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<center><h1>Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary
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on the Whole Bible</h1>
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[<A HREF="MHC00000.HTM">Table of Contents</A>]<BR>
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Matthew Henry<BR><I>Commentary on the Whole Bible</I> (1721)
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<!-- (Begin Body) -->
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<CENTER>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=+3><B>A C T S.</B></FONT>
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<BR>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=+2>CHAP. VII.</FONT>
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<HR SIZE=1 WIDTH=50>
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</CENTER>
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<FONT SIZE=-1>
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<P>
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When our Lord Jesus called his apostles out to be employed in services
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and sufferings for him, he told them that yet the last should be first,
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and the first last, which was remarkably fulfilled in St. Stephen and
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St. Paul, who were both of them late converts, in comparison of the
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apostles, and yet got the start of them both in services and
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sufferings; for God, in conferring honours and favours, often crosses
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hands. In this chapter we have the martyrdom of Stephen, the first
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martyr of the Christian church, who led the van in the noble army. And
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therefore his sufferings and death are more largely related than those
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of any other, for direction and encouragement to all those who are
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called out to resist unto blood, as he did. Here is,
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I. His defence of himself before the council, in answer to the matters
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and things he stood charged with, the scope of which is to show that it
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was no blasphemy against God, nor any injury at all to the glory of his
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name, to say that the temple should be destroyed and the customs of the
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ceremonial law changed. And,
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1. He shows this by going over the history of the Old Testament, and
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observing that God never intended to confine his favours to that place,
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or that ceremonial law; and that they had no reason to expect he
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should, for the people of the Jews had always been a provoking people,
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and had forfeited the privileges of their peculiarity: nay, that that
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holy place and that law were but figures of good things to come, and it
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was no disparagement at all to them to say that they must give place to
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better things,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:1-50">ver. 1-50</A>.
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And then,
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2. He applies this to those that prosecuted him, and sat in judgment
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upon him, sharply reproving them for their wickedness, by which they
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had brought upon themselves the ruin of their place and nation, and
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then could not bear to hear of it,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:51-53">ver. 51-53</A>.
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II. The putting of him to death by stoning him, and his patient,
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cheerful, pious submission to it,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:54-60">ver. 54-60</A>.</P>
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</FONT>
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<A NAME="Ac7_1"> </A>
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<A NAME="Ac7_2"> </A>
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<A NAME="Sec1"> </A>
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<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
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<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Stephen's Address.</I></FONT></TD>
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<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
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</TABLE>
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<P>
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<FONT SIZE=+1>1 Then said the high priest, Are these things so?
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2 And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of
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glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in
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Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,
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3 And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy
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kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee.
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4 Then came he out of the land of the Chaldæans, and dwelt in
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Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed
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him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.
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5 And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not <I>so much as</I>
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to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him
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for a possession, and to his seed after him, when <I>as yet</I> he had
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no child.
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6 And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a
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strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and
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entreat <I>them</I> evil four hundred years.
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7 And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge,
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said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in
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this place.
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8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so
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<I>Abraham</I> begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and
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Isaac <I>begat</I> Jacob; and Jacob <I>begat</I> the twelve patriarchs.
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9 And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt:
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but God was with him,
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10 And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him
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favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he
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made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
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11 Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and
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Chanaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no
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sustenance.
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12 But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent
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out our fathers first.
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13 And at the second <I>time</I> Joseph was made known to his
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brethren; and Joseph's kindred was made known unto Pharaoh.
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14 Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to <I>him,</I> and
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all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.
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15 So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our
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fathers,
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16 And were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre
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that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor <I>the
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father</I> of Sychem.
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</FONT></P>
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<P>
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Stephen is now at the bar before the great council of the nation,
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indicted for blasphemy: what the witnesses swore against him we had an
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account of in the foregoing chapter, that he spoke blasphemous words
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against Moses and God; for he spoke against this holy place and the
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law. Now here,</P>
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<P>
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I. The high priest calls upon him to answer for himself,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:1"><I>v.</I> 1</A>.
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He was president, and, as such, the mouth of the court, and therefore
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he saith, "You, the prisoner at the bar, you hear what is sworn against
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you; what do you say to it? <I>Are these things so?</I> Have you ever
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spoken any words to this purport? If you have, will you recant them, or
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will you stand to them? <I>Guilty or not guilty?</I>" This carried a
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show of fairness, and yet seems to have been spoken with an air of
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haughtiness; and thus far he seems to have prejudged the cause, that,
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if it were so, that he had spoken such and such words, he shall
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certainly be adjudged a blasphemer, whatever he may offer in
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justification or explanation of them.</P>
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<P>
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II. He begins his defence, and it is long; but it should seem by his
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breaking off abruptly, just when he came to the main point
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:50"><I>v.</I> 50</A>),
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that it would have been much longer if his enemies would have given him
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leave to say all he had to say. In general we may observe,</P>
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<P>
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1. That in this discourse he appears to be a man ready and mighty in
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the scriptures, and thereby thoroughly furnished for every good word
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and work. He can relate scripture stories, and such as were very
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pertinent to his purpose, off-hand without looking in his Bible. He was
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<I>filled with the Holy Ghost,</I> not so much to reveal to him new
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things, or open to him the secret counsels and decrees of God
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concerning the Jewish nation, with them to convict these gainsayers;
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no, but to bring to his remembrance the scriptures of the Old
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Testament, and to teach him how to make use of them for their
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conviction. Those that are full of the Holy Ghost will be full of the
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scripture, as Stephen was.</P>
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<P>
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2. That he quotes the scriptures according to the Septuagint
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translation, by which it appears he was one of the Hellenist Jews, who
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used that version in their synagogues. His following this, occasions
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divers variations from the Hebrew original in this discourse, which the
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judges of the court did not correct, because they knew how he was led
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into them; nor is it any derogation to the authority of that Spirit by
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which he spoke, for the variations are not material. We have a maxim,
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<I>Apices juris non sunt jura--Mere points of law are not law
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itself.</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:1-16">These verses</A>
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carry on this his compendium of church history to the end of the book
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of Genesis. Observe,</P>
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<P>
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(1.) His preface: <I>Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken.</I> He gives
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them, though not flattering titles, yet civil and respectful ones,
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signifying his expectation of fair treatment with them; from men he
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hopes to be treated with humanity, and he hopes that brethren and
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fathers will use him in a fatherly brotherly way. They are ready to
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look upon him as an apostate from the Jewish church, and an enemy to
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them. But, to make way for their conviction to the contrary, he
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addresses himself to them as <I>men, brethren, and fathers,</I>
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resolving to look on himself as one of them, though they would not so
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look on him. He craves their attention: <I>Hearken;</I> though he was
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about to tell them what they already knew, yet he begs them to hearken
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to it, because, though they knew it all, yet they would not without a
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very close application of mind know how to apply it to the case before
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them.</P>
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<P>
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(2.) His entrance upon the discourse, which (whatever it may seem to
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those that read it carelessly) is far from being a long ramble only to
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amuse the hearers, and give them a diversion by telling them an old
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story. No; it is all pertinent and <I>ad rem--to the purpose,</I> to
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show them that God had no this heart so much upon that holy place and
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the law as they had; but, as he had a church in the world many ages
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before that holy place was founded and the ceremonial law given, so he
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would have when they should both have had their period.</P>
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<P>
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[1.] He begins with the call of Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, by
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which he was set apart for God to be the trustee of the promise, and
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the father of the Old-Testament church. This we had an account of
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+12:1">Gen. xii. 1</A>,
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&c.), and it is referred to,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ne+9:7,8">Neh. ix. 7, 8</A>.
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His native country was an idolatrous country, it was Mesopotamia,
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:2"><I>v.</I> 2</A>),
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<I>the land of the Chaldeans</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:4"><I>v.</I> 4</A>);
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thence God brought him at two removes, not too far at once, dealing
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tenderly with him; he first brought him out of the land of the
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Chaldeans to Charran, or Haran, a place midway between that and Canaan
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+11:31">Gen. xi. 31</A>),
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and thence five years after, when his father was dead, he <I>removed
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him into</I> the land of <I>Canaan, wherein you now dwell.</I> It
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should seem, the first time that God spoke to Abraham, he appeared in
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some visible display of the divine presence, as the <I>God of glory</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:2"><I>v.</I> 2</A>),
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to settle a correspondence with him: and then afterwards he kept up
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that correspondence, and spoke to him from time to time as there was
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occasion, without repeating his visible appearances as the God of
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glory.</P>
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<P>
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<I>First,</I> From this call of Abraham we may observe,
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1. That in all our ways we must acknowledge God, and attend the
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directions of his providence, as of the pillar of cloud and fire. It is
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not said, Abraham removed, but, <I>God removed him into this land
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wherein you now dwell,</I> and he did but follow his Leader.
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2. Those whom God takes into covenant with himself he distinguishes
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from the children of this world; they are effectually called out of the
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state, out of the land, of their nativity; they must sit loose to the
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world, and live above it and every thing in it, even that in it which
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is most dear to them, and must trust God to make it up to them in
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another and better country, that is, the heavenly, which he will show
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them. God's chosen must follow him with an implicit faith and
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obedience.</P>
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<P>
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<I>Secondly,</I> But let us see what this is to Stephen's case.
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1. They had charged him as a blasphemer of God, and an apostate from
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the church; therefore he shows that he is a son of Abraham, and values
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himself upon his being able to say, <I>Our father Abraham,</I> and that
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he is a faithful worshipper of the God of Abraham, whom therefore he
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here calls <I>the God of glory.</I> He also shows that he owns divine
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revelation, and that particularly by which the Jewish church was
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founded and incorporated.
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2. They were proud of their being circumcised; and therefore he shows
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that Abraham was taken under God's guidance, and into communion with
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him, before he was circumcised, for that was not till
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:8"><I>v.</I> 8</A>.
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With this argument Paul proves that Abraham was justified by faith,
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because he was justified when he was in uncircumcision: and so here.
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3. They had a mighty jealousy for this holy place, which may be meant
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of the whole land of Canaan; for it was called the <I>holy land,
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Immanuel's land;</I> and the destruction of the holy house inferred
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that of the holy land. "Now," says Stephen, "you need not be so proud
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of it; for,"
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(1.) "You came originally out of <I>Ur of the Chaldees,</I> where
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<I>your fathers served other gods</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jos+24:2">Josh. xxiv. 2</A>),
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and you were not the first planters of this country. Look therefore
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<I>unto the rock whence you were hewn, and the holy of the pit out of
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which you were digged;</I>" that is, as it follows there, "<I>look unto
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Abraham your father,</I> for <I>I called him alone</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+51:1,2">Isa. li. 1, 2</A>)--
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think of the meanness of your beginnings, and how you are entirely
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indebted to divine grace, and then you will see boasting to be for ever
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excluded. It was God that <I>raised up the righteous man from the</I>
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east, <I>and called him to his foot.</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+41:2">Isa. xli. 2</A>.
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But, if his seed degenerate, let them know that God can destroy this
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holy place, and raise up to himself another people, for he is not a
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debtor to them."
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(2.) "God appeared in his glory to Abraham a great way off in
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Mesopotamia, before he came near Canaan, nay, before he dwelt in
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Charran; so that you must not think God's visits are confined to
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<I>this land;</I> no; he that brought the seed of the church from a
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country so far east can, if he pleases, carry the fruit of it to
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another country as far west."
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(3.) "God made no haste to bring him into this land, but let him linger
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some years by the way, which shows that God has not his heart so much
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upon this land as you have yours, neither is his honour, nor the
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happiness of his people, bound up in it. It is therefore neither
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blasphemy nor treason to say, It shall be destroyed,"</P>
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<P>
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[2.] The unsettled state of Abraham and his seed for many ages after he
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was called out of Ur of the Chaldees. God did indeed promise that he
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would <I>give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after
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him,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:5"><I>v.</I> 5</A>.
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But, <I>First, As yet he had no child,</I> nor any by Sarah for many
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years after. <I>Secondly,</I> He himself was but a stranger and a
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sojourner in that land, and God <I>gave him no inheritance in it, no,
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not so much as to set his foot on;</I> but there he was as in a strange
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country, where he was always upon the remove, and could call nothing
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his own. <I>Thirdly,</I> His posterity did not come to the possession
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of it for a long time: <I>After four hundred years</I> they shall come
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<I>and serve me in this place,</I> and not till then,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:7"><I>v.</I> 7</A>.
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Nay, <I>Fourthly,</I> They must undergo a great deal of hardship and
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difficulty before they shall be put into the possession of that land:
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they shall be brought into bondage, and ill treated in a strange land:
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and this, not as the punishment of any particular sin, as their
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wandering in the wilderness was, for we never find any such account
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given of their bondage in Egypt; but so God had appointed, and it must
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be. And <I>at the end of four hundred years,</I> reckoning from the
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birth of Isaac, <I>that nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I
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judge, saith God.</I> Now this teaches us,
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1. That <I>known unto God are all his works</I> beforehand. When
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Abraham had neither inheritance nor heir, yet he was told he should
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have both, the one a land of promise, and the other a child of promise;
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and therefore both had, and received, by faith.
