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<center><h1>Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary
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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. XVII.</FONT>
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<HR SIZE=1 WIDTH=50>
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<FONT SIZE=-1>
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<P>
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We have here a further account of the travels of Paul, and his services
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and sufferings for Christ. He was not like a candle upon a table, that
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gives light only to one room, but like the sun that goes its circuit to
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give light to many. He was called into Macedonia, a large kingdom,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+16:9"><I>ch.</I> xvi. 9</A>.
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He began with Philippi, because it was the first city he came to; but
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he must not confine himself to this. We have him here,
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I. Preaching and persecuted at Thessalonica, another city of Macedonia,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:1-9">ver. 1-9</A>.
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II. Preaching at Berea, where he met with an encouraging auditory, but
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was driven thence also by persecution,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:10-15">ver. 10-15</A>.
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III. Disputing at Athens, the famous university of Greece
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:16-21">ver. 16-21</A>),
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and the account he gave of natural religion, for the conviction of
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those that were addicted to polytheism and idolatry, and to lead them
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to the Christian religion
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:22-31">ver. 22-31</A>),
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together with the success of this sermon,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:32-34">ver. 32-34</A>.</P>
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<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
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<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Paul and Silas at Thessalonica.</I></FONT></TD>
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<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
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<P>
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<FONT SIZE=+1>1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia,
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they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews:
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2 And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three
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sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,
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3 Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered,
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and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach
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unto you, is Christ.
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4 And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas;
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and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief
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women not a few.
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5 But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto
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them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a
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company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the
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house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.
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6 And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain
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brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have
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turned the world upside down are come hither also;
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7 Whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the
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decrees of Cæsar, saying that there is another king, <I>one</I>
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Jesus.
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8 And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city, when
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they heard these things.
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9 And when they had taken security of Jason, and of the other,
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they let them go.
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</FONT></P>
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<P>
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Paul's two epistles to the Thessalonians, the first two he wrote by
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inspiration, give such a shining character of that church, that we
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cannot but be glad here in the history to meet with an account of the
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first founding of the church there.</P>
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<P>
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I. Here is Paul's coming to Thessalonica, which was the chief city of
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this country, called at this day <I>Salonech,</I> in the Turkish
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dominions. Observe,
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1. Paul went on with his work, notwithstanding the ill usage he had met
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with at Philippi; he did not fail, nor was discouraged. He takes notice
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of this in his first epistle to the church here
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Th+2:2">1 Thess. ii. 2</A>):
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<I>After we were shamefully treated at Philippi, yet we were bold in
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our God to speak unto you the gospel of God.</I> The opposition and
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persecution that he met with made him the more resolute. Note of these
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things moved him; he could never have held out, and held on, as he did,
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if he had not been animated by a spirit of power from on high.
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2. He did but <I>pass through Amphipolis and Apollonia,</I> the former
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a city near Philippi, the latter near Thessalonica; doubtless he was
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under divine direction, and was told by the Spirit (who, as the wind,
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bloweth where he listeth) what places he should pass through, and what
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he should rest in. Apollonia was a city of Illyricum, which, some
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think, illustrates that of Paul, that he had preached the gospel
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<I>from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+15:19">Rom. xv. 19</A>),
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that is, to the borders of Illyricum where he now was; and we may
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suppose though he is said only to <I>pass through</I> these cities, yet
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that he staid so long in them as to publish the gospel there, and to
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prepare the way for the entrance of other ministers among them, whom he
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would afterwards send.</P>
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<P>
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II. His preaching to the Jews first, in their synagogue at
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Thessalonica. He found a synagogue of the Jews there
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:1"><I>v.</I> 1</A>),
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which intimates that one reason why he passed through those other
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cities mentioned, and did not continue long in them, was because there
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were no synagogues in them. But, finding one in Thessalonica, by it he
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made his entry.
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1. It was always his manner to begin with the Jews, to make them the
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first offer of the gospel, and not to turn to the Gentiles till they
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had refused it, that their mouths might be stopped from clamouring
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against him because he preached to the Gentiles; for if they received
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the gospel they would cheerfully embrace the new converts; if they
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refused it, they might thank themselves if the apostles carried it to
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those that would bid it welcome. That command of beginning at Jerusalem
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was justly construed as a direction, wherever they came, to begin with
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the Jews.
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2. He met them in their synagogue on the sabbath day, in their place
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and at their time of meeting, and thus he would pay respect to both.
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Sabbaths and solemn assemblies are always very precious to those to
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whom Christ is precious,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+84:10">Ps. lxxxiv. 10</A>.
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It is good being in the house of the Lord on his day. This was Christ's
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manner, and Paul's manner, and has been the manner of all the saints,
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the <I>good old way</I> which they have walked in.
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3. He <I>reasoned with them out of the scriptures.</I> They agreed with
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him to receive the scriptures of the Old Testament: so far they were of
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a mind. But they received the scripture, and therefore thought they had
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reason to reject Christ; Paul received the scripture, and therefore saw
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great reason to embrace Christ. It was therefore requisite, in order to
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their conviction, that he should, by reasoning with them, the Spirit
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setting with him, convince them that his inferences from the scripture
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were right and theirs were wrong. Note, The preaching of the gospel
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should be both scriptural preaching and rational; such Paul's was, for
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he <I>reasoned out of the scriptures:</I> we must take the scriptures
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for our foundation, our oracle, and touchstone, and then reason out of
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them and upon them, and against those who, though they pretend zeal for
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the scriptures, as the Jews did, yet wrest them to their own
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destruction. Reason must not be set up in competition with the
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scripture, but it must be made use of in explaining and applying the
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scripture.
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4. He continued to do this <I>three sabbath days</I> successively. If
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he could not convince them the first sabbath, he would try the second
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and the third; for <I>precept must be upon precept, and line upon
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line.</I> God waits for sinners' conversion, and so must his ministers;
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all the labourers come not into the vineyard at the first hour, nor at
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the first call, nor are wrought upon so suddenly as the jailer.
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5. The drift and scope of his preaching and arguing was to prove that
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<I>Jesus is the Christ;</I> this was that which he opened and alleged,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:3"><I>v.</I> 3</A>.
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He first explained his thesis, and opened the terms, and then alleged
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it, and laid it down, as that which he would abide by, and which he
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summoned them in God's name to subscribe to. Paul had an admirable
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method of discourse; and showed he was himself both well apprized of
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the doctrine he preached and thoroughly understood it, and that he was
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fully assured of the truth of it, and therefore he opened it like one
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that believed it. He showed them,
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(1.) That it was necessary the Messiah should <I>suffer, and die, and
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rise again,</I> that the Old-Testament prophecies concerning the
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Messiah made it necessary he should. The great objection which the Jews
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made against Jesus being the Messiah was his ignominious death and
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sufferings. The <I>cross of Christ was to the Jews a
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stumbling-block,</I> because it did by no means agree with the idea
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they had framed of the Messiah; but Paul here alleges and makes it out
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undeniably, not only that it was possible he might be the Messiah,
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though he suffered, but that, being the Messiah, it was necessary he
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should suffer. He could not be made perfect but by sufferings; for, if
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he had not died, he could not have risen again from the dead. This was
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what Christ himself insisted upon
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+24:26">Luke xxiv. 26</A>):
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<I>Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into
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his glory?</I> And again
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+24:26"><I>v.</I> 46</A>):
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<I>Thus it is written, and</I> therefore <I>thus it behoved Christ to
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suffer, and to rise from the dead.</I> He must needs have suffered for
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us, because he could not otherwise purchase redemption for us; and he
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must needs have risen again because he could not otherwise apply the
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redemption to us.
