted in the English transla- 
 tion) in the " stocks," which Plautus calls a " Wooden guard." 
 
 25. And at midnight. When men are, as it were, buried in deep 
 sleep. 
 
 Sang praises unto God. EufEnus, presbyter of Aquilia^ in the 
 title of the 72nd Psalm, saith, " Hymns, are songs which contain 
 the praise of God. If it be praise, and not of God, it is not a 
 hymn ; if it be praise, and of God, if it be not sung, it is not a 
 hymn. It must, therefore, that it may be a hymn, have these 
 three things, praise, and of God, and a song." And therefore 
 deservedly doth Gregorius Baeticus,' bishop of the city Granada in 
 Spain, call David " Hymnidicus." Paul, then^ and Silas, sung 
 praises to God for the honour put upon them, in that they suffered 
 innocently, for promoting the glory of God. See above, ch. v. 41. 
 
 26. And suddenly there was a great earthquake. By the great 
 power and might of God. 
 
 So that the foundations of the prison were shaken. Not only did 
 the edifice of the prison itself totter, but also the very ground 
 upon which it was built was greatly shaken. By such an earth- 
 quake God shows that he himself is present with his servants, and 
 that by his strength they shall be rescued from the severity of 
 furious magistrates. 
 
 And immediately. That is, as soon as by the earthquake the 
 whole prison was shaken. 
 
 ' In Lib. De Fide. 
 
VKE. XXX.] UTBRALLY EXPLAINEB. 363 
 
 All the doors were opened. To wit, of that prison. 
 
 And every ones bands. To wit, who were bound in that prison. 
 
 27. And the keeper of the prison awahmg. To wit, by the great 
 earthquake. 
 
 He drew out his sword, and would have hilled himself. For 
 fear of the magistrate, lest by him he should be put to a more 
 cruel death. " If the prisoners escaped," saith Grotius, " the 
 jailors used to undergo the same punishment that they were to 
 suffer." L. ad Commentariensem, C. de Custodia Vinctorum. 
 
 28. Do thyself no harm. For fear of a worse death. 
 
 For we are alL "Who were bound in this prison, before all its 
 doors were opened by the earthquake. 
 
 Here. Perhaps they who, beside Paul and Silas, were bound in 
 that prison, listening to' their unlooked for songs, and astonished 
 with the wonderful earthquake, did not observe that their bands 
 were loosed, nor that all the prison doors were opened. 
 
 29. Then he called for a light. From his domestics, who were 
 in his house adjoining the prison. 
 
 And sprang in. To the prison, with force and speed, to see if 
 all the prisoners were there. 
 
 And came trembling. For fear of divine judgment. 
 
 And fell down before Paid and Silas. Worshipping, after the 
 custom of the eastern kingdoms, and thence brought to Macedonia, 
 from the time of Alexander the Great, when he conquered Asia. 
 
 30. And brought them out. From the cloister of the inner 
 prison to some open place of the prison, where they might more 
 freely breathe. 
 
 And said. Like those who were moved with Peter's sermons. 
 Acts ii. 37 ; the people and publicans converted by John, Luke 
 iii. 10, 12. 
 
 Sirs. Thus, the jailor gave them this honourable compellation, 
 knowing them to be men of great holiness, in that when they were 
 so strictly kept, and had deliverance offered them from heaven, 
 their bonds being loosed and the doors set open to them, so that 
 they might flee, especially if they had suffered him to kill himself, 
 as he would have done : yet they fled not, but were more solicitous 
 for his life than for their own. " To call them sirs, whom we would 
 honour," saith Grotius, "was a custom then received both among 
 the Greeks and Romans, as witness Martial and others." 
 
 What must I do. As much as to say, I have heard you declare 
 the way to attain the greatest happiness, neither doth the miracle 
 
364 
 
 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAF. XVI. 
 
 which God wrought concerning you, suflFer me to doubt of the 
 truth of it, shew me therefore, 1 beseech you, what course I shall 
 take that I may attain to this happiness ? 
 
 31. Believe on the Lord Jesus. That is, rest upon Jesus Christ, 
 whom God hath appointed to be the only Saviour, with true con- 
 fidence of heart, firmly believing, that repenting of your former 
 conversation, and seriously proposing to pass the rest of your life 
 conformed to the' rule of his doctrine, you shall be discharged from 
 all your sins. 
 
 And thou shalt be saved. That is, and you shall obtain the chief 
 happiness in eternal life according to Christ's promise, John iii. 15, 
 16, 36 ; vi. 47. 
 
 And thy house. That is, and yoiu' household upon the same 
 condition, to wit, if they also embrace Christ with the same faith, 
 which inclines the heart to repentance and amendment of life, and 
 to conform to the rule of his doctrine. 
 
 32. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, &c. That is, 
 the gbspel of Jesus Christ ; what that Jesus the Son of God is ; 
 what he did upon earth, and suffered for the redemption of man- 
 kind ; how great miracles he wrought ; how he lived again, though 
 by the instigation of the Jews he was crucified, and ascended above 
 all the heavens, and was made Lord of all ; what promises and pre- 
 cepts he proposed. These things they briefly held out to him. 
 For it was usual with the apostles to declare such things in their 
 sermons. 
 
 And to all that were in his house. As much as to say, they not 
 only imparted a clear and distinct knowledge of Christ and of his 
 doctrine to the jailor, but also to all his domestics, who went with 
 hitn from his house to the prison, to see if any of the prisoners had 
 escaped, the prison doors being broke open with the earthquake. 
 
 33. And lie took them the sarn.e hour of the night, and washed their 
 stripes. " That is," saith Grotius, "having led them to some pool, 
 which was within the bounds of the prison, he washed off the blood 
 which the rods had drawn." Blood is washed off with water, 
 and by its coldness the flux thereof is stanched ; also by washing, 
 wounds are cleansed and disposed for healing ; therefore it is usual 
 to wash wounds with water. 
 
 And was baptized. As much as to say, both the jailor himself 
 and all his domestics, who heard the word of the Lord preached; 
 as in the next following verse, without delay were according to 
 Christ's instruction dipped in water, that by this sign they might 
 
VEE. XXXVIT.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 365 
 
 profess that they would die to sin, and lead a new and godly life for 
 the future. 
 
 34. And when he had brought them into his house. Joining to the 
 prison, as jailors' houses used to be. 
 
 He set meat before them. That is, he refreshed them with a treat, 
 as Levi did, Luke v. 29, and Zaccheus, Luke xix. 6. 
 
 And ry'oiced, believing in God with all his house. The participle 
 here gives the reason of his joy ; as much as to say. He rejoiced and 
 was exceeding glad, that not only himself, but his whole household 
 had acknowledged and received the faith of the true God, of whom 
 he was formerly ignorant. So the Ethiopian eunuch, when he 
 embraced the truth, is said to have been full of joy. Acts viii. 37. 
 
 35. The maffistrates sent. The word magistrates signifieth in the 
 Greek, "captains of the soldiers." See what we have said above, 
 ver. 20. 
 
 Sergeants. Grotius thinks that in the Latin translation the Greek 
 word pajiSov^ov^ should be retained. " For although," saith he, 
 "Plutarch and the Glossary, call sergeants pa(5Sovxove in Greek, 
 yet the Greek word itself signifieth any of the magistrate's officers 
 that carried a staff, which is in Greek called joa/3Soe, as a sign of 
 their office." Calvin renders the word, " apparitores." Beza and 
 Stephanus, "Viatores." 
 
 Saying, let these men go. The city judges repented that for the 
 sake of the incensed multitude, they had commanded strangers to 
 be beaten without hearing their cause, as if they had been con- 
 victed malefactors, contrary to the Koman laws and [those] of all 
 civilized nations. 
 
 36. Go in peace. That is, go with freedom, and fare you well. 
 
 37. But Paul said unto them. Who were sent by the magistrates. 
 They have beaten us openly. The magistrates are said to have 
 
 done this, because they commanded it to be done. 
 
 Uncondemned. That is, unheard, contrary to the order of law, 
 whereby, whosoever determineth anything before he hath heard 
 both parties, though his determination be just, he hath been unjust 
 in determining. 
 
 Being Romans. Against the Porcian and Sempronian laws, 
 Cicero for-Rabirius : " The Porcian law takes away rods from the 
 bodies of all the Roman citizens." And in his fifth oration against 
 Verres: "There was a Roman citizen whipt with rods in the 
 market-place of Messina. All the while, notwithstanding his pain 
 
366 THE ACTS OF THB HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XVI. 
 
 and the noise of the rods, nothing was heard from this wretch bat 
 these words, 'I am a Roman citizen,' thinking with the remem- 
 brance of his city, to repel the strokes and abate the pain." And 
 then : " ' O sweet name of liberty ! O great privilege of our city ! 
 O law of Porcia and laws of Sempronia ! ' " And a little after : 
 'It is a crime to bind a Roman citizen; heinous wickedness to 
 beat him.' " 
 
 And have cast us into prison. As if they intended to inflict more 
 cruel punishments upon us. 
 
 And now do they thrust us out privily 9 As much as to say. And 
 now having publicly and openly disgraced us, do they privately 
 and clandestinely thrust us out without any reparation of our 
 honour ? 
 
 Nay verily, &c. But truly we shall not now go out of prison, 
 unless the judges themselves take us honourably, that it may 
 appear that we were undeservedly beaten and put in bonds. 
 
 38. And they feared, when they heard that they wei-e Romans, 
 That is, they were afraid lest they should be accused of treason, 
 with which Cicero threatens Verres towards the end of his fifth 
 oration against him. For it was declared by the law, that if a 
 Roman citizen was hurt, the very majesty of the Roman people 
 should be accounted as hurt. "They were not moved," saith 
 Calvin excellently, " with the other head, that they wrongfully 
 raged against innocent men, without any trial of their cause : and 
 yet that was a greater reproach. But because they feared no 
 revenger among men, they were not moved with the judgment of 
 God. And hence it was they so unconcernedly passed by that 
 which was objected concerning the unjustness of it; they were 
 only afraid of the Roman axes, for violating the liberty of a 
 citizen. They knew this was capital to the greatest of their 
 deputies, what then would it be to the decurions of one colony ? 
 Such is the fear of wicked men, who have a stupid conscience 
 before God, greatly indulging themselves in all sins, until revenge 
 from men threaten them." 
 
 39. And they came. To wit, the city judges, to the prison to 
 Paul and Silas, who, as it pleaseth Grotius, are called Romans by 
 a synecdoche, seeing Paul only had the privilege of the city of 
 Rome. Such a synecdoche is in Matt, xxvii. 44. 
 
 And besought them. Some render it, and comforted them. To 
 wit, they in treated them with fair words, that they would forgive 
 
VEK. I.J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. .367 
 
 the wrong which they did them undeservedly, being forced to it by 
 the clamour of the people ; and so acknowledging their innocency 
 they comforted them. 
 
 And brouffht them out, and desired them to depart out of the city. 
 As much as to say. Having brought them out of prison, they urged 
 them with entreaties that they might depart out of Philippi, lest 
 they might suffer worse from the angry Philippians. 
 
 40. And they went out of the prison. To wit, Paul and Silas. 
 
 And entered into the house of Lydia. That godly woman of 
 Philippi, of whom see above, ver. 14. 
 
 And when they had seen the brethren. That is, the Christians 
 who were met in Lydia's house. 
 
 They comforted them. With an exhortation to constancy in the 
 Christian religion, seeing God doth even beyond expectation, by 
 miracles, aid and assist such as for this religion's sake are per- 
 secuted. 
 
 And departed. From Philippi, as the city judges requested them 
 in the verse immediately preceding. "To wit," saith Grotius, 
 "partly that they might not bring themselves into unnecessary 
 troubles, partly because Macedonia, which God had recommended 
 to them, is of a far greater extent." 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 1. Now when they had passed through. To wit, Paul and Silas. 
 
 Amphipolis. A city of Macedonia near Philippi, bordering upon 
 Thrace, which as Thucydides saith,' was first called Nine ways ; but 
 being taken by Agnon the Athenian general, it was called Amphi- 
 polis, because it is washed on both sides by the river Strymon. It 
 was afterward by the Grecians called Christopolis, the Christians 
 commonly called it Christopoli, the Turks calls it now Emboli ; it 
 is an archiepiscopal city of Macedonia. 
 
 And Apollonia. A city of Macedonia in that part of it called 
 Mygdonia, upon the river Chidor, about twelve miles distant from 
 Thessalonica, which now is called Ceres. 
 
 They came to Thessalonica. The largest city of Macedonia, and 
 a most famous place of trading; which, as we read in Strabo's 
 excerptions,* was first called Therme. It was built by Cassander, 
 
 * Lib, i. & iv. ' Lib. vii. 
 
368 - THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLTfiS [CHAP. XVII. 
 
 who called it Thessalonica, after the name of his wife, the daughter 
 of Philip the Son of Amynta, having carried thither the inhabitants 
 of the neighbouring cities, such were the Chalastrians, ^neans, 
 Cislians, and also some others. It bordered upon the Thermean 
 Gulf, so called from Thermes, whence it is supposed to be that 
 which the Italians now call Golpho di Salonichi, for they call 
 Thessalonica Salonichi. 
 
 Where was a synagogue of the Jews. There being none, to wit, 
 in Amphipolis, nor ApoUonia. 
 
 2. As his manner was. Which, to wit, Paul had of going in 
 into the Jews to their synagogues. 
 
 Reasoned with them out of the scriptures. To wit, of the Old 
 Testament which was received by the Jews as canonical. 
 
 3. Opening. As much as to say, Openly explaining as well the 
 express prophecies concerning the Messiah, as the types by which 
 he was shadowed, that he might ' make it clear to them, that he 
 was to suffer strokes, wounds, and a shameful death, and again to 
 return to life. And that therefore, Jesus whom he preached, is 
 this Messiah foretold by the prophets, seeing all that the prophets 
 foretold of his terrible sufferings, bitter afflictions, ignominious 
 death, and glorious resurrection, are by the event found fitly to 
 quadrate in him alone. Whoever fights for Christ's sake against 
 heretics, useth this method of Paul's : " he threatens with heavenly 
 weapons, he draws up a scripture army, with these swords he 
 forces heretics to their duty, with these crosses and torments, he 
 subdues and breaks their hardness," saith the learned Nic. Kigaltius 
 our countryman, upon TertuUian, Scorp., cap. 2. 
 
 And that fhis Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ. That is, 
 that Messiah of whom the prophets foretold, that being put to 
 an ignominious death, he would rise again. See below, ver. 17, 
 ch. xxvi. 9, and above, v. 39, 
 
 Whom I preach unto you. The discourse passeth from an oblique 
 person to direct, as it is frequent in any author, and especially in 
 sacred writers. 
 
 And some of them. Of the Jews, who were present at the 
 disputes which Paul had in the Thessalonican synagogues. 
 
 Believed. To wit, that Jesus is the Messiah promised in the 
 law and in the propliets, who would save such as believed in him 
 from their sins. 
 
 And consorted with Paul and Silas. There is in the word in the 
 Greek somewhat more meant, saith Grotius, and it signifies that 
 
VEE. v.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 369 
 
 they were wholly addicted to Paul and Silas, as things hereditary 
 among the Jews. Lucan useth this verb ; Aristides also useth 
 (TvyKX-ripova^ai for the same. 
 
 And of the devout Greeks. That is, such as were Gentiles by 
 birth, who, having forsaken vain idols, embraced the worship of the 
 true God before the gospel was preached to them. 
 
 A great multitude. It seems to point out that few of those who 
 were Jews by birth, but many of the Gentiles, who formerly 
 deserted GentUism and went over to the Jewish religion, were 
 converted to Christ. 
 
 And of the chief women. Of the chief men of the city's wives, 
 who of heathens were made proselytes, as were also their husbands. 
 
 5. Moved with envy, &c. As much as to say. But the Jews, who 
 were most obstinate in opposing the gospel preached by Paul and 
 Silas, being enraged to see it believed by so great a multitude, 
 and having got together most wicked scoffers and such as were 
 given up to all kind of wickedness, stirred up the people in com- 
 panies against Paul and Silas, and having beset Jason's house, who 
 took them in to lodge with him, tumultuously endeavoured to 
 draw them out thence, and to expose them to the fury of the 
 incensed rabble, to be by them killed and torn in pieces. 
 
 Certain lewd followers of the baser sort. The word in the original 
 signifies "certain jugglers." Tacitus calls those jugglers, "a base 
 rabble frequenting the games and theatres." Cicero : " the dregs 
 and mire of the city." Apuleius : " the homely dregs of the mean 
 people." Horace : "a dreg, that is, born where the common people 
 resort and almost in the market-place." Livy : " a market faction." 
 Plautus: "buffoons;" which he thus paints out in these words: 
 " Indeed there is nothing more sottish nor doltish, nor more lying, 
 nor more tatling, nor more bold in speaking, nor more perjured, 
 than those busy homebred citizens, which they call buffoons." 
 
 Lewd. To wit, such as delighted in all mischief and wickedness. 
 
 And gathered a company. That is, and having gathered together 
 the multitude of the rabble. 
 
 And assaulted the house of Jason. That is, they beset the house 
 of Jason, a citizen of Thessalonica, with whom Paul and Silas 
 lodged. Some think this Jason to be the same with him mentioned 
 Rom. xvi. 21, though he then dwelt afCorinth. 
 
 And sought. That is, they endeavoured with all their might. 
 
 To bring them out to the people. That is, in sight of the people, 
 that in their rage they might tear them to pieces. 
 
 B B 
 
370 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [OHAP. XVII. 
 
 6. And when they found them not. To wit, Paul and Silas. 
 
 And certain brethren. In Christ, that is. Christians. 
 
 To the rulers of the city. That is, to the magistrates of Thessa- 
 lonica. 
 
 Crying. Like jangling fellows in a court, whose custom is to 
 fill the court with bawling and cries, ev«n to hoarseness, to deafen 
 the judge's ears. Hence Cicero calls them* both bawlers and out- 
 criers : " We seek not for I do not know what lawyer, nor bawler, 
 nor jangler in this our discourse." And lib. iii. de Orator., he 
 saith of Pericles : " But no bawler hath taught him to bark out 
 his hour." Quintilian also calls them barkers :^ " Above all 
 things that modesty perisheth which brings authority and belief to 
 an orator, if he of a good man become a jangler and a barker." 
 
 These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also. 
 As much as to say. These vagabonds who by introducing their new 
 religion stir up sedition in every nation, are also come to this city 
 of Thessalonica, to the end they may trouble us, who are at peace, 
 with their new doctrines. Well saith Calvin, " This is the state 
 of the gospel, to have these uproars, which Satan raiseth by 
 opposing it, imputed to it. This also is the maliciousness of 
 Christ's enemies, to lay the blame of tumults upon holy and 
 modest teachers, which they themselves have procured. Certainly 
 the gospel is not preached to this end, to stir up men to strifes 
 among themselves, but rather that it may keep them in peace, 
 being reconciled to God. When Christ liberally invites us there 
 to come unto him, Satan and the wicked rage; therefore Paul and 
 Silas might easily have defended themselves, but it was requisite 
 for them to undergo this false slander for a time, and so longi as 
 they were not heard, silently to pass it by. And the Lord, by 
 their example, meant to teach us not to give place to slanders-' or 
 false reports, but rather to stand stout in asserting the truth, being 
 •content to be evil spoken of, for what was well done. Therefore 
 away with the perverse wisdom of some who, to escape false 
 slanders, stand not to betray Christ and his gospel by their 
 treacherous moderation, as if their good name were more precious 
 than Paul's, and such like, yea, than the sacred name of God, 
 which is not free from blasphemies." 
 
 7. Whom Jason hath received. That is, Jason their favourer 
 hath received them to his house. 
 
 And these all do contrary to the decrees of Ccesar. The people of 
 
 1 De Orat. lib. i. ' Instit. lib. xii. 
 
VER. VII. J LTTEBALLY EXPLAINED. 371 
 
 Rome, and afterward the Cassars who transferred to themeelves 
 the government of the people of Rome, suffered none in the 
 provinces subject to their government, of which Macedonia at that 
 time was one, to be called king without their own permission. 
 " A great and odious crime," saith Calvin, " yet too impudently 
 forged. Paul and Silas sought to erect the kingdom of Christ, 
 which is spiritual ; the Jews knew well that this might be done 
 without any injury to the Roman empire. They knew that they 
 meant nothing less than to overthrow the public state, or to 
 deprive Csesar of his authority; the Jews therefore maliciously 
 catch at this pretence that they might procure hatred to these 
 innocents. The Macedonians had no such respect for religion, 
 much less for the Jewish, that for its cause they should forthwith 
 drag persons unknown to the slaughter ; the Jews, therefore, catch 
 at the pretence of treason to oppress these innocents with the 
 pdlousness of that crime alone. Neither doth Satan cease to this 
 day to spread such mists before men's dazzled eyes. The papists 
 know very well, and are suflScIently convinced before God, that it 
 is more than false which they lay to our charge, that we overthrow 
 aU civil government, that laws and judgments are taken away, that 
 the power of kings Is subverted by us. And yet they are not 
 ashamed to the end they may make the whole world to hate us, 
 falsely to report us to be enemies to public order. For we must 
 note that the Jews not only allege that Caesar's commands were 
 violated, because Paul and Silas durst presume to Innovate some- 
 what in religion, but because they said there was another kipg. 
 This crime was altogether forged. Moreover, If at any time reli- 
 gion force us to resist tyrannical edicts, which forbid us to give due 
 honour to Christ, and due worship to God, we may then justly say 
 for ourselves that we do not violate the power of kings. For they 
 are not so exalted that they may endeavour, like giants, to pull 
 God out of his throne. That excuse of Daniel's was true, that he 
 had not offended the king, while yet he obeyed not his wicked 
 commandment, neither had injured mortal man, because he had 
 preferred God to him. So let us faithfully pay to princes their 
 tributes, let us be ready to any civil obedience, but if not content 
 with that degree, they would pluck out of our hands the fear and 
 worship of God, there Is no reason why any should say we despise 
 them, because we make more account of the power and majesty of 
 God." 
 
 King. To wit, of all human kind. " For," saith Grotlus, " the 
 
 B E 2 
 
372 THE ACTS OF THE HOLU APOSTLES [cHAP. XVII. 
 
 Christians called Jesus Lord, which frequently occurs in this book, 
 most frequently in Paul's Epistles. But this word in the Grreek 
 is the same with that that is rendered king, Eev. i. 8 ; xv. 3 ; 
 xvii. 14." 
 
 Another king. To wit, than Caesar. " Who," saith the same 
 Grotius, " called himself lord of the world." 
 
 8. And they troubled. As much as to say. By these false accu- 
 sations against Paul and Silas, they both raised a suspicion in the 
 people who were gathered together in the court, and in the magis- 
 trates before whom they were accused. 
 
 9. And. This particle, which otherwise is a copulative, is here 
 taken for the adversative particle " but," as it is often elsewhere. 
 
 When they had taken security. That Paul and Silas should 
 appear in judgment whenever it should be needful. 
 
 Of Jason. Paul and Silas's host. 
 
 And of the others. Christians, to wit, who, ver. 6, together with 
 Jason, were drawn before the magistrates of Thessalonica. 
 
 They let them go. That is, suffered them to go free. 
 
 10. But the brethren. That is, the Christians who lived in 
 Thessalonica. 
 
 Immediately. Lest the incensed people, stirred up by the per- 
 verse Jews, should use violence and force upon Paul and Silas. 
 
 Sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Bereea. That is, in a 
 clandestine way, having taken the advantage of the darkness, they 
 led and accompanied them out of the city, that they might pass 
 to another city of Macedonia called Beraea. The Macedonic 
 Ber^a lieth betwixt Thessalonica and the Candavian Hills, which 
 divide Illyria from Macedonia, near the river Lydia, in the region 
 of Emathia. This city is now commonly called Veria, for so do 
 the present Greeks pronounce it. The Turks call it Boor, as 
 Leunclavius saith. Pliny,i among the cities of Macedonia, reckons 
 Pella in the first place, the country of Philip and Alexander the 
 Great, kings of the Macedonians ; secondly, Beraea. 
 
 fVho. Paul and Silas. 
 
 Coming thither. To Beraea. 
 
 Went into the synagogue of the Jews. To try if they could 
 convert any of the Beraean Jews to Christ. 
 
 1 1 . These. The Jews dwelling in Berasa. 
 
 Were more nohle than those in Thessalonica, That is, they 
 
 ' Nat. Hist. iv. 10. 
 
VER. XIII.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 373 
 
 surpassed the Thessalonlans ia excellency of disposition and noble- 
 ness of mind. 
 
 In that they. The Jews of Bersea. 
 
 Received the word of God with all readiness. That is, with bended 
 ears and ready minds they attended to the gospel preached by 
 Paul. 
 
 And searched the scriptures daily. That is, searching out most 
 diligently the meaning of those things which were foretold of 
 Christ in the law and in the prophets. 
 
 Whether these things were so. That is, that they might see 
 through it, whether what was preached by Paul concerning Jesus 
 did agree with the written oracles of Moses and the prophets con- 
 cerning the Messiah. Yea, as Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem saith 
 excellently : * " Nothing of the divine and holy mysteries of faith 
 ought to be delivered by guess without scripture authority, nor be 
 spoken upon mere probability and dress of words." Hence it is 
 clear against the papists, that there is no blind obedience owing to 
 the pastors of the church, but that they indeed are to be esteemed 
 noble among Christians, who diligently examined by the testimony 
 of the holy scripture, whatever is preached by their pastors. " We 
 pretend to no blind obedience due to churchmen's directions, and 
 account them noble Christians, who search and try all they say by 
 that test of the scriptures," saith that man of a most solid judg- 
 ment, and in defending the principles of the orthodox faith, against 
 popery and irreligion, short of none, the most religious and most 
 learned Gilbert Burnet, D.D.,'' to whose large charity to the poor 
 and strangers I profess myself greatly indebted. 
 
 12. Therefore many of them believed. As much as to say. But 
 when the Jews of Beraea had by this scrutiny of the scriptures 
 discovered the most, marvellous harmony and agreement of Paul's 
 doctrine with the prophecies of Moses and the prophets, a great 
 many more of them believed the gospel preached by Paul, and 
 acknowledged Jesus to be the Messiah, promised in the law and 
 in the prophets, than of the Thessalonlans born Jews. 
 
 Also of honourable women, 8sc. As much as to say. Yea, and 
 very many honest and respected ethnics of both sexes at Bersea 
 believed in Jesus Christ. 
 
 13. The Jews. Obstinately resisting the word of God, or the 
 gospel preached by Paul. 
 
 And stirred up the people. Against Paul at Beraea. 
 * Catecb. iv. * In his excellent book entitled the Mystery of Iniquity Unveiled. 
 
374 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XVII. 
 
 14. And then immediately, &o. As much as to say, But the 
 Christians at Beraea, that Paul might be delivered from the snares 
 of the unbelieving Thessalonian Jews, took care to convey him to 
 the sea-coast, and entered into a ship as if he were to sail from 
 these regions, while Timothy and Silas abode at Beraea, that they 
 might confirm in the faith these who were newly converted. But 
 what Luke did, or where he was at that time, since he himself is 
 silent, is rash to conjecture. 
 
 To go as it were to the sea. The Syrian,- Arabic, and Ethiopic, 
 render it simply "to the sea," either tue or iiri being put by a 
 pleonasm ; for, saith Ludovicus de Dieu, " the partiiile we is used by 
 the Attics with the accusative instead of lin, and is often in 
 Xenophon, Aristophanes, Demosthenes, and other writers. Eusta- 
 thius notes upon Homer,* that orators frequently put we, " as it 
 were," redundant. 
 
 15. And they. Who by command from the brethren at Beraea. 
 Conducted Paul. To the sea-shore. The Greek words signify 
 
 " settling Paul," that is, by their company secured Paul from the 
 snares of his enemies, or " undertook to put him in a safe place," 
 as famous Beza renders it. 
 
 Brought him unto Athens. To wit, the Attic, where Paul seemed 
 secure from the implacable hatred of the Thessalonian Jews. " In 
 ray most ancient copy," saith Beza, " after ' unto Athens,' it is 
 written, 'and he passed by (to wit, tarrying nowhere there) 
 Thessaly : because he was forbidden to preach the gospel to them,' " 
 to wit, to the Thessalians. Certainly it were strange otherwise, 
 that Paul should have passed by so many regions, as are betwixt 
 Thessalonica and Athens, to wit, Thessaly, Baeotia and Attica, 
 having nowhere preached the gospel, or that Luke, who was Paul's 
 companion as appears above, ch. xvi. 10, should have omitted that 
 history of what was said and done there. 
 
 And receiving a commandment, &c. As much as to say. And 
 when thev who had conveyed Paul from Beraea, had received a 
 commandment from him to Silas and Timothy, who were left at 
 Bersea, that with all speed thpy would come to him, they departed 
 from Athens to return to Beraea. Athense Atticse is a famous city 
 of Greece, upon the river Ilissus, near the Saronic Gulf, and the 
 chief metropolis of Attica, from whence the Komans thought 
 humanity, learning, religion, fruits, laws, and rights, to have had 
 
 • Iliad, B. 
 
VER. XVII,] LITERALLY EXPLAINED, 375 
 
 their rise, and from thence distributed over all the earth.' Hence 
 Lucretius in his sixth book : — 
 
 " Athens first gave us laws, and chang'd our food. 
 For acorns, tender fruit and com bestowed 
 On wretched man ; each was a mighty good. 
 But then she taught us how to live at ease, 
 She taught the joys of life, and showed us peace." 
 
 16. Now while Paul waited for them at Athens. That is, for 
 Silas and Timothy, that they might help him to promote the work 
 of the gospel. 
 
 Was stirred, &c. As much as to say, he was vexed with great 
 trouble of spirit, that walking the streets of Athens, he should 
 meet with so many images of gods in so many places. The Greek 
 hath it, "his spirit was grieved." So Asaph said, Ps. Ixxiii. 2\, 
 My heart is grieved. " It must needs be that what is wicked 
 should displease a good and just man, and whom evil displeaseth 
 must be grieved when he seeth it done," saith Lactantius.^ And 
 a little after: "It is natural to a good man to be grieved and 
 stirred up at the sin of another." So Mattathias, seeing a Jew 
 sacrificing to idols, was inflamed with great zeal, 1 Mac. ii. 24. So 
 righteous Lot, seeing the wickedness of the Sodomites, was daily 
 vexed, 2 Pet. ii. 8. So, He v. ii. 2, th6 angel of Ephesus cannot 
 bear them which are evil. Apuleius, seeing an adulterer coming 
 daily to his mistress, said : " But this did wholly break my heart." 
 
 Given to idolatry. Casaubon renders the Greek word here, 
 " filled with idols." Petronius facetiously exposing the Athenians, 
 introduced one saying : " Verily our country is so full of deities 
 ready to help, that you may easier find a god than a man in it." 
 
 17. Therefore disputed he. To wit, of religion and its concerns. 
 The apostle of Christ does not begin with a violent hand to pull 
 down their idols, but with a nervous discourse to remove the 
 idolatry out of their hearts. " Let heretics," saith Bernard,' 
 "rather be taken, than put to flight; taken I say, not with arms, 
 but let their errors be refelled with strong arguments." And 
 again : * " Faith must be persuaded, not commanded." Lactantius : * 
 " There is no need of force and injury, because religion cannot be 
 forced, the business indeed is to be done with words, rather than 
 with strokes to make people willing." A little after : " We Chris-r 
 tians do not inveigle man, as the ethnics themselves charge us 
 
 ' Cic. pro Lucill. Flac. ' Lib. De Ira Dei, cap. 17. ' Serm. 64, in Cantic. 
 
 * Serm. 66. ' Inatit. lib. v. cap. 1.9. 
 
376 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XVII. 
 
 with, but we teach, prove, and demonstrate ; therefore we hold 
 none against his will, for he is unprofitable to God that wants 
 faith and devotion ; and yet none leaves us while the truth itself 
 retains him." See what is noted above, ver. 3, oh. v. 39, and 
 below, eh. xxvi. 9. 
 
 In the synagogue viith the Jews and with the devout persons. That 
 is, with such as were Jews by birth, and also with the proselytes, 
 who, being descended of foreign nations, did embrace the Jewish 
 religion. See above, ver. 4. 
 
 With all that met with him. That is, with all that went to the 
 market. 
 
 1 8. Certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics. He 
 names two. Borts of philosophers who were most averse from the 
 Christiait-religion. For Epicurus thought that it was below the 
 majesty of God to care for human affairs. For this cause Cicero, 
 Plutarch, and others have expunged Epicurus out of the list of 
 philosophers. " For the Epicureans," saith Grotius, " they neither 
 believed that the world was made by God, nor that he had any 
 care of human aifairs; nor that thereis any reward or punishment 
 after death ; neither any good but what is perceived by the senses." 
 The Stoics all to a man, excepting perhaps Socrates alone, were of 
 a high and proud spirit, they proudly and madly boasted that the 
 wise man whom they feigned in their idea, was equal with God, 
 yea, in some respects, beyond him. " The wise man," saith Seneca,' 
 " knows as much of his own age as God does of all ages. There 
 is something wherein the wise man surpasses God ; God by th 
 the prerogative of his nature fears nothing, the wise man by his 
 acquired prerogative. Behold a great thing, to have the weak- 
 ness of a man and the security of a God." And Epist. 73: 
 " Sextus used to say, ' That Jupiter was nothing more powerful 
 than a good man.' Jupiter hath more to give to men, but of two 
 good men, he is not the best that is the richest. Wherein does 
 Jupiter excel a good man ? He is longer good. A good man 
 esteemeth himself nothing the less, that his virtues are bounded 
 within a short space of time." 
 
 Encountered him. That is, they sharply assaulted him. 
 
 Babbler. That is, a. sower of words, and as Pliny saith, one who 
 willingly wasteth words. The Greek word, aing^okojoQ, is used 
 by Aristotle for a little bird, called in Latin frugilega, for that 
 with its bill it gathers the seeds that are digged up, and feeds upon 
 
 » Epist. 53. 
 
VIR, XIX.J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 377 
 
 them. Hence saith Eustathius, it was by the Attics translated to 
 those beggars that went about the markets, that they might gather 
 what dropped from the sacks and thereby feed. Hence it is used 
 as a reproach upon men of no esteem, who are despised by all. 
 Paul then is called by the Athenian philosophers, spermologus, not 
 as a babbler, " who," as Gellius saith, " comes off with moist and 
 slippery words, without any respect to matter ;" but as a man of a 
 low fortune, and very meanly clothed. As much as to say, what 
 will that vile fellow say ? 
 
 He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods. These unclean 
 spirits, which the ethnics esteem and worship as gods, are called 
 in the scripture dcemonia, which is their honourable name in Greek, 
 as if ye would call them knowing and wise, because of the 
 oracles given by them. Indeed, the title of knowing doth admi- 
 rably agree with the history of the tree of knowledge of good and 
 evil. Gen. iii. Moreover, among the same Athenians, Socrates the 
 philosopher was also accused of old that he did take away the 
 received gods, introducing others, and new demons, that is, deities : 
 as Diogenes Laertius writes in his life. 
 
 19. And they took him. To wit, Paul, that he might go with 
 them to such a place, wherein he might more decently declare what 
 new things he alleged, than in the market among the promiscuous 
 multitude. 
 
 Brought him unto Areopagus. Areopagus was one of the five 
 regions in Athens, into which the whole city was sometimes 
 divided. These were Martins Pagus or Areo-Pagus, Saturni 
 Pagus, Panis Pagus, Neptuni Pagus, Mercurii Pagus. Areo- 
 Pagus was named from Mars, who in Greek is called "Apijc, as 
 much as to say, the hillock of Mars, because there at first. Mars 
 having killed Halirrhothius, Neptune's son, being summoned as 
 guilty of death, answered his charge, as saith Pausanias ; or be- 
 cause it was consecrated to Mars, that Mars's temple should be 
 there, as Saturn's, Pan's, Neptune's, and Mercury's were in the other 
 four. The judgments instituted by Cecrops the first king of 
 Athens, about weighty crimes and causes, were exercised in Areo- 
 Pagus by the judges. Hence Hesychius : " Areo-Pagus at Athens 
 is a tribunal in its castle." The castle in Athens was called by its 
 proper name. Acropolis and Polls, as the most learned Thomas de 
 Pinedo hath observed. Juvenal' calls its tribunal. Curia Martis. 
 Upon which place Thomas Farnabius saysj that the judges of that 
 
 • Sat. )x. ver. 100. 
 
378 THE ACTS or THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XVIli 
 
 court were used to give their sentence without opening their 
 mouth, in writing some letters or characters. See Pers. Sat. iv. 
 13. It is called Areo-Pagusj from "Aprjc, " Mars," and Trayoe, "a 
 rock," "a hillock;" for Mars being here accused of murder before 
 twelve gods, was absolved by six sentences. The judges of this 
 court were upright and uncorrupt; whence these sayings, ''^More 
 severe than an Areopagite ; and more silent than an Areopagite." 
 Cicero :' " The affairs of Rome stand thus : nothing more severe, 
 nothing more constant, nothing more strong than the senate, which 
 is like Areopagus of Athens." 
 
 May ice know. As much as to say, Go on now ; if you please, 
 declare unto us this new doctrine which you preach. 
 
 20. Strange, &c. As much as to say, for you preach doctrines 
 unheard of by us till now, the which we have a great desire to 
 know fully. 
 
 21. Athenians. That is, the citizens born in Athens, 
 
 And strangers. That is, such as from other nations had come 
 to Athens, which was famous for arts, and for its harbour, and 
 resided there, and also conformed themselves to the customs of the 
 natives. 
 
 Spent their lime in nothing else, &c. That is, they spent their 
 time in searching after and spreading new rumours. In Thucy- 
 dides,*' Cleon charges the Athenians that they are always slaves to 
 unaccustomed things, but despisers of the -accustomed. The like 
 is to be found in Demosthenes. 
 
 Some new thing. The Greek here useth the comparative for the 
 positive. So also Plato and Demosthenes use it. 
 
 22. Then Paul stood in the midst of MarS hill aud said. As 
 much as to say, When Paul stood in the midst of that famous place 
 called Mars hill, filled with the concourse of men, with a steadfast 
 countenance thus he spake to them. 
 
 Ye men of Athens. So their own orators, such as Demosthenes 
 and -35schines, use to call them. 
 
 I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. Erasmus hath 
 noted that in this discourse Paul showed admirable policy and pru- 
 dence. Whose words seeing they greatly illustrate this place, we 
 shall not think it a trouble to insert them. " The apostle," saith 
 he, "preaching the gospel at Athens had to do with men of 
 diverse opinions ; here were the Epicureans, that deny that there 
 are any gods, or deny that they take any care of Jiuman concerns : 
 
 ' Ad Attic. Epist. lib. i. cap. 14. ' Lib. iii. 
 
VER, XXIT.] LITEUALLY EXPLAINED. 379 
 
 and the Stoics, unprofitable hearers of gosjiel grace ; for that they 
 make their own wise man equal with the gods, and place man's 
 chief good in his own strength. The rest of the multitude, in 
 miserable blindness, worshipped all kinds of demons for the true 
 God. How doth he temper his speech at such a theatre ? Does 
 he begin to execrate their crime of idolatry ? Does he call the 
 gods of the Athenians, wood or stone, or which is worse than 
 these, wicked spirits, hateful to God and enemies to all human 
 kind ? Does he upbraid them with their wicked crimes, by which 
 they were given over to a reprobate sense, as he twists it in, in his 
 Epistle to the Romans ? Nowise, for it was not as yet expedient, 
 but very moderately salth, that he understood by their images and 
 monuments, that the Athenians were altogether given- to super- 
 stition. The word superstition is smoother then idolatry, and this 
 same he mitigiites by the comparative, too superstitious : and this 
 again he lessens by adding * as if ;' what means this civility of the 
 apostles ? Whither does he look, what does he catch at, did he fCar 
 the Athenians ? Not at all, but it is their gain that he designs and 
 follows ; he knew the Athenians, as the other nations, to have been 
 given to the worshipping of images, even before he came to Athens. 
 But that he might not seem to have brought with him a bad report 
 of the Athenians, or to be inquisitive in another commonwealth, 
 he saith that he perceived their superstition, by the images set up 
 in public, and that not designedly, but passing by accidentally. 
 Neither does he call them idols or monuments of impiety, but in a 
 smoother term (refSaa/iaTa, which also is taken in a good meaning : 
 and it was designedly that he said that he saw an altar with that 
 inscription: 'To the unknown God.' What did he do with this 
 policy ? that he might make use of their readiness to hear, if he 
 would not seem to be the author of new gods, which by the 
 Athenians was punished with death, but he would preach that 
 which they long ago, though ignorantly worshipped. Now con- 
 sider with what words he preacheth the unknown God : he does 
 not say, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, 
 as Peter did speaking to the Jews ; but with a discourse so tetnpered 
 that he might with patience be heard even by ethnics ; God that 
 made- the world and all things therein. Paul adds. Seeing that he 
 is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; 
 neither is he worshipped with men's hands as though he needed anything, 
 seeing he giveth to all life and breath, and all things. Hitherto hath 
 he flaid nothing that may not be suffered, neither do you hear the 
 
380 THE ACTS or THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XVII. 
 
 testimonies of the prophets here, which Peter made use of to the 
 Jews ; but he pi'oduceth the testimony of Aratus, " for we are his 
 offspring," not naming him indeed, but what was more fit to per- 
 suade them, " As," saith he, " certain also of your own poets have 
 said." Though I suspect the word poets hath been added by later 
 authors: for this reason, that the most ancient author Irenaeus, 
 citing this place does not add poets, nor yet Augustine. Now 
 observe with what prudence he accommodates this testimony of 
 Aratus to his purpose : if God be not far from every one of us, 
 by whose favour we live and breathe, he is not then visible or 
 corporeal, or perceptible by any sense, far less then our souls are, 
 seeing he is as it were the soul of our soul. Then; if we be his 
 children, it becomes us not, being children, to have low thoughts 
 of so great a Father : for it is certain the soul is the far nobler part 
 of man, without which the body is nothing : but the body of man 
 is better by far than images of wood, stone, brass, silver, gold, in 
 which there is no sense of any thing, nor motion, neither were they 
 made by God, but by the tradesman ; therefore they who worship 
 images, they have that for a god which is viler than the basest 
 part of man. Ye see with how much caution, and with how much 
 temperance, he demonstrates the worshipping of images not to be 
 religion, but superstition. Certainly here was room to be incensed 
 at the blindness of the Athenians, who having learned these things 
 from their authors, yet would worship dead and dumb things 
 instead of God. Yet neither here doth he speak any sharp word : 
 he refers the madness of former ages to the times, and God's wink- 
 ing at them, that he might excuse what had been done heretofore, 
 by the ignorance in which God suffered men to be blinded for a 
 time ; only that they might now repent at the shining light of the 
 gospel. Neither does he properly here direct his discourse to the 
 Athenians, but speaks in general that he might the less offend. 
 " That all men," saith he, " might every where repent ; " he 
 showeth that a pardon for what was past was ready for such as 
 would betake themselves to better; otherwise that severe judg- 
 ment was near to such as would despise so great a favour from 
 God. Neither doth he speak thus. We declare to you that God's 
 judgment is at hand, and that they ought to flee to repentance ; 
 but God, declares. No mention is made as yet of Christ, of whom 
 they had no knowledge. Now a natural way of teaching begins 
 with known things. Here observe, Paul who in his Epistles with 
 so loud a trumpet personated the majesty of Christ, how sparingly 
 
VEK. XXII. J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 381 
 
 he touches him. No mention of the divine nature ; also as to the 
 cross which was foolishness to the nations, silence. He calls him 
 only a man, whom God hath set out in this world, that the truth 
 being by him cleared, the penitent should be freely pardoned, and 
 the unbelieving being now inexcusable should be justly punished. 
 Neither does he adduce the testimonies of the prophets here ; but 
 only with one argument proves what he said, because God raised 
 him from the dead. Only at the mentioning of the resurrection 
 some mocked, others being more modest, said, We will hear thee 
 again of this matter. He who desireth to be more fully taught, 
 hath profited in some measure. Here also it seems the apostle's 
 discourse was interrupted, his auditors leaving him, neither would 
 he press them any further : ' But departed from among them,' 
 saith Luke, waiting a more fit occasion. Also this same happened 
 by Paul's wisdom, that he was neither misused, nor railed at, nor 
 hurt by any seizing upon him, but departed safe; but not without 
 gain. Them who cleaved to him he more fully instructed, among 
 which were Dionysius, and a certain woman named Damaris, and 
 others with them. Hence it appears how great force a discourse 
 tempered with prudent meekness hath." 
 
 Superstitious. The Greek hath it " too superstitious." " They are 
 called superstitious," saith Lactantius,i " who worship the surviving 
 memory of the deceased, or who, surviving their parents, honour 
 their images as household gods. For they called them superstitious 
 who assumed to themselves new rites, that they might, instead of 
 gods, honour the dead, whom they thought were from men received 
 into heaven: but them who worshipped the public and ancient 
 gods, they called religious." Virg. ^n. viii. ver. 187. 
 
 Foolish superstition, which knoweth not the ancient gods. " But," 
 saith Lactantius further, " seeing we find also the old gods, in the 
 same manner consecrated after death, they are therefore super- 
 stitious who worship many and false gods. But we are religious, 
 who supplicate one and the true God." Servius upon the forecited 
 [place] out of Virgil,* Evander's words to ^neas: "Superstition," 
 saith he, "is a foolish and superfluous fear, or it is denominated 
 from little old women, who surviving many, dote for age, and 
 become fools." Or, according to Lucretius, superstition is a vain 
 and superfluous fear of divine and heavenly things which are 
 above us. 
 
 ' Instit. lib. iv. cap. 28. ' Mrteii. viii. 
 
382 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XVII. 
 
 23. Yom>, devotions. The word in the Greek signifieth " those 
 deities which are worshipped." 
 
 I found an altar. The word fSw/nog in the Greek bible and 
 fathers, and ara in the vulgate Latin translation of the bible and 
 the Latin fathers, is used only of an altar erected for the honour 
 of idols, seeing the altar erected under the Old Testament for 
 worshipping the true God is constantly and always called Sfvaiaa- 
 Tripiov in Greek, and altare in Latin. One table was wont to be 
 placed in the midst of every meeting place of the primitive Chris- 
 tians, upon which every one laid what he bestowed for the use of 
 the poor, as we are informed by Theodoret ;^ and because alms are 
 noted with the name of. sacrifice, that table upon which they were 
 laid was called by the ancient Christians an altar. Heb. xiii. 10. 
 This table also was appointed for the use of the Lord's supper, 
 and hence it came to pass, that by little and little, they which did 
 partake of the bread and wine of the Lord's supper at this table, 
 which, for the alms laid upon it, was called an altar, were said to 
 have partaken of the altar. Of this table Paul speaks, 1 Cor. x. 
 18, and Athanasius, in his Epistle to Solitary Livers. This also 
 is to be observed, that when Christians, in the time of Constantino 
 the Great, did begin to build sumptuous churches to God, then 
 also in place of that one wooden table, almost in every church of 
 God, there was one of stone erected, which yet served for the 
 same use, that the wooden table did before. 
 
 With this inscription^ To the unknown God. The God of the 
 Jews was by the Gentiles called unknown, because he had no 
 name by which they knew him. It was not lawful commonly to 
 pronounce the sacred name of rrin^, by which the Jews called 
 him. Hence he is called by Lucan, in his second book of the 
 Pharsalian War, the " uncertain God." By TrebeUius PoUion, in 
 the Life of Claudius, " Moges' uncertain Deity." By the Ethnics 
 in Justin Martyr, in his Parsenesis to the Greeks, "altogether 
 hidden." By Caius Caligula in Philo,^ "the unnamed God." And 
 by Isaiah the prophet himself, ch. xlv. 15, A God that hideth him- 
 self. "As the inhabitants of Mount Carmel in Tacitus,' gave 
 neither an image, nor a temple to this God, but only an altar and 
 reverence, so also," saith Usher, "the Athenians did place their 
 : altar of piety in the middle of their town without any image, as 
 Statins saith in the twelfth book of his Thebalds." The author of 
 
 ' Lib. V. cap. 18. " Lib. De Legatione ad ipsum. ^ Hist. lib. ii. cap. 78. 
 
VEU. XXV.] LITEIULLT EXPLAINED. 383 
 
 the dialogue whose title is Philopater, and by some ascribed to 
 Lucian, swears by the " unknown God," which was in Athens ; 
 and at the end of the same dialogue he saith : " We having found 
 an unknown God at Athens, and worshipping with hands spread 
 out to heaven, to him we will give thanks." 
 
 Him therefore, &c. As much as to say. Therefore that Deity 
 which, confusedly known, ye worship, I declare to you distinctly 
 and clearly to be God, the Maker and Governor of this worldly 
 fabric. 
 
 24. God, &c. As much as to say, This true God, who created 
 and made heaven and earth, and produced all things that are con- 
 tained within the compass of heaven and earth, seeing he is Lord 
 of this universe as of his own work, cannot be enclosed in temples 
 made with men's hands, as the earthly kings are in the palaces 
 wherein they dwell. See what is cited out of the Greek poet 
 Euripides in the Latin edition of this Commentary. 
 
 Dwelleth not in temples made with hands. See what we have said 
 above, ch. vii. 48. The ancient Christians called the places of 
 their meetings, churches, conventicles, dominica, oratories, basilics, 
 and God's houses. But they gave the name of temple commonly 
 to the idols' places only, although Laetantius' calls the ''temple of 
 God," a building dedicated by the Christians to religious worship. 
 St. Jerome, in his Epistle to Riparius, saith of Julian the Apos- 
 tate : " That either he destroyed the basilics of the saints, or 
 turned them to temples." And by TertuUian,^ he is said to re- 
 nounce the temples, who hath renounced the idols. 
 
 25. Neither is he worshippd with meris hands, as though he needed 
 anything. That is, neither do religious men offer their worship to 
 God, as it were with their hands, as if he had need of that worship, 
 but because it is a human duty. The same is the meaning of 
 Ps. 1. 10—13. 
 
 Seeing he. The meaning is^ Seeing he, by his free bounty, is the 
 cause of life to all living, and supplies them with abundance and 
 plenty of all things that nature wanteth. 
 
 Life and breath. That is, the breath, of life, as is clear from Gen. 
 ii. 7. " God," saith Grotius, " is the Father of spirits. Num. xvi. 
 22, that is, the author of life to all livingj especially to men, as 
 having, like God, gotten the dominion of themselves and of other 
 things." 
 
 ' Instit. lib.' V. cap. 2. ' De Idolat. cap. 15, and Coron. Militis, cap. H. 
 
384 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XVII. 
 
 26. All nations of men. To wit, as Lactautius ' saith, "We are 
 all sprung of one man whom God made." 
 
 For to dwell on all the face of the earth. That is, that men being 
 multiplied and dispersed over all the regions of the earthly world, 
 should inhabit all the parts of the habitable earth. See Gen. xi. 8. 
 " One man," saith Lactantius in the forecited chapter, " was made 
 by God, and by this one the whole earth was filled with mankind." 
 
 And hath determined. That is, having determined the times 
 wherein every people were to inhabit every region, which cannot 
 be prevented nor passed over. 
 
 27. Seek the Lord. As much as to say, God, by creating men, 
 and distributing the earth to them to dwell in, proposed this end 
 to himself, that men should seek God, who is Lord and Creator of 
 heaven and earth, and of all things that are in them. To seek the 
 Lord is nothing else, but by worshipping of him earnestly to seek 
 his grace and favour, and to endeavour to be reconciled to him, as 
 appears from these words of the Epistle to the Hebrews, ch. xi. 6, 
 He that conieth to God must believe that God is, and that he is a 
 rewarder of them that diligently seek him. 
 
 If haply they might feel after him. That is, if haply they might 
 fix upon God, who being by his nature incorporeal, yields himself 
 and his goodness so many ways to be felt and enjoyed, that he 
 seems as if made bodily in aspectable things, to make himself, in 
 some measure, known even by feeling. 
 
 And find him. That is, and seeking after him, find him. " To 
 seek after God," saith Curcellaeus,^ "in his Dissertation of the 
 Necessity of the Knowledge of Christ, "is the same as to give 
 him due worship and honour. Witness that of the holy writer, 
 that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him, Heb. xi. 6. 
 And to find him is to be partaker of his favour, as the prophet, 
 showeth when he saith. Seek ye the Lord, while he may be found ; 
 call upon him while he is near, Isa. Iv. 6. 
 
 Though he be not far from every one of us. As much as to say, 
 though he be so near us with his benefits, that he does demonstrate 
 that he is easily found, if we shift not the pains of seeking after 
 him. 
 
 28. For in him we live, and move, and have our being. This 
 phrase, in him, is an Hebraism, signifying no more than by him. 
 As when the Pharisees charged Christ that by the prince of devils 
 
 ' Instit lib. vi. cap. 10. ' Numb. 19. 
 
VEK. XXIX.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 385 
 
 Jie did cast out devils. Matt. ix. 24 ; xii. 24. The Vulgate Latin 
 hath it, "In the Prince." As also below, ver. 31, he is to Judffe 
 the world hy that Man whom he hath appointed, there it is also, in 
 that Man, meaning our Lord Jesus Christ. The meaning then is, 
 by God's power we are created, and being created, are preserved, 
 nourished, sustained, and enjoy what is sufficient both for necessity 
 of life and pleasure. 
 
 ■As certain also of your own poets have said. He mentions many 
 of them, because, in Homer, Hesiod, Menander, Callimachus, 
 Pindar, are some things which make to this purpose. But Paul 
 being a Cilician, cites only the words of his own countryman, 
 Aratus the Cilician. 
 
 For we are all his offspring. This half verse is read in Aratus, 
 his Phenomena, which were translated out of Greek into Latin 
 by Cicero, while he was but very young, as he saith himself ; ' and 
 since, by Sextus Euflfus Avienus. It is agreed upon among the 
 learned, that Aratus being a man ignorant of astrology, did speak 
 most excellently and ornately of the heavens and stars, as Cicero 
 saith.* This Aratus, surnamed Solensis, was born at Solis, a city 
 of Sicily, which being afterward repaired by Pompey the Great, 
 was called Pompeiopolis ; he was famous in the time of Ptolemy 
 Philadelphus, and lived splendidly in the palace of Antigonus 
 Gonata, the son of Demetrius Poliorceta, who took the govei-n- 
 ment of the Macedonians, about the hundred and fifty-fifth 
 olympiad. Suidas makes a catalogue of his works, among which 
 his Phenomena are the most esteemed, whose admirable beginning 
 Virgil hath imitated in his third Eclogue, ver. 60. "What," 
 saith Grotius, " was said by Aratus of Jupiter, Paul adapteth to 
 the true God, because by Jupiter, the wisest among the Greeks 
 did understand the most high God. Thus Aristasus, in Josephus, 
 says. That the Jews worship the God of the universe, whom the 
 Greeks call Jupiter." 
 
 29. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God. That is, 
 forasmuch as we are the children of God. " Paul," saith Grotius, 
 " accommodates himself to a poetical way of speaking, meaning 
 that we chiefly resemble God in our mind, and for this likeness 
 are called his children. But in the New Testament we are called 
 his children upon a more weighty account, because we imitate his 
 goodness; again, we shall at our resurrection be otherwise his 
 children, by partaking of his blessedness." 
 
 ' De Natur. Door. lib. ii. ' De Orat. lib. i. 
 
 C C 
 
386 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAI". XVII. 
 
 We ought not to think, &c. As much as to say. None that is in 
 his right mind should assimilate dead things, to wit, silver, gold, 
 and stone, to God, though graven' with the best art that man can 
 invent. For silver, gold, and stone, are things far below man, and 
 art cannot but be more ignoble than the artificer. See Isaiah xl. 
 18 ; xliv. 13; xlvi. 5. "Moreover," saith Beza, "we must know 
 that by the Greek word xapay/iarog is understood not only 
 graven work, but also by a synecdoche, a thing painted, and lastly, 
 all such things as men use to devise for worshipping or represent- 
 ing God." 
 
 30. And the times, &c. As much as to say. But God, whose 
 purest honour is in a worship that is far from the senses, seeing he 
 hath hitherto passed by those sins which in those former times the 
 idolatrous nations, through gross ignorance, committed, now the 
 darkness of former times being driven away, does, by the preach- 
 ing of the gospel, strictly charge all men everywhere, without 
 diflFerence or choice of nations, to amend their former sins and 
 mistakes, and lead a new life according to the rule of God's com- 
 mandments. 
 
 Wlnhed. The word in the Greek signifies " dissembled." " By 
 the verb vTTEptSaiv," saith Beza, "is meant him who makes as if he 
 slightly saw the outside of things." This Horace calls somewhere 
 pervidere, "that is," says the same Beza, "if I am not mistaken, 
 per transennam et leviter videre, ' see by the bye and slightly.' " Now 
 God is said to have despised, overlooked^ and winked at those 
 times of ignorance; either because he composed not a form of 
 religion for the nations, as he did for the Israelites, by which they 
 were to be bounded in his service and worship ; neither sent he 
 any prophets to them to drive away their darkness, but suffered 
 them to walk in their own ways, as is said above, ch. xiv. 16, or 
 because he did not then severely punish them, but patiently 
 suffered them. See Bom. iii. 25. 
 
 31. Because. A reason is given why men ought to amend 
 themselves. 
 
 He hath appointed a day. That is, he hath limited a certain day, 
 though he hath kept from our knowledge when it is to come. 
 
 In the which he will judge the world. That is, the inhabitants of 
 this world. 
 
 In righteousness. That is, justly, according to every one's works, 
 without respect of persons. Rom. ii. 6—8. 
 
 By that Man whom he hath ordained. That is, by that Man 
 
TEE. XXXIV.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 387 
 
 whom he bath constituted judge of the, quick aiid dead. See above, 
 ch. X. 42. 
 
 Where<^ he hath given assurance unto all men. That is, hath by 
 a sure argument, and worthy of credit, proved that Christ was to 
 be judge of the world, when he raised him from the dead. "God,'' 
 saith Grotius, " by raising Christ again from the dead, gave the 
 greatest testimony to his doctrine that he could give, but this also 
 was in this doctrine that he was to be judge of mankind. Matt. 
 XXV. 31, et seq. ; John v. 25. 
 
 32. And when they heard of the resurrectioji of the dead. That is, 
 that a man was raised from the dead. 
 
 Same mocked. As they use to do, who give no faith to what is 
 spoken. An ethnic in Minutius deriding the Christians : '? They 
 build," saith he, " and knit together old wives' fable, they say they 
 are to rise up again, after they are dead and in ashes, and I know 
 not with what boldness they believe one another, their own lies 5 
 you might think they are risen again already." Neither did the 
 Platonicians, who thought that bodies were given to souls for 
 punishment, believe the resurrection of bodies; nor yet. the Epi- 
 cureans, nor the Peripateticians, who taught that God had no care 
 of human things ; these more openly, but those in their secret 
 discourses. 
 
 And others. Who thought it not repugnant, as man might 
 at first be made by God, so also he might again be renewed by 
 him. 
 
 Said, We vnll hear thee again of this matter. To wit, when we 
 are at leisure. 
 
 33. So Paul departed from among them. As much as to say, 
 Paul, being put off to another day, went from Areopagus. 
 
 34. Howbeit certain men. Of them who heard Paul preach in 
 Areopagus. 
 
 Cleave unto him. " That is," saith Grotius, " having insinuated 
 themselves more into his acquaintance." So KoXKatr^ai is taken 
 above, ch. v. 13, ix. 26, x. 28. 
 
 Dipnysius the Areopagite. That is, one of those senators of 
 
 Areopagus, who judged with such integrity of capital matters, 
 
 "that they judged only in the night, not in the daytime; that so 
 
 they might take notice of what was spoken, not of who spoke, 
 
 Eusebius saith,^ that this Dionysius the Areopagite was appointed 
 
 the first bishop of the church of Athens, as another Dionysius, 
 
 ' Hist. Ecclcs, lib. iii. cap. 4. 
 
 C C 2 
 
388 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 bishop of the church of Corinth, a most ancient writer, wit- 
 nesseth. 
 
 And a woman named Damaris. This woman was the wife of 
 Dionysius the Areopagite, if we believe Ambrose, Ghrysostom, 
 and Augustine. 
 
 And others. Less famous Athenians. 
 
 With them. To wit, with Dionysius and Damaris. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 1. After these things. Paul having sent Silas and Timotheus, 
 who came to him from Bersea, back again to Macedonia, stayed 
 alone at Athens, and himself also again and again intended to go 
 to Thessalonica, but could not accomplish it, being hindered by 
 Satan ; therefore he sent Timothy thither to comfort and strengthen 
 the Thessalonians in the faith, 1 Thess. ii, 17, 18; iii. 1, 2. In 
 the meanwhile, having left Athens, he came to Corinth, which the 
 most eloquent of the Romans in his oration for the Manilian law, 
 calls the light " of all Greece ; " it was a city of Achaia or 
 Peloponnesus, for Peloponnesus was contained in Achaia, situated 
 in the isthmus, which took Its name from it ; the Greeks call any 
 narrowness of ground, betwixt a peninsula and the main land, an 
 isthmus, but it was by way of excellency said of the Corinthian or 
 Peloponessian, wherein plays were celebrated to Neptune. This 
 city of Corinth was famous for two ports, of which the one was 
 called the Port of Lechea, the other of Cenchrea; the one was 
 used to traffic with the Europeans, the other to negotiate with the 
 Asians ; the former lay near the Ionian, the other by the ^gean 
 Sea ; therefore It was called by the Latins himaris, by the Greeks, 
 OjU0t&aXa(7(Tioc; its castle was called Acrocorinthus. ForasStrabo 
 reports,^ it was a hill so encompassed with walls, that It was as 
 useful as a castle. There was Pyrene, a fountain sacred to the 
 muses. This same city was formerly called Ephyra. Authors do 
 not agree about Its builder, though Plutarch in his book" of the 
 Malice of Herodotus, calls It the city of Glaucus, as If it had been 
 built by Glaucus, of whom mention is made by Stephanus ;' having 
 by Its trading acquired great riches, it was by the father of the 
 poets' surnamed "the Each;" by Pindavus it Is called "Blessed 
 Corinth, the threshold of Neptune's Isthmus, famous for young 
 
 ' Lib. viii. ' In Ijivpa. • Iliad ii. 
 
VER. II.J LITEIULLY EXPLAINED. 389 
 
 men." By its riches it became to such an excess, that hence arose 
 that proverb, " It is not every one that may sail to Corinth." But 
 the Corinthians were always much addicted to whores, esteeming 
 this so far from being base, that they were admitted to their public 
 prayers, and it was a part of their prayer, that the gods would 
 increase their number and their income. Some also vowed to 
 bring in more of them, as we have it from Athenaeus and ^lian. 
 There Lais exacted the tribute of her lust of all Greece, prosti- 
 tuting herself for ten thousand drachmas, who when she died 
 had a tomb made famous with the verses of all the poets. And 
 hence it is that " to play the Corinthian," is commonly among the 
 Greeks " to whore." And a Corinthian maid, with Plato, is one 
 that prostltuteth herself. The scholiast of St. Gregory of 
 Ifazianzen, upon his first oration against Julian, notes that there 
 were always some most famous at Corinth. JElian also saith, 
 that the Corinthians were drunkards. Pride useth to accompany 
 riches, which Plutarch observes was very great at Corinth. It 
 was always their language, " the Corinthian born of Jupiter will 
 not suffer these things." This their pride, when it had puffed 
 them up even to contemn the Boman name, brought ruin upon 
 them, L. Mummus having vanquished them. But the city being 
 repaired by Julius Caesar, as Strabo and Diodorus Siculus in his 
 Fragments, saith, in a very short time, as their riches returned to 
 them, so did their vices. The studies of philosophy of old flou- 
 rished there, Periander, prince of the city, being reckoned among 
 the seven wise men of Greece, and Diogenes, the great derider of 
 the opinions received among men, being much conversant there. 
 
 2. And found a certain Jew. To wit, by birth, but now a Chris- 
 tian by religion, as is clear from what follows. 
 
 Born in Pontus. A region of Asia near the sea, which they call 
 the Euxine Sea. 
 
 Lately- come. To wit, to Corinth. 
 
 From Italy. Italy is a most famous region in Europe ; it hath 
 the name of Italus a certain king of the Arcadians, as saith 
 Thucydides,^ being formerly called Ausonia, Ausonis, Hesperia, 
 Saturnia, Latium, and CEnotria. It hath for its bounds upon 
 the north the Alps, upon the east Arsya, a river of Istria and the 
 Upper Sea, which also is called the Adriatic Sea, upon the south 
 the Lower Sea or the Tyrrhenian and Tuscan Sea, upon the east 
 again the Alps, even to the Mediterranean Sea. Italy, saith 
 
 » Lib. vi. 
 