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2. That God's promises, though they are slow, are sure in the operation
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of them; they will be fulfilled in the season of them, though perhaps
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|
not so soon as we expect.
|
|
|
|
3. That though the people of God may be in distress and trouble for a
|
|
time, yet God will at length both rescue them and reckon with those
|
|
that do oppress them; for, <I>verily there is a God that judgeth in the
|
|
earth.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
But let us see how this serves Stephen's purpose.
|
|
|
|
1. The Jewish nation, for the honour of which they were so jealous, was
|
|
very inconsiderable in its beginnings; as their common father Abraham
|
|
was fetched out of obscurity in Ur of the Chaldees, so their tribes,
|
|
and the heads of them, were fetched out of servitude in Egypt, when
|
|
they were the <I>fewest of all people,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+7:7">Deut. vii. 7</A>.
|
|
|
|
And what need is there of so much ado, as if their ruin, when they
|
|
bring it upon themselves by sin, must be the ruin of the world, and of
|
|
all God's interests in it? No; he that brought them out of Egypt can
|
|
bring them into it again, as he threatened
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+28:68">Deut. xxviii. 68</A>),
|
|
|
|
and yet be no loser, while he can out of stones raise up children unto
|
|
Abraham.
|
|
|
|
2. The slow steps by which the promise made to Abraham advanced towards
|
|
the performance, and the many seeming contradictions here taken notice
|
|
of, plainly show that it had a spiritual meaning, and that the land
|
|
principally intended to be conveyed and secured by it was the <I>better
|
|
country, that is, the heavenly;</I> as the apostle shows from this very
|
|
argument that the patriarchs <I>sojourned in the land of promise, as in
|
|
a strange country,</I> thence inferring that <I>they looked for a city
|
|
that had foundations,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+11:9,10">Heb. xi. 9, 10</A>.
|
|
|
|
It was therefore no blasphemy to say, <I>Jesus shall destroy this
|
|
place,</I> when at the same time we say, "He shall lead us to the
|
|
heavenly Canaan, and put us in possession of that, of which the earthly
|
|
Canaan was but a type and figure."</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[3.] The building up of the family of Abraham, with the entail of
|
|
divine grace upon it, and the disposals of divine Providence concerning
|
|
it, which take up the rest of the book of Genesis.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>First,</I> God engaged to be a God to Abraham and his seed; and, in
|
|
token of this, appointed that he and his male seed should be
|
|
circumcised,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+17:9,10">Gen. xvii. 9, 10</A>.
|
|
|
|
He <I>gave him the covenant of circumcision,</I> that is, the covenant
|
|
of which circumcision was the seal; and accordingly, when Abraham had a
|
|
son born, he <I>circumcised him the eighth day</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:8"><I>v.</I> 8</A>),
|
|
|
|
by which he was both bound by the divine law and interested in the
|
|
divine promise; for circumcision had reference to both, being a seal of
|
|
the covenant both on God's part--I will be to thee <I>a God
|
|
all-sufficient,</I> and on man's part--<I>Walk before me, and be thou
|
|
perfect.</I> And then when effectual care was thus taken for the
|
|
securing of Abraham's seed, to be a <I>seed to serve the Lord,</I> they
|
|
began to multiply: <I>Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob the twelve
|
|
patriarchs,</I> or roots of the respective tribes.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Secondly,</I> Joseph, the darling and blessing of his father's
|
|
house, was abused by his brethren; they <I>envied him</I> because of
|
|
his dreams, and <I>sold him into Egypt.</I> Thus early did the children
|
|
of Israel begin to grudge those among them that were eminent and
|
|
outshone others, of which their enmity to Christ, who, like Joseph, was
|
|
a <I>Nazarite among his brethren,</I> was a great instance.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Thirdly,</I> God owned Joseph in his troubles, and was with him
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+39:2,21">Gen. xxxix. 2, 21</A>),
|
|
|
|
by the influence of his Spirit, both on his mind, giving him comfort,
|
|
and on the minds of those he was concerned with, giving him favour in
|
|
their eyes. And thus at length he <I>delivered him out of his
|
|
afflictions,</I> and Pharaoh made him the second man in the kingdom,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+105:20-22">Ps. cv. 20-22</A>.
|
|
|
|
And thus he not only arrived at great preferment among the Egyptians,
|
|
but became the <I>shepherd and stone of Israel,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+49:24">Gen. xlix. 24</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Fourthly,</I> Jacob was compelled to go down into Egypt, by a famine
|
|
which forced him out of Canaan, <I>a dearth</I> (which was a <I>great
|
|
affliction</I>), to that degree that <I>our fathers found no
|
|
sustenance</I> in Canaan,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:11"><I>v.</I> 11</A>.
|
|
|
|
That <I>fruitful land was turned into barrenness.</I> But, hearing that
|
|
there was <I>corn in Egypt</I> (treasured up by the wisdom of his own
|
|
son), he <I>sent out our fathers first</I> to fetch corn,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:12"><I>v.</I> 12</A>.
|
|
|
|
And the <I>second time</I> that they went, Joseph, who at first made
|
|
himself strange to them, made himself known to them, and it was
|
|
notified to Pharaoh that they were Joseph's kindred and had a
|
|
dependence upon him
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:13"><I>v.</I> 13</A>),
|
|
|
|
whereupon, with Pharaoh's leave, <I>Joseph sent for his father Jacob to
|
|
him into Egypt,</I> with <I>all his kindred and family,</I> to the
|
|
number of <I>seventy-five souls,</I> to be subsisted there,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:13"><I>v.</I> 13</A>.
|
|
|
|
In Genesis they are said to be <I>seventy souls,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+46:27">Gen. xlvi. 27</A>.
|
|
|
|
But the Septuagint there makes them seventy-five, and Stephen or Luke
|
|
follows that version, as
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+3:36">Luke iii. 36</A>,
|
|
|
|
where Cainan is inserted, which is not in the Hebrew text, but in the
|
|
Septuagint. Some, by excluding Joseph and his sons, who were in Egypt
|
|
before (which reduces the number to sixty-four), and adding the sons of
|
|
the eleven patriarch, make the number seventy-five.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Fifthly,</I> Jacob and his sons died in Egypt
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:15"><I>v.</I> 15</A>),
|
|
|
|
but were carried over to be buried in Canaan,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:16"><I>v.</I> 16</A>.
|
|
|
|
A very considerable difficulty occurs here: it is said, <I>They were
|
|
carried over into Sychem,</I> whereas Jacob was buried not in Sychem,
|
|
but near Hebron, in the cave of Machpelah, where Abraham and Isaac were
|
|
buried,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+50:13">Gen. l. 13</A>.
|
|
|
|
Joseph's bones indeed were buried in Sychem
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jos+24:32">Josh. xxiv. 32</A>),
|
|
|
|
and it seems by this (though it is not mentioned in the story) that the
|
|
bones of all the other patriarchs were carried with his, each of them
|
|
giving the same commandment concerning them that he had done; and of
|
|
them this must be understood, not of Jacob himself. But then the
|
|
sepulchre in Sychem was bought by Jacob
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+33:19">Gen. xxxiii. 19</A>),
|
|
|
|
and by this it is described,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jos+24:32">Josh. xxiv. 32</A>.
|
|
|
|
How then is it here said to be bought by Abraham? Dr. Whitby's
|
|
solution of this is very sufficient. He supplies it thus: <I>Jacob went
|
|
down into Egypt and died, he and our fathers;</I> and (<I>our fathers</I>)
|
|
<I>were carried over into Sychem; and he,</I> that is, <I>Jacob,</I> was
|
|
laid <I>in the sepulchre that Abraham brought for a sum of money,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+23:16">Gen. xxiii. 16</A>.
|
|
|
|
(Or, they were laid there, that is, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.) <I>And
|
|
they,</I> namely, the other patriarchs, were <I>buried in the sepulchre
|
|
bought of the sons of Emmor, the father of Sychem.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Let us now see what this is to Stephen's purpose.
|
|
|
|
1. He still reminds them of the mean beginning of the Jewish nation, as
|
|
a check to their priding themselves in the glories of that nation; and
|
|
that it was by a miracle of mercy that they were raised up out of
|
|
nothing to what they were, from so small a number to be so great a
|
|
nation; but, if they answer not the intention of their being so raised,
|
|
they can expect no other than to be destroyed. The prophets frequently
|
|
put them in mind of the bringing of them out of Egypt, as a aggravation
|
|
of their contempt of the law of God, and here it is urged upon them as
|
|
an aggravation of their contempt of the gospel of Christ.
|
|
|
|
2. He reminds them likewise of the wickedness of those that were the
|
|
patriarchs of their tribes, in envying their brother Joseph, and
|
|
selling him into Egypt; and the same spirit was still working in them
|
|
towards Christ and his ministers.
|
|
|
|
3. Their holy land, which they doted so much upon, their fathers were
|
|
long kept out of the possession of, and met with dearth and great
|
|
affliction in it; and therefore let them not think it strange if, after
|
|
it has been so long polluted with sin, it be at length destroyed.
|
|
|
|
4. The faith of the patriarchs in desiring to be buried in the land of
|
|
Canaan plainly showed that they had an eye to the heavenly country, to
|
|
which it was the design of this Jesus to lead them.</P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_17"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_18"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_19"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_20"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_21"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_22"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_23"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_24"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_25"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_26"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_27"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_28"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_29"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec2"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Stephen's Address.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>17 But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had
|
|
sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,
|
|
18 Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph.
|
|
19 The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil entreated
|
|
our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the
|
|
end they might not live.
|
|
20 In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and
|
|
nourished up in his father's house three months:
|
|
21 And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up,
|
|
and nourished him for her own son.
|
|
22 And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,
|
|
and was mighty in words and in deeds.
|
|
23 And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart
|
|
to visit his brethren the children of Israel.
|
|
24 And seeing one <I>of them</I> suffer wrong, he defended <I>him,</I>
|
|
and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian:
|
|
25 For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that
|
|
God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not.
|
|
26 And the next day he showed himself unto them as they strove,
|
|
and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are
|
|
brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?
|
|
27 But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying,
|
|
Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?
|
|
28 Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday?
|
|
29 Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the
|
|
land of Madian, where he begat two sons.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Stephen here goes on to relate,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. The wonderful increase of the people of Israel in Egypt; it was by a
|
|
wonder of providence that in a little time they advanced from a family
|
|
into a nation.
|
|
|
|
1. It was <I>when the time of the promise drew nigh</I>--the time when
|
|
they were to be formed into a people. During the first two hundred and
|
|
fifteen years after the promise made to Abraham, the children of the
|
|
covenant were increased but to seventy; but in the latter two hundred
|
|
and fifteen years they increased to six hundred thousand fighting men.
|
|
The motion of providence is sometimes quickest when it comes nearest
|
|
the centre. Let us not be discouraged at the slowness of the
|
|
proceedings towards the accomplishment of God's promises; God knows how
|
|
to redeem the time that seems to have been lost, and, <I>when the year
|
|
of the redeemed is at hand,</I> can do a double work in a single day.
|
|
|
|
2. It was <I>in Egypt,</I> where they were oppressed, and ruled with
|
|
rigour; when their lives were made so bitter to them that, one would
|
|
think, they should have wished to be written childless, yet they
|
|
married, in faith that God in due time would visit them; and God
|
|
<I>blessed them,</I> who thus honoured him, saying, <I>Be fruitful, and
|
|
multiply.</I> Suffering times have often been growing times with the
|
|
church.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. The extreme hardships which they underwent there,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:18,19"><I>v.</I> 18, 19</A>.
|
|
|
|
When the Egyptians observed them to increase in number they increased
|
|
their burdens, in which Stephen observes three things:--
|
|
|
|
1. Their base ingratitude: They were oppressed by <I>another king that
|
|
knew not Joseph,</I> that is, did not consider the good service that
|
|
Joseph had done to that nation; for, if he had, he would not have made
|
|
so ill a requital to his relations and family. Those that injure good
|
|
people are very ungrateful, for they are the blessings of the age and
|
|
place they live in.
|
|
|
|
2. Their hellish craft and policy: <I>They dealt subtly with our
|
|
kindred. Come on,</I> said they, <I>let us deal wisely,</I> thinking
|
|
thereby to secure themselves, but it proved dealing foolishly, for they
|
|
did but treasure up wrath by it. Those are in a great mistake who think
|
|
they deal wisely for themselves when they deal deceitfully or
|
|
unmercifully with their brethren.