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(2.) That Jesus is the Messiah: "<I>This Jesus whom I preach unto
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you,</I> and call upon you to believe in, <I>is Christ,</I> is the
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Christ, is the anointed of the Lord, is he that should come, and you
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are to look for no other; for God has both by his word and by his works
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(the two ways of his speaking to the children of men), by the
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scriptures and by miracles, and the gift of the Spirit to make both
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effectual, borne witness to him." Note,
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[1.] Gospel ministers should preach Jesus; he must be their principal
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subject; their business is to bring people acquainted with him.
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[2.] That which we are to preach concerning Jesus is that he is Christ;
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and therefore we may hope to be saved by him and are bound to be ruled
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by him.</P>
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<P>
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III. The success of his preaching there,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:4"><I>v.</I> 4</A>.
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1. Some of the Jews believed, notwithstanding their rooted prejudices
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against Christ and his gospel, and they <I>consorted with Paul and
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Silas:</I> they not only associated with them as friends and
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companions, but they gave up themselves to their direction, as their
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spiritual guides; they put themselves into their possession as an
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inheritance into the possession of the right owner, so the word
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signifies; they first <I>gave themselves to the Lord,</I> and then to
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them <I>by the will of God,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Co+8:5">2 Cor. viii. 5</A>.
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They adhered to Paul and Silas, and attended them wherever they went.
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Note, Those that believe in Jesus Christ come into communion with his
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faithful ministers, and associate with them.
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2. Many more of the devout Greeks, and of the chief women, embraced the
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gospel. These were proselytes of the gate, the <I>godly among the
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Gentiles</I> (so the Jews called them), such as, though they did not
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submit to the law of Moses, yet renounced idolatry and immorality,
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worshipped the true God only, and did not man any wrong. These were
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<B><I>hoi sebomenoi Hellenes</I></B>--<I>the worshipping Gentiles;</I>
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as in America they call those of the natives that are converted to the
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faith of Christ the <I>praying Indians.</I> These were admitted to join
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with the Jews in their synagogue-worship. Of these <I>a great
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multitude believed,</I> more of them than of the thorough-paced Jews,
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who were wedded to the ceremonial law. And not a few of the chief women
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of the city, that were devout and had a sense of religion, embraced
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Christianity. Particular notice is taken of this, for an example to the
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ladies, the chief women, and an encouragement to them to employ
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themselves in the exercises of devotion and to submit themselves to the
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commanding power of Christ's holy religion, in all the instances of it;
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for this intimates how acceptable it will be to God, what an honour to
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Christ, and what great influence it may have upon many, besides the
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advantages of it to their own souls. No mention is here made of their
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preaching the gospel to the Gentile idolaters at Thessalonica, and yet
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it is certain that they did, and that great numbers were converted;
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nay, it should seem that of the Gentile converts that church was
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chiefly composed, though notice is not taken of them here; for Paul
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writes to the Christians there as having <I>turned to God from
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idols</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Th+1:9">1 Thess. i. 9</A>),
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and that at the first entering in of the apostles among them.</P>
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<P>
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IV. The trouble that was given to Paul and Silas at Thessalonica.
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Wherever they preached, they were sure to be persecuted; bonds and
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afflictions awaited them in every city. Observe,</P>
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<P>
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1. Who were the authors of their trouble: the <I>Jews who believed not,
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who were moved with envy,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:5"><I>v.</I> 5</A>.
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The Jews were in all places the most inveterate enemies to the
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Christians, especially to those Jews that turned Christians, against
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whom they had a particular spleen, as deserters. Now see what that
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division was which Christ came to send upon earth; some of the Jews
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believed the gospel and pitied and prayed for those that did not; while
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those that did not envied and hated those that did. St. Paul in his
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epistle to this church takes notice of the rage and enmity of the Jews
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against the preachers of the gospel, as their measure-filling sin.
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Th+2:15,16">1 Thess. ii. 15, 16</A>.</P>
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<P>
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2. Who were the instruments of the trouble: the Jews made use of
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<I>certain lewd persons of the baser sort,</I> whom they picked up and
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got together, and who must undertake to give the sense of the city
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against the apostles. All wise and sober people looked upon them with
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respect, and valued them, and none would appear against them but such
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as were the scum of the city, a company of vile men, that were given to
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all manner of wickedness. Tertullian pleads this with those that
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opposed Christianity, that the enemies of it were generally the worst
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of men: <I>Tales semper nobis insecutores, injusti, impii, turpes,
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quos, et ipsi damnare consuestis--Our persecutors are invariably unjust,
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impious, infamous, whom you yourselves have been accustomed to
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condemn.</I>--Apologia, cap. 5. It is the honour of religion that those
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who hate it are generally the <I>lewd fellows of the baser sort,</I>
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that are lost to all sense of justice and virtue.</P>
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<P>
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3. In what method they proceeded against them.
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(1.) They <I>set the city in an uproar,</I> made a noise to put people
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in a fright, and then every body ran to see what the matter was; they
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began a riot, and then the mob was up presently. See who are the
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troublers of Israel--not the faithful preachers of the gospel, but the
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enemies of it. See how the devil carries on his designs; he sets cities
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in an uproar, sets souls in an uproar, and then fishes in troubled
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waters.
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(2.) They <I>assaulted the house of Jason,</I> where the apostles
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lodged, with a design <I>to bring them out to the people,</I> whom they
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had incensed and enraged against them, and by whom they hoped to see
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them pulled to pieces. The proceedings here were altogether illegal; of
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Jason's house must be searched, it ought to be done by the proper
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officers, and not without a warrant: "A man's house," the law says, "is
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his castle," and for them in a tumultuous manner to assault a man's
|
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house, to put him and his family in fear, was but to show to what
|
|
outrages men are carried by a spirit of persecution. If men have
|
|
offended, magistrates are appointed to enquire into the offence, and to
|
|
judge of it; but to make the rabble judges and executioners too (as
|
|
these Jews designed to do) was to make truth fall in the street, to set
|
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servants on horseback, and leave princes to walk as servants on the
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earth--to depose equity, and enthrone fury.