390 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 C. Julius Sdlinus,* " was spoken of with so much care by all, 
 especially- by Cato, that now nothing can he found which the 
 diligence of ancient authors did not take before, having so large a 
 subject for praising its excellent ground, while the most excellent 
 writers consider the wholesomeness of its places, the temperateness 
 of its air, the fruitfulness of its ground, the warmness of its 
 hillocks, the thickness of its woods, harmless forests, the increase 
 of its vines and oHves, its foldsj herds, so many rivers, so great 
 lakes, the banks of violets bearing twice a year, and among other 
 things the Mount Vesuvius, which burneth and casteth out flame, 
 Baias with its warm fountains, so frequent colonies, the continual 
 beauty of new cities, so splendid ornament of ancient towns, which 
 were first built by the aborigines, the Aurunci, Pelasgians, 
 Arcadians, Sicilians, and afterwards by the strangers of Greece, 
 and at last by the Roman conquerors." " To all these advantages 
 of Italy is opposed the crime of debauchery with males," saith 
 Thomas de Pinedo, in his notes upon Stephanus de Urbibus. 
 Nicolaus Leonicus saith,* " that the Italians, by the long warlike 
 expeditions, forced of necessity, were the first that abused males. 
 But I think this vice had its rise from the Greeks, seeing that 
 Herodotus saith,' that the Persians, being taught by the Grecians, 
 were given to love boys ; from them its prpbable this vice hath 
 crept in among other nations, though vices are also learned without 
 a master." 
 
 With his wife Priscilla. This eminently pious woman, and her 
 husband Aquila born in Pontus, are mentioned with commendation, 
 Rom. xvi. 3; 1 Cor. xvi. 19; see also 2 Tim. iv. 19. 
 
 Because that Claudius had commanded. The fifth emperor of 
 the Romans, a doltish man, who was altogether governed by his 
 wives, and the servants he had made free. 
 
 All the Jews to depart from Rome. Under Jews were also com- 
 prehended Christians born of Jews. " The Jews," saith Suetonius,* 
 " making daily tumults, Chrestus stirring them up, were by Clau- 
 dius expelled out of Rome." " If I mistake not," saith Bishop 
 Usher, " Suetonius only makes mention of this Chrestus ; for that 
 here he meant Christ our Lord, from whom he elsewhere names 
 the Christians, I cannot as yet persuade myself." From the latter 
 part of this book of the Acts of the Apostles we may gather, that 
 this edict of Claudius was not long observed at Rome, which per- 
 haps was the reason why Josephus did not mention it. 
 
 ^Cap. 8. " De Var. Hiat. lib. iii. cap. 25. ' Lib. i. cap. 1 35. * In Claud, cap. 25. 
 
VEE. VI. J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 391 
 
 From Rome. The most famous city of Italy was called by the 
 Greeks 'Fut/itf (which signifies the same as Valentia in Latin), by 
 the Latins Roma. Pliny saith,' it had also another name, which 
 by the secrets of the ceremonies, was esteemed a crime to speak. 
 The same says Servius. Which name a certain tribune of the 
 people having ventured to say, was put to death, as Solinus saith, 
 or was hanged, as saith Servius upon the first of Virgil's Geprgics, 
 ver. 499. ^ This tribune's name was Valerius Soranus, about 
 whom, besides the cited authors, you may see Plutarch, Quaest. 
 Problem. 60. 
 
 3. Fm- by occupation they were tent makers. That is, 
 they exercised the trade of making tents or shades; in which 
 men not only encamped in time of war, but also at home in 
 time of peace did live in the summer time. These they made 
 either of linen, or of skins sewed together. The Syriac renders the 
 Greek word "canopy makers." Vatabulus and others, "arras 
 makers." See what we have noted upon ch. ix. 43. 
 
 4. And he reasoned, &c. As much as to say. Yet Paul did 
 debate about the Christian religion in the place which was conse- 
 crated for the meetings of the Jews every seventh day, in which 
 the Jews did chiefly and of purpose apply their mind to religion, 
 and brought over to his judgment both Jews and Greeks, or Gen- 
 tiles, who went to the synagogue of the Jews either through 
 curiosity, or to search into the truth. Also, Suetonius writes,' that 
 the Greeks used to dispute upon the sabbath day. 
 
 Interposing the name of Jesus. These words are not in the 
 Greek text, nor in the Syriac translation. 
 
 5. And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia. 
 "Whom, to wit, Paul, as we said above, ver. 1, had sent from 
 Athens. 
 
 Paul was pressed in the Spirit. That is, being by the inspira- 
 tion of the Spirit as it were, suddenly caught, he preached with 
 great zeah See below, ch. xx. 22. 
 
 Testifying, &c. That is, firmly averring that Jesus was that 
 Christ or Messiah promised in the law and in the prophets. 
 
 6. And when they opposed themselves, &c. As much as to say. But 
 when the obstinate Jews resisted Paul while he preached, and 
 blasphemed Christ whom he preached, that he might testify that 
 he had nothing in common with them, he did in their presence shake 
 
 • Nat. Hist. lib. ii. cap. 6. '' Ad iEneid. lib. i, ver, 281, cap. 1. 3 
 
 • Jn Tiberio, cap. 32. 
 
392 THE ACTS OK THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XVIII. 
 
 his raiment, that there might not so much as any of the dust stick 
 to him, and said unto them. Your blood, &c 
 
 Shook his raiment. That is, his upper garment. So Matt. xxvi. 
 65, The chief priest rent his clothes, that is, his upper garment. 
 Mark V. 30, l^ho touched my clothes? that is, my garment, as it is 
 a little before in the singular number. John xiii. 4, Christ riseth 
 from supper and laid aside his garments, that is, his ga!rment, or 
 upper cloak. When the soldiers had cmci/ied Jesus, they took his 
 garments and made four parts, John xix. 23, where is meant one 
 cloak, from which the coat is presently distinguished, as it is de- 
 monstrated in Gerard's Evangelical Harmony in the History of 
 the Passion. 
 
 Blood, &c. " This," saith Beza, " is a kind of obtestation, as if 
 Paul should say, I see you run into your own destruction, ch. xiii. 
 40, therefore I take God to witness before you, that not I but your- 
 selves are the cause of your own ruin. So speaketh David, 2 Sam. i. 
 16. For by blood is meant sometimes slaughter, sometimes all kind 
 of destruction, the cause of which, according to the manner of the 
 Hebrews, he is said to be, upon whose head, that I may speak 
 so, it is laid, that is to whom it is imputed, as if he had shed his 
 own blood, that is, killed himselfj whence that horrible outcry 
 of the Jews, His blood be on us and on our children. Matt, 
 xxvii. 25. 
 
 Henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles. As much as to say. 
 From this time, because ye repel the grace of God offered to 
 you, I will turn aside from you to the Gentiles. See above, ch. 
 xiii. 46. 
 
 7. And he departed thence. To wit, from the synagogue. 
 
 Into a certain man's house named Justus. The Syriac and Arabic 
 read only Titus. The vulgar Greek copies have Justus only, but 
 some Greek copies have both, Titus Justus, as also the Vulgate ; 
 Latin interpreter. ' ' 
 
 One that worshipped God. That is, who of an ethnic was made 
 a proselyte to the Jewish religion. See above, chap. xvi. 14, and 
 xvii. 4. 
 
 8. Believed on the Lord. That is, by Paul's preaching he was per- 
 suaded that Jesus was the Messiah, the Redeemer of the world 
 promised in the law and in the prophets. 
 
 TVith all his home. That is, with all in his family that were 
 capable of faith. The like phrase is in John iv. 5. 
 
 And many of the Corinthians. As much as to say. But a 
 
VER. YIII,] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 393 
 
 great many more of the ethnics, who dwelt in Corinth, than of the 
 Jews. 
 
 Hearing. To wit, Paul preaching. 
 
 Believed. That is, received the faith of Christ. 
 
 And were baptized. Crispus the ruler of the synagogue, and 
 Gains whom Paul calls his host, Kom. xvi. 23, were indeed bap- 
 tized with Paul's own hands, as he himself witnesseth, 1 Cor. i. 
 14; but the rest by Paul's companions and helpers, Timothy and 
 Silas, that by a holy dipping into the water, they might openly be- 
 fore the world profess and declare their faith, according to Christ's 
 prescript, Mark xvi. 1 6, Whosoever believeth and is baptized shall be 
 saved. Upon which place of Mark, the well-learned Paulus Colu- 
 mesius of Rochelle, in his Sacred Observations, printed a.d. 1679, 
 and dedicated to the Right Honourable Henry Compton Lord 
 Bishop of London, formerly my greatest and most liberal bene- 
 factor : " Hence," saith he, " you may not undeservedly observe 
 that only the adult are capable of baptism. That the ancients 
 were of this judgment, Walefridus Strabo,' Ludovicus Vives, 
 Erasmus in a certain epistle, which Paulus Morula published 
 with others in the year 1607 ;" Grotius in his epistles to several 
 Frenchmen ; ^ Salamasius in his book of Tranaubstantiation ; and 
 Joannes Baptista Thiers in his most useful book concerning the 
 diminishing of festival days,* do plainly confess. With these 
 ancients Berengarius, that great man, may be reckoned, whom 
 George Cassander,' who was most skilful in those things, in the 
 preface to his book concerning paedo-baptism, and the most worthy 
 professor and doctor in law of the Koyal University of Anglers, 
 Francis de Roy, in Berengarius's Life, report to have opposed 
 psedo-baptism. The Albigenses did exactly follow Berengarius ; for 
 Joannes Chassanion, a French divine, in the History of the Albi- 
 genses, reports out of the History of Triers,^ which Dominus Lucas 
 Dachery, a Benedictine monk, a man who daily deserves greatly 
 at the commonwealth of learning, did three years ago insert in the 
 twelfth tome of his Spicilegium. The place cited by Chassanion 
 occurs, p. 243. ' There were at that time in Ivodium, which belongs 
 to the diocese of Triers, heretics who denied that the substance of 
 the bread and wine, which is consecrated by the priests upon the 
 altar, did really change into the body and blood of Christ, and 
 
 ' Lib. De Rtb. Eccles. cl^. 26. ' Ad Aug. De Civ. Dei, lib. i. cap. 27. 
 
 • Page 418, edit. secundaB, as also Matt. xix. 1 4. * Page 494. 
 
 • Page 264. * Lib. i. cap. 6. 
 
394 THE ACTS 01' THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XVUI. 
 
 ihey said that the sacrament of baptism does not profit infants to 
 their salvation.'" Thus far our countryman Colmesius, a man of 
 vast learning. See what is observed above, ch. ii. 41 ; viii. 12 ; 
 and xxxvii. 
 
 9. Then spake the Lord. That is, Jesus Christ, to whom all 
 power is given in heaven and earth. Matt, xxviii. 18. 
 
 In the night by a vision. That is, in a night vision. See above 
 what I have noted upon these words, they shall dream dreams, ch. 
 ii. 17. 
 
 Be not afraid. As much as to say, Let not the fear of being 
 disturbed fright you from preaching the Gospel here. 
 
 10. I am with thee. According to my promise. Matt, xxviii. 20. 
 See what we have noted there. 
 
 And no man, &c. As much as to say, Neither will I suffer thee 
 to be wronged or hurt by any of thine enemies. 
 
 For, &c. As much as to say, I would not have you cease from 
 preaching the gospel in this luxurious city, because there are many 
 in it, besides those already converted, who are yet to be converted 
 by thy preaching and reckoned with my people and my sheep. As 
 Christ calls them here his people, and John x. 16, his sheep from 
 the future, " So," saith Grotius, " those names are given from the 
 time past, as Matt. xxi. 31. This seems to relate to the prophecy 
 of Isaiah, liv. 15." 
 
 11. And he continued there, &c. As much as to say, Paul there- 
 fore being confirmed by this admonition of Christ's, spent a year 
 and six months at Corinth, in preaching the gospel to the Co- 
 rinthians. 
 
 12. And when Gallia was the deputy of Achaia. This Gallio was 
 brother to L. Annseus Seneca the philosopher, Nero's master. 
 When he was younger, he was called M. Annseus Novatus, but after- 
 ward, L. Junius Gallio having adopted him for his son, he took this 
 name with his family. Seneca his brother wrote to this man his 
 book of a blessed life, and he, writing to his mother, saith that he 
 had obtained honours. " Achaia," saith Grotius, " was a procon- 
 sular province under Augustus ; Tiberius adjoined it to Macedonia, 
 and made it a Ceesarean province. But Claudius restored these 
 provinces to the senate, that is, made them again proconsular, as 
 witnesseth Suetonius, in Claudius, chap. xxv. and Dion, book Ix.'' 
 Spanhemius, in his Introduction to his Holy Geography : " Among 
 the provinces," saith he, " of the Macedonian diocese, Achaia hath 
 the first place in the notice of .the empire, being subject to the 
 
VBR, XIV.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 395 
 
 proconsul, while the rest were consular or presidial. Also we must 
 understand this Achaia to be of larger extent than it is in Ptolemy, 
 containing the ancient Greece, to wit, JEtolia, Locrus, Phocis, 
 Boeotia, Attica, and all the bounds in which Peloponnesus ex- 
 tended itself. Corinth was its metropolis, being of old the richest 
 of its cities, the common market town of all Asia and Europe, the 
 entry, and as it were the door of Peloponnesus, situated in the 
 middle of the isthmus. Among the other cities of this Achaia, 
 which were famous fot bishops and churches, and saluted by St. 
 Paul in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians, next to the Co- 
 rinthians that of the Athenians in Attica, for antiquity, splendour 
 of the city, (having been enlarged with privileges by the Pompey's 
 Antonies, Hadrians,) for the foundation of its church by St. Paulj 
 for the conversion of DIonysius, (not to speak of Hierotheus the 
 Areopagite, whom they say was Dionysius's master,) for the epis- 
 copacy of the same Dionysius in Eusebius, and of Publius Quad- 
 ratus, &c., was deservedly among the first.". 
 
 The Jews made insurrection with one accord. To wit, the un- 
 believing, of whom above, ver. 6, being stirred up partly because 
 Paul had withdrawn some from them, of which see above, ver. 8, 
 partly because he joined with the Jews who believed in Christ, 
 the ethnics who believed in him though not circumcised into the 
 same people of God. 
 
 And brought him to the judgment. Of Gallio's deputyship. 
 
 13. Contrary to the law. To wit, of Moses, according to which 
 it is by the Romans allowed to us Jews to live in Greece. 
 
 This fellow. A Jew by birth. 
 
 Persuadeth men to worship God. Without the observation of legal 
 ceremonies, especially circumcision. " Therefore," saith Grotius, 
 "the Jews came to the deputy, because in Achaia they had not 
 such a power of chastising those of their people, as they had in 
 Judea and the neighbouring regions." 
 
 14. And when Paul was now about to open his mouth. That he 
 might answer the accusation drawn up against liim. 
 
 Gallio said unto the Jews. Paul's accusers. 
 
 If it were a matter of wrong. That is, if any of you had been 
 wronged contrary to the civil laws. 
 
 Or wicked lewdness. That is, if a mischief were committed 
 through a wicked design. 
 
 Bear with you. As much as to say, that I should patiently hear 
 your accusation, and judge the controversy. 
 
396 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 15. But if it be a question of words. That is, but if there be 
 any debates among you about dubious expressions. 
 
 And names. If, to wit, that Jesus whom Paul preached Tshould 
 be named Messiah or not. 
 
 And of your law. Supply, rites. 
 
 Look ye to it. That is, I leave it to you, and permit that either 
 ye compose these controversies among yourselves, or that ye dis- 
 pute them with what words ye please. 
 
 For I will be no judge in such matters. As much as to say. For 
 I have no mind to employ myself to take up controversies in your 
 religion. " It belongs not," saith Grotius, " to the Roman magis- 
 strates to meddle with these things, no more than with the debates 
 of the Epicureans and Stoics among themselves." 
 
 16. And he drove them from the judgment-seat. " That is," saith 
 Grotius, "te removed them from the place of judgment, as bring- 
 ing nothing which came within his cognizance. 
 
 Then all the Greeks took. That is, the Gentiles of the people of 
 Achaia, who stood before the judgment-seat, and saw the Jews 
 therefore driven out from thence with contempt, because that with 
 trifling questions of their law they interrupted the deputy, who 
 was taken up with other things. 
 
 Sosthenes the chief ruler of the synagogue. Who was either with 
 Crispus, of whom above, ver. 8, a great while ago, among the chief 
 rulers of the synagogue; of such it is showed above, ch. xiiL 15, 
 that there were many in one Jewish synagogue; or that, Crispus 
 having embraced the faith of Christ, he was substituted in his 
 room, or that he was chief ruler of another synagogue, as Grotius 
 saith, than that whereof Crispus was ruler ; for in great cities there 
 were many synagogues, of which each had their own chief rulers. 
 For the same reason there were of old at Rome, Antioch, and other 
 great cities, except Alexandria, (where, saith Epiphanius, there was 
 always another custom,) many bishops according to the different 
 limits of cities and assemblies of Christians. But the synod of 
 Nice did forbid that, for the future." This Sosthenes seems to 
 have been chief man among Paul's accusers, whom nevertheless 
 some say to have been afterward converted to Christ, and think 
 him to have been that Sosthenes, who with Paul wrote the first 
 Epistle to the Corinthians. See 1 Cor. i. 1. 
 
 Beat him before the judgment-seat. Thinking to gratify the 
 deputy if they should beat a man of great authority among the 
 
VER. XVIII.J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 397 
 
 Jews, who, that they might be gone the speedier, were repr ach- 
 fully driven from the judgment-seat. 
 
 And Gatlio cared for none of tliese things. "The deputies," as 
 famous John Pricaeus observes, " used willingly to look over such 
 petulancies as did not directly impair the majesty of the Roman 
 name, that the yoke might sit the softer upon the subjects; neither 
 were reasons wanting to Gallic beyond the deputies of other pro- 
 vinces ; he, to wit, being governor of Achaia, of that triie, and as 
 Cicero calls it, mere Greece, which affected to lay hold on images 
 and shadows of liberty." 
 
 18. And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while. As much 
 as to say, Paul tarried yet a good while at Corinth after that tumult 
 which was made at Gallio's judgment-seat, gathering and confirm- 
 ing the church of Christ. 
 
 Took his leave of the brethren. That is, he did bid those whom 
 he converted to Christ at Corinth, farewell. 
 
 And sailed thence to Syria. That is, he loosed from the port of 
 Cenchrea, being to sail thence into Syria. Syria of old contained 
 very many provinces, attiong which were Assyria, Comagena, 
 Adiabene, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Palestine, Judea, and others. 
 Hence it is said by Pliny,i to have been of old the greatest part 
 of the earth, and distinguished by many nnmes. Its situation is 
 variously described by geographers, according to the number of 
 the regions they assigned it. The ancients divided it into three 
 Syria's: Phoenicia, Palestine, and Caelesyria. The head of this 
 region of old was Damascus, afterward Antioch, now^ a city which 
 is called Tripolis, famous for the European commerce. Its in- 
 habitants were as well by the Romans as by the Grecians, esteemed 
 a cowardous and vile people, so that they named their slaves 
 Syrians. M. TuUius Cicero saith," that the Syrians worshipped a 
 fish. Hence the fearful Syrians esteem it a crime to set of this 
 kind upon their tables, neither do they pollute their mouth with 
 fish.s 
 
 And with him Priscilla and Aquila, To whom he went in, when 
 he came first to Corinth, and tarrying with them occupied himself 
 in the same trade of tent-making with them. See above ver. 2, 3. 
 
 Having shorn his head. Grotius refers this to Aquila, but others 
 to Paul. 
 
 In Cenchrea. Cenchrea was a town of the Corinthians, having 
 a famous port upon the JEgean sea toward the east, or upon the 
 ' Nat. Hist. lib. v. cap. 12. • De Nat. Deor. lib. iii. ' Fast. lib. ii. ver. 473. 
 
398 THE ACTS OF THM HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XVIII. 
 
 Saronic Gulf, even as the other port Lechea was towards the wes^ 
 upon the Chrissean Gulf; the distance in the midst betwixt these 
 two ports is called Isthmus, and is five miles in length. That there 
 was a church of the Corinthians at Cenchrea, is evident from Eom. 
 xvi. 1. See what we said above, ver. 1. Apuleius, As, Aur. lib. 
 10: "I pass through Cenchrea, in which city a most noble colony 
 of Corinthians do reside, it is washed with the ^gean and Saronic 
 sea, where also the port being a most safe harbour for ships, is fre- 
 quented with many people." 
 
 Far lie had a vow. That is, he put himself under a vow. " This 
 vow," saith Salmasius, "cannot be meant for a religious vow, be- 
 cause the devoted hair was to be laid aside at Jerusalem, and to be 
 put under the sacrifice of the peace-offering. It seems that it was 
 a civil vow, that either Paul or Aquila took, such as the Jews did 
 many times like it. ' I will not shave my hair before I come to 
 that place,' which were the pilgrims' vows. So Paul made a vow 
 to cut his hair when he came to Cenchrea. Of this kind were the 
 vows or curses which they took upon themselves, not to take meat 
 nor drink unless they did such a thing. As they who bound them^ 
 selves under a curse neither to eat nor drink until they had killed 
 Paul, Acts xxiii. 12." Yet there are many who understand this of 
 the holy vow of the Nazarites, by which some bound themselves 
 for a certain time, as others did for ever. For so long as they were 
 t)ound by this vow, it was a heinous crime to shave their hair. See 
 Numb. vi. 5. But whereas there, ver. 18, 19, the Nazarite, having 
 fulfilled this vow, is commanded to shave the hair of his head at the 
 door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and to put it in the 
 fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace-offering, and to offer 
 sacrifice unto God; this, whUe the Jews possessed the land of 
 Canaan, ought to be done at Jerusalem where the tabernacle was 
 seated. "But," saith Grotius, "those precepts with others con- 
 cerning sacrifices, did not oblige them who lived without Jeru- 
 salem." Lastly, others refer this vow not to Paul's shaving of his 
 head, but to his sailing into Syria. " He sailed into Syria," saith 
 the learned Samuel Petit, " that he might keep the feast at Jeru- 
 salem, and it was that which St. Paul vowed; therefore a little 
 after, he told the Ephesians that he behoved by all means to keep 
 the approaching feast at Jerusalem. But why must he do that by 
 all means ? It was not for that law of Moses, that obliged all to 
 celebrate three feasts at Jerusalem. For he tarried almost two 
 years at Corinth, and three whole years at Ephesus, and went not 
 
TER. XIX.J IITBRALLT EXPLAINED. 399 
 
 to Jerusalem to keep the feast. What therefore Pa^ul saith in this 
 place, that he was put to it of necessity to go to Jerusalem to the 
 feast, he was put to it by his vow, not that he was now any more 
 bound by the Mosaical law. But one may ask, why in the history 
 of Paul's going to Jerusalem, are these words inserted, and having 
 shorn his head at Cenchrea, and what was the reason why Paul did 
 shave his head ? We will easily give the reason, God willing ; it 
 is therefore to be noted what was Paul's custom among the com- 
 mon people, to wit, he became a Jew to the Jews, as under the 
 law to these who were under the law, 1 Cor. ix. 20. From this 
 usual custom we doubt not but Paul, so long as he was among the 
 Corinthians, did make much of his hair, for among the Greeks this 
 was a sign of a free-born man, as appears by the verse of Aristo* 
 phanes which went into a proverb : 
 
 " Besides, indeed, thou being a servant hath hair. 
 Forasmuch as it belongeth to free persons to let grow their hair," 
 
 as the ancient masters observe ; but that the Jews had a contrary 
 custom, not to cherish their hair, but to shave it to the quick, 
 appears from the Nazarites, who for the religion of their vow, 
 abstained thirty days from shaving their hair, therefore they who 
 were liable by no religion of a vow to cherish their hair, they 
 cherished it not, but were shaved again and again, or perhaps 
 oftener, every month. Seeing therefore Paul, who let his hair 
 grow according to the custom of the Corinthians, was going from 
 Corinth to Jerusalem, before he would loose from the port, laid by 
 his hair, and shaved his head to the quick, after the manner of the 
 Jews. For he doubted not to have to do with them at Jerusalem, 
 tlierefore he who resembled the Corinthians, so long as he was at 
 Corinth, would also resemble the Jews, coming to Jerusalem their 
 metropolis." 
 
 19. And he came to Ephesus. To wit, Paul with Aquila and 
 Priscilla being gone from Corinth came to Ephesus, the metropolis 
 of the province which is most strictly called Asia. See what we 
 said above, ch. ii. 9. 
 
 And left them. To wit, Aquila and Priscilla, his companions in 
 his journey. 
 
 There. At Ephesus, to wit, when he went from thence to 
 Cesarea, below, ver. 21, 22. 
 
 But he himself. Paul, thinking it an occasion offered to him, to 
 turn men to Jesus Christ. 
 
400 THE ACTS or THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 And reasoned with the Jews. As his custom was, concerning the 
 truth of the Christian religion. 
 
 20. Wlien they desired him. The Jews at Ephesus, who were 
 not displeased at his reasoning. 
 
 To tarry longer time. Supply "with them " out of the Greek text, 
 that might confer with them longer about religion. 
 
 He consented not. To do then, what they desired, for the reason 
 which he presently brings. 
 
 21. But hade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this 
 feast that cometh in Jerusalem. An instance not unlike this is cut 
 off with the like answer, Luke iv. 42, 43. But he saith that he 
 behoved to celebrate the feast that was then coming at Jerusalem, 
 either for his vow, as we said above, ver. 18, as was the judgment 
 of most famous Samuel Petit, or because he had so purposed, 
 having weighty reasons especially spiritual ones, that in such a 
 confluence of Jews he might advance the gospel of Christ. 
 
 / ivill return again unto you. Having ended my proposed journey, 
 which promise Paul fulfilled, below, ch. xix. 1, 
 
 If God will. Such a caution St. Paul hath used also elsewhere, 
 not as it were in a proverbial way of speaking, but in piety, as may 
 be seen, Rom. i. 10, 15, 32; 1 Cor. iv. 19, xvi. 7; Heb. vi. 3; and 
 James puts us excellently in mind that this caution is to be used, 
 James iv. 15. 
 
 And he sailed from JEphesus. Towards Syria. See above, ver. 18. 
 
 22. And when he had landed at Casarea. That is, when he 
 came to that Caesarea, which is situated upon the Mediterranean 
 sea, (of which above, ch. viii. 40,) that he might from thence go 
 to Jerusalem. 
 
 And gone up. Supply "to Jerusalem," otherwise it does not appear 
 from what follows, when he performed that journey to Jer.usalem, 
 to that approaching feast. That verb, to go up, is frequently used 
 of Judea, and especially of its metropolis Jerusalem, which in 
 respect of the maritime places are seated higher, and also of the 
 temple, as Matt. xx. 17; Luke ii. 4; xvii. 10, 31; xix. 28; John 
 ii. 13; V. 1 ; vii. 8, 10; xi. 55; above, ch. xi. 2; below, ch. xxi. 15,; 
 xxiv. 11, and elsewhere. 
 
 And saluted the church. To wit, that principal church of Jeru- 
 salem, that is, Christ's disciples who lived at Jerusalem. 
 
 He went down to Antioch. Of Syria. It is not probable that 
 Paul, having departed from Caesarea, should pass Jerusalem, which 
 was nearer to Caesarea, to go to Antioch of Syria. 
 
VEIL XXIV. J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 401 
 
 23. And after he had spent some time there. That is, when he had 
 tarried some time at Antioch. 
 
 He departed. From Antioch to visit other churches. 
 
 And went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia, in order. 
 In which he had been already ; above, ch. xvi. 6. 
 
 Strengthening all the disciples. That is, confirming the Christians 
 who lived in those places in the true faith, and in godliness, by his 
 admonitions. Paul was so received by the Galatians, as if he had 
 been an angel of God, or Christ himself: as he witnesseth. Gal. 
 iv. 14. And among other things he appointed that the collection 
 for the poor should be laid by every Lord's day, 1 Cor, xvi. 2. 
 
 24. Apolhs. This name hath an Attic termination, and is the 
 same with Apella, (which is a Jewish name in Horatius,) and 
 Apelles, Rom. xvi. 10, as the learned Grotius hath observed. 
 
 Born at Alexandria. That is, at Alexandria in Egypt. This 
 city was built by Alexander the Great, from whom it hath its 
 name, and that there should nothing be wanting to its glory, they 
 relate that its place was shewed to Alexander in a dream. For it 
 was the ancient custom of the ethnics to refer the original of their 
 cities and country to the gods, that they might be the more noble 
 and happy, which things though they were very like poetical fables, 
 yet they were esteemed as true, such was both the foolishness of 
 the common people, and the craftiness of men. There were divers 
 names given to the same place; for it was not only called the 
 Egyptian Alexandria, but also Libyssa, Ehacotis, Pharus, Leon- 
 topolis, because that the womb of Olympias the mother of Alex- 
 ander, for Alexander's own glory, was feigned to have been marked 
 with the image of a lion. The Romans called it Augusta, Julia, 
 Claudia, Domitiana, after the names of these emperors. It was 
 called by the Greeks 'AXc^riTij/om, that is, preservative against evil, 
 and healing. The air is so temperate in that place, that the sun 
 is every day seen there. It was also by excellency called "the city," 
 that so by fame it might be equal to Athens and Rome, which by an 
 antonomasia were known by this name. Troy also is by Homer 
 called The City without any epithet. Hence Alexander, admirer 
 of Homer, called thus Alexandria, as Eustathius saith. It was the 
 royal seat and metropolis of Egypt. It had the temple of Serapis, 
 which was the most famous in the ethnic world, except the capito- 
 lium at Rome. Strabo saith,* it was of old the greatest fair town 
 in the whole world, at whose port Ptolemy (some ascribe it to 
 
 ' Lib. xvii, 
 D D 
 
402 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XVIII. 
 
 Cleopatra) built a high tower, which was called Pharos, from an 
 island of that name near Alexandria : being in the night useful for 
 ships by its lights, whence such towers were afterwards called by 
 that name. See above our annotations upon ch. vi. 9. 
 
 An eloquent man. Constantine's Lexicon, renders the Greek 
 word \6yioc, "eloquent, prudent, learned, full of words." Hesychius 
 turns it, " skilful in history, learned." Skilfulness in history begets 
 prudence ; and so the Ethiopic renders it here out of the Greek, " a 
 prudent or a wise man," as famous Lud. de Dieu, has observed. 
 
 Mighty in the scriptures. That is, very much versed in the pro- 
 phetical scriptures of the Old Testament. 
 
 25. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord. That is, 
 somewhat instructed in the Christian religion. Instruction of any 
 doctrine is wont to be called, the toay, as may be seen abovej ch. 
 ix. 2, xiii. 10. "Because," saith Wozogenius, "by it we go any 
 whither in a spiritual manner." 
 
 Fervent in the spirit. That is, burning with zeal and desire of 
 advancing God's glory. 
 
 He spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord. To wit, 
 according to the measure of knowledge with which he was indued. 
 
 Knowing only the baptism of John. That is, knowing no more of 
 Christ, except so much as might be understood by the doctrine, 
 which John the Baptist, Christ's forerunner, preached, and sealed 
 with the symbol of baptism. 
 
 26. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. That is, 
 more freely to utter all he knew of Christ, in the holy assembly of 
 the Jews at Ephesus, than he used to do formerly in public 
 assemblies. 
 
 Whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard. Discoursing of Christ. 
 
 They took him unto them. To lodge with them. 
 
 And expounded unto him the way of the Lord more perfectly. 
 That is, they taught this great man more exactly the will of God, 
 revealed unto man by Christ. 
 
 27. And when he was disposed. ApoUos being accurately and 
 exquisitely instructed in the Christian religion, by Aquila a trades- 
 man and his wife Priscilla, both lay persons bearing no office in 
 the church. 
 
 To pass into Achaia. That is, to pass from Ephesus, to that 
 region of Greece, whose metropolis was Corinth. 
 
 The brethren. That is, the Christians of Ephesus, having ex- 
 horted ApoUos to perform quickly his generous purpose. 
 
VEIL XXVIII.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 403 
 
 The disciples. That is, the CBristians living in Achaia. 
 
 To receive him. That is, that they might entertain him kindly, 
 hospitably, and brotherly. 
 
 Who. ApoUos. 
 
 When he was come. Into Achaia. 
 
 Helped them much. That is, was very helpful to them of the 
 Achaians and Corinthians, who were by Paul's means converted 
 to believe in Jesus Christ, above, ver. 4, 7, 8, 11 ; whom being 
 planted by Paul, Apollos watered, as Paul wrote, 1 Cor. iii. 6 : 
 that is, they being by Paul instructed and informed, were con- 
 firmed and advanced more in the faith by Apollos. " And that 
 seems also to be declared," saith Wolzogenius, " that when those 
 Christian Corinthians did with great pains contest with the obsti- 
 nate Jews, Apollos helped them greatly in confuting them." 
 
 Who had believed through grace. The Syrian interpreter refers 
 the word, through grace, to the verb helped, that the sense may be 
 that those Achaian Christians, were not a little helped by Apollos, 
 through the great gifts which God had bestowed upon him, which 
 are above mentioned, ver. 24, 25, and that God, by his favour and 
 blessing, gave success to his labours. It may also be put with the 
 verb believed, that the meaning may be, that those Achaians were 
 indued with faith by the free favour of God. 
 
 28. Mightily, &c. As much as to say. He with strong argu- 
 ments confuted and convinced the errors of the Jews, demon- 
 strating not by any uncertain tradition, but by the most firm 
 oracles and testimonies of the scriptures of the Old Testament, 
 that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah promised of old by God, 
 who should save his people from their sins. " From such things," 
 saith Wolzogenius, " as are here written of this Apollos, that he 
 was an eloquent man, and fervent in spirit, and mighty in the 
 scriptures of the old covenant, and that he valiantly confuted the 
 Jews ; it seems a conjecture may be taken, that he is the author 
 of the Epistle to the Hebrews, being written so eloquently and 
 clearly, beyond the rest of the writings of the New Testament, 
 and with fervour of spirit, also frequent allegation and accommo- 
 dation of the holy scriptures of the Old Testament, that those 
 Hebrews or Jews, who wavered in the Christian religion, might 
 be strongly confirmed." 
 
 D D 2 
 
404 THE ACTS OF THE HOLT APOSTLES [CHAP. XIX. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 1. While Apollos was at Corinth. Watering Christianity there, 
 which was planted by Paul, and diligently promoting the work of 
 the Lord. 
 
 Having passed through the upper coasts. That is, Galatia and 
 Phrygia, Mediterranean countries of the Lesser Asia, and more 
 northerly situated. 
 
 Came to Ephesus. From whence he departed and promised he 
 should return again ; above, ch. xviii. 19, 21, 23. 
 
 And finding certain disciples. That is, Jews believing in Christ, 
 who came from other countries to Ephesus. 
 
 2. Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed ? As much as 
 to say. Whether or no, since ye embraced the faith of Christ, were 
 these great gifts of the Holy Ghost poured out upon you, which 
 according to Joel's prophecy, did everywhere begin to be much 
 used, and set by in the church of Christ ? 
 
 We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. 
 That is, we have not so much as heard it reported, that those gifts 
 of the Holy Ghost, which Joel foretold should in great measure be 
 poured out upon believers, have already everywhere been poured. 
 The like saying is John vii. 39: for the Holy Glwst was not yet given, 
 because that Jesus was not yet glorified. That is, those illustrious 
 gifts of the Spirit, with which the beginning of the church was to 
 be by the Messiah indued, were not as yet fallen from heaven 
 upon any. See what we have said above, ch. viii. 16. 
 
 3. Unto what then were ye baptized? As much as to say, 
 With what doctrine were ye instructed, when ye were initiated by 
 baptism ? " It was not doubted," saith Wolzogenius, " but they 
 were baptized in water who were called disciples, but Paul asked 
 in the profession of what doctrine?" 
 
 Unto John's baptism. That is, unto the profession of that doc- 
 trine, which John preached and signed by baptism, " The answer 
 is most pertinent," saith Beza, " by which they meant that they in 
 baptism, professed the doctrine proposed by John, and ratified by 
 baptism administered to them ; hence they acknowledged Christ, 
 but very slenderly, neither having heard Christ himself nor his 
 apostles, as is also said of Apollos a little before : so that it is no 
 wonder that they (who as appears by their own answer, that 
 having only heard John, they were baptized and returned to their 
 
TEE.. IV.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 405 
 
 own country) should be ignoirant of this Holy Ghost, which was 
 not sent out into the church but since that day of Pentecost." 
 
 4. John verily. Famous Solomon Glassius : ' " These adversative 
 conjunctions, filv, ' verily,' ' indeed,' * truly,' and Se, ' but,' do in 
 speech mutually follow one another, and necessarily one another as 
 mutual correlatives, Matt. iii. 11, / indeed baptize with water unto 
 repentance; hut he that cometh after me, &c. ; ch. ix. 37, The 
 harvest truly is plenteous, hut the labourers are few. And thus the 
 scripture speaketh in many other places. See the Concordances 
 of the New Testament. Hence it appears that Acts xix. 4, 5, 
 the words are connected tc^ether, and hold out one continued 
 discourse of Paul's, connected by these particles filv and gj. 
 Then said Paul, John, filv, ' verily,' baptized with the baptism of 
 repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe 
 on him, who should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus; 
 'Akouctovtec Se, but those that heard this (John's report of Christ) 
 they were baptized (by John) in the name of the Lord Jesus. 
 The fifth verse then expresseth not Paul's act or any rebaptizing, 
 but it follows in the sixth verse concerning Paul's act, that he 
 laid his hands on those disciples, &c., compare ch. viii. 14 — 17. 
 Bellarmine calls this explanation, however, witty: yet nowise pious 
 nor probable. But why is it neither pious nor probable ? John's 
 baptism is mentioned in ver. 4, therefore it were superfluous to 
 repeat it, ver. 5. This is the strength of the argument, but it is 
 no superfluous repetition. For he first sets forth John's entire 
 ministry in general, which consists in the baptism of repentance, 
 which phrase includes both the administration of the sacrament 
 itself, and the preaching of repentance. Compare Mark i. 4. 
 Afterward he more particularly expresseth the order of his 
 ministry, that first he inculcated faith in Christ, and then his 
 auditors being informed of Christ, he baptized them in the name 
 of Jesus." 
 
 Baptized with the baptism of repentance. That \%, when he stirred 
 up the people to repentance; to them who confessed their sins and 
 sincere conversion and amendment of life, he was the first that 
 administered baptism, which is the symbol of repentance. See 
 Matt. iii. 2, 5, 6, et seq. 
 
 Saying, &c. As much as to say, When he admonished them to em- 
 brace by faith Jesus, who soon after him was happily to enter upon 
 ^ Gram. Sacr. Tract. 7, can. 14. 
 
406 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAF. XVIII. 
 
 his office of preaching the Gospel, as the Messiah, or Christ, 
 promised in the law and in the prophets. 
 
 5. When they heard. The Greek hath it, "But they who heard," 
 that is, they who helieved the doctrine which John preached. 
 
 They were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. That is, them 
 John initiating by baptism did dedicate unto Christ. Among 
 others, famous Drusius observed,' that this verse is taken, as if 
 they were Luke's words, which they are not. " The apostle Paul," 
 saith he, " speaks of John's baptism, which he proves to be the 
 same with Christ's baptism, partly by his doings, partly by his say- 
 ings, as being one that preached Christ to come, and baptized such 
 as believed in him : and this is it which be saith, they were baptized 
 in the name of Jesus: such as, to wit, while John preached, 
 embraced the faith of Christ, of which number those disciples 
 were ; but because those believers had not as yet received the gifts 
 of the Holy Ghost, therefore the apostle asks them, by whose 
 baptism they were initiated, and when he knew the matter, laid his 
 hands upon them, and immediately the Spirit coming down upon 
 them they began to speak with tongues and to prophecy, even as 
 Luke mentions in the context of this history." Moreover that 
 John used to baptize in the name of Jesus Christ, that most ancient 
 writer, Gregory, Bishop of Neocoesarea in Pontus, surnamed Thau- 
 maturgus, who flourished in the year of our Lord the two hundred 
 thirtieth and third, doth witness. He expounding these words of 
 John to the Lord Jesus :" 'I have need to be baptized of thee, and contest 
 thou to me ?' he brings in John speaking thus. Matt. iii. 14 : While 
 I baptize others, I baptize them in thy name, that they may believe 
 in thee coming with glory, but when I baptize thee whom shall I 
 mention ? In whose name shall I baptize thee ? Shall I in the name 
 of the Father ? but thou hast the whole Father in thyself, and thou 
 art wholly in the Father ? Shall I in the name of the Son ? but 
 there is no other Son of God by nature besides thee. Shall I in 
 the name of the Holy Ghost ? but he is always together with thee, 
 as con-substantial to thee, and of the same will and judgment, and 
 of equal power and alike honour, and with thee he receives worship 
 from all men." 
 
 6. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them. As both 
 approving the doctrine preached by John, which they received by 
 faith, and also the baptism conferred upon them, upon their con- 
 fessingfthat doctrine. 
 
 ^ QusDst. Ebraic. lib. i. q. 8, 3. ' In Serm. in S. Theophania. 
 
VER. VIII.] Ln'EBALLY EXPLAINED. 407 
 
 The Holy Ghost came on them. That is, the illustrious gifts of 
 the Holy Ghost came down from heaven upon them. " Laying on 
 of hands," saith famous Heidegger in his Historioo-Theological 
 Anatomy of the council of Trent, upon the canons of the seventh 
 session about that one question concerning confirmation, " was 
 freely used by the apostles, that the baptized might receive the 
 extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost, and that thereby the gospel 
 might be confirmed, Heb. ii. 3, 4, until it were so fortified and 
 confirmed in the public knowledge of all, that none but an obstinate 
 and impudent man could call its divinity in question. But it 
 sufiSceth us that by faith we have received the spirit of sonship. 
 Gal. iii. 14 ; iv. 6." See what we have noted concerning the laying 
 of hands above, chap. viii. 17. 
 
 And they spake with tongues. To wit, strange tongues, which 
 they did not learn, as the apostles above, ch. ii. 4, And Cornelius 
 and his fellows, ch. x. 44, 46. 
 
 A nd prophesied. Declaring at length, and with praises celebrating, 
 the great and wonderful works of the Lord, as above, ch. ii. 11 ; 
 X. 46, and perhaps foretelling things to come, which is the moat 
 proper signification of prophecy. See Luke i. 67. 
 
 7. And all the men, &c. Who were before baptized by John, 
 were at that time by the laying on of Paul's hands at Ephesus, 
 gifted with those extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost, which are 
 frequently called Holy Ghost. 
 
 8. Andhe went into the synagogue. As much as to say, but Paul 
 himself, that he might gain the Jews, who lived at Ephesus, to 
 Christ, went into their synagogue. 
 
 And spake boldly for the space of three months. That is, he 
 published the doctrine of the gospel to the Jews without fear 
 openly, and without turning and winding about for the space of 
 three months. 
 
 Disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of 
 God. That is, by solid reasons proving that this eminent and 
 happy kingdom is now raised up by Jesus, which God had appoint- 
 ed that the Messiah should erect, of which Isaiah Iii. 7 ; Dan. ii. 44 ; 
 vii. 27 ; even as is said above, ch. iii. 21, all the prophets prophesied. 
 By the kingdom of God, " we know," saith Calvin here, " is often 
 meant that restoring which was promised to our fathers, and which 
 was to be fulfilled by the coming of Christ. For seeing that with- 
 out Christ, there is a deformed and confused scattering of all things, 
 the prophets did attribute this not in vain to the Messiah, who was 
 
408 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XVIII. 
 
 to come, that it should come to pass that he should establish the 
 kingdom of God in the world. And now because this kingdom 
 doth reduce us from our backsliding to the obedience of God, and 
 of enemies maketh us sons, it consisteth first in the free forgiveness 
 of sins, whereby God doth reconcile us to himself, and adopteth us 
 to be his people ; then, in newness of life, whereby he conformeth 
 us to his own image." 
 
 9. But when divers were hardened. Of the Jews, to wit, being 
 by a wilful obstinacy, disobedient to the voice of the Lord inviting 
 them to repentance. 
 
 And believed not. That is, contumaciously despised the gospel 
 preached to them by Paul. 
 
 Speaking evil of that way. That is, with railing words inveighing' 
 against the will of God revealed to men by Christ. See above, 
 ch. xviii. 25, 26. Thus also above, ch, xiii. 45, the obstinate 
 Jews did with blasphemies against Christ and the Christian religion, 
 oppose and resist the truth preached by Paul. 
 
 Before the multitude. That they might discourage and withdraw 
 such as were persuaded of the truth of the Christian religion from 
 professing it. 
 
 He departed from them. Who with inflexible obstinacy did cry 
 out against, and rail at the truth of the gospel. 
 
 And separated the disciples. That is, he separated the Christians, 
 who as yet were intermixed with those reproaching railers, and 
 assembled in the same synagogue with the Jews who obstinately 
 resisted tbe gospel. 
 
 And disputing daily. As much as to say, And in presence of 
 this company of Christians, separated from the refractory Jews, 
 Paul not only upon the sabbath days or every seventh, but every 
 day, without any intermission, declared the things relating to faith 
 in Christ Jesus and true godliness. 
 
 In the school of one Tyrannus. That is, in the school of a certain 
 sophister, whom they called Tyrannus. "Perhaps," saith Pricaeus, 
 " because that by the force of his eloquence, he thrusted down and 
 lifted up his hearers." Some Greek copies add, " from five o'clock 
 till ten." 
 
 10. And this continued. As much as to say, And Paul continued 
 his daily exposition of the Christian religion, in Tyrannus's 
 school. 
 
 Which dwelt in Asia. To wit, more strictly so called, whose chief 
 metropolis was Ephesus, as we have noted above, upon ch. ii. 9. 
 
VEE. XIII.J LITEllALLTt EXPLAINED. 409 
 
 The word of the Lord Jesus. That is, the gospel of Christ 
 preached by Paul. 
 
 Both Jews and Greeks. That is, as well they which being 
 descended of the Hebrew patriarchs, were reckoned among the 
 people of God, as the profane nations, who before this were aliens 
 from the people of God. 
 
 11. Miracles, &c. As much as to say, And that the truth of 
 the gospel preached by Paul might become the more famous, God 
 frequently confirmed it by miracles wrought by the same Paul. 
 
 12. From his body were brought. To wit, Paul's. 
 The sick. That is, weakened by sickness. 
 
 Handkerchiefs. Which are appointed to wipe off the snot, the 
 sweat, and the tears. 
 
 Or aprons. An apron is a cloth that covers one's belly; or, as 
 Augustine calls it, "a girding garment, wherewith handicraftsmen, 
 of whose number Paul was, as is to be seen above, ch. xviii. 3, 
 used to cover the fore part of their clothes." Women also are wont 
 to use this apron, and our countrymen in France call it " tablier " 
 and "devantier;" but the Picards call it "demiceint." 
 
 And the diseases departed from them. Upon what sick people, to 
 wit, Paul being absent, his handkerchiefs or aprons were put, that 
 such as had never seen him, might nevertheless, in liis absence, 
 reverently embrace his doctrine. Calvin saith excellently, " The 
 papists are blockish who wrest this place unto their relics, as if 
 Paul sent his handkerchiefs that men might worship them, and 
 kiss them in honour of him ; as in pope^ they worship Francis's 
 shoes and breeches, Eose's girdle, St. Margaret's comb, and such 
 like trifles. Yea, rather he did choose most simple things, lest any 
 superstition might arise by reason of the price or pomp; for he 
 resolved entirely and fully to give all the glory to Christ." 
 
 And the evil spirits went out of them. Out of their bodies, which 
 by God's permission they possessed. 
 
 13. Took upon them, &c. That it may the more certainly appear 
 that by those miraples just now mentioned, Paul's apostleship 
 was confirmed from heaven, Luke teacheth now that when some 
 did rashly take upon them to do the same things, they were griev- 
 ously punished for such rashness. 
 
 Of the vagabond Jews. Who did run about to and fro, and did 
 creep into all public places, being to show some great thing to the 
 people, as jugglers or mountebanks used to do. 
 
 Exorcists. The gloss in the Latin manuscript, exorcist, " adjur- 
 
410 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XIX. 
 
 ing." Hence in ecclesiastical writers to exorcise, is to expel 
 diabolical force, adjuring it by divine things. Flavins Josephus ' 
 tells, that such adjurations were composed by Solomon, and that 
 he in the presence of Vespasian found the copies of these adjura- 
 tions, which had been used by one Eleazar. See what we have 
 noted upon Matt. xii. 27. 
 
 We adjure you hy Jesus whom Paul preacheth. That, to wit, 
 reverencing his divine person, ye remove far hence. 
 
 14. And there were. These juggling exorcists or adjurers. 
 Seven sons. The Greek hath "certain seven sons." So Apuleius 
 
 says, " certain seven witnesses." 
 
 Of Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests. That is, who was chief 
 of one of the twenty-four sacerdotal families, in which Aaron's 
 posterity were distributed by David. See our literal explanation 
 upon Matt. ii. 4. For neither is Sceva mentioned in the catalogue 
 of the high priests, nor is it probable that so many sons of one 
 high priest should have lived so far from Jerusalem. 
 
 Which did so. That is, used such adjurations by Jesus whom 
 Paul preached. 
 
 15. And the evil spirit answered. By the mouth of that man 
 whom he possessed. 
 
 And said. Unto Seeva's seven sons, God compelling him. 
 
 Jesus I know. To have the virtue to cast out devils. 
 
 And Paul I know. To be the great apostle of Jesus Christ, at 
 whose prayers, that power and virtue which is proper to Christ 
 alone, useth frequently* to put forth itself above the order of 
 nature. 
 
 But who are ye ? That, to wit, ye dare adjure devils, by Jesus 
 the Son of the living God, as if ye were endowed with an aposto- 
 lical right to expel devils. 
 
 16. And prevailed against them. That is, powerfully put forth 
 his strength, violently assaulting, tearing, and beating them with 
 strokes. 
 
 So that they fled out of the house. In which either for praise or 
 gain they endeavoured to drive away and expel the devil. Other- 
 wise the Lord Jesus would not have him forbidden, who, Mark ix. 
 38, 39, did in tis name cast out devils, because he did it for no 
 evil intent, although he was not so addicted to Christ as to be his 
 disciple. 
 
 Naked. That is, deprived of their clothes. 
 
 ' Ant. viii. 2. 
 
VEU. XTIII.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 411 
 
 Atid wounded. That is, and wounded in their body. 
 
 17. To all the Jews and Greeks. See above, ver. 10. 
 
 Fear fell on them, &e. As much as to say, All of them were 
 taken with auch reverence to Christ, that they celebrated hia 
 power over unclean spirits with illustrious praise. 
 
 18. And many that believed. That is, that by Paul's ministry 
 were persuaded of the truth of the Christian religion. 
 
 Came. To Paul and fais companions. 
 
 Confessed and showed their deeds. There are some who interpret 
 the Greek word here rendered deeds,^ not of their sins, but of 
 the miracles wrought by believers ; but let it be a confession of 
 sins, yet that it was made before, not after baptism, and therefore 
 doth nowise countenance the sacramental and auricular confession 
 of the papists. Petrus Lintrensis and Lorinus the Jesuit do confess, 
 and prove by evident arguments, such as these are, that the series 
 of the narration from the eleventh to the twentieth verse, doth 
 evince this : That in the like manner those that were baptized of 
 John, confessed their sins before they were baptized, (Matt. iii. 6,) 
 that the doctors of the ancient church, namely, Basil, Eusebius, 
 Augustine, Bede, and Arator, expound this text of persons not 
 baptized; that none lof the ancient divines, nay, not the Council of 
 Trent itself, did use this place to prove the sacramental confession; 
 that also Cajetan, Michael a Palatio, and Andreas Vega think so; 
 lastly, that it is not probable that those newly converted Christians 
 did, so soon after baptism, Paul with his companions being as yet 
 present and daily preaching, return to their old sins, and among 
 them to their magical arts, and to have gotten magical books, and 
 read them, " Grant that confession to have been after baptism,'' 
 saith most famous Heidegger," " yet Cajetan will answer for us, 
 'that here are described some confessing their sins in general, or 
 publicly, and that it was not a sacramental confession, but a pro- 
 fession of repentance for their former life.' That if they did also 
 confess some special sins, yet they did not either mumble them 
 over in the ear of any priest as judge, nor confess all their sins 
 with their circumstances, but those grosser ones or curious arts, 
 which are mentioned in the following nineteenth verse." See what 
 we have noted upon Matt. iii. 6, about auricular confession. 
 
 19. Many also of them wMch used curious arts. That is, who 
 applied their mind to the study of magic. So in Augustine, curious 
 
 ' So Chrya Horn, 41, upon the Acts. ' Upon the Council of Trent, Sess. 14, 9, 7. 
 
412 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XIX. 
 
 visions seem to be put for magical visions. ' That the Ephe- 
 sians were given to these" damnable studies, the ancient naming 
 "The Ephesian Letters" doth show, by which certain characters 
 and small magical words were signified, whereby the magicians 
 used to free those from the power of demons, who were vexed with 
 them. Plutarch, in Alexandre, makes mention of the magicians 
 which were at Ephesus. And about the beginning of Nero's 
 empire, as Philostratus witnesseth in his life, AppoUonius Tyanasus, 
 a famous magician, set up a public school of magic art at Ephesus. 
 
 Brought their books together. In which, to wit, their curious 
 things, or magical subtleties, were written. 
 
 And hurned them before them all. Freely, that they might 
 leave it witnessed in men's mind, that now being converted to 
 Christ they willingly and heartily hated those magical curiosities. 
 But it does not follow hence, as some think, that the books which 
 are accounted heretical, are to be forcibly taken from their posses- 
 sors, and with public censure burned. For, first, it is harder to 
 judge of heresy and errors respecting heads of faith than of magic, 
 which is plainly diabolical, and many a one's judgment is con- 
 demned for erroneous and false, because of divers preconceived 
 contrary opinions, which are evidently disproved as false and 
 erroneous. Further, there is a vast difference, in that the Ephe- 
 sians of their own accord and without any violence burned 
 those books, which they themselves acknowledged unworthy of 
 light or reading, and that books, against the owner's will, with- 
 out being convicted of their impiety, should by violence be 
 forced from them, and cast into the fire. This they used to 
 do who cannot find out good reasons to confute the arguments of 
 such books. 
 
 And they counted the price of them. Of the books, to wit, which 
 the Ephesians who were sincerely converted to Christ, did con- 
 sume with fire. 
 
 And found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. The Greek hath 
 word for word, " They found it fifty thousand myriads of silver or 
 money." Silver is used by the Greek interpreters as in Hebrew, 
 t)03, for any money, because as Isidore saith, their money was first 
 coined of silver. So in the common French tongue, argent signi- 
 fieth any money, as argentum in Plautus is frequently put for any 
 money ; while in other authors of the Latin tongue, cbs is commonly 
 taken for any money. Therefore, ap-yupiov, "silver," when Jewish 
 
 > Confess, x. 42. 
 
VER. XXI.j UTJ2RALLY EXPLAINED. 413 
 
 money is spoken of, as Matt, xxvil. 15, after the JewlsTi custom, 
 denotes a shekel of silver, which was every way equal to the Athe- 
 man stater, and valued at two shillings and sixpence of the now Eng- 
 lish money. Hence Eusebius ' transcribed that Tpiaxovra tTTarfipa^, 
 which Matthew called rpiaxovTa apyvpia, which are three pounds fif- 
 teen shillings sterling. But here apyvpiov signifieth the Greek coin, 
 and is of the value of an Attic drachma, which was the fourth part 
 of a Jewish shekel, and of the same value with the Roman penny, 
 and with sevenpence farthing of our English money. " For the 
 Greeks," saith learned Brerewood, " numbered the sums of money 
 by drachmas, as the Jews did by shekels, and the Romans by 
 sestertios ; but Ephesus, whose those pieces of money were, was a 
 Greek city, a colony of the Athenians, as Strabo and Pausanius 
 write." Eifty thousand Attic drachmas are equivalent to one 
 thousand five hundred and sixty-two pounds ten shillings, English 
 money. 
 
 20. So mightly grew the word of God and prevailed. That is, 
 the gospel of Jesus Christ did daily get itself new disciples, who 
 profited more and more in the obedience thereof. See above, ch. 
 vi. 7 ; xii. 24. 
 
 21. After these things were ended. As much as to say, when the 
 Christian faith had taken deeper root at Ephesus. 
 
 Paul purposed in the spirit. That is, Paul gave his mind to it. 
 The spirit is put for the mind, as John xiii. 21 ; Rom. i. 9 ; 1 Cor. 
 ii. 11 ; V. 5 ; vi. 20; vii. 34; Ephes. iv. 23; Phil. iii. 3; Col. ii. 5. 
 Yet it is not to be doubted, but Paul did take upon him this reso- 
 Itition, by the instinct of the Holy Ghost, as himself witnesseth in 
 the like matter, below, ch. xx. 22, and as at length the thing itself 
 doth show, ch. xx. 1. 
 
 When he had passed through Macedonia. Wherein he planted 
 Christianity in Philippi, Thessalonica, and Beraea; he would there- 
 fore return to see the Christian inhabitants there. Above, chap. 
 xvL, xvii. 
 
 Jnd Achaia. A region of Peloponnesus, whose metropolis 
 was Corinth, where also Paul taught the gospel long enough. 
 Achaia here is by some taken for the whole of Greece ; the an- 
 cient Romans called all Grecians by the name of Achsei and Achivi. 
 Also the proconsul of Achaia governed both Peloponnesus and 
 Greece. 
 
 To go to Jerusalem. To visit the chief church, and to carry the 
 ' Demonst. Evang. lib. iv. 
 
414 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XIX. 
 
 alms collected in th6 Grecian, Macedonian, and Achaian churches. 
 See Kom. xv. 25, 26. 
 
 Saying. By the impulse of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 After I have been there. To wit, at Jerusalem. 
 
 I must also see Rome. That is, go to Rome, that also in this 
 metropolis Of the world I may gain some to Christ. See Kom. i. 
 10, 11, 13; XV. 15, 23. 
 
 22. So he sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto 
 him. As much as to say, Having sent two of his helpers in 
 preaching the gospel into Macedonia, whither he himself was 
 to go. 
 
 Timotheus. Of whom before, ch. xvi. 1 ; xvli. 14, 15 ; xviii. 5. 
 None liker Paul for holding, adorning, professing, teaching, and 
 defending the Christian faith, than Timothy; hence the apostle 
 calls him his beloved son, or as the Greek text hath it, " his own 
 son in the faith," 1 Tim. i. 2, " Because," saith Chrysostom, " of 
 his exact likeness to him in the faith," whence love ariseth. For 
 otherwise Paul had not made, but found Timothy a believer, as is 
 clear from 2 Tim. i. 5. 
 
 And Erastus. It seems to be he of whom mention is made, 
 Eom. xvi. 23 ; 2 Tim. iv. 20. 
 
 But he himself stayed in Asia for a season. To wit, at Ephesus, 
 as appears from what follows, which was the chief metropolis of 
 Asia, more strictly so called. 
 
 23. The same time. To wit, when Paul stayed at Ephesus. 
 No small stir. That is, a great uproar. 
 
 About the way. That is. Because of that doctrine of Christ, 
 which Paul preached. See above, ver. 9. So by occasion of good 
 doctrine, evil men stir up evil tumults by which that doctrine is 
 opposed. 
 
 24. A silversmith. Who works in cutting, engraving, and mould- 
 ing of silver ; such workmen, from the excellency of the matter in 
 which they work, we call goldsmiths. 
 
 Which made silver shrines for Diana. That is, little houses 
 of silver, wherein Diana's little images, which were commonly 
 bought by them who -visited Diana of the Ephesians, were laid 
 up. "And, perhaps," saith Casaubon, "these little houses re- 
 sembled the cunning work of the temple of Ephesus." The 
 caskets, or little boxes in which the images of the gods or goddesses 
 were kept, were called mdiculm, " shrinfis." Petronius : " More- 
 over, I saw a big cage in a corner, in whose shrines were silver 
 
VEE. XXI V.J LITEEAI,LY EXPLAINED. 415 
 
 household-gods." Apuleius:' "I beheld at the middle pillar, 
 which upheld the beams of the etablcj almost in the very midstj 
 the image of the goddess Hippona, dwelling in a shrine." Pliny, 
 speaking of the image of Venus carved by Praxiteles at Gnidos, 
 saith," " While its shrine is opened, that the image of the goddess 
 may be seen round about, which is believed to have been made by 
 her own help; it is equally admired on every side." See also 
 Juvenal in his eighth Satire. TertuUian ; ^ "If you furnish its 
 temple, its altar, or its shrine, it is no matter whether you build 
 or adorn it." Tibullus calls a shrine, exigua cedes, " a little house." 
 " The wooden god stood in a little house." By Arnobius these 
 shrines or little houses are called little cottages, conclaves, little 
 cells, tuguriola, conclavia, cellulm. 
 
 For Diana. The daughter of Jupiter by Latona, brought forth 
 in the same birth with Apollo upon Mount Cynthus, situated in 
 Delos, an island in the ^gean sea. She is said, for love of her 
 virginity, to have shunned the company of men, and to have lived 
 in woods hunting, contented with the company of a few virgins ; 
 she is in hell called Hecate, in the woods Diana, in heaven Luna, 
 Phoebe, Delia, Cynthia. Labouring women in^voked her by the 
 name of Juno Lucina. She had a famous temple at Ephesus, which 
 is said to have been one of the seven wonders of the world, whose 
 architect was Chersiphron, as Strabo saith.* Pliny saith,^ that in 
 four hundred years time, (all Asia building it,) it was finished, and 
 seven times repaired ; but he agrees not with himself, for, book 
 xxxvi. ch. 36, he saith it was finished by all Asia in the space of two 
 hundred and twenty years ; there also he draws the structure of it. 
 This so sumptuous and magnificent a temple Herostratus burned, 
 ♦ that the memory of his wickedness might spread his fame, as Solinus 
 saith, whose words out of his forty-third chapter I will here subjoin : 
 " The temple of Diana, the ornament of Ephesus, the building of 
 the Amazons, so magnificent that Xerxes, when he burned all the 
 temples of Asia, he spared this alone. But this Xerxes' clemency 
 kept not the sacred house long from evil; for Herostratus, that 
 the memory of his wickedness might spread his fame, did with 
 his own hands fire this noble fabric, out of a desire, as he him- 
 self confessed, of acquiring greater fame. It is observed that the 
 temple of Ephesus was burned the same day on which Alexander 
 the Great was born at Pella ; who, as Nepos saith, was born when 
 
 ' Miles, lib. iii. ^ Nat. Hist, xxxvi. S. ^ De Idol. cap. 8. 
 
 ' Lib. 14. = Nat. Hist Hb. xvi. cap. 40. 
 
416 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XIX. 
 
 M. Fabius Ambustus and T. Qtiinctius Capitolinus were consuls, 
 three hundred and ninety-nine years after the building of Rome. 
 When the Ephesians rebuilded this temple for a more reverent 
 worship, Dinocrates was the chief workman over the work ; which 
 Dinocrates, we [have] told already, did, by Alexander's orders, mea- 
 sure out Alexandria in Egypt." Timaeus said wittily in his history, 
 as Cicero relates,' " It is no wonder if Diana's temple at Ephesus 
 was burned the same night that Alexandria was born, because 
 that when she should be at Olympias's labour, she was from 
 home." 
 
 Brought no small gain to the craftsmen. That is, to the masters 
 of the same craft with Demetrius. 
 
 25. Whom. To wit, his colleagues. 
 
 With the workmen of the like occupation. That is, with the work- 
 men which Demetrius with his colleagues, the masters of the craft, 
 made use of, in working those silver shrines for Diana. 
 
 JBi/ this craft. That is, by the gain of this trade. 
 
 We have our wealth. That is, we grow rich. So riches is their 
 goddess, and to this goddess they spread their sails under colour of 
 Diana's sacredness. 
 
 26. Ye see. That is, you see what is done in your presence before 
 your eyes. 
 
 And hear. What is done elsewhere. 
 
 That not only at Epkesiis, Where we live and exercise our trade. 
 
 But almost throughout all Asia. More strictly so called, of which 
 our Ephesus is chief metropolis. 
 
 This Paul. This wanderer. 
 
 Hath persuaded and turned away much people. That is, by his 
 persuasion took off very many from worshipping their gods. 
 
 Saying, &c. That is, denying that there was any divine virtue 
 in images of either gods or goddesses, which are made with hands. 
 
 27. So that not only this our craft. That is, our trade by which 
 we have our gain. 
 
 To be set at nought. That is, become a reproach as if it were a 
 wicked and detestable thing, to our great loss. 
 