|
|
|
|
3. Their barbarous and inhuman cruelty. That they might effectually
|
|
extirpate them, <I>they cast out their young children, to the end they
|
|
might not live.</I> The killing of their infant seed seemed a very
|
|
likely way to crush an infant nation. Now Stephen seems to observe this
|
|
to them, not only that they might further see how mean their beginnings
|
|
were, fitly represented (perhaps with an eye to the exposing of the
|
|
young children in Egypt) by the forlorn state of a helpless, out-cast
|
|
infant
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:4">Ezek. xvi. 4</A>),
|
|
|
|
and how much they were indebted to God for his care of them, which they
|
|
had forfeited, and made themselves unworthy of: but also that they
|
|
might consider that what they were now doing against the Christian
|
|
church in its infancy was as impious and unjust, and would be in the
|
|
issue as fruitless and ineffectual, as that was which the Egyptians did
|
|
against the Jewish church in its infancy. "You think you deal subtly in
|
|
your ill treatment of us, and, in persecuting young converts, you do as
|
|
they did in casting out the young children; but you will find it is to
|
|
no purpose, in spite of your malice Christ's disciples will <I>increase
|
|
and multiply.</I>"</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
III. The raising up of <I>Moses to be their deliverer.</I> Stephen was
|
|
charged with having spoken blasphemous words against Moses, in answer
|
|
to which charge he here speaks very honourably of him.
|
|
|
|
1. Moses was born when the persecution of Israel was at the hottest,
|
|
especially in that most cruel instance of it, the murdering of the
|
|
new-born children: <I>At that time, Moses was born</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:20"><I>v.</I> 20</A>),
|
|
|
|
and was himself in danger, as soon as he came into the world (as our
|
|
Saviour also was at Bethlehem) of falling a sacrifice to that bloody
|
|
edict. God is preparing for his people's deliverance, when their way is
|
|
darkest, and their distress deepest.
|
|
|
|
2. <I>He was exceedingly fair;</I> his face began to shine as soon as
|
|
he was born, as a happy presage of the honour God designed to put upon
|
|
him; he was <B><I>asteios to Theo</I></B>--<I>fair towards God;</I> he
|
|
was sanctified from the womb, and this made him beautiful in God's
|
|
eyes; for it is the beauty of holiness that is in God's sight of great
|
|
price.
|
|
|
|
3. He was wonderfully preserved in his infancy, first, by the care of
|
|
his tender parents, who <I>nourished him three months in their own
|
|
house,</I> as long as they durst; and then by a favourable providence
|
|
that threw him <I>into the arms of Pharaoh's daughter, who took him up,
|
|
and nourished him as her own son</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:21"><I>v.</I> 21</A>);
|
|
|
|
for those whom God designs to make special use of he will take special
|
|
care of. And did he thus protect the child Moses? Much more will he
|
|
secure the interests of his holy child Jesus (as he is called
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+4:27"><I>ch.</I> iv. 27</A>)
|
|
|
|
from <I>the enemies that are gathered together against him.</I>
|
|
|
|
4. He became a great scholar
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:22"><I>v.</I> 22</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>He was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,</I> who were then
|
|
famed for all manner of polite literature, particularly philosophy,
|
|
astronomy, and (which perhaps helped to lead them to idolatry)
|
|
hieroglyphics. Moses, having his education at court, had opportunity
|
|
of improving himself by the best books, tutors, and conversation, in
|
|
all the arts and sciences, and had a genius for them. Only we have
|
|
reason to think that he had not so far forgotten the God of his fathers
|
|
as to acquaint himself with the unlawful studies and practices of the
|
|
magicians of Egypt, any further than was necessary to the confuting of
|
|
them.
|
|
|
|
5. He became a prime minister of state in Egypt. This seems to be meant
|
|
by his being <I>mighty in words and deeds.</I> Though he had not a
|
|
ready way of expressing himself, but stammered, yet he spoke admirably
|
|
good sense, and every thing he said commanded assent, and carried its
|
|
own evidence and force of reason along with it; and, in business, none
|
|
went on with such courage, and conduct, and success. Thus was he
|
|
prepared, by human helps, for those services, which, after all, he
|
|
could not be thoroughly furnished for without divine illumination. Now,
|
|
by all this, Stephen will make it appear that, notwithstanding the
|
|
malicious insinuations of his persecutors, he had as high and
|
|
honourable thoughts of Moses as they had.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
IV. The attempts which Moses made to deliver Israel, which they
|
|
spurned, and would not close in with. This Stephen insists much upon,
|
|
and it serves for a key to this story
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ex+2:11-15">Exod. ii. 11-15</A>),
|
|
|
|
as does also that other construction which is put upon it by the
|
|
apostle,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+11:24-26">Heb. xi. 24-26</A>.
|
|
|
|
There it is represented as an act of holy self-denial, here as a
|
|
designed prelude to, or entrance upon, the public service he was to be
|
|
called out to
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:23"><I>v.</I> 23</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>When he was full forty years old,</I> in the prime of his time for
|
|
preferment in the court of Egypt, <I>it came into his heart</I> (for
|
|
God put it there) <I>to visit his brethren the children of Israel,</I>
|
|
and to see which way he might do them any service; and he showed
|
|
himself as a public person, with a public character.
|
|
|
|
1. As Israel's saviour. This he gave a specimen of in avenging an
|
|
oppressed Israelite, and killing the Egyptian that abused him
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:24"><I>v.</I> 24</A>).
|
|
|
|
<I>Seeing one of his brethren suffer wrong,</I> he was moved with
|
|
compassion towards the sufferer, and a just indignation at the
|
|
wrong-doer, as men in public stations should be, and <I>he avenged him
|
|
that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian,</I> which, if he had been
|
|
only a private person, he could not lawfully have done; but he knew
|
|
that his commission from heaven would bear him out, and <I>he supposed
|
|
that his brethren</I> (who could not but have some knowledge of the
|
|
promise made to Abraham, <I>that the nation that should oppress them
|
|
God would judge) would have understood that God by his hand would
|
|
deliver them;</I> for he could not have had either presence of mind or
|
|
strength of body to do what he did, if he had not been clothed with
|
|
such a divine power as evinced a divine authority. If they had but
|
|
understood the signs of the times, they might have taken this for the
|
|
dawning of the day of their deliverance; <I>but they understood
|
|
not,</I> they did not take this, as it was designed, for the setting up
|
|
of a standard, and sounding of a trumpet, to proclaim Moses <I>their
|
|
deliverer.</I>
|
|
|
|
2. As Israel's judge. This he gave a specimen of, <I>the</I> very
|
|
<I>next day,</I> in offering to accommodate matters between two
|
|
contending Hebrews, wherein he plainly assumed a public character
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:26"><I>v.</I> 26</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>He showed himself to them as they strove,</I> and, putting on an air
|
|
of majesty and authority, <I>he would have set them at one again,</I>
|
|
and as their prince have determined the controversy between them,
|
|
<I>saying, Sirs, you are brethren,</I> by birth and profession of
|
|
religion; <I>why do you wrong one to another?</I> For he observed that
|
|
(as in most strifes) there was a fault on both sides; and therefore, in
|
|
order to peace and friendship, there must be a mutual remission and
|
|
condescension. When Moses was to be Israel's deliverer out of Egypt, he
|
|
slew the Egyptians, and so delivered Israel out of their hands; but,
|
|
when he was to be Israel's judge and lawgiver, he ruled them with the
|
|
golden sceptre, not the iron rod; he did not kill and slay them when
|
|
they strove, but gave them excellent laws and statutes, and decided
|
|
upon their complaints and appeals made to him,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ex+18:16">Exod. xviii. 16</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>But</I> the contending Israelite that was most in <I>the wrong
|
|
thrust him away</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:27"><I>v.</I> 27</A>),
|
|
|
|
would not bear the reproof, though a just and gentle one, but was ready
|
|
to fly in his face, with, <I>Who made thee a ruler and a judge over
|
|
us?</I> Proud and litigious spirits are impatient of check and control.
|
|
Rather would these Israelites have their bodies ruled with rigour by
|
|
their task-masters than be delivered, and have their minds ruled with
|
|
reason, by their deliverer. The wrong-doer was so enraged at the
|
|
reproof given him that he upbraided Moses with the service he had done
|
|
to their nation in killing the Egyptian, which, if they had pleased,
|
|
would have been the earnest of further and greater service: <I>Wilt
|
|
thou kill me, as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:28"><I>v.</I> 28</A>,
|
|
|
|
charging that upon him as his crime, and threatening to accuse him for
|
|
it, which was the hanging out of the flag of defiance to the Egyptians,
|
|
and the banner of love and deliverance to Israel. Hereupon <I>Moses
|
|
fled into the land of Midian,</I> and made no further attempt to
|
|
deliver Israel till forty years after; he settled as a stranger in
|
|
Midian, married, and had two sons, by Jethro's daughter,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:29"><I>v.</I> 29</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Now let us see how this serves Stephen's purpose.
|
|
|
|
1. They charged him with blaspheming Moses, in answer to which he
|
|
retorts upon them the indignities which their fathers did to Moses,
|
|
which they ought to be ashamed of, and humbled for, instead of picking
|
|
quarrels thus, under pretence of zeal for the honour of Moses, with one
|
|
that had as great a veneration for him as any of them had.
|
|
|
|
2. They persecuted him for disputing in defence of Christ and his
|
|
gospel, in opposition to which they set up Moses and his law: "But,"
|
|
saith he, "you had best take heed,"
|
|
|
|
(1.) "Lest you hereby do as your fathers did, refuse and reject one
|
|
<I>whom God has raised up to be to you a prince and a Saviour;</I> you
|
|
may understand, if you will not wilfully shut your eyes against the
|
|
light, that God will, by this Jesus, deliver you out of a worse slavery
|
|
than that in Egypt; take heed then of thrusting him away, but receive
|
|
him as a ruler and a judge over you."
|
|
|
|
(2.) "Lest you hereby fare as your fathers fared, who for this were
|
|
very justly left to die in their slavery, for the deliverance came not
|
|
till forty years after. This will be the issue of it, you put away the
|
|
gospel from you, and it will be <I>sent to the Gentiles;</I> you will
|
|
not have Christ, and you shall not have him, so shall your doom be."
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+23:38,39">Matt. xxiii. 38, 39</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_30"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_31"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_32"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_33"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_34"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_35"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_36"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_37"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_38"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_39"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_40"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_41"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec3"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Stephen's Address.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>30 And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in
|
|
the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of
|
|
fire in a bush.
|
|
31 When Moses saw <I>it,</I> he wondered at the sight: and as he
|
|
drew near to behold <I>it,</I> the voice of the Lord came unto him,
|
|
32 <I>Saying,</I> I <I>am</I> the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham,
|
|
and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled,
|
|
and durst not behold.
|
|
33 Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet:
|
|
for the place where thou standest is holy ground.
|
|
34 I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which
|
|
is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to
|
|
deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt.
|
|
35 This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler
|
|
and a judge? the same did God send <I>to be</I> a ruler and a
|
|
deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the
|
|
bush.
|
|
36 He brought them out, after that he had showed wonders and
|
|
signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the
|
|
wilderness forty years.
|
|
37 This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel,
|
|
A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your
|
|
brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.
|
|
38 This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with
|
|
the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and <I>with</I> our
|
|
fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:
|
|
39 To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust <I>him</I> from
|
|
them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,
|
|
40 Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for <I>as
|
|
for</I> this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we
|
|
wot not what is become of him.
|
|
41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice
|
|
unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Stephen here proceeds in his story of Moses; and let any one judge
|
|
whether these are the words of one that was a blasphemer of Moses or
|
|
no; nothing could be spoken more honourably of him. Here is,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. The vision which he saw of the glory of God at the bush
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:30"><I>v.</I> 30</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>When forty years had expired</I> (during all which time Moses was
|
|
buried alive in Midian, and was now grown old, and one would think past
|
|
service), that it might appear that all his performances were products
|
|
of a divine power and promise (as it appeared that Isaac was a child of
|
|
promise by his being born of parents stricken in years), now, at eighty
|
|
years old, he enters upon that post of honour to which he was born, in
|
|
recompence for his self-denial at forty years old. Observe,
|
|
|
|
1. Where God appeared to him: <I>In the wilderness of Mount Sinai,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:30"><I>v.</I> 30</A>.
|
|
|
|
And, when he appeared to him there, that was holy ground
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:33"><I>v.</I> 33</A>),
|
|
|
|
which Stephen takes notice of, as a check to those who prided
|
|
themselves in the temple, that holy place, as if there were no
|
|
communion to be had with God but there; whereas God met Moses, and
|
|
manifested himself to him, in a remote obscure place in the wilderness
|
|
of Sinai. They deceive themselves if they think God is confined to
|
|
places; he can bring his people into a wilderness, and there speak
|
|
comfortably to them.