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(3.) When they could not get the apostles into their hands (whom they
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would have punished as vagabonds, and incensed the people against as
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strangers that came to spy out the land, and devour its strength, and
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eat the bread out of their mouths), then they fall upon an honest
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citizen of their own, who entertained the apostles in his house, his
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name <I>Jason,</I> a converted Jew, and drew him out with some others
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of the brethren to the rulers of the city. The apostles were advised to
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withdraw, for they were more obnoxious, <I>Currenti cede furori--Retire
|
|
before the torrent.</I> But their friends were willing to expose
|
|
themselves, being better able to weather this storm. <I>For a good
|
|
man,</I> for such good men as the apostles were, <I>some would even
|
|
dare to die.</I>
|
|
|
|
(4.) They accused them to the rulers, and represented them a dangerous
|
|
persons, not fit to be tolerated; the crime charged upon Jason is
|
|
receiving and harbouring the apostles
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:7"><I>v.</I> 7</A>),
|
|
|
|
countenancing them and promoting their interest. And what was the
|
|
apostles' crime, that it should be no less than misprision of treason
|
|
to give them lodging? Two very black characters are here given them,
|
|
enough to make them odious to the people and obnoxious to the
|
|
magistrates, if they had been just:--
|
|
|
|
[1.] That they were enemies to the public peace, and threw every thing
|
|
into disorder wherever they came: <I>Those that have turned the world
|
|
upside down are come hither also.</I> In one sense it is true that
|
|
wherever the gospel comes in its power to any place, to any soul, it
|
|
works such a change there, gives such a wide change to the stream, so
|
|
directly contrary to what it was, that it may be said to turn the world
|
|
upside down in that place, in that soul. The love of the world is
|
|
rooted out of the heart, and the way of the world contradicted in the
|
|
life; so that the world turned upside down there. But in the sense in
|
|
which they meant it, it is utterly false; they would have it thought
|
|
that the preachers of the gospel were incendiaries and mischief makers
|
|
wherever they came, that they sowed discord among relations, set
|
|
neighbours together by the ears, obstructed commerce, and inverted all
|
|
order and regularity. Because they persuaded people to turn from vice
|
|
to virtue, from idols to the living and true God, from malice and envy
|
|
to love and peace, they are charged with turning the world upside down,
|
|
when it was only the kingdom of the devil in the world that they thus
|
|
overturned. Their enemies <I>set the city in an uproar,</I> and then
|
|
laid the blame upon them; as Nero set Rome on fire, and then charged it
|
|
upon the Christians. If Christ's faithful ministers, even those that
|
|
are most quiet in the land, be thus invidiously misrepresented and
|
|
miscalled, let them not think it strange nor be exasperated by it; we
|
|
are not better than Paul and Silas, who were thus abused. The accusers
|
|
cry out, "They are <I>come hither also;</I> they have been doing all
|
|
the mischief they could in other places, and now they have brought the
|
|
infection hither; it is therefore time for us to bestir ourselves and
|
|
make head against them."
|
|
|
|
[2.] That they were enemies to the established government, and
|
|
disaffected to that, and their principles and practices were
|
|
destructive to monarchy and inconsistent with the constitution of the
|
|
state
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:7"><I>v.</I> 7</A>):
|
|
|
|
They all <I>do contrary to the decrees of Cæsar;</I> not to any
|
|
particular decree, for there was as yet no law of the empire against
|
|
Christianity, but contrary to Cæsar's power in general to make
|
|
decrees; for they say, <I>There is another king, one Jesus,</I> not
|
|
only a king of the Jews, as our Saviour was himself charged before
|
|
Pilate, but <I>Lord of all;</I> so Peter called him in the first sermon
|
|
he preached to the Gentiles,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+10:36"><I>ch.</I> x. 36</A>.
|
|
|
|
It is true the Roman government, both while it was a commonwealth and
|
|
after it came into the Cæsar's hands, was very jealous of any
|
|
governor under their dominion taking upon him the title of king, and
|
|
there was an express law against it. But Christ's <I>kingdom was not of
|
|
this world.</I> His followers said indeed, Jesus is a king, but not an
|
|
earthly king, not a rival with Cæsar, nor his ordinances
|
|
interfering with the decrees of Cæsar, but who had made it a law
|
|
of his kingdom to <I>render unto Cæsar the things that are
|
|
Cæsar's.</I> There was nothing in the doctrine of Christ that
|
|
tended to the dethroning of princes, nor the depriving them of any of
|
|
their prerogatives. The Jews knew this very well, and it was against
|
|
their consciences that they brought such a charge against the apostles;
|
|
and of all people it ill became the Jews to do it, who hated
|
|
Cæsar and his government, and sought the ruin of him and it, and
|
|
who expected a Messiah that should be a temporal prince, and overturn
|
|
the thrones of kingdoms, and were therefore opposing our Lord Jesus
|
|
because he did not appear under that character. Thus those have been
|
|
most spiteful in representing God's faithful people as enemies to
|
|
Cæsar, and hurtful to kings and provinces, who have been
|
|
themselves setting up <I>imperium in imperio--a kingdom within a
|
|
kingdom,</I> a power not only in competition with Cæsar's but
|
|
superior to it, that of the papal supremacy.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
4. The great uneasiness which this gave to this city
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:8"><I>v.</I> 8</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>They troubled the people and the rulers of the city, when they heard
|
|
these things.</I> They had no ill opinion of the apostles or their
|
|
doctrine, could not apprehend any danger to the state from them, and
|
|
therefore were willing to connive at them; but, if they be represented
|
|
to them by the prosecutors as enemies to Cæsar, they will be
|
|
obliged to take cognizance of them, and to suppress them, for fear of
|
|
the government, and this troubled them. Claudius, who then held the
|
|
reins of government, is represented by Suetonius as a man very jealous
|
|
of the least commotion and timorous to the last degree, which obliged
|
|
the rulers under him to be watchful against every thing that looked
|
|
dangerous, or gave the least cause of suspicion; and therefore it
|
|
troubled them to be brought under a necessity of disturbing good
|
|
men.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
5. The issue of this troublesome affair. The magistrates had no mind to
|
|
prosecute the Christians. Care was taken to secure the apostles; they
|
|
absconded, and fled, and kept out of their hands; so that nothing was
|
|
to be done but to discharge Jason and his friends upon bail,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:9"><I>v.</I> 9</A>.
|
|
|
|
The magistrates here were not so easily incensed against the apostles
|
|
as the magistrates at Philippi were, but were more considerate and of
|
|
better temper; so they <I>took security of Jason and the other,</I>
|
|
bound them to their good behavior; and perhaps they gave bond for Paul
|
|
and Silas, that they should be forthcoming when they were called for,
|
|
if any thing should afterwards appear against them. Among the
|
|
persecutors of Christianity, as there have been instances of the
|
|
madness and rage of brutes, so there have been likewise of the prudence
|
|
and temper of men; moderation has been a virtue.</P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Ac17_10"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac17_11"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac17_12"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac17_13"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac17_14"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac17_15"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec2"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>The Noble Bereans; Paul and Silas at Berea.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>10 And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by
|
|
night unto Berea: who coming <I>thither</I> went into the synagogue of
|
|
the Jews.
|
|
11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that
|
|
they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched
|
|
the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
|
|
12 Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women
|
|
which were Greeks, and of men, not a few.
|
|
13 But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the
|
|
word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither
|
|
also, and stirred up the people.
|
|
14 And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go as it
|
|
were to the sea: but Silas and Timotheus abode there still.
|
|
15 And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens: and
|
|
receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to
|
|
him with all speed, they departed.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
In these verses we have,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. Paul and Silas removing to Berea, and employed in preaching the
|
|
gospel there,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:10"><I>v.</I> 10</A>.
|
|
|
|
They had proceeded so far at Thessalonica that the foundations of a
|
|
church were laid, and others were raised up to carry on the work that
|
|
was begun, against whom the rulers and people were not so much
|
|
prejudiced as they were against Paul and Silas; and therefore when the
|
|
storm rose they withdrew, taking this as an indication to them that
|
|
they must quit that place for the present. That command of Christ to
|
|
his disciples, <I>When they persecute you in one city flee to
|
|
another,</I> intends their flight to be not so much for their own
|
|
safety ("flee to another, to hide there") as for the carrying on of
|
|
their work ("flee to another, to preach there"), as appears by the
|
|
reason given--<I>You shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till
|
|
the Son of man come,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+10:23">Matt. x. 23</A>.