 But also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should he de- 
 spised. That is, should be neglected and forsaken. Diana is called 
 a great goddess, because that among the great and indefinite num- 
 ber of gods, which the Gentiles religiously worshipped, she was of 
 
 • De Nat. Deor. lib. ii. 
 
VEK. XXX.J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 417 
 
 the twelve chief gods, which Ennius comprehends in these two 
 verses : — 
 
 " Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, J\Iars, 
 Mercurius, Jovis, N^ptunus, Vulcanus, Apollo." 
 
 And her magnificence should be destroyed. That is, and the very 
 majesty of the goddess herself will be vilified. 
 
 Whom all Jsia and the world worshippeth. Apuleius expressed 
 this in these words, " Whose sole deity is worshipped through the 
 whole world, though not under the same name, nor figure, neither 
 with the same rites." This erroneous superstition and abominable 
 idolatry, did reign so far, that it was thought by the inhabitants of 
 the habitable world the catholic or universal religion, as popery is 
 this day. 
 
 28. And when they heard these things. From I>emetrius. 
 
 They were full of vrrath. That is, the tradesmen, Demetrius's 
 colleagues, and the workmen, were stirred up with fury. 
 ■ And cried out. They defend not their idolatry with reasons, but 
 with clamours, as also the papists do theirs this day. 
 
 29. And the whole city was filled with confusion. The whole 
 multitude of the people running together to such crying, as 
 above, ch. ii. 6. 
 
 7%ey rushed with one accord. That is, and they run in together 
 with force. 
 
 Into the theatre. Where shows, comedies, and tragedies used to 
 be acted. 
 
 Having caught Gains. This Gains or Caius, is reckoned with 
 the Macedonians, because although he seems to have been born in 
 Derbe, which is a city of Lycaonia, yet he dwelt in Macedonia; 
 below, ch. XX. 4. 
 
 And Aristarchus. A Thessalonian, of whom, below, ch. xx. 4 ; 
 xxvii. 2; Col. iv. 10; Philemon 24. 
 
 Men of Macedonia, Paul's companions. As much as to say, who 
 went from Macedonia, that they might accompany Paul, see 2 Cor. 
 viii. 19, who wandered and travelled over divers coasts preaching 
 the gospel. 
 
 30. And when Paul would have entered in unto the people. That 
 with vehement discourse he might defend his followers. 
 
 The disciples suffered him not. That is, the Christians, which 
 Paul, by the doctrine which he preached, converted to Jesus 
 Christ at Ephesus, dissuaded his going into such a tumult of the 
 
 E E ' 
 
418 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XIX. 
 
 incensed and raging people, where lie might hazard his life without 
 doing any good. 
 
 31. And certain of the chief of Asia. These Asiarchae or chiet 
 men of Asia, were 'inen chosen by common consent of the Asiatic 
 cities, for managing their public affairs.' This word is used in-law 
 books, as also " Syriacs," for so were some priests called whose office 
 was to act stage-plays in honour of the gods, whom therefore 
 Euffinus in Eusebius interprets "makers of shows," as Cujaoius, a 
 learned lawyer observeth. Their office was called Asiarchia, as 
 that of the Bithynarchs Bithynarchia, and Lyciarch Lyciarchia, 
 they also were called presidents: also princes partly from their 
 name, and partly from their dignity, which was more eminent and 
 of greater honour; the same word frequently signifieth as well 
 princes as priests. Hence at Athens the (iamXtvg, at Rome the 
 king, managed holy things. See Selden's Marmora Arundeliana. 
 
 Which were his friends. Although they did not wholly assent to 
 the doctrine of Christ, so as to join themselves to his disciples. 
 
 That he would not adventure himself into the theatre. "Whither 
 the raging multitude tumultuously did run together. 
 
 32. Some therefore cried one thing, and some another. As it useth 
 to be in tumults. 
 
 JFor the assembly was confused. That is, a mixed multitude with- 
 out any order. 
 
 33. They drew Alexander. That is, some drew him out to a 
 place whence he might be heard by all. 
 
 Alexander. Some think this to be he of whom Paul afterwards 
 complains that he made shipwreck of faith, 1 Tim. i. 20 ; 2 Tim. 
 iv. 14 ; there he is called the coppersmith. 
 
 Out of the multitude. That is, out of the multitude of the people. 
 
 The Jews putting him forward. Some think this man, being a 
 Jew, as in the following verse he is called, that therefore he was 
 by the Jews thrust forward into the midst of the Assembly, that 
 by pleading the common cause, he might pacify the multitude. 
 But others that, seeing he was of a Jew become a Christian, and at 
 that time Paul's companion, the Jews being enraged against Paul 
 and the Christians, would expose him to the incensed multitude to 
 be abused : and that they, though otherwise enemies to the idols of 
 the nations, might show themselves averse from Paul and his com- 
 panions, and free from those things which were objected against 
 them. Lastly, others, that they would that he, to excuse the Jews 
 in this matter, though in a common cause with the Christians, 
 
 ^ Strabo, lib. xiv. 
 
VER. XXXV.] LITEEAM-Y EXPLAINED. 419 
 
 should lay the whole accusation upon Paul, and the Christians his 
 companions. 
 
 And Alexander beckoned with his hand. See above, oh. xii. 1 7 ; 
 xiii. 16. 
 
 Would have made his defence unto the people. To take away the 
 accusation. 
 
 34. But when they hnew that he was a Jew. By birth, and as 
 others also would have it, by religion. 
 
 All with one voice cried out. That is, all the Ephesian idolaters 
 cried out together. 
 
 For the space of two hours. That they might deafen such as 
 opposed their idolatry. 
 
 Great is Diana of the Ephesians. See what we have said above, 
 ver. 28. 
 
 35. Clerh. That is, the public notary of the city, or skilful in 
 the law, as it were an advocate, a man of no small authority 
 among the citizens, and as appears by his speech, both a wise man 
 and a friend to -Paul and his companions, as those Asiarchs, of 
 whom above, ver. 31. 
 
 Ye men of Ephesus. So their orators used to accost them. 
 
 What man is there, &c. As much as to say, Ye have no reason 
 to mutiny, seeing none calls it in question, but that the Ephesians 
 are the wardens of the great goddess Diana, and of her image, 
 which was not made with hands, but fell down from heaven. 
 
 That the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper. The Greek hath 
 it, iroXiv rswKopov, " a city of asdiles," or " the adorners of the 
 temple." It is so called because the care of sweeping and cleaning 
 the temple was committed to its citizens, from vaog, " a temple," 
 and Kopib), " to adorn, or sweep with besoms." Cicero saith of 
 Enna, a city in Sicily, " That they seemed not to me citizens, of 
 that city, but all of them priests, all of them neighbours, all of 
 them rulers of Ceres." Grotius addeth, that the word veiDKSpog 
 is also used in this sense upon the marbles of Arundel, and often 
 upon coins. 
 
 Of the image which fell down from Jupiter. It is common with 
 the Greeks to put Jupiter for heaven. Hence Horace said also, 
 sub Jove frigido, which is rendered, " under the cold heaven." 
 The idolatrous priests, promoters of Diana's idols, feigned that its 
 idol, which was possessed and worshipped in Ephesus, was not 
 made with human hands, but that it miraculously fell from heaven, 
 as was reported of the Trojan Palladium, or the image of Pallas. 
 
 E E 2 
 
420 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XIX. 
 
 Cicero of the image of Ceres at Enna, saith : " It was such that 
 men thought, either they saw Ceres herself, or an image of Ceres, 
 not made with human hand, but fallen from heaven." Pliny 
 admires ' that Mutianus, who was three times consul, who says : 
 That the name of the artist, who engraved Diana's image at 
 Ephesus, was Demonicos, seeing he said that this image was not 
 only ancienter than Father Bacchus, but than Minerva a;lso, 
 whose figment they report, not being made by the hands of any 
 artist, to have fallen from heaven. Many of the ancients doubted 
 what matter the Ephesian idol of Diana was made of, many gave 
 out that it was of wood, but diifered about the kind of wood. 
 But Xenophon reported it was of gold, which is made the more 
 probable, seeing that when Diana's temple at Ephesus was burnt, 
 that image was not consumed by the fire, neither was it ever 
 changed, though the temple was seven times repaired.^ 
 
 36. Seeing then that these things cannot be spoken against. As 
 much as to say, Whatever be said of images made with hands, 
 cannot prejudice the image of Diana of the Ephesians, since it is 
 manifest that it was made by the hands of no artist, but fallen 
 from Jupiter. 
 
 You ought to be quiet. That is, to quiet the multitude. 
 And to do nothing rashly. Without full discerning and clear 
 ■knowledge of the cause. 
 
 37. For ye have brought hither these men. To wit, Gains or 
 Caius, and Aristarchus, of which see above, ver. 29. 
 
 Neither robbers of churches. To wit, of Diana's temple, seeing 
 they were never within it. 
 
 Nor yet blasphemers of your goddess. To whose iniage, since it 
 was sent from heaven, its worship is beyond debate, althoughjt 
 were granted they are no gods, nor to be worshipped for gods, 
 which are made with hands, as has been said, ver. 26. 
 
 38. Wherefore if Demetrius, &c. Most like to which, is that of 
 Horace : — 
 
 " If any make lew'd verses againt any, there is law and judgment." 
 
 The law is open. That is, there are times and places appointed, 
 •in which justice is done, and controversies decided. 
 
 And there are deputies. There used to be one deputy in each 
 province, but here are more mentioned, either because at divers 
 times one succeeded another ; or because that with the proconsul 
 his vicar or lieutenant judged. 
 
 ' Nat. Hist, lib. xvi. cap. 40. 
 
VEE. I.] LITEEALLY EXPLAINED. 421 
 
 Let them implead one another. To wit, Demetrius those men 
 which ye brought hither, or they him. Quintilian:* "We have 
 received magistrates and laws from our predecessors for this end, 
 that every man may not be judge of his own wrong, and the daily 
 complaints of mischief should refute themselves, if revenge re- 
 semble the crime." 
 
 39. But if ye inquire any thing concerning other matters. That 
 is, if beside your private quarrel, ought else come in controversy. 
 
 It shall be determined. That is, the controversy shall be ended. 
 In a lawful assembly. That is, not in a tumultuary concourse, 
 but in an assembly of the people lawfully called. 
 
 40. For we are in danger, &c. As much as to gay, For it is to 
 be feared lest we be accused of sedition for this day's tumultuary 
 concourse, seeing there is no cause for it, which can in reason 
 justify it. 
 
 He dismissed the assembly. So by God's providence this tu- 
 multuary convention of the people is dissolved, and the tumult, 
 stirred up by Demetrius against Paul and his companions, vanished 
 without effect. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 1. And after the uproar was ceased. Which Demetrius stirred 
 up in Ephesus against Paul and his companions. 
 
 Paul called unto him the disciples. That is, Paul called the 
 Christians who were at Ephesus unto him. 
 
 And embraced them. Having by that sign of brotherly love 
 wished them health, and bidding them farewell ; and also, as is 
 probable, (as was the custom of those nations,) kissed them. 
 Hence the Syrian, instead of " embracing them," translates here, 
 " kissed them." Neither is it to be doubted, but Paul being to 
 depart from the Ephesian Christians, did when he wished them 
 health, exhort them to the duties of piety, and to constancy in the 
 faith of Christ, lyhich they had received. 
 
 And departed. From Ephesus. 
 
 For to go into Macedonia. In which at Philippi, Bersea, and 
 Thessalonica, he had converted some to Christ. 
 
 •■ Declam. 13. 
 
422 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XX. 
 
 2. And when he had gone over those parts. To wit, the cities of 
 Macedonia. 
 
 And had given them much exhortation. To wit, to the Christians 
 who lived in Macedonia, that they should retain the faith and per- 
 severe in godliness. 
 
 He came unto Greece. That is, to that part of Greece where 
 Athens and Corinth were. " Greece," saith Augustine Lubine, 
 geographer to the French king, in his geographical index to Usher's 
 Annals, " the most famous country in Europe, which of old was by 
 its inhabitants called Hellas, containing Macedonia, Epirus, Thes- 
 saly, Achaia, which is properly called Greece, Peloponnesus and 
 neighbouring islands about it, is, for its bounds, enclosed upon the 
 east by the ^gean sea, upon the south by the sea of Crete, upon 
 the west by the Ionian sea, upon the north it is parted from lUyria 
 and Maesia by the Scardonian mountains, and from the Thracians 
 by the river Strymon ; it is now commonly called Koumeli by the 
 Turks, to whom it is subject." 
 
 3. And there abode three months. That is, and spent three months 
 there. 
 
 And when the Jews laid wait for him. The unbelieving Jews being 
 Incensed against him, for that he led away many from the law of 
 Moses to the faith of Christ. 
 
 As he ivas about to sail unto Syria. Toward Judea. 
 
 He purposed, &c. As much as to say, to the end he might shun 
 the snares laid for him, he takes a very wise resolution, not to sail 
 directly from Achaia, or Greece, properly so called, unto Syria, but 
 to take his way back again through Macedonia, from whence he 
 came to Achaia three months ago. 
 
 4. And there accompanied him into Asia. Strictly so called, 
 whose chief metropolis is Ephesus. 
 
 Sopater. This Sosipater, and by syncope Sopater, is reckoned 
 among Paul's kindred, Rom. xvi. 21. 
 
 The son of Pyrrhvs. This is wanting in the vulgar Greek copies. 
 
 OfBercea. Of the number of those noble men spoken of above, 
 ch. xvii. 10 — 12, 
 
 And of the Thessalonians. That is, those of Thessalonica, a city 
 of Macedonia. 
 
 Aristarchus and Secundus. The Syrian thinks that there were 
 only these two Thessalonians. Aristarchus also accompanied Paul 
 not only to Asia, but even to Syria also, yea and to Rome ; below, 
 ch. xxvii. 2, (see also, Col. iv. 10.) 
 
VEIL VII.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 423 
 
 And Gains of Derhe. Of this Graius, or Caius, see what we have 
 said above, oh. xix. 29. 
 
 And Timotheus. Born, If we believe Gesnere, in the same city 
 of Derbe, see above, oh. xiv. 6. The Syrian and Arabian inter- 
 preters add, " who was of Lystra." This excellent youth Timotheus, 
 of whom above, eh. xvi. 1, 2; xvii. 14, 15; xviii. 5; xix. 22; 
 Paul afterward left at Ephesus, that there he might oversee the 
 church in teaching and governing It. 
 
 And of Asia. Strictly so called, and also its chief city Ephesus ; 
 for a most ancient copy, which most famous Beza used, hath for 
 Asians, Epheslans. 
 
 And Tycliicus. This man is commended by Paul, Ephes_. vi. 21, 
 and Col. Iv. 7 ; Is sent to Ephesus, 2 Tim. iv. 12; to the isle of 
 Crete, Tit. ill. 12. The supposititious Dorotheus, in his synopsis 
 of the lives of the prophets and disciples of Christ, writes, that this 
 Tychicus was at last created bishop of Chaloedon in Bithynla. 
 
 And Trophimus, Of whom below, ch. xxi. 29; and 2 Tim. Iv. 20. 
 
 5. These going before. Whither Paul was a going. 
 
 Tarried for us at Troas. That is, waited for Paul and me Luke, 
 the writer of this history. This Luke, who spake otherwise in the 
 foregoing chapters, because that perhaps he was sent by Paul some- 
 where else, shows that he was then returned again to Paul to ac- 
 company him in his journey, as also afterward In the following. 
 
 From Troas. Troas In this place is not taken for that country 
 which was called Teucrls, and Dardania, and Xanthe, but for a 
 city of the same country which was also called Troas. See what 
 we have said above, ch. xvi. 
 
 6. And we. That is, I, Luke, and Paul. 
 
 From Fhilippi. A city of Macedonia, of which we have spoken 
 above, ch. xvi. 12. 
 
 After the days of unleavened bread. That Is, after the Jews' feast 
 of the Passover, which as yet Paul, with the other Jews who were 
 Christians, seems to observe, that he might lawfully accommodate 
 himself to the Jews: and doubtless he neglected not the occasion of 
 preaching Christ to the Jews at that feast. 
 
 Unto them. Our fellow travellers, who went before us. 
 
 To Troas. A city of the country of the same name. 
 
 In five days. That Is, within five days. 
 
 Where we abode seven days. That Is, we passed seven days In the 
 city called Troas. 
 
 7. And upon the first day of the week. That is, " that day," as 
 
424 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY A.POSTI,ES [cHAP. XX. 
 
 Sozomen saith,' "which is called the Lord's day, which the Hebrews 
 called the first day of the week, but the Greeks dedicated it to the 
 sun." See what I have noted upon Matt, xxviii. 1. The table of 
 the canons lately published by the famous John Baptist Cotelerius:' 
 " It was not, before Christ's resurrection, called the Lord's day, but 
 the first day ; but after the resurrection it was called the Lord's 
 day, the lady of all days and festivities." We have the name of 
 the Lord's day in Kev. i. 10. In Ignatius's epistle to the Tral- 
 lians and Magnesians, and sometimes in Clement's Institutions, also 
 in that place of Irenseus, which the writer of the answers to the 
 orthodox in Justin Martyr hath preserved to us. The edict of 
 Theoplulus, patriarch of Alexandria : " Both custom and honesty 
 require of us that we should honour the Lord's day, and celebrate 
 it, because Christ our Lord upon that day executed the eminent 
 office of his resurrection." Sedulius:' "In the meantime after 
 that sad sabbath, the happy day began to dawn, which being most 
 welcome to the triumphing Lord, did take its name from his Majesty, 
 called for this honour the Lord's day; being a day that attained to 
 the dignity to be the first that beheld the original of the rising 
 world, and the virtue of Christ rising again." St. Augustine:* 
 " The Lord's day has been by Christ's resurrection declared not to 
 the Jews but to the Christians, and from him it began to have its 
 festivity." And, * " this day is called the Lord's day, because upon 
 this day the Lord rose again; or to teach by the very name of it, 
 that it ought to be wholly consecrated to the Lord." St. Maximus 
 Taurinensis:® "The Lord's day is therefore venerable and solemn 
 to us, because upon it our Saviour, as the rising sun having driven 
 away the infernal darkness, shined with the light of his resurrection ; 
 and therefore by the common speech of the world, it is called Sun- 
 day, because Christ the sun of righteousness being risen, did en- 
 lighten it." The B.oman order and Isidore:'' " The apostles there- 
 fore did with religious solemnity ratify the Lord's day, because 
 upon that day our Lord and Redeemer rose again from the dead; 
 and which also is called the Lord's day, that in it, abstaining from 
 earthly works or worldly enticements, we should give ourselves only 
 to divine worship, giving, to wit, honour and reverence to this day, 
 for the hope of our resurrection, which we have in him." Gregorius 
 Turonensis:* "This is the day of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus 
 
 ' Hiat. Eccl. lib. i. cap. 8. » Cap. 4, 16. ' Paachal. Operis, lib. v. cap. 20. 
 
 * Epist. 119. cap. 13. ^ Serm. 15. de Verb. Apost. ^ Horn. 3. in Pentecost. 
 
 ' De Eccl. Offic. lib. ii. cap. 24. ' Hist, lib. i. cap. 22. 
 
VER. IX.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 425 
 
 Christ, which we properly call the Lord's day, for his holy resur- 
 rection." 
 
 When the disciples came together. From this place, and that 
 which is written, 1 Cor. xvi. 2, is gathered that the Christians did 
 then use upon the first day of the week to keep solemn meetings. 
 Justin,' " Upon the day called Sunday, all that live in cities or 
 country meet in one place." 
 
 To break bread. To wit, that was consecrated to be a symbol of 
 the body of Christ, offered for us upon the cross. Hence the 
 Syrian rendered it, "That we might break the eucharist." The 
 Arabic, "That we might distribute the body of Christ." The 
 Ethiopic, "To bless the table." All understood it of this holy 
 rite by which the Lord Jesus would have the memory of his bitter 
 death to be celebrated by his disciples. See what we have said 
 above, chap. ii. 42, 46. Luke xxii. 19; 1 Cor. xi. 24, 26. 
 
 Paul preached unto them. The word of Grod to wit, before they 
 celebrated the eucharist, which is denominated from the breaking 
 of bread. 
 
 Ready to depart. From the city Troas. 
 
 On the morrow. That is, the day immediately following. 
 
 8. And there were many lights. To wit, to dispel the darkness of 
 the night, or as Jerome saith against Vigilantius, " For their com- 
 fort in the darkness of the night." 
 
 In the upper chamber. Which, as Juvenal speaks, the roof only 
 covers. In this, as in the least esteemed part of the house, men of 
 mean fortunes used to live ; also in the time of the apostles the 
 church assembled there, and in it performed their worship, not in 
 magnificently built temples. 
 
 Where they were. To wit, the Christians of Troas. 
 
 9. Fell down from the third loft. That is, he fell from the third 
 frame or third fioor. Servius -.^ " The houses of old were made de 
 tabulis, ' of boards,' whence at this day we say in houses, that are 
 builded high, the first and second tabulatum, 'story;' but the 
 highest that which supports the roof; " whence what Juvenal calls 
 tabulata tertia,^ "the third story, or loft," is expounded by the 
 scholiast, " upper rooms." 
 
 And was taken up dead. As much as to say. And when some of 
 them who saw Eutychus fall, had run from that upper room of the 
 house, to take him up, they found him already destitute of all 
 strength, and without life. 
 
 ' Apolog. 2. » Ad 3. Eneid. ' » Sat. 3. 
 
426 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XX. 
 
 10. And Paul went dowri. His holy discourse being interrupted, 
 that he might restore Eutychus to life, who was by an unex- 
 pected fall killed. 
 
 And fell on him. As Elias, 1 Kings xvii. 21, and Elisha, 
 2 Kings iv. 34, fell upon them whom they were about to restore 
 to life. 
 
 And embracing him. Eutychus, by the middle. 
 
 Said. To them who lamented Eutychus being dead. 
 
 His life is in him. That is, now his body begins to grow warm 
 and revive. 
 
 11. When he therefore was come np again, &c. As much as to 
 say. When therefore Paul was again gone up to that loft, where he 
 had preached, and had there celebrated the rite of the eucharist, 
 and taken meat, he with unwearied zeal spent the rest of the night 
 until day-light in preaching. 
 
 So. That is, the night being spent. After the same manner 
 the particle so is used as a note of what was done ; above, chap, 
 vii. 8 1 xvii. 33; below, chap, xxvlii. 14; John viii. 59. 
 
 He departed. From the city Troas and that on foot, the rest 
 being to go in a ship, as is told below, ver. 13. 
 
 12. And tjiey brought. They, to wit, who came down to take up 
 Eutychus, who had fallen from a window of the highest frame of 
 the house, brought him alive to the rest of the disciples, who were 
 assembled in the upper room whence he fell, to hear Paul preach, 
 and to celebrate the rite of the eucharist. 
 
 Alive, That is, marvellously restored by Paul unto life. 
 And vjere not a little comforted. As much as to say, the sight of 
 so great a miracle brought great comfort to all. 
 
 13. But we. That is, I, Luke, with others of Paul's fellow 
 travellers. 
 
 Went before to a ship. To go before Paul- 
 
 And sailed unto Assos. A fit port for ships. To this sea-town 
 of the country of Troas, the way was but short from the city 
 Troas, either by sea or land. Strabo saith,' that this was a 
 famous city, and upon the side that looketh to the sea, exceeding 
 strong both by nature and art. Pliny ^ mentioneth the same city 
 was otherwise called ApoUonia. 
 
 There intending to take in Paul. To wit, into the ship. 
 
 Minding himself to go afoot. From Troas to Assos, a neighbour- 
 ing city of the same country. 
 
 ' Lib. V. ' Lib. xiii. cap. 30. 
 
\ER. XV.J LITEEALLY EXPLAINED. 427 
 
 14. And when he met with us at Assos. To wit, Paul. 
 We took him in. Into the ship. 
 
 And came to Mitylene. The chief city of the island Lesbos, 
 which Vitruvius saith,i was magnificently and stately built, but 
 not wisely situated : in which, when the south wind blows, men 
 are sick : when the north-west, they cough ; when the north, they 
 are restored to health. This city was famous for Pittacus, one of 
 the seven famous wise men of Greece ; Alcaeus, a noble lyric poet ; 
 the famous poetess Sapphus, and that excellent rhetorician 
 Diophanes, who was master to Gracchus, and to that Theophanes 
 who wrote the exploits of Pompey the Great, and was very familiar 
 with him, and received of him the freedom of the city in an 
 assembly of soldiers, as Cicero saith in his oration for Archias, a 
 poet of Antioch. 
 
 15. Over against Chios. Which is an island in the JSgean Sea, 
 about nine hundred furlongs in compass, bordering upon Ionia, 
 between the islands Samos and Lesbos. This island was famous 
 for wine, figs, and marble. Its wine was the best of all the Greek 
 wines, as Strabo ^ and Horace ' do witness. The Chian fig is com- 
 mended by Martial,* who for its excellency calls it Chia. Pliny ^ 
 commends the Chian marble : also the Chian earth is by him said 
 to have the same effect in medicine, as the Samian earth. It had 
 famous men, Ion, Orchomenis's son, a tragic and lyric poet, and a 
 philosopher ; Theopompus, the son of Damasistratus, both an orator 
 and an historian ; Theocritus, of the same age as Theopompus, and 
 emulating him in governing the commonwealth. The Chians also 
 challenged Homer as theirs, by an argument from the family of the 
 Homerides, famous among the Chians, who boasted they were of 
 Homer's lineage; and also Prodicus the philosopher, who said that 
 such things as were profitable for man's life have been esteemed to 
 be among the number of the gods, of which Strabo in the forecited 
 book and Ciceroi^ are evident witnesses. 
 
 We came to Samos. That is, we arrived at the famous Samos 
 over against the island Caria. " Samos," saith Thomas de Pinedp, 
 " Same, and Samothrace, or Samothracia, were different islands, 
 although of old Samothracia was also called Samos ; for Samo- 
 thracia was in the ^gean Sea, Same in the Ionian, near Zacyn- 
 thus ; but Samos, of which we now speak, lies in the Icarian Sea. 
 And as Lemnus worshipped Vulcan, Delus Apollo, so Samos 
 
 ' Lib. i. ' Lib. xiii. ' Kpod. ix. ♦ Epig. vii. 24. * Lib. v. cap. 31. 
 • De Nat Deor. lib. i. 
 
428 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [OHAl'. XX. 
 
 peculiarly worshipped Juno, as the learnedest of poets doth wit- 
 ness;' and therefore the Samians imprinted a peacock, a bird 
 sacred to Juno, upon their coin, of which matter Atheneus is a 
 clear witness.^ Bochart does most ingeniously deduce its original 
 from the Phoenician language ; but since the ancient Greeks did 
 call high places Saftowcj as appears out of Strabo,' and Constantine 
 Porphyrogeneta,* there is no need to derive its original from the 
 Phoenician language. Archestratus the poet ^ praiseth the tunnies 
 which were taken about this island. Pliny^ commendeth the Samian 
 tile, wherewith the priests of the mother of gods, which priests 
 were surnamed Galli, from a river of that name, cut off their geni*- 
 tals, neither could they do it otherwise without hurt, as the same 
 author reports out of M. Coelius. Which I easily believe ; for 
 their knives, made of stone, were fitter for circumcision than iron 
 ones, because of the swelling which sometime happens when the 
 wound is made with iron knives. Therefore in Joshua v. 2, rii3"in 
 U^niS must be rendered ' knives of stone,' which some wrongfully 
 render, 'sharp knives:' for which you may consult D. Laur. 
 Kamirez.^ The Samian earthen vessels are also famous, and the 
 physicians say that the Samian earth is fit for medicine. In this 
 island reigned Polycrates; that tyrant, so happy, that when he 
 threw the ring that he admired in the sea, he afterward found it in 
 the midriff of a fish. But none can be called happy before his 
 death ; forasmuch as this same Polycrates was by Orontes Darius, 
 his general, hanged, as' Cicero saith.^ But Pythagoras made 
 Samos much more renowned, who therefore was called the old 
 Samian." 
 
 And tarried at TrogylKum. Strabo^ mentions Trogilios the 
 promontory of Mycale. " And the very promontory Trogilios," 
 says he, "is indeed the foot of Mycale stretched forth." "But 
 Mycale," saith Herodotus,'" "is a promontory of the continent 
 towards the west wind, belonging to Samos, at which promontory 
 the lonians, gathering together out of all their cities, solemnized 
 their feast which they called ' panionia.' " 
 
 And the next day. That is, the day after we loosed from Samos. 
 
 We came to Miletus. A most famous city in Caria of the 
 lonians, the first of all Ionia in the arts both of war and peace, the 
 metropolis of eighty and more cities, and deservedly renowned for 
 
 ' ^neid. lib. i. ver. 20. " Lib. xiv. » Lib. x. * 1 Them. 16. 
 
 ' In Atheneus, lib. vii. ' Lib. xxxv. cap. 12. ' De Prado PentecontaTcho suo, cap. 4. 
 ' De Finibus, lib. v, ' Lib. xiv. " Lib. i. cap. 148. 
 
VEK. XVI.] XITERALLY EXPLAINED. 429 
 
 the excellent disposition of its citizens. To this purpose Apuleius 
 saith,' " Samos is a small island in the Icarian sea, situated just 
 against Miletus, upon the west side of it, neither is it divided by 
 much of the sea from it ; two days' gentle sailing will bring one to 
 either of the ports." Among the illustrious men who were bora 
 in this city Miletus, the most famous were that Cadmus, " who," 
 as Pliny saith,^ " was the first who began to compose speeches in 
 prose." Thales the son of Examius, the most famous of the seven 
 famous wise men of Greece, who was the first among the Greeks 
 that discoursed about nature. He was the first who searched into 
 the secrets of Astrology ; the first, as Laertius reports in his Life, 
 who said that the souls of mortal men were Immortal. And Anaxi- 
 mander the disciple of Thales, that first invented the sphere, as 
 saith Pliny,* and the first that published a geographical map, as 
 Strabo saith.* The inhabitants of Miletus acquired great fame by 
 the first called the Branchides, then Apollo Didymaeus's oracle, 
 which Xerxes, the son of Darius and grandchild of Cyrus by his 
 sister Atosa, burnt, as he did all the rest of the temples, that of 
 Ephesus only excepted ; and because, that after Xerxes burnt the 
 temple, they built it the highest of all, that for its height it remained 
 without a roof; and Strabo reports,^ that it was most sumptuously 
 adorned with gifts of divers ancient arts. It was also famous for 
 its most precious wool, of which carpets were made, which for their 
 exceeding softness became a proverb. Historians tell us that the 
 Milesians of old were stout warriors ; but afterward being addicted 
 to their pleasures, they lost their warlike virtues, with their riches 
 and reputation, whence comes the proverb, " The Milesians were 
 stout of old." Hence also the Milesian speech is taken by Apuleius 
 for a wanton and merry speech : ^ " But I will set out various 
 fables for you in this Milesian speech, and will soothe your benevo- 
 lent ears with a pleasant whisper." 
 
 16. Fw Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus. That is, 
 beyond Ephesus. 
 
 Because he would not spend time in Asia. As much as to say. 
 Lest if he should go then to the chief metropolis of Asia, strictly 
 so called, he should by the Christian brethren inhabiting there 
 be detained too long. 
 
 For he hasted, if it were possible for him. To wit, for the short- 
 ness of time, which was to Pentecost or the fiftieth day from the 
 
 ' Floridoi-um lib. ii. ' Nat. Hist. lib. v. cap. 29, ' Lib. vii, cap. 56. 
 
 * Lib. i. * Lib. xiv. " lu Asino Aureo. 
 
430 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAJP. XX. 
 
 feast of the Passover, which day was festival, and in it the first 
 fruits were offered by the Jews, to whom the same day the old law 
 was promulgated upon Mount Sinai. 
 
 To be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost. That is, that he might 
 be at Jerusalem, against the frequent concourse of the Jews from 
 divers coasts, to the approaching feast. 
 
 17. And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus. Some one or more of 
 his fellows and companions. 
 
 Called. That is, sent for. 
 
 Tlie elders of the church. That is, such as were set over the 
 government of the church of Ephesus, who were so called because 
 they were of greater age, or because by the gravity of their man- 
 ners they did resemble old men, when they were set up like sena- 
 tors to govern the Christian commonalty, without whose advice 
 the church acted nothing. Jerome ' says, " We have in the church 
 our senate, a company of elders." See what is noted below, 
 ver. 28 ; and above, chap. xiv. 23 ; xv. 2, 4, 6, 28. 
 
 18. And when they. The elders of Ephesus having the same 
 fellowship of power and honour. 
 
 Were come to him. To wit, to the apostle Paul. 
 
 He said unto them. To wit, Paul himself to the same elders of 
 the church of Ephesus. 
 
 Ye know. That, is, ye are witnesses. 
 
 From the first day that I came into Asia. Strictly so called} 
 whose chief metropolis is your Ephesus. 
 
 After what manner I have been with you at all seasons. That is, 
 how I have behaved myself among you. See the like phrase, 1 
 Thess. ii. 5, 10. 
 
 19. Serving the Lord. That is, with all my might promoting 
 the glory of God, in preaching the gospel holily, and performing 
 duties of charity towards God and my neighbour. 
 
 With all humility. That is, with perfect humility and such 
 modesty of mind, as did not despise others, neither usurped any 
 dominion over my brethren, over which I was set a teacher. 
 
 And tears. Breaking out from my heart, pitying those who 
 were more negligent in their station. 
 
 And temptations. That is, vexations and aflBictions, with which 
 the devil, who is called by antonomasia, " the tempter," 1 Thess. 
 iii. 5, useth by wicked men, his instruments, to solicit and tempt 
 believers to fall away from faith and godliness; by God's per- 
 
 ' In Is. 3. 
 
YER. XXII. J LITERALLY JEXPLAINHD. 431 
 
 mission such things come to pass, to try and prove the faith and 
 piety of his own. Likewise by temptations are understood vex- 
 ations and afflictions, or the things which are called adverse. Luke 
 xxii. 28; 1 Cor. x. 13; Gal. iv. 14; Jam. i. 2; 1 Pet. i. 6; 2 Pet. 
 ii. 9 ; Kev. iii. 10. 
 
 Which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews. Obstinate and 
 unbelieving Jews, persecuting the disciples of Christ with deadly 
 hatred. See above, ver. 3 ; ch. ix. 24 ; xiv. 2, 5. 
 
 20. And how I kept back nothing. That is, hid nothing from 
 you, either for fear of dangers or hope of gain. 
 
 That was profitable unto you. That is, of such things as I 
 thought to conduce to your salvation. 
 
 But have shewed you. That is, I preached unto yon those 
 wholesome doctrines. 
 
 And hate taught you. That is, and diligently instructed you 
 in them. 
 
 Publicly. In the assemblies of the believers. 
 
 And from house to house. That is, and privately, while I visited 
 the believers in every house. 
 
 21. Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks. That is, 
 earnestly teaching as well the Jews by birth, (who were long ago 
 esteemed the Lord's people, but by their sins were turned away 
 from God, and would not acknowledge Jesus to be the Messiah, 
 nor believe in him,) as [well as] them who were born of the Gen- 
 tiles, being aliens from the people of God, and were called Greeks, 
 as above, ch. xviii. 4 ; xix. 10. 17. 
 
 Repentance toward God. That is, conversion from an evil and 
 vicious life, to a good and laudable manner of living, pleasing God 
 and conformed to his precepts, and meet of repentance. See below, 
 ch. xxvi. 20. 
 
 And faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. That is, that all your 
 confidence should be placed in that Jesus of Nazareth, who is the 
 Messiah promised in the law and in the prophets, now become the 
 author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him. Heb. v. 9. 
 
 22. And now behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem. As 
 much as to say, And now the fourth time since my conversion to 
 Christ, by a certain instinct and command of the Holy Ghost, see 
 above, ch. xiii. 4, I go to Jerusalem. So Paul saith of his other 
 journey to Jerusalem, that he went up thither by revelation. Gal. 
 ii, 2, which, to wit, was made to him by the Holy Ghost. So our 
 
432 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XX. 
 
 Lord Jesus is said, to be led of the Spirit unto the wilderness to be 
 tempted by the devil, Matt. iv. 1. 
 
 Not knowing the things thxit shall befall me there. That is, know- 
 ing nothing certainly of these tortures which I am to undergo at 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 23. Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city. That is, in 
 every city where I came since I directed my course towards 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 Witnesseth. That is, positively foretells me. 
 
 That bonds, &c. That is, that at Jerusalem, where of old I 
 greatly persecuted the church of Christ, I shall for the same 
 church be bound in chains, and all manner of ways tortured. 
 
 24. But none of' these things move me. As much as to say. There 
 is no kind of torment which I must bear to perform my duty, that 
 I shall either deprecate or shun. 
 
 Neither count I my life dear unto me. That is, neither do I 
 value the loss of my. life. The Hebrews say, that unto him who 
 spares this temporary life his soul is esteemed precious. "No 
 man is so fearless of death as that man that is crucified to the 
 world, and hath mortified his inordinate desire of worldly things. 
 If in the whole course of our life we give up ourselves to the laws 
 of Christ, if we exercise ourselves to patience and self-denial, to 
 meekness and long-suffering, to temperance and chastity, to con- 
 tempt of the world, and a heavenly mind, we shall find it a very 
 easy task, when we shall be required, to resign up our mortal life 
 for the sake of our Lord Jesus. . He that obeyeth Christ in all his 
 holy and strictest precepts, will be in great readiness and prepara- 
 tion of mind to lay down his life for him. He that dares kill his 
 lusts, and crucify the old man, will not think much to resign this 
 moral life, that he may be clothed with immortality." Thus much 
 t;hat most famous man for his learning and piety, the reverend 
 canon of Norwich, Richard Kidder, in chap. x. of his book, con- 
 cerning the grounds of Christian fortitude, which not long ago that 
 pattern of an upright and godly conscience, the noble Lady 
 Viscountess Katherine Ranelagh lent me. 
 
 So that I might finish my course with joy. That is, that with 
 that cheerfulness and earnestness which becomes me, I miarht run 
 toward the mark which Christ the judge hath prefixed for me. 
 
 And the ministry, &c. As much as to say, And might discharge 
 my apostolical office which Christ from heaven committed to me, 
 
VEK. XXVIII.J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 433 
 
 that I might bear witness to that joyful and happy message of the 
 exceeding great grace of God towards men, to wit, of the most 
 happy everlasting liffe, which is to be received in heaven of the 
 great and liberal God, through men's lively faith in Christ Jesus 
 without the works of the law. Hence the gospel is called grace. 
 John i. 17; Kom. vi. 14, 15; Heb. xii. 15, xiii. 9; 1 Pet. v. 12. 
 
 25. And now, behold, I know. By revelation from the Holy 
 Ghost, by whose impulse I go from hence to Jerusalem. 
 
 That. After my departure from you now. 
 
 Ye all, &c. That is, none of you shall see me henceforth. 
 
 Among whom I have gone. That is, through whose countries 
 and cities I have travelled. 
 
 Preaching the kingdom of God. That is, that most blessed and 
 worthy state, which, by the grace of God, believers in Christ are to 
 enjoy in heaven. 
 
 26. Wherefore I take you to record this day. That is, I take you 
 all to witness. 
 
 That I am pure from the blood of all men. That is, that I am 
 not the cause of their destruction, who among you have forsaken 
 the Christian faith and godliness. See what we have noted con- 
 cerning this phrase above, chap, xviii. 6. 
 
 27. For, &c. As much as to say. For in my sermons I unfolded 
 to you all and everything which God commanded to be by men 
 hoped, believed, and done, that through Jesus Christ the only 
 Saviour of men, they might attain to eternal life. 
 
 The whole counsel of God. This universal saying must be 
 restrained to his office of apostleship, as much as to say. All God's 
 commands revealed through Jesus Christ about these things, which 
 are necessary to be hoped, believed, and done to salvation. Thus, 
 Luke vii. 30, counsel of God is taken for God's commandment 
 made to the Pharisees. 
 
 28. Take heed therefore unto yourselves. As much as to say. 
 Therefore above all, listen diligently to yourselves how j'e live, 
 that ye decline not from the true faith and piety, nor be careless in 
 them. A most learned anonymous author, in a theological treatise 
 called. The Mischief of Impositions, p. 29, edit. 2nd, observes that 
 in the old ordination of presbyters of the church of England, they 
 were enstated in their whole office by reading this verse. 
 
 And to all thefloch. As much as to say. Then be watchful and 
 diligent about the care of the souls of the whole company of the 
 discsiples, that they may so, behave themselves as becomes them. 
 
 F F 
 
434 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLKS [CHAP. XX. 
 
 The church of believers is, by a metaphor, called a flock, as of sheep, 
 that from this appellation we may learn, that Christ's faithful ones 
 should frequent the holy assemblies, and not to be wandering all 
 alone. Luke xii. 32 ; John x. 16 ; 1 Pet. v. 2. 
 
 Over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you. That is, Over 
 which, by our ministry and imposition of hands, he did set and 
 constitute you. See above chap. xiv. 23 ; 2 Tim. i. 6. 
 
 Oiierseers. Augustine saith,^ " Episcopus is a Greek word, and 
 thence brought, because he who is set over, oversees them over 
 whom he is set, to wit, taking care of them ; for epi is ' over ' and 
 Scopus is ' intention ; ' therefore, if we please, we may call the office 
 of a bishop in Latin superintendere, ' to oversee diligently,' that he 
 may know be is not a bishop that delights to be over, but not to 
 profit." Erasmus, in his Ecclesiastes,^ "Bishop is a name of an 
 office not of dignity, also it is a military word, hence derived, 
 because he who professeth himself the captain of an army should 
 67r((TK07r£tv, that is, look down that there be nothing wanting to the 
 soldiers under his standard.^' Whence also Homer ■' calls Hector 
 m'laKovov, "bishop." Further, they who above, ver. 17, were in the 
 same city of Ephesus called elders or presbyters; the same are 
 now called bishops, because in the apostles' time a bishop, and a 
 presbyter or an elder, were one and the same, one was the name 
 of their age, the other of their office ; as Jerome in his Com- 
 mentary upon the Epistle to Titus, and in his epistles to Oceanus 
 and Evagrius, proves from Acts xx. 17, 28 ; Phil. L 1 ; 1 Tim. iv. 
 14; Tit. i. 5; Heb. xlii. 17; 1 Pet. v. 1, 2; 2 John 1; 3 John 
 1. Therefore the most learned and incomparable Jewel, Bishop of 
 Salisbury, in his Apology for the Church of England against 
 Harding,* when Harding said, ' They were condemned df heresy 
 who denyed the distinction of bishop from presbyter,' he sets in the 
 margin, " It is false, for then St. Paul, Jerome, and other good 
 men are condemned of heresy." Neither is Bishop Morton of 
 Durham's answer, in his Catholic Apology,^ unlike this. " Jerome," 
 says he, " perhaps, was of the same judgment with Aerius, neither 
 did the other fathers think otherwise." Lastly, that Theodoret, 
 Ambrose, Augustine, also Chrysostom, Primasius, and Sedulius 
 had the same opinion as St. Jerome about the equality of elders, 
 or presbyters and bishops, which opinion was condemned in Aerius, 
 then in the Waldenses, and lastly in WickliiF, Michael de Medina 
 
 ' De Civit Dei lib. 19, cap. xix. » Lib. i. p. 47. ' U. ii. ver. 729. 
 
 * Part 2, cap. 9, pg. 173. ' Part i. cap. 33. 
 
VBR. XXVITI.] LITEEALLY EXPLAINED, 435 
 
 not only said in his book ' of the original and continency of sacred 
 men, upon which account he was miserably abused by the Jesuit 
 Dionysius Petavius ; - but also the same Medina affirmed the same 
 openly in the Council of Trent, neither did he stick (though many 
 fretted at it) publicly to contend, that so far Jerome and Augustine 
 had an heretical opinion, the matter, to wit, not being altogether 
 clear. Which as it moved others not a little, " So," saith the 
 writer of the history of the Council of Trent, " this doctor, sticking 
 close to his own opinion, maintained it with his might." Neither 
 is there aught that makes against it in Sforza Pallavicini's his- 
 tory of the Council of Trent, against Paulus Venetus, published 
 at Rome, Anno 1657. Further, Petavius himself doth also 
 witness, that Medina was not the only man among the papists 
 who was of this judgment, but that others also did ascribe the said 
 heresy to the forecited fathers. And Morton in the forementioned 
 place of his Apology " does adduce some of them. Rivet also :* 
 " Therefore, although according to the terms of honour, which the 
 church now useth, as saith Augustine in his epistle to Jerome, the 
 episcopacy be greater than the presbytery, yet Richard of Armagh 
 said truly, There is no difference found in the evangelical or 
 apostolical scriptures betwixt bishops and simple priests, who are 
 called presbyters ; whence it follows that there is the same power 
 in both." " Whether," saith Cassander,* " the episcopacy ought to 
 be put among the orders of the church, is not agreed upon betwixt 
 the theologues and the canonists ; but it is agreed upon among all, 
 that in the age of the apostles, there was no difference betwixt 
 bishops and presbyters; but that afterward, to evite schism a 
 bishop was set over presbyters." But as Musculus, in his 
 common places, saith excellently of the ministers of the word : ' 
 " Whether this counsel whereby such bishops are more by 
 custom introduced, to use Jerome's words, than by the truth of 
 the Lord's appointment, to be greater than presbyters, be profitable 
 for the church of Christ or not, hath been better manifested in the 
 following ages, than when this custom was first introduced," &o. 
 See what follows there, and the history of episcopacy written in 
 ■English not long ago, by that indefatigable preacher of God's word, 
 the Rev. Richard Baxter, famous for knowledge and piety.' 
 
 To feed. That is, to rule as pastor does his flock, and it is 
 
 ' Cap. V. * Dissert, de Epic. Dignit. et Jurisdict. lib. i. 
 
 ' Theol. Dogm. torn. iii. de Eccles. lib. ii. cap. viii. * Sum. Contra. Tract, ii. qusst. 22. 
 
 ' Ad Qnaet. Arm. lib. ii. cap. v. Consult Art. 14. ' Page 246. 
 'Also Greg. Naz. Orat. 28. An^st, in Pa»!. cv. Whitaker Qusst. i. de pont. Rom. cap. 3. 
 
 F F 2 
 
436 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XX. 
 
 extended to every part of managing the flock, such as to lead, 
 defend, rule, and direct them. " The care of the church is equally 
 divided among many," saith Jerome. For as he saith, " Before that 
 by the instigation of the devil, there were parties made in religion, 
 and it was said among the people, / am of Paul, I of Apollos, but 
 I am of Cephas, the churches were governed by the common advice 
 of presbyters." Those spiritual pastors set up by God to feed not 
 their own flock, but the flock of their Lord and Supreme Pastor, 
 ought to consult the good of the flock, and procure their salvations 
 feeding the people with divine oracles and healthful admonitions, 
 and by strong reasons refelling the opposers of the Christian faith. 
 See Tit. i. 9; 1 Pet. v. 2—4. 
 
 The church. That is, a company of men professing the saving 
 doctrine of Christ. Behold here, as also Phil. i. 1 ; the church is 
 distinguished from the presbyters, who had the oversight of it, 
 which oversight is in the Greek called ETrtffKOTr}?, "episcopacy ;" above, 
 ch. i. 20; therefore the overseers of the church, who are frequently 
 called presbyters in the New Testament, and four times bishops 
 from their office, are not alone the church, much Jess any bishop 
 of bishops. 1 Cor. i. 2; x. 32; xi. 16; 2 Cor. i. 1; 1 Pet. v. 1—3. 
 
 Of God. The Christian multitude is the church or flock of God, 
 and the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Beza witnesseth that 
 he read in five copies, " of the Lord and of God." Many other 
 Greek copies have only " of the Lord;" by which "Lord," after the 
 apostolic manner of speaking, is deservedly meant Jesus of Nazareth, 
 Matt. xvi. 18; Bom. xvi. 16; because, as it is said above, ch. ii. 
 36, God made him Lord and Christ, which excellently agrees with 
 what foUoweth. 
 
 Which he 'purchased. That, to wit, it might be to him a peculiar 
 people. 
 
 With his own blood. Poured out upon the altar of the cross. But 
 if by the word " of God," be understood God the Father, it is the 
 same as if he should say, with the bloody death of his only-begotten 
 Son Jesus Christ. Hence saith Beza it is read in one Greek copy, 
 "By this blood, of this his own," viz.. Son. " The strength of that 
 article," saith Beza, "is to be observed, whereby the excellency of 
 this blood, and the antithesis is declared, which is more copiously 
 expounded, Heb. ix. 12. For this blood was truly holy, yea, a 
 truly purifying and sanctifying blood, flowing out of him, who as 
 he truly is a most pure Man, so is he also truly, and in the most 
 perfect manner, God. We ought to make much of what God has 
 
VEU. XXXI.j ; LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 437 
 
 bought so dear. See Eph. i. 12, 13 ; Col. i. 14, 20 ; Heb. ix. 12, 
 &c,; 1 Pet. i. 18, 19; Kev. v. 9. 
 
 29. / know. The Spirit revealing it to me. 
 
 That after my departing. The Greek word a^i^ic; here used, says 
 Ludovicus de Dieu, is in the Glossary rendered, "arrival, departing," 
 and is used in the Attic signification by Demosthenes, as well as here. 
 
 Wolves. Heretical teachers, who, with their false and deadly 
 doctrine, corrupt and destroy the flock of Christ, are so called by a 
 metaphor. See our literal explanation. Matt. vii. 15. Such spiri- 
 tual wolves are according to Christ's command to be once and again 
 admonished. Matt, xviii. 16 — 18; if that do not avail, we ought to 
 break off familiar correspondence with them; but the apostles' insti- 
 tutions and examples forbid to exasperate these false teachers with 
 curses, or to oppress them with carnal violence, or to put them to 
 death. 1 Cor. v. 9; Tit. iii. 10. See 2 Tim. ii. 24, 25. 
 
 Grievous. That is, barbarously and intolerably cruel. 
 
 JVot sparing thejlock. That is, who shall have no pity upon the 
 flock. He goes on in his similitude and allegory, begun ver. 28, 
 meaning by the flock, the church or company of believers in Christ, 
 who are frequently called sheep. 
 
 30. Of your own selves. Lawfully called to the pastoral office, not 
 only the same presbyters to whom the pastoral charge of the church 
 of Ephesus is committed, and to whom Paul then spoke, as appears 
 from ver. 28, are noted, but also such of their equals and successors, 
 as should even in other churches degenerate into wolves. 
 
 Arise. That is, spring up and appear in public. 
 Speaking perverse things. That is, teaching things contrary to 
 the revealed truth, and wresting the very words of the apostles into 
 a bad sense. 
 
 To draw away disciples after them. As much as to say, that they 
 may draw away such as embraced the faith of Christ, to follow their 
 own fictions. 
 
 31. Therefore. The peril, to wit, of the churches making ship- 
 wreck of faith by those false teachers who are to arise being at 
 hand. 
 
 Watch. Lest God's flock be corrupted and destroyed by dangerous 
 doctrines, while either ye sleep or neglect the care of the church. 
 
 Remember that by the space of three years. About. "To those two 
 years, to wit," saith Ludovicus de Dieu, " in which he taught in the 
 school of Tyrannus, must first be added the three months in which,j 
 before these two years, he taught in the synagogue. Acts xix. 8, 
 
438 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XX. 
 
 10 ; then that time also, though short, in which he taught at Ephesus, 
 when he came thither with Aquila and Priscilla, ActsxTiii. 19; for 
 Paul was come a whole year to Ephesus, with Aquila and Priscilla, 
 before that space of three months, although Paul spent the most 
 part of that year in that third journey of his, wherein he went up to 
 Jerusalem; thence he visited Antioch, Phrygia, and Galatia, before 
 he came to Ephesus the second time." Acts xviii. 21 — 23 ; xix. 1. 
 I ceased not to warn every one, night and day. As much as to say, 
 I left not off for one night or a day to warn with tears every one of 
 you of his duty; pitying their lot who were negligent in their 
 pastoral care. 
 
 32. And now. Being to return to you no more. 
 
 I commend you to God. That is, I commend and commit you to 
 the care and protection of God. 
 
 And to the word of his grace. That is, to the gospel in which the 
 saving grace of God is declared unto men. 
 
 Which. God, by that word of grace, or the gospel. 
 
 Is able. That is, is willing, for the apostle doth not here speak 
 of an idle power in God, but of an active, which, by the inclination 
 of his will, is bent upon doing good. 
 
 Build you up. Adhering, to wit, to the evangelical institutions, 
 w^hich I delivered unto you, to perfect and accomplish in you that 
 holiness, which your wonderful calling to the faith of Christ re- 
 quireth. 
 
 And to give you an inheritance. That is, a firm possession of 
 eternal life and happiness in heaven. " Because that among the 
 Hebrews, things only fallen by inheritance could not be alienated, 
 therefore they call every firm and perpetual possession an inheri- 
 tance," saith Grotius.' 
 
 Among all them, which are sanctified. That is, among all them, 
 who are by the grace of God separated from the rabble of profane 
 for God himself, and sanctified by his Spirit, that they might con- 
 tinue his obedient sons, in holiness of life; The saints are said to 
 inherit heavenly blessedness, " Because," saith Grotius," " God- 
 will bestow upon them not only the fruit, but the very propriety 
 thereof." See below, ch. xxvi. 18 ; Eph. i. 18 ; and Col. i. 12. 
 
 33. Silver, &c. Abraham of old showed a great spirit, coveting 
 nothing for himself of the spoil gotten in battle. Gen. xiv. 22, 23. 
 But Paul, as much greater, in that he neither required, nor would 
 take any salary from the Ephesians, to maintain himself and his 
 
 ' Upon Rom. iv. 13. » Upon Eph. i. 18. 
 
VER. XXKV.] LITEllALLY EXPLAINED. 439 
 
 companions, for his weighty and saving labours in preaching the 
 gospel among them. So he witnesseth his own abstinence, 1 Cor. 
 ix. 12, 15, 18 ; 2 Cor. xi. 9; Phil. iv. 15. In like manner Moses 
 protested that he lived among the Israelites, without the least 
 appearance of covetousness. Numb. xvi. 15. Also Samuel, 1 Sam. 
 xii, 3. Gracchus in Gellius, being to leave the province, " I have," 
 eaith he, " so behaved in the province, that none can truly say that 
 I have gotten a shilling or more in gifts." Jerome, being to depart 
 from Rome, " Let them tell," saith he to his slanderers, " what they 
 ever found in me otherwise than became a Christian. Whose money 
 did I get ? Did I not despise gifts either great or small ? Did any 
 man's money sound in my hand?" 
 
 34. That these hands have ministered. That is, supplied. It is 
 remarkable that one Abdolonymus, a poor man, in Q. Curtius, hath 
 spoken in the same very manner that Paul doth here. " These 
 hands," saith he, " supplied my want." Concerning Paul's earning 
 with the labour of his own hands a living for himself and his com- 
 panions in the preaching of the gospel, see above, oh. xviii. 3 ; 
 1 Cor. iv. 12 ; 1 Thess. ii. 9 ; 2 Thess. iii. 8. Why may not also the 
 teachers among the Christians, like this teacher of the Gentiles, 
 when they can, earn their living by their labour ? 
 
 To my necessities. Food and raiment. 
 
 And to them that were with me. Rehearsed above, ver. 4. 
 
 35. All things. By all things, or in all things, or altogether. 
 Such a phrase is in 1 Cor. ix..25 ; x. 33 ; Eph. iv. 15. 
 
 / have shewed unto you. In myself as a pattern. See 2 Thesa. 
 iii. 9. 
 
 How that so labouring. Night and day unto weariness. See 
 1 Cor. iv. 12 ; 1 Thess. ii. 9. 
 
 Ye ought to support the weak. That is, to hold up as it were with 
 the right hand the scrupulous, who have not as yet a firm and 
 strong understanding, or have not as yet apprehended what Is 
 sound in the faith, that they fall not. For such novices and young 
 men In faith and piety, are, I know not how, more suspicious, and 
 do easily believe that such as they mistrust do all things for bodily 
 gain, and that for this end the gospel Itself is preached by them. 
 
 And to remember the words of the Lord Jesus. That is, the 
 apophthegm of the Lord Jesus. 
 
 How he said. That is, used to say, as I have It by tradition from 
 those who heard It from the Lord himself. Or, he is said to have 
 said It, because that, a,lthough it be not expressed in the same very 
 
440 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY AtOSTLES [oHAP. XX. 
 
 words, yet that it was his doctrine is gathered from his sayings, 
 which are mentioned by the evangelists. 
 
 It is more blessed to give than to receive. First because, to give is 
 a sign of abundance, but to receive a sign of want, as Augustine 
 writes. Next because, to give is more honest and a mark of a 
 virtue, to wit, bounty or Hberality, but to receive is no sign of 
 virtue, but either of necessity or of covetousness. "Which Aristotle 
 also observed when he wrote,i that it was more proper for virtue to 
 bestow a benefit than to have one bestowed upon it. Lastly, 
 cljtiefly because he that liberally gives help to the indigent, shall, 
 for. that he gave, have a great reward from God ; but he who 
 receives a benefit shall for the receiving of it have no reward. 
 Lu^e' xii. 33; xvi. 9; xviii. 22; 1 Tim, vi. 19. But yet it is 
 nei'ther unhonest nor unconvenient, if one shall receive a reward as 
 due- to him, for that which by his honest labour he deserved, pro- 
 vided that this receiving may be without offence. See Matt. x. 10, 
 and -pur literal explanation there; Luke x. 7; 1 Cor. ix. 14; 1 Tim. 
 V. 17, 18. 
 
 36. He kneeled down and prayed. It is a great sign of submission 
 to God and reverence towards him, that one who prayeth should 
 kneel. Solomon prayed fervently with bended knees, 1 Kings viii. 
 53;;^ Chron. vi. 13. Also Daniel, Dan. vi. 10. And Jesus Christ, 
 Luke xxii. 41 ; and Stephen, above, ch. vii. 60; and Peter, above, 
 ch. ix. 40 ; and Paul here, and below, ch. xxi. 5 ; and Eph. iii. 14. 
 But that to pray standing was the most commonly received custom 
 among the Jews is clear by that in Nehemiah, ch. ix. 5, the 
 people are commanded to stand at prayer; and Gen. xviii. 22, 
 where it is in the Hebrew, Abraham "stood before God," the 
 Chaldean renders it "prayed." Neither is the verb standing, other- 
 wise used in Jer. xv. 1 ; xviii. 20 ; and Job xxx. 20. So Mark xi. 
 25, When ye stand pmying. And Luke xviii. 11, The pharisee stood 
 and prayed. See our literal explanation, Matt. vi. 5. 
 
 With them all. To wit, with the elders or bishops of the church 
 of Ephesus, whom he sent for from Ephesus to Miletus, to instruct 
 them with wholesome admonitions, above, ver. 17; doubtless, 
 among other things, Paul, in this prayer to God, prayed for divine 
 assistance, that he would help the elders of the church of Ephesus 
 to perform these things of which he admonished them. 
 
 37. And they all wept sore. To show their sorrow for his future 
 absence. 
 
 ' Eth. Nicom. lib iv. cap. 1. 
 
VBfi. I.J LITBKALLY EXPLAINED. 441 
 
 And fell on Paul's neck and kissed him. As a token of their 
 affection to him. 
 
 38. Sorrmmng most of all for the words, &c. As much as to say, 
 they were affected with grief that they could scarcely be com- 
 forted, for that discourse of Paul's, by which he cut them off from 
 all hopes of ever seeing him from that time. 
 
 And they accompanied Mm unto the ship. That they might see 
 Mm and speak to him as long as they could. 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 1. And it came to pass after we — had launched. I Luke, and 
 Paul, and the rest of his companions in his journey, were carried 
 forth in the ship. 
 
 Having gotten from them. Either simply parted, as Luke xxii. 
 41 ; or as it were forcibly taken from our friends the elders of the 
 church of Ephesus. 
 
 We came tvitk a straight course unto Coos. Cous or Coos, or by a 
 synseresis, as Eustathius will have it,' Cos, is an island in the JEgean 
 Sea, on the confines of Caria, as Pomponius Mela affirms.^ Its 
 inhabitants were anciently called Meropes, and the island itself 
 Meropis, as saith Stephen. ^ It became famous by the birth of 
 Apelles, that most excellent painter ; whence he is called by Ovid,* 
 Coan. It was yet further nobilitated by being the native soil of 
 that divine old man (so do the physicians call Hippocrates), on 
 whom there is extant a distich singular for its antistrophe. * Pliny 
 reports that Greece instituted honours to this prince of physicians, 
 equal to those of Hercules. In this island was that famous temple, 
 of Esculapius, as also that of Juno, of whose ornaments Theodorus 
 wrote, as Vitruvius declares.® The islanders were very eloquent; 
 hence the proverb, " A Chian will not suffer a Coan to speak," is 
 applied to those, who being like the Chians addicted to pratingj 
 with their talkativeness hinder others, that are eloquent in their 
 speech, from speaking. The finest apparel, which was wont to be 
 made of silk, for the ornament of women, but not that which is 
 consistent with modesty, is said to have come first from this island, 
 and they were called substantively in the Latin, coa, in the plural 
 
 ' On II. B. ver. 667. ' Lib. ii. cap. 7. ' In Merops. * Art. Am. lib. iii. 
 ' Florileg. Var. Epigr. lib. i. cap. 39. ' Lib. i. 
 
442 TUE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXI. 
 
 number. Aristotle saith, ' that Pamphila the daughter of Latous, 
 of the same island, was the inventrix of these garments. The 
 reason why they were invented was, that women might be as little 
 covered with their garments, as if they were naked. To which 
 TibuUus seems to allude. And Pliny, in the aforesaid book, saith :^ 
 " Nor were men ashamed to make use of these garments by reason 
 of their lightness in summer. So far are they from wearing armour, 
 that their very clothes are a burden to them." At this day this 
 island is called Lango. 
 
 And the following day unto Rhodes. A most famous island, 
 which, according to Ptolemy, lib. v. 2, is situated betwixt Icaria 
 and Lycia. It was renowned for these cities, Lindus, Camirus, 
 and Rhodes, as Pliny relates, lib. v. 31, in which the day is never 
 so cloudy, but the sun shines bright some hour or other of it; 
 witness the same Pliny, lib. ii. 62, whence the poets called it 
 bright.^ Rhodes was of old very rich in shipping, as appears by 
 Strabo.* Its inhabitants built Parthenope, i. e. Naples, amOng the 
 Opici, and Rhoda in Spain. They first taught the Spanish marin- 
 ers to make ropes and maps, very useful for man ; they also first 
 imported into Spain money, beaten out of brass, as Strabo in the 
 forecited book, and Mariana testify.^ Rhodes was beautified M-ith 
 one hundred colossi, one of which was reckoned among the seven 
 wonders of the world. Now these colossi were piles of statues 
 exactly devised, equal to towers ; for which cause, as many are of 
 opinion, the Rhodians were called Colossians, to whom the Epistle 
 of St. Paul was written, entitled to the Colossians. Rhodes has 
 been subject to several vicissitudes ; after this it was subject to the 
 Romans ; the Saracens took it in the year of our Lord 615. The 
 Knights of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem recovered it in the 
 year 1308, and kept it till the year 1602 ; in which year Solyman 
 the Second defeated them, and retook it ; in lieu whereof Charles, 
 fifth Emperor, gave the Knights of St. John the island of Malta ; 
 whence they are commonly called the Knights of Malta. 
 
 And from thence unto Patara. A city of Lycia, according to 
 Hecataeus in his Asia, which still retains its name, as Niger 
 affirms,^ describing the situation of Lycia, and, as he says, not far 
 from the sea, where there is a sea-port town eleven miles distant 
 from it, named Phoenix, very dangerous by reason of the rocks 
 
 ' De Art. Am. lib. iii. Horat. Sat. lib. i. Sat. ii. ver. 109. Hist. An. lib. vi. 
 
 = Plin. lib. xi. cap. 22. cap. 23. » Hor. Car. lib. i. Od. vii. Lucan. Pharsal. viii. 
 
 * Lib. xiv. ' De Reb. Hisp. lib. i. cap. 14. • Geog. Asise Com. 1. 
 
VER. II.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 443 
 
 hanging out fiom the mountain Taurus. It was first called 
 Sataros, as Pliny relates;' afterwards by Ptolomaeus Philadelphus, 
 after he had enlarged it, it was named Arsinoe of Lycia, in honour 
 of his wife: but the name it had from the beginning prevailed, 
 saith Strabo.' From this city Apollo had the epithet of Patarsean ; 
 for that in the winter half year he gave responses here, as he did 
 at Delos in the summer, according to Servius.' His temple made 
 Patara a city of great note, being of equal esteem with that at 
 Delphos, both for its riches and veracity of the oracle; witness 
 Mela.* Hence possibly the Spaniards call fictions Pataratas ; for 
 the oracles of the Greeks were mere delusions. 
 