|
|
|
|
2. How he appeared to him: <I>In a flame of fire</I> (for our God is a
|
|
consuming fire), and yet <I>the bush,</I> in which this fire was,
|
|
though combustible matter, <I>was not consumed,</I> which, as it
|
|
represented the state of Israel in Egypt (where, though they were in
|
|
the fire of affliction, yet they were not consumed), so perhaps it may
|
|
be looked upon as a type of Christ's incarnation, and the union between
|
|
the divine and human nature: God, manifested in the flesh, was as the
|
|
flame of fire manifested in the bush.
|
|
|
|
3. How Moses was affected with this:
|
|
|
|
(1.) <I>He wondered at the sight,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:31"><I>v.</I> 31</A>.
|
|
|
|
It was a phenomenon with the solution of which all his Egyptian
|
|
learning could not furnish him. He had the curiosity at first to pry
|
|
into it: <I>I will turn aside now, and see this great sight;</I> but
|
|
the nearer he drew the more he was struck with amazement; and,
|
|
|
|
(2.) <I>He trembled, and durst not behold,</I> durst not look
|
|
stedfastly upon it; for he was soon aware that it was not a fiery
|
|
meteor, but <I>the angel of the Lord;</I> and no other than <I>the
|
|
Angel of the covenant,</I> the Son of God himself. This set him a
|
|
trembling. Stephen was accused for blaspheming Moses and God
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+6:11"><I>ch.</I> vi. 11</A>),
|
|
|
|
as if Moses had been a little god; but by this it appears that he was a
|
|
<I>man, subject to like passions as we are,</I> and particularly that
|
|
of fear, upon any appearance of the divine majesty and glory.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. The declaration which he heard of the covenant of God
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:32"><I>v.</I> 32</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>The voice of the Lord came to him;</I> for faith comes by hearing;
|
|
and this was it: <I>I am the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;</I>
|
|
and therefore,
|
|
|
|
1. "I am the same that I was." The covenant God made with Abraham some
|
|
ages ago was, <I>I will be to thee a God,</I> a God all-sufficient.
|
|
"Now," saith God, "that covenant is still in full force; it is not
|
|
cancelled nor forgotten, but I am, as I was, the God of Abraham, and
|
|
now I will make it to appear so;" for all the favours, all the honours
|
|
God put upon Israel, were founded upon this covenant with Abraham, and
|
|
flowed from it.
|
|
|
|
2. "I will be the same that I am." For if the death of Abraham, Isaac,
|
|
and Jacob, cannot break the covenant-relation between God and them (as
|
|
by this it appears it cannot), then nothing else can: and then he will
|
|
be a God,
|
|
|
|
(1.) To their souls, which are now separated from their bodies. Our
|
|
Saviour by this proves the future state,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+22:31,32">Matt. xxii. 31, 32</A>.
|
|
|
|
Abraham is dead, and yet God is still his God, therefore Abraham is
|
|
still alive. God never did that for him in this world which would
|
|
answer the true intent and full extent of that promise, that he would
|
|
be the God of Abraham; and therefore it must be done for him in the
|
|
other world. Now this is that life and immortality which are brought to
|
|
light by the gospel, for the full conviction of the Sadducees, who
|
|
denied it. Those therefore who stood up in defence of the gospel, and
|
|
endeavoured to propagate it, were so far from blaspheming Moses that
|
|
they did the greatest honour imaginable to Moses, and that glorious
|
|
discovery which God made of himself to him at the bush.
|
|
|
|
(2.) To their seed. God, in declaring himself thus the God of their
|
|
fathers, intimated his kindness to their seed, that they should be
|
|
<I>beloved for the fathers' sakes,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+11:28,De+7:8">Rom. xi. 28; Deut. vii. 8</A>.
|
|
|
|
Now the preachers of the gospel preached up this covenant, <I>the
|
|
promise made of God unto the fathers; unto which promise</I> those of
|
|
<I>the twelve tribes</I> that did continue <I>serving God hoped to
|
|
come,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+26:6,7"><I>ch.</I> xxvi. 6, 7</A>.
|
|
|
|
And shall they, under colour of supporting the holy place and the law,
|
|
oppose the covenant which was made with Abraham and his seed, his
|
|
spiritual seed, before the law was given, and long before the holy
|
|
place was built? Since God's glory must be for ever advanced, and our
|
|
glorying for ever silenced, God will have our salvation to be by
|
|
promise, and not by the law; the Jews therefore who persecuted the
|
|
Christians, under pretence that they blasphemed the law, did themselves
|
|
blaspheme the promise, and forsook all their own mercies that were
|
|
contained in it.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
III. The commission which God gave him to deliver Israel out of Egypt.
|
|
The Jews set up Moses in competition with Christ, and accused Stephen
|
|
as a blasphemer because he did not do so too. But Stephen here shows
|
|
that Moses was an eminent type of Christ, as he was Israel's deliverer.
|
|
When God had declared himself the God of Abraham he proceeded,
|
|
|
|
1. To order Moses into a reverent posture: "<I>Put off thy shoes from
|
|
thy feet.</I> Enter not upon sacred things with low, and cold, and
|
|
common thoughts. <I>Keep thy foot,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ec+5:1">Eccl. v. 1</A>.
|
|
|
|
Be not hasty and rash in thy approaches to God; tread softly."
|
|
|
|
2. To order Moses into a very eminent service. When he is ready to
|
|
receive commands, he shall have commission. He is commissioned to
|
|
demand leave from Pharaoh for Israel to go out of his land, and to
|
|
enforce that demand,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:34"><I>v.</I> 34</A>.
|
|
|
|
Observe,
|
|
|
|
(1.) The notice God took both of their sufferings and of their sense of
|
|
their sufferings: <I>I have seen, I have seen their affliction, and
|
|
have heard their groaning.</I> God has a compassionate regard to the
|
|
troubles of his church, and the groans of his persecuted people; and
|
|
their deliverance takes rise from his pity.
|
|
|
|
(2.) The determination he fixed to redeem them by the hand of Moses:
|
|
<I>I am come down to deliver them.</I> It should seem, though God is
|
|
present in all places, yet he uses that expression here of coming down
|
|
to deliver them because that deliverance was typical of what Christ
|
|
did, when, <I>for us men, and for our salvation, he came down from
|
|
heaven; he that ascended first descended.</I> Moses is the man that
|
|
must be employed: <I>Come, and I will send thee into Egypt:</I> and, if
|
|
God send him, he will own him and give him success.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
IV. His acting in pursuance of this commission, wherein he was a figure
|
|
of the Messiah. And Stephen takes notice here again of the slights they
|
|
had put upon him, the affronts they had given him, and their refusal to
|
|
have him to reign over them, as tending very much to magnify his agency
|
|
in their deliverance.
|
|
|
|
1. God put honour upon him whom they put contempt upon
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:35"><I>v.</I> 35</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>This Moses whom they refused</I> (whose kind offers and good offices
|
|
they rejected with scorn, <I>saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge?
|
|
Thou takest too much upon thee, thou son of Levi,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Nu+16:3">Num. xvi. 3</A>),
|
|
|
|
this same Moses <I>did God send to be a ruler, and a deliverer, by the
|
|
hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.</I> It may be
|
|
understood either that God sent to him by the hand of the angel going
|
|
along with him he became a complete deliverer. Now, by this example,
|
|
Stephen would intimate to the council <I>that this Jesus whom they now
|
|
refused,</I> as their fathers did Moses, <I>saying, Who made thee a
|
|
prophet and a king? Who gave thee this authority?</I> even this same
|
|
has God advanced <I>to be a prince and a Saviour, a ruler and a
|
|
deliverer;</I> as the apostles had told them awhile ago
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+5:30"><I>ch.</I> v. 30, 31</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>that the stone which the builders refused was become the head-stone
|
|
in the corner,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+4:11"><I>ch.</I> iv. 11</A>.
|
|
|
|
2. God showed favour to them by him, and he was very forward to serve
|
|
them, though they had thrust him away. God might justly have refused
|
|
them his service, and he might justly have declined it; but it is all
|
|
forgotten: they are not so much as upbraided with it,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:36"><I>v.</I> 36</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>He brought them out,</I> notwithstanding, <I>after he had shown
|
|
wonders and signs in the land of Egypt</I> (which were afterwards
|
|
continued for the completing of their deliverance, according as the
|
|
case called for them) <I>in the Red Sea and in the wilderness forty
|
|
years.</I> So far is he from blaspheming Moses that he admires him as a
|
|
glorious instrument in the hand of God for the forming of the
|
|
Old-Testament church. But it does not at all derogate from his just
|
|
honour to say that he was but an instrument, and that he is outshone by
|
|
this Jesus, whom he encourages these Jews yet to close with, and to
|
|
come into his interest, not fearing but that then they should be
|
|
received into his favour, and receive benefit by him, as the people of
|
|
Israel were delivered by Moses, though they had once refused him.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
V. His prophecy of Christ and his grace,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:37"><I>v.</I> 37</A>.
|
|
|
|
He not only was a type of Christ (many were so that perhaps had not an
|
|
actual foresight of his day), but Moses spoke of him
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:37"><I>v.</I> 37</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>This is that Moses who said unto the children of Israel, A prophet
|
|
shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren.</I> This is
|
|
spoken of as one of the greatest honours God put upon him (nay, as that
|
|
which exceeded all the rest), that by him he gave notice to the
|
|
children of Israel of the great prophet that should come into the
|
|
world, raised their expectation of him, and required them to receive
|
|
him. When his bringing them out of Egypt is spoken of it is with an
|
|
emphasis of honour, <I>This is that Moses,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ex+6:26">Exod. vi. 26</A>.
|
|
|
|
And so it is here, <I>This is that Moses.</I> Now this is very full to
|
|
Stephen's purpose; in asserting that Jesus should change the customs of
|
|
the ceremonial law, he was so far from blaspheming Moses that really he
|
|
did him the greatest honour imaginable, by showing how the prophecy of
|
|
Moses was accomplished, which was so clear, that, as Christ told them
|
|
himself, <I>If they had believed Moses, they would have believed
|
|
him,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+5:46">John v. 46</A>.
|
|
|
|
1. Moses, in God's name, told them that, in the fulness of time, they
|
|
should have a prophet raised up among them, one of their own nation,
|
|
that should be like unto him
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+18:15,18">Deut. xviii. 15, 18</A>),--
|
|
|
|
a ruler and a deliverer, a judge and a lawgiver, like him,--who should
|
|
therefore have authority to change the customs that he had delivered,
|
|
and to bring in a better hope, as <I>the Mediator of a better
|
|
testament.</I>
|
|
|
|
2. He charged them to hear that prophet, to receive his dictates, to
|
|
admit the change he would make in their customs, and to submit to him
|
|
in every thing; "and this will be the greatest honour you can do to
|
|
Moses and to his law, who said, <I>Hear you him;</I> and came to be a
|
|
witness to the repetition of this charge by <I>a voice from heaven,</I>
|
|
at the transfiguration of Christ, and by his silence gave consent to
|
|
it,"
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+17:5">Matt. xvii. 5</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
VI. The eminent services which Moses continued to do to the people of
|
|
Israel, after he had been instrumental to bring them out of Egypt,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:38"><I>v.</I> 38</A>.
|
|
|
|
And herein also he was a type of Christ, who yet so far exceeds him
|
|
that it is no blasphemy to say, "He has authority to change the customs
|
|
that Moses delivered." It was the honour of Moses,
|
|
|
|
1. That <I>he was in the church in the wilderness;</I> he presided in
|
|
all the affairs of it for forty years, was king in Jeshurun,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+33:5">Deut. xxxiii. 5</A>.
|
|
|
|
The camp of Israel is here called <I>the church in the wilderness;</I>
|
|
for it was a sacred society, incorporated by a divine charter under a
|
|
divine government, and blessed with divine revelation. The church in
|
|
the wilderness was a church, though it was not yet perfectly formed, as
|
|
it was to be when they came to Canaan, <I>but every man did that which
|
|
was right in his own eyes,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+12:8,9">Deut. xii. 8, 9</A>.
|
|
|
|
It was the honour of Moses that he was in that church, and many a time
|
|
it had been destroyed if Moses had not been in it to intercede for it.
|
|
But Christ is the president and guide of a more excellent and glorious
|
|
church than that in the wilderness was, and is more in it, as the life
|
|
and soul of it, than Moses could be in that.
|
|
|
|
2. That <I>he was with the angel that spoke to him in the mount Sinai,
|
|
and with our fathers</I>--was with him in the holy mount twice forty
|
|
days, with the angel of the covenant, Michael, our prince. Moses was
|
|
immediately conversant with God, but never lay in his bosom as Christ
|
|
did from eternity. Or these words may be taken thus: <I>Moses was in
|
|
the church in the wilderness,</I> but it was <I>with the angel that
|
|
spoke to him in mount Sinai,</I> that is, at the burning bush; for that
|
|
was said to be at mount Sinai
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:30"><I>v.</I> 30</A>);
|
|
|
|
that angel went before him, and was guide to him, else he could not
|
|
have been a guide to Israel; of this God speaks
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ex+23:20">Exod. xxiii. 20</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>I send an angel before thee,</I> and
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ex+33:2">Exod. xxxiii. 2</A>.