|
|
|
|
Thus out of the eater came forth meat, and the devil was outshot in his
|
|
own bow; he thought by persecuting the apostles to stop the progress of
|
|
the gospel, but it was so overruled as to be made to further it. See
|
|
here,
|
|
|
|
1. The care that the brethren took of Paul and Silas, when they
|
|
perceived how the plot was laid against them: They <I>immediately sent
|
|
them away by night,</I> incognito, <I>to Berea.</I> This could be no
|
|
surprise to the young converts; <I>For when we were with you</I> (saith
|
|
Paul to them,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Th+3:4">1 Thess. iii. 4</A>),
|
|
|
|
when we came first among you, <I>we told you that we should suffer
|
|
tribulation, even as it came to pass, and you know.</I> It should seem
|
|
that Paul and Silas would willingly have staid, and faced the storm, if
|
|
the brethren would have let them; but they would rather be deprived of
|
|
the apostles' help than expose their lives, which, it should seem, were
|
|
dearer to their friends than to themselves. They <I>sent them away by
|
|
night,</I> under the covert of that, as if they had been evil doers.
|
|
|
|
2. The constancy of Paul and Silas in their work. Though they fled
|
|
from Thessalonica, they did not flee from the service of Christ. When
|
|
<I>they came to Berea, they went into the synagogue of the Jews,</I>
|
|
and made their public appearance there. Though the Jews at Thessalonica
|
|
had been their spiteful enemies, and, for aught they knew, the Jews at
|
|
Berea would be so too, yet they did not therefore decline paying their
|
|
respect to the Jews, either in revenge for the injuries they had
|
|
received or for fear of what they might receive. If others will not do
|
|
their duty to us, yet we ought to do ours to them.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. The good character of the Jews in Berea
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:11"><I>v.</I> 11</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>These were more noble than those in Thessalonica.</I> The Jews in
|
|
the synagogue at Berea were better disposed to receive the gospel than
|
|
the Jews in the synagogue at Thessalonica; they were not so bigoted and
|
|
prejudiced against it, not so peevish and ill-natured; they <I>were
|
|
more noble,</I> <B><I>eugenesteroi</I></B>--<I>better bred.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. They had a freer thought, and lay more open to conviction, were
|
|
willing to hear reason, and admit the force of it, and to subscribe to
|
|
that which appeared to them to be truth, though it was contrary to
|
|
their former sentiments. This was more noble.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. They had a better temper, were not so sour, and morose, and
|
|
ill-conditioned towards all that were not of their mind, As they were
|
|
ready to come into a unity with those that by the power of truth they
|
|
were brought to concur with, so they continued in charity with those
|
|
that they saw cause to differ from. This was more noble. They neither
|
|
prejudged the cause, nor were moved with envy at the managers of it, as
|
|
the Jews at Thessalonica were, but very generously gave both it and
|
|
them a fair hearing, without passion or partiality; for,
|
|
|
|
(1.) <I>They received the word with all readiness of mind;</I> they
|
|
were very willing to hear it, presently apprehended the meaning of it,
|
|
and did not shut their eyes against the light. <I>They attended to the
|
|
things that were spoken by Paul,</I> as Lydia did, and were very well
|
|
pleased to hear them. They did not pick quarrels with the word, nor
|
|
find fault, nor seek occasion against the preachers of it; but bade it
|
|
welcome, and put a candid construction upon every thing that was said.
|
|
Herein <I>they were more noble than the Jews in Thessalonica,</I> but
|
|
walked in the same spirit, and in the same steps, with the Gentiles
|
|
there, of whom it is said <I>that they received the word with joy of
|
|
the Holy Ghost,</I> and <I>turned to God from idols,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Th+1:6-9">1 Thess. i. 6-9</A>.
|
|
|
|
This was true nobility. The Jews gloried much in their being Abraham's
|
|
seed, thought themselves well-born and that they could not be better
|
|
born. But they are here told who among them were the most noble and
|
|
the best-bred men--those that were most disposed to receive the gospel,
|
|
and had the high and conceited thoughts in them subdued, and <I>brought
|
|
into obedience to Christ.</I> They were the most noble, and, if I may
|
|
so say, the most gentleman-like men. <I>Nobilitas sola est atque unica
|
|
virtus--Virtue and piety are true nobility,</I> true honour; and,
|
|
without these, <I>Stemmata quid prosunt?--What are pedigrees and
|
|
pompous titles worth?</I>
|
|
|
|
(2.) <I>They searched the scriptures daily whether those things were
|
|
so.</I> Their readiness of mind to receive the word was not such as
|
|
that they took things upon trust, swallowed them upon an implicit
|
|
faith: no; but since Paul reasoned out of the scriptures, and referred
|
|
them to the Old Testament for the proof of what he said, they had
|
|
recourse to their Bibles, turned to the places to which he referred
|
|
them, read the context, considered the scope and drift of them,
|
|
compared them with other places of scripture, examined whether Paul's
|
|
inferences from them were natural and genuine and his arguments upon
|
|
them cogent, and determined accordingly. Observe,
|
|
|
|
[1.] The doctrine of Christ does not fear a scrutiny. We that are
|
|
advocates for his cause desire no more than that people will not say,
|
|
<I>These things are not so,</I> till they have first, without prejudice
|
|
and partiality, examined whether they be so or no.
|
|
|
|
[2.] The New Testament is to be examined by the Old. The Jews received
|
|
the Old Testament, and those that did so, if they considered things
|
|
aright, could not but see cause sufficient to receive the New, because
|
|
in it they see all the prophecies and promises of the Old fully and
|
|
exactly accomplished.
|
|
|
|
[3.] Those that read and receive the scriptures must <I>search them</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=joh+5:39">John v. 39</A>),
|
|
|
|
must study them, and take pains in considering them, both that they may
|
|
find out the truth contained in them, and may not mistake the sense of
|
|
them and so run into error, or remain in it; and that they may find out
|
|
the whole truth contained in them, and may not rest in a superficial
|
|
knowledge, in the outward court of the scriptures, but may have an
|
|
intimate acquaintance with the mind of God revealed in them.
|
|
|
|
[4.] Searching the scriptures must be our daily work. Those that heard
|
|
<I>the word in the synagogue on the sabbath day</I> did not think this
|
|
enough, but were searching it every day in the week, that they might
|
|
improve what they ha heard the sabbath before, and prepare for what
|
|
they were to hear the sabbath after.
|
|
|
|
[5.] Those are truly noble, and are in a fair way to be more and more
|
|
so, that make the scriptures their oracle and touchstone, and consult
|
|
them accordingly. Those that rightly study the scriptures, and
|
|
<I>meditate therein day and night,</I> have their minds filled with
|
|
noble thoughts, fixed to noble principles, and formed for noble aims
|
|
and designs. <I>These are more noble.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
III. The good effect of the preaching of the gospel at Berea: it had
|
|
the desired success; the people's hearts being prepared, a great deal
|
|
of work was done suddenly,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:12"><I>v.</I> 12</A>.
|
|
|
|
1. Of the Jews there were many that believed. At Thessalonica there
|
|
were only <I>some of them that believed</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:4"><I>v.</I> 4</A>),
|
|
|
|
but at Berea, where they heard with unprejudiced minds, many believed,
|
|
many more Jews than at Thessalonica. Note, God gives grace to those
|
|
whom he first inclines to make a diligent use of the means of grace,
|
|
and particularly to search the scriptures.
|
|
|
|
2. Of the Greeks likewise, the Gentiles, many believed, both of <I>the
|
|
honourable women,</I> the ladies of quality, <I>and of men not a
|
|
few,</I> men of the first rank, as should seem by their being mentioned
|
|
with the honourable women. The wives first embraced the gospel, and
|
|
then they persuaded their husbands to embrace it. <I>For what knowest
|
|
thou, O wife, but thou shalt save thy husband?</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+7:16">1 Cor. vii. 16</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
IV. The persecution that was raised against Paul and Silas at Berea,
|
|
which forced Paul thence.