 2. And finding a ship sailing over. That is, having got the 
 opportunity of a ship that was about to cross. 
 
 Unto Plwenice. Or Phoenicia, a most noted country of Asia, not 
 far distant from Rhodes, by the Ethnic historians comprehended 
 under Syria, but by the writers of the New Testament under the 
 land of Canaan. Hence Stephen affirmeth that it was anciently 
 called Chna, which is nothing else but the word Canaan cut short. 
 This is also confirmed by St. Augustine in his exposition on the 
 Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans: "Whence our countrymen, 
 being asked what countrymen they are, while they answer in the 
 Carthaginian tongue Canani, with the corruption only of one 
 letter, which in such cases usually happens, what else do they say 
 but Chanannites?" The learned are also agreed that the Poeni, 
 that is, the Africans or Carthaginians, were at first inhabitants of 
 Phoenicia, though they differ much in their etymology. Aristotle^ 
 deriveth it from Phoenixai, which in the lingua of the Perrhsebi 
 signifies to kill, because that when they first crossed the seas, at 
 whatsoever place they arrived they put all to the sword. " But 
 I," saith the most learned Thomas de Pinedo, " cannot assent to it, 
 though the opinion of so great a man, while reason so loudly 
 speaks against it; for if they were desirous of commerce, after 
 they had spread their colonies, it is not likely they would kill the 
 inhabitants of the countries they came to. And although for 
 some time they were pirates, as Thucydides affirms," yet it is not 
 probable that they had that name from the Perrhsebi. Others, 
 among whom Callisthenes, whose opinion I willingly embrace, 
 deduce it from Phoenix, which signifies a palm-tree, which Aris- 
 totle opposes, though against reason ; in which particular Fuller 
 
 * Lib. V. cap. 27. ' Lib. xiv. ' Ad/Eneid. lib. ix. ver. 143. Vide Horat. iii. Car. iii. Od. iv. 
 * Lib. i cap. IS. ' Lib. de Mirabil. ' Lib. i. 
 
444 IHE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES . [CHAF. XXT. 
 
 and Scaliger, though otherwise very learned men, show themselves 
 very ridiculous, while he derives that name of Phoenicia from 
 Phinesias, and the other from Pinnek. Stephanus deduces it from 
 Phoenix, the son of Agenor or Neptune, by Libye. Dionysius 
 Periegeta asserts, that the Phoenicians owe their original to a 
 people that dwelt by the Red Sea ; that they first invented the 
 arts of navigation and astronomy, and did traffic, says he, in that 
 never to be enough praised treatise of his, intituled Periegesis; In 
 steering their course they observed Cynosura, that is, the Lesser 
 Bear, whereas the Grecians took their directions from Helice, that 
 is, the Greater Bear, as Ovid has accurately expressed both of 
 them.' The Phoenicians were the first inventors of letters, for 
 Cadmus is reported to have been the first that transported them 
 from Phoenicia into Greece ; witness Diodorus Siculus. Of our 
 writers Pliny speaketh thus of Phoenicia, and the inventions of 
 the Phoenicians : ' Those who divide critically will have Phoenicia 
 to be encompassed by Syria ; that it is the maritime border of 
 Syria, a part of which is Idumea and Judea, then Phoenicia, finally 
 Syria. All the sea that lies before it has the name of the Phoe- 
 nician Sea. The people of Phoenicia were of great account of old, 
 for that they invented letters, knowledge of the stars, and naval 
 and military arts. Hence Lucan :- — 
 
 Phoenicians first adventured, if we may credit fame, 
 To eternize the voice, to grave't on an unpolish'd frame. 
 
 I am fully persuaded that those Phoenician letters were the same 
 which of old the Canaanites and ancient Hebrews, and the Sama- 
 ritans at this day use, whatever the followers of the Jews' Rabbis 
 say to the contrary." Thus far Thomas de Pinedo. See what we 
 have said above, ch. xi. 19. 
 
 We went aboard, and set forth. That is, having got aboard that 
 ship we were carried forth. 
 
 3. Now when vie had discovered Cyprus. That is to say, "When 
 the island Cyprus appeared to us, or was within the reach of our 
 sight. Of this island, which was inferior to none in fertility of 
 wine and oil, and affluence of all necessaries, see above, ch. iv. 36. 
 
 Having left it on the left hand. That is, having left this famous 
 island of Cyprus on our left hand. 
 
 We sailed into Syria. Which the ancients divided into Phoenicia, 
 Palestina, and Caele, as a certain anonymous author published by 
 Gothofred affirms.'' 
 
 1 Fast. lib. iii. ver. 107. " Lib. iii. » Cap. 17. 
 
VER. V.J LITEHALLY EXPLAINEI). 445 
 
 And landed at Tyre, The metropolis of Phoenicia. See what' 
 we have said of Tyre and Sidon, Matt. xi. 21. 
 
 For there the ship was to unlade her burden. That is, the ship 
 was to be emptied of her goods wherewith it was laden, that they 
 might be exposed to sale in this flourishing merchant town, 
 
 4. And finding disciples. That is, some Christians that dwelt at 
 Tyre ; see above. Beza conjectures that the word disciples denoted 
 those that followed Christ, when they were dispersed, and had not 
 yet churches appointed, ch. ii. 19, 26; but that the word brethren 
 signified those that had settled churches. But that this distinction 
 is without any solid foundation is apparent from ch. ix. 26, and ch. 
 xi. 29, of the Christians of Jerusalem ; of those of Antioch, chj 
 xiv. 28, &c. ; xv. 1, 10, 36 ; of those of Philippi, ch. xvi. 40. 
 
 We tarried .there seven days. Being not a little solaced with that 
 intimate fellowship we had with the Christians at Tyre. 
 
 Who said to Paul through the Spirit, As if he had said. When 
 by the revelation of the Holy Spirit they were informed what 
 great hazards Paul would undergo if he went up to Jerusalem; 
 being at the same time ignorant that Paul was constrained thereto 
 by an impulse of the same Spirit, they dissuaded him from going 
 thither, not by the indictment of the Holy Spirit, but only from a 
 principle of love to Paul. 
 
 5. And when we had accomplished those days. The seven above 
 mentioned at Tyre. 
 
 We departed. From Tyre. 
 
 And went our way. That is to say. Proceeded on our journey to 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 And they all brought us on our way. The Christians at Tyre, 
 who had an entire affection to Paul. 
 
 And we kneeled down. Seeing this [was] done within that 
 interval of time which is betwixt Easter and WhitsuntidCi it 
 plainly appears that it was after the times of the apostles that the 
 primitive church did introduce the custom of not worshipping on 
 their knees, as Tertullian and Jerome express it, all Quinqua- 
 gesima over, or the fifty days which intervene betwixt the paschal 
 feast and Pentecost^ as the most learned Christopher Justellus, 
 father to the very learned Henry, hath observed.^ 
 
 On the shore and prayed. On the searsand in a solitary place, 
 apart from the city, occasioned indeed by reason of Paul's journey, 
 
 ' Ad. Can. xx. Concil. Nicen, 
 
446 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXI. 
 
 but also agreeable to the custom of the Jews, who were wont on 
 their fasts to pray on the shore, as may be seen in TertuUian.' 
 
 6. And when we had taken our leave one of another. Embracing 
 one another, as was usual, with a kiss of charity. See above, ch. 
 XX. 1. 
 
 We took ship. We who were to accompany Paul farther. 
 And they. The Christians who inhabited Tyre. 
 Returned home again. Every one to their own houses. 
 
 7. And when we had finished our course. That is, got farther on 
 our voyage. 
 
 From Tyre we came to Ptolemais. A town of Phoenicia, formerly 
 called Ace, or with a Latin termination Aca. It is mentioned by 
 Pliny in these words :^ "Ptolemais, which was formerly called 
 Ade, was a colony of Claudius Csesar." Delecampius takes notice 
 that it was named Aeon in an ancient manuscript, which cometh 
 nearer the original name of that town Acho, or Accho, which we 
 read. Judges i. 31, in the Hebrew text, and here in the Syriac 
 version. It is said by Josephus' to be a city of Galilee, but that 
 part of Galilee belonged to Phoenicia, and Phoenicia and Palestine 
 were comprehended under Syria ; whence writers ascribed their 
 cities sometimes to the one, sometimes to the other. It was an 
 ancient and great city, which the Persians made use of as a seat of 
 war against Egypt, as Strabo relateth.* The coast betwixt this 
 and Tyre, was encompassed with banks of sand, whence they were 
 furnished with sand for making of glass, as Strabo and Josephus 
 ■report in the forecited places ; the latter of whom calls it Arce 
 and Actipus,^ which Fuller alleges® ought to be utterly exploded as 
 monsters of words, but without any solid ground ; for, according to 
 Justus, the Hebrew in Acho, this city was likewise called Arce. 
 Ace, therefore, and Arce, was the same individual town, as Da- 
 meshek and Darmeshek was the same city which the Latins called 
 Damascus. By Ptolemy it was called Arca,^ and reckoned among 
 the Mediterranean towns of Phoenicia. Elius Lampridius, in the 
 life of Alexander Severus, calls it Area Casarea and Arcena, who 
 likewise says that this emperor was born there, and that on his 
 birth-day there was seen in the same city a star of the first magni- 
 tude from morning till night. Eusebius, Bishop of Ctesarea, in 
 the first book of his Chronicles reports, that Alexander the emperor, 
 
 ' De Jejun. et lib. i. adv. Nation. ' Lib. v. cap. 19. ' De Bel. Jud. lib. ii. cap. 7. 
 
 * Lib. xvi. * Antiq. Jud. lib. v. cap. 1. " Miscel. Sacr. lib. iv. cap. IS. 
 
 ' Geograph. lib. v. cap. 15. 
 
VER. VIII.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 447 
 
 son to Mammaeus, was also born there, in which place he calls this 
 same city Areas in the plural number. But Actipus is derived 
 from the Hebrew Kepitha, which was a part of the city Acho, as 
 appears by the Jerusalem Talmud, in the treatise entitled She- 
 muoth, cap. 6, where you will meet with these following words : — > 
 " Rabbi (that is, Jehuda Hanasi, or the prince of the great San- 
 hedrim, whom by way of excellency they call Kabbi without any 
 additament,) was in Acho, and there he saw a certain man ascend 
 from Kepitha." Hence Josephus formed Actipus, which is changed 
 by Ptolemy and Pliny unto Ecdippa.* It is true that the same 
 Pliny mentioneth Ace and Ecdippa as two distinct cities, and 
 Ptolemy Ecdippa, and Ptolemais, and Area, as diflferent cities of 
 Phoenicia. But in this case more credit is to be given to Josephus, 
 who affirms that Arce, Actipus, and Ptolemais, are one and the 
 same city, in the portion of the tribe of Asher or Asser. Bo- 
 chartus saith of the same city, — "The Neoterics call it Acre, 
 which is most known: therefore it is read in Benjamin, 'From 
 ■Tyre it is a day's journey to Acre,' which is Accho, not to Acde, 
 as vulgarly." In 3 Mace. chap, the last, towards the close, it is 
 called Ptolemais the Rosary, from the nature of the place. 
 
 8. But another day. That is, " and the next day," as it is in 
 the common English translation. 
 
 Departed. From Ptolemais. In the Greek is added here, as 
 also in the English translation, " They that were with Paul," that 
 is, Paul and his companions in his journey. The like expression is 
 extant above, ch. xiii. 13. See our commentary there. 
 
 We came. A few days after. 
 
 U7ito CcEsarea, &c. Of Palestine ; of which see above, ch. 
 viii. 40. 
 
 And we entered into the house of Philip. Who had gone thither 
 long ago, after that he had baptized the Ethiopian eunuch above, 
 ch. viii. 40. 
 
 The evangelist. That is, the preacher of the gospel. They are 
 called evangelists in the New Testament, who having been set 
 over no particular church, assisted the apostles in spreading the 
 gospel of Christ. But in succeeding times it grew out of use, so 
 that they were only called evangelists who committed the life and 
 doctrine of Christ to writing. And of those four penmen of the 
 gospel, John is in a peculiar manner surnamed the evangelist, to 
 distinguish him from John the Baptist. 
 
 ' tib. xcv. cap, IS. lib. T. cap. 16. 
 
448 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXI. 
 
 Which. Philip, a preacher of the gospel. See above, cti. viil. 3. 
 
 Was one of the seven. Deacons, or stewards of the church goods 
 at Jerusalem, chosen above, oh. vi. 5 ; see there. 
 
 And abode with him. That is, were friendly entertained in his 
 house. 
 
 9. And the same man. Excellent preacher of the gospel. 
 Had. Not shut up in a monastery, but abiding at home with 
 
 him. 
 
 Four daughters. Beyond all controversy procreated in and by 
 •lawful marriage. 
 
 Virgins. Who at that time were not married, but that they 
 were afterward given in wedlock, writeth that incomparably 
 learned man Clemens, a presbyter, of Alexandria. 
 
 Which did prophesy. That is, did foretell things to come by 
 divine inspiration, as Deborah the wife of Lapidoth, Judg. iv. 4 ; 
 and Holda, or Hulda, tbe wife of Sellum or Shallum, 2 Kings 
 xxii. 14; and Anna the prophetess, Luke ii. 26. 
 
 10. And as we tarried there many days. At Csesarea of Pales- 
 tine, in the house of Philip the deacon, refreshing ourselves after 
 our late voyage. 
 
 There came down from Judcea. That is, from the province 
 belonging to the tribe of Judah. 
 
 A certain prophet named Agahus. See of him above, ch. xi. 28. 
 
 11. Bound his own hands and feet. It was usual with the 
 prophets, that what they i)redicted in words to be perceived by the 
 ear, they also represented to the eye, by obvious and palpable 
 things ; as you may see, Isa. xx. 2, 3 ; Jer. xiii. 1, 4 ; xxvii. 2 ; 
 Ezek. iv. 5—12. 
 
 Thus saith the Holy Ghost. That is. The Holy Spirit hath 
 inspired me from heaven to foretell these things to come. 
 
 The man. That is Paul. This prophecy of Agabus is even- 
 tually fulfilled below, ver. 33. 
 
 12. He besought. Luke, Aristarchus,' Trophimus, and the rest 
 of Paul's attendants in his journeys. 
 
 And they of that place. That is, the Christians who dwelt at 
 Cffisarea of Palestine. 
 
 That he should not go up. To wit, Paul. 
 
 To Jerusalem. The cruel murderess of the prophets, and who 
 stoned them with stones that were sent unto her. Matt, xxiii. 37. 
 
 13. T/tew Paul answered. To give a check to their unseasonable 
 affection to him wards. 
 
VER. XVI.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 449 
 
 What mean ye to weep, and to break my heart 9 As if he had said, 
 Alas ! my heart is rent, while I see you thus, though to no pur- 
 pose, endeavour to deter me from going to Jerusalem. 
 
 Not to be hound only, but also to die. Not only to endure the 
 bitterness of bonds, but even that of death itself. 
 
 In Jerusalem. That is, at Jerusalem, whete our Lord Jesus 
 underwent the infamous death of the cross for my salviation's sake. 
 
 / am ready— for the nam£ of the Lord Jesus. That is, that I may 
 glorify the Lord Jesus by my death. One's name is usually put 
 for one, as we have observed before. 
 
 14. And when he would not be persuaded. That he should not go 
 to Jerusalem, and expose himself to such imminent dangers. 
 
 We ceased. To wit, to dissuade him any further from this 
 journey. 
 
 Saying, The will of the lAfrd he done. Submitting our affections 
 to the Divine will ; praying that the event may be, not according 
 to our wills, but God's. So Epictetus divinely said : " I had 
 rather alway what God willeth come to pass, than what I. I will 
 be joined and cleave to him, as a servant and waiting-man ; with 
 him I long, with him I desire, and simply, and in a word, whatever 
 God willeth that I will." 
 
 15. And after those days. Which we passed at Cs3sarea of Palestine. 
 
 We tooh up our carriages. Things requisite for our journey. 
 
 And went up to Jerusalem. That is, took our journey to Jeru- 
 salem. Some think that by the word "ascend," in journeying 
 toward Jerusalem, it is implied, that Jerusalem lies higher than 
 other places. But this word is used to denote a similar journey to 
 any place whatever, as you may see, Gen. xxxv. 1 ; xlv. 9 ; xlvi. 
 29, 31. 
 
 16. There went also certain of the disciples. That is to say. Chris- 
 tians. 
 
 Of Ccesarea. Of Palestine, where we lodged, at Philip the 
 deacon's house. 
 
 With us. That accompanied Paul to Jerusalem. 
 . And brought with them. That is, were accompanied by him, who 
 possibly had come from Jerusalem to Caesarea, and was thence 
 returning home to Jerusalem. 
 
 With whom we should lodge. That is, that I, Luke, and the rest 
 of Paul's companions, and Paul himself should sojourn at his house 
 at Jerusalem at the feast of Pentecost now approaching. 
 Mnason of Cyprus. Born in the island Cyprus. 
 
 G u 
 
450 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XXI. 
 
 An old disciple. That is, who now for a considerable time liad 
 ■been a Christian. Hence we may conjecture that all the Christians 
 dwelling in Jerusalem, did not sell their houses above, ch. iv. 32, 
 34 ; for this Mnason, an old disciple of Christ, who possibly heard 
 Jesus Christ himself teach, seems to have had a house of his own 
 at Jerusalem, in which he could lodge a great many together. 
 
 17. The brethren received us gladly. That is, the Christians that 
 dwelt at Jerusalem saluted us most lovingly, and congratulated 
 our coming. 
 
 With us. That is, with me, Luke, and other companions of Paul 
 in his journey. 
 
 Unto James. The son of Alphaeus. Of whom see above, ch. xii. 
 17, and xv. 13. See also Gal. i. 9 ; ii. 12, 19. There is no mention 
 made of Peter here, nor of the other apostles ; whence it appears, 
 that they had before that gone from Jerusalem unto other places, 
 to preach the gospel to them. 
 
 19. And when he had saluted them. With brotherly embraces. 
 He declared particularly. That is, he gave an account of every 
 
 thing in order, or of all, one after another. 
 
 J^-liat things God had wrought among the Gentiles. That is, 
 among the nations which were aliens to the common-wealth of 
 Israel. 
 
 By his ministry. Converting them to the Christian faith. 
 
 20. And when they heard it. How great things God had wrought 
 by the ministry of Paul among the foreign nations. 
 
 They glorified the Lord. That is, they gave thanks, and ascribed 
 the praise to God, the Author of those good things in propagating 
 the gospel, and bringing men to salvation. 
 
 And they said unto him. To wit, Paul. 
 
 Thou seest, brother, how many thousands, &c. As if they said, 
 you are not ignorant, brother, how great a multitude of Jews 
 there is, who, although they have embraced Christianity, yet are 
 all so fervently zealous for the legal ceremonies, that if there be 
 any neglect of them, will be highly offended. Of such zeal or 
 fervent affection, see Rom. x. 2 ; Gal. i. 14. 
 
 21. And they are informed, &c. As if they said, It has been 
 reported to those zealous avouchers of the Mosaic rites, that thou 
 teachest the Jews-that dwell dispersed among the Gentiles, that the 
 statutes that Moses appointed, are to be rejected, nor are their 
 sons to be circumcised, nor other rites prescribed in the law to be 
 observed. So they calumniated Paul, that being instructed by 
 
VER. XXV.J LITEBALLY EXPLAINIB. 451 
 
 Christ, he taught that the legal ceremonies, now when Christ is 
 revealed, were not necessary to salvation, though in such things, 
 now not necessary hut instituted by God of old, he thought fit for 
 a while to bear with them, who being not fully enlightened, did 
 think that they were still in force, and accommodated himself to 
 them in such things by Christian charity as you may see above, 
 ch. xvi. 3 ; 1. Cor. ix. 20. See above, ch. xv. 2, 8. 
 
 Neither to walk after the customs. That is, nor observe other 
 rites appointed in the law. 
 
 22. What is it therefore ? Supply " to be done ;'" that the affec- 
 tions of so great a multitude of believers may be reconciled to 
 thee. 
 
 Must needs, &c. That is, it cannot otherwise bej but that a 
 multitude of Jews converted to Christ will come together to visit 
 you, when they have heard, which cannot be concealed, that you 
 are come hither to Jerusalem. 
 
 23. Four men which have a vow on them That is, who have 
 bound themselves with a vow of a Nazarite, Of these Nazarites, 
 see Numb. vi. 
 
 24. Thiem take, and purify thyself with them. That is, add thy- 
 self a fifth to these four men, who of believing Jews have taken a 
 vow of a Nazarite, and be thou with them a Nazarite to the Lord, 
 or abstain from worldly business ; the Hebrew noun nazir signi- 
 fieth one sanctified, or separated and consecrated to the Lord. 
 Numb. vi. 2, 5. 
 
 And he at charges vnth them, that they may shave their heads. 
 That is, and when the time of the said vow of a Nazarite is 
 fulfilled, add also thy share of the charges for oblations, which 
 these four Nazarites shall offer to God, that when they have 
 offered them, they may leave their hair at the door of the taber- 
 nacle of the congregation. Numb. vi. 18, 19. 
 
 And all may know. Judaizing Christians, who by reason of 
 their number ought neither to be despised, nor offended. 
 
 Tliat those things whereof they were informed concerning thee. 
 That is, the rumour, whereby it was reported to them that thou 
 art an enemy to the law of Moses. 
 
 Are nothing. That is, to be a lying and malicious defamation. 
 
 But that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law. 
 Seeing thou art an observer of the rites of the law. 
 
 25. As touching the Gentiles, &c. As if they said, there is no 
 cause why you should fear, lest, if thou observe these rites of the 
 
 6 G 2 
 
452 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXI. 
 
 law, those of the Gentiles who have embraced the faith of Clirist, 
 should by your example be persuaded, that they also are obliged 
 to observe the rites of the law of Moses ; for, as you very well 
 know, we hare sent unto them a synodical epistle by the unani-r 
 mous judgment of the church, wherein we have signified, that no 
 legal rites are necessary to be observed by them, save abstaining from 
 things offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled} 
 and from fornication. See what we have said above, ch. xv. 1, 5, 
 20—23, 28—30. 
 
 26. Then Paul. Hearkening to the advice of the brethren, 
 that he might avoid giving of offence. 
 
 Took the men. Viz., those four Nazaritee, of which above, 
 ver. 23. 
 
 And the next day purifying himself with them. That is, being 
 together with them separated from them who were accounted 
 common or unclean. 
 
 He entered into the temple. Of Jerusalem. 
 
 To signify, &c. Declaring to the priests in how many days the 
 vow of a Nazarite taken by him and his companions would be 
 fulfilled, that having finished it, the sacrifices appointed by the law 
 might be offered for them. Numb. vi. 14, 15. 
 
 27. And when the seven days were almost ended. That is, when 
 those seven days were now near fulfilled, after which Paul and the 
 other four Nazarites were to quit their vow of Nazarite. 
 
 The Jews which were of Asia. Viz., who had come from Ephesus, 
 the metropolis of Asia, strictlier so called, to Jerusalem, to celebrate 
 the feast of Pentecost there. 
 
 When they saw him in the temple. That is, beheld Paul in the 
 temple of Jerusalem. 
 
 They stirred up all the people. That is, the multitude of people 
 that were there present. 
 
 And laid hands on him, crying. That is, and they laid hold on 
 him violently, thus complaining. 
 
 28. Against the people. Of Israel. 
 
 And the law. Delivered by God to Moses. 
 
 And this place. That is, this holy temple of Jerusalem. 
 
 Teacheth all men everywhere. This false accusation and reproach 
 was thrown upon Paul here and above, ch. xvii. 6, because he 
 taught that not only the Jewish nation were to be accounted the 
 people of God, but all who of what nation soever believed in Christ 
 and lived soberly, righteously, and godly; that the force and 
 
VEB, XXXI.3 LITEKALLY EXPLAINED. 453 
 
 obligation of typic ceremonies, or those which were previous to 
 the coming of Christ, had ceased; that since the time that the 
 evangelic law began to be promulged, the worship of God, who 
 must be worshipped in spirit and truth, was not restricted to the 
 temple of Jerusalem. On the same cause and occasion they 
 accused and calumniated Stephen; above, ch. vi. 13. 
 
 And Greeks also. Profane, and aliens to the people of God. 
 
 He hath brought into the temple. Viz., into that part of the temple 
 into which it was lawful only for the Israelites, or those that were 
 initiated in the Israelitic holy mysteries to enter. Otherwise there 
 was an outer court, which was apart from the temple, and that 
 court was open to Jews and Gentiles alike ; nor were any shut out 
 of it, save women lately delivered of a child, and those that were 
 troubled with an issue of blood, or monthly flowers. 
 
 And hath polluted this holy place. That is, and so he hath defiled 
 and profaned that stately temple of Jerusalem, consecrated for the 
 worship of the divine Majesty. 
 
 29. For they had seen. Yiz,, some of those Jews of Ephesus, 
 Paul's accusers, or rather calumniators. 
 
 Trophimus, an Ephesian. Known by them that he was a heathen 
 by birth, nor had he been initiated in the Jewish religion. Of this 
 Trophimus there is mention made above, ch. xx. 4 ; 2 Tim. iv. 20. 
 
 In the city. Viz., Jerusalem. 
 
 With him. Viz., Paul. 
 
 Whom. Paul's very intimate friend. 
 
 They supposed. Viz., being blinded with an insatiable desire of 
 mocking and calumniating Paul. 
 
 30. And all the city was moved, &c. As if he said. In the mean- 
 while, by the outcry of those Ephesian Jews, the report of Paul's 
 accusation, was come to the ears of almost all citizens and in- 
 habitants, and those who at that time sojourned at Jerusalem, 
 whereby the people being incensed, run together, and with a mad 
 violence rush upon Paul and draw him forth out of the temple 
 with design to kill him there, and lest the Gentiles should make an 
 irruption into the temple on his revenge, when they had drawn 
 him out of the temple, the Levites, the porters, immediately shut 
 the gates of the temple. 
 
 31. And as they went ahout to kill him. That is, but when the 
 enraged multitude attempted to beat Paul to death. 
 
 Tidings come unto the chief captain of the band. That is, the 
 colonel of that regiment, which on festival days, and therefore also 
 
454 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXL 
 
 In Pentecost, kept a guard in the porches of the temple^ for the 
 appeasing of all tumults, if any should arise ; see John xviii. 22. 
 That all Jerusalem was in an uproar. That is, in a furious tumult, 
 
 32. Who. Viz., the governor or colonel of the regiment, or, 
 as he is called by the Greeks, chiliarchos. It was an order in 
 the Eoman militia that the soldiers should meet together in the 
 morning to salute the centurions, and they the tribunes or colonels. 
 Now hecatontarchi were called the centurions, who were set over 
 a hundred men ; pentecontarchi, who were over fifty ; decarthii 
 or decurions, who were set over ten. 
 
 Ran down. Possibly from the castle. 
 
 To them. Viz., the tumultuous Jews. 
 
 They left heating Paul. Being frightened with the coming of 
 the colonel, who had brought with him both common soldiers and 
 captains for the appeasing of the uproar. 
 
 33. Then, &c. As if he said. But when the colonel was come to 
 that place in which the Jews beat Paul, with so great an uproar, 
 having delivered him out of the Jews' hands, he commanded him 
 to be bound with chains, and having bound him hand and foot, he 
 asked who he was, and what he had done, that he might know the 
 cause why the Jews hated him so extremely, that they went about 
 to kill him with stripes, with so great a hubbub. 
 
 34. He commanded him to be carried into the camp. The English 
 translation renders here the Greek word TraptfifdoXfj, " into the 
 castle," as Lud. de Dieu interprets it. Castrum, in the singular 
 number, is a place fenced with walls, otherwise called a castle or 
 tower ; but castra, in the plural, denotes the place where soldiers 
 fixed their tents, or the tents themselves in which soldiers lie. 
 IlapEjujSoXi} signifieth both ; but since camps used not to be set up 
 in a city, it seems here rather to signify a castle, or that castle 
 which is said to have been called Antonian, built by Herod the 
 Great in honour of Antony. 
 
 35. And when he came upon the stairs. By which they went up 
 to the Antonian castle. 
 
 So it was, &c. That is, by reason of the great crowd of the 
 multitude that pressed after and followed, he was rather carried 
 by the soldiers than led by them. 
 
 36. For there followed. Paul. 
 
 Away with him. That is, punish him with a deserved death. 
 Eusebius relateth' that the heathens used to cry out to the judge 
 
 > Hist. iv. u. 
 
VEK. XXXVIII. J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 455 
 
 against the Christians, when they would have them speedily put to 
 death, a?pE roiic a^soiig, " Take away these wicked men." 
 
 37. And as Paul was to he led into the castle. That is, while he 
 was yet upon the stairs, in the entry of the Antonian castle, in a 
 more open place. 
 
 He said unto the captain. In the Greek tongue. After the 
 Macedonian conquest, the Greeks having extended their dominion 
 over several nations, the Greek language was become, as it were, 
 common among the nations of Asia and Egypt. 
 
 JVho. The chief captain hearing Paul ask in the Greek tongue 
 leave to speak. 
 
 Canst thou speak Greek ? In the original it is curtly expressed, 
 " Knowest thou Greek ?" The full speech is extant, Neh. xiii. 24, 
 And they could not speak Hebrew. 
 
 38. Art not thou that Egyptian ? False prophet. 
 
 Which before these days. In the beginning of Nero's reign. 
 
 Modest an uproar. That is, stirredst up sedition. 
 
 And leddest out into the wilderness. Such impostors used to draw 
 men out into desert places, that there they might safely join their 
 forces, as you may see frequently in Josephus. See Matt. xxiv. 26. 
 
 Four thousand men.. At the first, indeed, that false prophet had 
 but so many followers, but afterwards they increased to almost 
 thirty thousand, whom he led from the wilderness to Mount Olivet, 
 promising himself, that at his command the walls of Jerusalem 
 would fall down, whereby he would have an easy entrance into the 
 city. But while he was thus puffed up with the vain hopes of 
 those golden mountains he promised himself, his forces were routed 
 by Felix's army, four thousand of them being slain, two thousand 
 taken prisoners, and the rest, together with the false prophet put 
 to flight. This story is related by Josephus and Eusebius.' 
 
 Murderers. To express this, a Latin word is made use of in the 
 Greek text, derived from sica, which word has great affinity with 
 the Hebrew "jOD, signifying a knife ; they were called sicarii who 
 used to assail innocent men unawares, and run them through the 
 breast with a short sword, " Some are of opinion," saith the very 
 well learned Drusius, " that the sicarii, who were of the followers 
 of Judas of Galilee, did acknowledge no Lord but God only, of. 
 whom Josephus speaketh.'' Others will have them to be the same 
 with the Hessaei, of which number is Theophylact. It is possible 
 
 ^ Ant. lib. XX. cap. 6. Bell. Jud. lib. ii. cap., 12. Hist. lib. ii. cap. 21. et in Chronic. 
 ' Orig. Jud. lib. xviii. cap. 2, et lib. xx. cap. 7. 
 
456 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXI. 
 
 that some of this sect were sicarii. For the Hessaei did fight very 
 fiercely against the Eomans, and rather than they would call Caesar 
 lord, did choose to undergo most bitter tortures, yea, made no 
 scruple of losing their dearest blood, and willingly gave themselves 
 over to death. Of these sicarii Scaliger writeth.' JosephiiB saith 
 that the followers of Judas, save in this that they would give no 
 man the title of lord, were in other points Pharisees. On the other 
 iiand. Rabbi Abraham Zaouth of Salamanca, in the book Johasin, 
 afiirmeth that Judas of Galilee was the author of the sect of the 
 Essenes, who are commonly called Nazarites, that is, holy; and 
 Assideans, that is, godly. And also that it was by the instigation 
 of the Essenes, that the Jews rebelled against the Eomans ; for 
 they said that God only had right to dominion over men, nor ought 
 any other to assume the title of lord, but God, who alone is blessed 
 and to be praised." 
 
 39. But Paul said, I am a man who am a Jew. And not an 
 Egyptian. 
 
 Of Tarsus, &c. As if he said. But a citizen of Tarsus, a city of 
 considerable note in Cilicia. See what we have said above of 
 Tarsus, and of Cilicia, ch. vii. 58 ; ix. 30 ; vi. 9. 
 
 Suffer me to speak unto the people. That I may vindicate my 
 innocency as to the crimes they charge me with. 
 
 40. And when he. Viz., the chief captain of the regiment. 
 Had given licence. To Paul to plead his cause with the people. 
 Paul stood on the stairs. Of the Antonian castle, whither by the 
 
 chief captain's order he was brought. 
 
 He beckoned with the hand to the people. That is, by the beck of 
 his hand requiring silence. 
 
 He spake. To the people of the Jews. 
 
 In the Hebrew tongue. Which was then in use among the Jews, 
 that is, the Syro-Hebraean, as appears from a great many places in the 
 New Testament, where several sayings of our Lord Jesus and his 
 apostles are expressed in their mother tongue. But it seems that 
 Syro-Hebrjean speech, or the Hebrew mixed with the Syrian 
 dialect, was not unknown at that time to the Jews that were dis- 
 persed among other nations. For seeing very many used to come 
 to Jerusalem on days of greater solemnity, they learned that 
 speech that was usual in that city, which was the metropolis of all 
 the Jews, wherever their place of abode was. 
 
 ' Animadvei-. Euseb. p. 117. col. 1. 
 
VEK. III.] LITBUAIXY EXPLAINED. 457 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 1. Men, brethren, and fathers. See above, ch. vH. 2. 
 
 Hear ye my defence which I now make unto you. That is, my 
 defence, whereby I vindicate myself from the accusation of my 
 adversaries. 
 
 2. And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue. See 
 above, ch. xxi. 40. 
 
 They kept the more silence. Because the Hebrew was more 
 acceptable to them, as being Hebrews. 
 
 And he saith. Paul further continued his discourse thus. 
 
 3. / am verily a man which am a Jew. I>educing my original 
 from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 
 
 Bom in Tarsus, a city of Cilicia. See above, ch. vii. 9 ; vii. 58 ; 
 ix. 30. 
 
 Brought up. Not from his childhood, which it is probable he 
 passed at Tarsus in his own country, but from his youth, viz., 
 that Paul having been from a child carefully brought up in the 
 Greekish learning, now become a youth, came to Jerusalem, in 
 regard he was a Jew by nation, that he might be there instructed 
 more fully in sacred learning in the company of Gamaliel, by him. 
 Of this Gamaliel see above, ch. v. 34. 
 
 In this city. Jerusalem, the chief city of the Jews. 
 
 At the feet of Gamaliel. A very modest self-extenuating of him- 
 self " For he does not," as the excellently learned John Chris- 
 topher Wagenseil observes, "arrogantly make his boast that he 
 had been his companion and familiar, and had participated with 
 him in sacred and profane things as his fellow ; but rather humbly 
 professes that he was prostrate as it were at the feet of that great 
 doctor, and whose memory, being lately deceased, was in high 
 veneration among all the Jews, and that in this low state he took 
 his entertainment of him. This is usual among the Jews, th^t 
 speaking reverently of others, they lay themselves as it were at 
 their feet. Abigail is an excellent instance of this, I Sam, xxv. 41 ; 
 And she arose and bowed her face to the earth, and said. Behold let 
 thine handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord, 
 To the same purpose is that excellent saying of Jose, son of Joeser, 
 in Pirke Avoth, * Let thy house be a receptacle for the wise, and 
 roll thyself in the dust of their feet.' For. this saying has no other 
 sense than what the commentators have expressed it in, that is, by 
 
458 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXII. 
 
 the words, ' and wallow thy self in the dust of their feet : ' this is 
 enjoined, 'Be humble and attend constantly on the wise.'" Thus 
 far the learned Wagenseil.' 
 
 Taught. Interpreters commit an error while they connect the 
 words, at the feet of Gamaliel, with the word taught, because it 
 rather agreeth with the foregoing words, brought up in this city, 
 and Paul signifies, that he was fed and was brought up at the feet 
 of Gamaliel, but not that he was instructed in learning at 
 Gamaliel's feet. The Syrian interpreter takes the words in the 
 same sense, whence it is that he is so careful in leaving a difference 
 between Paul's nativity, education, and instruction, by copulative 
 and disjunctive particles. He translateth the words thus: "I am 
 a man, a Jew, and was born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up 
 in this city at the feet of Gamaliel : and I was perfectly instructed 
 in the law of our fathers." Furthermore, in Gamaliel's time, the 
 scholars stood as they were taught by their masters, who used to 
 sit. For so the rabbins deliver in Megilla, p. 21, a, that from the 
 time of Moses to that of Gamaliel, scholars in no other postures 
 save that of standing, attended the instructions of their masters, 
 M-ho taught sitting. But that after the death of Gamaliel, the 
 world was more than ordinarily infested with diseases, and so that 
 custom was introduced for scholars to sit by their masters as they 
 imbibed their instructions. Whence it is said in Mishna, " that 
 after Gamaliel's death the reverence of the law vanished." But 
 that this was a custom amongst the ancient Jews, that the teachers ' 
 sat, and the scholars and other auditors stood upright on their feet, 
 appears plainly from the gospel, as you may see. Matt. v. 1 — 3 ; 
 xxiii. 2 ; and if we credit the authority of the Syrian interpreter, 
 Mark iv. 1. But since the time that it became a custom for 
 scholars to sit by their masters, to wit, after Gamaliel's decease, a 
 little before the destruction of the second temple, the master used 
 to sit at the head, and the scholars, in time of teaching, used to sit 
 by him on each side semicircle-wise ; nor did any sit behind the 
 back of the teacher, " that they might all behold their master, and 
 hear his discourse," saith Maimonides.^ But though none of the 
 Pharisees or scribes before the decease of Gamaliel, used sitting as 
 a common posture both to teacher and hearer, yet that Christ 
 sometimes used it, and out of tenderness to his hearers, sometimes 
 permitted them, contrary to the received custom, after they had 
 stood longer than ordinary, to sit down, that they might refresh 
 
 ' Confut. impii Carminis R. Lipman. ^ In Hilchot. Talmud. Tora. cap. 4. num. 2. , 
 
VBH, v.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 459 
 
 their limbs that were fatigued by long standing, that they might 
 be able more attentively to give ear, appears from Mark iii. 32, 34. 
 
 According to the perfect manner of the law of our fatliers. In the 
 Greek it is, as the learned Beza interprets it, " According to the 
 exact form of the law of our fathers." Where the learned Lud. de 
 Dieu, extraordinarily well versed both in the holy tongues and 
 learning, by the law of our fathers does not simply understand that 
 law which their fathers had received from God by Moses, but that 
 tradition which they had received from their fathers : " It," saith 
 he, "denoteth the religion of the Pharisees, which in a great 
 measure consisted of the traditions they had from their fathers, of 
 which Paul says. Gal. i. 14, that in times past he was a great 
 zealot ; and when he attributes strictness to that sect, he saith the 
 same as below, ch. xxvi. 5. The meaning therefore is, that he 
 was instructed in Pharisaism, which is the most accurate form of 
 the law of the fathers." Now this Gamaliel was a very famous 
 master, among others, of the sect of the Pharisees. 
 
 Zealous towards God. The Vulgate Latin interpreter reads it 
 "zealous of the law," whereas the common reading in the Greek text 
 has it zealous towards God. Paul professes that he was a zealot of 
 God, by a Hebraism very usual in scripture, that is, that he was 
 moved with a hot zeal against those who did not observe the law of 
 Moses, as it is augmented by the traditions of the Pharisees. See 
 Gal. i. 14. 
 
 As ye all are this day. Paul compareth himself, when in this hot 
 zeal, to the Jews that were risen up against him; to whom also he 
 attributeth a zeal of God, or ardent study towards the observation 
 of the law, though not according to knowledge. Rom, x. 2. 
 
 4. This way. That is, the Christian religion, for which I am 
 now in bonds. So is way taken above, ch. ix. 2 ; xviii. 25 — 28 ; 
 xix. 9, 25. 
 
 / persecuted unto the death, &c. That is, I contemned it, and 
 abhorred It as a loathsome and pernicious plague, so that I cast the 
 professors of it into prison without regard to sex, and caused them 
 to be cruelly murdered. See above, ch. vii. 48; viii. 1 — 3; 
 ix. 1, 2. 
 
 5. As also the high priest. That is, the prince of the great San- 
 hedrim. See above, ch. ix. 1. 
 
 Doth bear me witness. That is, who knowing these things very 
 well, can bear witness to the truth of them. 
 
 And all the estate of the elders. That is, and the rest of the sena- 
 
460 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXII. 
 
 tors of the great Sanhedrim. " St. Luke," saith Selden, " both in 
 the gospel, and also in the Acts, made use of the word presbyterlon, 
 which the Vulgate Latin interpreter rendereth seniors or elders, 
 to signify the great sanhedrim. See Matt. xxvi. 59 ; Luke xxii. 
 66. 
 
 From wliom, &c. See above, ch. ix. 1, 2. 
 
 / received letters. That is, when I had received letters or having 
 received letters, whereby power was'given me to do that which I 
 designed. 
 
 Unto the brethren. That is, to other Jews and their synagogues. 
 
 To be punished. That is, that they might be cruelly tortured 
 and put to death. 
 
 6. And it came to pass, that as I made my journey. That is, 
 hurried on with a blind rage, I might bring my hot zeal against 
 the disciples of Jesus to effect. 
 
 And was come nigh unto Damascus. See above, ch. ix. 2, 3. 
 
 At noon. The Greek hath as the English translation, "about 
 noon." 
 
 Suddenly, That is, in a trice, beyond my expectation. 
 
 Shone from heaven. Like lightning. 
 
 Me. Supply from ch. xxvi. 13, And those who were journeying 
 with me.. 
 
 A great light. Much surpassing the noon-day brightness of the 
 sun, as you may see below, ch. xxvi, 13. 
 
 7. And I fell unto tlie ground. That is, but when I was stricken 
 with that sudden light, I fell to the ground. See above, ch. ix. 4. 
 
 /, &c. See above, ch. ix. 5. 
 
 9. And they that were with me. My companions in that journey 
 to Damascus. 
 
 The light. Which descended from heaven, shined about me and 
 them. 
 
 But they heard not the voice. That is, they understood it not. 
 See above, ch. ix. 7. 
 
 10. What shall I do ? That is, what wouldst thou have me do ? 
 See above, ch. ix. 6. 
 
 Arise. Viz., from the ground on which thou liest prostrate. 
 • Go to Damascus. That is, continue thy journey to Damascus, 
 which thou undertookest with design to deliver over to punish- 
 ment those who are addicted to my worship, changing only thy 
 purpose thou hadst in thy journey. 
 ■ And there it shall be told thee. By Ananias my disciple. 
 
VER. XIV. j LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 461 
 
 Of all things which are appointed for thee to do. That is, which 
 I have revealed to him as by me constituted and ordained, what 
 thou shouldest do. See above, ch. ix. 6. 
 
 11. And when I could not see, &c. See above, ch, ix. 8. 
 
 12. Ananias. Of him see above, ch. ix. 10. 
 
 A devout man according to the law. That is, who adores and 
 worships God rightly, according to the tenor of the law delivered 
 from God by Moses. 
 
 Having a good report. Viz., of his devotion to God. 
 
 Of all the Jews which dwell. Supply " there," viz., at Damascus. 
 
 Came unto me. Into the street of Damascus which is called 
 Straight. See above, ch. ix. 11, 17. 
 
 And stood and said unto me. That is, having laid his hands upon 
 me, as appears above, ch. ix. 17. 
 
 Receive thy sight. Which thou hadst lost, and look upon me. 
 
 The same hour. That is, the same point of time. See ch. ix. 18, 
 
 / looked up upon him. That is, having my sight, which I had 
 lost, restored again, I beheld him. 
 
 14. The God of our fathers. That is, the true God, who of 
 old adopted our forefathers the patriarchs maintainers of his worship. 
 
 Hath pre-ordained thee. The Greek, as the English translation 
 have, he hath chosen thee. For the Greek word properly signifies 
 to take that in your hands which ye would make use of, whether 
 it have a reference to the thing or person. Hence the Hebrew 
 word np^ " to take," is by the Greek interpreters translated by this 
 word. Josh. iii. 12, Take unto you twelve men. See also, 2 Mac. 
 iii. 7 ; viii. 9. The famous Beza is of opinion that this 
 manner of speaking is borrowed from artificers, who take the 
 thing that is to be made into their hands, having before deliberated 
 what to make, and for what end. See above, oh. ix. 15, and 
 beneath, ch. xxvi. 16. 
 
 That thou shouldest know his will. Revealed by Jesus Christ 
 touching the things which are necessary to be believed and done in 
 order to eternal life. 
 
 And see that Just One. To wit, the Messiah promised in the 
 law and the prophets, risen from the dead, whose brightness did so 
 dazzle thy eyes, that thou thereby becamest blind. See what we 
 have said above, ch. iii, 14 ; vii, 52, 
 
 And shouldest hear the voice of his mouth. Directed to you 
 while enlightened with a heavenly light, in your journey to Da- 
 mascus, ye saw him. 
 
462 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXII. 
 
 15. For thou shalt, &c. As if he had said. And for that end 
 the Lord Jesus exhibited himself, to be heard and seen by thee, 
 that before all nations whither thou shalt happen to go or converse 
 with, thou mayest bear witness that he is risen from the dead, and 
 was seen by thee in the splendour and brightness of that heavenly 
 light, which being darted on thee, did grievously dazzle thy eyes, 
 and that by his own mouth he commanded thee to preach that 
 gospel, the knowledge of which thou receivedst from himself, 
 among all nations. See below, ch. xxvi. 17, 18. 
 
 16. And now, &c. As if he had said. Now, therefore, without 
 delay be thou initiated by baptism, instituted by Christ, and by 
 this dipping of thy body in water, profess that by faith in Jesus 
 Christ thou art washed, or to be washed, from the inward defile- 
 ments of thy mind, or from the pollutions of sin. See what is 
 said on ch. ii. 38. "Baptism is a dipping, and was celebrated of 
 old according to the import and notion of the word; now only 
 rhantism is in use with the generality in the west, not immersion 
 or dipping," saith the learned Salmasius.^ 
 
 Calling on the name of the Lord. To wit, the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 Those that believe in Christ, and are obedient to him, and profess 
 his worship, are described thus ; that they are those who call upon 
 the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, as you may see above, ch. ix. 
 14, 21 ; 1 Cor. i. 2. Hence in the invocation of the name of 
 Christ are comprehended faith in Christ, a religious profession of 
 his worship, and an unfeigned obedience to his commands. 
 
 17. And it came to pass that when I was come again, &c. As if he 
 had said, It happened to me after I had returned to Jerusalem, on 
 the fourth year after my conversion to Jesus Christ, that my bodily 
 senses being benumbed, I had been in a rapture out of myself, when 
 embracing an occasion of conferring with the Jews about faith in 
 the same Jesus Christ, 1 prayed in the temple of Jerusalem, in 
 which the solemn worship of God used to be performed by the 
 Jews. See above, ch. ix. 26 ; x. 10. 
 
 In a trance. This ecstasy of his must not be confounded with 
 his rapture into the third heaven, 2 Cor. xii. 2. 
 
 18. And saw him, &c. As if he had said. And so the Lord 
 Jesus, whom I saw ^hile enlightened with divine light, as I was 
 sojourning to Damascus, appeared again a second time to me, 
 being as it were in a rapture beside myself, and commanded me to 
 depart quickly from Jerusalem, because the Jews, the inhabitants 
 
 ' In Ep. ad Andr. Colv. Script. Kal. Jul. 1644. 
 
TEE. XXI.] LITEKALLT EXPLAINED. 463 
 
 thereof, would stubbornly withstand my preaching of him, and 
 bearing witness to his apparitions to me. See above, ch. ix. 29. 
 
 19. And I said, &c. As if he had said. But I, being very 
 desirous of preaching the gospel there, where I had opposed it 
 before, did urge that I might be permitted to stay longer at Jeru- 
 salem ; saying. Lord Jesus, may not some of the Jews at Jeru- 
 salem, attributing my faith in thee to a great and just cause, 
 embrace it when preached by me, seeing they all know that I was 
 an inveterate enemy to thy servants, that so far as I could or had 
 liberty, I beat and imprisoned them cruelly and unmercifully in 
 every synagogue or juridical congregation. See above, ver. 4, and 
 Grotius in Matt. x. 17. 
 
 20. And when the blood of Stephen was shed. By stoning him. 
 Of which above, ch, vii. 59. 
 
 Thy martyr. That is, who was the first of the martyrs or wit- 
 nesses peculiarly so called, who not only witnessed with a verbal 
 confession, as those did whom the ecclesiastic historians called con- 
 fessors, but also sealed and confirmed their testimony with their 
 blood, that was violently shed by their adversaries for their testi- 
 mony of Christ and his doctrine. 
 
 I. Supply, " As the Jews at Jerusalem know very well them- 
 selves." 
 
 Was standing by and consenting. That is, I stood by, not only 
 as a spectator, but also as an approver of what was done. 
 
 And heft, &c. As if he had said. And that I approved it, I 
 plainly demonstrated, in that I kept the cloaks, or upper garments 
 of those that stoned him, when they were laid down at my feet. 
 See above, ch. vii. 58. 
 • 21. And he said. The Lord Jesus, reiterating his command. 
 
 To me. Wrangling. 
 
 Go. That is, be gone quickly from Jerusalem. 
 
 / will send thee far off unto the Gentiles. That is, I will have 
 thee presently to go to the nations far distant from Jerusalem, as 
 my peculiar apostle and ambassador to them, that there thou 
 mayest preach the gospel among the nations, aliens to the com- 
 mon-wealth of Israel, living without the covenant of God, without 
 the promises, destitute of the knowledge of God's will, and that 
 thou mayest convert them to me, who am rejected indeed by the 
 Jews, but the author of eternal life to all those that are obedient 
 to me; see Gal. i. 16; ii.8; Eph. ii. 12, 13; iii. 8; 1 Tim. ii. 7 ; 
 2 Tim. i. 11. 
 
464 THE ACTS 01' THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXII. 
 
 22. And they gave audience unto this word. That is to say, The 
 Jews who were there present were attentive, until Paul, in the 
 now mentioned words, had intimated, according to the prophecy 
 of Moses, Deut. xxxii. 21; Isa. Ixv. 1, that the Jews being 
 rejected as unworthy because of their unbelief, the Messiah, who 
 is promised in the law and the prophets, would cull out to himself 
 a people out of those strange nations, which they bore such a 
 deadly hatred to. 
 
 And then lifted up their voices. As if he had said, But as soon as 
 Paul had said these things about the conversion of the Gentiles to 
 Christ, the Jews that were hearing him could not refrain from 
 exclaiming against him, out of a bitter hatred and detestation. 
 
 And said. Viz. to the chief captain of the soldiers. 
 
 Away with such a fellow from the earth. That is, punish this 
 base and wicked villain with a deserved death. 
 
 For it is not fit that he should live. That is to say, He is un- 
 worthy that he should live a minute longer. 
 
 23. And as they cried out, &c. As if he had said, While these 
 Jews, by their outrageous outcries, casting off their garments like 
 madmen, and throwing of dust into the air, bewrayed minds more 
 than ordinarily provoked and enraged. 
 
 24. The chief captain commanded him to be brought into the castle. 
 See above, ch. xxi. 34. 
 
 And bade that he should be examined by scourging. That is, that 
 they might extort a confession of the truth from Paul, by inflicting 
 of stripes on him. 
 
 That he might know. That is, that having wrested a confession 
 from Paul, the chief captain might be informed. 
 
 For what cause. That is to say, for what crime. Cause is fre- 
 quently put for crime. Matt, xxvii. 37 ; Mark xv. 26. 
 
 They cried so against him. That is, the Jews cried out so madly 
 against him, when yet they could not charge him with any parti- 
 cular crime. 
 
 25. And as they bound him with thongs. In the Greek it is, 
 "stretched him out with cords." That is, but when the soldiers had 
 stretched forth Paul, according to custom, bound with ropes. "In 
 the Talmud," ^ saith the most famous Lud. de Dieu, " where the 
 rites are described that were used to be performed to him that was 
 to be scourged, it is read. How is he scourged ? Both his hands 
 were bound to a column on either side," That column was a piece 
 
 * Lib. nwa, cap. 3. 
 
TEE. XXV.J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 465 
 
 of wood fastened in the ground, of the height of a cubit and a half, 
 that he that was to be scourged might lie bent upon it. For as 
 the Mishna expresses it, he was not beat standing or sitting, but 
 bowed downwards, because it is written, the judge shall cause him 
 to lie down, Deut. xxv. 2. And that the executioner might the 
 more conveniently beat him so ordered, a stone was set behind the 
 criminal, on which the minister of the synagogue stood. By reason 
 of this rite possibly, Luke used this word npoireivev, that the pre- 
 position TTpo may denote, that Paul was so stretched out that with 
 the upper part of his body he lay prone on the pillar. "The 
 Arabian," saith the now cited Lud. de Dieu, " seems to have had 
 respect to another ceremony, also in use among the Eastern nations, 
 with whom the criminal being prostrate was so stretched out, that 
 on both sides the officers did hold his head and feet, that he might 
 not evade or decline the stripes of him he was scourged by. Hence 
 he translateth it: 'And when they had stretched him out between 
 the lictors,' some of whom, to wit, held the criminal with cords 
 at the head, others by the feet. Nor does the Ethiopic much 
 recede from it; 'and when having bound him they drew his 
 feet.' " 
 
 I\xul said unto the centurion that stood by. Paul, bound with 
 cords, and stretched forth, straight ready to be scourged, repelled 
 the injury by lawful helps administered by God, saying to the cen- 
 turion whom the chief captain had left in charge with this torture 
 for the extorting a confession of the truth from Paul. 
 
 If. That is, whether, as elsewhere frequently. 
 
 A man that is a Roman. That is, who has a right to the pri- 
 vilege of the B,oman city. " Tarsus, Paul's native city," saith 
 Grotius, " was not a colony, but a free city, according to the testi- 
 mony of Pliny. Appianus saith this freedom was conferred by 
 Antonius. And Dion Chrysostomus, relateth several privileges that 
 Augustus bestowed on the city of Tarsus, but not the right of a 
 colony, or freehold, as belonged to Koman cities, nor does Ulpi- 
 anus mention Tarsus among the colonies of Cilicla. It remaineth, 
 therefore, that some of Paiul's predecessors procured thai privilege 
 to himself, in the civil wars, that happened betwixt Cassar Augustus 
 and Brutus and Cassius, or betwixt the same Caesar and An- 
 tony."' 
 
 Uncondemned. Greek, "unjudged." That is, without, knowing 
 the cause. See above, ch. xvi. 36. 
 
 ' Lib. V. cap. 27. Civil, fi. 
 H H 
 
466 THE ACTS OF THK HOLY APOSTLES [OHAP. XXII. 
 
 Is it lawful for you to scourge ? The Porcian and Sempronian 
 laws exempted a Roman citizen from stripes in a Eoman judi- 
 catory, but not so in a Jewish, if any of the Jews were to be beat 
 according to their own laws. Hence Paul, who by birth was a 
 Roman citizen, yet as a Jew he received of the Jews five times 
 forty stripes save one, 2 Cor. xi. 24. Learned Selden proves that 
 by the favour of the emperors, the Jews were allowed even in 
 Rome to put some of their judicial laws in execution among them- 
 selves. ' 
 
 26. The centurion. That is, the captain of a hundred soldiers, of 
 wfhom see in the preceding verse. 
 
 Went and told the chief captain. The prefect of a thousand 
 soldiers, of whom above, ch. xxi. 31. 
 
 For this man. Of whom ye commanded me to extort a con- 
 fession by inflicting stripes on him. 
 
 Is a Roman. Whom the law forbids to be scourged. 
 
 Said unto him. Viz., to Paul who was bound with cords. 
 
 If. That is, whether, as above, ver. 25, and frequently else-, 
 where. 
 
 A Roman. That is, endowed with the privileges of the Roman 
 city. For the chief captain knew very well by Paul's speech that 
 he was not born at Rome, but at Tarsus. 
 
 28. /. Chief captain. 
 
 With a great sum. That is, with great difficulty, and not with- 
 out paying a great sum for it. 
 
 Obtained this freedom. That is, the privilege of the Roman 
 city. This privilege that before used to be freely given, through 
 the r.varice of the Claudian times, as Tacitus expresses it,^ begaa 
 to be sold. Salvianus saith, that the title of Roman citizen was 
 purchased at a great rate. 
 
 And Paul said. But I was free born. That is, it is not a late 
 purchase halh made me a Roman citizen, but my very birth. For 
 I au descended of progenitors that were free-bom citizens. See 
 what we have said above, ver. 25. 
 
 29. When straightway. By the chief captain's command. 
 
 They departed from him. Viz., from Paul, by birth a Roman 
 citizen, and therefore exempted from being scourged by the Por- 
 cian law. 
 
 Which should have examined him. That is to say, who by the 
 said chief captain, before he knew that Paul was a Roman citizen 
 
 ' Ex. C. Tit. de Jud. lib. viii. Dion. lib. xxxvii. et Xiphilin in Pomp, ' Lib. V, 
 
Y3JR. I.] LITEBALLY EXPLAINED. 467 
 
 were commanded by scourging to extort from Paul a confession of 
 his crime, for which the Jews did in so great a rage exclaim against 
 him. 
 
 And because he had hmtnd him. The word and redounds here. 
 For the meaning is not that the chief captain also knew that he 
 had bound Paul, for this he could not be ignorant of ; but that he 
 feared, when he understood that Paul was a Roman citizen, lest he 
 should be called to account for that he had commanded a Koman 
 citizen to be bound with chains. See what we have observed 
 above, ch. xxi. 3.'{. 
 
 30. The certainty. That is, the certain truth, ch. xvi. 37, 38. 
 
 He loosed him. That is, he commanded Paul's chains to be 
 loosed, with which he, when he knew not that he was a Roman 
 citizen, had caused him to be bound. 
 
 And he commanded, &c. As if he had said. And he called 
 together the chief priests, and the other senators of the Jewish 
 Sanhedrim, and having brought forth Paul, he set him before them, 
 that he might determine of him and his cause. 
 
 The priests. In the Greek it is the " chief priests." 
 
 Among them. That is, before them, as it is in the common 
 English translation. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 1. And Paul earnestly beholding the council. That is, fastening 
 his eyes stedfaatly on those senators who were present at the 
 council. TJie wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous 
 are bold as a lion, and shall not be afraid, Pro v. xx. 1. 
 
 Said. Being without doubt permitted to give in his defence to 
 those things which his adversaries objected against him before the. 
 council. See above, ch. vi. ; Stephen is brought before the council 
 and accused. When his accusation had been heard, together with 
 the depositions of the false witnesses, he was asked by the president 
 of the council whether these things were true which were laid to 
 his charge ? ch. vii. 1. Then Stephen having liberty to plead his 
 own cause, he vindicated himself in that admirable apologetic dis- 
 course before the council, of which St. Luke has related the sub- 
 stance above, ch. vii. 2, &c. 
 
 Men, brethren. See above, ch. xxi. 1. The prophet Isaiah, 
 
 H H 2 
 
468 THE ACTS OV THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XXIII. 
 
 speaking of the Jews, whom he foresaw would reject the Messiah 
 promised in the law and the prophets, with ungrateful minds and 
 stubborn obstinacy, he calls them the brethren of those Jews who 
 were to embrace him by faith, Isa. Ixvi. 5. Hear, saith he, the 
 word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his word, your brethren that 
 hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake, said, &c. The 
 African fathers had an eye to his place, while they called the 
 Donatists, the most malicious enemies of the church, brethren. 
 
 I. Paul, who now am brought before you as a criminal. 
 
 Have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. I 
 have so behaved myself in my ministry entrusted to me, that my 
 conscience beareth me witness before God, that I, whether in 
 Judaism, or Christianism, have always until this day endeavoured 
 
 To know no guilt ; grow pale fur no offence. 
 
 See below, ch. xxiv. 16 ; 2 Cor. i. 12 ; 2 Tim. i. 3. But how 
 Paul, now a convert to Christianity, could glory of his life while 
 in Judaism, and of a good conscience that he had kept in the time 
 of his ignorance, when, notwithstanding he afterwards confesseth, 
 1 Cor. XV. 9; 1 Tim. i. 13, 16,, that he was a Ijlasphemer, a 
 persecutor, yea, the chief of sinners, the famous Curcellaeus hath 
 explained most perspicuously and plainly, by distinguishing betwixt 
 a good and right conscience. A conscience may be good though it 
 be erroneous ; and evil, though it be right ; or follow a good law 
 in judging its actions. Paul therefore appealeth to his good con- 
 science, because he did that which his erring conscience dictated 
 he ought to do, to wit, that he should persecute the Christians, 
 who, he was persuaded, were apostates and revolters from the law 
 of Moses. Yet he was not innocent, because when he had sufficient 
 occasion of informing his conscience better, he neglected to do it. 
 Wherefore he that will be free from sin must take no less care that 
 he Instruct his conscience about the will of God, than that he do 
 nothing contrary to its dictates. 
 
 2 And the high priest. Offended, possibly, at Paul's constancy ; 
 or that his exordium was more frank than the pride of the council, 
 and the high priest himself, could bear. 
 
 Ananias. This high priest was the son of Nebedasus, than whom 
 none was more daring for any enterprise. Of him see Josephus.' 
 
 Commanded them that stood by him. His servants ready to obey 
 his commands. 
 
 To smite him on the mouth. Viz., Paul, as if uttering villanous 
 
 ' Lib. xviii. 20. 
 
VER. III.] LITERALLY IIXPLAINED. 469 
 
 and notorious lies. This was an unjust act of proud tyranny to 
 cast such a reproach on a man who was not yet judged nor con- 
 victed of a crime, before sentence was pronounced against him. 
 To smite one's mouth, or, as Juvenal expresseth it, " To give one a 
 blow," was, by all people and in all ages, accounted a great affront, 
 see Matt. v. 39 ; 1 Cor. iv. 11 ; 2 Cor. xi. 20; xii. 7; 1 Pet. ii. 20. 
 Hence he is said to beat one with blows, or, as Terence speaketh 
 it, to give one a box on the ear, who vexeth one grievously and * 
 spitefully. That inhuman false prophet Zedekiah, the son of 
 Chanaanah, smote Michaiah, the son of Imlah, the true prophet 
 of the Lord, on the cheek, in the presence of two kings, Jehosaphat 
 and Ahab, because he said that a lying spirit was in his and the 
 other false prophets' mouths, 1 Kings xxii. 24. The spiteful priest 
 Pashur smote Jeremiah as he prophesied, Jer. xx. 2. Finally, 
 that rude servant of Caiaphas officiously smote our Lord Jesus, 
 when he had no order to do so, John xviii. 22. 
 
 3. Then Paul. As Peter, above, ch. viii. 20 ; and Paul himself 
 elsewhere, 1 Tim. iv. 14, prompted by divine instinct and a 
 prophetic inspiration, like Noah, Gen. ix. 25, Michaiah, the son of 
 Imlah, Elisha, Jeremiah, and David, frequently in the Psalms, 
 2 Chron. xviii. 23 ; 2 Kings ii. 24 ; Jer. xx. 3, &c. 
 
 Said unto him. Viz., that spiteful, barbarous, and rude high 
 priest Ananias, the son of Nebedasus. 
 
 God shall smite thee. Who, according to the saying of Christ, 
 uses to measure again unto men the same measure they mete out 
 unto others. Matt. vii. 2. So Pharaoh, at whose command the 
 male children of the Israelites newly born were drowned, was 
 himself, together with all his army, drowned, Exod. i. 22 ; xiv. 28. 
 .The same instances of justice you may see in Adonibezek, Agag, 
 king of the Amalekites, David, Joab, Judges i. 7; 1 Sam. xv. 
 32, 33; 2 Sam. xii. 9 — 12 ; xvi. 22; in those men that cast Shadrach, 
 Meshech, and Abednego into the fiery furnace, Daniel's accusers, 
 and in that most inveterate enemy of Mordeoai, Haman, Dan. iii. 22 ; 
 vi. 24; Esth. vii. 10, 
 
 Thou, whited wall. He upbraids Ananias's hypocrisy with an 
 apostolic and prophetic authority, in the same kind of speech 
 which Christ did that of the Scribes and Pharisees, when he fore- 
 told that they would be punished by a special providence. Matt, 
 xxiii. 27. It is the duty of prophets to reprove vic^s and sins, 
 whosesoever they are, as you may see, 1 Kings xviii. 18 ; 2 Kings 
 iii. 13 ; Jer. i. 10, 17, 18 ; Ezek. iii. 8, 9. « A whited wall," saith 
 
470 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXIII. 
 