|
|
|
|
And see
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Nu+20:16">Num. xx. 16</A>.
|
|
|
|
He was in the church with the angel, without whom he could have done no
|
|
service to the church; but Christ is himself that angel which was with
|
|
the church in the wilderness, and therefore has an authority above
|
|
Moses.
|
|
|
|
3. That <I>he received the lively oracles to give unto them;</I> not
|
|
only the ten commandments, but the other instructions which <I>the Lord
|
|
spoke unto Moses, saying, Speak them to the children of Israel.</I>
|
|
|
|
(1.) The words of God are <I>oracles,</I> certain and infallible, and
|
|
of unquestionable authority and obligation; they are to be consulted as
|
|
oracles, and by them all controversies must be determined.
|
|
|
|
(2.) They are <I>lively oracles,</I> for they are the oracles of the
|
|
living God, not of the dumb and dead idols of the heathens: the word
|
|
that God speaks is spirit and life; not that the law of Moses could
|
|
give life, but it showed the way to life: <I>If thou wilt enter into
|
|
life, keep the commandments.</I>
|
|
|
|
(3.) Moses received them from God, and delivered nothing as an oracle
|
|
to the people but what <I>he had first received from God.</I>
|
|
|
|
(4.) The lively oracles which he received from God he faithfully gave
|
|
to the people, to be observed and preserved. It was the principal
|
|
privilege of the Jews that <I>to them were committed the oracles of
|
|
God;</I> and it was by the hand of Moses that they were committed. As
|
|
Moses gave them not that bread, so neither did he give them that law
|
|
from heaven
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+6:32">John vi. 32</A>),
|
|
|
|
but God gave it to them; and he that gave them those customs by his
|
|
servant Moses might, no doubt, when he pleased, change the customs by
|
|
his Son Jesus, who received more lively oracles to give unto us than
|
|
Moses did.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
VII. The contempt that was, after this, and notwithstanding this, put
|
|
upon him by the people. Those that charged Stephen with speaking
|
|
against Moses would do well to answer what their own ancestors had
|
|
done, and they tread in their ancestors' steps.
|
|
|
|
1. <I>They would not obey him, but thrust him from them,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:39"><I>v.</I> 39</A>.
|
|
|
|
They murmured at him, mutinied against him, refused to obey his orders,
|
|
and sometimes were ready to stone him. Moses did indeed give them an
|
|
excellent law, but by this it appeared that <I>it could not make the
|
|
comers there unto perfect</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+10:1">Heb. x. 1</A>),
|
|
|
|
for <I>in their hearts they turned back again into Egypt,</I> and
|
|
preferred their garlic and onions there before the manna they had under
|
|
the guidance of Moses, or the milk and honey they hoped for in Canaan.
|
|
Observe, Their secret disaffection to Moses, with their inclination to
|
|
Egyptianism, if I may so call it. This was, in effect, turning back to
|
|
Egypt; it was doing it in heart. Many that pretend to be going forward
|
|
towards Canaan, by keeping up a show and profession of religion, are,
|
|
at the same time, in their hearts turning back to Egypt, like Lot's
|
|
wife to Sodom, and will be dealt with as deserters, for it is the heart
|
|
that God looks at. Now, if the customs that Moses delivered to them
|
|
could not prevail to change them, wonder not that Christ comes to
|
|
change the customs, and to introduce a more spiritual way of worship.
|
|
|
|
2. <I>They made a golden calf</I> instead of him, which besides the
|
|
affront that was thereby offered to God, was a great indignity to
|
|
Moses: for it was upon this consideration that they made the calf,
|
|
because "<I>as for this Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt,
|
|
we know not what is become of him;</I> therefore make us gods of gold;"
|
|
as if a calf were sufficient to supply the want of Moses, and as
|
|
capable of going before them into the promised land. <I>So they made a
|
|
calf in those days</I> when the law was given them, <I>and offered
|
|
sacrifices unto the idol, and rejoiced in the work of their own
|
|
hands.</I> So proud were they of their new god that when they had
|
|
<I>sat down to eat and drink, they rose up to play!</I> By all this it
|
|
appears that there was a great deal which the law could not do, <I>in
|
|
that it was weak through the flesh;</I> it was therefore necessary that
|
|
this law should be perfected by a better hand, and he was no blasphemer
|
|
against Moses who said that Christ had done it.</P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_42"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_43"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_44"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_45"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_46"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_47"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_48"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_49"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_50"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec4"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Stephen's Address.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>42 Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of
|
|
heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house
|
|
of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices <I>by
|
|
the space of</I> forty years in the wilderness?
|
|
43 Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of
|
|
your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I
|
|
will carry you away beyond Babylon.
|
|
44 Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness,
|
|
as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it
|
|
according to the fashion that he had seen.
|
|
45 Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus
|
|
into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before
|
|
the face of our fathers, unto the days of David;
|
|
46 Who found favour before God, and desired to find a
|
|
tabernacle for the God of Jacob.
|
|
47 But Solomon built him a house.
|
|
48 Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with
|
|
hands; as saith the prophet,
|
|
49 Heaven <I>is</I> my throne, and earth <I>is</I> my footstool: what
|
|
house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what <I>is</I> the place of
|
|
my rest?
|
|
50 Hath not my hand made all these things?
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Two things we have in these verses:--</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. Stephen upbraids them with the idolatry of their fathers, which God
|
|
gave them up to, as a punishment for their early forsaking him in
|
|
worshipping the golden calf; and this was the saddest punishment of all
|
|
for that sin, as it was of the idolatry of the Gentile world <I>that
|
|
God gave them up to a reprobate mind.</I> When <I>Israel was joined to
|
|
idols,</I> joined to the golden calf, and not long after to Baal-peor,
|
|
God said, <I>Let them alone;</I> let them go on
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:42"><I>v.</I> 42</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven.</I>
|
|
He particularly cautioned them not to do it, at their peril, and gave
|
|
them reasons why they should not; but, when they were bent upon it,
|
|
<I>he gave them up to their own hearts; lust,</I> withdrew his
|
|
restraining grace, and then they walked in their own counsels, and were
|
|
so scandalously mad upon their idols as never any people were. Compare
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+4:19,Jer+8:2">Deut. iv. 19 with Jer. viii. 2</A>.
|
|
|
|
For this he quotes a passage out of
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Am+5:25">Amos v. 25</A>.
|
|
|
|
For it would be less invidious to tell them their own [character and
|
|
doom] from an Old-Testament prophet, who upbraids them,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. For not sacrificing to their own God in the wilderness
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:42"><I>v.</I> 42</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>Have you offered to me slain beasts, and sacrifices, by the space of
|
|
forty years in the wilderness?</I> No; during all that time sacrifices
|
|
to God were intermitted; they did not so much as keep the passover
|
|
after the second year. It was God's condescension to them that he did
|
|
not insist upon it during their unsettled state; but then let them
|
|
consider how ill they requited him in offering sacrifices to idols,
|
|
when God dispensed with their offering them to him. This is also a
|
|
check to their zeal for the customs that Moses delivered to them, and
|
|
their fear of having them changed by <I>this Jesus,</I> that
|
|
immediately after they were delivered these customs were for forty
|
|
years together disused as needless things.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. For sacrificing to other gods after they came to Canaan
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:43"><I>v.</I> 43</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>You took up the tabernacle of Moloch.</I> Moloch was the idol of the
|
|
children of Ammon, to which they barbarously offered their own children
|
|
in sacrifice, which they could not do without great terror and grief to
|
|
themselves and their families; yet this unnatural idolatry they arrived
|
|
at, when <I>God gave them up to worship the host of heaven.</I> See
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+28:3">2 Chron. xxviii. 3</A>.
|
|
|
|
It was surely the strongest delusion that ever people were given up to,
|
|
and the greatest instance of the power of Satan in the children of
|
|
disobedience, and therefore it is here spoken of emphatically: <I>Yea,
|
|
you took up the tabernacle of Moloch,</I> you submitted even to that,
|
|
and to the worship of <I>the star of your god Remphan.</I> Some think
|
|
Remphan signifies <I>the moon,</I> as Moloch does <I>the sun;</I>
|
|
others take it for <I>Saturn,</I> for that planet is called
|
|
<I>Remphan</I> in the Syriac and Persian languages. The Septuagint puts
|
|
it for <I>Chiun,</I> as being a name more commonly known. They had
|
|
images representing the star, like the silver shrines for Diana, here
|
|
called <I>the figures which they made to worship.</I> Dr. Lightfoot
|
|
thinks they had figures representing the whole starry firmament, with
|
|
all the constellations, and the planets, and these are called
|
|
<I>Remphan</I>--"the high representation," like the celestial globe: a
|
|
poor thing to make an idol of, and yet better than a golden calf! Now
|
|
for this it is threatened, <I>I will carry you away beyond Babylon.</I>
|
|
In Amos it is <I>beyond Damascus,</I> meaning <I>to Babylon, the land
|
|
of the north.</I> But Stephen changes it, with an eye to the captivity
|
|
of the ten tribes, who were <I>carried away beyond Babylon, by the
|
|
river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+17:6">2 Kings xvii. 6</A>.
|
|
|
|
Let it not therefore seem strange to them to hear of the destruction of
|
|
this place, for they had heard of it many a time from the prophets of
|
|
the Old Testament, who were not therefore accused as blasphemers by any
|
|
but the wicked rulers. It was observed, in the debate on Jeremiah's
|
|
case, that Micah was not called to an account though he prophesied,
|
|
saying, <I>Zion shall be ploughed as a field,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+26:18,19">Jer. xxvi. 18, 19</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. He gives an answer particularly to the charge exhibited against him
|
|
relating to the temple, <I>that he spoke blasphemous words against that
|
|
holy place,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:44-50"><I>v.</I> 44-50</A>.
|
|
|
|
He was accused for saying that Jesus would destroy this holy place:
|
|
"And what if I did say so?" (saith Stephen) "the glory of the holy God
|
|
is not bound up in the glory of this holy place, but that may be
|
|
preserved untouched, though this be laid in the dust;" for,
|
|
|
|
1. "It was not till our fathers came into the wilderness, in their way
|
|
to Canaan, that they had any fixed place of worship; and yet the
|
|
patriarchs, many ages before, worshipped God acceptably at the altars
|
|
they had adjoining to their own tents <I>in the open air--sub dio;</I>
|
|
and he that was worshipped without a holy place in the first, and best,
|
|
and purest ages of the Old-Testament church, may and will be so when
|
|
this holy place is destroyed, without any diminution to his glory."
|
|
|
|
2. The holy place was at first but a tabernacle, mean and movable,
|
|
showing itself to be short-lived, and not designed to continue always.
|
|
Why might not this holy place, though built of stones, be decently
|
|
brought to its end, and give place to its betters, as well as that
|
|
though framed of curtains? As it was no dishonour, but an honour to
|
|
God, that the tabernacle gave way to the temple, so it is now that the
|
|
material temple gives way to the spiritual one, and so it will be when,
|
|
at last, the spiritual temple shall give way to the eternal one.
|
|
|
|
3. That tabernacle was <I>a tabernacle of witness,</I> or of
|
|
testimony, <I>a figure of good things to come, of the true tabernacle
|
|
which the Lord pitched, and not men,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+8:2">Heb. viii. 2</A>.
|
|
|
|
This was the glory both of the tabernacle and temple, that they were
|
|
erected for a testimony of that temple of God which in the latter days
|
|
should be opened in heaven
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+11:19">Rev. xi. 19</A>),
|
|
|
|
and of Christ's tabernacling on earth (as the word is,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+1:14">John i. 14</A>),
|
|
|
|
and of the temple of his body.
|
|
|
|
4. That tabernacle was framed just as God appointed, and <I>according
|
|
to the fashion which Moses saw in the mount,</I> which plainly
|
|
intimates that it had reference to good things to come. Its rise being
|
|
heavenly, its meaning and tendency were so; and therefore it was no
|
|
diminution at all to its glory to say that this temple made with hands
|
|
should be destroyed, in order to the building of <I>another made
|
|
without hands,</I> which was Christ's crime
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mk+14:58">Mark xiv. 58</A>),
|
|
|
|
and Stephen's.
|
|
|
|
5. That tabernacle was pitched first in the wilderness; it was not a
|
|
native of this land of yours (to which you think it must for ever be
|
|
confined), but was brought in in the next age, by our fathers, who came
|
|
after those who first erected it, into the possession of the Gentiles,
|
|
into the land of Canaan, which had long been in the possession of the
|
|
devoted nations <I>whom God drove out before the face of our
|
|
fathers.</I> And why may not God set up his spiritual temple, as he had
|
|
done the material tabernacle, in those countries that were now the
|
|
possession of the Gentiles? That tabernacle was brought in by those who
|
|
came <I>with Jesus,</I> that is, <I>Joshua.</I> And I think, for
|
|
distinction sake, and to prevent mistakes, it ought to be so read, both
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:45,Heb+4:8">here and Heb. iv. 8</A>.