|
|
|
|
1. <I>The Jews at Thessalonica</I> were the mischief-makers at
|
|
<I>Berea.</I> They <I>had notice that the word of God was preached at
|
|
Berea</I> (for envy and jealousy bring quick intelligence), and
|
|
likewise that the Jews there were not so inveterately set against it as
|
|
they were. They came thither also, to turn the world upside down there,
|
|
<I>and they stirred up the people,</I> and incensed them against the
|
|
preachers of the gospel; as if they had such a commission from the
|
|
prince of darkness to go from place to place to oppose the gospel as
|
|
the apostles had to go from place to place to preach it. Thus we read
|
|
before that the Jews of Antioch and Iconium came to Lystra on purpose
|
|
to incense the people against the apostles,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+14:19"><I>ch.</I> xiv. 19</A>.
|
|
|
|
See how restless Satan's agents are in their opposition to the gospel
|
|
of Christ and the salvation of the souls of men. This is an instance of
|
|
the enmity that is in the serpent's seed against the seed of the woman;
|
|
and we must not think it strange if persecutors at home extend their
|
|
rage to stir up persecution abroad.
|
|
|
|
2. This occasioned Paul's removal to Athens. By seeking to extinguish
|
|
this divine fire which Christ had already kindled, they did but spread
|
|
it the further and the faster; so long Paul staid at Berea, and such
|
|
success he had there, that there were brethren there, and sensible
|
|
active men too, which appeared by the care they took of Paul,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:14"><I>v.</I> 14</A>.
|
|
|
|
They were aware of the coming of the persecuting Jews from
|
|
Thessalonica, and that they were busy in irritating the people against
|
|
Paul; and, fearing what it would come to, they lost no time, but
|
|
<I>immediately sent Paul away,</I> against whom they were most
|
|
prejudiced and enraged, hoping that this would pacify them, while they
|
|
retained Silas and Timothy there still, who, now that Paul had broken
|
|
the ice, might be sufficient to carry on the work without exposing him.
|
|
They <I>sent Paul to go even to the sea,</I> so some; <I>to go as it
|
|
were to the sea,</I> so we read it; <B><I>hos epi ten
|
|
thalassan.</I></B> He went out from Berea, in that road which went to
|
|
the sea, that the Jews, if they enquired after him, might think he had
|
|
gone to a great distance; but he went by land to Athens, in which there
|
|
was no culpable dissimulation at all. <I>Those that conducted Paul</I>
|
|
(as his guides and guards, he being both a stranger in the country and
|
|
one that had many enemies) <I>brought him to Athens.</I> The Spirit of
|
|
God, influencing his spirit, directed him to that famous city,--famous
|
|
of old for its power and dominion, when the Athenian commonwealth coped
|
|
with the Spartan,--famous afterwards for learning; it was the
|
|
rendezvous of scholars. Those who wanted learning went thither to show
|
|
it. It was a great university, much resorted to from all parts, and
|
|
therefore, for the better diffusing of gospel light, Paul is sent
|
|
thither, and is not ashamed nor afraid to show his face among the
|
|
philosophers there, and there to preach Christ crucified, though he
|
|
knew it would be as much foolishness to the Greeks as it was to the
|
|
Jews a stumbling-block.
|
|
|
|
3. He ordered <I>Silas and Timothy to come to him to Athens,</I> when
|
|
he found there was a prospect of doing good there; or because, there
|
|
being none there that he knew, he was solitary and melancholy without
|
|
them. Yet it should seem that, great as was the haste he was in for
|
|
them, he ordered Timothy to go about Thessalonica, to bring him an
|
|
account of the affairs of that church; for he says
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Th+3:1,2">1 Thess. iii. 1, 2</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>We thought it good to be left at Athens alone, and sent Timotheus to
|
|
establish you.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Ac17_16"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac17_17"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac17_18"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac17_19"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac17_20"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac17_21"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec3"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Paul at Athens.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was
|
|
stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.
|
|
17 Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and
|
|
with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that
|
|
met with him.
|
|
18 Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the
|
|
Stoics, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler
|
|
say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods:
|
|
because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection.
|
|
19 And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying,
|
|
May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, <I>is?</I>
|
|
20 For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we
|
|
would know therefore what these things mean.
|
|
21 (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent
|
|
their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some
|
|
new thing.)
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
A scholar that has acquaintance, and is in love, with the learning of
|
|
the ancients, would think he should be very happy if he were where Paul
|
|
now was, at Athens, in the midst of the various sects of philosophers,
|
|
and would have a great many curious questions to ask them, for the
|
|
explication of the remains we have of the Athenian learning; but Paul,
|
|
though bred a scholar, and an ingenious active man, does not make this
|
|
any of his business at Athens. He has other work to mind: it is not the
|
|
improving of himself in their philosophy that he aims at, he has
|
|
learned to call it a vain thing, and is above it
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Col+2:8">Col. ii. 8</A>);
|
|
|
|
his business is, in God's name, to correct their disorders in religion,
|
|
and <I>to turn them from the service of idols,</I> and of Satan in
|
|
them, to the <I>service of the true and living God</I> in Christ.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. Here is the impression which the abominable ignorance and
|
|
superstition of the Athenians made upon Paul's spirit,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:16"><I>v.</I> 16</A>.
|
|
|
|
Observe,
|
|
|
|
1. The account here given of that city: it was <I>wholly given to
|
|
idolatry.</I> This agrees with the account which the heathen writers
|
|
give of it, that there were more idols in Athens than there were in all
|
|
Greece besides put together, and that they had twice as many sacred
|
|
feasts as others had. Whatever strange gods were recommended to them,
|
|
they admitted them, and allowed them a temple and an altar, <I>so that
|
|
they had almost as many gods as men--facilius possis deum quam hominem
|
|
invenire.</I> And this city, after the empire became Christian,
|
|
continued incurably addicted to idolatry, and all the pious edicts of
|
|
the Christian emperors could not root it out, till, by the irruption of
|
|
the Goths, that city was in so particular a manner laid waste that
|
|
there are now scarcely any remains of it. It is observable that there,
|
|
where human learning most flourished, idolatry most abounded, and the
|
|
most absurd and ridiculous idolatry, which confirms that of the
|
|
apostle, that when <I>they professed themselves to be wise they became
|
|
fools</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+1:22">Rom. i. 22</A>),
|
|
|
|
and, in the business of religion, were of all other the most <I>vain in
|
|
their imaginations. The world by wisdom knew not God,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+1:21">1 Cor. i. 21</A>.
|
|
|
|
They might have reasoned against polytheism and idolatry; but, it
|
|
seems, the greatest pretenders to reason were the greatest slaves to
|
|
idols: so necessary was it to the re-establishing even of natural
|
|
religion that there should be a divine revelation, and that centering
|
|
in Christ.