 St. Aagustine, in Psalm ciii., " without is plaister, within, clay." 
 Theophylact, on this place : " He calls him a whited wall, because 
 he had a fair aspect, as an asserter of the law, and one who pre- 
 . tended to judge according to the law : but his mind was full of 
 wickedness." Truly and elegantly said Seneca,^ " We admire 
 walls covered over with thin marble : when we know what it is 
 that is hid under it, we impose upon our eyes ; and when we value 
 things covered over with gold, what else do we but delight in a 
 lie, for we know that that under that gold, base wood is hid ? Nor 
 are walls and beams the only things that are set out with orna- 
 ments ; the seeming happiness of all those who are exalted to high 
 promotion is but gilded ; look into them and you will perceive how 
 much evil lies hid under that thin membrane of dignity." 
 
 For thou. Among the senators of the council. 
 
 Dost thou sit to judge me after the law ? That is, that thou 
 may est judge according to the judicial law appointed by God in 
 the books of Moses. "The judicial law," saith Grotius, "was in 
 force as long as the commonwealth of Israel was in being, and the 
 Hebrew judges were obliged to give judgment according to it, within 
 those bounds of cognizance, which the Romans allowed them." 
 
 And contrary to the law. Unjustly beginning 'process of judg- 
 ment at execution: whereas the law enjoins to prosecute that 
 which is just justly, and not to commit^ iniquity in judgment. 
 Lev. xlx. 15 ; Deut. i. 16 ; ch. xvi. 18—20. 
 
 Commandest. Actuated by a barbarous cruelty and tyrannical 
 rage against the professors of Christianity. 
 
 Me. Without hearing my cause. 
 
 To be smitten. Contumeliously, viz. on the mouth. 
 
 4. And they that stood by. Possibly the very same men who 
 were commanded by the high priest Ananias to smite Paul on the 
 naouth. 
 
 Said. Vindicating the high priest's honour. 
 
 Revilest thou Gcd's high priest? That is to say, Tliou foul- 
 mouthed railer, dost thou call him a painted and whited wall, whom 
 God has set over his Divine worship ? 
 
 5. / wist not. Having been a considerable time absent from 
 Jerusalem. Others will have / wist not to import the same as, 
 I did not consider ; viz., being hurried with a sudden perturbation 
 of mind, when Ananias commanded me, without cause, to be smit- 
 ten on the mouth. 
 
 ' Ep. cxv. 
 
VER. VI. J LITERALLy EXPLAINED. 471 
 
 That he was the high priest. That is, that this Ananias is now 
 high priest. It is evident by Josephus,' that at that time there 
 was so great a confusion in the government at Jerusalem, thatat 
 every turn the high priests were deposed at the pleasure of the 
 Roman governors, and others substituted into their places : " Than 
 which confusions," saith the generally learned Heinsius, "as nothing 
 was more detestable, so nothing was more just, seeing that by the 
 faction and lies of the high priests, the truth was condemned, the 
 hope of the fathers was condemned, our great high priest was con- 
 demned." 
 
 For it is leritten, &c. As if he had said, If I had known or called 
 to mind, that the dignity of high priesthood, now become cursory, 
 had been confeiTed on Ananias the son of Nebedasus, I would not 
 in any wise have so sharply upbraided him with hypocrisy, as that 
 my words should have been construed slander and railing ; for it 
 is written, Exod. sxii. 28 : 
 
 Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people. That is, do 
 not cast reproaches upon the life of him who holds chief place and 
 dignity among thy people. 
 
 6. But when Paul perceived that the one part. Viz., of those of 
 which the great council consisted. 
 
 Were Sadducees. Of these and the Pharisees, see what we have 
 said in our literal explanation on Matt. iii. 7. 
 
 And the other Pharisees. These two sects, though otherwise 
 disagreeing among themselves, agreed together to oppose Christ 
 and destroy his disciples. Paul therefore when he saw they had 
 conspired together to condemn him unjustly, he wisely, without 
 prejudice to the truth, cast among them an apple of contention or 
 discord. 
 
 He cried out in the council. That he might be heard by all the 
 senators of the council, and all the multitude that was present. 
 
 / am a Pharisee the son of a Pharisee. Or as some copies have 
 it, "of the Pharisees." As if he had said, I have even from my 
 forefathers led my life according to the ordinances of the Pharisees. 
 See after, ch. xxvi. 5 ; Phil, iii. 5. 
 
 Of the hope. Of the reward which the just shall receive in the 
 other world, which the Hebrews call, "the age of retribution." 
 For then every man shall be rewarded according to his deedsl 
 The Sadducees denied that there was any such state, who main- 
 tained that there were no punishments or rewards after this life. 
 
 ' Antiq. lib. xx. cap. 6, 7- 
 
472 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XXII. 
 
 And the resurrection of the dead. Whom that they should be 
 raised again to life the old Sadducees also denied. 
 Am called in question. That is, called to judgment, 
 
 7. There arose a dissension between the Pharisees and the Sad- 
 ducees. While those approved of Paul's opinion, that there should 
 be a resurrection of the dead ; and these condemned it. 
 
 And the multitude was divided. Both the senators and the 
 standers-by, while some took part with the Pharisees, others with 
 ■Sadducees. 
 
 8. The Sadducees, &c. As if he had said, But the Pharisees 
 and the Sadducees were at great variance and discord among 
 themselves ; for whereas the Sadducees denied the resurrection of 
 the dead, and stiffly avouched that there was no angel and spiritual 
 or incorporeal substance; but that those things that went under 
 the denomination of angel or spirit, were nothing else, but either 
 the motions which God implanted in men, or the demonstrations 
 he exhibited of his power ; the Pharisees, on the contrary, stoutly 
 maintained the resurrection of the dead, and the existence of angels 
 and spirits, or substances distinct or separate from matter. 
 
 ' Nor spirit. Some restrict this to the spirit of man, or the soul ; 
 which also elsewhere is called " a spirit," as you may see above, 
 ch. vii. 59 ; Matt, xxvii. 50 ; Luke xxiii. 46 : Heb. xii. 23. " This," 
 say they, " the Sadducees conjecture not to be any spiritual sub- 
 stance, which could subsist separate from the body, but only to be 
 a certain crasis and temperament of the body and its humours, and 
 therefore that when a man dies it is destroyed, vanishes, and dies 
 with the body." Others by spirit here understand, the Holy 
 Spirit, as John iii. 5 ; iv. 24 ; E,om. i. 4' ; viii. 14 — 16 ; 1 Cor. 
 iii. 4. Epiphanius truly writeth thus of the Sadducees : " But 
 they are ignorant of the Holy Spirit, for they are unworthy of him." 
 And Theophylact, reciting these words of the verse immediately 
 following : But if a spirit or an angel hath spoken to him, saith, " It 
 is manifest that he was taught the resurrection either by the Holy 
 Spirit or by an angel." Joseph Scaliger declares, that as angel 
 in this verse is put indefinitely for all angels, so spirit is to be 
 taken indefinitely : for angel is the species, spirit the genus; for- 
 asmuch as angels are comprehended under it. " St. Luke's mean- 
 ing," saith the most learned Scultetus, according to Scaliger, " will 
 be, ' They are so far from believing the existence of an angel, that 
 they do not indeed believe there is any spirit.' This opinion, 
 
 ' Heer. xiv. 
 
VEB, X.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 473 
 
 doubtless, is the truest. For they who affirmed God himself to be 
 corporeal, as Nicolaus writeth, and Theophylact,' possibly they did 
 not so much as know God, being too gross, and therefore by con- 
 sequence must altogether deny a spiritual creature." Theodore 
 Beza obserTCs that there are some among the Jews who are not 
 ashamed to say that angels are natural causes, performing the will 
 of Grod, or producing good or evil efiFects. 
 
 But the Pharisees confess both. Viz., That there is to be a resur- 
 rection of the dead, and that angels, and the soul of man, or a 
 spiritual substance, subsist separate from the body. Because 
 angels, which are a species of spirit or incorporeal substance, and 
 the soul of man, are comprehended under the same genus, whoso- 
 ever grants the existence of angels, seems, by the same confession, to 
 acknowledge that of souls, or of a substance separated from the body. 
 
 9. There arose, &c. There being a great outcry among the 
 enraged multitude, the rabbins, or doctors and interpreters of the 
 law, who maintained the opinion of the Pharisees, rising up from 
 their seats, out of a hatred to their opposite sect the Sadducees, 
 vindicated Paul's integrity and innocence to the utmost of their 
 power. 
 
 Certain of the Pharisees. In the Greek it is, " Those of the 
 scribes that were of the side of the Pharisees." For there were 
 other scribes and doctors of the law who had espoused the tenets 
 of the Sadducees. 
 
 Strove. That is, contended against the Pharisees. 
 
 We find no evil in this man. To wit, Paul, who was brought 
 before their judgment. 
 
 If a spirit. That is, some incorporeal substance; or, as Theo- 
 phylact will have it, the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Hath spoken to him. That is to say. Hath revealed something 
 to him about the resurrection. 
 
 Or an angel. In the Greek is added, as also in the English 
 translation, Let us not fight against God, viz., by despising an angel 
 speaking in his name, things agreeable to the holy scriptures. 
 " Here," saith Beza, " the word angel, as more familiar, seems to 
 be added to explain the word spirit." 
 
 10. ^ great dissension. That is, a most fierce contention 
 betwixt the Pharisees and Sadducees touching Paul's innocence. 
 
 The chief captain, fearing lest Paul should have been pulled in 
 pieces by them. Chiding and scolding one with another. 
 
 ' On Act. xiii. 
 
474 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY AIOSTLliS [CHAP. XXIir. 
 
 He commanded soldiers. That is, a company of soldiers. 
 
 Into the castle. As being a place where he might be free from 
 tianger of the Pharisees and Sadducees, who were contending 
 most spitefully and maliciously. 
 
 11. The Lord stood by him. That is, the Lord Jesus, who has 
 all power in heaven and earth given him, appeared to Paul 
 unawares. 
 
 Be of good cheer. That is, trust with a firm confidence. 
 
 For as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, &c. As if he had 
 said, For as you have borne witness the day before to the Jews of 
 me and my heavenly glory at Jerusalem, the metropolis of Judea, 
 by far the most famous city of the east, so must you give the same 
 testimony in the most famous city of Italy, Rome, which at this 
 day has extended its dominion over most countries of Europe, Asia, 
 and Africa, ch. xx. 6, et seq. "Hence," saith the most learned 
 Lightfoot, " Paul had both liberty and intimation of appealing to 
 Ctesar. It was very seldom that a Jew appealed to a heathen 
 tribunal, and it bewrayed the height of malice that the Sanhedrim 
 delivered our Saviour to a Gentile judge. Paul therefore is 
 instructed by this vision what he must do when he saw no means 
 or way of escaping." 
 
 12. And when it was day. But when the day was risen that 
 succeeded that night in which Jesus said these things to Paul. 
 
 Certain of the Jews handed together. That is, some of the Jews, 
 especially the Sadducees, Paul's fiercest enemies, met and entered 
 into a conspiracy. 
 
 And bound themselves. With a curse, to wit, that they would 
 •neither eat nor drink till they had murdered Paul, whom they 
 judged to be a vile apostate from the law of God. The form 
 of this oath, as says TertuUian, was a solemn imprecation of divine 
 veno-eance in these or the like words, " God do so to me and more 
 also," 1 Sam. xiv. 44 ; xx. 13 ; xxv. 22 ; 2 Sam. iii. 8, 35 ; xix. 13, 
 &c. The acts of St. Valerian and Tiburnius, Num. 14, " Then 
 Maximus bound himself with a vow, saying. Let me be struck 
 with thunder, if," &c. 
 
 13. Had made his conspiracy. To kill Paul before they would 
 either eat or drink. 
 
 14. Of the priests. That is, of the families of the priests. 
 
 ■ And elders. That is to say. Some of the rest of the senators of 
 the great council, or Sanhedrim. 
 
 With a vow we have vowed. A Hebraism ; that is, as it is in the 
 
VEK. XVII.J LITJEllALLY EXPLAINED. 475 
 
 English translation, We have bound ourselves under a great curse. 
 Josephus calls such imprecations of divine revenge "horrible oaths." 
 
 Tliat we will taste nothing. Viz., either of meat or drink. 
 
 Till we have slain Paul. Now was the time in the which they 
 that killed the disciples of Christ did think they did God good 
 service, as Christ himself had foretold, John xvi. 2. 
 
 15. Now therefore ye. Chief priests and senators of the great 
 council, who are here present. 
 
 Signify to the chief captain. That you desire of him. 
 
 With the council. That is, not ye by yourselves, but together 
 with your colleagues, declare ye to the chief captain that it waa 
 not requested of him by the private will of a few, but by the 
 unanimous desire of the great council. 
 
 That he bring him down unto you. In the Greek, as also in the 
 English translation, it is added, to-morrow. That is, that he would 
 command Paul to be brought down to you to-morrow from the 
 castle, or tower, which is called Antonia, as he did before, 
 ch. xxii. 30. 
 
 As though ye would inquire something more perfectly concerning 
 him. That is to say. As if ye were desirous to learn, and be better 
 informed as to the truth of those things of which Paul was accused. 
 It was usual for the guilty now and then to have a hearing, either 
 that they might discover something new of him, or that they might 
 try whether he would be constant in the same answer to his charge. 
 
 And we, ere ever he come near. To your council chamber. 
 
 Are ready to hill him. That is, we will kill him by the way, so 
 that ye can no ways be charged with his death. So bloody men, 
 and those that are hurried by a foolish zeal, think they may law* 
 fiilly assail those that differ from them in opinion with lies or 
 violence, and so they plainly discover themselves to be the children 
 of the devil, who is a liar and a murderer, according to Christ's 
 saying, John viii. 44. 
 
 16. And, &c. As if he had said. But when Paul's sister's son 
 had notice of the ambush they had laid to take away his life, he 
 went to the castle or tower, Antonia, where his uncle was kept 
 prisoner, and declared unto him what his malicious enemies had 
 attempted and undertaken against him. 
 
 17. Bring this young man unto the chief captain. Paul prudently 
 took care to discover unto the chief captain what conspiracy they 
 had entered into against him, by whom he hoped to escape that 
 impending danger, according to the Roman equity. Hence it 
 
-176 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLBS [cHAP. XXHI. 
 
 appears, that the godly, although they have a firm confidence of 
 divine protection, may yet avert dangers by the honest service and 
 ministry of men. 
 
 18. So he. The centurion who was called on by Paul. 
 Taking him. That is, taking Paul's sister's son. 
 
 Brought him to the chief captain. Granting Paul's just and 
 honest demand. 
 
 19. Then the chief captain took him by the hand. That is, when 
 he had taken the young man, who was Paul's sister's son, by the 
 hand, as they used to do who will take any aside into a more 
 secret place, and speak with them privately. 
 
 20. And he. Led apart into a more secret place. 
 
 21. But do not thou believe them. That is to say, Do not suffer 
 thyself to be persuaded by them to yield to their request. 
 
 For there lie in wait. To kill Paul by an ambush, while he is 
 brought from the prison to the council privy chamber. 
 
 Looking for a promise from thee. As if he had said. For they do 
 not in the least doubt but that you will promise to perform their 
 request, to wit, that you will command Paul to be brought from 
 the prison to the council chamber. 
 
 22. Charging, &c. The governor would have this secret that 
 was declared unto him, kept close, that the Jews might not have 
 notice that their conspiracy against Paul was discovered, lest they 
 should take new projects against him. It is of great concern that 
 secrets be kept, lest they be divulged. 
 
 23. Make ready two hundred soldiers. To wit, foot. 
 
 To go to Ccbsarea. Situate on the Mediterranean Sea ; of which 
 see above, ch. viii. 40; x. 1 ; xii. 19; xviii. 22; xxi. 8. 
 
 Spearmen. Greek, St^joXajSoue, " holding the right hand," that is, 
 the guards who guard one's right side, or who take those with their 
 right hand who are ordered to be apprehended, or who take and 
 carry arms with their right hand only, not also with their left, as 
 the target-men use, so that they were spear-men. The Syrian 
 interpreter seems to have read it, SeSi/BoXowcj " throwing with the 
 right hand," such as the light-armed soldiers are said to have been, 
 who did throw darts not with a bow or sling, but with their hand. 
 
 At the third hour of the night. That is, three hours after sunset, 
 that it might not be done openly and manifestly, but clancularly, 
 and so might escape the knowledge of the Jews, Paul's enemies. 
 
 24. To Felix the governor. That is, procurator, or vice-goveraor. 
 pf Judea. This man, who had been the late servant of Claudius 
 
VER. XXVI.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED^ 477 
 
 Caesar, was by the emperor made governor of Samariaj and not 
 long after, Ventidius Cumanus the procurator of Galilee and 
 Judea being sent info exile, he was made procurator of the same 
 provinces of Judea and Galilee, and he held that oflSce of pro- 
 curator also under Nero, Claudius's successor, until Porcius Festus 
 was substituted into his place.' " He exercised the royal power 
 according to his servile disposition with all cruelty and libidinous- 
 ness; he took into marriage Drusilla, niece to Cleopatra and 
 Antonius ; so that Felix was nephew-in-law to the same Antonius, 
 nephew to Claudius by his daughter," saith Tacitus.^ He married 
 successively three wives of the royal race, as Suetonius declareth, 
 who, in the life of Claudius, calls Felix the husband of three 
 queens. Josephus and Suidas call him Claudius Felix,, making an 
 addition of this first name to his name from Claudius Csesar, who 
 of a slave made him a freeman. Tacitus gives him the first name 
 of Antonius, from Antonia, Claudius's mother, whom he had 
 served. Pallas, brother to this Felix, who was made a free-man 
 by Claudius Caesar before him, is reported to have had so great 
 influence on Claudius Caesar, that he could obtain anything of him ; 
 he is also said to have been richer than Crassus, by nineteen 
 thousand five hundred thirty-one pounds five shillings sterling.'' 
 
 For he feared, &c. What is here added in most Latin books of 
 the Vulgate edition, * is not to be found in the Greek copies, nor 
 in the English translation. 
 
 As if he were to receive money. That is, as if, for that he had 
 money promised him by Paul's adversaries, he had no regard to 
 the safety of a Roman citizen. 
 
 25. Writing, &c. As if he had said, Having written a letter to 
 Felix the procurator to this purpose. 
 
 26. To the most excellent. He gives the usual title of dignity to 
 a magistrate, whereby they were used to be saluted. See what is 
 said above, ch. i. 1, on these words, O Theophilus. 
 
 Governor. The word presses, which the Greeks commonly 
 render riyenwv in general, being that whereby any magistrates or 
 governors of provinces were called, but especially those who were 
 set over them, with power of inflicting capital punishment. This 
 power was, for the most part given to the procurators of lesser 
 provinces, though their proper office was to receive and lay out the 
 
 ' Joseph. Ant. lib. xxxii. cap. 5, 6, 7. et de Bel. Jud. lib. ii. cap. 11, 12. ' Lib. 5. 
 
 • Lee Pliny, lib. xxxiii. cap. 10 : Tacit. Annal. lib. xii. Plin. Jun. viii. Epist. 5. 
 
 * [The Latin Vulgate adds the following woido : Timuit enim me forte r&perent eumJudsei, 
 
 et occiderent, et ipse postea calumniam suatineret, tanquam accepturus pecuniam.] 
 
478 THE ACTS OP THK HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XXIII. 
 
 emperor's money, as Dion expresseth it. Such procurators are 
 said to supply the place, and discharge the office of a governor. 
 
 Greeting. In the Greek -^^alQuv, " rejoice." See what we have 
 said above, eh. xv. 23. Horace saluteth Celsus Albinovanus in 
 this form of salutation that was usual with the Greeks.' 
 
 27. This man. To wit, Paul, whom I send to thee. 
 Taken of the Jews. Tumultuously. 
 
 And like to have been killed by them. That is, designed by them 
 to a present death. 
 
 Having understood that he was a Roman, But he did not, 
 therefore, deliver Paul from the Jews that were attempting his 
 death, seeing he did not know that he was a Roman citizen, till 
 after that he had commanded him to be bound and racked, as you 
 may see above, ch. xxii. 25, 27. The chief captain therefore conceals 
 that for which he might deservedly have been reprehended, and 
 turning aside from the truth he seeketh his own praise. " Except,'' 
 saith Beza, " after ' him ' joining a point to it you read : ' But 
 having known that he was a Koman, desirous to be informed,' &o. 
 But," continues Beza, "I neither dare, nor would I make any 
 alteration by a mere conjecture." 
 
 28. The cause wherefore they accused him. That is, the crime 
 wherewith they charged him. See above, ch. xxii. .30. 
 
 29. Whom, &c. As if he had said, and so I found no such crime 
 charged on Paul by his adversaries, as deserved to be chastised by 
 bonds or punished by death, but only a false interpretation of the 
 Jewish law in points controverted, and debated among the Jews 
 themselves. 
 
 30. When it was told me how that the Jews laid wait for him. 
 That is, had designed against Paul. For their conspiracy was dis-* 
 covered to the chief captain when it was only agreed upon, being 
 not yet brought to pass, for it was not to have been accomplished 
 till the day after. 
 
 I sent him to thee. In the Greek is added, "from that same," to 
 wit, hour, that is, immediately without delay I commanded Paul to 
 be carried from Jerusalem to Csesarea, to thee who dischargest the 
 office of governor. 
 
 Giving also commandment to his accusers. To wit, Paul's. 
 
 To say. To wit, what they have against him. 
 
 Before thee. A higher judge than a chief captain is. 
 
 Farewell. The chief captain wisheth Felix the governor health 
 
 ♦ Epist. 8. lib. i. 
 
V15R. XXXII.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 479 
 
 and happiness in that accustomed conclusion of letters. See above, 
 oh. XV. 29. 
 
 31. Brought him by night. To wit, the same night in the which 
 they who were to carry Paul to Felix the procurator or vice- 
 governor of Judea, Samaria, and Galilee, set out on their journey 
 from Jerusalem to Caesarea at the third hour. 
 
 To Antipatris. The apostle was ordered to be carried to Caesarea 
 by the command of the chief captain, as above, ver. 23. But be- 
 cause that Caesarea, which is situate by the sea, and is commonly 
 called Caesarea of Palestine, and lies within the limits of the half 
 tribe of Manasseh, is distant from Jerusalem thirty leagues, which 
 could not be travelled over in one night, they rested first at Anti- 
 patris, which was anciently called Capharsaba, as Josephus testi- 
 fieth, ^ and, as some will have it, it is the same city with that called 
 Capharsalama. ^ The same Josephus telleth us,^ that the distance 
 betwixt Joppa and Antipatris is one hundred and fifty furlongs, 
 that is, seventeen miles. He also saith,* that this beautiful and 
 pleasant city was built by Herod the Great in a large field called 
 Capharsaba, in a watery ground and excellent soil, encompassed 
 with trees and a river, and called Antipatris, after the name of his 
 father. And, book i. chap. xvi. of the Wars of the Jews, speaking 
 of the cities and edifices, repaired and built by Herod the Great, he 
 saith, as RuflSnus Aquileiensis interprets him, " He built a city in 
 the best field of the kingdom, in memory of his father, very rich in 
 rivers and trees, and called it Antipatris." Antipatris which lies 
 west from the river Jordan, is mentioned by Ptolemy the geo- 
 grapher,* among the cities of Judea. I cannot therefore conceive 
 on what ground and by what authority they commonly ascribe it 
 to the half tribe of Manasseh, which is on this side of Jordan, and 
 will have it situate almost in the middle of Samaria. 
 
 32. On the morrcrw. To wit, of that night in the which Paul, 
 defended with a guard of soldiers, was brought to Antipatris, when 
 now they were got a great way from Jerusalem, where they were 
 who had entered into a conspiracy to kill Paul. 
 
 They left the horsemen to go with him. To Csesarea. A guard of 
 horse was sufficient to defend him from the ordinary hazards that 
 were incident in journeys. 
 
 And tliey returned. The two hundred footmen that were heavily 
 armed, and the same number of spearmen. 
 
 • Ant. lib. xiii. cap. 28. ' 1 Mac. vii. 31. et Joa. Ant. lib. xii. cap. 17. 
 
 • Ant. lib. xiii. cap. 23. * Ant. lib. xvi. cap. 9. • Lib. v. cap. 16. 
 
480 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XXIIl. 
 
 To the castle. That is, to the tower, which was at first built by 
 the Maccabees in the north-west corner, contiguous to Mount 
 Moriah, or the mount whereon the temple of Jerusalem was built ; 
 it was called Antonia by Herod the Great, in honour of Marcus 
 Antonius the triumvir, whereas at first it was called Baris. 
 
 33. Who. To wit, the horsemen that were left to carry Paul to 
 Caesarea. 
 
 When they came to Casarea. That m£),ritime city in which Felix 
 resided as vice-governor. 
 
 And delinered the epistle. Written by Claudius Lysias. 
 
 To the governor. That is, to Felix, discharging the office of 
 governor. 
 
 Presented Paul also before him. That is to say. They also brought 
 Paul before Felix, who was delivered from the conspiracy of the 
 factious Jews, by benefit of the public protection. The fathers in 
 the African council, c. 83 : ''Against whose fury we may obtain 
 defence which is neither unusual nor repugnant to the holy scrip- 
 tures ; even as the apostle Paul, as it is to be known in the faithful 
 Acts of the Apostles, avoided the conspiracy of his factious enemies 
 even by military succour." 
 
 34. And when he had read. Felix had read the epistle directed 
 to him from Lysias the chief captain. 
 
 And asked of what province he was. To wit, Paul. 
 
 And when he understood that he was of Cilicia. That is, and when 
 he was informed that Paul was of Cilicia, of which we have spoken 
 above, ch. vi. 9. 
 
 35. / will hear thee, said he, when thine accusers are also come. 
 That having attentively heard both the accusation and defence, I 
 may give judgment. 
 
 In Herod'' s judgment-hall. That is, which Herod the Great, who 
 repaired Caesarea, caused to be built. " The Latin word pr 
 rium," saith the learned Grotius, " has its name from the Roman 
 praBtor, that is, emperor ; but as it usually happens, the use of this 
 word was extended more largely, to signify all the houses of famous 
 men. Praetorium is by Quintilian otherwise called Augustale." 
 With the writers of husbandry, it is that part of the farm where 
 the lord uses to reside when he is in the country. 
 
 . Him to be kept. To wit, by some soldiers or other keepers, that 
 he might not make his escape. Paul, as it seems, was kept at 
 Caesarea in an honourable place, not in a prison. 
 
 ' See Joseph. Ant. lib. xv. cap. M. 
 
VER. III.J LITEKALLY EXPLAI^iED. 481 
 
 CHAPTEE XXIV. 
 
 1. And after five days. Accomplished, viz., from the time that 
 Paul was brought into Csesarea. 
 
 Descended. From Jerusalem to Ctesarea. 
 
 Ananias the high priest. Of whom see above, ch. xxiii. 2. 
 
 With some of the elders. That is, with the elders of the great San- 
 hedrim. 
 
 And Tertullus a certain orator. That is, a most excellent pleader 
 of causes. 
 
 Who informed the governor against Paul. That is to say, they 
 signified to Felix that they would prove Paul guilty. 
 
 2. And when Paul was called. To judgTnent by a herald or 
 apparitor. 
 
 Tertullus began to accuse him. That is to say, Tertullus accused 
 Paul most grievously. In holy writ, often he is said to begin to do 
 a thing who already does it. 
 
 Seeing that by thee toe enjoy great quietness. As if he had said, 
 With a full acknowledgment of thy worthy deeds to us-ward at 
 every time and in every place, we profess, that by your un- 
 paralleled vigilance and wisdom, the robberies that used to be 
 committed in Judea are quelled, the murders are repressed in 
 many places, and peace is settled through aU the province which 
 you are set over. Felix indeed did overthrow Eleazar, that famous 
 robber, and that Egyptian impostor, mentioned above, ch. xxi. 8, 
 together with their forces, to the unspeakable advantage of the 
 Jews, as Josephus declares ;i but otherwise he governed Judsea 
 with covetousness and cruelty. He caused the high priest Jona- 
 than, son to Annas, to be murdered by assassins, because he used 
 frankly to reprove him when he did amiss ; he also suffered them 
 to commit several insolencies upon the Jews without punishment, 
 as the same Josephus testifies in the place but now cited. And so 
 the mercenary Tertullus seeks to get the favour of Felix by an 
 intolerable flattering. 
 
 Many things are amended. In the Greek is added, as also in the 
 English translation, " unto this nation." As if he had said. The out- 
 rageous wickednesses and corruptions, which had crept into this 
 nation, are by thee amended and rectified with great vigour and 
 happiness. 
 
 3. We accept. That is, we acknowledge. 
 
 ' Antiq. lib. x.\-, cap. fi. 
 I 1 
 
482 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 Most excellent Felix. He flattereth Felix with that title that was 
 usually given to magistrates, and those that were placed in dignity. 
 Hence they are also called optimates. 
 
 4. Notwithstanding, that I be not further tedious unto thee. As if 
 he had said, That I may not hinder thee more than is needful, 
 with far-fetched speeches ; that I detain thee not with troublesome 
 discourse, nor circumlocutions and tedious exordiums ; lest I should 
 trespass against the public good, if I should take up thy time with 
 a prolix harangue. 
 
 I pray. Thee encumbered with multitude of businesses. 
 
 Briefly. That is to say, We, being resolved to despatch the 
 heads of our accusation laid against Paul in a few words. 
 
 That thou wouldest hear us. With a favourable ear. " The first 
 thing requested by an orator is, that he may have audience in a 
 bad cause," saith Donatus on Terence. 
 
 Of thy clemency. That is, with thy wonted courtesy and hu- 
 manity. Readiness to hear does exceedingly commend a judge. 
 Cicero to Quintus his brother, proconsul of Bithynia, saith, " Ye 
 must moreover conjoin readiness to hear with lenity in passing 
 judgment." 
 
 5. We have found. And deprehended. 
 
 This man a pestilent fellow. Orators frequently call that man a 
 pest, who acts perniciously to the commonwealth. But this foul- 
 mouthed slanderer was not ashamed to asperse Paul with this 
 odious name; when, notwithstanding he exhorted all to forsake 
 wicked courses, and embrace earnestly the virtues that lead to 
 salvation. So at this day very many are called plagues and pes- 
 tiferous, who are falsely branded with the reproach of perverse 
 heresy, because they reject the doctrines and commandments of 
 men, in matters of faith and divine worship, that they may stand 
 fast to that alone most wholesome doctrine, delivered in the holy 
 scriptures. 
 
 And a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world. 
 They falsely accuse Paul of stirring up sedition in all the countries 
 through which the Jews were dispersed. But so it uses to be, 
 that truth, thwarting the received opinions and customs of men, 
 when it is not received by men who account nothing unlawful, 
 provided they can varnish it over with a counterfeit pretence of 
 zeal, but is stiffly opposed, seems to stir up riotous tumults and 
 pernicious seditions. But those very Jews, that falsely accused 
 Paul before Felix, did frequently stir up seditiona against Paul, as 
 
TEE. V.J LITEEALLT EXPLAINED. 483 
 
 you may see abovei oh. ix. 23; xili. 50; xiv. 5; xvii. 5, 13; xviii. 
 12 ; xxi. 30, 31. Here we may appositely use that of Juvenal, 
 Sat. XX. ver. 24. 
 
 Who the seditious Gracchi can sustain, 
 
 Of others for sedition to complain P 
 
 And a mover of sedition. That is, a leader and standard bearer 
 of the sect that professes the religion of Jesus of Nazareth. So 
 St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, and a champion for the name of 
 Christ, in the Afric church in those days, in the proconsular decree 
 made against him, is called, " The author and ringleader of that 
 execrable name." 
 
 Of the sect of the Nazarenes. In the Greek, " Heresy of the 
 Nazarenes." That is to say. Those who follow the sect of the 
 Christians, or embrace their heresy. Heresies are, as TertuUian 
 defines them, " the doctrines of men and devils, springing from 
 itching ears." Heresy, for the most part, is said to be that judg- 
 ment and opinion which is chosen by any, whether it be invented 
 by us or received from another. Yet use has prevailed now, 
 especially among Christians, that this word, that before was used 
 either in a good or bad sense, is, for the most part, now used in a 
 bad, to wit, for the choosing of a false and perverse opinion plainly 
 and altogether repugnant to the word of God; see above, ch. v. 17 ; 
 Gal. V. 20 ; and 2 Pet. ii. 10. The Jews therefore abhorred the 
 doctrine of the Christians, though it was agreeable to the law and 
 the prophets, as heretical and perverse, because It dissented from 
 the common faith of the public church, which at that time was 
 accounted the church of God. So also, at this very day, they 
 who follow the appointments of Christ are called heretics if they 
 vilify and reject the errors of formal Christians that are crept into 
 the church by custom. Moreover, as the learned Lud. de Dieu 
 very pertinently observes, " That Christ was called ^a^apato^, or 
 Na^aprjvoe, and his followers Na^apmoi, did not proceed from a 
 mistake of the common people, asjsupposing him born at Nazareth; 
 nor from the mockery of the wicked, as a,ccounting it a reproach 
 to him, but from God's own purpose and will, and the use of the 
 godly themselves. The purpose of God is manifest. Matt. ii. 23. 
 where Joseph, returning from Egypt 'with the child Jesus, 'is 
 commanded to fix the seat of his habitation at Nazareth, that, 
 according to the predictions of the prophets, he might be called a 
 Nazarene. And that the godly delighted in the use of this 
 name plainly appears from John i, 45 ; Acts ii. 22 ; iii. 6 ; iv. 10. 
 
 I I 2 
 
484 THE ACTS OF Tllji HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 Yea, Christ also calleth himself by bis name, Acts xxii. 8. This 
 doubtless was his most glorious name, whereby he was declared to 
 be -isyn, ' the branch' promised by the prophets, who was brought up 
 in the city called 1^3. 'Branch,' and brought forth thence to the 
 discharge of his office; he brought forth many 0111^3, ' Nazaraeans,' 
 that is, ' sprung out of the branch :' nor will it avail anything to say 
 that the $■ in Na^apatojc seems to evince that it is derived rather 
 from T'Tj than from 133. For it is usual to change S into T, as 
 instead of the Hebrew p''is, 'just,' the Syrians say pilT. For Tis, 
 whence nils, ' viands,' the Syrians say T)T, 'he gave viands,' SIIT, 
 'provision.' For T-i^S, 'little,' the Syrians say HT^l.'" 
 
 6. The temple. Of Jerusalem, built by Herod, which surpassed 
 in dimension and magnificence that of Solomon. 
 
 Hath gone about to profane. That is to say, Endeavour to defile 
 it, bringing strangers within that pale of stone, which was raised 
 to the height of three cubits, and had these words written on its 
 columns, "That a stranger ought not to enter into the holy place.'" 
 
 Whom we took. But with a seditious and tumultuous force. 
 See above, ch. xxi. 27, 30. 
 
 And would have judged according to our law. They lie notoriously, 
 seeing the Jews went about, against all justice and equity, to take 
 away Paul's life without so much as judging him, as ye may see 
 above, ch. xxi. 31. 
 
 7. But the chief captain Lysias came upon us. Who resided at 
 Jerusalem with the regiments of the Roman soldiers. 
 
 With great violence. That is, with violent force. 
 
 And took him away out of our hands. From the time that 
 Archelaus was banished to Vienna of the AUobroges, under 
 Augustus, to the time that Claudius Cjesar added Judea to the 
 kingdom of Agrippa the elder, and from the death of the same 
 Agrippa even till the destruction of Jerusalem, Judea was reduced 
 into a province and added to Syria, and was governed by procura- 
 tors sent from Rome, who had^the power of judging in matters of life 
 and death, which power was taken away from the Jews, as they 
 themselves answered in express words to Pilate when he sought an 
 occasion of setting Christ at liberty, John xviii. 31. Yet they had 
 a general grant from the Romans to put a stranger to death that 
 entered within the partition of the temple. They had also power 
 to scourge the criminals of their own nation, as appears from 
 Matt. X. 17 ; Acts v. 48 ; 2 Cor. xi. 24. As also a power to take"" 
 
 ' Jos, Bel. Jud. lib. vi> cap. vi. 
 
VER. X.J LlTEEALLY EXPLAINED. 485 
 
 cognizance of, and judge those of their own people that were guilty 
 of any capital offence; otherwise they could not have given an 
 account to a Eoman magistrate why they required any to be put 
 to death. So with the Roman inquisitors, to whom the Eoman 
 praetor had committed the taking cognizance of any cause; they 
 could determine whether one was guilty or not, but the privilege 
 of passing final sentence was peculiar to the prsstor. But if at any 
 time any were put to death by the Jews without the approbation 
 of the Roman magistrate, during that time that the affairs of the 
 Jews were managed by governor, or procurators deputed from 
 Rome, that was done by a popular tumult, although sometimes it 
 was preceded by a rash judgment of the Sanhedrim, whereby they 
 declared that the parties were worthy of death. 
 
 8. Commanding his accusers. To wit, Paul's. 
 
 To come unto thee. Who, doubtless, art procurator in the place 
 of the governor. 
 
 By whom. To wit, Paul. 
 
 Thou mayest. According to thy singular sagacity in deciding of 
 causes. 
 
 Thy self-judging. That is, diligently and strictly inquiring into 
 the heads of the accusation that are briefly mentioned. 
 
 Take knowledge of all these things. That is, be certainly informed. 
 
 9. And also assented. That is, gave their approbation to that 
 false accusation which Tertullus used against innocent Paul. It 
 was a custom amongst the ancients, that when any orator pleaded 
 a cause iu his own and fellow's name they professed themselves his 
 astipulators. As Virg. .^n. j. ver. 163. 
 
 " Ilioneus said, the Trojans with one mind gave loud applause." 
 
 The Jews. To wit, Ananias and the senators, of whom above, 
 ver. 1. 
 
 Saying that these things were so. That is, affirming that Tertullus 
 had spoken nothing that was false. 
 
 10. Then Paul answered. Being with his own mouth to repel 
 the malicious and lying accusations of his adversaries brought 
 against him by their advocate. 
 
 After that the governor had beckoned unto him to speak. That is, 
 having obtained of Felix liberty to speak, who would not pass 
 sentence without hearing both parties. 
 
 Forasmuch as I know, that thou hast been of many years a judge 
 unto this nation. As if he had said. Being persuaded that you are 
 well seen in the Jewish affairs, seeing now for several years thou 
 
486 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XXIV. 
 
 hast ruled Judea. This was now the tenth year of his administra- 
 tion of Judea, according to the universally learned Usher, arch- 
 bishop of Armagh. See our annotations above on ch, xxiii. 24. 
 But Felix, who was procurator of Judea, Samaria, and Galilee, is 
 called by Paul a judge, according to the Hebrew custom of speak- 
 ing, who call any governor, especially one that was endowed with 
 power of life and death, judge. So of old, they who had the 
 supreme power over the people of Israel before the institution of 
 kings, were called judges. And tapic', "to judge," is by the Hebrews 
 used to signify to govern. 
 
 / do the more cheerfully. That is, boldly and freely. 
 
 Answer for myself. That is to say, I will defend myself who am 
 hunted with calumnious accusations, with the protection of in- 
 nocence. 
 
 11. Because that thou mayest understand. That is, search the 
 matter by witnesses. 
 
 That there are yet but twelve days. Completed but this very day 
 wherein I plead my cause before thee. 
 
 Since I went up to Jerusalem for to worship. That is, since I 
 went from this maritime town Caesarea to Jerusalem, to celebralte 
 there the feast of Pentecost, and to worship God, with the rest of 
 the Jews in the temple, reverently and holily. There were but 
 twelve days intervened f«)m Paul's arrival at Jerusalem till that 
 very day which was the next after his accusation, arrived at 
 Caesarea, wherein he pleaded before Felix, they being to be 
 reckoned from ch. xxi. 17, 18, 26 ; xxii. 30; xxiii. 12, 30 ; xxiv. 1. 
 
 12. And they neither found me in the temple. As if he had said. Not 
 only in these so very few days, which I as a stranger and sojourner 
 passed at Jerusalem, there could not be any such sedition stirred up 
 by me, as they falsely accuse me of; but not so much as the sus- 
 picion of it agrees to me, nor can any without prejudice to the 
 truth say, that I, at Jerusalem, either stirred up the people any 
 where to tumultuous assemblies, or gave occasion to any tumult in 
 the synagogues or schools, or disputations of the Jews held either 
 in the temple or without the temple, or in any other place of the 
 city. 
 
 13. Neither can they prove, &c. As if he had said. And before 
 the faces of my accusers I affirm, that they have no plausible argu- 
 ments, whereby they can demonstrate and evince, that it is either 
 probable or likely, that either I stirred up sedition, or brought 
 strangers into the temple, as they now falsely accuse me before you. 
 
VBE. XIV.J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 487 
 
 14. But I confess, &c. As mucli as to say, But I acknowledge 
 and profess that I follow that way of worshiping God, which my 
 accusers brand with the name of the heresy or sect of the Naza- 
 rites or Nazarenes. Epiphanius, Hser. xxix. : " All the Christians 
 were then called Nazarenes. But it came to pass, that for a little 
 time the disciples were called Jessei, before they began to be 
 called Christians at Antioch." Aurelius Prudentius Clemens 
 (wEpt Sre^av.), in his fifth hymn, introduceth Dacian thus accost- 
 ing the Christians : — 
 
 You Nazarenes be ready bent, 
 Your clunish rigidneas relent ; 
 Ye Deities the prince invokes, 
 Appease with offerings and smokes. 
 
 Sect. Greek, " way ;" that is, the religion, or manner of divine 
 worship. 
 
 So I worship my Father and God.^ In the Greek it is, as also 
 the English translation, so worship I the God of my fathers. That 
 is, I devoutly and holily worship God, whom our fathers, Abraham, 
 Isaac, Jacob, and the rest from whom I derive my original, the 
 forefathers of the Israelites, long since worshipped. Paul else- 
 where also mentioneth this holy worship performed by him to God, 
 as Rom. i. 9 ; 2 Tim. i. 3. 
 
 Beliemng all things. Without any exception. 
 
 Which are written in the law and in the prophets. That is to say. 
 Which Moses, and the prophets that came after him, have sealed 
 with their writings. See below, chap. xxvi. 22, Paul doth not 
 challenge them to some uncertain traditions proposed only by word 
 of mouth, and delivered down to posterity by the hands of men not 
 to be confided in, but layeth the holy scripture, as a sure rule, for 
 the foundation of his faith. Athanasius, in his treatise of the synod 
 of Ariminum and Seleucia, saith, " In vain, running up and down, 
 do they pretend that synods were called together for the faith ; 
 for the holy scripture is more sufficient than they are all." The 
 same Athanasius against the Gentiles : " The holy and divinely 
 inspired scriptures are indeed sufficient for the declaration of the 
 truth." The same father in the same place : " If ye will speak 
 other things than these that are written, why do ye contend with 
 us, who wjll not endure either to hear or speak any things save 
 those things that are written?" Eusebius Pamphilius to a phi- 
 losopher in the Acts of the Council of Nice, part ii. cap. 19.: 
 ^ [Latin Vulgate : Sic deservio Patri, et Deo meo.] 
 
488 THE ACTS OF THK HOLY APOSTLES [OHAP. XXIV. 
 
 "Believe those things that are written: what are not written, 
 neither heed l-hem nor search after them." Chrysostom, Horn, of 
 the False Prophets, torn. vii. : " The holy scripture hath left out, nor 
 concealed, any of those things which are profitable for us." Theo- 
 doret, Qusest. iv. against the Gentiles : " It seemeth to me a pre- 
 sumptuous thing, to affirm anything of those things of which the 
 holy scripture delivers nothing expressly." Cyril, lib. ii. Glaphyr. 
 in Gen. : "How, I pray, shall we receive, and reckon among the 
 truths, that which the holy scripture hath not spoken of?" See 
 our annotations above, on ch. xvii. 11, and our epistle written in 
 French and English to the honourable Robert Boyle, Esq., a gen- 
 tleman excelling in all manner of learning and virtue. 
 
 15. Having hope. As much as to say. And God himself quick- 
 eneth me with a lively hope, to expect a general resurrection of 
 the just and unjust, which also the greatest part of the great San- 
 hedrim themselves, who are come hither to accuse me, do likewise 
 look for the accomplishment of. Hence we may gather, that the 
 Pharisees, who were at variance with the Sadducees, and declared 
 Paul innocent above, ch. xxili. 9, were now become friends with 
 them again, that they might hasten Paul's death by their most 
 execrable conspiracy. Possibly this reconciliation of them to 
 friendship was effected by those men who had cursed themselves, 
 if they would either eat or drink till they had killed him. See 
 above, ch, xxiii. 12 — 15. 
 
 That there shall be a resurrection of thejvst and unjust. Amongst 
 the Jewish rabbies, there is one of the ancients, Eabbi Eleazar, a 
 Capernaite, who, in the decisions of the fathers, in express woi«ds 
 taught, that all the dead, whether just or unjust shall be called to 
 life again. His words are these : " Those who are born, are born 
 that they may die ; those who die, die that they may live again ; 
 those who live again, live again that they may be judged." Christ 
 himself, without any far-fetched speeches, taught this general 
 resuscitation of the dead to judgment, from which some were to be 
 conducted to everlasting beatitude, others to perpetual and endless 
 punishments. John. v. 28, 29. See also 2 Cor. v. 10; Rev. xx. 
 12, 13. 
 
 16. In this. A Hebraism; that is, for this; to wit, because I 
 have a certain expectation, that all the dead shall be raised to life 
 again ; the just indeed to a heavenly, everlasting, and every-way 
 blessed life ; but the unjust to punishments that are to be inflicted 
 on them by the infinitely just God, for that they obstinately de- 
 
VER. XIX.] tlTEUALLY EXPLAINED. 489 
 
 spised his will revealed to them, and were unreasonably injurious 
 to the lovers of truth and holiness. See 2 Thess. i. 6, 7 ; Eev. 
 x\'i. 5, 6 ; xviii. 20 ; xix. 1 — 3. 
 
 Do I exercise myself, &c. As if he had said, With my whole 
 soul, and all the vigour of my mind, I endeavour after this, that 
 in my religious and civil duties I may never depart a hair's breadth 
 from a right conscience. By these words Paul declareth himself 
 innocent of that profanation of the temple, and stirring up of 
 sedition, of which he was falsely accused above, ver. 5, 6. It is 
 necesisary that a Christian, to a true and good faith add also a good 
 conscience, that providing things honest not only before the Lord, 
 but also in the sight of men, 2 Cor. viii. 21, he may be charged 
 with no crime, but most falsely, by that hatred of the godly, that 
 is feared in reprobate minds. See 1 Tim. i. 19 ; 1 Pet. iii. 16. 
 
 17. Now after many years. That is, after I had been several 
 years a great way absent from Jerusalem. 
 
 Alms, &c.* As much, as to say, I returned thither, not with a 
 design to move sedition, or to profane the temple, but to relieve 
 my poor brethren with contributions that I had gathered among 
 other nations, and to offer sacrifices to God on the solemn feast of 
 Pentecost, in the manner appointed by the law. 
 
 And vows. Being to pay vows I made to God. These two 
 words are not read in the Greek text, nor in the English translation. 
 
 18. In which. That is, which things while I was busied with, 
 as below, ch. xxvi. 12. 
 
 They found me purified. That is, bound by a vow of Nazarlte 
 to abstinence from wine, and other things forbidden the Nazarites. 
 See above, ch. xxi, 24, 26. 
 
 In the temple. To wit, when the seven days appointed by me to 
 my vow of Nazarite were now almost fulfilled. See above, ch. 
 xxi, 27. 
 
 Neither with multitude. That is, without any train of attendants. 
 
 Nor with tumult. That is to say. And without any seditious 
 concursion. See above, ver.' 12. " It follows," saith John Mariana, 
 " in some books, ' And they laid hands on me, crying, and saying. 
 Take away our enemy.' But this is not in the Greek, nor in the 
 Vulgate Latin. Therefore it is rejected." 
 
 Certain Jeivsfrom Asia. Supply "are." See above, ch. xxi. 27. 
 
 19. Who. As being authors of the outrage committed against 
 me in the temple. 
 
 * [Ulin Vulgate: Oblationes et vota,] 
 
490 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 Ought to have been here before thee. That is, it was meet that 
 they, as being the principal actors, should have appeared before 
 thee. 
 
 And object if they had anything against me. To wit, that was 
 not a crime feigned against me through calumny and malice. 
 
 20. Or. Supply, " that the absence of those Asian Jews, who 
 were the authors of the outrage committed upon me from thy 
 tribunal, be not suspected." 
 
 Let these same men. My adversaries, the priests and senators of 
 the Jews, who are here present, and were not present at the begin- 
 ning of the outrage done against me, but took on trust from others 
 the accusation brought against me. 
 
 Say if they have found any evil doing in me. That is, let them 
 openly declare if they have found anything wherein I have done 
 amiss. 
 
 When I stood before the judgment. In the Greek, " I, standing." 
 The Vulgate and Erasmus render it, " while I stand ; " as if Paul 
 had spoken of their then present hearing. But the matter itself 
 plainly declares that it is to be understood of the former judgment, 
 when he was brought by the chief captain before the council of 
 the elders, as above, ch. xxii. 30 ; and so it is to be rendered, " when 
 I stood." The meaning is the same as if Paul had said, When 
 Lysias, the chief captain, had brought me before the Sanhedrim, 
 being desirous to be certainly informed as to the accusations 
 brought against me by the Jews. 
 
 21. Except it be for this one voice. That is, unless perhaps this 
 true and innocent word be blame-worthy in me. 
 
 That I cried standing among them. That is, when I stood among 
 them. See above, ch. xxiii. 6. 
 
 22. Felix deferred them. In the Greek is added, as also in the 
 English, " hearing these things," or rather, when he had heard these 
 things. As if he had said, But when Felix had heard Paul 
 acknowledging that he was of that sect which was called Nazarenes, 
 an4 defending himself from the crimes of profaning the temple and 
 making an uproar, objected against him, by denial, he was afraid 
 to give sentence, and deferred the judgment by putting it off to 
 another time. 
 
 The uttermost. In the Greek it is " more certainly, more exactly." 
 The construction is somewhat obscure by reason of the trajection 
 of the participle, " saying," which will be more plain if it be thus 
 paraphrastically digested into order: "Saying, when I shall be 
 
VEU. XJIII.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 491 
 
 better and more fully informed what this doctrine is, which is 
 objected against Paul under the name of the heresy of the 
 Nazarenes, above, ver. 5, and the chief captain Lysias shall come 
 down from Jerusalem to Caesarea, I will again hear you who are 
 accusers with the defendant, and will then pass sentence on the 
 cause when debated by both parties." 
 
 Having knowledge of that way. That is, having further made an 
 inquiry into, and more fully been informed of that way and sect, 
 which, when objected to Paul, he confessed he followed, above, 
 ver. 14. They are the words of Felix delaying to pronounce him 
 guilty. But frequently in the New Testament the doctrine of the 
 gospel, or the Christian religion is signified by this expression, 
 " this way," as ye may see above ch. ix. 2 ; xix. 9 — 23 ; xxii. 4. 
 
 Saying. "There is no reason," saitb the learned Beza, "why 
 any should think that the trajection of this participle is wrested 
 and forced. For neither use these particles t^ij, ijv dyw ^S' oe to 
 be taken in another sense in Plato's Dialogues ; and with the Latins, 
 * I say,' and, ' he saith.' But also ye may find instances of the like, 
 or even a more harsh transposition in the same verb, below, ch. xxv. 
 5 ; Luke v. 24; vii. 42. Yet 1 confess that this trajection for the 
 most part occurs in the middle of a sentence, whereas here it is 
 used betwixt two sentences ; but that exact nicety of speech is not 
 to be expected in inspired writers; and the perspicuity of the 
 sentence seems enough to confirm this exposition, although there 
 were no other proofs for it." 
 
 When the chief captain Lyfias. Who, to wit, being acquainted 
 with all things done at Jerusalem, can fully satisfy me, whether 
 this man who denies that he stirred up sedition, and profaned the 
 temple, be guilty or not. 
 
 Shall come down. To wit, from Jerusalem to Caesarea. 
 
 IwUl hear. To wit, to decide the controversy. 
 
 You. To wit, the accusers and defendant in both causes. 
 
 23. And he commanded. As if he had said, And having deferred 
 the cause, he ordered a certain centurion of Caesarea, that he would 
 keep Paul in safe custody, but yet that he would let his friends 
 have free access to him, to assist him with their advice and estates. 
 
 And have liberty. Greek, " releasement," to wit, from bonds, and 
 closer confinement. 
 
 Nor any of his acquaintance. That is, of those who were his 
 intimate friends. 
 
 Forbid to minister unto him. In procuring things necessary for 
 
492 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XXIV. 
 
 Mm. In the Greeks as also the English, it is added, or to come to 
 Mm: to wit, to confer with him, or comfort him. Antonia, the 
 younger daughter to Antonius the triumvir, the wife of Drusus, 
 and mother to Germanicus and Claudius, and grandmother to 
 Galus Caligula (who, as Pliny says. Hist. Nat. vii. 19, never did 
 spit), obtained the same privilege from Macro, prefect of the 
 Roman soldiers, by her petition, for Agrippa, the elder nephew to 
 Herod the Great by Aristobulus, when he was cast into bonds by 
 Tiberius Cassar, as you may see in Josephus, Ant. xviii. 8. 
 
 24. And after certain days token Felix came. To the place where 
 Paul was kept largely and at liberty. 
 
 With his wife Drusilla. The fairest of women, daughter to 
 Agrippa the elder (who, above, ch. xii., is called Herod) by Cyrus, 
 the daughter of Phasaelus, whose uncle Herod the Great was, as 
 ye may see in Josephus.' This Felix had another wife of the same 
 name, who was daughter to Juba, king of Mauritania, and niece 
 to Anthony the triumvir, and Cleopatra, queen of Egypt. This 
 Drusilla, the daughter of Agrippa the elder, by Cyprus, was six 
 years of age, when her father yielded up the ghost ; above, ch. xii. 
 23. Epiphanes, son to Antiochus, king of Comagena, to whom 
 she was espoused by her said father, Agrippa the elder, refused 
 her marriage, because, that having altered his resolution, he would 
 not embrace the Jewish religion as he had promised to her parents. 
 Whereupon king Agrippa the younger, son to Agrippa the elder, 
 and brother to the said Drusilla, gave her in marriage to Azizus, 
 king of the Emessenes, who was circumcised. But Felix, pro- 
 curator of Judea, deeply in love or rather lust after Drusilla, sent 
 to her his friend Simon, by birth a Jew of Cyprus, who gave him- 
 self out for some great one, who solicited her to forsake her 
 husband Azizus, king of the Emessenes, and be married to Felix; 
 promising that she should be blessed if she did not set light by 
 him. She being one of no great foresight, and desirous to be freed 
 from the disturbance of her sister Bernice, who envied her by 
 reason of her excellent and surpassing beauty, she consented to 
 tread under foot the religion of her fathers, and to be married to 
 Felix.^ 
 
 Which was a Jewess. That is, whose paternal religion was that 
 of the Jews. 
 
 * Ant. lib. xviii. cap. 7, et lib. xix. cap. 7. 
 ' See Joseph. Ant. lib. xx. cap. 5. and Wars of the Jews lib. ii. cap. 10, and our annota- 
 tions on ch. xxiii. 24. 
 
VEE. XXVII.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 493 
 
 He sent for Paul. That he might inquire diligently of that 
 sect which was objected to Paul as a reproach and crime ; above, 
 ver, 5. 
 
 And heard him concerning the faith in Christ, As if he had said, 
 And Paul perceiving he had a door of utterance opened to him, 
 nothing afirighted with dangers, declareth to Felix in order, what 
 doctrines the Christian religion requires to be believed, what good 
 things to be hoped for, what evils to be feared, and, finally, what 
 things it requireth us to do, and what to eschew. 
 
 25. And as he reasoned of righteousness and chastity. [Vulg. 
 castitate.] In the Greek as also the English it is, and temperance. 
 That is, as Paul was declaring the doctrine of the Christian 
 religion, concerning its reverence to all virtues and abhorrence of 
 all vices. 
 
 And of judgment to come. Wherein the Lord Jesus, who is con- 
 stituted by the Father judge of the quick and the dead, will 
 righteously judge all men, not excepting the potentates, and those 
 who now sit judging others, then standing before his tribunal, and 
 will render unto every one due rewards; to the just everlasting 
 and inestimable joys, to the unjust, deserved, terrible, and never to 
 be ended punishments. Paul also concluded his oration before the 
 Athenians in Mars Hill, with this tremendous judgment of the 
 quick and the dead, above, ch. xvii. 31. As also the preaching of 
 this judgment, is reckoned one of the chief fundamental points of 
 the Christian religion, Heb. vi. 1, 2. 
 
 Felix trembling. For the punishment that he was at length like 
 to undergo for his wicked actions, which before he believed he 
 would never account for, as trusting to his power that was so great, 
 as Tacitus writeth of him, Annal. lib. xii. 
 
 Answered. Confounded with the guilt of his wickedness. 
 Go thy way for this time. That is, at present I am not at leisure 
 to hear you reason of these things. 
 
 When I have a convenient time. That is, when I shall have 
 respite from other business. 
 
 / will call for thee. To confer with thee. 
 
 26. He hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul, 
 &c. As if he had said. Being an unsatiably covetous man, he 
 hoped that Paul would have redeemed himself with money, and 
 therefore sent for him more frequently on pretence to confer with 
 him. 
 
 27. But after two years. As much as to say, But when Paul 
 
494 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXV. 
 
 had been kept in free custody by Felix for the space of two whole 
 years. 
 
 He had. From Nero Caesar. 
 
 A successor. In the office of procurator of Judea. 
 
 Porcius Festus. Porcius was the surname of the whole race of 
 Catos, derived from the word porcus signifying a hog. Varro of 
 Husbandry, ch. i. saith, " We have many surnames from both sorts 
 of beasts, the bigger and the smaller ; from the smaller, Porcius, 
 Ovinius, Caprilius; from the bigger, Equitius, Taurus." 
 
 Felix. Accused for his wickedness, as Tacitus testifieth. 
 
 Willing to show the Jews a pleasure. That is, that he might 
 ingratiate himself to the Jews, whom he had incensed by many 
 oppressions. 
 
 He left Paul hound. That is, kept in open prison. See above, 
 ver. 23. But this did nothing avail Felix, For the elders of the 
 Jews that dwelt at Cfiesarea, went to Rome, and accused him 
 before Nero the emperor for the many injuries he had done them. 
 Whereupon his successor, Porcius Festus, sent him bound to Eome 
 to Nero, who would have put him to death, had not, as Josephus 
 testifies, his brother Pallas, who then was in favour with the 
 emperor, procured his pardon. Although Pallas himself is thought 
 to have been poisoned by Nero not long after, "For that he held a 
 a vast treasure in a long old age." Tacit. Annal. lib. xiv. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 1. Now when Festus was come into the province. To wit, Judea, 
 committed to his administration by Nero Caesar. 
 
 After three days he went up to Jerusalem. The metropolis of that 
 province, that there he might enter upon and discharge his office 
 of governor. 
 
 From Ctssarea. Where, by reason of the convenience of the 
 sea, those who were deputed by the Roman emperors to govern 
 Judea, used to have their residence, as Tacitus testifieth, Annal. 
 lib. cxviii. As also it was the first port, as they sailed from Italy 
 to Judea. 
 
 2. And the high priest went unto him. He seems to be the same 
 Ananias that is mentioned above, ch. xxiii. 2, 24. 
 
VKa. Till, J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 495 
 
 And the chief of the Jews. These heads of the Jewish people are 
 above, ch. xxiv. 1, called elders, that is, senators. 
 
 Against Paul. That is, that they might with more advantage 
 accuse Paul before the new governor. 
 
 And besought him. To wit, Festus. 
 
 3. That he would send for him to Jerusalem. And there pass a 
 final sentence against him. The Roman magistrates did not 
 always give judgment in one particular city, but wherever they 
 happened to be. 
 
 Laying wait. As if he had said. Intending to kill Paul by 
 ambush in his way from Caesarea to Jerusalem. 
 
 4. Should be kept at Ccesarea. As if he had said, There is no 
 necessity that Paul should be brought from Caesarea, where he is 
 in custody, hither to Jerusalem, to be judged by me here, seeing I 
 myself am to go shortly into Caesarea. 
 
 In you, [In vobis.] That is, among you, as it is in the English 
 translation. In is frequently put for inter among, as above, ch. vii. 
 44; xviii. 11; xxiv. 21. 
 
 Who are able. Supply, " to convict Paul of his ciimes by solid 
 and strong arguments." " As if he had said," salth John Price, 
 "the accusations of the confused multitude are not worthy the 
 taking notice of, the disordered rabble does destroy the very 
 appearance and form of judgment. Let men therefore be delegated 
 that are more skilful in managing impeachments." 
 
 Go down together. As if he had said. Let them go down with 
 me from Jerusalem to Caesarea, and accuse Paul of his crimes. 
 
 6. Among them. To wit, among the Jews of Jerusalem. 
 
 The next day. That is, the next day after that Festus returned 
 to Caesarea. 
 
 Sitting on the judgment-seat. To give judgment. 
 
 He commanded Paul to be brought. That h^ might judge his cause. 
 
 7. Many and grievous complaints, &c. That is, they laid many 
 grievous crimes to his charge, which yet they could not fix upon 
 Paul by any plausible proofs. Excellent is that of Apuleius ; "Any 
 innocent man may be accused of a forged crime, but none but a 
 guilty person can be convicted." 
 
 8. While Paul answered for himself. That is, while he vindicated 
 his own innocency by most solid and convincing arguments, as 
 above, ch. xxiv. 10, et seq. 
 
 Against the law of the Jews. That is, against the law given by 
 God to the Jews through the ministry of Moses. 
 
496- THE ACTS OF THE HOLTf APOSTLES [CHAP. XXV. 
 
 Against the temple. Of Jerusalem, which my adversaries 
 calumniate me that I went about to profane. 
 
 Against Casar. Those accusers of Paul seem to have laid the 
 same things to his charge, that the Jews of Thessalonica and 
 Corinth did; above, ch. xvii. 7; xviii. 13. 
 
 9. To do the Jews a pleasure. That is, to curry favour with the 
 Jews. 
 
 And there he judged of those things hefore me. That is, be judged 
 by the great council of the Jews in my hearing. '•' The Sanhedrim," 
 saith Grotius, "had some power of executing the law; but the 
 right of the Roman city was greater than that of the Sanhedrim, 
 therefore Paul could not be compelled to acknowledge them for 
 judges. The governors used sometimes to be present with the 
 senate of the city."' 
 
 10. But Paid said. To wit, when he understood on what design 
 and intent Festus put that question to him, and fearing ambushes 
 laid by the Jews. 
 
 I stand at Ccesar's judgment-seat. He calls that CfBsar's judg- 
 ment-seat, which the governor held in the name and by authority 
 of Csesar. Ulpianus, book i, of the duty of Ctesar's procurator, 
 saith, " What things are acted and done by Cassar's procurator, are 
 so approved of by him as if they had been done by Csesar himself." 
 
 Where I. Seeing I am a Koman citizen. 
 
 To the Jews. To wit, those mine accusers, to whose importunity 
 you seem to yield. 
 
 I have done no lorong. That is, in nothing have I given them 
 just cause of offence. 
 
 Better. [Melius.] The comparative is put for the positive 
 " well," or the superlative, as it is in the English, " very well." 
 
 11. I refuse not to die. Terentius, Phorm. Act. i. s. 5: "If, 
 uncle, Antipho has committed so great a trespass against his own 
 interest I plead for no favour for him, but that he may suffer 
 according to his demerits." On which place Donatus saith, " 'TIs 
 a rhetorical theorem, which he uses who is entrusted with a cause 
 proposed : If this or that be, I beg not pardon ; I deprecate no 
 punishment." 
 
 But if there be none of these things. Supply, " wherein I have 
 offended," as I said above, ver. 8. 
 
 Which these accuse me. A Graecism; for in Latin it is more 
 proper to say, " Of which, or whereof they accuse me." 
 
 ' Lib. i, sec. sed etsi D. quando appellandum sit. 
 
VgR. XIII.] LITEUALLY EXPLAINED. 497 
 
 No man may deliver me unto them. That is, no man hath power 
 to grant this liberty to the Jews to judge me against my will. 
 " It was," saith Grotius, " contrary to the Roman laws to deliver 
 up a Roman citizen, and that against his will to men of a province, 
 to be judged by them." Pliny, in his epistle to Trajan, of the 
 Christians saith, " There were others possessed with the like mad- 
 ness, whom, because they were Roman citizens, I ordered to be 
 sent back into the city." 
 