|
|
|
|
Yet in naming <I>Joshua</I> here, which in Greek is <I>Jesus,</I> there
|
|
may be a tacit intimation that as the Old-Testament Joshua brought in
|
|
that typical tabernacle, so the New-Testament Joshua should bring in
|
|
the true tabernacle into the possession of the Gentiles.
|
|
|
|
6. That tabernacle continued for many ages, <I>even to the days of
|
|
David,</I> above four hundred years, before there was any thought of
|
|
building a temple,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:45"><I>v.</I> 45</A>.
|
|
|
|
David, having <I>found favour before God,</I> did indeed desire this
|
|
further favour, to have leave to build God a house, to be a constant
|
|
settled tabernacle, or dwelling-place, for the Shechinah, or the tokens
|
|
of the presence of the God of Jacob,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:46"><I>v.</I> 46</A>.
|
|
|
|
Those who have found favour with God should show themselves forward to
|
|
advance the interests of his kingdom among men.
|
|
|
|
7. God had his heart so little upon a temple, or such a holy place as
|
|
they were so jealous for, that, when David desired to build one, he was
|
|
forbidden to do it; God was in no haste for one, as he told David
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Sa+7:7">2 Sam. vii. 7</A>),
|
|
|
|
and therefore it was not he, but his son Solomon, some years after,
|
|
that built him a house. David had all that sweet communion with God in
|
|
public worship which we read of in his Psalms before there was any
|
|
temple built.
|
|
|
|
8. God often declared that temples made with hands were not his
|
|
delight, nor could add any thing to the perfection of his rest and joy.
|
|
Solomon, when he dedicated the temple, acknowledged that God
|
|
<I>dwelleth not in temples made with hands;</I> he has not need of
|
|
them, is not benefited by them, cannot be confined to them. The whole
|
|
world is his temple, in which he is every where present, and fills it
|
|
with his glory; and what occasion has he for a temple then to manifest
|
|
himself in? Indeed the pretended deities of the heathen needed temples
|
|
made with hands, for they were gods made with hands
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:41"><I>v.</I> 41</A>),
|
|
|
|
and had no other place to manifest themselves in than in their own
|
|
temples; but the one only true and living God needs no temple, for
|
|
<I>the heaven is his throne,</I> in which he rests, <I>and the earth is
|
|
his footstool,</I> over which he rules
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:49,50"><I>v.</I> 49, 50</A>),
|
|
|
|
and therefore, <I>What house will you build me,</I> comparable to this
|
|
which I have already? <I>Or, what is the place of my rest?</I> What
|
|
need have I of a house, either to repose myself in or to show myself?
|
|
<I>Hath not my hand made all these things?</I> And <I>these show his
|
|
eternal power and Godhead</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+1:20">Rom. i. 20</A>);
|
|
|
|
they so show themselves to all mankind that those who worship other
|
|
gods are without excuse. And as the world is thus God's temple, wherein
|
|
he is manifested, so it is God's temple in which he will be worshipped.
|
|
As the earth is full of his glory, and is therefore his temple
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+6:3">Isa. vi. 3</A>),
|
|
|
|
so the earth is, or shall be, full of his praise
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Hab+3:3">Hab. iii. 3</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>and all the ends of the earth shall fear him</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+67:7">Ps. lxvii. 7</A>),
|
|
|
|
and upon this account it is his temple. It was therefore no reflection
|
|
at all upon this holy place, however they might take it, to say <I>that
|
|
Jesus should destroy this temple,</I> and set up another, into which
|
|
all nations should be admitted,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+15:16,17"><I>ch.</I> xv. 16, 17</A>.
|
|
|
|
And it would not seem strange to those who considered that scripture
|
|
which Stephen here quotes
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+66:1-3">Isa. lxvi. 1-3</A>),
|
|
|
|
which, as it expressed God's comparative contempt of the external part
|
|
of his service, so it plainly foretold the rejection of the unbelieving
|
|
Jews, and the welcome of the Gentiles that were of a contrite spirit
|
|
into the church.</P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_51"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_52"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_53"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec5"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Stephen's Address.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do
|
|
always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers <I>did,</I> so <I>do</I> ye.
|
|
52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and
|
|
they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the
|
|
Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:
|
|
53 Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and
|
|
have not kept <I>it.</I>
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Stephen was going on in his discourse (as it should seem by the thread
|
|
of it) to show that, as the temple, so the temple-service must come to
|
|
an end, and it would be the glory of both to give way to that worship
|
|
of the Father in spirit and in truth which was to be established in the
|
|
kingdom of the Messiah, stripped of the pompous ceremonies of the old
|
|
law, and so he was going to apply all this which he had said more
|
|
closely to his present purpose; but he perceived they could not bear
|
|
it. They could patiently hear the history of the Old Testament told (it
|
|
was a piece of learning which they themselves dealt much in); but if
|
|
Stephen go about to tell them that their power and tyranny must come
|
|
down, and that the church must be governed by a spirit of holiness and
|
|
love, and heavenly-mindedness, they will not so much as give him the
|
|
hearing. It is probable that he perceived this, and that they were
|
|
going to silence him; and therefore he breaks off abruptly in the midst
|
|
of his discourse, and by that spirit of wisdom, courage, and power,
|
|
wherewith he was filled, he sharply rebuked his persecutors, and
|
|
exposed their true character; for, if they will not admit the testimony
|
|
of the gospel to them, it shall become a testimony against them.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. They, like their fathers, were stubborn and wilful, and would not be
|
|
wrought upon by the various methods God took to reclaim and reform
|
|
them; they were like their fathers, inflexible both to the word of God
|
|
and to his providences.
|
|
|
|
1. They were <I>stiff-necked</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:51"><I>v.</I> 51</A>),
|
|
|
|
and would not submit their necks to the sweet and easy yoke of God's
|
|
government, nor draw in it, but were <I>like a bullock unaccustomed to
|
|
the yoke;</I> or they would not bow their heads, no, not to God
|
|
himself, would not do obeisance to him, would not humble themselves
|
|
before him. The stiff neck is the same with the hard heart, obstinate
|
|
and contumacious, and that will not yield--the general character of the
|
|
Jewish nation,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ex+32:9;33:3,5;De+9:6,13;31:27;Eze+2:4">Exod. xxxii. 9;
|
|
xxxiii. 3, 5; xxxiv. 9; Deut. ix. 6, 13; xxxi. 27; Ezek. ii. 4</A>.
|
|
|
|
2. They were <I>uncircumcised in heart and ears</I> their hearts and
|
|
ears were not devoted and given up to God, as the body of the people
|
|
were in profession by the sign of circumcision: "In name and show you
|
|
are circumcised Jews, but in heart and ears you are still uncircumcised
|
|
heathens, and pay no more deference to the authority of your God than
|
|
they do,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+9:26">Jer. ix. 26</A>.
|
|
|
|
You are under the power of unmortified lusts and corruptions, which
|
|
stop your ears to the voice of God, and harden your hearts to that
|
|
which is both most commanding and most affecting." They had not that
|
|
<I>circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins
|
|
of the flesh,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Col+2:11">Col. ii. 11</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. They, like their fathers, were not only not influenced by the
|
|
methods God took to reform them, but they were enraged and incensed
|
|
against them: <I>You do always resist the Holy Ghost.</I>
|
|
|
|
1. They resisted the Holy Ghost speaking to them by the prophets, whom
|
|
they opposed and contradicted, hated and ridiculed; this seems
|
|
especially meant here, by the following explication, <I>Which of the
|
|
prophets have not your fathers persecuted?</I> In persecuting and
|
|
silencing those that spoke by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost they
|
|
resisted the Holy Ghost. Their fathers resisted the Holy Ghost in the
|
|
prophets that God raised up to them, and so did they in Christ's
|
|
apostles and ministers, who spoke by the same Spirit, and had greater
|
|
measures of his gifts than the prophets of the Old Testament had, and
|
|
yet were more resisted.
|
|
|
|
2. They resisted the Holy Ghost striving with them by their own
|
|
consciences, and would not comply with the convictions and dictates of
|
|
them. God's Spirit strove with them as with the old world, but in vain;
|
|
they resisted him, took part with their corruptions against their
|
|
convictions, and rebelled against the light. There is that in our
|
|
sinful hearts that always resists the Holy Ghost, a flesh that lusts
|
|
against the Spirit, and wars against his motions; but in the hearts of
|
|
God's elect, when the fulness of time comes, this resistance is
|
|
overcomer and overpowered, and after a struggle the throne of Christ is
|
|
set up in the soul, and every thought that had exalted itself against
|
|
it is brought into captivity to it,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Co+10:4,5">2 Cor. x. 4, 5</A>.
|
|
|
|
That grace therefore which effects this change might more fitly be
|
|
called <I>victorious</I> grace than <I>irresistible.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
III. They, like their fathers, persecuted and slew those whom God sent
|
|
unto them to call them to duty, and make them offers of mercy.
|
|
|
|
1. Their fathers had been the cruel and constant persecutors of the
|
|
Old-Testament prophets
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:51"><I>v.</I> 51</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?</I> More or
|
|
less, one time or other, they had a blow at them all. With regard even
|
|
to those that lived in the best reigns, when the princes did not
|
|
persecute them, there was a malignant party in the nation that mocked
|
|
at them and abused them, and most of them were at last, either by
|
|
colour of law or popular fury, put to death; and that which aggravated
|
|
the sin of persecuting the prophets was, that the business of the
|
|
prophets they were so spiteful at was to <I>show before of the coming
|
|
of the just One,</I> to give notice of God's kind intentions towards
|
|
that people, to send the Messiah among them in the fulness of time.
|
|
Those that were the messengers of such glad tidings should have been
|
|
courted and caressed, and have had the preferments of the best of
|
|
benefactors; but, instead of this, they had the treatment of the worst
|
|
of malefactors.
|
|
|
|
2. They had been the <I>betrayers and murderers of the just One</I>
|
|
himself, as Peter had told them,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+3:14,15;5:30"><I>ch.</I> iii. 14, 15; v. 30</A>.
|
|
|
|
They had hired Judas to betray him, and had in a manner forced Pilate
|
|
to condemn him; and therefore it is charged upon them that they were
|
|
his betrayers and murders. Thus they were the genuine seed of those who
|
|
slew the prophets that foretold his coming, which, by slaying him, they
|
|
showed they would have done if they had lived then; and thus, as our
|
|
Saviour had told them, they brought upon themselves the guilt of the
|
|
blood of all the prophets. To which of the prophets would those have
|
|
shown any respect who had no regard to the Son of God himself?</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
IV. They, like their fathers, put contempt upon divine revelation, and
|
|
would not be guided and governed by it; and this was the aggravation of
|
|
their sin, that God had given, as to their fathers his law, so to them
|
|
his gospel, in vain.
|
|
|
|
1. Their fathers received the law, and did not observe it,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:53"><I>v.</I> 53</A>.
|
|
|
|
God wrote to them the great things of his law, after he had first
|
|
spoken them to them; and yet they were counted by them as a strange or
|
|
foreign thing, which they were no way concerned in. The law is said to
|
|
be <I>received by the disposition of angels,</I> because angels were
|
|
employed in the solemnity of giving the law, in the thunderings and
|
|
lightnings, and the sound of the trumpet. It is said to be <I>ordained
|
|
by angels</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ga+3:19">Gal. iii. 19</A>),
|
|
|
|
God is said to come <I>with ten thousand</I> of his saints to give the
|
|
law
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+33:2">Deut. xxxiii. 2</A>),
|
|
|
|
and it was a <I>word spoken by angels,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+2:2">Heb. ii. 2</A>.
|
|
|
|
This put an honour both upon the law and the Lawgiver, and should
|
|
increase our veneration for both. But those that thus received the law
|
|
yet kept it not, but by making the golden calf broke it immediately in
|
|
a capital instance.
|
|
|
|
2. They received the gospel now, by the disposition, not of angels, but
|
|
of the Holy Ghost,--not with the sound of a trumpet, but, which was
|
|
more strange, in the gift of tongues, and yet they did not embrace it.
|
|
They would not yield to the plainest demonstrations, any more than
|
|
their fathers before them did, for they were resolved not to comply
|
|
with God either in his law or in his gospel.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
We have reason to think Stephen had a great deal more to say, and would
|
|
have said it if they would have suffered him; but they were wicked and
|
|
unreasonable men with whom he had to do, that could no more hear reason
|
|
than they could speak it.</P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_54"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_55"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_56"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_57"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_58"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_59"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac7_60"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec2"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Stephen's Martyrdom; Stephen's Dying Prayer.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>54 When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart,
|
|
and they gnashed on him with <I>their</I> teeth.