|
|
|
|
2. The disturbance which the sight of this gave to Paul. Paul was not
|
|
willing to appear publicly till Silas and Timothy came to him, that out
|
|
of the mouth of two or three witnesses the word might be established;
|
|
but in the mean time <I>his spirit was stirred within him.</I> He was
|
|
filled with concern for the glory of God, which he saw given to idols,
|
|
and with compassion to the souls of men, which he saw thus enslaved to
|
|
Satan, <I>and led captive by him at his will.</I> He beheld these
|
|
transgressors, and was grieved; and horror took hold of him. He had a
|
|
holy indignation at the heathen priests, that led the people such an
|
|
endless trace of idolatry, and at their philosophers, that knew better,
|
|
and yet never said a word against it, but themselves went down the
|
|
stream.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. The testimony that he bore against their idolatry, and his
|
|
endeavours to bring them to the knowledge of the truth. He did not, as
|
|
Witsius observes, in the heat of his zeal break into the temples, pull
|
|
down their images, demolish their altars, or fly in the face of their
|
|
priests; nor did he run about the streets crying, "You are all the
|
|
bond-slaves of the devil," though it was too true; but he observed
|
|
decorum, and kept himself within due bounds, doing that only which
|
|
became a prudent man.
|
|
|
|
1. He <I>went to the synagogue of the Jews,</I> who, though enemies to
|
|
Christianity, were free from idolatry, and joined with them in that
|
|
among them which was good, and took the opportunity given him there of
|
|
disputing for Christ,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:17"><I>v.</I> 17</A>.
|
|
|
|
He discoursed <I>with the Jews,</I> reasoned fairly with them, and put
|
|
it to them what reason they could give why, since they expected the
|
|
Messiah, they would not receive Jesus. There he met with the devout
|
|
persons that had forsaken the idol temples, but rested in the Jews'
|
|
synagogue, and he talked with these to lead them on to the Christian
|
|
church, to which the Jews' synagogue was but as a porch.
|
|
|
|
2. He entered into conversation with all that came in his way about
|
|
matters of religion: <I>In the market</I>--<B><I>en te agora,</I></B>
|
|
in the exchange, or place of commerce, <I>he disputed daily,</I> as he
|
|
had occasion, <I>with those that met with him,</I> or that he happened
|
|
to fall into company with, that were heathen, and never came to the
|
|
Jews' synagogue. The zealous advocates for the cause of Christ will be
|
|
ready to plead it in all companies, as occasion offers. The ministers
|
|
of Christ must not think it enough to speak a good word for Christ once
|
|
a week, but should be daily speaking honourably of him to such as meet
|
|
with them.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
III. The enquiries which some of the philosophers made concerning
|
|
Paul's doctrine. Observe,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. Who they were that encountered him, that entered into discourse with
|
|
him, and opposed him: <I>He disputed with all that met him, in the
|
|
places of concourse,</I> or rather of discourse. Most took no notice of
|
|
him, slighted him, and never minded a word he said; but there were some
|
|
of the philosophers that thought him worth making remarks upon, an they
|
|
were those whose principles were most directly contrary to
|
|
Christianity.
|
|
|
|
(1.) <I>The Epicureans,</I> who <I>thought God altogether such a one as
|
|
themselves,</I> an idle inactive being, that minded nothing, nor put
|
|
any difference between good and evil. They would not own, either that
|
|
God made the world or that he governs it; nor that man needs to make
|
|
any conscience of what he says or does, having no punishment to fear
|
|
nor rewards to hope for, all which loose atheistical notions
|
|
Christianity is levelled against. The Epicureans indulged themselves in
|
|
all the pleasures of sense, and placed their happiness in them, in what
|
|
Christ has taught us in the first place to deny ourselves.
|
|
|
|
(2.) <I>The Stoics,</I> who thought themselves altogether as good as
|
|
God, and indulged themselves as much in the pride of life as the
|
|
Epicureans did in the lusts of the flesh and of the eye; they made
|
|
their virtuous man to be no way inferior to God himself, nay to be
|
|
superior. <I>Esse aliquid quo sapiens antecedat Deum--There is that in
|
|
which a wise man excels God,</I> so Seneca: to which Christianity is
|
|
directly opposite, as it teaches us to deny ourselves and abase
|
|
ourselves, and to come off from all confidence in ourselves, that
|
|
Christ may be all in all.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. What their different sentiments were of him; such there were as
|
|
there were of Christ,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:18"><I>v.</I> 18</A>.
|
|
|
|
(1.) <I>Some called him a babbler,</I> and thought he spoke, without
|
|
any design, whatever came uppermost, as men of crazed imaginations do:
|
|
<I>What will this babbler say?</I> <B><I>ho spermologos
|
|
houtos</I></B>--<I>this scatterer of words,</I> that goes about,
|
|
throwing here one idle word or story and there another, without any
|
|
intendment or signification; or, <I>this picker up of seeds.</I> Some
|
|
of the critics tell us that the term is used for <I>a little sort of
|
|
bird,</I> that is worth nothing at all, either for the spit or for the
|
|
cage, <I>that picks up the seeds that lie uncovered, either in the
|
|
field or by the way-side, and hops here and there for that
|
|
purpose--Avicula parva quæ semina in triviis dispersa colligere
|
|
solet;</I> such a pitiful contemptible animal they took Paul to be, or
|
|
supposed he went from place to place venting his notions to get money,
|
|
a penny here and another there, as that bird picks up here and there a
|
|
grain. They looked upon him as an idle fellow, and regarded him, as we
|
|
say, no more than a ballad-singer.
|
|
|
|
(2.) <I>Others</I> called him <I>a setter forth of strange gods,</I>
|
|
and thought he spoke with design to make himself considerable by that
|
|
means. And, if he had strange gods to set forth, he could not bring
|
|
them to a better market than to Athens. He did not, as many did,
|
|
directly set forth new gods, nor avowedly; but they thought he seemed
|
|
to do so, <I>because he preached unto then Jesus, and the
|
|
resurrection.</I> From his first coming among them he ever and anon
|
|
harped upon these two strings, which are indeed the principal doctrines
|
|
of Christianity--Christ and a future state--Christ our way, and heaven
|
|
our end; and, though he did not call these gods, yet they thought he
|
|
meant to make them so. <B><I>Ton Iesoun kai ten anastasin,</I></B>
|
|
"Jesus they took for a new god, and <I>anastasis,</I> the resurrection,
|
|
for a new goddess." Thus they lost the benefit of the Christian
|
|
doctrine by dressing it up in a pagan dialect, as if believing in
|
|
Jesus, and looking for the resurrection, were the worshipping of new
|
|
demons.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
3. The proposal they made to give him a free, full, fair, and public
|
|
hearing,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:19,20"><I>v.</I> 19, 20</A>.
|
|
|
|
They had heard some broken pieces of his doctrine, and are willing to
|
|
have a more perfect knowledge of it.
|
|
|
|
(1.) They look upon it as strange and surprising, and very different
|
|
from the philosophy that had for many ages been taught and professed at
|
|
Athens. "It is a new doctrine, which we do not understand the drift
|
|
and design of. <I>Thou bringest certain strange things to our ears,</I>
|
|
which we never heard of before, and know not what to make of now." By
|
|
this it should seem that, among all the learned books they had, they
|
|
either had not, or heeded not, the books of Moses and the prophets,
|
|
else the doctrine of Christ would not have been so perfectly new and
|
|
strange to them. There was but one book in the world that was of divine
|
|
inspiration, and that was the only book they were strangers to, which,
|
|
if they would have given a due regard to it, would, in its very first
|
|
page, have determined that great controversy among them about the
|
|
origin of the universe.
|
|
|
|
(2.) They desired to know more of it, only because it was new and
|
|
strange: "<I>May we know what this new doctrine is?</I> Or, is it (like
|
|
the mysteries of the gods) to be kept as a profound secret? If it may
|
|
be, we would gladly know, and desire thee to tell us, <I>what these
|
|
things mean,</I> that we may be able to pass a judgment upon them."
|
|
This was a fair proposal; it was fit they should know what this
|
|
doctrine was before they embraced it; and they were so fair as not to
|
|
condemn it till they had had some account of it.