 / appeal unto Ccesar. That is, as Grotius interprets it, " If ye 
 will deliver me to be judged by the Sanhedrim (for Festus seemed 
 to intend it), I appeal to Csesar Nero." This was allowed by the 
 Roman laws in such a case. For before sentence appeal may be 
 made, if the judge has pronounced an interlocutory on a question 
 to be discussed in a civil action, or does it contrary to law in 
 a criminal."' 
 
 With the council. That is, with the eonciliary assistants. 
 
 Conferred. That he might ask their judgment as to this appeal 
 of Paul's to Caesar, whether it should be admitted or not. 
 
 To CcBsar thou shalt go. Festus grants that to a Roman citizen 
 which, if he had not granted, he had been guilty of open violence 
 before Caesar, whose honour, that was advanced by that appeal, he 
 should have seemed to suppress and make light account of it. 
 
 13. And when a few days were past. That is, a few days 
 intervening. 
 
 Agrippa. The younger, whom Herod Agrippa, Aristobulus's 
 son, begot of Cyprus, daughter to Phasaelus. 
 
 King. The last of the Jews, but not of the province of Judea 
 or Jerusalem, or any part of the two tetrarchies of Archelaus, his 
 grand uncle, but of the tetrarchies of his other grand uncle Philip, 
 and of Lysaniaa, of whom mention is made Luke iii. 1. Claudius, 
 the emperor, at first would have had this Agrippa the lesser, then 
 a young man, to succeed his father Agrippa, but afterwards look- 
 ing on him as incapable to govern so great a kingdom, he made 
 Cuspius Fadus procurator of Judea, and of the whole kingdom of 
 Agrippa the elder, which was larger than the kingdom of his 
 grandfather, Herod the Great. And so Judea was again made a 
 province, as it was before ; it was added to the kingdom of Agrippa 
 the elder by Claudius Csesar, since Augustus had banished Arche- 
 laus, uncle to the same Agrippa, who was accused of tyranny to 
 Yienna, of the Allobroges. But in the fourth year from the death 
 ' Lib. Ante. D. de appel. recip. 
 K K 
 
498 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXV. 
 
 of Agrippa the elder, which was the eighth of the reign of Claudius, 
 Herod, brother to the same Agrippa, king of Chalcis, in Syria, 
 died, and Agrippa the younger was by Claudius substituted in the 
 room of the deceased ; and, together with the kingdom of Chalois, 
 he was, also invested with power over the temple of Jerusalem and 
 the holy treasury, and with the right of choosing high priests, 
 which the same emperor had granted to his uncle. This was the 
 beginning of Agrippa the younger's reign. But when he had 
 governed Chalcis four years, Claudius, after the twelfth year of 
 his reign, took it from him and transported him into a greater 
 kingdom, constituting him king of the tetrarchy (which was his 
 grand uncle Philip's), to wit, of Batansea and Gaulanitis, or 
 Auranitis (which countries seem to be the same with Itursea, 
 Luke iii. 1), and Trachonitis; adding, moreover, the principality 
 which is surnamed Lysanias, because it was of old possessed by 
 Lysanias, Ptolemy's son, of whom Josephus jwriteth,' and more 
 recently by the tetrarch Lysanias, whom Luke maketh mention 
 of. To this greater kingdom of Agrippa the younger, Nero added 
 Tiberias and Tarichsea, cities of Galilee, and JuliuSj in Itursea, 
 situated beyond Jordan, with fourteen villages conterminous to it.^ 
 Eusebius, in his Chronicle, declareth that this Agrippa reigned 
 twenty-six years, to whom all chronologers give credit. But 
 Eusebius committed two mistakes: first, in that he saith that 
 Agrippa the younger reigned immediately after his father's deceasej 
 contrary to- what Josephus asserts.^ And also in that he is of 
 opinion that the kingdom of this Agrippa ended together with the 
 miserable destruction of Jerusalem. As if, because twenty-six 
 years intervened between the beginning of the same king and the 
 overthrow of Jerusalem, the king himself had been also destroyed^ 
 together with the temple and city. "But," saith the renowned 
 Scaliger, "that Agrippa the younger died in the third year of 
 Trajan, Num. 2,116 of Eusebius's Chronicle, as Justus of Tiberias 
 testified, who presented his chronological works to King Agrippa 
 himself. None, therefore, could more certainly pronounce about 
 this king's death than he who dedicated his work to him. Phocius 
 saith of Justus of Tiberias, ' He beginneth his history from Moses, 
 and continueth it even to the exit of Agrippa, the seventh of 
 Herod's family and last of the Jewish kings, who received his 
 kingdom imder Claudius, increased it under Nero, and further 
 
 ' Ant. lib. xif. cap. 23. lib. xv. cap. 4. " Joseph. Ant. lib. xx. cap. S. 
 
 ' Ant. lib. xix. cap. 7- 
 
VEK, Xm.j LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 499 
 
 under Vespasian, But he died in the third year of Trajan, at 
 which time his history likewise concludes.' " " But there was no 
 cause," saith the same Scaliger, " why Eusebius should limit the 
 kingdom of Agrippa the younger with the destruction of Jerusalem. 
 For neither was he king of Jerusalem, nor had he any authority 
 over any part of the tetrarchy of Archelaus. For Caesar's pro- 
 curator was always sent to the patrimony of Archelaus and Jeru- 
 salem, who was called Epistropus of Judea." Thus Joseph 
 Scaliger, in his animadversions on Eusebius's Chronicle, with 
 whom, notwithstanding, the most renewed Scultetus cannot agree 
 in this that he says : " That there was always a procurator sent to 
 the patrimony of Archelaus and Jerusalem." For when Agrippa 
 the elder reigned and governed Judea itself, he is of opinion that 
 the Jews paid tribute, not to the Romans, but to their own king ; 
 nor that any procurator came from Borne to Jerusalem. The 
 same Scaliger, on Eusebius, Num. 2,086 : " Agrippa the younger, 
 the seventh and last of the kings of the race of Herod, lived 
 thirty years after the destruction of Jerusalem, his kingdom 
 continuing safe, which he possessed twenty-six years, and increased 
 by the accession of some towns through the favour of Vespasian. 
 So far was the fortune of Jerusalem from causing any alteration in 
 his kingdom. What, therefore, did Eusebius mean? Whether 
 that after the destruction of Jerusalem, Agrippa continued in the 
 station of a private person, or that he was destroyed, together with 
 Jerusalem? But these things are both already confuted, as alsj 
 they are with this coin: AYTOKPATqP . OTECnACIANOC . 
 KAICAP . IOYAAIAC . EAAqKIAC . ETEI . KA . Arpinn. 
 Agrippa remained king after Judea was taken. Elsewhere it is 
 ETOYS Kr. Eusebius has licentiously enough indulged himself 
 in this fiction. But both the ancient and modern Jews are mis- 
 taken who say that their power of judgment was taken away from 
 them by the Romans forty years before the destruction of Jerusa- 
 lem, that isj in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Casar, which is 
 ridiculous. For this befell them sixty-one years before the burning 
 of the temple; about the time that Archelaus was banished to 
 Vienna. Whence is that. It is not lawful for us to hill any man. 
 For Caesar's governor, or procurator, devolving all the power on 
 himself, left very few things, and those of very small moment to 
 the consistory of the Jews, with these, moreover, which belonged 
 to their laws, rites, ceremonies, and songs." 
 
 And Bernice. Sister geraian to king Agrippa the younger, 
 
 K K 2 
 
50!J THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAf. XXV. 
 
 widow of Herod king of Chalois, her uncle. When a rumour went 
 abroad that she lay carnally with her brother german Agrippa, 
 she advised Polemon king of Cilicia, that he would first be circum- 
 cised and then marry her, thinking that In so doing she would 
 make it appear to be a lie. Nor did Polemon deny her, being 
 especially induced thereto by her riches; yet that marriage was 
 not of long continuance, by reason of intemperance, as it is said, 
 Bernice departing from him, who presently after he was deserted 
 by his wife, deserted the Jewish religion.' The same Bernice, or 
 Berenice, or Beroniee, came to Jerusalem barefooted and her head 
 shaven, to pay her vow to God for her safety.^ Juvenal, Sat. xx: — 
 
 And the rich diamond that fairer showed. 
 On Berenice's finger, this bestowed 
 The barbarous Agrippa, he to his 
 Incestuous sister once presented this, 
 Where barefoot kings the sacred Sabbath hold, 
 And ancient pity lets the hogs grow old. 
 
 Came down. Greek, " came unto," as it is in English. 
 
 CcBsarea, to salute Festus. That they might pay their respects 
 to the new governor or procurator. For those who depended on 
 the Roman emperors as vassals, they officiously insinuated them- 
 selves into ,the favour of the Roman procurators. 
 
 14. Had been there. That is, Agrippa and Bernice had tarried 
 at Caesarea. 
 
 Unto the king. Agrippa. 
 
 Declared Paul's cause. That is, he related in order all Paul's 
 concern, in what case it was. 
 
 15. Desiring against him. As if guilty of a notorious crime. 
 
 Judgment. Without telling the cause why. Greek, S/kjjv, " sen- 
 tence," that is, a juridical condemnation, as appears by Festus's 
 answer subjoined to it. "Ai'kjj," saith Eibera on Hos. xiii,, "is a 
 law-term, and signifieth a cause which is pleaded before the judge, 
 and decree of the judge, and right or an action to do or ask any 
 thing, and the punishment which is inflicted, which also the Latins 
 sometimes call dica using a Greek word for one of their own." 
 Some Greek copies, instead of this simple word Sikjj, have the com- 
 pound KnraSjKijv, which signifies " condemnation." 
 
 16. It is not the manner of the Romans. Like to barbarous 
 cruelty, or tyrannical impotency, as Apuleius speaketh. 
 
 1 Joseph. Ant. lib. xx. cap. 5. ' Joseph. Bell. Jud. lib. ii. cap. IS. 
 
VEE. XX.J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 501 
 
 To deliver any one to die. In the Greek it is, " To gratify one 
 with another's destruction," to wit, at the request of any. 
 
 17- When therefore they were come. The elders of Jews intending 
 to prosecute Paul with all severity. 
 
 Hither. To Csesarea. 
 
 I sat on the judgment seat. To give judgment. 
 
 And commanded the man to be brought forth. To wit, Paul, who 
 was in prison. 
 
 18. When they stood up. Greek, oraflevTEej " standing," that is, 
 when they stood before the judgment-seat. 
 
 They brought none. As if he had said, I suspected that they 
 should lay some heinous wickedness to Paul's charge, but they had 
 nothing to say against him but some frivolous things, I know not 
 what, concerning their own superstition. GaUio, deputy of Achaia, 
 spoke to the same purpose in Paul's cause, when he was accused by 
 the Jews ; above, ch. xviii. 14. 
 
 19. Of their awn. To wit, Jewish, 
 
 Superstition. Superstition is a vain and ridiculous worship of 
 God, as also an anxious and excessive dread of him, when he is 
 thought to be offended at those things which yet he is no ways 
 offended at. This profane man speaketh impiously of that worship 
 of the true God which the law of Moses appointeth. "Nothing,' 
 salth the renowned Beza, " reverencing the presence of king 
 Agrippa. For these governors of provinces used to prefer them- 
 selves even to kings by reason of the greatness of the people of 
 Eome, and it is probable also that this Agrippa, following the foot- 
 steps of his fathers, did so profess the Jewish religion, as that he 
 should not offend the Romans." 
 
 Against him. To wit, Paul. 
 
 And of one Jesus, which was dead. And that inhumanly mur- 
 dered. 
 
 Whom Paul affirmed to he alive. Raised up from the dead. 
 
 20. And because I doubted, &e. " Here," saith the famous Beza, 
 "Festus palliateth his sin, and bewrayeth himself. For why did 
 he not absolve a supposed criminal against whom nothing could be 
 proved ? Or what occasion was there for his doubting ? Therefore 
 if he had declared the plain truth, he would have confessed that he 
 would therefore have had Paul carried up to Jerusalem, that he 
 might ingratiate himself to the Jews, and expose an innocent person 
 to the cruelty of his enemies, to be murdered ^ij them, either by 
 the way, or in the city : wherefore, he gave just cause of appeal,' 
 
502 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXV. 
 
 seeing the right of appeal of old granted to the people, but after- 
 wards to CaBsar, was granted to a Eoman citizen by most firm 
 laws. 
 
 21. But when Paul had appealed to he reserved to the hearing of 
 Augustus. That is, that he might remain in custody until Nero the 
 Roman emperor could cognosce of his cause and defence, and de- 
 termine thereupon. Now all the Roman emperors were called 
 Caesars from the first of their emperors Caius Julius, whose family's 
 surname was Csesar; and from their second emperor Octavianus 
 Csesar, all his successors to this very day have the name of 
 Augustus. But Octavianus himself, for his singular virtue, and 
 many good deeds to the commonwealth, in the thirty-sixth year of 
 his age, according to the opinion of Munatius Plancus, but the 
 sixteenth year of his empire, which he happily governed fifty-six 
 years, was called Augustus; an excellent and very honourable 
 title, which signifies one that is venerable, and to be sacredly 
 revered as God. 
 
 22. I would. That is, I have a great desire. 
 
 23. But on the morrow when Agrippa was come. To wit, into the 
 judgment-hall. 
 
 Agrippa and Bernice. That is, together with his sister german 
 Bernice; of whom above, ver. 13. 
 
 With great ambition [cum multd ambitione.] Greek, " with great 
 phantasie," that is, with most sumptuous clothing and royal orna- 
 ments; or as it is in the English, with great pomp, as the 
 Greek author speaks, 1 Mac. ix. 37, where also the Vulgate 
 Latin interpreter renders It, " with much ambition," that is, vain 
 ostentation. 
 
 And entered the place of hearing. That is, into the conclave 
 appointed to take cognizance of and judge causes. 
 
 With the chief captains. To wit, military, who were set over 
 one thousand soldiers. 
 
 Principal men of the city. That is, the nobility and gentry of 
 Caesarea. 
 
 Paul was brought. From prison to the said conclave. 
 
 24. And Festus said. Addressing himself to the assistants. 
 Jerusalem and here. To wit, at Caesarea ; see above, ver. 6, 7. 
 Crying. Greek, " crying aloud." To wit, at Jerusalem, before 
 
 Claudius Lysias, the chief captain ; above, ch. xxii, 22. But at 
 Csesarea, before Festus, the procurator, where above, ver. 7, the 
 Jews accused Paul of heinous crimes without cause. 
 
TEE. II.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 503 
 
 25. But when I found, &c. The like testimony the Pharisees 
 also bear to Paul of his innocency ; above, ch. xxiii. 9. King 
 Agrippa and his sister Bernioe, below, ch. xxvi. 31.^ 
 
 To send him. To wit, Paul, to Domitius Nero Caesar; see above, 
 ver. 21. 
 
 26. No certain thing. That is, known and determinate. 
 
 To write to my lord. That is, to the emperor. Octavianus 
 Caesar Augustus, by an edict, prohibited the title of lord to be 
 given to him, which had its rise from "parasites," and indicated 
 according to the import of the related words, as if the Roman 
 citizens were the emperor's servants : witness Dion and Suetonius. 
 But after his decease the custom became universal, and that even 
 among good princes and emperors, of not refusing this title, as 
 appears from Pliny's Letters to Trajan. 
 
 / have brought him forth before you. Who are now come here 
 together. 
 
 Especially before thee. As being well seen in the Jewish laws 
 and controversies. 
 
 Examination had. Or, as Pliny speaks, " inquisition made. " 
 
 27. Unreasonable. That is, foolish and absurd. 
 
 To send a prisoner. To Rome, to the emperor. 
 
 And not to signify. Supply, " by letter." 
 
 The crimes laid against him. That is, the accusations brought 
 against him, or misdemeanours laid to his charge. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 1. Thou art permitted. By Festus, the governor, and me. 
 
 To speak for thyself. That is, to plead and defend thy cause. 
 
 Stretch forth his hand. As they used to do who are to make a 
 large oration, or a long discourse ; not so much that they may 
 procure silence, as that their freedom and ingenuity may thereby 
 be more evident. 
 
 Answered for himself. That is, he began thus courageously to 
 defend his innocency from the calumnies of his adversaries. 
 
 2. / think myself happy. This Ovid would have expressed, 
 "I am glad at this, with all my heart." Apuleius also, in the 
 beginning of his first Apology to Maximus, the proconsul: "I 
 rejoice, that while thou art judge I have both power and liberty 
 
504 TH^E ACTS OF THE HOLY iPOSTLES [CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 granted me to purge philosophy among the unskilful and approve 
 myself." 
 
 3. Questions. Which, to wit, are controverted. What Paul 
 says here of Agrippa the younger, he affirmed almost the very 
 same of Felix the governor; above, ch. xxiv. 10, 11. 
 
 4. Life. That is, "my custom of life and living," as Clcei'o 
 speaketh. So Apuleius and Pliny the younger used the word 
 oita, " life." This,' speaking of a certain candidate : " He himself 
 spoke for himself; he declared his life." The other :" " What more 
 copious commender, what more sacred witness of my life, can I 
 produce ?" 
 
 Among my own nation. That is, among the Jews. 
 Know all the Jews. Especially they of Jerusalem. 
 
 5. fVhich knew me from the beginning. That is, to whom I was 
 very well known long ago. 
 
 If they would testify. To wit, of my by-past life. 
 
 After the straitest. That is, famous above all the other sects of 
 the Jewish religion, for the commendation of wisdom and skilful- 
 ness in the la.v of God. See what we have said on Matt. iii. 7. 
 
 Sect. Greek, " heresy." See what we have said on this middle 
 or indifferent word above, ch. xxiv. 5. 
 
 Of our religion. That is, of the Jewish, in which, besides the 
 sevenfold sect of the Pharisees, there were the sects of the 
 Sadducees and Essenes. Josephus' calls heresies "philosophies." 
 Jerome against Jovinian* calls them dogmata, "opinions." They 
 might also be called "parties," as the renowned Drusius observes. 
 " For," says he, " ^>hr\, ' party, sect,' that is nipog, Acts xxiii. 
 6; and m?3W, 'nations.' Truly in the commentators on Aboth, 
 where speaking of the Sadducees, * They were made a nation by 
 themselves, m'Syh naiN. The nation of the Sadducees, as the 
 nation of Gramarians,' &c. The Hebrews properly call a sect m, 
 and a heresy, mra, whence D'-S'-a, ' heretics,' and from thence 
 ' minseus,' that is, ''D^a. Sect also in the Acts is called ri oBbi, that 
 is, ' way,' and in Jochazim JTOa, that is, ' use, custom.' " 
 
 / lived a Pharisee. Paul testifies the same of himself above, 
 ch. xxiii. 7 ; Phil. iii. 5. 
 
 6. And now, &c. As if he had said. But now I am accused, 
 because I maintain the hope of the promise made to our fathers. 
 " By hope," saith Wolzogenius, " he seems to understand metony- 
 
 ' Ep. lib. iii. cap. 20. ' Apolog. 2. ' Ant. lib. xiv. cap. 9. 
 
 ' Ub. xviii. cap. 2. ' Lib. ii. cap. 9. 
 
VER. VII.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 505 
 
 mically the things hoped for, as appears by what follows. Some 
 expound that hope of the resurrection of the dead, of which above, 
 ch. xxiii. 6 ; xxiv. 15. But others take it for the hope of the 
 deliverance of the Jews by the Messiah, or of salvation to be 
 obtained by Christ. Nor without reason; for although here below, 
 ver. 8, there is expressly mention made of the raising of the dead, 
 yet that does not militate against this opinion, which may be seen 
 there. Again, the raising up of the just that are dead is com- 
 prehended in that hope of salvation by Christ, as being of larger 
 extent. Moreover, it cannot be clearly shown that the promise of 
 the resurrection of the dead was made by God to the fathers of the 
 Jews, which is here immediately subjoined. But it is manifest 
 that it was made of Christ, not obscurely, but expressly, as we 
 shall straight see. To pass by that, what is spoken in the follow- 
 ing verse can scarce be rightly said of the hope of the resurrection, 
 to wit, that the twelve tribes of Israel hoped that they should 
 come to it ; seeing there were many among those twelve tribes 
 who had no persuasion of the hope of the resurrection of the dead, 
 as the Sadducees, and those who favoured their opinion." 
 To our fathers. To wit, the ancestors of the Jews. 
 Of the promise. To wit, of the Messiah, or Christ the Saviour. 
 Made of God. To Abraham, Gen. xxii. 18. To Isaac, Gen. xxvi. 4. 
 To Jacob, Gen. xxviii. 14. To Judah, Gen. xlix 10. To the 
 Israelites, Deut. xviii. 15. To David, 2 Sam. vii. 12 ; Psa. cxxii. 11 ; 
 Isa. vii. 14 ; ix. 6, 7 ; xi. 1 ; Jer. xxiii. 5 ; xxxiii. 14, 15 ; Ezek. 
 xxxiv. 23, 24 ; xxxvii. 24, 25 ; Hos. iii. 5 ; Mic. v. 2 ; vii. [20. 
 " Paul," saith Wolzogenius, " everywhere preached the Messiah 
 promised by God of old, and then as yet hoped for by the Jews, 
 but really already shown, and that that Messiah was Jesus, whom 
 God raised up after that he was crucified by the Jews ; and for 
 this very reason was he persecuted by the Jews." 
 
 I stand and am judged. This Ulpianus would have said, "I appear 
 personally in judgment." 
 
 7. Unto which. That is, for the obtaining of which promise. 
 The sense of this whole verse is the same as if he had said : But 
 whosoever of our nation carefully worship God, and exercise them- 
 selves night and day in the duties of godlinessj they are inflamed 
 with this hope, that they will sometime obtain that everlasting sal- 
 vation and blessed immortality, which the Messiah, the author of 
 salvation, will bestow on all them that obey him. 
 
 Our twelve tribes. So are the posterity of Jacob called, who 
 
506 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XXVI. 
 
 was Abraham's grandchild, named Israel, from whose twelve sons 
 the twelve tribes of the Israelites are propagated. And although 
 the ten tribes that were long ago carried into Assyria, 2 Kings 
 xvii. 23 ; xviii. 1, did not all return together with the two tribes of 
 Benjamin and Judah, yet that not a few of them were scattered 
 among the two tribes that returned from the Babylonish captivity, 
 is declared, Ezra vi. 17 ; viii. 35 ; see also Kimchi on Jer. 1, 4. 
 
 Night and day. That is, without intermission. 
 
 Serving. To wit, the living God. In the Greek is added Iv 
 iKTiviii}, which is the same as ektevwc. 1 Pet. i. 22, " earnestly, 
 . instantly, fervently." 
 
 Hope to come. Or, to attain. 
 
 For which hope I am accused of the Jews. As if he had said. It 
 is imputed a crime to me by the Jews, because I declare that the 
 hope which they all have of Christ, from the promises of God, is 
 already fulfilled, and that the promised Christ is already exhibited 
 by God, and that he is that very Jesus of Nazareth, whom, after 
 he had suffered a cruel death, God raised from the dead, and gave 
 him all power in heaven and earth. 
 
 8. Why? " So," saith Beza, "the Greek annotations distin- 
 guish ; nor do I doubt biit this is the genuine reading : but besides 
 that otherwise the sentence would be incoherent, this speech is 
 also full of solid gravity ;" for it strenuously and nimbly antici- 
 pates their tacit objection, who among his hearers were either 
 heathens or Sadducees ; for they might imagine and say. Thou 
 preachest that Jesus of Nazareth, after that he was slain by a cruel 
 death, resumed life again, which cannot be believed. 
 
 Should it be thought a thing incredible with you ? Judging by the 
 mean capacity of human intellect. 
 
 If. That is, "that," as below, ver. 23, and d, " if," saith Daniel 
 Brenius, " for on, that, as dN with the Hebrews, Gen. xlvii. 9 ; 
 Num. iii. 30; Psal. Ixiii. 7; cxxxix. 10; Isa. iv. 5." 
 
 God. Whose immense power is not bounded within the narrow 
 limits of human understanding. 
 
 Should raise the dead? To wit, by his efficacy ; or, as the Vulgate 
 Latin interpreter speaketh, Phil. iii. 21, according to the working of 
 his power, whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself'. See 
 that golden physico-theological treatise, of the Possibility of the 
 Resurrection, written by the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq., a 
 very great man by the suffrages of all. 
 
 9. / verily. Before that I certainly knew that Jesus, who was 
 
VER. IX.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 507 
 
 crucified, lived again, and that he is the Messiah promised in the 
 law and the prophets. 
 
 Thought. By a preposterous zeal for the law of Moses, and 
 burning with a pertinacious and mad rage. Lactantius, the most 
 famous for eloquence amongst the assertors of Christian verity, 
 thus refels the Gentiles who defended their religion by tormenting 
 those that dissented from them :« " But," say they, " sacred rites 
 publicly professed are to be defended. O with how honest a 
 desire do these miserable men err! for they think that there is 
 nothing in human affairs more excellent than religion, and that 
 it must be defended with the utmost power; but as they are mis- 
 taken in the religion itself, so are they in the kind of defence. 
 For religion must be defended not by killing, but by dying ; not 
 by cruelty, but by patience ; not by wickedness, but by faith. 
 For those are the deeds of evil men, these of good ; and it is neces- 
 sary that good be practised in religion, not evil. For if ye will 
 defend your religion by blood, if by torments, or evil, it will no 
 more be defended, but polluted and violated. For there is nothing 
 so voluntary as religion, in which, if the mind of its professor is 
 averse, it is straight vanished, it is now none. There is therefore 
 good reason that ye should defend religion by patience or death, 
 in which if faith be preserved, it is both well-pleasing to God, and 
 addeth authority to religion." Socrates relateth, Hist. iii. 21, that 
 Jovinian the emperor was mightily commended, because he per- 
 mitted every man to profess religion as he thought fit, and every 
 one to worship as he pleased. So Flavins Josephus, in his Life 
 writeth, that every one ought koto ttjv iavTov irpoalpcmv, " accord- 
 ing to his own choice worship God ;" aWa fir\ fura (iiag, but " not 
 by constraint, neither ought we to act so as to give cause to others 
 to repent that they came over to us on the account of security." 
 At' anasius, Apol. 2: "Deaths and bonds are far from beino- 
 allowed by our religion." Tertullian to Scapula, cap. xi. : " We 
 worship one God whom ye naturally know, at whose lightnings 
 and thunder ye tremble, at whose benefits ye rejoice; ye also 
 fancy the rest to be gods, which we know are devils. Yet it is of 
 human right and natural liberty, that every man worship what he 
 thinks fit, nor does one's religion either incommodate or advan- 
 tage another. But neither is it the duty of religion to impose 
 religion, which ought to be embraced willingly, not by constraint." 
 Council of Toledo IV. can. 56 : " As man died by obeying the 
 
 ' InBtit. lib. V. cap. 19. 
 
508 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [OHAP. XXVI." 
 
 serpent out of his own free will, so, in the call of the grace of God 
 every man is saved, through faith, by the conversion of his own 
 mind. Wherefore the Jews are not to be compelled by force, but 
 are to be persuaded, that they may be converted out of their own 
 free will." Nicolas, the first Roman bishop of this name, answering 
 the demands of the Bulgarians (cap. 41) : " But as concerning those 
 who refuse to embrace the Christian religion, and sacrifice, and 
 bow their knees to idols, we can write no other thing to you, but 
 that ye convince them to embrace the true faith by admonitions 
 and exhortations, and that ye endeavour to persuade them that 
 they are vainly wise, rather by reason than by violence." See 
 what is said above, ch. v. 39 ; xvii. 3, 17. 
 
 With myself. Greek, tij.avT^, "in,"or "to myself," which the Syriac, 
 Arabic, and the famed Beza construe with the verb immediately 
 going before tSo^a, as if it were put for Trap' ifxavri^, so that the 
 sense is, " I judged with myself," or as the Vulgate Latin inter- 
 preter, " I thought." But the said Vulgate Latin and Erasmus 
 refer it to the verb Ss'iv, " I behoved " or " ought," which follows. 
 The most learned Lewis de Dieu is of opinion that this is not to 
 be altogether despised. " For although," saith he, " it is more 
 usual to say sSo^a inavrov SeTv, yet the dative case is sometimes 
 used even by the most approved authors. Aristotle, in his Pro- 
 blems, Sei t(^ irvpi SiEXditv TovQ aXac, 'it is necessary that salt 
 undergo the fire.' " 
 
 Contrary/ to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Name is here taken 
 either for his very person whose name it is, as above, ch. iv. 12; 
 or for the whole profession of the gospel or religion delivered by 
 Jesus, as above, ch. v. 41 ; Matt. x. 22 ; 1 Pet. iv. 14; B,ev. ii, 3. 
 
 Ought. As of bounden duty, in regard I thought that Jesus 
 was a seducer, an impostor, and grand adversary to God. 
 
 To do many things. By vexing, afflicting, and persecuting them, 
 who professed themselves the disciples and worshippers of Christ. > 
 
 10. Which thing I also did. With an impetus of blind zeal, and 
 inflexible obstinacy. 
 
 In Jerusalem. In which metropolis of Judea and of all the east, 
 I was taken and cast into bonds. 
 
 And many of the saints. That is, of those who follow the 
 way and doctrines of Jesus of Nazareth, who are called saints, 
 because they are separated from the profane multitude of men, by 
 the profession of that religion and doctrine which Christ delivered 
 to them. But when Paul persecuted them with outrageous vio- 
 
VER. XII.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 509 
 
 lence, he accounted them profane, and every way detestable 
 villains. See above, ch. viii. 3 ; xxii, 4. 
 
 And when, they were put to death. To wit, the Christians by the 
 unbelieving Jews. 
 
 I gave my voice. That is, I gave my approbation to the mad- 
 ness of those unbelieving Jews, and by my suffrage, approved of 
 their bloody cruelty, whereby they destroyed the Christians. 
 
 See above, ch. viii. 1 ; xxii. 20. 
 
 11. And in every synagogue. By the name of synagogue, are 
 usually denoted the places where the Jews made their public 
 prayers, as also frequently their juridical and civil conventions, as, 
 1 Mac. vii. 12, the additions to Daniel xiii. 41. It is also used for 
 Christian assemblies met to perform divine service, James ii. 2, 
 Here therefore by synagogues may be understood, either those 
 meeting-places of the Christians, into which Paul sometimes vio- 
 lently broke in, and haled them forth to insupportable torments 
 or the juridical and civil assembling places of the Jews, before 
 ■whom the Christians that were apprehended by Paul were brought- 
 or finally, the places appointed for prayer, in which, it is not im- 
 probable that sometimes the punishment decreedagainst the guilty, 
 was put in execution. For Epiphanius makes mention of a certain 
 Jew that was scourged in a synagogue, when he was deserting 
 the Jews and turning over to the Christians. And in Eusebius,' 
 a book is cited written against the Montanists in the reign of 
 Commodus, where it is said, that no woman of that flock "was 
 either punished with stripes, or stoned in the synagogue of the Jews." 
 I punished them oft, and compelled them to blaspheme. That is, 
 I frequently caused the Christians to be put to torments, that by 
 the sharpness of them I might drive them to curse Christ. That 
 this was done in the time of the persecutions by some that were 
 not found Christians, Pliny witnesseth, lib. x. epist. 97, to Trajan 
 the emperor. 
 
 And being exceedingly, &c. As if he had said. But further, my 
 mad rage against the Christians increasing every day, I was not 
 satiated with' tormenting them all manner of ways at Jerusalem 
 only, but carried on that inhuman prosecution of them further, 
 even to cities situate without Judea. 
 
 12. Whereupon. That is, in the meanwhile that I was a doing 
 these things, or exercising myself in these things, as above, 
 ch. xxiv. 18. 
 
 ^ Hist. Eccles. lib. v. cap. 15. 
 
510 THE ACTS OP THJ3 HOLY APOSTLES' [CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 As I went. Greek, Troptvo/isvog, " and going," that is, while I 
 went with that purpose or mind. 
 
 To Damascus, The metropolis o£ Syria, of which above, ch. ix. 2. 
 
 With authority. As if he had said. Having obtained from the 
 chief priests letters of proxy, whereby I had full authority, and 
 also the care was comjnitted to me of doing that which I went 
 about. See above, ch. ix. 1, 2. 14; xxii. 5. 
 
 Commission. Greek, ETrtrpoTr^Cj "permission." 
 
 13. At mid-day. That is, about noon, as it is the Greek text, 
 above, ch. xxii. 6. 
 
 In the way. To wit, when I was not far from Damascus. See 
 above, ch. ix. 3 ; xxii. 6. 
 
 I saw, &c. See above, ch. ix. 3; xxii. 6. 
 
 14. / heard, &c. See above, ch. ix. 4 ; xxii. 7. 
 
 15. I, &c. See above, ch. ix. 5 ; xxii. 8. 
 
 16. But rise, and stand upon thy feet. Because both he and all 
 those who were present with him, companions in his journey, being 
 dazzled with the brightness of the light, which exceeded that of 
 the sun, were fallen down upon, the earth. See above, ver. 14. 
 
 For I have appeared unto thee for this purpose. That is, for this 
 end have I, who am taken up into heaven, and there sit at the 
 right hand of God, whom the heavens must contain until the times 
 of the restitution of all things, and who must at the last day come 
 down from heaven ; I, I say, Jesus of Nazareth, whose countenance 
 while I was on earth, shone as the sun. Matt. xvii. 2, now reigning 
 in heaven, have shown myself to thee in the brightness of light 
 more resplendent than that of the sun. 
 
 To make thee. Greek, TTjOOYtipto'acrSai, " That I may take thee 
 in my hands." See what we have noted on this Greek word above, 
 ch. xxii. 14. 
 
 A minister and a witness, &o. As if he had said, As he whom 
 
 1 will employ for a preacher and witness, both of those things 
 which thou hast now seen, and also of those things which shall 
 afterwards be showed thee by me. " Paul's many visions," saith 
 Grotius, "are had respect unto above, ch. xviii. 9; xxiii. 11; 
 
 2 Cor. ii. 2." See what we said above, ch. xxii. 15. 
 
 17. Delivering thee from the people and the Gentiles. That is, 
 promising my protection, whereby thou shalt be delivered from 
 those dangers which shall attend thee from the Jewish people and 
 sirange nations, for the discharge of that ministry. 
 
 Unto whom now I send thee. First, indeed, to the Jewish nation. 
 
VEB, XVIII.J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 511 
 
 but especially afterwards to the Gentiles, of which I peculiarly 
 make thee an apostle. See above, ch. xxii. 21. 
 
 18. To open. That is, that by the preaching of the gospel thou 
 mayest open. 
 
 Thdr eyes. Not of the body, but of the mind; a metaphor 
 taken from the body, as Isa. xlii. 7 ; Eph, i. 18. 
 
 To turn them from darkness. To wit, of ignorance and wicked-- 
 ness. See Col. i. 13. 
 
 To light. That is, to the perfect knowledge of gospel truth, and 
 godliness flowing thence. In the Greek in is put for ad, as in the 
 verse immediately preceding. 
 
 And from the power of Satan. Which wicked and envious spirit, 
 while he maliciously fights against God and men, by his errors that 
 he sows, and vices that result from them, he keeps men, that are 
 ignorant of the truth revealed by God in his own power and 
 dominion, as under tyranny in miserable slavery, drawing them 
 into utter 4estruetion. 
 
 Unto God. That is, to the true and sound way of worshipping 
 God. 
 
 That they mcCy receive, &c. As if he had said. That believing in 
 me, they may receive a free pardon of their sins, and be partakers 
 of the everlasting inheritance which God hath appointed to those 
 who are separated from the multitude of the profane. 
 
 Lot. That is, as it is in the English, inheritance, because in- 
 heritances used to be distributed by lot. By that lot or inherit- 
 ance is understood everlasting communion in that heavenly 
 beatitude which God himself enjoys. 
 
 Among the holy. [Latin, inter sanctos;'] Greek, "in the sanctified." 
 That is, as it is in the English, among thetn that are sanctified, or 
 among them who, by the efficacy of the Holy Spirit, are separated 
 to God from the ungodliness and ignorance of worldly men. 
 
 By faith. Excellently saith Calvin: " Some read wrong in one 
 context, ' Among those that are sanctified by faith,' because this 
 particle is extended to the whole complex; therefore the meaning 
 is that by feith we come to the possession of all the good things 
 that are offered in the gospel." 
 
 That is in me. Eaith in Jesus Christ, or confidence reposed in 
 him as a Saviour, and in his promises, and that lively and working 
 by charity and obedience to his commands, joined with a sincere 
 repentance of their by-past life, of which below, ver. 20; and above, 
 ch. XX. 21. This faith, I say, is the means by which through the 
 
512 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 grace of God are obtained those excellent benefits above-mentioned, 
 viz., remission of sins, deliverance from the punishments deserved 
 by them, especially from the second or everlasting death, the gift of 
 the heavenly inheritance and everlasting life. See Gal. t. 6; 
 James ii. 17, 22, 26 ; John iii. 23. But that faith in Christ, and 
 hope joined therewith, through Christ, goeth to the same God 
 whom the Jews profess themselves to be worshippers of. See 
 John xii. 44; 1 Peter i. 21. 
 
 19. Whereupon. That is, " wherefore," as Heb. iii. 1 ; vii. 25. 
 Incredulous. Latin, incredulus ; in the Greek, as also the 
 
 English it is, disobedient, to wit, by stubbornness and inflexible 
 obstinacy. " As powerful as that call was," says Grotius, " yet it 
 did not take away the power of resisting. God will have voluntary 
 obedience, not forced." See Isa. 1. 5 ; Psalm xcv. 7 ; Heb. iii. 7, 
 8, 15; iv. 7. 
 
 Unto the heavenly vision. That is, the divine will, which I 
 learned from Christ showing himself to me; above, ver. 16. 
 
 20. But. Obedient to the heavenly revelation in all things. 
 First unto them of Damascus. See above, ch. ix. 19, 20, 22. 
 Ani at Jerusalem. Ibid. ver. 28. 
 
 And throughout all the country of Judea. That is, through other 
 cities of Judea, besides the metropolis; yea, also without Judea, 
 among the Jews that inhabited other countries. See above, 
 ch. xiiL 5, 14, 16; xiv. 1; xvii. 2, 10; xviii. 4, 19; xix. 8. 
 
 And the Gentiles. Strangers to the Jewish people. See above, 
 ch. xiii. 42,48; xiv. I, 15, 21, 25, 26; xv. 35; xvi. 13, 32; xvii. 
 1 7, &c. ; xviii. 4 ; xix. 10. 
 
 Declared. The evangelical doctrine of Christ. 
 
 That they should repent. That is, that they might be sorry that 
 they have offended God. 
 
 And be turned. To wit, from the wickedness of their ways. 
 
 To God. To wit, the true God who is to be worshipped 
 devoutly and piously. 
 
 Works meet for repentance. That is, works agreeable to virtue, 
 and becoming a person who repents sincerely of a vicious and 
 flagitious life. See what I have said on Matt. iii. 2, 8. 
 
 21. For this cause. That is, because I preached these things 
 among the Jews and other nations. 
 
 The Jews caught me while I was in the temple. See above, ch. xxi. 
 27, 30. 
 
 Went abotit to kill me. Greek, iTrupuivro ^laxtipiaaa^ai, " they 
 
YER. XXIII.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 513 
 
 attempted to kill me with their hands." That is, by force and 
 violence to kill me uncondemned. 
 
 22, But having oUained help. Greek, ouv, "therefore," as also the 
 English, instead of the adversative particle "but," as Matt. xiii. 12. 
 
 Of God. Who verily, according to Christ's promise above, 
 ver. 17, having a design to deliver me from snares that were laid 
 for me, out of his mercy provided those means for me to escape out 
 of the hands of my enemies, of which see above, ch. xxi. 31 — 32, 
 33; xxii. 23, 24; xxiii. 6, 9, 10, 16, 24; xxv. 10, 11. 
 
 I continue unto this day. Safe and sound. 
 
 Witnessing both to small and great. That is, instructing and 
 teaching all ranks of men from the highest to the lowest, those 
 things that I have known of Christ. 
 
 To the lesser and greater. [Latin, minori atque majori.'] Greek, 
 as also the English, small and great. A Hebraism, as Deut. i. 17 ; 
 1 Sam. XXX. 2, 5, 9, xxx. 2, 19; 1 Kings xxii. 31; 2 Kings 
 xxiii. 2 
 
 Saying none otlier things. Of Christ. 
 
 Than what the propliets did say should come. And set down in 
 their writings. 
 
 And Moses. The principal of all the prophets, both by his 
 prophecies, and also by his types and figures inserted in his 
 Pentateuch, hath foretold of the Messiah, see Luke xxiv. 27. 
 
 23. If. That conditional conjunction is taken in this place 
 affirmatively, and signifies " that," as above, ver. 8. Paul there- 
 fore explains those things which Moses and the prophets foretold 
 were to come of Christ, to wit, that he should suffer very great 
 pains, and should rise first to immortal life, and would bestow the 
 light of truth on the Jews first, and then also on the Gentiles. 
 
 Should suffer. That is, was designed to undergo the utmost 
 torment. All the sacrifices of the old covenant, and all David's 
 calamities, did typify this. David prophesied the same, Ps. xxii. ; 
 as also Isa. liii., and Dan. ix. 26. 
 
 If. That is, " that," as immediately above. 
 
 First of the resurrection of the dead. That is, the first that should 
 be raised from the dead to immortal life ; see Ps. xvi. 10; xxii. 32 ; 
 Isa. liii. 10. The prophecy of Jonah has also a reference hereto. 
 Matt. xii. 40. Hence Christ raised up to perpetuity of life, 
 1 Cor. XV. 20, is called the first fruits of them that sleep ; and 
 Col. i. 18, the first begotten among the dead; and Rev. i. 5,' the first 
 begotten of the dead. 
 
 L L 
 
514 THE ACTS OF THB HOLT APOSTLES [OHAP. XXTI.' 
 
 Light. Of most sound doctrine and true godliness ; see Matt 
 iv. 16 ; John i. 4; viii. 12 ; 2 Tim. i. 10. 
 
 Should shov}. That is, Christ himself, after he is risen, will 
 show it by the ministry of the apostles' preaching, according to the 
 the prophecy of Isaiah, ch. xlii. 6; xlix. 6. See Eph. ii. 17; 
 1 Pet. iii. 18, 19. 
 
 Unto the people. Of the Jews first. 
 
 And to the Gentiles. That is, and then to the rest of the nations. 
 See above, ch, xiii. 46, 47 ; Luke ii. 32. 
 
 24. And as he thus spake for himself. As if he had said, But 
 when Paul defended his cause by the lively oracles of the law of 
 Moses and the prophets, and proved his defence by the evidence 
 of his reasons. 
 
 Festus. Procurator of Judea, unwilling to be persuaded that 
 the doctrine of the gospel was divine, lest afterwards his conscience' 
 should indite him, that he must lead his life according to its 
 prescript, and torment and prick him when he was negligent in 
 his duty. 
 
 Said with a loud voice. That is, cried out. 
 
 I'aul, thou art beside thyself. Worldly men who are addicted to 
 fleshly pleasures and this life, and therefore refractory to the 
 gospel, think it a madness to profess the religion of Christ and the' 
 doctrine of so contemptible and abject a man, who was crucified 
 even by his countrymen, and put to so infamous a death; to 
 acknowledge him for a heavenly king and lord, and worship him, 
 even when he is risen from the dead, and on his account to despise 
 all things, and suifer hard things, and finally to expect from him' 
 the reward of everlasting life and glory. See 1 Cor. i. 18, 23; ii. 14.' 
 
 Much learning. That is, most profound erudition and science. 
 
 Doth make thee mad. Or drives thee to madness. Those who 
 sequestering themselves from the care of other things, give them- 
 selves wholly over to study, use sometimes, melancholy beings 
 thereby increased in their bodies, to be reduced to madness and 
 phrensy. See Aristotle's Problems, sect. 30. 
 
 25. Most excellent Festus: See what is said above, ch. xxiii. 6; 
 xxiv. 3. Paul giveth Festus, the proeuratotj most honourable 
 titles, although he opprobriously twitted him with his mad wisdom. 
 Let us learn hence to give magistrates their due honour, even 
 then when they take^ away our good name, though undeservedly. 
 
 I speak tlie words of truth and soberness. A Hebraism. That is, 
 I speak true words, and which flow from a sound mind. 
 
yEU. XXVIII.] LITERALLY IXPLAINDD. 516 
 
 26. For he knoweth of these things. To wit, of the undeserved 
 death of Jesus Christ, and of his glorious resurrection to immor- 
 tality, and of the preaching of his evangelical doctrine, that was 
 made famous by the miracles which were wrought by his disciples. 
 
 TTie king. To wit, Agrlppa the lesser or younger, son to 
 Agrippa the greater or elder, who is here present. It was 
 reckoned by orators to be the best defence criminals could make, 
 to appeal even to the conscience of their adversaries or the judges, 
 Paul had recourse to this succour here, and above, ch. xxv. 10. 
 
 Before whom also I speak freely. As if he had said. And on this 
 confidence, to wit, that the king is ignorant of none of these things 
 I speak, I freely appeal to his conscience. 
 
 F(yr this thing was not done in a corner. To wit, any of these things 
 which I said of Jesus of Nazareth was not done in secret, but all 
 were brought about in very noted places. And although Christ, 
 after he was raised from the dead, was not shown but to his 
 disciples, yet it seems very likely, from what happened to the 
 watch of his sepulchre, who, being astonished at the admirable 
 approach of the bright angel to his sepulchre at the time of his 
 resurrection, told what was done there to the chief priests, and 
 afterwards, being bribed with money, denied it, Matt, xxviii. 4, 
 11, 15 ; that afterward, by degrees, the report of this matter spread 
 amongst men; [and] that the same was carried a great deal 
 further by so many of Christ's disciples, who spoke it openly, very 
 confidently, and constantly, as being eye-witnesses thereof, nothing 
 terrified with the vehement afflictions they by reason thereof 
 exposed themselves to, 
 
 27. King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets ? Who have plainly 
 prophesied to us those things of the Messiah a long time before, 
 which I myself affirm are fulfilled in Christ Jesus, with all 
 asseveration. 
 
 / know that thou believest. It is a frequent custom, both in civil 
 affairs and common discourse, to ask one and to answer for him. 
 Pliny the younger, lib. ix., epist. 12, saith, "Hark ye; did ye 
 never do that which your fathers could reprove you for ? I say, ye 
 have done it." Cicero, de Nat, Deor., " Do ye think God such a 
 one as I or you are ? Certainly you do not." 
 
 28. But Agrippa unto Paul. Supply, out of the Greek text^ 
 "said." 
 
 In a little. [Latin, in modico.] That is, as it is in the English, 
 almost. "It is," saith Grotius, "an elegant Greek speech; for 
 
 L L 2 
 
516 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 even Plato said, in his Apologetic, iyvw ovv koi ircpi rwv ttoijjtwv tv 
 oXiyt^ TovTo : Mn a little,' that is, almost, ' I have known the same 
 of the poets.' " 
 
 Thou inducest me to he a Christian. That is, as it is in the 
 English, thou persuadest me to he a Christian, Nothing stood in 
 way of it why he did not receive the doctrine of Christ more fully 
 but his vices, which Agrippa would not part with : not unlike to his 
 grand uncle, Herod Antipas, who feared John the Baptist, and 
 sometimes heard him gladly, Mark vi. 20, but would not obey him 
 when he enjoined him to put away Herodias, his brother Philip's 
 wife. " Paul's defence," saith Daniel Brenius, " did so far prevail 
 with Agrippa, that although he did not embrace the Christian 
 religion, yet, as ecclesiastical histories relate, he granted to the 
 Christians, who during the Roman war against the Jews fled into 
 cities subject to his government, liberty to stay there and have 
 their meetings without molestation." Yet it is very like that this 
 was spoke in a smiling way by Agrippa to Paul, and that by a 
 politic craft, lest Festus and the rest that were present should 
 judge him to be mad with Paul, whom the same Festus had but 
 now in plain and express terms upbraided with madness. 
 
 29. And Paul, answering Agrippa with a sedate mind, saith. 
 
 I would to God. That is, I pray God who is the turner of hearts. 
 
 Both in little and great [Lat. in modico et in magno.] That is, not 
 only almost, but plainly and altogether. 
 
 Not only thou. "Who hast said this. 
 
 But all that hear this day. Me, discoursing of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Be such as I am. That is, become the disciples of the same Jesus 
 Christ, like to me in all things. 
 
 Except these bonds. That is, save in my prison and keepers that 
 are set about me. For Paul was kept free from bonds in open 
 prison ; see above, ch. xxiv. 23. But, as Grotius well observes, 
 " Vulgar speech did not take bonds in so strict a sense as lawyers." 
 Such is that of Virgil, ^neid viii. 651. 
 
 " And Clelia, 'ecap'd from bonds, the river took." 
 "For pledges are never bound," saith Servius. Excellent here 
 is that of Calvin, as for most part his use is : " Truly it is very 
 requisite that all the godly be endowed with this meekness, that 
 they may calmly bear their cross ; but that they may desire that 
 others do well, and as much as in them lies endeavour to ease them 
 of all their trouble, but that by no means they envy their rest and 
 joy. This mild temper and moderation is very far different from 
 
VER. I.J LITEKALLY EXPLAINED. 517 
 
 the bitterness of those, who by wishing their evils may befall 
 others, comfort themselves with the thoughts thereof." 
 
 And. Supply out of the Greek text, "when he had thus- said," 
 to wit, Paul, as it is also in the English, 
 
 The king rose up, Agrippa, from the place whereon he sat 
 attentively and patiently hearing Paul's strong and irrefutable 
 defence. 
 
 j4nd the governor. Festus, procurator of Judea. See our aunot. 
 above, oh. xxiii. 26. 
 
 And Bernice. Sister to king Agrippa. Of whom above, ch. xxv. 
 13. 
 
 And they that sat with them. The chief captains and principal 
 men of Caesarea. Of whom see above, ch. xxv. 23. 
 
 31. And when they were gone aside. Into some place where they 
 might consult what to do with Paul, apart, and where none might 
 overhear their discourse. 
 
 Bonds. That is, prison. See above, ver. 29. 
 This man. To wit, Paul, whom they had just now heard plead 
 . his cause. " That Paul," saith Calvin, " was absolved by the judg- 
 ment of all, did not a little tend to the credit of the gospel. And 
 Festus assenting with the rest condemned himself, as having cast 
 Paul into these straits by his injustice, in betraying his life to the 
 plots of his enemies, under pretence of changing of place. But 
 although an appeal seems to be dangerous to the holy man, yet, in 
 regard this was his only shelter to save him from death, he rests 
 contented, nor goes about to extricate himself out of that trap : 
 not only because it was not candid for him to do so, because he 
 was admonished by a vision, that he should be also called by Grod 
 to bear testimony at Rome." See above, ch. xxiii. 11. 
 
 32, This man might have been set at liberty. Freed from his con- 
 finement, as being innocent, and not convicted of any crime. 
 
 If he had not appealed unto Casar, By appeal, the power of the 
 judge from whom the appeal is made becomes altogether null, not 
 only to condemn but also to absolve, that the whole cause may 
 be reserved to the cognizance of the superior judge to whom the 
 appeal is made. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVil. 
 
 1. But wlien it was determined. To wit, Festus, governor of 
 Judea, now also decreeing it, as he did before, ch. xxv. 12. 
 
518 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXVU. 
 
 That h6 should sail. The common Greek Codexes have rina^, 
 " we." That is, that Paul should set sail from Csesarea, together 
 with his companions, to wit, Luke who committed these things to 
 writing, and Aristarchus the Macedonian of the city Thessalonioa, 
 who is mentioned in the immediately following verse. 
 
 And to deliver Paul. That is, and that Paul should be delivered. 
 Greek, TraptSiSow t6v te TiavXov, " and they delivered Paul," to 
 wit, they who kept him in open prison. 
 
 Into Italy. That famous country of Europe, in whose metropolis 
 Rome, Cassar, whom Paul appealed to, had his residence. See 
 what we have said of Italy, above, ch. xviii. 2. 
 
 With other prisoners. That is, with some others who were kept 
 in custody, and by reason of the intricacy of their cause that were 
 to be cognosced, were sent to Rome to Caesar. 
 
 Of Augustus's band. That is, of the band of the Augustan legion. 
 "For," saith Grotius, "Augusta was the name of a legion in the 
 ancient stone, in Lipsius on the second book of Tacitus's His- 
 tories." A legion under the Caesar's was divided into ten regiments, 
 every regiment into three maniples, and every maniple into two 
 companies. This legion therefore consisted of six thousand soldiers, 
 and it had ten regiments, thirty maniples, sixty companies. See 
 Salmasius of the military affairs of the Romans, ch. ii. 3. 
 
 2. And entering into a ship of Adramyttium. As if he had said, 
 But seeing there was no ship there, which was bound straight fou 
 Italy, we went aboard of a ship which set forth from Adrumetum, 
 or, as the Greek text has it, "Adramyttium," to traffic on the 
 coast of Judea. Adrymes, or Adrymetus, or Adrumetum was a 
 city of Libya ; Pliny makes mention of it (Nat. Hist. lib. v. c. 4.) 
 Strabo (lib. xvii.) calls it Adryme. That it was a fortified city 
 appears out of Diodorus Siculus (lib. xx. of his Historical Library,) 
 seeing Agathocles laid siege to it ; " While, says hej these things 
 were in hand, Agathocles now having the plains in his hands, he 
 took the castles near Carthage by force,, and brought the cities 
 over to his side, some through fear, others by reason of their hatred 
 of the Carthaginians, and having fortified his camp near Tunis, and 
 left a sufficient garrison, he advanced to the cities near the sear, 
 and having taken a new city at his first assault, he showed himself 
 very merciful towards the captives, whence going forward to 
 Adrymes, he besieged it." But Adramyttium was a city of Mysia, 
 near Caicus, a river of the same Mysia, as Pliny testifies (lib. v. 
 c. 30.) Ptolemy (lib. v. c. 2 of his Geography) reckoneth Adra.^ 
 
MH, IV. J LITEBALLY BXPLAIKBD. 519 
 
 myttium among the cities of the greater Phrygia ; now Phrygia 
 the greater was conterminous to iEolis, which in ancient times was 
 also called Mysia. Adramyttium was a very noted city, a colony 
 of the Athenians ; it had a harbour and road for ships, as Strabo 
 has committed to memory (lib. xiii.), where he sayB the famous 
 orator Xenocles had his birth. 
 
 Meaning to sail by the coast of Asia. As if he had said. Which 
 ship was bound for the maritime towns of Asia the Lesser, of which 
 Mysia is a part. The Greek vulgar Codexes have juAXovree TrXstw, 
 " beginning to sail," or, as Beza renders it, " about to sail." 
 ^ We launched^ Greek, avijx^ftEv, " we were carried away," as 
 above, ch. xvi. 11 ; xviii. 21 ; xx. 3, 13; and below, ver. 4. 
 ; One Aristarehm being with us. This man had accompanied Paul 
 frem Macedonia even to Judea ; above, oh. xix. 29 ; xx. 4. The 
 same man would freely accompany Paul, now in custody, out of 
 love to him and to the truth he preached, and was the first that 
 assisted him at Rome, Phil. 24, and became his fellow prisoner, 
 .Col. iv. 10. 
 
 3. And the next day we touched. Greek, Karffx^riiJLsv, " we were 
 eajried." 
 
 Sidon, That famous city of Phoenicia, of whose largeness and 
 antiquity the sacred scriptures will have us in no wise doubt, for 
 .Josh. xix. 18, it is called' ton prs, " Sidon the large." See what 
 we have said of Sidon and Tyre in our literal explanation on 
 Joel iii. 4, and Matt. xi. 21. 
 
 Gave him liberty, &cc. At Paul's entreaty he gave him liberty 
 to go to visit his Christian friends in iJiat part of Phoenicia at his 
 pleasure, that they might take care and provide what was necessary 
 for him. 
 
 4. And when we had launched thence. That is, parted from 
 Sidon. 
 
 fVe sailed unto Cyprus. If the wind had favoured they would 
 have steered their course straight from Sidon to Myra, above the 
 island Cypl'USs leaving it on the right hand. But now they must 
 fetch a compass aild turn under the island, leaving it on the left 
 ,handi and so in a manner compass the island. Hence the Syriac 
 and Arabic render it, "we compassed near Cyprus." Which the 
 Syriac renders more plainly below, ver. 7, where /xjj Trpoffswvra^ 
 rifiaQ Tov avifiov, vjnirKtvaafiiv Tr\v KpriTii)v, the Syriac has, " and 
 because the wind suffered us not. to go the nearest way,, we tacked 
 about near Crete." That is, when we could not, by reason of the 
 
520 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [OHAP. XXVII. 
 
 wind, go a straight course from the island Cnidus into the Adriatic 
 Sea, above Crete, and leaving it on the left hand, we turned below 
 it, and so having it on the right hand, we encompassed it. " These 
 phrases," saith Lewis de Dieu, " are still in use with mariners, that 
 as they sail by any place that is in their view, they are said to sail 
 above it when they are carried a straight course, under it when 
 they are forced to decline and tackle. The former is signified in 
 Gireek by the word virepTrXe'iv, the other by viro'!r\t7v. And there- 
 fore we applaud the most renowned Beza, who below, ver. 16, 
 renders, vricrlov Be n vTroSpa/iovreg, 'and carried under a certain 
 little island.'" See what we have said above of the island of 
 Cyprus, ch. iv. 36. 
 
 Because the winds were contrary. That is, because we could not 
 keep a straight course by the island of Cyprus' for the wind. 
 
 5. T%e sea of Cilicia and Pamphilia. Greek, ro re nekayog to 
 Kara rriv KjAtKi'av Koi TJafKpvXiav SiaTrXsixravTsc, "and having 
 sailed over the sea that is by Cilicia and Pamphylia." See what 
 we have said of Cilicia above, ch. vi. 9; and of Pamphylia, ch. ii. 10. 
 
 We came to Lystra, which is of Lycia. [Latin, 'Fewz'mws Lystram,] 
 Lystra is not a city of Lycia, but of Lycaonia, situate in the 
 continent, far from the sea; and therefore the Vulgate Latin 
 edition should be amended, and should be read, "we came to 
 Lymira, or Limyra, or Lamira, or . Myra." Pomponius Mela 
 maketh mention' of a river called Lymira, and a town of the same 
 name in Lycia, near the sea ; and Pliny (Nat. Hist. v. 27), 
 Lymira, a city of Lycia, having its name from the river Lymirus, 
 which it is situate by, is mentioned by Strabo (lib. xiv.), by 
 Ptolemy (lib. v. cap. 1), by Scylax in Lycia, and by Stephaniis 
 Byzantius, who also writeth of Lamyra, a city of Lycia, in its own 
 place; but seeing this author uses of one and the same city to 
 make several, I easily believe that it is the same town. Finally, 
 the metropolitan city of Lycia, situate near the river Lymira, and 
 a town of the same name, on a hillock, distant twenty miles from 
 the sea-shore, commonly called Strumita ; it is called by Ptolemy 
 (lib. V. cap. 3), Mvppa ; by Pliny and others, Myra, in the neuter 
 plural, Myroi, in the rationary ; and by Stephanus, Mvpwv. Lycia 
 was a part of the Asian province. " First it was governed by the 
 emperor's lieutenants, then under Justinian it was reckoned among 
 the consular provinces, being divided into the Inner and Outer, or 
 Maritime: it had on the west Caria, on the north a part of 
 
 ' Lib. i. call 16. 
 
YEK. V.J LXTEIULLY EXPLAINED. 521 
 
 Lydia, and of Pacatiana the southerly, on the east Pamphylia, on 
 the south the Ehodian sea," saith Frid. Spanheim, in his Introduc- 
 tion to Sacred Geography. Besides, Stephan. Mela testifies' that 
 this province had its name from King Lycus, son to Pandion. 
 The monster chimaera was feigned to be on Cragus, the most 
 famous mountain of this country, which frequently casts up fire, 
 as ^tna, of Sicily, does, which the father of poets graphically 
 describes,' II. vi. ver. 181, which description Lucretius has thus 
 imitated, lib. viii. 
 
 A lion's head, a dragon's tail, its middle the chimaera itself. 
 
 "Where Lucretius has imitated, and rendered more to the life 
 Homer's description, than Ovid, Metam. vi. 
 
 On whose tops chimera fed, her parts who takes. 
 
 Middle of buck, upper from lion, tail of snakes. 
 
 That mountain gave occasion to the poets of feigning this monster, 
 in whose top lions abode, in its middle goats, at bottom of it 
 serpents, whose fable they applied to love, which invadeth one as a 
 lion; nor doth It leave one till lust be satisfied, which the goat, 
 being a libidinous animal, representeth, but in the end it leaveth 
 the bitter sting of remorse, which is like to the biting of a serpent. 
 They fable that this monster was killed by Bellerophon, whose 
 description see in Strabo, lib. xiv., and Ptolemy, lib. v. cap. 3. 
 Stephanus makes mention of another Lycia, by Cilicia, "in 
 which," saith he, " Sarpedon reigned." But Strabo, lib. xii., 
 where he mentions two sorts of Lycians, placeth neither of them 
 near Cilicia. For he calls the one of them Troics, and the other 
 inhabitants of a country near Caria. " Moreover, the two sorts of 
 people called by the name of Lycians, give grounds to suspect that 
 the same nation, either of the Troics or of those that dwelt upon 
 the borders of Caria, sent colonies into the other so called." 
 Eustathius declareth the same.^ It is probable that Virgil speaks 
 of Troic Lycia (^n. iv. ver. 143), when he saith : — 
 
 Returning from cold Lycia, so appeals 
 Phcebus, when he to native Delia goes. 
 
 But Servius knew nothing of. Troic Lycia, nor of that of Cilicia, 
 and he interprets that of Lycia, absolutely so called, as also does 
 La Cerda. Lycian arrows and quivers are also made mention of 
 by the poets, of which see the same author on Virgil's ^neid. 
 lib. vii. ver. 814. 
 
 Her royal habit wondering to behold. 
 
 Her tresses plaited with a jem of gold. 
 
 Then how her Lycian quiver she did bear. 
 
 * Lib. V, cap. 15. ' Ad Per. ver. 857. 
 
522 THE ACTS 01' THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAE. XXVII. 
 
 6. And there the centurion, finding a ship of Alexandria. That 
 is, a ship which was come thither from Alexandria, in Egypt. 
 See what we have said of this city above, eh. vi. 9 ; xviii. 24. 
 . Sailing. Straight. 
 
 . Into Italy. Whither frequently both victuals and much mer- 
 chandise were transported from Egypt in Alexandrian ships. 
 
 He put us. From the Adrumetin or Adramytten ship, which 
 we had gone aboard of; above, ver. 2. 
 
 Into her. Which was going straight to Italy, nor was she to 
 touch anywhere by the way. 
 . 7. And when. By reason of contrary winds. 
 
 We had sailed slowly many days. That is, when we beheld how 
 small a space of the sea we had got over in so long a time. " Nor 
 was it any wonder," saith Pricaeus, " that they complained of this, 
 who compassed the bays, seeing they, who have favourable winds, 
 think they make small enough progress." Even swift passage 
 seemeth slow to those that are sailing, saith Servius on ^neid. v. 
 • And scarce were come over against Cnidus. That is, come near 
 Cnidus, or Gnidus, a maritime town in Doris, a peninsula of Caria, 
 and situate on a promontory, over against the island of Crete. 
 
 The wind not suffering us. Supply out of the Syriac interpreter, 
 " to go a straight course." 
 
 We sailed to Crete. Grteek, vitsTrXevarafjiEv rrjv Kpjjrrji/, " we sailed 
 under Crete." See above, ver. 4. Crete, a very great island, which 
 is now commonly called Candy, was in ancient times famous, by 
 reason of many fables, as the arrival of Europa, the loves of Pas- 
 siphse and Ariadne, the cruelty and fate Of the Minotaur, the works 
 and flight of Dsedalus, and the sepulchre of Jupiter, whereon the 
 inhabitants showed his name engraven, as Mela, lib. ii., has com- 
 mitted to membry. Therefore Sallustius, in Servius on that of 
 "Virgil, ^n. viii. ver. 349 : — 
 
 Then did a reverential terror, move, 
 
 And rustics tremble at the rock and grove. 
 
 saith, tliat the Cretians first found out religioii, because that Jupiter 
 is fabled to have been bom among them. It was called by writers 
 Hecatompolis, because it contained a hundred cities, which Horace 
 calls towns. And therefore Paul left Titus in Crete, that he might 
 ordain elders, Kara ttoXiv, in every city, or, as Erasmus renders it, 
 town by town. According to Ptolemy, lib. iii. cap. 17, it was 
 bounded on the west by the Gulf of Venice, on the north by the 
 Cretian sea, on the south by th,e Lybic, on the east by the Carpa- 
 
VER. Vm.] LITERAIiLY EXPLAINED. 523 
 
 thian.^ Its principal cities were Qortyna, Phalasarna, Cydonia, 
 
 Cnossus, the palace of Minos. Virgil, Mn. iii. ver. 104 : — 
 
 Jove's birth-place Crete lies circled in the main, 
 There ia Mount Ida the nursery of our race ; 
 A hundred cities hath this wealth; place ; 
 Our grandsire first, hath not my memory fail'd, 
 Teucius from thence to Rhcetian confines sail'd. 
 