|
|
55 But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly
|
|
into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the
|
|
right hand of God,
|
|
56 And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of
|
|
man standing on the right hand of God.
|
|
57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their
|
|
ears, and ran upon him with one accord,
|
|
58 And cast <I>him</I> out of the city, and stoned <I>him:</I> and the
|
|
witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose
|
|
name was Saul.
|
|
59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon <I>God,</I> and saying,
|
|
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
|
|
60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay
|
|
not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell
|
|
asleep.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
We have here the death of the first martyr of the Christian church, and
|
|
there is in this story a lively instance of the outrage and fury of the
|
|
persecutors (such as we may expect to meet with if we are called out to
|
|
suffer for Christ), and of the courage and comfort of the persecuted,
|
|
that are thus called out. Here is hell in its fire and darkness, and
|
|
heaven in its light and brightness; and these serve as foils to set off
|
|
each other. It is not here said that the votes of the council were
|
|
taken upon his case, and that by the majority he was found guilty, and
|
|
then condemned and ordered to be stoned to death, according to the law,
|
|
as a blasphemer; but, it is likely, so it was, and that it was not by
|
|
the violence of the people, without order of the council, that he was
|
|
put to death; for here is the usual ceremony of regular executions--he
|
|
was cast out of the city, and the hands of the witnesses were first
|
|
upon him.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Let us observe here the wonderful discomposure of the spirits of his
|
|
enemies and persecutors, and the wonderful composure of his spirit.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. See the strength of corruption in the persecutors of Stephen--malice
|
|
in perfection, hell itself broken loose, men become incarnate devils,
|
|
and the serpent's seed spitting their venom.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
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|
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|
1. <I>When they heard these things they were cut to the heart</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:54"><I>v.</I> 54</A>),
|
|
|
|
<B><I>dieprionto,</I></B> the same word that is used
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+11:37">Heb. xi. 37</A>,
|
|
|
|
and translated <I>they were sawn asunder.</I> They were put to as much
|
|
torture in their minds as ever the martyrs were put to in their bodies.
|
|
They were filled with indignation at the unanswerable arguments that
|
|
Stephen urged for their conviction, and that they could find nothing to
|
|
say against them. They were not pricked to the heart with sorrow, as
|
|
those were
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+2:37"><I>ch.</I> ii. 37</A>,
|
|
|
|
but cut to the heart with rage and fury, as they themselves were,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+5:33"><I>ch.</I> v. 33</A>.
|
|
|
|
Stephen rebuked them sharply, as Paul expresses it
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Tit+1:13">Tit. i. 13</A>),
|
|
|
|
<B><I>apotomos</I></B>--<I>cuttingly,</I> for they were cut to the heart
|
|
by the reproof. Note, Rejecters of the gospel and opposers of it are
|
|
really tormentors to themselves. Enmity to God is a heart-cutting
|
|
thing; faith and love are heart-healing. When they heard how he that
|
|
<I>looked like an angel</I> before he began his discourse talked like
|
|
an angel, like a messenger from heaven, before he concluded it, they
|
|
were <I>like a wild bull in a net, full of the fury of the Lord,</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+51:20">Isa. li. 20</A>),
|
|
|
|
despairing to run down a cause so bravely pleaded, and yet resolved not
|
|
to yield to it.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. They <I>gnashed upon him with their teeth.</I> This denotes,
|
|
|
|
(1.) Great malice and rage against him. Job complained of his enemy
|
|
that he <I>gnashed upon him with his teeth,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+16:9">Job xvi. 9</A>.
|
|
|
|
The language of this was, <I>Oh that we had of his flesh to eat!</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+31:31">Job xxxi. 31</A>.
|
|
|
|
They <I>grinned at him,</I> as dogs at those they are enraged at; and
|
|
therefore Paul, cautioning against those of the circumcision, says,
|
|
<I>Beware of dogs,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Php+3:2">Phil. iii. 2</A>.
|
|
|
|
Enmity at the saints turns men into brute beasts.
|
|
|
|
(2.) Great vexation within themselves; they fretted to see in him such
|
|
manifest tokens of a divine power and presence, and it vexed them to
|
|
the heart. The <I>wicked shall see it and be grieved, he shall gnash
|
|
with his teeth and melt away,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+112:10">Ps. cxii. 10</A>.
|
|
|
|
Gnashing with the teeth is often used to express the horror and
|
|
torments of the damned. Those that have the malice of hell cannot but
|
|
have with it some of the pains of hell.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
3. <I>They cried out with a loud voice</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:57"><I>v.</I> 57</A>),
|
|
|
|
to irritate and excite one another, and to drown the noise of the
|
|
clamours of their own and one another's consciences; when he said, <I>I
|
|
see heaven opened,</I> they cried with a loud voice, that he might not
|
|
be heard to speak. Note, It is very common for a righteous cause,
|
|
particularly the righteous cause of Christ's religion, to be attempted
|
|
to be run down by noise and clamour; what is wanting in reason is made
|
|
up in tumult, and <I>the cry of him that ruleth among fools, while the
|
|
words of the wise are heard in quiet.</I> They cried with a loud voice,
|
|
as soldiers when they are going to engage in battle, mustering up all
|
|
their spirit and vigour for this desperate encounter.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
4. They <I>stopped their ears,</I> that they might not hear their own
|
|
noisiness; or perhaps under pretence that they could not bear to hear
|
|
his blasphemies. As Caiaphas rent his clothes when Christ said,
|
|
<I>Hereafter you shall see the Son of man coming in glory</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+26:64,65">Matt. xxvi. 64, 65</A>),
|
|
|
|
so here these <I>stopped their ears</I> when Stephen said, <I>I now see
|
|
the Son of man standing in glory,</I> both pretending that what was
|
|
spoken was not to be heard with patience. Their stopping their ears
|
|
was,
|
|
|
|
(1.) A manifest specimen of their wilful obstinacy; they were resolved
|
|
they would not hear what had a tendency to convince them, which was
|
|
what the prophets often complained of: they were <I>like the deaf
|
|
adder, that will not hear the voice of the charmer,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+58:4,5">Ps. lviii. 4, 5</A>.
|
|
|
|
(2.) It was a fatal omen of that judicial hardness to which God would
|
|
give them up. They stopped their ears, and then God, in a way of
|
|
righteous judgment, stopped them. This was the work that was now in
|
|
doing with the unbelieving Jews: <I>Make the heart of this people fat,
|
|
and their ears heavy;</I> thus was Stephen's character of them
|
|
answered, <I>You uncircumcised in heart and ears.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
5. They <I>ran upon him with one accord</I>--the people and the elders
|
|
of the people, judges, prosecutors, witnesses, and spectators, they all
|
|
flew upon him, as beasts upon their prey. See how violent they were,
|
|
and in what haste--they ran upon him, though there was no danger of his
|
|
outrunning them; and see how unanimous they were in this evil
|
|
thing--they ran upon him <I>with one accord,</I> one and all, hoping
|
|
thereby to terrify him, and put him into confusion, envying him his
|
|
composure and comfort in soul, with which he wonderfully enjoyed
|
|
himself in the midst of this hurry; they did all they could to ruffle
|
|
him.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
6. They <I>cast him out of the city, and stoned him,</I> as if he were
|
|
not worthy to live in Jerusalem; nay, not worthy to live in this world,
|
|
pretending herein to execute the law of Moses
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Le+24:16">Lev. xxiv. 16</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>He that blasphemeth the name of the Lord shall surely be put to
|
|
death, all the congregation shall certainly stone him.</I> And thus
|
|
they had put Christ to death, when this same court had found him guilty
|
|
of blasphemy, but that, for his greater ignominy, they were desirous he
|
|
should be crucified, and God overruled it for the fulfilling of the
|
|
scripture. The fury with which they managed the execution is intimated
|
|
in this: they cast him out of the city, as if they could not bear the
|
|
sight of him; they treated him as an anathema, as the offscouring of
|
|
all things. The witnesses against him were the leaders in the
|
|
execution, according to the law
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+17:7">Deut. xvii. 7</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him, to put him to
|
|
death,</I> and particularly in the case of blasphemy,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Le+24:14,De+13:9">Lev. xxiv. 14; Deut. xiii. 9</A>.
|
|
|
|
Thus they were to confirm their testimony. Now, the stoning of a man
|
|
being a laborious piece of work, the witnesses took off their upper
|
|
garments, that they might not hang in their way, <I>and they laid them
|
|
down at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul,</I> now a pleased
|
|
spectator of this tragedy. It is the first time we find mention of his
|
|
name; we shall know it and love it better when we find it changed to
|
|
<I>Paul,</I> and him changed from a persecutor into a preacher. This
|
|
little instance of his agency in Stephen's death he afterwards
|
|
reflected upon with regret
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+22:20"><I>ch.</I> xxii. 20</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>I kept the raiment of those that slew him.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. See the strength of grace in Stephen, and the wonderful instances
|
|
of God's favour to him, and working in him. As his persecutors were
|
|
full of Satan, so was he <I>full of the Holy Ghost,</I> fuller than
|
|
ordinary, anointed with fresh oil for the comb at, that, as the day, so
|
|
might the strength be. Upon this account those are <I>blessed who are
|
|
persecuted for righteousness' sake,</I> that <I>the Spirit of God and
|
|
of glory rests upon them,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Pe+4:14">1 Pet. iv. 14</A>.
|
|
|
|
When he was chosen to public service, he was described to be a man
|
|
<I>full of the Holy Ghost</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+6:5"><I>ch.</I> vi. 5</A>),
|
|
|
|
and now he is called out to martyrdom he has still the same character.
|
|
Note, Those that are full of the Holy Ghost are fit for any thing,
|
|
either to act for Christ or to suffer for him. And those whom God calls
|
|
out to difficult services for his name he will qualify for those
|
|
services, and carry comfortably through them, by filling them with the
|
|
Holy Ghost, that, as their afflictions for Christ abound, their
|
|
consolation in him may yet more abound, and then <I>none of these
|
|
things move them.</I> Now here we have a remarkable communion between
|
|
this blessed martyr and the blessed Jesus in this critical moment. When
|
|
the followers of Christ are for his sake <I>killed all the day long,
|
|
and accounted as sheep for the slaughter,</I> does this separate them
|
|
from the love of Christ? Does he love them the less? Do they love him
|
|
the less? No, by no means; and so it appears by this narrative, in
|
|
which we may observe.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. Christ's gracious manifestation of himself to Stephen, both for his
|
|
comfort and for his honour, in the midst of his sufferings. When they
|
|
were cut to the heart, and gnashed upon him with their teeth, ready to
|
|
eat him up, then he had a view of the glory of Christ sufficient to
|
|
fill him with joy unspeakable, which was intended not only for his
|
|
encouragement, but for the support and comfort of all God's suffering
|
|
servants in all ages.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) He, <I>being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into
|
|
heaven,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:55"><I>v.</I> 55</A>.
|
|
|
|
[1.] Thus he looked above the power and fury of his persecutors, and
|
|
did as it were despise them, and laugh them to scorn, as the daughter
|
|
of Zion,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+37:22">Isa. xxxvii. 22</A>.
|
|
|
|
They had their eyes fixed upon him, full of malice and cruelty; but he
|
|
looked up to heaven, and never minded them, was so taken up with the
|
|
eternal life now in prospect that he seemed to have no manner of
|
|
concern for the natural life now at state. Instead of looking about
|
|
him, to see either which way he was in danger or which way he might
|
|
make his escape, he looks up to heaven; thence only comes his help, and
|
|
thitherward his way is still open; though they compass him about on
|
|
every side, they cannot interrupt his intercourse with heaven. Note, A
|
|
believing regard to God and the upper world will be of great use to us,
|
|
to set us above the fear of man; for as far as we are under the
|
|
influence of that fear we <I>forget the Lord our Maker,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+51:13">Isa. li. 13</A>.
|
|
|
|
[2.] Thus he directed his sufferings to the glory of God, to the honour
|
|
of Christ, and did as it were appeal to heaven concerning them (Lord,
|
|
for thy sake I suffer this) and express his earnest expectation that
|
|
Christ should be magnified in his body. Now that he was ready to be
|
|
offered he looks up stedfastly to heaven, as one willing to offer
|
|
himself.