|
|
|
|
(3.) The place they brought him to, in order to this public declaration
|
|
of his doctrine; it was <I>to Areopagus,</I> the same word that is
|
|
translated
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:22"><I>v.</I> 22</A>)
|
|
|
|
<I>Mars' Hill;</I> it was the town-house, or guildhall of their city,
|
|
where the magistrates met upon public business, and the courts of
|
|
justice were kept; and it was as the theatre in the university, or the
|
|
schools, where learned men met to communicate their notions. The court
|
|
of justice which sat here was famous for its equity, which drew appeals
|
|
to it from all parts; if any denied a God, he was liable to the censure
|
|
of this court. Diagoras was by them put to death, as a contemner of the
|
|
gods; nor might any new God be admitted without their approbation.
|
|
Hither they brought Paul to be tried, not as a criminal but as a
|
|
candidate.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
4. The general character of the people of that city given upon this
|
|
occasion
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:21"><I>v.</I> 21</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>All the Athenians,</I> that is natives of the place, and strangers
|
|
who sojourned there for their improvement, <I>spent their time in
|
|
nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing,</I> which
|
|
comes in as the reason why they were inquisitive concerning Paul's
|
|
doctrine, not because it was <I>good,</I> but because it was
|
|
<I>new.</I> It is a very sorry character which is here given of these
|
|
people, yet many transcribe it.
|
|
|
|
(1.) They were all for conversation. St. Paul exhorts his pupil to
|
|
<I>give attendance to reading and meditation</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Ti+4:13,15">1 Tim. iv. 13, 15</A>),
|
|
|
|
but these people despised those old-fashioned ways of getting
|
|
knowledge, and preferred that of telling and hearing. It is true that
|
|
good company is of great use to a man, and will polish one that has
|
|
laid a good foundation in study; but that knowledge will be very flashy
|
|
and superficial which is got by conversation only.
|
|
|
|
(2.) They affected novelty; they were for <I>telling and hearing some
|
|
new thing.</I> They were for new schemes and new notions in philosophy,
|
|
new forms and plans of government in politics, and, in religion, for
|
|
new gods that came newly up
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+32:17">Deut. xxxii. 17</A>),
|
|
|
|
new demons, new-fashioned images and altars
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+16:10">2 Kings xvi. 10</A>);
|
|
|
|
they were given to change. Demosthenes, an orator of their own, had
|
|
charged this upon them long before, in one of his Philippics, that
|
|
their common question in the markets, or wherever they met, was
|
|
<B><I>ei ti le etai neoteron</I></B>--<I>whether there was any
|
|
news.</I>
|
|
|
|
(3.) They meddled in other people's business, and were inquisitive
|
|
concerning that, and never minded their own. Tattlers are always
|
|
<I>busy bodies,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Ti+5:13">1 Tim. v. 13</A>.
|
|
|
|
(4.) <I>They spent their time in nothing else,</I> and a very
|
|
uncomfortable account those must needs have to make of their time who
|
|
thus spend it. Time is precious, and we are concerned to be good
|
|
husbands of it, because eternity depends upon it, and it is hastening
|
|
apace into eternity, but abundance of it is wasted in unprofitable
|
|
converse. To tell or hear the new occurrences of providence concerning
|
|
the public in our own or other nations, and concerning our neighbours
|
|
and friends, is of good use now and then; but to set up for
|
|
newsmongers, and to spend our time in nothing else, is to lose that
|
|
which is very precious for the gain of that which is worth little.</P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Ac17_22"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac17_23"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac17_24"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac17_25"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac17_26"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac17_27"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac17_28"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac17_29"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac17_30"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac17_31"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec4"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Paul at Athens.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, <I>Ye</I>
|
|
men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too
|
|
superstitious.
|
|
23 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an
|
|
altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore
|
|
ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
|
|
24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that
|
|
he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with
|
|
hands;
|
|
25 Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed
|
|
any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all
|
|
things;
|
|
26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell
|
|
on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times
|
|
before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
|
|
27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel
|
|
after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of
|
|
us:
|
|
28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain
|
|
also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
|
|
29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not
|
|
to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone,
|
|
graven by art and man's device.
|
|
30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now
|
|
commandeth all men every where to repent:
|
|
31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge
|
|
the world in righteousness by <I>that</I> man whom he hath ordained;
|
|
<I>whereof</I> he hath given assurance unto all <I>men,</I> in that he hath
|
|
raised him from the dead.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
We have here St. Paul's sermon at Athens. Divers sermons we have had,
|
|
which the apostles preached to the Jews, or such Gentiles as had an
|
|
acquaintance with and veneration for the Old Testament, and were
|
|
worshippers of the true and living God; and all they had to do with
|
|
them was to open and allege <I>that Jesus is the Christ;</I> but here
|
|
we have a sermon to heathens, that worshipped false gods, and were
|
|
without the true God in the world, and to them the scope of their
|
|
discourse was quite different from what it was to the other. In the
|
|
former case their business was to lead their hearers by prophecies and
|
|
miracles to the knowledge of the Redeemer, and faith in him; in the
|
|
latter it was to lead them by the common works of providence to the
|
|
knowledge of the Creator, and the worship of him. One discourse of this
|
|
kind we had before to the rude idolaters of Lystra that deified the
|
|
apostles
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+14:15"><I>ch.</I> xiv. 15</A>);
|
|
|
|
this recorded here is to the more polite and refined idolaters at
|
|
Athens, and an admirable discourse it is, and every way suited to his
|
|
auditory and the design he had upon them.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. He lays down this, as the scope of his discourse, that he aimed to
|
|
bring them to <I>the knowledge of the only living and true God,</I> as
|
|
the sole and proper object of their adoration. He is here obliged to
|
|
lay the foundation, and to instruct them in the first principle of all
|
|
religion, that there is a God, and that God is but one. When he
|
|
preached against the gods they worshipped, he had no design to draw
|
|
them to atheism, but to the service of the true Deity. Socrates, who
|
|
had exposed the pagan idolatry, was indicted in this very court, and
|
|
condemned, not only because he did not esteem those to be gods whom the
|
|
city esteemed to be so, but because he introduced new demons; and this
|
|
was the charge against Paul. Now he tacitly owns the former part of the
|
|
charge, but guards against the latter, by declaring that he does not
|
|
introduce any new gods, but reduce them <I>to the knowledge of one God,
|
|
the Ancient of days.</I> Now,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. He shows them that they needed to be instructed herein; for they had
|
|
lost the knowledge of the true God that made them, in the worship of
|
|
false gods that they had made (<I>Deos qui rogat ille facit--He who
|
|
worships the gods makes them): I perceive that in all things you are
|
|
too superstitious.</I> The crime he charges upon them is giving that
|
|
glory to others which is due to God only, that they feared and
|
|
worshipped demons, spirits that they supposed inhabited the images to
|
|
which they directed their worship. "It is time for you to be told that
|
|
<I>there is but one God</I> who are multiplying deities above any of
|
|
your neighbours, and mingle your idolatries with all your affairs.
|
|
<I>You are in all things too
|
|
superstitious</I>--<B><I>deisidaimonesteroi,</I></B> you easily admit
|
|
every thing that comes under a show of religion, but it is that which
|
|
corrupts it more and more; I bring you that which will reform it."