 For it was accounted a certain truth, that the Trojans departing 
 from the island of Crete under the leading of Teucrus, came into 
 Phrygia, and gave name to Ida a mountain in Troy, from Ida a 
 mountain of Crete, in whidi mountain, Varro affirms in his book, 
 which he composed of maritime places, that even in his days 
 Jupiter's sepulchre was visited there, as Solinus reporteth, ch, xvii. 
 In testimony whereof they said that Teucrus consecrated a temple 
 to Sminthian Apollo. For the Cretians called a mouse sminthus, 
 which the Trojans had in great reverence, as Strabo affirms (lib. 
 xiii.) Crete was also renowned for that most famous labyrinth 
 framedbyDaedalus at the command of Minos. Minos and Rhada- 
 manthus have made it famous, who for their extraordinary justice, 
 were fabled by poets to be judges of the infernal regions ; of whom 
 Minos also gave laws to the Cretians. Lycurgus also, the Lacede- 
 monian legislator, extended its fame by his volutary exile. Epime- 
 uides, and George the Trapezuntfan, a famous philosopher, were 
 also Cretians ; the former wrote of the nature of things in verse, as 
 Lucretius did amongst the Latins. George the Trapezuntian, 
 although he was born in Crete, yet he would rather have his name 
 from Trapezunt a city of Capadocia, whence his father's family had 
 their original; he very much admired Aristotle, but made light 
 account of Plato ; he translated many pieces out of the Greek into 
 Latin, nor did he write a few in Latin. They say that in his 
 Utmost old age he forgot all things, even his own name, of which 
 see Vossius of the Latin historians, lib. iii. cap. 8. 
 
 Overpast Salmone. The eastern promontory of Crete, over against 
 Cnidus and Rhodes, which otherwise they call Salmonium. 
 " Therefore," eaith Beza, "they were forced to turn aside to the 
 left hand, that they might turn in from the eastern point of Crete 
 to the southern coast." ■ 
 
 8. And scarcely. That is, and with great difficulty, by reason of 
 contrary winds. 
 
 Sailing near it. That is, sailing or passing by that promontory. 
 Greek, ■gapaX^fPimvoh " coasting by." UapaXi'^ia^ai is a word used 
 by mariners. Virg. -^n. iii. ver. 127, crebris legimus, &c. 
 Pass through seas soW'd thick wkti isles. 
 
524 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [OHAP. XXyil. 
 
 where Servius : " Praterimus ; we pass by. A speech drawn from 
 mariners, because that by hailing up their cable, that is, by gather- 
 ing it in, they escape rough places." 
 
 We came to a certain place. Of the said island of Crete. 
 
 Which is called the Good Havens. [Latin, Qui vacatur Boniportus,'] 
 In Greek, as also the English, it is Fair Havens. KaX?) okdj, that 
 is, " pleasant shore," a city of the Cretians, as Stephan and Ptolemy 
 say,i of Eubosa as Herodotus (lib. vi. cap. 23), of Cicilia, which by 
 Cicero is called Calata, and its inhabitants Calatini. 
 
 Niffh whereunto was the city Thalassa. Greek, Aaaaia. " There 
 is no mention," saith Beza," of the city Lasasa in any geographers 
 that I ever read. Pliny reckoneth Lason also among the cities of 
 Crete, but an inland town. Ptolemy also calleth a certain city 
 Lisson, but next to the eastern part of it. The Vulgate Latin 
 instead of Lasaa has Thalassa, which Jerome says, is corrupted, and 
 would have it read Larsea. But what if this, as well as that, be 
 corrupted ? For in Stephan I find the city Thalassa, but its situ- 
 ation is not described. I had rather therefore read it Elaia, which 
 is reckoned by Pliny among the principal maritime cities of Crete." 
 
 9. Nino when much time was spent. Past in slow and incommo- 
 dious sailing, contrary to the expectation of mariners and passengers. 
 
 And when sailing was not safe. As if he had said, And sailing 
 began to be dangerous. 
 
 Because the fast loas now already past. Luke describes the time 
 according to the custom of the Jews, and uses the fast for the 
 time that the fast was kept. " But seeing," saith the famed Hein- 
 sius, " it is said absolutely jejunium, ' fast,' there is no doubt but that 
 it is to be understood of that fast which is called great, or hm-n QiS ; 
 which is also called Dis DV, ' fast-day,' absolutely and compendiously 
 rT", which is DniDan or, ' day of purification, or expiation.' On which 
 day the Jews gave themselves over to very great lamentation, so 
 that for above the space of twenty-four hours, they, clothed with 
 white garments, pray and fast without interruption : that so they 
 may detest the memory of that horrid sin, to wit, that of making 
 the calf, and may avert the punishment due to so great, a wicked- 
 ness. Which fast falleth on the tenth moon of September; in 
 which month, as the seven stars called Pleiades set, so also the sea 
 begins to be tempestuous." Of this solemn annual fast of the Jews, 
 see Lev. xvi. 29, &c. ; xxiii. 27, &c. 
 
 Encouraged. [Latin, consolabatur.] Greek, irap^'vti, "exhorted, 
 
 ' Lib. iii. cap. IS. 
 
VEU. XII.J LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 525 
 
 admonished," to get the ship into some harbour, and make a little 
 stay in their course. 
 
 10. fVith hurt. That is, not without much damage. 
 Not only of the burthen. "Wherewith the ship is laden. 
 
 And of the ship. Which, by being tost with tempests and 
 storms, will be endamaged. 
 
 But also of our lives. Which will be endangered. 
 
 This voyage begins to be. [Latin, incipit esse navigatio.'] In the 
 Greek these words are expressed by the infinitive, fiiXkuv taKT^ai 
 Tov ttXouv, " the voyage to be," for fieWtiv eata^ai 6 ttXovc, " the 
 voyage will be." Hence it appears that .the word Uri put after the 
 verb ^twpw in the beginning of this verse, is either redundant, as 
 Matt. xxvi. 72; Mark xii. 19, or is taken for the affirmative 
 participle utique, " certainly," as 1 John iii. 20. 
 
 11. But the centurion. Julius, of whom above, ver. 1, 3. 
 
 The master. That is, he who directed the steering of the ship. 
 
 And oioner of the ship. That is, who was set over the ship, and 
 appointed every mariner his office. He that discharges this naval 
 office, is by Cicero called naviculator, and navicularius. 
 
 Believed more. That is, thought it more reasonable to hearken 
 to them, as being expert in naval affiiirs. 
 
 Than those things which were spohen by Paul. By divine presage. 
 
 12. The haven. Which they call KaXoOe Xi/xtvao " Fair or 
 good haven," or KwX^v aKTfjv, " pleasant harbour." See above, 
 ver. 8. 
 
 To winter in. That is, to pass over in that place the winter 
 season, no ways convenient for sailing. 
 
 The more part advised. That is, it was determined by the advice 
 of the greatest part. 
 
 To depart thence. That is, to loose from that harbour, very 
 inconvenient to winter in. Supply, " being desirous to try." 
 
 Jf by any means they might attain to Phoenice, Greek ^oIviku, 
 " Ptolemy," saith Beza, " calls the town itself so, but the harbour 
 he calls <PoiviKovvra, in the southern shore of Crete." See Ptolemy, 
 lib. iii. cap. 17. 
 
 To winter. That is, to pass over tbe winter time there. 
 
 An haven of Crete. An island, of which above, ver. 7. 
 
 Lying towards the south-west. That is, the wind from Africa or 
 Libya, which bloweth betwixt the south and the west. 
 
 And to the north-west. That is, the wind that bloweth betwixt 
 the west and the north. " If," saith Lewis de Dien, " we believe 
 
526 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAF. XXVII. 
 
 the maps, tliat harbour lay in that part of Crete which looked 
 directly to Africa, and therefore to the south. How then did it 
 lie to the north-west and south-west, which are two western 
 winds, the one composed of the west, verging to the north, the 
 other to the south ? I answer, that the harbour was full of wind- 
 ings and turnings, which, if ye look to it wholly in itself, lies 
 directly to the south ; but if ye have respect to its windings and 
 use, it is towards the south-west, that is, that point of western 
 meridian where the south-west is opposed to the north-west in a 
 direct line, and therefore this harbour was very convenient for 
 their voyage ; for that way had a straight course into the Adriatic 
 Sea." 
 
 13. And when the south wind blew. As if he had said. When a 
 most gentle south wind blew very fair for us. 
 
 Supposing that they had attained their purpose. That is, the 
 mariners now nothing doubting but that all things were according 
 to their desire. 
 
 Loosing thence. Their anchors, or, when they had loosed from 
 the harbour, as it was agreed upon by most of them ; above, ver. 12, 
 
 They sailed close. Greek, aaaov, without any preposition, which 
 sufficiently indicates that asson here is an adverb signifying close, 
 and not a little town of Crete, which by Stephanus is called 'A<roc, 
 Asus, with a single sigma, or that inland town, which by Pliny is 
 ranked among the principal cities of Crete, and is by him called 
 Asum in the neuter gender, Nat. Hist. lib. iv. c. 12, much less that 
 city called Asson, that is, near Troas, very far distant from the 
 island of Crete, whose coast they were now sailing by; of which 
 above, ch. xx. 13. 
 
 By Crete. That is, as above, ver. 8. They sailed along Crete, 
 or sailed along the coast of it ; but, as is said, ao-o-ov, " close," so 
 that they as it were shaved the very coast of Crete. As beino" in 
 no wise afraid lest they should dash upon the shore, sailing as near 
 as could be by it, because the south wind breathed very.gentlyi as 
 appears by what is said immediately before. 
 
 14. There arose against it. That is, beat in upon the island of 
 Crete, or rushed violently upon it. 
 
 A tempestuous wind. A violent and raging whirlwind. 
 
 Called Euro-aquih. Greek, " Euroclydon." Eurus is the east 
 wind, flowing from the winter east, from whence this compound 
 name, adding the word Clydon, which in Greek signifies a wave, 
 because this wind raiseth up huge waves by its blast. In the 
 
VER. XV.} UTEBALLY EXPLAINED. 527 
 
 Vulgate interpretei' it is "Euro-aquilo," north-east, as it were the 
 east wind inclining to the north. "Whether," saithBeza, "ithat he 
 read it EupoaicuXwv, for so likewise Luke calls Aquila, 'AkiiXuv', 
 or, that he thence judged that this was north-east, or a wind blow- 
 ing from the east towards the summer solstice, because the ship 
 was driven from the shore of Crete, partly towards the west, and 
 partly towards the south, to wit, towards Malta, which lies between 
 Africa and Sicily ; especially seeing they are said to have feared 
 lest they should- be driven in upon the quicksand towards the' 
 south. Therefore this conjecture does not altogether dissatisfy 
 me, seeing Virgil also calls the east wind tempestuous, and this 
 wind is very suitable to the winter season. Yet I have retained 
 the word Euroclydon, which I have found in all Greek copies I 
 met with ; whence it is understood that this was an east wind, and 
 that very stormy. For the Greeks call a wave kXuSwv. This 
 therefore is that which the Hebrews call Qip mi ; the Latin pbetsi 
 ' watery, cloudy, black, raging, thundering.' Therefore, although 
 the east wind did drive the ship towards the west, that is, into 
 Italy ; yet it is no wonder that in so great a storm they could not 
 keep a straight course, but were driven hither and thither by the 
 force of the waves. But if this wind was north-east, it beat them 
 back from Italy; and it was a wonder that the ship was not driven 
 in upon the coasts of Africa. The Syriac retained the same Greek 
 names: the Arabic cancelled the word Euroclydon, as being a 
 word altogether unknown to him." 
 
 15. And when the ship was caught To wit, by the most violent 
 whirlpools,, "whereby the tossed ship was driven crookedly, un- 
 governably," as Quintus Curtius expresseth it, lib. ix. 
 • ■ And could not hear up unto the wind. That is, " withstand the 
 wind," as the Syriac renders it. Greek, avro^&aX/iltv t(^ avifit^, 
 " stand before the wind." 'Avro^S'aX/xE&j properly signifies, accord- 
 ing to H. Stephan, "Hook upon one that beholdeth me:" avn- 
 I3\tnw i^ ivavTiaQ, "I look over against me," as Suidas hath it. 
 Gaza in Scipio's Dream, interpreted so/em adversum intueri, "to 
 look upon the sun over against them," avro^&aXju^ffat t(J1 ^Xftji ; 
 avTo^^aXfiiiv metaphorically is, " to resist, to strive ' against;" 
 Eccles. xix. 5, ' O 8e avro^^aXfidv tcuq rfSovai Q&rtt^avot Tr)v ^oorjv 
 airoij, that is, as Drusius interprets it, "But he that resisteth 
 jdeasures, crowns his life." Also Grotius observes that avrifiXeTruv 
 is frequently so used by Josejjhus. The original of the metaphor 
 seems to be hence, that he who opposes any turns his eyes on him, 
 
628 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXVII. 
 
 and a ship going against the wind, has its prow turned towards it, 
 
 a certain part whereof is called o^&aXjuocj " the eye," as the famous 
 
 Beza has noted out of Pollux. Virg. JEn. v. 20 : — 
 
 Gusts rising shift, the black west grows more loud, 
 And the whole air condena'd into one cloud. 
 
 We let her drive. Not whither we would, but whither the 
 impetuous violence of the wind drove us. 
 
 16. And running under a certain island. Greek, "Being carried' 
 under a certain little island." See what is said above, ver. 4. 
 
 JVhich is called Clauda. Greek, KXaiiSr). In some copies Kau'Sij. 
 So also some copies of the Vulgate Latin edition have Cauda. 
 The Arabic sm^pK, iclauda. The Syriac N^lp, cauro; but the 
 femous Bochart will have us read it NTip, caudo. Suidas: "Caudo 
 is an island near Crete, wherein are brought forth very great wild 
 asses." But that this island was by Mela, lib. ii. cap. 7 ; and Pliny, 
 lib. iv. cap. 1 2, called Gaudon, by Ptolemy Claudon, after Joachim 
 Vadian, the now cited Bochart observes. There was also aiiother 
 island, which by Strabo, lib. vi. is called Gaudos, but by Stephan 
 and others Gaulos, in the Sicilian Sea towards Africa, as Mela de- 
 clareth, lib. ii. cap. 7., one of the three islands, in old times inhabited 
 by the Carthaginians, which, according to Scylax, were, Melite, 
 Gaulus, and Lampas. Solinus, cap. xxxli., reporteth almost the 
 same of this Gaudo, or rather, Gaulus of the Carthaginians, as 
 Pliny says of the island Galata, near to the said Gaulus, "that 
 neither is any serpent brought forth there, nor if it be transported 
 thither does it live, wherefore the dust of this island being cast 
 upon any other ground, driveth away serpents, and being thrown 
 upon scorpions, it immediately kills them." 
 
 We had much work to come by our boat. That is, we could 
 hardly take in our ship-boat tossed with the winds from the raging 
 waves, lest it should be beat to pieces on the ship. Sko^jjj ^ ship- 
 boat is called a small vessel, which was drawn after the ship, 
 whereby, if necessity so require, they sail where a great ship 
 cannot come. It was called crKa^i) otto tov aKairreiv, a verb signi- 
 fying, " to make hollow," because they first were used to be made 
 of a whole great tree, by making it hollow. 
 
 17. Which. To wit, ship -boat. 
 
 When they had taken up. To wit, from the sea into the ship, to 
 which it was fastened. "They are contraries," saith Grotius, 
 "a'ipeiv (TKa^rjv, 'to take up the ship-boat,' and p^aXav, 'to let it 
 down.'" 
 
VEE. XVII.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 529 
 
 They used helps. To wit, of the mariners, or, as some will, of 
 ropes, chains, and hooks. 
 
 Undergirding the ship. To wit, putting ropes on both sides, 
 underneath the boat, and so binding the sides of the ship on both 
 sides, that it might not be beat to pieces by the force of the winds 
 and waves. 
 
 And fearing lest they should fall on the quicksands. That is, lest 
 the ship together with them, should be driven upon shallows and 
 the sirts, and should stick fast thereon, and be overwhelmed with 
 a heap of sand. Sirts, or quicksands, are called all shallow 
 places, which as it were draw the ships that are driven on them, 
 and keep them fast, and at last swallow them up. Lucan has 
 described the nature of these sirts, lib. ix. 304, which is thus 
 Englished bySir Arthur G orges : — 
 
 When nature did at first dispose, 
 These sirts and shap'd their figure out, 
 She left it to the world in doubt, 
 Whether it should be land or seas ; 
 For utterly it doth not please. 
 To sink itself beneath the main : 
 Nor yet the land cannot restrain 
 The waves, but they mil have a share. 
 And such a dangerous place prepare. 
 That there to travel none shall dare. 
 For here the sea doth channels strain. 
 And there the lands do rise again. 
 Here is a long-stretch'd tract of shore, 
 And there the swallowing whirlpools roar. 
 So nature wretchedly designed. 
 This portion of her proper kind. 
 Unto no use, or else of old, 
 Those sirts more waves in them did hold 
 And with the seas were over-roU'd. 
 But that attractive Titan's beams, 
 (Feeding upon the ocean's streams, 
 That to the torrid zone were nigh) 
 Some of the weltering waves did dry. 
 And yet the ocean in despite, 
 Resisteth Phoebus' parching might. 
 But yet his beams (as they draw near) 
 And wearing time those seas will clear, 
 And make the sirts firm land appear. 
 For scarcely now a little boat. 
 Can on the superfices float, 
 Of those drown'd sands where water stays, 
 And more and more that sea decays. 
 
 They are the most famous of the sirts, which Sallust describes 
 
 M M 
 
 ■1 
 
530 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXVI]. 
 
 thus : " There are two giilfs almost towards the utmost parts of 
 Africa of unequal bigness, but of the same nature, of which those 
 that are next the land are very deep, but the rest, as it chanceth, 
 at one time are deep, at another shallow. For when the sea begins 
 to swell and rage with the winds, the waves draw slime, sand, and 
 great stones together in heaps ; and so the figure of these places is 
 changed together with the winds." They are called sirts, from 
 " drawing," From these two sirts, that part of the Lybian sea, 
 which floweth by Africa, properly so called, is named the Sirtic 
 sea, m Seneca, {lib. de Vit. Beaf.^ See more concerning these in 
 Mela, lib. i. cap. vii ; Pliny, lib. v. cap. iv; Sollnus, cap. 30. 
 
 Letting down the vessel. [Latin, summisso vase.] That is, when 
 we had taken down the sail-yard with the sail fastened to it. 
 " For," as saith Seneca, " when the wind is grown too strong and 
 too great to bear sail to, the yard is taken down." Hence that of 
 Ovid:— 
 
 The yard let down escapes the winter storms. 
 
 It is a Hebraism very frequent in the scripture, whereby any 
 
 moveable thing is called a vessel. 
 
 So. To wit, having taken in our sails from the storm. : 
 
 Were driven. That is, floated on the waves, whithersoever their 
 
 force drave us. 
 
 18. And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest. As if he had 
 said, But when our ship, tossed with the furious tempest, now was 
 lifted up, as it were to the heavens, anon was tumbled down 
 between the gaping waves, as it were into a pit or gulf. See a 
 lively description of a dreadful tempest, Psal. cvii. 25, 26, which 
 Virgil imitating, hath elegantly expressed in these words, ^n. iii. 
 ver. 664 : — 
 
 At heaven we tilt, then suddenly we fell, 
 Wat'ry foundations sinking low as hell. 
 
 The next day they lightened the ship. That is, the mariners cast 
 out of the ship the heaviest lading, and the more weighty merchan- 
 dize, that the ship, being lightened of its burden, might draw less 
 water, and so might not so easily be overwhelmed by the waves. 
 
 19. And the third day. To wit, from the rising of that dread- 
 ful tempest. 
 
 They cast out with their own hands the tackling of the ship. Greek, 
 as also the English, we cast out with our own hands the tackling of 
 the ship. To wit, we who were passengers in the ship together 
 
TEE. 3tXII.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 531 
 
 with the mariners. Some copies have ippixpav, " they cast out." To 
 wit, the master and mariners. Now all marine utensils wherewith 
 a ship is accoutred, as the mast, yard, oars, cables, and such like, 
 are called the tackling. 
 
 20. Andwhen neither sun nor stars appeared. As if he had said. But 
 
 when the firmament was darkened night and day with a black fog. 
 
 A usual description of a very great storm. So in Virgil, Md. i, 
 
 ver. 92. :— 
 
 When fiom the Trojans sight dark clouds restrain 
 Heav'n and the day, black night broods on the main. 
 
 In many days. Without intermission. 
 
 :/ind no small tempest lay over us. That is, lay upon us. As if he 
 had said. And when a turbulent and thundering tempest did now 
 afflict and distress us. 
 
 All hope that we should be saved was then taken away, Grotius 
 excellently observeth, "that this was spoken according to all 
 human probability, such as are many other things in holy writ." 
 The meaning therefore is the same as if he had said. All hopes 
 seemed to be cut off of escaping death, which now all appearances 
 portended to be impending over us. 
 
 21. But after long abstinence. That is, and when they who were 
 in the ship, being tossed with the tempest, had endured a long 
 hunger through want of appetite, but not through scarcity of food, 
 as appears afterwards, ver. 36, 38. 
 
 Pawl stood forth in the midst of them. With whom he was aboard 
 in that tossed ship. 
 
 You should have hearkened to me. By giving heed to me when 
 I presaged thts storm we are now tossed with. 
 
 Not have loosed. Supply, " anchors." 
 
 ^nd to have gained. That is, have prevented. He that evites 
 the damage that he was like to sustain is said to gain, [and be for- 
 tunate, according to Aristotle, lib. ii. Mag. Moral, cap. 9. Hence 
 by Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. vii. cap. 39, Sutorius Priscus is said to have 
 gained an injury, which he committed unpunished, and suffered no 
 punishments for inflicting it. 
 
 This harm. That is, this boisterous rage of the winds. 
 
 And loss. To wit, of the merchandize, and tackling or furniture 
 of the ship. 
 
 22. And now. That is, "now, therefore," as above, cL v. 38; or, 
 " but now," to wit, " seeing that," as SUius expresseth it, " the 
 cruel storm groweth worse and worse." 
 
 M M 2 
 
532 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XXVII. 
 
 I exhort you to be of good cheer. I again and again beseech you, 
 who by the event have had experience of the truth of my former 
 sayings, that ye be not dejected in your minds. 
 
 For there shall be. In this voyage, how dangerous soever. 
 
 The loss of no man's life. That is, person, as above, ver. 10. 
 
 Among you. To wit, as appears below, ver. 31, if ye hearken 
 to me otherwise than ye did before. " Such speeches," saith 
 Grotius, " are everywhere In the holy scripture, which contain in 
 them a tacit condition, easy to be understood, either from the 
 words preceding and subsequent, or from the nature of the thing 
 itself. 1 Sam. ii. 30 ; xlii. 13, 14." 
 
 Out of the ship. That is, but the ship only shall be cast away. 
 " An exceptive particle," saith Grotius, Instead of an adversative, as 
 Luke xxili. 28 ; John vlil. 10 ; in the Greek, 1 Cor. xi. 11 ; Phil. 
 1. 8 ; 111. 16 ; Iv. 12 ; Kev. 11. 25. 
 
 23. Whose I am. That Is, to whom I am devoted. 
 
 And whom I serve. That is, and whom I worship with true 
 piety. Jonah said the same of himself of old, when he sailed in 
 the company of heathens, Jonah 1. 9. 
 
 24. Thou must be brought before Ccesar. As If he had said. 
 Thou shalt be presented alive before Caesar, to whom thou 
 appealedst; above, ch. xxv. 11. 
 
 Lo, &c. As if he had said, God has so liberally granted thy 
 request that not one of them that are carried with thee in this ship 
 shall perish, provided they obey thy wholesome advice, and use all 
 means that In them lie for their preservation. See below, ver. 31. 
 The verb " give" Is taken in another contrary sense, above, ch. xxv. 
 1 1 ; but is used in a like sense to this, above, ch. ill. 14. 
 
 23. For I believe God. Without the least doubt or hesitation. 
 
 26. Howbeit we must be cast upon a certain island. Greek, 
 iKKiiTiiv, " fall on." How this prediction was fulfilled is declared 
 below, ch. xxvUl. 1. 
 
 27. Fourteenth night. To wit, from the raising of the storm by 
 the winds. 
 
 As we were sailing. [Latin, Navigantibus nobis.] Greek, 
 Sia^epo/iivojv, " driven up and down," as It also is in the English, 
 tossed hither and thither. " Plutarch," saith Grotius, " hath used 
 Sm^Epf (T&at, for ' to be carried hither and thither.' " 
 
 In Adria. That is, in the Adriatic Gulf, or Sea, which is 
 described by the poets as very tempestuous. Adria, or Hadria, a 
 city belonging to the Picentes, or Plceni, according to Ptolemy 
 
V£R. XXVIII.] LITJiKALLY EXPLAINED. ■ 533 
 
 (Geog. lib. iii. cap. 1), was a colony of the Tuscans, who, before the 
 Romans attained the government, commanded all by land and sea, 
 as Livy recordeth in his book v. ch. 3. Hadrian Caesar's pro- 
 genitors had their original from this city, as ^lius Spartianus in 
 his life declaretli. The same city, after the Tuscan empire was 
 buried in oblivion, was made a colony by the Romans, as you may 
 see in the Epitome of Livy, lib. xi. From this city also the sea, 
 which by the Greeks is called, 'ASptariKov tteAoyoc, or 'ASpiap 
 koXb-ocj the Latins call the Adriatic, or Adrian Sea, or Gulf. 
 The poets also call it Adria, after the manner of the Greeks, and 
 Adriacum, which anciently was called Atriacum ; as also the city 
 Atria, as Pliny reports, lib. iii. cap. 16, in these words : — " The 
 Tuscans began to make first out of Sagis all these rivers and 
 ditches, diverting the impetus of the river into the Adrian marshes, 
 which are called the Seven Seas, and made a famous haven of 
 Atria, a town of the Tuscans, from whence that was before called 
 the Atriatic, which now is called* the Adriatic Sea." Pliny 
 speaketh of the river Po, which the Greeks call Eridanus, which 
 emptied twenty rivers, with itself, into the sea. But whether 
 Adria and Atria were the same city, we leave to the learned to 
 judge. Stephan. Byzantius thinketh that they were different 
 cities, for he mentions each of them in their peculiar place ; but it 
 ,is usual with him to make two of one and the same city, as Thomas 
 de Pinedo hath observed. But this is certain from Strabo, Ovid, 
 Statins, and Ptolemy, that not only that gulf which lies betwixt 
 Venice and Corcyra is called Adria, or Adrian, and most usually 
 Adriatic, but that that name is extended even to the Ionian Sea. 
 " Therefore," saith Grotius, " Procopius calls the sea reaching from 
 Methon to Sicily, and elsewhere from Cephalenia to Calabria, by 
 the name of Adria, and in another place he makes a part of it the 
 Gulf of Adria ; and expressly in his first of the Vandals, he placeth 
 as well Gaulon as Melite, in Adria." 
 
 That some country appeared to them. In the Greek, Trpoaajyuv 
 Tiva avTotg x*^?"^' " ^^^^ some country drew near them." A kind 
 of speech peculiar to mariners, because to their sight, when sailing, 
 the land seems to come near, or depart from them, when they in 
 their voyages draw near to land, or make from it. Such is that of 
 Virgil, JEn. iii. ver. 72 : — 
 
 We launch, and fill the strands, 
 And sail from cities, and retreating lands. 
 
 28. IVho also letting doion their line. [Latin, summittentes 
 
534 ■ THE ACTS 01? THE HOLT APOSTLES [CHAP. XXVII. 
 
 bolidem.] Bolis is the seaman's plumb-line, or lead fastened to 
 the end of a rope ; by throwing of it into the sea, which by reason 
 of its weight moves quiclcly downward, the mariners search out 
 the depth thereof, and they besmear it with fat when they have a 
 mind to try whether the ground is rocky or sandy. 
 
 Found it twenty paces. [Latin, passus."] Greek, ogjvia^, 
 " fathoms." A fathom is a measure very well known to mariners 
 when they search out the shallows, containing so much bounds as 
 when both arms are stretched out aside, may be comprehended 
 between the tip of one middle-finger to that of the other hand. 
 " This interstice," saith Beza, " consisting of five Roman foot, 
 among the Greeks consisteth of six of their own foot, that is, 
 six and a quarter Roman." Passus, " paces," therefore used twice 
 in this verse for the Greek S^jvia, is taken for the interval of the 
 arms when stretched out, but not for the interval of the feet 
 when stretched out in walking. 
 
 29. Should have fallen onltrocks. Greek, ekttIotwjuev, or lKiri<jb)aiv, 
 " we should have fallen off," or " they should." That is, lest the 
 ship should dash upon rugged or rocky places. 
 
 Out of the stern. That is, the hinder part of the ship. 
 
 Casting four anchors. To wit, that the ship being kept stedfast 
 at the four corners by the four anchors, might not be driven by 
 the waves. • 
 
 They wished for the day. The light is most desirable to any that 
 are afflicted with any evil. Suetonius saith, " Caligula, sometimes 
 sitting upon his bed, sometimes wandering through very long 
 galleries, he used frequently to invocate, and desirously wait for 
 the light." Curtius, lib. v. : " The much-desired day diminished 
 the frightfiilness of all things, which the night rendered more 
 terrible." But the words of Germanicus, in Aratseus, are very 
 pertinent to his purpose. 
 
 And when black uight the seaman's fears increas'd. 
 He in vain beheld the much desir'd east. ~ 
 
 30. And as the mariners were about to flee out of the ship. That 
 they might escape the impending danger of shipwreck. Cicero, 
 lib. ii., de Invent. : " Afterwards also the storm began to toss them 
 more vehemently, so that the master of the ship, who was also the 
 director of its course, fled into the ship-boat." 
 
 When they let down the boat into the sea. Which they had taken 
 up out of the sea into the ship; above, ver. 16, 17. 
 
 Under colour, &c. As if he had said, They pretended that they 
 
VER. XXXm.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 535 
 
 had let dowu the boat, that they might go into it, and cast anchors 
 also out of the forecastle, or fore part of the ship, for they had need 
 of may anchors when the sea was boisterous. 
 
 31i Paul said. Being sensible of the rash resolution of the sea- 
 men, and the promise of God made to him conditionally; above, 
 ver. 22. 
 
 To the centurion^ Julius, of whom above, ver. 1. 
 
 And to the soldiers. Who knew no more of the intended flight 
 of the mariners than the centurion did. 
 
 Esseept these men abide in the ship. That is, unless' ye prevent 
 the flight of the mariners out of the ship. 
 
 Ye cannot be saved. Paul, indeed, and those who were in the 
 ship with him, were not saved by the mariners' industry, which 
 could not preserve them from shipwreck ; yet it was not without 
 its own advantage, because they brought the ship so far that it 
 was very near land, so that after the shipwreck they might all get 
 safe to it ; which could not have been had the mariners fled in 
 boat when they designed it, and were yet a great way from land. 
 Hence it appears, that although we must not lay too much stress 
 on second causes, nor give ourselves over to desperation, if by the 
 providence of God we are deprived of them, yet that they ought 
 not to be neglected for our preservation when they may be had. 
 
 32. Then. To wit, when the centurion and soldiers understood 
 by Paul's words, how disadvantageous the flight of the mariners 
 might prove to them. 
 
 The soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat. By which it was as yet 
 made fast to the ship, that they might go out into it. 
 
 And let her fall off. That is, drive far into the sea, lest the 
 mariners should make that bad use of it, as to get away. 
 
 33. And while the day was coming. That is, ih the morning 
 twilight. 
 
 To take meat To recover the strength of their bodies. 
 
 This is the fourteenth day that ye have tarried and continued fast- 
 ing. That is, this is the fourteenth day since you, tossed with the 
 storm, have continued without taking that sustenance that is 
 requisite for upholding your bodies. 
 
 Having taken nothing. To wit, that was suflScient for repairing 
 your strength. This is a hyperbolic speech, for without the use of 
 all food, in a body otherwise sound, a man cannot, according to the 
 ordinary course of nature, protract his life above seven days. By 
 the like hyperbole, John, who abstained from ordinary meat and 
 
536 THE ACTS Oi' THE HOLY APOSTLliS [CHAP. XXVIl. 
 
 drink, is said, Alatt. xi. 18, neither eating nor drinking. See what 
 we have said in our literal explication on that place. 
 
 34. Wherefore, &c. Here Paul's exhortation is expressed, from 
 whence we may again observe, that his judgment was, that means 
 were not to be neglected, but were to be made use of, although he 
 nothing doubted but that God, as he had bountifully promised, 
 would preserve all those who were in the ship with him by his 
 favour, so that not one of them should perish in the shipwreck. 
 
 For your health. That is, that your former strength, that is 
 impaired by your fasting, may be repaired. If they had not 
 refreshed their strength with food, they had not been able to 
 endure labour, nor to swim out in the approaching shipwreck. 
 
 For. If ye follow my advice. 
 
 There shall not a hair fall from the head of any of you. A pro- 
 verbial kind of speech, whereby it is signified, that they should not 
 suffer the least damage. The like speech is to be seen, 1 Sam. xiv. 
 45 ; 2 Sam. xiv. 2 ; 1 Kings i. 52 ; Luke xxi. 18. 
 
 35. He took bread. As if he had said, Paul, that he might invite 
 them by his example to shake off the fear of death, and take food 
 convenient for keeping up their strength ; he took the seamen's, or 
 common bread into his hands, and when he had taken it : 
 
 He gave thanhs to God. God hath granted man food for the 
 keeping up his body, on this condition, that he may show himself 
 thankful for so great a mercy, and not come near to take it with- 
 out first giving thanks for it, as Paul himself exhorteth, 1 Tim. iv. 
 3, 4, 5. Hence we read that even Christ himself when he went to 
 eat gave thanks. Matt. xiv. 19; xv. 36; John vi. 11. 
 
 In presence of them all. Showing an example which they might 
 follow. 
 
 And when he had broken. That sea or coarse bread ; which being 
 broad and not very thick, was rather broken than cut with knives, 
 as Matt. xiv. 19; xv. 36; Mark viii. 6 — 19; Luke xxiv. 30. 
 
 He began to eat. That is, he ate; a Hebraism very usual in 
 scripture of which we have spoken above, ch. i. 1. 
 
 36. Then were they all of good cheer. That is, when they were 
 encouraged by Paul's words and example, of the truth of whose 
 predictions they had already had experience, laying aside all cares 
 and removing sadness a little from their hearts. 
 
 They also took meat. To appease their craving stomachs. 
 Pertinently says Petronius, " None unwillingly hears when he is 
 either urged to take meat, or to live." 
 
YiiH. XXXIX.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 537 
 
 37. JVe were in all two hundred se%ienty~six souls. That is, persons, 
 as above, ch. ii. 41 ; and ver. 10, 22, of this chapter. 
 
 38. And when they had eaten enough. That is, as Virgil 
 expresses it, JEn. i. ver. 220 : — 
 
 When hunger was allay'd and boards remov'd. 
 
 They lightened the ship. That is, they cast out the ship's lading, 
 that the ship sailing more light, they might get the nearer to land, 
 and so easilier escape to shore. 
 
 Casting out the wheat into the sea. It appears that this Alexandrian 
 ship carried corn or wheat from Egypt into Italy, and that she was 
 laden with that merchandize. But this method is used in lightening 
 a ship, which also we have in this history. First, the more weighty 
 fardels and ponderous goods are cast out, as above, ver. 18 ; then 
 the furniture, or materials of the ship, as above, ver. 19; and finally, 
 the food, as in this 38 th verse. 
 
 39. And when it was day. And the sun-beams had expelled the 
 darkness. 
 
 They did not know the land. That is, the mariners knew not 
 what climate they were in, or how that land was called, to which 
 they suspected that they were come near, above, ver. 27, but now 
 they saw that they were upon it. 
 
 But they discovered a certain creek with a shore. That is, but they 
 perceived a certain part of the sea that was not beset with steep 
 rocks, but intercepted by shores not far distant one from another. 
 " KoXttoc in the Greek," aaith Grotius, " in Latin sinus, ' a bay or 
 creek,' sometimes is spoken of the sea, sometimes of the land, as 
 here ; for it is distinguished from the shore. But these are some 
 bays of the sea which have no shore, but are encompassed with 
 steep rocks." 
 
 Into which. Seeing the Greek word alyiaXhg, which signifies 
 the shore or border of the sea, is of the masculine gender, the 
 relative pronoun may as well here be referred to sinus, " creek," as 
 to Kttus, "shore." The seamen indeed were desirous' to get the 
 ship to the shore, as is declared in the next verse, but possibly they 
 first desired to get to that creek of the sea that was encompassed 
 with shores. 
 
 They thought. Greek, EjSouXeucravro, "They were minded." 
 That is, they unanimously determined. 
 
 To thrust in the ship. That is, that they might get free of the 
 tossings of the sea into a safe place. 
 
538 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXVII. 
 
 40. And when they had taken up. Cutting the ropes to which 
 they were made fast. 
 
 The anchors. The four that were cast into the sea; above, 
 ver. 29. 
 
 They committed themselves unto the sea. Greek, uwv etc rr/v 
 ^akaaaav, "they let into the sea." It seems to signify that their 
 anchors that were cut off were^ left in the sea, " or," as Grotius 
 saith, "it is a compendious speech for, uiov to wkoiov Itvai eiQ ttJv 
 SraXatro-av, "they let their ship go in the sea," to wit, that which 
 was betwixt the place where their ship was and the land. 
 
 Loosed the rudder-hands. That is, the bands wherewith the 
 rudders are joined and fastened to the ships. " When these bands," 
 saith Grotius, " are loosened, then the rudders fall down into the 
 waters, and by their weight keep the ship from being overwhelmed 
 with the winds." As also when the junctures or rudder-bands are 
 loosed, the mariners can with greater ease drive the ship whither- 
 soever they will. Moreover, they are called here rudders by Luke 
 in the plural number, either, because in general, the rudders of any 
 ships are designed, or because, as Grotius hath noted, ancient ships 
 had two rudders, one in each side of the stern. 
 
 And hoisting up the main sail to the wind. That is, and spreading 
 out the small sail to a gale of wind, that the ship might go softly 
 and easily. " Luke here," saith Grotius, " calls that sail that is 
 next to the forecastle (which Pollux calleth Dolon and Livy in two 
 places) a^rifioiv, cnrb rov apraaSrai, because it is hung up. It is 
 rather an additament to, than a part of the ship, saith Javolen.' 
 Mariners make use of it, when they fear lest the greater sails should 
 take in too much wind, and overset the ship. But it was here so 
 much the more necessary, because we have heard above that the 
 mast was cut down." 
 
 To the wind. For these three words, the dative case of the par- 
 ticiple feminine is^ the Greek, r^ ttveoOo-^, " blowing," and avpa, or 
 TTvoy, "blast," is understood. "Nor," says Grotius, "is it less in- 
 congruous to say, Trvorjv irvuv, " to blow a blast," than ttXoTov ttXeTv, 
 " to sail a ship." 
 
 Made to shore. Greek, Kartixov dg tov aiyiaXov. "Pliny, He- 
 rodotus, and Plutarch," saith Grotius, "use KarE;)(6iv, for 'to make 
 toward.' " 
 
 41. And falling into a place where two seas met. That is, into a 
 
 * L. Malum de Verb. Signif. 
 
VER. XUV.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 539 
 
 double-seaed isthmus, or into land rising in the sea like an isthmus, 
 which was washed on both sides by the sea. 
 
 They ran the ship. On a long row of rocks, " which usually are 
 in great numbers," saith Grotius, " not far from the shore, yet so 
 as that the sea flows betwixt them and the shore." Of these sort 
 of rock, Pliuy saith in his proem to his Natural History, "the 
 numerous rocks of the white shallow frighten the ships." 
 
 And the forepart stuck fast. That is, and the forepart of the ship 
 indeed, seeing it stuck fast on the rock. 
 
 Remained unmovable. That is, though beat upon by the stormy 
 sea, yet it was not so much as moved. 
 
 But the hinderpart was loosed by the force of the sea. That is, but 
 the hinderpart gaped with chinks, and was broken by the beating 
 of the waves into planks and boards, of which it was made up. 
 
 42. But the soldiers. Wbo guarded those who were sent bound 
 to Rome. 
 
 Counsel. That is, purpose or design. 
 
 Lest any. To wit, of the prisoners, or fettered, if their bonds 
 were loosed, should swim to land. 
 
 Should swim out and escape. And so escape their deserved 
 punishments. 
 
 43. But the centurion. Julius, of whom above, ver. 1. 
 Willing to save Paul. Towards whom he had shown himself kind 
 
 and courteous ; above, ver. 3. 
 
 Kept them from doing it. That is, he forbid his soldiers to kill 
 the prisoners, or chained. 
 
 Who could swim. That is, who were skilled in swimming, and 
 were of strength enough to perform it. 
 
 Should cast, &c. That is, should jump off the ship into the sea, 
 that they might swim out to the shore, that was not far from them. 
 
 44. And the rest. Who had not skill or strength to swim. 
 Some on boards, &c. That is, they got to shore on joists or planks, 
 
 which use to be had in rowers' seats, hatches of the ship, or place 
 where the oars are fastened. 
 
 Some upon those things which were of the ship. That is, but others 
 they saved from the shipwreck on broken pieces of the split ship. 
 
 And so it came to pass that all the souls. [Latin, omnes anima.] 
 That is, the two hundred seventy-six persons which were in the ship, 
 as is said above, ver. 37. 
 
 Escape to land. Safe and sound, as Paul had foretold above, 
 ver. 24, 34. 
 
540 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXVIII. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXVIII. 
 
 1. And when we were escaped. From the dreadful shipwreck to 
 land. 
 
 Melita. It was already foretold by Paul, ch. xxvi. 26, that the 
 place of their escape, after the violence of the storm driving them 
 thither, in their designed voyage, should be an island which is now 
 called by its name Melita. There are two islands recorded of this 
 name, one being attributed to Sclavonia, or to Dalmatia, a part of 
 Sclavonia, and the other to Africa. Pliny makes mention of the 
 former, lib. iii. cap. 27, (whence he alleges that Callimachus calls 
 little pretty dogs for women to play withal by the name of Catuli 
 Melitaai) and saith that it is situate betwixt Corzola, or Melena, and 
 Sclavonia, but Scylax placeth it near Corzola. The latter lieth 
 betwixt Sicily and Africa, and that from thence little pretty dogs 
 are called Melltaei Catelli is asserted by Strabo in his sixth book, 
 where he says, " That before Pachynus a promontory of Sicily, 
 Melita is to be seen, whence little dogs are called Melitaei." This ex- 
 pression, Catelli Melitsei, "Malta bitlings," became a proverb, applied 
 to things that men purchase to themselves merely for pleasure, 
 without respect to any serious matter, as being of no use thereto. 
 The African Melita far surpassing that of Dalmatia or Sclavonia, 
 passes now somewhat corruptly under the name of Malta, the habi- 
 tation of the cross-bearers, called the Knights of St. John, which 
 Charles the First, King of Spain, vouchsafed them, after they had 
 been expelled Rhodes, their former residence, by Solyman the Em- 
 peror of the Turks. It appears by Diodorus Siculus, lib. iv. Bibl. 
 Hist., that it was a colony of the Phoenicians. "Wherefore Bochart, 
 in his first book of the Phoenician colonies, cap. 26, ingeniously 
 derives its etymology from the Hebrew word a^a, " malat," whence 
 arises na^^a, " melita," that is to say, " evasion, refuge," in regard 
 that it was a place of refuge for the Phoenician merchants, as Dio- 
 dorus doth attest in the places we just now cited, declaring, " That 
 this African isle, Malta, is a colony of the Phoenicians, whose traffic 
 being propagated even to the western ocean, had this island for a 
 refuge, since it had a most convenient harbour, and was situate in 
 the middle of the sea." This Island was also Melitan, that is, a place 
 of refuge to Ulysses, if Melita be, as Cluverius endeavours to prove 
 at large, not distinct from Ogygia, Calypso's island. Besides, Ovid, 
 lib. iii. Fast., gives us account that Anna, sister to Dido, that died at 
 Carthage, being driven thence, withdrew to this island, which long 
 
VER. I.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 541 
 
 since had been the king's dwelling-place. Again, it is commonly- 
 believed that Paul arrived hither after shipwreck. Indeed, Con- 
 stantine surnamed Porphyrogennitus, thinketh that the Sclavonian 
 or Dalmatic Melita, was the place of refuge to Paul in his ship- 
 wreck. " This opinion," saith Bochart, in the place above quoted, 
 " seems to some probable. First, upon consideration that Paul is 
 driven up and down in Adria before his arrival to Melita, Acts 
 xxvii. 27. Hence they conclude that mention is made of an island 
 in the Adriatic Sea. Secondly, forasmuch as barbarians inhabited 
 the same, Acts xxviii. 2, 4, whilst the Greeks had the African 
 Melita in their possession long ago. Thirdly, because Luke makes 
 no mention of any town in the island Melita^ and yet in the African 
 there is a town of the island's name remaining to this very day. 
 But these small objections are not of such weight, as that thereby 
 the assent of any man should be denied to the common opinion 
 confirmed by the most solid argaments. 
 
 " For, in the first place, while Paul was sailing close by Crete, 
 as you have it, Acts xxvii. 13, 14, there arose a tempestuous 
 wind, called Euroclydon, or as the Vulgate Latin interpreter reads 
 it, Euroaquilo, that is, the north-east wind : which reading being 
 admitted, the conclusion is plain, for the ship could not be driven by 
 the north-east wind from Crete into Sclavonia. The situation of 
 the places makes evident that this could have been brought about 
 by the south-east wind, and not by the north-west directly opposite 
 to the former. But read it which way you please, it is plain that 
 this wind Euroclydon drove them rather to the south than to the 
 north, seeing that the mariners feared to be cast upon the quick- 
 sands of Africa by the violence of this wind. Acts xxvii. 17. Now 
 there had been no grounds for such a fear, supposing the ship to 
 be driven by this wind to Sclavonia, a coast opposite to Africa, and 
 the forementioned quicksands. 
 
 "Secondly. Acts xxvii. 4 1, Having fallen into a place where two 
 
 seas meet, they ran the ship aground. Into a place where two seas 
 
 meet; that is to say, into an isthmus ; hence is that of Horace, Od. 
 
 7. lib. i. :— 
 
 " To Ephesiis, or the strong walls 
 Of Corinth, where an isthmus swells. 
 
 Ovid also, Eleg. 10. lib. i.; Fast.:— 
 
 " We gail'd by the isthmus wkere two seas meet. 
 
 This isthmus lies to the summer east of the island, and at this 
 
542 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XXVIII* 
 
 day passes among the inhabitants under the name of La Cala di 
 S. Paolo, which being interpreted, is 'St. Paul's Arrival.' 
 
 "Thirdly, Acts xxviii. 7. In the same quarters were possessions 
 of the first of the island, whose name was Publius. Him I take 
 to be whom the Romans made governor of the island; for it may 
 be gathered from this place, that the chief governors of this island 
 were commonly so called, as also from an ancient inscription which 
 Quintinus reports himself to have seen at Malta, written in 
 Greek on marble. A. KA. YI02. KYP. inOEYS. PQMAIQN. 
 nPiiTi2S. MEAITAlilN. 'L. Ca. the son of Cyrus, a Roman 
 knight, the first of Malta.' The Carthaginian governors had cer- 
 tainly before the same name, being styled by a phrase peculiar to 
 that place Q^siiBNin, 'the first.' So Dan. x. 13: Michael is reckoned 
 one of the first or chief. Therefore ffiN-i 'head, general, prince,' and 
 ■jliBNI 'first,' are words of one original and importance. And in this 
 very place for 'first,' the Syriac hath 1B% and the Arabic D"*""! 'head.' 
 A further confirmation of this is, that as hMi signifies in the Arabic, 
 'the first,' thus ?>}*N' denotes to *set over,' also to govern a nation, as 
 if one should say, 'to be the first.' 
 
 "Fourthly. Paul with the centurion and the rest tarried in that 
 island three whole months ; Acts xxviii. 11. The number of the men 
 was two hundred threescore and sixteen souls ; Acts xxvii. 37. This 
 hardly any person can believe to be said of Dalmatian Melita, 
 which is but four miles distant from ^the main land, and hav- 
 ing Epidaurus, a paost famous harbour and most convenient for 
 strangers within sight. The Roman centurion had rather steer his 
 course thither, than take up his winter quarters in a pitiful islandy 
 where it was impossible for so many strangers to be entertained 
 without great inoommodities. 
 
 "Fifthly. The account of their being carried to Puteoli in a ship 
 of Alexandria that wintered in the same island (Acts xxviii, 1 1), is 
 inconsistent with its being understood of the Dalmatian Malta, 
 since it is almost impossible to avoid the African Malta, when ye 
 sail from Egypt to Puteoli* But whosoever sailing from Alexan- 
 dria to Puteoli, directs his course to Dalmatian Malta, he may be 
 said to wander out of the way, if not so far as heaven is removed 
 from the earth, yet at least the breadth of the whole sea. 
 
 "Sixthly. This is further affirmed by Luke declaring that after 
 their setting forth from Malta, they arrived first at Syracuse, and 
 then at Rhegium, Acts xxviii. 10, 13 ; which way, as it is straight 
 upon the supposal of their setting sail from the African Malta, so 
 
VER. I.] LITEKALL-iT EXPLAINED. 543 
 
 it will prove preposterous and fulFof wanderings, if it be once 
 granted that they departed from the Dalmatian Malta; for Rhegium 
 being nearer to the Dalmatian Malta than Syracuse, the way is 
 rather by Rhegium to Syracuse, than by Syracuse to Khegium. 
 
 "Seventhly. Now if we will dispute by authority, Constantine 
 Porphyrogennitus is not comparable for antiquity to Arator Sub- 
 diaconus, who, in the second Book of his Apostolical History, says 
 that Melita, into which Paul was cast when he suffered shipwreck, 
 is the isle Malta by Sicily. Neither is it a work of any difficulty 
 to dissipate what may be objected to the contrary. For the ship 
 arriving at Malta is said to be tossed in Adria, Acts xxvii. 27. Yet 
 not in the Gulf of Venice, the Adriatic sea having far greater 
 extent than that gulf; for the Gulf of Venice ends with Scla- 
 vonia, but the Adriatic sea comprehends all that part of the Medi- 
 terranean sea, which is called Ionian. Hesychius : 'Ionium, a sea 
 now known by the name of Adria.' Juvenal's ancient scholiast : 
 ' Being about a tedious voyage from the sea of Tuscany to Adria, 
 made use of Adria for Ionium.' For Juvenal expresses himself 
 thus : — 
 
 " He underwent the raging Tuscany, 
 And likewise the fierce lenian Sea. 
 
 Hence Ptolemy affirms that the Adriatic sea boundeth Sicily on 
 the east, Epirus and Achaia on the south, and Peloponnesus, and 
 consequently Crete on the west. Ovid also makes frequent men- 
 tion of the Archipelago's being divided from Adria by the Corin- 
 thian isthmus. Thus he speaks, lib. iv. Fast. : — 
 
 " Wide Adria, and Corinth where the land 
 An Isthmus hides, and dreadftil malies by sand. 
 
 And in the first Book of his Trist. and tenth Elegy: — 
 
 " When th' blustering storms of winter tost me sore 
 In Adria, the muses I implore. 
 Or after that the Isthmus danger's past, 
 And one ship's us'd for saving us in haste. 
 
 In pursuance hereof Philostratus, lib. ii. Imaginum, in Pale- 
 mone, attests that the forenamed isthmus is betwixt the Egean 
 and the Adriatic sea. Again, the same author in his ApoUonius, 
 lib. iv. cap. 8, records that Nero had a mind to cut this isthmus, to 
 the end that Adria might disburden itself into the Archipelago. 
 The same appears by Suidas on the word Alpheus, and again on 
 the word Arethusa, saying that the river Alpheus does flow from 
 Peloponnesus into the fountain Arethusa of Sicily, entering into 
 
544 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY AJOSTLES [CHAP. XXVIII. 
 
 the main sea through the Adriatic Sea. Hence Pausanias in his 
 Arcadics says of the river Alpheus, ' Neither could Adria stop its 
 course.' See more at large there. Moreover the Adriatic Sea has 
 its extent even to Africa, if credit may be given to ^thicus and 
 Orosius, by whose testimony the province of Tripolis, where be 
 Arzuges and Leptis the Great, has the Adriatic Sea on the north, 
 and on the south Crete is bounded with the Lybian Sea, which is 
 also called the Adriatic. Jerome also, in the Life of Hilario, is of 
 this opinion, where it is said that such as purpose to arrive at 
 Pachynus in Sicily, from Parastonium in Egypt, sail through the 
 midst of the Adriatic Sea. But Procopius, in his Vandalics, lib. i., 
 makes most of all for our purpose in asserting that the islands 
 Malta and Gaul divide the Adriatic and Tuscan sea. The sacred 
 writer, therefore, wittily and answerably to the constant verdict of 
 geographers, asserts, that after their being driven from Crete to 
 Malta, they were tossed in the Adriatic Sea by the violence of the 
 imminent winds. Moreover, we observed, that the inhabitants of 
 Malta were styled by the name of barbarians, from a remnant of 
 Carthaginians that inhabited their fields. Luke makes no mention 
 of the town of Malta, it being altogether needless. Even so. 
 Acts xxi. 1, Paul is said to have arrived at the islands Coos and 
 Rhodes, without the mention of any cities, though in each of 
 them there were cities of the islands' name." 
 
 2. The barbarous people. That is, the Carthaginians that came 
 from Africa to Malta, or the inhabitants of Melita, descended of 
 the Carthaginians. By the ancients, all such as were not Greeks 
 by birth or language were called barbarians. Whence Plautus, 
 according to Festus, called Naevius, the Latin poet, a barbarian. 
 And in his prologue of his comedy, termed Asinaria, Marcus vortit 
 Barbara, that is, Plautus rendered it into Latin. And in the 
 Capteiveis you may read the 'barbarian law ' for the Latin law. 
 After the same manner the Latin authors called all that used not 
 the Roman tongue barbarians; as Cicero, in his Epistles to his 
 brother Quintus, denominates the Africans, French, and Spania.rds. 
 Moreover, it is observed by Eustathius on the tliird Iliad, that the 
 Lacedemonians called all guests and strangers barbarians. The 
 Greeks, indeed, and Romans, were wont to give this name to other 
 nations, because of the harsh and confused sound of their words ; 
 for barbar denotes a mumbling or muttering noise, as Julius Caesar 
 Scaliger, a man of an accurate judgment and universal learning, 
 relates; or, as the same worthy author conjectureth, they were 
 
VER. III.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 545 
 
 therefore called barbarians because they inhabited the deserts, 
 living after the custom of wild beasts; for bar sijgnifies a desert in 
 the Arabic. The apostle, 1 Cor. xiv. 11, calls him a barbarian 
 that useth a strange and unknown tongue, in which sense the 
 author of the Chaldaic translation uses the word, Ps. civ. 1. In 
 the Syriac bar imports " without ;" hence, in the opinion of Drusius, 
 arises barbar by doubling the syllables, as from rob rabrab. Ovid, 
 Amorum, Eleg. iii. 7, takes barbarity for clownishness or rudeness. 
 
 01 old, wit was priz'd above pure gold : 
 
 But now to be poor is reckon'd the greatest clownishness in the world. 
 
 That is to say, he is esteemed rude and clownish that is poor. 
 
 Shewed us no little kindness. As if he had said, We met with 
 kind entertainment at their hands, beyond their barbarous custom, 
 since we were strangers and shipwrecked guests. 
 
 For they kindled a fire. That Is, a bundle of sticks. Among 
 the chief acts of kindness usually demonstrated, especially In the 
 winter season, is the presenting a fire to warm men. 
 
 And refreshed us. Greek, irpoorEXajSovro, " they received." That 
 is, they kindly admitted us to the use of the fire, that we might be 
 warmed. 
 
 Because of the present rain. That is, which violently assailed 
 and sorely vexed us. 
 
 And the cold. Wherewith we were chilled by reason of the 
 winter season of the year ; as also, because we not only sailed, but 
 were likewise constrained to swim in the cold waters, and were at 
 last exposed to the violence of the present tempestuous rain. 
 
 3. When Paul had gathered. Greek, avoTQ^/avTOQ, " when he 
 had rolled round together." Either that he might gather into a 
 bundle the small sticks scattered up and down, or that, being once 
 gathered, he might roll them to the fire, seeing Paul was not able 
 to carry the bundle. 
 
 Of sticks. Greek, (jtpvjavwv, " of brush-wood," so called be- 
 cause of their aptness to burn, being [dry] they easily catch fire, and 
 produce a sparkling, though short-lasting heat. This name is not 
 only attributed to sticks and superfluous shrubs of the rank vine, 
 but a^so to any kind of twigs, dry and ready to take fire. Basil, In 
 one word, calls a gatherer of brush-wood fpvyaviZo/jievov, which, in 
 the Hebrew, would be D">sy UJiBpa, as it Is Num. xv. 32; whose 
 feminine Dfflffipa, we read, I Kings xvii. 10. 
 
 And laid them on the fire. That is, when he had thrown into 
 the fire the twigs or sticks once gathered, to the end that by the 
 
 N N 
 
546 THE ACTS QV THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAJP, JQCTItt 
 
 greats heat thereof both the bodies of those that did swim out of 
 the waters might be warmed and their wet clothes dried. 
 
 A viper. This poisonous and noisome kind of serpent is so called 
 because it brings forth by violence, as it were, or rather, fqr that it 
 bringa'^forth young ones alive ; for the viper's travail is therefore 
 the harder, because she brings forth living, or quick brood, whil? 
 other serpents lay eggs only. 
 
 And eoming out of the heat. It is very well known that vipecs, 
 and other such like serpents, used to leap violently out of bushes 
 and twigs. Hence, in Palladius's Lausiakes, cap. 20, Macarius, 
 digging a well, was bitten by an asp, nigh the rushes and shrubs 
 or twigs that lay there. And Lucian, in his Philopseudes, gives 
 us account that Midasj the vine-^repser, lay dead after he was 
 bitten by a viper. " For while he was a tying the yuie-branches, 
 and supporting them with forks," says he, " a beast- creeping out 
 from thence, did sting the great toe of his foot," Thuanus, de 
 Tita sua, lib. iii. : "When w^ came :the next morning from the 
 phurch, every one approaching in all haste to the. fire, not 
 thoroughly kindled as yet, there leapt a serpent out of a bundle* 
 moist either by reason of the rain or the low cellar whence it was 
 brought, and after its being exposed to open view, we had well con- 
 sidered it, we thought it like an amphisbaena, a serpent which had 
 a head on both ends, and goeth both ways. In like manner Paul's 
 yiper broke out of the twigs, neither .did. she assail him while h^ 
 was gathering the sticks, being then benumbed with cold, fpr it 
 was winter." Hence Prudentius, in the preface of his first boofe 
 against Symmachus, ver. 28 : — 
 
 While Paul of twigs an heap did make, ' 
 
 To di8sipa,te the cold, . . i 
 
 He to the fire the ehnibs did take, 
 
 To cause the flame wax bold. 
 He carelessly hia hand did set, 
 
 Into the heap of wood ; 
 In which a viper cold, did get 
 
 A jilace for hec abode. 
 
 But when Paul cast the twigs or sticks, in which the viper did 
 lurk, into the fire, she, being either refreshed by a gentle heat or 
 exasperated by the excess thereof, assailed Paul. Thus Phsedrus, 
 lib. iv. fal. 18. 
 
 One having brought a frozen snake to life, 
 By heat's approach ; he made himself a knife. 
 To out hia throat. For when the heat she smelt, 
 Her poisonous smart the patient soul soon felt. 
 
TEH. HI,] LIXEEALLY EXPLAINED. 547 
 
 Assailed his hand. Greek, Ku^fi^e rije x^'f ^P avrov. That is, 
 as the English translation renders it, fastened on his hand, to wit, 
 that she might sting with her raging tooth. The -^thiopio reads 
 it, "hung on hia hand." The Syriac, and both Arabics,." did bite 
 his hand;" of which opinion were some of the fathers. To this 
 purpose, Tertullian, speaking of Paul, in his book intituMd 
 Scorpiacus, or Little Scorpion : " He set at nought the viper's 
 sting." And Ambrose, in his Hexaemeron, lib. vi. cap. 6 : " A 
 viper did bite Paul." Prudentius, alsoj in the fore-cited place :— 
 
 The smoke of th' fire reviv'd the viper's sense. 
 
 Whence stretching forth her jieck, she does commence 
 
 A demonstration of her rage ; the hand 
 
 Of Paul she stings, and sticks close to the wound, 
 
 That all might hear the poison's hissing sound ; 
 
 So that each one at this amaz'd did stand. 
 
 And Arator, in his second book of the Apostolical History : — 
 
 On whom the snake 
 Her devilish darts at th' fires approach did shake, 
 A wound by wonted rage and poison cold, 
 ^ . : , His hand sustains, as all behold. 
 
 CEcumenius, also : " A viper having thrust her teeth into the 
 apostle's hand." But the most famous Boohart, is (with far 
 greater probability) of opinion that the viper was restrained from 
 fastening ber noisome teeth into the apostle's hand, by the same 
 God that by hi& angel shut up the mouths of lions, insomuch that 
 they could not hurt with their teeth the prophet, Dan. vi. 22. 
 " Which," says he, Hierozoici, p. 2, lib. iii. cap. 3, " the words of 
 Luke seems plainly to declare, kVaSsv ovBev kukov, ' he sustaiued 
 no hurt.' For he could not be said to sustain no hurt that was 
 stung by a viper. Neither, for aught I know, does KaSaTrretv, 
 import to bite or sting, nor to assail or hang, but ' to fasten,' as 
 the simple word atrruv." Having proved, by divers authoritiesj, 
 which you may see cited at large in the Latin edition of this 
 Literal Explication on the Acts of the Holy Apostles, he con- 
 cludes thus: "Wherefore, Stephen adds invrriv to the words of. 
 Luke, Ka^ri\pi rvQ X"?''^ avrov, rendering it thus, ' she tied her- 
 self to his hand, or fastened on it.' " So Basilius thought good to 
 say, while he gives account of the same story in his Ninth Homily 
 on the HexEiemeron, or Six Days, 0pvYavt?ojU£'v({» Tt[t UavXi^ iva\pac. 
 6 s'x'Cj understand , eavTov, ' the. viper having fastened on Paul 
 while he was a gathering of sticks.' Nevertheless, by others it is- 
 rendered 'hang,' because (KJtaTrruv, and l^avairTsiv, signify 'to 
 
 N N 2 
 
548 THE ACTS OK THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXVIII. 
 
 Hang by, or on:' and here it is immediately subjoined, when the 
 iarbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his liand. Others again, 
 choose rather to say, ' did bite or sting,' as if it should be read, 
 na^ri^/aTo. For KoSiatma^ai rivog, in the passive conjugation is 
 * to bite,' yet not with teeth, but with cavils and scoffing taunts. 
 And indeed Chrysostom, on this place, for Ka^ifipe, reads Ka^rixpaTp, 
 Which, notwithstanding, he takes in another sense, to wit, for 
 simple riiparo, that is, * assaulted, set upon.' For he expresseth 
 himself to this purpose in the subsequent exposition : ' A viper 
 coming out of the fire, set on his hand : what follows makes it 
 manifest that he was assailed.' By all means, Chrysostom must 
 be so rendered. In regard that uTTTEa^ai avBpwwov, is 'to assail a 
 man,' as Stephanus makes out of Plato, Thucydides, and Plutarch. 
 Whence it is that a great many render Ka^ffipe rije x^'P°5'' ' assailed 
 his hand,' as if ko^jji/'e or KaSf^i^dra Avere not distinct from ^\f/aro. 
 But there is no need to change anything, nor to add strange 
 unusual notions to the common word, since it is most pertinent to 
 say that the viper fastened on Paul's hand. For a serpent is said 
 to tie whatever is compassed with her windings. Hence the 
 prince of poets: — 
 
 Two serpents fierce Laocoon assail'd. 
 
 And bound him fast by windings that prevail'd.. 
 