|
|
|
|
[3.] Thus he lifted up his soul with his eyes to God in the heavens, in
|
|
pious ejaculations, calling upon God for wisdom and grace to carry him
|
|
through this trial in a right manner. God has promised that he will be
|
|
with his servants whom he calls out to suffer for him; but he will for
|
|
this be sought unto. He is nigh unto them, but it is <I>in that for
|
|
which they call upon him. Is any afflicted? Let him pray.</I>
|
|
|
|
[4.] Thus he breathed after the heavenly country, to which he saw the
|
|
fury of his persecutors would presently send him. It is good for dying
|
|
saints to look up stedfastly to heaven: "Yonder is the place whither
|
|
death will carry my better part, and then, <I>O death! where is thy
|
|
sting?</I>"
|
|
|
|
[5.] Thus he made it to appear that he was full of the Holy Ghost; for,
|
|
wherever the Spirit of grace dwells, and works, and reigns, he directs
|
|
the eye of the soul upward. Those that are full of the Holy Ghost will
|
|
look up stedfastly to heaven, for there their heart is.
|
|
|
|
[6.] Thus he put himself into a posture to receive the following
|
|
manifestation of the divine glory and grace. If we expect to hear from
|
|
heaven, we must look up stedfastly to heaven.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) He saw the glory of God
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:55"><I>v.</I> 55</A>);
|
|
|
|
<I>for he saw,</I> in order to this, <I>the heavens opened,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:56"><I>v.</I> 56</A>.
|
|
|
|
Some think his eyes were strengthened, and the sight of them so raised
|
|
above its natural pitch, by a supernatural power, that he saw into the
|
|
third heavens, though at so vast a distance, as Moses's sight was
|
|
enlarged to see the whole land of Canaan. Others think it was a
|
|
representation of the glory of God set before his eyes, as, before,
|
|
Isaiah and Ezekiel; heaven did as it were come down to him, as
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+21:2">Rev. xxi. 2</A>.
|
|
|
|
The heavens were opened, to give him a view of the happiness he was
|
|
going to, that he might, in prospect of it, go cheerfully through
|
|
death, so great a death. Would we by faith look up stedfastly, we might
|
|
see the heavens opened by the mediation of Christ, the veil being rent,
|
|
and a new and living way laid open for us into the holiest. The heaven
|
|
is opened for the settling of a correspondence between God and men,
|
|
that his favours and blessings may come down to us, and our prayers and
|
|
praises may go up to him. We may also see the glory of God, as far as
|
|
he has revealed it in his word, and the sight of this will carry us
|
|
through all the terrors of sufferings and death.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(3.) He <I>saw Jesus standing on the right hand of God</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:55"><I>v.</I> 55</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>the Son of man,</I> so it is
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:56"><I>v.</I> 56</A>.
|
|
|
|
Jesus, being the Son of man, having taken our nature with him to
|
|
heaven, and being there clothed with a body, might be seen with bodily
|
|
eyes, and so Stephen saw him. When the Old-Testament prophets saw the
|
|
glory of God it was attended with angels. The Shechinah or divine
|
|
presence in Isaiah's vision was attended with seraphim, in Ezekiel's
|
|
vision with cherubim, both signifying the angels, the ministers of
|
|
God's providence. But here no mention is made of the angels, though
|
|
they surround the throne and the Lamb; instead of them Stephen sees
|
|
Jesus at the right hand of God, the great Mediator of God's grace, from
|
|
whom more glory redounds to God than from all the ministration of the
|
|
holy angels. The glory of God shines brightest in the face of Jesus
|
|
Christ; for there shines the glory of his grace, which is the most
|
|
illustrious instance of his glory. God appears more glorious with Jesus
|
|
standing at his right hand than with millions of angels about him. Now,
|
|
|
|
[1.] Here is a proof of the exaltation of Christ to the Father's right
|
|
hand; the apostles saw him ascend, but they did not see him sit down,
|
|
<I>A cloud received him out of their sight.</I> We are told that he sat
|
|
down on the right hand of God; but was he ever seen there? Yes, Stephen
|
|
saw him there, and was abundantly satisfied with the sight. He saw
|
|
Jesus at the right hand of God, denoting both his transcendent dignity
|
|
and his sovereign dominion, his uncontrollable ability and his
|
|
universal agency; whatever God's right hand gives to us, or receives
|
|
from us, or does concerning us, it is by him; for he is his right hand.
|
|
|
|
[2.] He is usually said to <I>sit</I> there; but Stephen sees him
|
|
<I>standing</I> there, as one more than ordinarily concerned at present
|
|
for his suffering servant; he stood up as a judge to plead his cause
|
|
against his persecutors; he is <I>raised up out of his holy
|
|
habitation</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Zec+2:13">Zech. ii. 13</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>comes out of his place to punish,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+26:21">Isa. xxvi. 21</A>.
|
|
|
|
He stands ready to receive him and crown him, and in the mean time to
|
|
give him a prospect of the joy set before him.
|
|
|
|
[3.] This was intended for the encouragement of Stephen. He sees Christ
|
|
is for him, and then no matter who is against him. When our Lord Jesus
|
|
was in his agony an angel appeared to him, strengthening him; but
|
|
Stephen had Christ himself appearing to him. Note, Nothing so
|
|
comfortable to dying saints, nor so animating to suffering saints, as
|
|
to see Jesus at the right hand of God; and, blessed be God, by faith we
|
|
may see him there.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(4.) He told those about him what he saw
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:56"><I>v.</I> 56</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>Behold, I see the heavens opened.</I> That which was a cordial to
|
|
him ought to have been a conviction to them, and a caution to them to
|
|
take heed of proceeding against one upon whom heaven thus smiled; and
|
|
therefore what he saw he declared, let them make what use they pleased
|
|
of it. If some were exasperated by it, others perhaps might be wrought
|
|
upon to consider this Jesus whom they persecuted, and to believe in
|
|
him.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. Stephen's pious addresses to Jesus Christ. The manifestation of
|
|
God's glory to him did not set him above praying, but rather set him
|
|
upon it: <I>They stoned Stephen, calling upon God,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:59"><I>v.</I> 59</A>.
|
|
|
|
Though he called upon God, and by that showed himself to be a true-born
|
|
Israelite, yet they proceeded to stone him, not considering how
|
|
dangerous it is to fight against those who have an interest in heaven.
|
|
Though they stoned him, yet he called upon God; nay, therefore he
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called upon him. Note, It is the comfort of those who are unjustly
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hated and persecuted by men that they have a God to go to, a God
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all-sufficient to call upon. Men stop their ears, as they did here
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:57"><I>v.</I> 57</A>),
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but God does not. Stephen was now cast out of the city, but he was not
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cast out from his God. He was now taking his leave of the world, and
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therefore calls upon God; for we must do this as long as we live.
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Note, It is good to die praying; then we need help--strength we never
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|
had, to do a work we never did--and how can we fetch in that help and
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strength but by prayer? Two short prayers Stephen offered up to God in
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his dying moments, and in them as it were breathed out his soul:--</P>
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<P>
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|
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(1.) Here is a prayer for himself: <I>Lord Jesus, receive my
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spirit.</I> Thus Christ had himself resigned his spirit immediately
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|
into the hands of the Father. We are here taught to resign ours into
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the hands of Christ as Mediator, by him to be recommended to the
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Father. Stephen saw Jesus standing at the Father's right hand, and he
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thus calls to him: "Blessed Jesus, do that for me now which thou
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|
standest there to do for all thine, receive my departing spirit into
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|
thy hand." Observe,
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[1.] The soul is the man, and our great concern, living and dying, must
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|
be about our souls. Stephen's body was to be miserably broken and
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|
shattered, and overwhelmed with a shower of stones, the earthly house
|
|
of this tabernacle violently beaten down and abused; but, however it
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goes with that, "Lord," saith he, "'let my spirit be safe; let it go
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well with my poor soul." Thus, while we live, our care should be that
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|
though the body be starved or stripped the soul may be fed and clothed,
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|
though the body lie in pain the soul may dwell at ease; and, when we
|
|
die, that though the body be thrown by as a despised broken vessel, and
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|
a vessel in which there is no pleasure, yet the soul may be presented a
|
|
vessel of honour, that God may be the strength of the heart and its
|
|
portion, though the flesh fail.
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|
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[2.] Our Lord Jesus is God, to whom we are to seek, and in whom we are
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|
to confide and comfort ourselves living and dying. Stephen here prays
|
|
to Christ, and so must we; for it is the will of God that all men
|
|
should thus <I>honour the Son, even as they honour the Father.</I> It
|
|
is Christ we are to commit ourselves to, who alone is able to keep what
|
|
we commit to him against that day; it is necessary that we have an eye
|
|
to Christ when we come to die, for there is no venturing into another
|
|
world but under his conduct, no living comforts in dying moments but
|
|
what are fetched from him.
|
|
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|
[3.] Christ's receiving our spirits at death is the great thing we are
|
|
to be careful about, and to comfort ourselves with. We ought to be in
|
|
care about this while we live, that Christ may receive our spirits when
|
|
we die; for, if he reject and disown them, whither will they betake
|
|
themselves? How can they escape being a prey to the roaring lion? To
|
|
him therefore we must commit them daily, to be ruled and sanctified,
|
|
and made meet for heaven, and then, and not otherwise, he will receive
|
|
them. And, if this has been our care while we live, it may be our
|
|
comfort when we come to die, that we shall be received into everlasting
|
|
habitations.</P>
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|
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|
<P>
|
|
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|
(2.) Here is a prayer for his persecutors,
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|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+7:60"><I>v.</I> 60</A>.</P>
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|
<P>
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|
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|
[1.] The circumstances of this prayer are observable; for it seems to
|
|
have been offered up with something more of solemnity than the former.
|
|
<I>First,</I> He <I>knelt down,</I> which was an expression of his
|
|
humility in prayer. <I>Secondly,</I> He <I>cried with a loud voice,</I>
|
|
which was an expression of his importunity. But why should he thus show
|
|
more humility and importunity in this request than in the former? Why,
|
|
none could doubt of his being in good earnest in his prayers for
|
|
himself, and therefore there he needed not to use such outward
|
|
expressions of it; but in his prayer for his enemies, because that is
|
|
so much against the grain of corrupt nature, it was requisite he should
|
|
give proofs of his being in earnest.</P>
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<P>
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|
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[2.] The prayer itself: <I>Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.</I>
|
|
Herein he followed the example of his dying Master, who prayed thus for
|
|
his persecutors, <I>Father, forgive them;</I> and set an example to all
|
|
following sufferers in the cause of Christ thus to pray for those that
|
|
persecute them. Prayer may preach. This did so to those who stoned
|
|
Stephen, and he knelt down that they might take notice he was going to
|
|
pray, and cried with a loud voice that they might take notice of what
|
|
he said, and might learn, <I>First,</I> That what they did was a sin, a
|
|
great sin, which, if divine mercy and grace did not prevent, would be
|
|
laid to their charge, to their everlasting confusion. <I>Secondly,</I>
|
|
That, notwithstanding their malice and fury against him, he was in
|
|
charity with them, and was so far from desiring that God would avenge
|
|
his death upon them that it was his hearty prayer to God that it might
|
|
not in any degree be laid to their charge. A sad reckoning there would
|
|
be for it. If they did not repent, it would certainly be laid to their
|
|
charge; but he, for his part, did not desire the woeful day. Let them
|
|
take notice of this, and, when their thoughts were cool, surely they
|
|
would not easily forgive themselves for putting him to death who could
|
|
so easily forgive them. <I>The blood-thirsty hate the upright, but the
|
|
just seek his soul,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Pr+29:10">Prov. xxix. 10</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>Thirdly,</I> That, though the sin was very heinous, yet they must
|
|
not despair of the pardon of it upon their repentance. If they would
|
|
lay it to their hearts, God would not lay it to their charge. "Do you
|
|
think," saith St. Austin, "that Paul heard Stephen pray this prayer? It
|
|
is likely he did and ridiculed it then (<I>audivit subsannans, sed
|
|
irrisit--he heard with scorn</I>), but afterwards he had the benefit of
|
|
it, and fared the better for it."</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
3. His expiring with this: <I>When he had said this, he fell
|
|
asleep;</I> or, as he was saying this, the blow came that was mortal.
|
|
Note, Death is but a sleep to good people; not the sleep of the soul
|
|
(Stephen had given that up into Christ's hand), but the sleep of the
|
|
body; it is its rest from all its griefs and toils; it is perfect ease
|
|
from toil and pain. Stephen died as much in a hurry as ever any man
|
|
did, and yet, when he died, he fell asleep. He applied himself to his
|
|
dying work with as much composure of mind as if he had been going to
|
|
sleep; it was but closing his eyes, and dying. Observe, He fell asleep
|
|
when he was praying for his persecutors; it is expressed as if he
|
|
thought he could not die in peace till he had done this. It contributes
|
|
very much to our dying comfortably to die in charity with all men; we
|
|
are then found of Christ in peace; let not the sun of life go down upon
|
|
our wrath. He fell asleep; the vulgar Latin adds, <I>in the Lord,</I>
|
|
in the embraces of his love. If he thus sleep, he shall do well; he
|
|
shall awake again in the morning of the resurrection.</P>
|
|
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