 Nicander likewise, in his Theriacs, or Antidotes against Poison, 
 ver. 475, advises to take care that the little spotted serpent burn 
 thee not, tying fast thy body by the strokes of her tail. Leo 
 Byzantius, also, in Boeoticis, by the testimony of Plutarch, in his 
 book of Elvers, speaking concerning the boy Cythasron, insinuates 
 that he was killed by a serpent that tied him with her windings. 
 And Cicero, of Eoscius, in his first book on Divination : ' The 
 nurse in the night being awakened by the light that was brought, 
 saw a serpent winded close about the child.' Again, in his second 
 book : ' It may be an untruth that Koscius himself was tied fast 
 by the windings of a serpent.' This is further confirmed by iEHan, 
 in the sixth book, cap. 21, of his History, where he asserts that the 
 dragon that set upon an elephant, 'having crept up to his neck, and 
 striking him with one part of his tail, and binding him fast with 
 the other, strangled the beast with an unusual halter.' Macrobius, 
 in the Description of Hercules's Knot, Sat. lib. i., cap. 19 .' 
 ' Those dragons tie one another towards the middle by a knurle 
 called Hercules's knot.' " 
 
 4. And when the barbarians saw. That is, the inhabitants of 
 
VEK. IV.] ' IJTEKAIXY EXPLAINED. 549 
 
 Malta. " Those men," says Bochart, " were accounted barbarians, 
 because the most of them who inhabited the island of Malta, were 
 neither Greeks nor Romans, but Phoenician or Carthaginian in- 
 habitants, as ia proved elsewhere by the testimonies of Scylax, 
 Diodorus, and Stephanus." Wherefore, if credit may be given 
 Orosius in his fourth book, cap. 8 : " Atilius the Roman consul, 
 in his sea-expedition against the Carthaginians in time of the first 
 Punic war, passing through Sipara and Malta, noble islands of 
 Sicily, quite overthrew them. And at the second Punic war, 
 T. Sempronius sailed over from Lilibseum now called Mazara, into 
 the island Malta, possessed by the Carthaginians. As soon as he 
 arrived, Amilcar the son of Giscon, governor of the garrison, 
 together with two thousand soldiers, or thereabouts, and the town 
 of the island were surrendered to him." Thus Livy, in his first 
 book of the third Decade : " Besides, we observed already that 
 Melita is a Carthaginian name. It remains then that the inhabit- 
 ants of Malta, as also the other African Carthaginians, were a part 
 of the barbarians, from whom the country itself was at length 
 named Barbary," 
 
 The venomous beast hung on his hand. On which, to wit, she had 
 fastened. Bochart says that " ^ripiov denotes not only a beast in 
 general, but also a serpent, or venomous beast. Ecclesiast. xii. 17, 
 " Who should show pity to an enchanter bitten by a serpent, or 
 any such as approach to beasts ? " understand venomous, that is, 
 vipers, or serpents. Dioscorides, lib. i. c. de Vitice, or park-leaves, 
 TO 0vXXa tTToSfvfiibtfitvd T£ KOI vTTOtrTptjvvfieva ^ripla Siwkei, which 
 Pliny renders thus, lib. xxiv. cap. 9 : The leaves once perfumed 
 or strowed drive away venomous beasts. Hence in the Books 
 of Physicians, SrepioStiyfJ-a. and &r/p«oSr)Kroe are every where 
 spoken of one bitten by a serpent, and SrriplaKa ^apjuatca, are 
 such medicines as cure men of serpents' venom. In this sense 
 Josephus, in the second book and fifth chapter of his Antiquities^ 
 calleth Ethiopia SrripioTp6(l>og, because it brings forth many ser- 
 pents. And the Marsi that feed on serpents, are by Galen styled 
 &»fpjorpo^ot fxapaoi. Likewise Dionysius Halicarnassus calls the 
 Greek atyfia, S'r/ptwSjjCj ' a serpentine letter,' because it resembles 
 serpents hissing. Moreover the word n-n importing any wild beast 
 to the Hebrews, is a serpent in the Arabic language. Neither 
 observe the Chaldees much difference in the words Krrr and K">irT, 
 the former signifying a beast in general, and the latter a serpent. 
 So that Luke's to ^riptov is a serpent, and consequently a viper." 
 
550 THE ACTS OV THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXVm. 
 
 _ A murderer. That is to say, one guilty of slaughter, or some 
 other great offence. " The particular," says Bochart, " is here put 
 Jbr the general." By which figure one of the Furies gets the name 
 of " Tisiphone," from t'uiv rovg ipovovgi " punishing murderers." 
 And yet she was not thought an avenger of murder alone^ but also 
 of all other offences. 
 
 Vengeance. Greek, ») St'icj), Justice the goddess. A/kt? was the 
 Uame the ancients gave the goddess Justice, says Bochart. Hesiod, 
 in his Husbandry, ver. 254 : " Dice is a virgin descended of 
 Jupiter, famous and venerable in the eyes of the gods inhabiting 
 heaven." And whensoever any revile her unjustly, she forthwith 
 tells her father Jupiter the son of Saturn, the evil thoughts of such 
 men. Orpheus, ver. 349, of the^Argonautics, ver. 344 : " Let the 
 governess Dice with the avenging Furies be witnesses to this oath," 
 In Euripides's Medea, Jason curses Medea, whose hands were 
 polluted with the slaughter of the children with this imprecation, 
 ver. 1389 : " But may Erinnys the avenger of slain children, and 
 Dice of slaughter^ destroy thee.'' Aristotle, or whoever passes by 
 that name, in the close of the book De Mundo, speaking of the great 
 .God, observes that he is attended by Dice the avenger of the trans- 
 gressors of the divine law. In Orpheus's Hymn on Hours, " Dice 
 is one of the daughters of Themis and Jupiter the king.'' We are 
 presented with a curious and exact picture of her by Chrysippus 
 in Gellius, lib. xiv. cap. 4. She is said to be a virgin, which 
 betokeneth her being undefiled, and unexorable by the wiekgd, 
 suffering no specious oration, or prayer, or flattery, or any such 
 like thing. Wherefore she is deservedly painted with a grave afld 
 frowning countenance, that she may be a terror to the wicked, 
 yielding hope and confidence to the just, since such an aspect is 
 pleasant to the just, and grievous to the unjust. Plutarch in his 
 book of the late Divine Vengeance : " If there be any that suffer 
 not condign punishment for their misdoings in this life, they are 
 given up to Dice after death to be punished more severely." In 
 Aratus's Phcenomena, she is said in the golden age to have lived 
 familiarly with men; and also in the silver age, though more sel- 
 dom ; but in the brazen age, when they began to eat the working 
 oxen, she withdrew herself to heaven. 
 
 First they began to eat the labouring oxen ; 
 Then Dice hating the vain race of men, 
 Went up to heav'n. 
 
 N'azianzen, alluding hereunto in his third Metree: "Virginity 
 
.VEE. IV.] LITBEAILY EXPLAINED. 551 
 
 leaving ye shall return to Clirist, aa Dice did of old after the 
 slaughter of the ploughing ox. Nor is it to be wondered that the 
 fame of the Greek goddess should come to the inhabitants of Malta, 
 the moat of whom were Phoenicians 5 forasmuch as before the 
 JloCaans' : invasion of Malta, the government of the island did 
 change by courses, so among the Greeks and Phoenicians, that some- 
 times the one, sometimes the other commanded in chief, as we have 
 isade appear elsewhere by the testimony of competent witnesses. 
 The worship therefore of this goddess being borrowed from the 
 G-reeks, they attribute to her that Paul being delivered from the 
 peril he was in upon the sea, fell into another danger no less than 
 the former. Their opinion is so far allowable, as they hold it 
 impossible for transgressors to gO unpunished. Plato spoke a 
 great truth in his fifth book of Laws, where he says that all in- 
 justice is attended with punishment. And Horace, in the second 
 eong of his third book : — 
 
 "the wicked man that walks with braz'n face, 
 la seldom left by vengeance's haltiflg pace.' 
 
 Further, that vipers are used by God for the punishment of 
 the wicked is recorded, Eccles. xxxix. 35, 38; the teeth of wild 
 beasts, and scorpions, with vipers, and the sword that despatcheth 
 the wicked. The Egyptians were fully of the same mind with 
 reference to the asp, nam«d Thermuthis, ^lian, lib. x. cap. 31. 
 They say of her, that she does no hurt to the good, whilst she 
 kills the wicked. ' Which if it be so,' says ^lian, ' the justice of 
 the universe has highly honoured this asp.' That is, the goddess 
 Dice, that punishes a great many by this instrument. Therefore 
 there was something in the barbarians' judgment of Paul not 
 altogether to be despised. But yet it is manifest that they judged 
 amiss in many respects. As, first, in that they do not attribute the 
 punishment of the wicked to the true God, but to an idol the work 
 of men's hands, which by some is named Dice, by others Themis, 
 by other some Astrea, or Erigone, as also Nemesis, or Adrastia. 
 Secondly, because by this course they hold that the wicked are 
 always punished in this life, whilst they are very often reserved 
 for the future, where God makes up the slowness of his judgments 
 by their weight. Thirdly, because they think none falls into any 
 heavy calamity, but he is proportionably guiltyi not knowing or 
 considering that affliction is the lot of the best, as we find in the 
 instances of Job, and him that was born blind, though neither he 
 
552 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XVIU. 
 
 nor his parents were guilty of any notorious sin, John ix. 3. 
 Wherefore prosperity nor adversity are not to be reckoned as the 
 measures of any man's virtue or wickedness. But the judgment- of 
 what is unrevealed must be left to God alone, the great judge of all 
 men. Fourthly, they also sinned in their rash judgment of Paul, 
 without expecting the event. Whereupon they conclude him 
 utterly undone, with no less confidence than if they had seen his 
 death in the event. Whence they say in the preterite tense, ' Justice 
 or Dice has not suffered him to live ; ' as by others it was said of 
 David, Psalm xli. 8, An evil disease cleaveth fast unto Mm, and 
 now that he lieth, he shall rise no more. Nevertheless David rose 
 out of his bed beyond their thoughts and expectation. Even so it 
 befell Paul at this time. For he died not of the viper's bite, which 
 the barbarians saw hang on his hand." 
 
 Suffereth not him to live. Greek uaas, "suffered," in the preterite 
 See what we have but now observed. A certain man suffering 
 shipwreck, got safe to land in Libya ; where, sleeping on the shore, 
 he is said to have been killed by the biting of a viper. . Of whom 
 Statilius Flaccus has a very eloquent poem, Antolog. lib. iii. cap. 
 2, to this purpose. 
 
 From raging sea one shipwreck'd 'soap'd to land, 
 
 And laid him down upon the Libyan sand, 
 
 Close by the shore dead sleep did him o'ertake, ] 
 
 Naked, and wearied after his dire wreck ; 
 
 Where he was killed by a deadly snake. 
 , Why did he vainly with the waves contend ? 
 
 On land he meets with his deserv'd end. 
 
 An accident very like this happens to Paul. For a viper assails 
 him when he scarce had escaped from shipwreck Into Malta, an 
 island near Libya; but with a very different event. For this 
 encounter was no ways fatal to Paul, but to the viper, as im- 
 mediately follows. 
 
 5. And he shook off the beast into the fire. If we will give credit 
 to CEcumenius, the viper of its own accord threw itself into the 
 fire, as punishing itself, for that it had set upon a body it ought 
 not to have meddled with. " It leapt," saith he, "into the fire, as 
 acting revenge on itself, because it had invaded a body that did not 
 at all belong to it." But Luke expressly affirms, that Paul shook 
 it off, and that into the fire that was near, not far off into the air, 
 as it is asserted in Prudentius's preface to book i, against Sym- 
 machuB : — 
 
 He shook a great way "off the venemous snake : 
 It thus beat off, ils way through the air did take. 
 
VEB. VI.j LITEIUELY EXPLAINED. 553 
 
 This by some is referred to the old serpent, to wit, the devil, who 
 in vain setting upon the faithful is at last thrown into hell fire. 
 Arator, in his Apostolic History, lib. ii. : — 
 
 For the beast hanging on his hands, 
 Shak'd off is thrown into the burning brands ; 
 It's rightly oast into the fire which it J 
 
 Occasioned first, which sin did first commit, f 
 A fire which heated hath the infernal pit. ' 
 
 . Felt no harm. That which Christ promised to his apostles, 
 Mark xvi. 18, that they should destroy serpents, was fulfilled by 
 this miracle unexpected by the barbarians. " And it seems," saith 
 Bochart, " that that serpent fastened itself on Paul's hand, not with 
 design to hurt him, but to adorn him. For a serpent twisted 
 about the wrist or arms, was by the ancients used among the kinds 
 of bracelets, which is recorded by Nicostratus in Athenseus, Philo- 
 stratus in his thirty-ninth epistle, Hesychius and others: as by 
 Nonnus, lib. v. Dionysiac, a bracelet is described, which 
 Like serpents had its body twisted round. 
 
 6. But they thought that he should have swollen. That is, that 
 Paul would swell to a vast bigness. " The Greek word, vifjiirpaaSfai 
 properly is," saith Bochart, " to bum and be inflamed ;" as also, 
 "to be blown up and swell by reason of heat." Hesychius, irifxiTpav, 
 " to inflame, to puff up, to burn." JElian, lib. i. cap. 57, saith that the 
 people called Psylli cure easily those that are bitten by a serpent 
 having horns like a ram, and a little body, provided they are called 
 before the whole body is swollen. For Dioscorides writeth that 
 the whole body of those that have been bitten by such a serpent 
 riseth into a tumour like that of the Varixes. The etymologian, 
 speaking of buprestis, a kind of herb, saith, ' buprestis is so called, 
 as they say, because those who eat of it do swell exceedingly,' which 
 in the Greek is ^vaaaSrai. And Nicander saith of the animal 
 buprestis, in the 344th verse of his Alexipharmacs : — 
 
 Sometimes the heifers, sometimes gor-bellied calves. 
 She doth inflame. 
 
 And in his Theriacaj, speaking of the hjemorrhous, ver. 306 : — • 
 
 When she doth bite, the gums all over are huge raised, or also inflamed. 
 
 For so the scholiast, wlfivparai, "it is inflamed, burnt, and scorched." 
 And a little after, irvpaKTOvvTai, koI avafdpdt^ovcn, "they grow fiery 
 and boiling hot. Nor is it otherwise taken in Lucian, when 
 speaking of the dipsas, a kind of serpent, he saith, Trtjun-pao-Set iroieJi 
 'makes it inflamed.' For it follows, 'And they cry out,' to wit, 
 
:554 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [cHAP. XXTIII, 
 
 Aoee wbo are bit, ' as those do who are lying in the fire.' It may 
 therefore be rendered either way in Luke. And therefore one of 
 the Arabics in this place has, 'they expected that it would burUi' 
 And Castalio, ' while they expected that it should burn.' But 
 Jerome, 'they thought that he would be turned into a tumour,' 
 that is, that he would swell; which Arias and Beza follow, and 
 many other of the Neote'rics. Nor without reason, seeing this is 
 one . of -the principal and most notable symptoms that attend'^he 
 stinging of serpents, that the part stung immediately swelled. 
 DioscorideSjlib. \i, saith, 'those who are bit by a viper, their body 
 swells, and is exceedingly dried up.' Nicander, speaking of those 
 that are stung by a viper in his Theriaoa, ver. 240, saith, 'noisome 
 tumours bubble up, as if the body were burnt with fire.' So also 
 Paul i-3Egineta : 'Blisters break forth in the part that is bitten, as 
 in those that are burnt.' And JEtius writeth of a wound inflicted 
 by a viper; ' that a bilious tumour ensued, very hot, full of bubbles, 
 somewhat red,' &c. And Avicenna, in the chapter of the Biting of 
 Serpents, towards the bottom of page 137, saith : 'Then appeareth 
 a hot tumour red, full of pimples and pushes as from the burning 
 by fire.'" Thus far Bochart. "The learned," saith John Price, 
 *' dispute, whether the word irifivpacr^ai denote a tumour or inflam- 
 mation : I think it signifieth both." Excellent is that place of 
 Lucan to this purpose, and so far as I know, untouched," lib. 
 jx. ver. 780, &c., thus Englished by the above-mentioned Sir A, 
 Grorges : — 
 
 The fiery prester (with his sting) 
 Nasidius to his end doth bring. 
 Nasidiua that (with his plough-sbates) 
 The Marsian fields for grains prepares. 
 His face is coloured fiery red. 
 His puffed swollen skin at large is spread- 
 All form and shape his looks hath lost, 
 The tumour so his corps imbost. 
 And so his veins the poisow feeds. 
 That human measure he exceeds. 
 One lump doth all his parts confound, 
 Within a formless body dtown'd. 
 His harbergeon was not of space. 
 His swollen carcase to embrace. 
 The boiling caldron's frothy scum. 
 Doth not in bubbles rise so plumb. 
 Nor yet the sail^dotb swell so fast. 
 When it is puif 'd with windy blast. 
 The misshap'd corpse could scarce contain, 
 The limbs that so with swelling sttain. 
 
,VEa. VI.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED, 555 
 
 An<^ .that same trunk's qopfussd.heft 
 Xbey durst not to the funeral weft, 
 But to the fowls untouched it left, 
 And for a prey unto wild beasts. 
 If theteoQ they durst tnake their feasts. 
 
 The import of that word, irifitrpaff^ai, could not be more aceurately 
 set forth. Even from that place (besides the so clear description 
 of both the symptoms) you may see how emphatically the ancient 
 Latin interpreter translates here, 'should be turned into tumour;' or, 
 io wit, tha^t he is no more the same man, but altogether a tumour ; or, 
 to use the words of Luoan, ' that his form and shape should be lost.' " 
 
 Or suddenly fall down and die. That is, that he should suddenly 
 fall down dead, Avicenna eaith that " the greatest part of them 
 who die by the biting of a serpent, die the third day, and some- 
 times continue until the seventh," ^tius sajth that "for the most 
 part they die in seven hours' space," In Pliny, lib, 7^1. cap. 53;: 
 *'The Scythians dip their arrows in vipers' poison and human 
 blood;" that irremediable wickedness bringeth instantly death at 
 the lightest touch. And in the Baeotics of Pausanius it is declared 
 tgr a certain Phoenician, " that a man, to escape the assault of a 
 viper that was pursuing him, quickly got upon a certain tree, 
 whither, when the viper Came a little afterj it discharged its poison 
 on the tree, and that thereupon the man died." So there is a sort 
 of serpents among the Arabians called giaria, which immediately 
 kills. Whence Muhamed Addamirius, who is commonly called 
 Damir, in his Proverbs of the Viper, saith : " God hath given him 
 over to the serpent giaria" [which] is as much as to say, he hath 
 exposed him to an iiTcmediable evil; because whosoever is bit by 
 this serpent dieth in the very moment. Indeed, the biting of 
 a viper is more pernicious, by reason of the liature of the place or 
 ailment, and if it bites fasting, or in the hottest weather, and when 
 it is provoked. For then its bile being stirred up, the poison- is 
 much stronger. Besides, some bodies, and in one and the same 
 body* some parts less resist the poison. Seeing therefore there are 
 so many causes why vipers kill either quicker or slower by their 
 biting, the time of death cannot certainly be determined. But that 
 serpent that assailed Paul might be supposed to have most ready 
 poison, because it broke out of the midst of the fire more stirred up 
 and provoked. 
 
 After they had looked a great while. As if he had said. But when 
 these barbarians had a considerable time expected that Paul's 
 death would ensue upon the biting of the viper. 
 
556 . THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXVlll. 
 
 And saw no harm come to him. That is, and saw that no liurt 
 befell him, whence he could be accounted guilty of any crime, as 
 they suspected. 
 
 Changing their minds. That is, passing from their former into 
 a contrary judgment ; as, 
 
 The clownish rabble cannot hold the mean, 
 
 And:— 
 
 Fools shunning one vice run into a worse. 
 
 TTiey said he was a god. Whom before they concluded to be 
 a murderer. But as Paul was not a murderer, so neither was he a 
 god, but a faithful servant of God, whom, when they judged a 
 murderer, they were guilty of a breach of charity : when a god, 
 they sinned grievously against faith. For, as CEcumenius ob- 
 serveth, the Gentiles used thus "to account any a god, when 
 they did any thing above the reach of ordinary men." So above, 
 ch. xiv. 10, 19; those of Lystra appointed divine worship to be 
 performed to this same Paul, because he had healed a lame person : 
 but afterwards the very same persons stoned him. 
 
 7. In the same quarters. Greek, " in those that were about that 
 place." That is, in that place, as the Syriac rightly renders it, or, 
 in the country near that coast. Toie Trcpi tov roirov ekeTvov is put 
 for r(^ TOTToj tKEivif, as by an elegant phrase of the Greeks oi irepi 
 TOV IlavXov is said for 6 IlavAoc ; above, ch. xili. 13, saith Lewis 
 de Dieu. 
 
 Were possessions of the chief man of the island, &c. That is, a 
 certain man had lands, whose name was Publius, or, as others read 
 it, Poplius, whom the Romans had set over the island Malta. See 
 what we have said on ver. 1, out of Bochartus. 
 
 fVho received us and lodged us three days courteously. As if he had 
 said, who being very rich and civil, lodged us all for as great a 
 number as we were, three days, and very lovingly bestowed upon 
 all, those things that were necessary for our sustenance. 
 
 8. He prayed. On his knees, as above, ch. xx. 36 ; xxi. 5. 
 See our annotations on the same places. Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. lib. 
 V. cap. 5, saith that the Christian soldiers, who under the Emperor 
 Marcus Aurelius obtained rain by their prayers, "prayed with 
 their knees bended even to the earth, according to that gesture of 
 prayer peculiar to Christians." 
 
 Saved him. [Latin, Saluavit eum."] That is, healed him, accord- 
 ing as Christ, when he was risen again from the dead, had proniised 
 to his disciples that believed in him, Mark xvi. 18, They shall 
 
VER. XI.] LITKRAXLY EXPLAINED, 557 
 
 lay their hands upon the sick, and they shall recover. Now im- 
 position gf hands is a visible sign of prayer, which James maketh 
 mention of, ch. v. 14. Paul therefore conjoined the sign with the 
 thing signified, that is, imposition of hands with prayer, when he 
 restored to health Poplins or Publius's father, who was sick of a 
 fever and bloody flux. Moreover, every promise that belongs to 
 the body is conditional, and has the exception included in it, 
 except God shall see it fitting otherwise for just causes, although 
 unknown to us. For not the apostles themselves indeed, although 
 present, could restore to health all that were sick in the church 
 after the manner prescribed, James v. 14 ; as you may see, Phil, 
 ii. 26, 27 ; 2 Tim. iv. 20. For health of body sometimes prejudices 
 that of the mind, and sickness of body sometimes is the means to 
 attain soundness of mind, and as Seneca of Providence saith, cap. 
 4., "calamity is the occasion of virtue;" or as Minutius Felix 
 expresseth it, " calamity is frequently the discipline of virtue." 
 Hence Salvianus, presbyter of Massilia, of God's Government, 
 lib. i., " We must not be grieved at the affliction of infirmities, 
 which we understand to be the mother of virtues." 
 
 9. When this was done. That is, when Popllus or Publius's 
 father was restored to health by Paul's prayers, when he laid on 
 his hands on him. 
 
 Others also which had diseases in the island. Thaf is, all the rest 
 also which were afflicted with sickness in this island of Malta. 
 
 Came. To Paul, that he might lay his hands upon them, and 
 implore the help of God for healing them. 
 
 And they were healed. At the prayers of Paul who laid his 
 hands upon them. 
 
 10. Who. Those that were recovered from their sickness. 
 Honoured us with many honours. As if he had said, having a 
 
 grateful remembrance of their miraculous recovery, not only did 
 they highly honour Paul, at whose prayers they were freed from 
 their diseases, but also me Luke, the writer of this history, and the 
 rest of Paul's attendance. 
 
 And when we sailed. As if he had said, And when we loosed 
 from the island Malta, to sail further. 
 
 They put. Into the ship. 
 
 Such things as were necessary. That is, large and liberal pro- 
 vision. 
 
 11. And after three montlis. Of the winter, elapsed from the 
 time of our arrival at the island Malta. 
 
S58 THE ACTS OJH' THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAF. XXVII 
 
 We set sail, [Latin, navigavimus.'] That is, we were carried 
 forth. 
 
 In a ship of Alexandria. As also before we were carried from 
 Lycia in a ship of Alexandria bound for Rome ; above, ch. xxvii. G. 
 
 Whose sign was Castor. ' That is, Castor and Pollux, who are 
 called A«o(TKoi>po(, that is, Jupiter's sons by Leda^ daughter of 
 Thestius, wife to Tyndarus king of Laconia ; both have the name 
 6f Castor ffom one of them. Whence Pliny, lib. x. cap. 43, "Above 
 the temple of the Castors." Arnobius^ lib. v. ; against the Gentiles* 
 "The Castors, sons of Tyndarus; one used to tame horses^ the 
 other was a good champion," &e.' Minutius Felix : " Castor and 
 Pollux die by courses, that they may live." They, when first they 
 grew to men's years, scoured the seas of pirates, and for that reason 
 were accounted gods of the sea, whom mariners used to invocate 
 in storms. Afterward they went into Colchis with the Argonautae^ 
 in which expedition Pollux killed Amyrcus, king of the Bebryciansj 
 who laid an ambush against him. Then returning home they took 
 back their sister Helena, who was ravished by Theseus, when they 
 had stormed the city of Aphydna in the absence of Theseus. At 
 length, when Castor died, they say that PoUuXj who having been 
 born of the same egg with Helena was immortal, out of love to 
 his brother, begged of Jupiter that he might share his immortality 
 with his' brother, which having obtained, they are said to die 
 alternatively and live again. Which fiction arises from hence, 
 because as Servius saith on ^n. vi, the constellation Gemini, that 
 is assigned to them, is so, that when one star of it setteth the other 
 fiseth. Yet Macrobius, Saturnal, lib. i. cap. 21, as he referreth all the 
 other gods, so them also to the sun, when he saith, "But the 
 Gemini, who are Supposed to die and live by courses, what else do 
 they sigpify but one and the same sun, now descending into, the 
 lower hemisphere, anon mounting to the highest altitude of this?" 
 "Moreover, the Castors, or Castor and Pollux, were usually 
 painted, like handsome young men, most decently apparelled, and 
 sitting on horseback," saith the famous Lightfoot. And they ap- 
 peared thus equipped, if you'll believe the relator, in the engage- 
 ment at the lake Regillus, leading on the Koman cavalry, and 
 defeating the enemy, so that the victory was obtained by their 
 dbttduct.'^ (Dionys. lib. vi. E-om. Antiq.) Yet sometimes they are 
 drawn on foot. But that the ships of Alexandria used to have the 
 effigies of Castor and Pollux on their snout, that notable place of 
 Cyril indicates, which the most renowned Heinsius citeth out 
 
VBR. XII.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 369 
 
 Catena Patrum upon Isaiah, not yet published. " But also," saith 
 he, " the author of the Acts of the Apostles saith, that they who 
 were with him went aboard of a ship of Alexandria, whose sigfi 
 was Castor and Pollux. For it is usual for Alexandrian ships to 
 have such ensigns painted on the right and left side of their fore- 
 castle." Moreover, we may observe that Paul did not refuse in 
 case of necessity to make use of that ship, which has the image of 
 an idol upon it. For seeing an idol hath no virtue to pollute things 
 consecrated to it, a CKrietian making use of these things in case of 
 necessity, where there is no just cause of offence, is not defiled, if 
 they be referred to civil uses. See 1 Cor. viii. 4, 7 — 10. 
 
 12. And landing at Syracuse. Syracuse, or, as it is commonly 
 used in the plural number, Syraousaej the most famous city of the 
 island of Sicily, a colony of the Corinthians, was built by them 
 together with the Doric Grredatis, under the command of Archias 
 the Corinthian, above seven hundred years before the birth of our 
 Lord, about the same time that Naxus and Megara, cities of Sicilia, 
 were built, as Thuoydides, lib. vi. Strabo, lib. vi. and others have left 
 on record. It had its name from a marsh that lies near it, called 
 Syraco, of which Stephen speaketh when he treateth of Syracuse. 
 Maroianus Heracleota in his Peri^esis :— 
 
 The Dorians inhabited the west side 
 
 Of Italy, whom Archia? of Corinth bid 
 
 To come to hi«n, who did their labour use, 
 
 Building the famous city Syracuse. 
 
 Its name from the adjacent marsh they choose." 
 
 " It was,'' saith Thomas de Pinedo, " of old divided into four parts, 
 according to Cioero, in Verrem, lib. iv. One, which Strabo calls 
 Ortygia, (lib. vi.) was by them called Nasos (that name in the 
 Doric dialect, which the Syracusians used, signifies an island), 
 famous for two harbours, and the royal palace of Hieron, wher6 
 the prsetora had their residence. In this part of the city there 
 were many consecrated temples, two whereof surpassed the re»t> 
 to wit, Diana's temple, and Minerva's. There was also a fountain 
 of sweet water, whose name was Arethusa, of incredible largeness, 
 celebrated not only by poets, but also by prose writers, very full of 
 fish, which would have been wholly covered with the waves, had it 
 not been parted from the sea by a fortified wall and certain heaps 
 of stones. The second part was called Acradina, wherein were a 
 very large market-place, stately galleries, a public hall extraordinary 
 well adorned, a very spaqious court, and a most excellent teiMple of 
 
560 THE AgTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XX.T1I. 
 
 Jupiter Olympus. The third part of the city was named Tyche, 
 because it was an ancient temple of Fortune (so the Greeks call 
 Fortune) in which there was a spacious college, and very many 
 consecrated houses. But the fourth part, because it was built 
 last, was called Neapolis, in which there was a large theatre, and 
 two stately temples, the one Ceres's, the other Proserpina's, and 
 that surpassingly beautiful and big image of Apollo, which they 
 called Temenites. These four parts of Syracuse were of that extent, 
 that Gicero, in the above cited, place calls every one of them a city, 
 and therefore Ausonius in his poems, which he made of the most 
 considerable cities ofthe Roman empire, calls Syracuse Quadruple. 
 Epipolse also, wherein were Euryleus, Labdalum, andTemenus, of 
 which we have spoke in their proper places, is by others mentioned 
 among the parts of Syracuse, but we have followed the most 
 learned of Eomulus's offspring, from whose fguntain we have 
 watered these gardens. In Epipolis was that famous prison called 
 Latomiae, a large and stately work of kings and tyrants ; it was all 
 of a rock digged to a marvellous depth, according to Cicero's Ora- 
 tion against Verres, lib. v., who in the same oration avers that it 
 was made by Dionysius the cruel tyrant. The pleasantest of these 
 caverns had its name of Ehiloxenus the poet, wherein he is said to 
 have composed Cyclops, the choicest of all his poems, as ^lian 
 reporteth, tlist. Var. lib. xii. cap. 44. Suetonius saith, in Tib. cap. 
 74, that that image of Apollo,- called Temenites, so much com- 
 mended by Cicero, was transported from Syracuse to Rome. The 
 Romans made themselves masters of this most opulent and famous 
 city, when Marcellus was their general, after that they had sacked 
 it, as Livy in his twenty-fifth book, and Florus, lib. ii. cap. 6, 
 sufficiently testify ; the words of the latter I thought fit to insert 
 here. Sicily, that was committed to Marcellus, did not long hold 
 out, for all the Island was overcome in one city. That great, and 
 before that time invincible metropolis, Syracuse, though it was 
 defended by Archimedes's wit, at last submitted. Its triple wall, 
 the same number of castles, that marble haven, and celebrated 
 fountain, availed it nothing, save only to procure compassion, that 
 being overcome it might be spared for its beauty.. Strabo, libr 
 vi., saith, that Augustus Csesar repaired it. It was anciently the 
 metropplis of all Sicily, as also the greatest and most powerful seat 
 of tyrants, now a bishop's seat, between Catena and the promon- 
 tory Pachynus; it retains the same situation at this day, and its 
 name is a little altered, for it is commonly called Saragossa. 
 
VBR. XIII.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 561 
 
 citizens by the Latina were called Syracusans. It hath produced 
 several men famous for learning, amongst the rest Flavins Vopis- 
 cus the famous historian, Philemon the comic poet, but Archime- 
 des, the geometrician and excellent mathematician, hath surpassed 
 them all in fame, whose sepulchre Cicero, Tusc. Quaest. lib. v., 
 makes his boast that he found out among briers and brambles, 
 when it was unknown to the Syracusans. But I know not on what 
 account he calls so admirable a man contemptuously, ' vile little 
 man.' If ye desire to know more of this city, consult Cluverius, 
 lib. i. Sicil. Ant. cap. 12, and Goltzius on Syracuse." 
 We tarried there. To wit, at Syracuse. 
 
 13. Thence. That is, when we had tarried three days at Syracuse, 
 we parted thence. 
 
 We fetched a compass and came to Rhegium. A city of Greeks, 
 built by the inhabitants of Chalcidia, as Strabo testifies, lib. vi- 
 Hence Solinus, cap. 8: "It is well known that Rhegium was 
 built by the Ghaleidians." It retains the name at this day, for it 
 is called Eeggio by the Italians; it was of old the chief city of the 
 Brutii, now of Calabria the farther, in the kingdom of Naples. It 
 is situate on the border of the Sicilian Straits over against Sicily; 
 it is dignified with a bishop's seat, according to the testimony of 
 Alexandrinus and Michael, Antonius Baudrand of Paris, on his 
 Geographical Lexicon. Authors are not agreed as to the etymo- 
 logy of its name, some say that it was so called because it was a 
 large city, and as it were royal, but others airo tov priywa^ai, that - 
 is, "to be broken," because that before, that Imay use Virgil's 
 words, ^n. iiL, that land and Sicily: — 
 
 Divided were, land tliat conjoin'd was, 
 A huge flood did with violence divide. 
 Parting Sioilia from Hesperia's side ', 
 Cities and fields retired with swelling naves, 
 A neirrow sea their margin interlaves. 
 
 Strabo, in the fore-cited sixth book, and Eustathius on Dionysius'a 
 Perieget., ver. 345, are my authors for both the originations. Strabo^ 
 in the same book, reporteth that it was destroyed by Dionysius, 
 the first of that name, king of Sicily, and repaired by his son, and 
 called Phcebia, and that it was augmented by Augustus Caesar, out 
 of his own navy, when it was but thinly peopled. It is called 
 Rhegium Julium, by Ptolemy, lib. iiL cap. 1, eithar for that 
 Julius Caesar sent a colony thither, or because Julia, the daughter 
 of Augustus, by Scribonia, being banished into Rhegium for her 
 
 o o 
 
562 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXVIII. 
 
 lewdness, died tliere, as Tacitus testifies, book i. of his Annals. H 
 any desire to know further of this city, let him consult Leandei 
 Albertus's Description of Italy, dedicated to Henry II., King ol 
 France, Cluverius, and others. 
 
 And after one day. To wit, past at Rhegium. 
 The south wind Mowing the next day. After our departure from 
 Rhegium. 
 
 We came to Puteoli. In the Greek, the Latin name being a litth 
 
 corrupted, it is UoTiokovg. Varro, book iv., of the Latin tongue ; 
 
 " From the word putei, ' wells/ the city Puteoli has its name 
 
 because about that place are many cold and hot waters, except i1 
 
 be rather called so from putor, 'stench,' because it has often £ 
 
 noisome smell of brimstone or alum." This city of Tuscany, tha' 
 
 is, Etruria, is called by three names, by Stephen Byzantius, it 
 
 their proper plaCes. For by him it is called Dicaea, Dicsearchia 
 
 and Potioli. In Potioli he saith that it was built by the Samians 
 
 and in Dicaea that it was a colony of the lonians. St. Jerome, ii 
 
 Euseb. Chron. lib. ii., Olymp. 64, art. 4 : " The Samians buil 
 
 Dicasarchia, which is now called Puteoli." Strabo saith of thii 
 
 city, after his description of the lakes Lucrinus and Avernus 
 
 " Next are the shores, or the coasts, about Dicaearchia, and th( 
 
 city itself. It was once a dock of the Cumans, built on the brinl 
 
 of the shore. But about the time of the war with Hannibal, thi 
 
 Romans sent a colony thither, and changing its former name 
 
 Dicaearchia, they called it Potioli, from putei, ' wells.' Others fron 
 
 putor, 'stench,' because of the stench of its waters." The sam 
 
 Strabo, a little after : " But the city was made a great mart towr 
 
 having artificial harbours for ships, by reason of the natural con 
 
 venience of the sand." Dicasarchia, as for the most part it is calle 
 
 by the Greeks, is by Pliny (lib. iii. cap. 5) called the colon 
 
 Dicaearchia. It appears from the thirty-fourth book of Livy, tha 
 
 Puteoli, Vulturnus, and Liternus were made colonies of Roma 
 
 citizens, when Publius Comelio Scipio Africanus was consul fc 
 
 the second time in the consulship of Titus Sempronius Longui 
 
 and that three hundred men were sent into each of them. ] 
 
 Puteoli did not afterwards lose its right of colony, Corneliu 
 
 Tacitus was mistaken when he said, book xiv. of his Annals 
 
 " Puteoli, an ancient city in Italy, obtained the right of a colon 
 
 and surnatae from Nero." Benjamin Tudelensis saith, in h: 
 
 Itinerary, but without any author for it, that this city ws 
 
 anciently called Surento, and that it was built by Hadarezer, wt 
 
VER. XIV.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 563 
 
 is made mention of, 2 Sam. vlii. 3, " when he fled from before the 
 face of David," as the Hebrews express it, which fable the counter- 
 feit Joseph Ben. Gorion also relateth, lib. i. cap. 3 ; but the con- 
 trary appears from Ptolemy, with whom, ch. i. of his third book of 
 Geography, Pnteoli and Surentum are distinct cities. Puteoli is 
 is now by the Italians called Pozzuolo, which is the same name a 
 little corrupted. C. Caesar Caligula joined Baiae to its bulwarks by 
 a bridge, which were most four miles distant, either in emulation 
 of Xerxes, who bridged over the Hellespont, or that he had a 
 mind to terrify Germany and Brittany, whom he was invading by 
 war, with the report of this huge work; or rather, because 
 Thrasyllus, the mathematician, had foretold that Caius the emperor 
 should not more be emperor than he could ride upon horses over 
 the Bay of Baia, as Suetonius relateth in his Caligula. " Marcus 
 Tullius Cicero," saith Thomas de Pinedo, "called his village 
 Puteolanum, because it was near Puteoli, where .^Elius Spartianus, 
 in the life of Adrian the Emperor, saith that this emperor was 
 interred; in which Antonius Pius, his successor, made him a 
 temple instead of his sepulchre, and a game every five years like to 
 the Olympian, and priests, and colleges, and many other things 
 which belonged to the honour, as it were, of a god, as the same 
 Spartianus declareth. In the middle of the city there is a most 
 ancient temple to be seen, somewhat defaced by the violence of 
 earthquakes, of old consecrated to Augustus, but now to Saint 
 Proculus, where men's bones are to be seen of a vast bigness, 
 as Leander Albertus, an eye-witness, testifieth in his Campania. 
 For he placeth this city in that part of Italy." 
 
 14. Where we found the brethren. That is, the Christians who 
 possibly were converted from Judaism to Christianity. Josephus 
 makes mention of the Jews that dwelt at Dicsearchia, that is, 
 Puteoli, Ant. lib. xvii. cap. 4. 
 
 And were desired. By the same brethren. 
 To tarry with them. Greek, ett' oiirotc, "'Etti," saith Lewis de 
 Dieu, "is seldom put for n-apa, 'at;' yet it is not altogether out 
 of use, as, tin ralg dvpaig, ' at the doors,' ' at the gate,' is in use 
 almost with all writers, and in Thucydides, lib. iii., ^v sirl iroTUfii^, 
 ' it was situate by the river.' " 
 
 Seven days. To wit, as many as Julius the centurion had 
 appointed to stay at Puteoli, who had shown himself extraordinary 
 civil to Paul: as ye may see above, ch. xxvii. 3, 43. 
 And so. After those fourteen days spent at Puteoli, 
 
 o o 2 
 
56i THE ACT3 OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXVIII. 
 
 We came to Rome, That is, as it is in the English, we went 
 toward Borne, for then they were not yet come to Rome, as is 
 understood by the verse immediately following. To come in this 
 place signifies nothing else than to gio, as Luke xv. 20 ; John vi. 17. 
 
 is. And from thence. That is, from the city of Rome. 
 
 When the brethren. That is, the Christians who then dwelt at 
 Rome, to whom Paul had written an epistle before, which is super- 
 scribed. To the Romans. 
 
 Had heard. That Paul was going a prisoner from Puteoli to 
 Rome, accompanied by Luke and Aristarchus. 
 
 TTiei/ met. That is, many went out to meet. 
 
 Us. To wit, who were on our journey for Rome. 
 
 As far as Appii-forum and the Three Taverns. As if he had said. 
 Some indeed met us at Appii-forum, but others, who set later out, 
 met us at the Three Taverns, which were nearer to Rome than 
 Appii-foriim. Zozimus, lib. ii., maketh mention of the Three 
 Taverns, and that Severus Caesar, when he was going to Rome, 
 when he came to that place, which was called the Three Taverns, 
 he was seized by the ambush which Maxentius had set against 
 him in that place, and put to a cruel death, having had his neck 
 broke with a halter. Jerome thinks that Appii-forum was so 
 called from Appius, a certain consul; from whom also the way 
 called Appian had its name It was a town farther distant from 
 Rome than the Three Taverns, as Cicero showeth. Ad Attic, lib. 
 ii. Epist. 10.: "From Appii-forum at four o'clock; I had given 
 another a little before at the Three Taverns." Behind the moun- 
 tain Albanus, in the Appian Way, there is a city called Aricia, 
 which Strabo, lib. v. saith is distant from Rome one hundred and 
 sixty furlongs ; but Dionysius, lib. vi. and Philostratus, lib. iii. of 
 the Life of ApoUonius, say it is only one hundred and twenty 
 fiirlongs distance from it. But these verses of Hotace plainly 
 prove that Aricia was nearer Rome than Appii-forum, Serm. i. 
 Sat. 5 :— 
 
 From stately Rome I walk'd a little war. 
 
 And reach 'd Aricia first, and there I lay ; 
 
 My company a^ good as man could seek 
 
 The lawyer Heliodore a learned Greek : 
 
 Then Forum Appii, that's a paltry town, 
 
 With mariners and pedlars throng'd, and those alone. 
 
 Which when Paul saw. Coming out to meet him. 
 He thanked God. Whose bountiful providence had at last 
 granted him the happiness of speaking with the Christians that 
 
VER. XVIl.j LlTEllALLY EXPLAINJiD. 565 
 
 dwelt at Erome, which he had always so begged of God in his 
 prayers, that he could not have asked it more earnestly, Rom. i. 10. 
 He took courage. That is, he began to hope that his confession 
 of the faith would not be destitute of its fruit among the Romans, 
 and so he hastened to Rome more cheerfully, because of the 
 defence of the gospel he was to make there. 
 
 16. And when we came to Rome. In the Greek is added, "The 
 centurion delivered the prisoners to the governor of the army." 
 Who, to wit, was otherwise called the prefect of the Prsetorium, 
 and was over the praetorian soldiers, who were always present at 
 Rome for the emperor's use. " It is evinced by many places of 
 Tacitus," saith Grotius, "that the keeping of the prisoners was 
 committed to this prefect's charge." Burrhus Afranius is thought 
 at that time to have been Nero's prefect ; this excellent soldier, 
 Tacit, lib. xii., his jaws swelling by degrees, and the passage of his 
 breath being stopped, died, in the consulship of P. Marius and 
 L. Asinius, Tacit, lib. xiv. 
 
 But Paul was suffered. Whom possibly Festus, procurator ot 
 Judea, had testified by his letters, since the time that he was sent 
 to Rome, that he was guilty of no crime. 
 
 To dwell by himself. That is, apart from other prisoners, where 
 he would. 
 
 With a soldier that kept him. To wit, to whose left hand Paul's 
 right hand was fastened after the manner of the Romans with a 
 long chain, which Paul holding, below ver. 20, maketh mention of, 
 also Eph. vi. 20. The scholiast upon Juvenal saith that it is called 
 a camp prison, when the captives are delivered chaihed, so that the 
 same chain fastens both the prisoner and soldier. See what we 
 have said above, ch. xii. 6. 
 
 17. After three days. From Paul's arrival at Rome. 
 
 He called the chief of the Jews together. That is, Paul not only 
 
 entreated, but also persuaded, those of the Jews at Rome that were 
 
 eminent for dignity and learning, that they would come and visit him. 
 
 / have done nothing against the people. That is, I have done no 
 
 wrong to the nation of Israel. 
 
 Or customs of our fathers. That is, neither have I in anything 
 transgressed the laws that were delivered by Moses to our ances- 
 tors. For Paul did not hinder those that were born in Judaism 
 from observing the legal ceremonies, but only taught, that the 
 Gentiles who were converted to God and his Christ were not obliged 
 to the observation of them. 
 
466 THE ACTS OP THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAF. XXVIII. 
 
 Prisoner from Jerusalem. That is, since the time that the Jews 
 would have killed me at Jerusalem, as a wicked man and one un- 
 worthy to live. See above, ch. xxl. 31, 33. 
 
 / was delivered into the hands of the Romans. Who governed 
 Judea. See above, ch. xxiil. 24. 
 
 18. Who. To wit, the Eoman procurators of Judea, viz. Felix, 
 ch. xxiv., and Festua, ch. xxv. 
 
 When they had examined me. That is, when they had made in- 
 quisition into, and taken cognizance of my cause. 
 
 Would have let me go. Greek, IjSoiiXovro anokvaai, "would have 
 absolved, or set me at liberty." That is, they were strongly bent to 
 set me free, as before Pilate was to set Christ at liberty, when he 
 was delivered to him. See above, ch. xxiv. 28 ; xxv. 18, 25. 
 
 Because there was no cause of death in me. That is, because they 
 acknowledged that I had done nothing worthy of death. Claudius 
 Lysias, the chief captain, acknowledged above, ch. xxiii. 29, that 
 Paul had done nothing that deserved to be punished by death. -As 
 also Felix, governor of Judaea, when he treated him kindly, above, 
 ch. xxiv. 24 ; Festus, the governor, who succeeded Felix, ch. xxv. 
 18, 25 ; King Agrippa the younger, ch. xxvi. 32. So the servant, 
 no less than the Lord, had a testimony of his innocency from these 
 unbelievers. 
 
 19. But when the Jews s-pahe against it. Who dealt with Festus 
 to send me from Caesarea to Jerusalem, to be there judged by the 
 Sanhedrim, that they might have a fit opportunity to kill me by 
 the way. See above, ch. xxv. 3. 
 
 / was coiistrained. Lest I should have been sent from Caesarea 
 to Jerusalem by Festus, who was willing to gratify the Jews. See 
 above, ch. xxv. 19. 
 
 To appeal to Ccesar. See above, ch. xxv. 1 1 . 
 
 Not that, &c. As if he had said, Yet not upon this account, that 
 I might accuse the Jews, that without cause troubled me, of any 
 crime, before the Koman emperor, but only that I might vindicate 
 my own innocency. Beza has here supplied the ellipsis of the 
 particle, "yet," rendering, "yet not that," and he hath taken notice 
 of the like ellipsis of the same particle. Matt. ii. 6. 
 
 20. For this cause therefore. As if he had said. Lest ye should 
 think I am disafiected towards my own nation. 
 
 Have I entreated to see you, and speak with you. That is, I have 
 humbly prayed that ye would visit me, that I might have occasion 
 to discourse with you. 
 
VER. XXH.J LITEllALLY EXPLAINED. 567 
 
 For the hope of Israel That is, for the Messiah, who is hoped 
 for and desured by the Israelites. As if he had said, Because I 
 teach and bear witness, that he who is hoped for by the people of 
 Israel hath been already exhibited, when Jesus of Nazareth was 
 exhibited, whom with all asseveration I affirm to be that Messiah 
 who is promised in the law and the prophets, and who is desirously 
 looked for by the Israelites, I am bound and fastened with this 
 chain which ye see, as if I had been a wicked and flagitious fellow. 
 Christ Jesus, 1 Tim. i. 1, is called our hope, because we hope 
 through his merits to obtain the free gift of eternal life. See also 
 Col. i. 27. See above, ch. xxvi. 6, 7. " Paul," saith Wolzogenius, 
 " taught and confirmed, that this hope or thing hoped for, is now 
 completed after so many ages, while the Messiah is really exhibited 
 who is that Jesus of Nazareth. By this hope may also be under- 
 stood the resurrection of the dead, which Paul confessed above, 
 with the Pharisees against the Sadducees. See above, ch. xxiii. 6 ; 
 xxiv. 15, 21. But this was also to be accomplished by the Messiah. 
 That the former of them is chiefly here hinted at seems to appear, 
 both from that place, ch. xxvi., now cited., and by the words of the 
 Jews, below, ver. 22. 
 
 With this chain. Wherewith I am tied to this soldier. See 
 above, ver. 16. 
 
 lam bound. As if I were guilty of some notorious crime. 
 
 21. But they. To wit, the Jews at Rome. 
 Said to him. To wit, to Paul the prisoner. 
 
 We, &c. As if they had said. There is nothing written against 
 thee to us by those Jews who dwell at Jerusalem, nor hath any of 
 them who are come hither to Home accused thee to us. 
 
 22. But we desire. Greek, a^iowjuev, "we vouchsafe." That is, 
 we do not refuse when we shall have leisure. 
 
 To hear of thee what thou thinkest. That is, what thou canst bring 
 in defence of thy opinion about Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 Far as concerning this sect. To wit, that professeth that Jesus 
 of Nazareth is the Messiah promised in the law and the prophets. 
 
 We know that everywhere it is spoken against. To wit, because of 
 the crimes that are laid to the charge of the same heresy or sect of 
 the Nazarenes, as they "call it, by letters sent from the Sanhedrim 
 to the synagogues of the Jews that are dispersed through the 
 several countries of the world, a little after Christ's departure from 
 earth, "The Jews say," saith Grotius, "that a copy of those 
 
568 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES [CHAP. XXVIII. 
 
 letters is kept in an ancient synagogue at Barbetomagum of the 
 Vangiones, oi- as it is called at this day. Worms. Justin, against 
 Tryphoj reporteth that there were messengers sent from the Jews 
 of Palestine to the synagogues after the death of " Christ, publish- 
 ing that a certain wicked sect, contradicting the law, was raised up 
 by a certain impostor, Jesus of Galilee." Thus the event has fully 
 proved the veracity of Simeon's prophesy of Jesus Christ, That he 
 should he for a sign that should be spoken against. Luke ii. 34. 
 
 23. And when they had appointed him a day. Whereon they should 
 come to him and hear his discourse. 
 
 There came to him. On the day appointed. 
 
 Into his lodging. That is, the house where he tarried. 
 
 Very many. Besides those who had seen him before. 
 
 To whom he expounded and testified. That is, he declared with 
 great asseveration, as a certain evidence. See above, ch. xviii. 5 ; 
 Luke xvi. 28. 
 
 The kingdom of God, That is, that the kingdom that was to be 
 erected to God by tbe Messiah, did not consist in ease, delight, or 
 abundance of other transitory goods, as most of the Jews dreamed, 
 but in the chief beatitude, whose beginning is holiness or newness 
 of life upon earth, and its consummation blessed immortality in 
 heaven. See Luke xvii. 20. 
 
 Persuading them. That is, and proved it to them by persuasive 
 arguments. 
 
 Concerning Jesus, both out of the law and prophets. That is, all 
 things that were foretold or prefigured in the law or the prophets, 
 of the Messiah the Saviour and deliverer of the world, are fulfilled 
 and accomplished in Jesus. See above, ch. iii. 18, 24; xiii. 27; 
 XV. 15 ; xxvi. 22 ; Luke xxiv. 27. 
 
 From morning till evening. That is, for a whole day without 
 intermission. 
 
 24. And some. As if he had said. But as it usually falls out, 
 some of those Jews who then heard Paul preaching Christ, were 
 persuaded with Paul's invincible arguments that Jesus of Nazareth 
 was the same Messiah that was foretold and prefigured in the law 
 and the prophets ; but others rejected these arguments of Paul's 
 with an obstinate and bitter spirit. In like manner the diiFerent 
 effects of the preaching of the same Paul, are mentioned above, 
 ch. xiv- 4 ; xvii. 4, 5, 32, 34 ; xix. 9. So the same seed of the 
 word of God, when it is sown in diflFerent minds, or falls on differ- 
 
VER. XXV.] LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 569 
 
 ent parts of the earth, to some it is the savour of death unto death, 
 to others the savour of life unto life, as the same apostle speaketh, 
 2 Cof. ii. 16 ; see also Luke vii. 11, &c. 
 
 25. And when they agreed not among themselves. That is, the 
 believing and unbelieving Jews disagree and discorded among 
 themselves. Excellently saith Calvin : " The malice and wicked- 
 ness of unbelievers is the cause, that Christ, who is our peace and 
 the only bond of holy unity, becomes the occasion of dissension, 
 and setteth them by the ears who before kept up a mutual friend- 
 ship. For lo, when the Jews came together to hear Paul, they 
 are all of one mind and one mouth, they all professed that they 
 embraced the law of Moses. But when they had heard the 
 doctrine of reconciliation, a dissension arises among them, so that 
 they are divided into several parties, yet we must not think that 
 that dissension arises from the preaching of the gospel ; but that 
 private enmity, which before lay hid in wicked hearts, then began 
 to discover itself; as the brightness of the sun does not create 
 new colours, but shows the difference, which in the darkness was 
 none at all." Therefore, the Gospel, which enjoins the most 
 perfect love amongst all men, does turn the hearts of believers to 
 peace and concord, but the incredulity of them who follow the 
 dictates of the flesh, and have no relish of true godliness, and of 
 the virtues which the gospel requireth, rebelleth against God, and 
 is the mother of dissension. See our literal explanation on Matt. 
 X. 35. 
 
 They departed. Greek, airtkvovro, " they were dissolved ;" that 
 is, they went from Paul to their own houses, or they began to 
 break up the assembly. 
 
 After that Paul had spoken one word. That is, after that Paul 
 had added, for an epilogue or conclusion to his preceding sermon 
 of Christ and his kingdom, this notable saying, to denote the 
 stubborn contumacy of the unbelieving Jews. 
 
 Well spake. As if he had said, not hyperbolically, but most 
 truly. 
 
 The Holy Ghost. To wit, when he foretold this contempt of the 
 gospel, which I now behold, Isa. vi. 9, 10. 
 
 By Esaias the prophet. Who was purged with the fire of the 
 Spirit, and obtained the gift of prophecy. Isa, vi. 7. 
 
 To mr fathers. Contemporary with Isaiah, who thus set a 
 brand on their malicious hearts, yet so as that in a mystical sense 
 he rather denoted those of their posterity, who with a greater 
 
570 THE ACTS OF THi: HOLY APOSTLES [CHAF. XXVIII. 
 
 degree of malice would reject the light of the gospel when offered 
 unto them. See John xii. 40. 
 
 26. Go- unto that people. As the messenger of the LordjVho 
 appeared to thee in an august appearance and full of majesty, as a 
 judge sitting in an exalted throne, Isa. vi. 6. But these are the 
 words, saith Piscator, of one highly provoked. He does not say, 
 " to my people ;" but he accounteth them strangers, because they 
 had estranged themselves. 
 
 And say, Not solicitous how the hearers will entertain thy dis- 
 course, only do thou discharge thy message faithfully, committing 
 the rest to me. "As if he had said," saith Curcellaeus, our country- 
 man, " I know the perverse disposition of this people, and that they 
 will not be moved to repentance by thy exhortation, but will rather 
 thence take occasion to confirm and harden themselves in their 
 malice. But although it fall out so, and that they become more 
 blind, deaf, and hard-hearted by my word which thoii shalt speak 
 unto them, do not thou therefore cease from discharging the duty 
 entrusted to thee, and admonishing them of their duty; if ye can 
 gain nothing upon them by reason of their obstinate malice, yet it 
 may at least serve for their conviction." 
 
 Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand. That is, ye 
 shall clearly, perspicuously, and often hear the ministers of God 
 exhorting you to repent in his name, but ye shall not understand 
 them. 
 
 And seeing ye shall see, and not perceive. That is, and constantly 
 ye shall see benefits and miracles performed by God, and that, by 
 reason of the horrible blindness of your minds, ye shall not see 
 yourselves led to repentance by the goodness of God, being by the 
 alone goodness and long-suffering of God, and not by some opera- 
 tion of his hardened. These words which are here expressed by 
 futures of the indicative, are in the Hebrew text of Isaiah 
 expressed by imperatives, " In hearing hear ye and understand not, 
 and in seeing see ye and perceive not." On which place of Isaiah 
 excellent is that of Hen. Moller, Pat. Hamburg: "It is not com- 
 manded that they should stop their ears in the assembly, or that all 
 their senses should, of their own accord, be stupefied, but it is a most 
 sad complaint, which is expressed after the manner of men with a 
 kind of indignation and imprecation. As if he had said. Continue, 
 ye hearers, to hear, and yet not understand, and despise my 
 teachers and their threatenings, as hitherto ye have done, and see 
 what will be the result of these things. For ye shall do nothing 
 
TEE. XXVIU.^ LITERALLY EXPLAINED. 571 
 
 else -by your stubbornnesa but bring upon yourselves lamentable 
 overthrow and destruction. This is the meaning of this verse, so 
 that it is a complaint and sad expostulation, because they know- 
 ingly and willingly opposed the word of God. For the imperatives 
 do not so much command them to do those things, as they upbraid 
 them, as done already, or to be done at all times, and they have 
 the force of a threatening prophecy. Therefore the Seventy inter- 
 preters, as also Christ, in his discourse to his apostles. Matt, xiii., 
 resolve them into verbs of the future tense. In hearing ye shall hear, 
 and not understand ; also, the heart of this people is made fat. And 
 Paul, Acts XX., referreth what is attributed to the doctrine here 
 to the corrupt affections of the nation, while he saith that the 
 Jews petulantly rejected grace when offered. Therefore Clemens, 
 Strom, i., saith rightly, where he explains the saying of Christ, 
 that seeing they should not see, and hearing they should not hear. 
 Matt, xiii : They are ignorant ; not that ignorance is wrought in 
 them by the Lord (for it is not lawful to think so), but a pro- 
 phetical discourse of that which was to be, and signified that they 
 would be inadvertent, not heeding those things that were spoken. 
 For neither does the prophet blind any people, nor does God, 
 when he causeth blindness in them, do this eflScaciously. But 
 seeing he daily showed them his will, and moreover did many and 
 that stupendous miracles, yet they despised and made a mock of 
 them all, God, provoked with their stubbornness, withdrew him- 
 self from them, and so suffered them to wander and perish blind- 
 folded in their darkness, and that by his just judgment. He 
 therefore upbraids them with this, that the justice of God may be 
 conspicuous in punishing and casting off the people. But what 
 befell Isaiah, to wit, that the Jews stopped their ears to his 
 prophesying, the same Christ foretold would be his own lot, when 
 he came in the flesh. For Isaiah and the rest of the prophets are 
 a type of Christ, as to the office of teaching." See our literal 
 explanation. Matt. xiii. 13, 14. 
 
 27. Waxed gross, &cc. See our literal explanation. Matt. xiii. 15. 
 Lest. That by the Hebrew particle ID, and firi ttote and Iva, "that, 
 
 lest perhaps, or lest at any time," as the sacred writers render it in 
 the New Testament, does not alway signify the intent or purpose 
 of the thing done, but sometimes the event, appears from, Eom. xi. 
 11; 2 Tim. ii. 25, &c. 
 
 28. Be it known therefore unto you. That reject the doctrine of 
 
572 THE ACTS OF THE HOLT APOSTLES [cHAP. XXVUI. 
 
 salvation, lest hereafter you should complain that you were not 
 forewarned of it. 
 
 That the salvation of God is sent to the Gentiles. That is, that 
 gospel of everlasting salvation that is to be attained by the grace of 
 God through faith in Christ, and obedience performed to him ; I 
 say, that gospel that was first sent to the Jews descended of the 
 holy race of Abraham, is now for their incredulity sent to the pro- 
 fane Gentiles. 
 
 And they will hear it. That is, they will be attentive and obe- 
 dient to the gospel. Here respect is not had to the agreement of 
 words, but of things, and the meaning, when a pronoun of the 
 masculine gender is added to a noun that is of the neuter 
 gender in the Greek and of the feminine in the Latin, as 
 frequently elsewhere. See above, ch. xxvi. 17 ; Matt, xxviii. 
 19, 20; Eom. ii. 14. "Yet the apostle does not," says Calvin, 
 " when he saith that the Gentiles will hear, make faith common to 
 every one of them without exception. For he had sufficient ex- 
 perience, how many even of the Gentiles wickedly rejected God; 
 but he opposes to the incredulous Jews as many of the Gentiles 
 as believed, to move them to jealousy, as it is expressed in the 
 Song of Moses, Deut. xxxii. 21. In the meanwhile, it signifies 
 that that doctrine that was rejected by the Jews, should not be 
 without success." 
 
 29. The Jews departed. That is, they went out of Paul's lodging 
 to their own houses. 
 
 And had great reasoning among themselves. That is, controversy 
 about those things that were spoken by Paul, some defending and 
 stoutly maintaining them, others on the contrary rejecting and 
 despising them. It is not the gospel, but the contempt of the 
 gospel, that is the cause of dissension. 
 
 30, Two whole years. Which being fulfilled, if we may give 
 credit to ecclesiastic writers, Paul was set at liberty by Nero ; 
 when he was now set free, they say that he preached the gospel 
 throughout Italy, France, and Spain, for the space of almost ten 
 years; that he was afterwards called back by Nero, and beheaded 
 at his command. See Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. lib. ii. cap. 24 ; Jerome 
 in his Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers. 
 
 In his own hired. That is, in a lodging, that Paul himself had 
 hired, with his own money, to dwell in. 
 
 And received all that cam£ in unto him. To wit, being mindful 
 that he was no less an apostle of Christ and preacher of the gospel 
 
TEK. XIXI.] LITERAIXY EXPLAINED. 573 
 
 in prison, than if he were free and at liberty, he thought it was 
 not lawful for him to withhold himself from any that was ready 
 to learn, lest he should neglect an occasion that God had put in 
 his hands. 
 
 31. Preabhing the kingdom of God. That is, the gospel of the 
 kingdom of God, that was restored among men by the Messiahi 
 who was promised in the law and prophets, and was to be further 
 enlarged. See above, ver 23 ; Mark xv. 43. 
 
 And teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 Excellently saith Calvin according to his custom, " He does not 
 separate the kingdom of God and those things which concern 
 Christ, as if they were different things, but rather adds this second 
 as an explanation of the former, to the end we may know that the 
 kingdom of God is founded and comprehended in the knowledge 
 of our redemption purchased by Christ. Paul therefore taught, 
 that men are strangers and exiles from the kingdom of God, till, 
 being purged from their sins, they are reconciled to God, and 
 renewed by the Spirit unto holiness of life ; and that then only 
 the kingdom of God is set up and prospers among men, when 
 Christ our Mediator unites to the Father those who have received 
 a free remission of their sins, and are begotten again unto right- 
 eousness; that, beginning a heavenly life upon earth, they may 
 have their eyes fixed on heaven, where they shall have a full and 
 solid enjoyment of glory." 
 
 With all confidence. That is, no difficulties could deter him from 
 continuing to use his endeavour to teach all that he met with. 
 
 Without prohibition. That is, no man forbidding him. " Luke 
 showeth," saith Calvin, " that it was the singular mercy of God 
 that Paul had so great liberty granted him; for it was neither 
 through the connivance or dissimulation of them that could hinder 
 it, seeing they abhorred religion, but because the Lord shut their 
 eyes. "Wherefore Paul does not glory without reason, 2 Tim, ii. 9, 
 that the word of God was not bound by his bonds." Paul also 
 wrote many epistles when in bonds to the -Galatians, Ephesians, 
 the second to Timothy, to the Philippians, Colossians, and Phile- 
 mon. 
 
 Thus far Luke has deduced his account of the things done by 
 Paul in this his noble book; which, by Gregory Nyssen against 
 Eunomius, and on the Psalms, and by Theodoret, Heret. Fab. 
 lib. i. cap. 21, is called ij rwv irpa^siov laTopla, " the History of 
 
574 THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES. [CIIAP. XXVIII. 
 
 the Acts," to wit, of the Apostles. But by the writer of S. 
 Thecla's Life, it is called to Trcpi nov 'AttootoXwv avvrayfia, " a 
 Memorial concerning the Apostles." Now memorials are uninter- 
 rupted, and exact relations of things, but naked and without any 
 ornament of figures. Whence Cicero, in book v. of his Familiar 
 Epistles, in a very elegant epistle to the famous historian, L. 
 Lucceius Quintus's son, saith that he will make a memorial of the 
 transactions in his consulship, to the end that Lucceius might 
 compose a history of them. 
 
 To the all-merciful God be praise for ever and ever. Amen. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 J. HJiDDON, F&lNTEEf CASTLB STREBT, TIMaKURT.