|
|
Their neighbours praised them for this as a pious people, but Paul
|
|
condemns them for it. Yet it is observable how he mollifies the charge,
|
|
does not aggravate it, to provoke them. He uses a word which among them
|
|
was taken in a good sense: <I>You are every way more than ordinarily
|
|
religious,</I> so some read it; <I>you are very devout in your way.</I>
|
|
Or, if it be taken in a bad sense, it is mitigated: "You are as it were
|
|
(<B><I>hos</I></B>) more superstitious than you need be;" and he says
|
|
no more than what he himself perceived; <B><I>theoro</I></B>--<I>I see
|
|
it, I observe it.</I> They charged Paul with setting forth new demons:
|
|
"Nay," says he, "you have demons enough already; I will not add to the
|
|
number of them."</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. He shows them that they themselves had given a fair occasion for the
|
|
declaring of this one true God to them, by <I>setting up an altar,</I>
|
|
To <I>the unknown God,</I> which intimated an acknowledgment that there
|
|
was a God who was yet to them <I>an unknown God;</I> and it is sad to
|
|
think that at Athens, a place which was supposed to have the monopoly
|
|
of wisdom, the true God was an unknown God, the only God that was
|
|
unknown. "Now you ought to bed Paul welcome, for this is the God whom
|
|
he comes to make known to you, the God whom you tacitly complain that
|
|
you are ignorant of." There, where we are sensible we are defective and
|
|
come short, just there, the gospel takes us up, and carries us on.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) Various conjectures the learned have concerning this <I>altar
|
|
dedicated to the unknown God.</I>
|
|
|
|
[1.] Some think the meaning is, <I>To the God whose honour it is to be
|
|
unknown,</I> and that they intended the God of the Jews, whose name is
|
|
ineffable, and whose nature is unsearchable. It is probable they had
|
|
heard from the Jews, and from the writings of the Old Testament, of the
|
|
God of Israel, who had proved himself to be above all gods, but was
|
|
<I>a God hiding himself,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+45:15">Isa. xlv. 15</A>.
|
|
|
|
The heathen called the Jews' God, <I>Deus incertus, incertum Mosis
|
|
Numen--an uncertain God, the uncertain Deity of Moses,</I> and the God
|
|
without name. Now <I>this God,</I> says Paul, <I>this God, who cannot
|
|
by searching be found out to perfection, I now declare unto you.</I>
|
|
|
|
[2.] Others think the meaning is, <I>To the God whom it is our
|
|
unhappiness not to know,</I> which intimates that they would think it
|
|
their happiness to know him. Some tell us that upon occasion of a
|
|
plague that raged at Athens, when they had sacrificed to all their gods
|
|
one after another for the staying of the plague, they were advised to
|
|
let some sheep go where they pleased, and, where they lay down, to
|
|
build an altar, <B><I>to prosekonti Theo</I></B>--<I>to the proper God,
|
|
or the God to whom that affair of staying the pestilence did
|
|
belong;</I> and, because they knew not how to call him, they inscribed
|
|
it, <I>To the unknown God.</I> Others, from some of the best historians
|
|
of Athens, tell us they had many altars inscribed, <I>To the gods of
|
|
Asia, Europe, and Africa--To the unknown God:</I> and some of the
|
|
neighbouring countries used to swear <I>by the God that was unknown at
|
|
Athens;</I> so Lucian.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) Observe, how modestly Paul mentions this. That he might not be
|
|
thought a spy, nor one that had intruded himself more than became a
|
|
stranger into the knowledge of their mysteries, he tells them that he
|
|
observed it <I>as he passed by, and saw their devotions,</I> or
|
|
<I>their sacred things.</I> It was public, and he could not forbear
|
|
seeing it, and it was proper enough to make his remarks upon the
|
|
religion of the place; and observe how prudently and ingeniously he
|
|
takes occasion from this to bring in his discourse of the true God.
|
|
|
|
[1.] He tells them that the God he preached to them was one that they
|
|
did already worship, and therefore he was not a setter forth of new or
|
|
strange gods: "As you have a dependence upon him, so he has had some
|
|
kind of homage from you."
|
|
|
|
[2.] He was one whom they ignorantly worshipped, which was a reproach
|
|
to them, who were famous all the world over for their knowledge. "Now,"
|
|
says he, "I come to take away <I>that reproach,</I> that you may
|
|
worship him understandingly whom how you worship ignorantly; and it
|
|
cannot but be acceptable to have your blind devotion turned into a
|
|
reasonable service, that you may not worship <I>you know not
|
|
what.</I>"</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. He confirms his doctrine of one living and true God, by his works
|
|
of creation and providence: "The God whom I declare unto you to be the
|
|
sole object of your devotion, and call you to the worship of, is <I>the
|
|
God that made the world</I> and governs it; and, by the visible proofs
|
|
of these, you may be led to this invisible Being, and be convinced of
|
|
his <I>eternal power and Godhead.</I>" The Gentiles in general, and the
|
|
Athenians particularly, in their devotions were governed, not by their
|
|
philosophers, many of whom spoke clearly and excellently well of one
|
|
supreme <I>Numen,</I> of his infinite perfections and universal agency
|
|
and dominion (witness the writings of Plato, and long after of Cicero);
|
|
but by their poets, and their idle fictions. Homer's works were the
|
|
Bible of the pagan theology, or demonology rather, not Plato's; and the
|
|
philosophers tamely submitted to this, rested in their speculations,
|
|
disputed them among themselves, and taught them to their scholars, but
|
|
never made the use they ought to have made of them in opposition to
|
|
idolatry; so little certainty were they at concerning them, and so
|
|
little impression did these things make upon them! Nay, they ran
|
|
themselves into the superstition of their country, and thought they
|
|
ought to do so. <I>Eamus ad communem errorem--Let us embrace the common
|
|
error.</I> Now Paul here sets himself, in the first place, to reform
|
|
the philosophy of the Athenians (he corrects the mistakes of that), and
|
|
to give them right notions of <I>the one only living and true God,</I>
|
|
and then to carry the matter further than they ever attempted for the
|
|
reforming of their worship, and the bringing them off from their
|
|
polytheism and idolatry. Observe what glorious things Paul here says of
|
|
that God whom he served, and would have them to serve.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. <I>He is the God that made the world, and all things therein; the
|
|
Father almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth.</I> This was admitted
|
|
by many of the philosophers; but those of Aristotle's school denied it,
|
|
and maintained "that the world was from eternity, and every thing
|
|
always was from eternity, and every thing always was what now it is."
|
|
Those of the school of Epicurus fancied "that the world was made by a
|
|
fortuitous concourse of atoms, which, having been in perpetual motion,
|
|
at length accidently jumped into this frame." Against both these Paul
|
|
here maintains that God by the operations of an infinite power,
|
|
according to the contrivance of an infinite wisdom, in the beginning of
|
|
time made the world and all things therein, the origin of which was
|
|
owing, not as they fancied to an eternal matter, but to an eternal
|
|
mind.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. He is therefore <I>Lord of heaven and earth,</I> that is, he is the
|
|
rightful owner, proprietor, and possessor, of all the beings, powers,
|
|
and riches of the upper and lower world, material and immaterial,
|
|
visible and invisible. This follows from his making heaven and earth.
|
|
If he created all, without doubt he has the disposing of all: and,
|
|
where he gives being, he has an indisputable right to give law.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
3. He is, in a particular manner, the Creator of men, of all men
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:26"><I>v.</I> 26</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>He made of one blood all nations of men.</I> He made the first man,
|
|
he makes every man, is the former of every man's body and the Father of
|
|
every man's spirit. He has made the nations of men, not only all men in
|
|
the nations, but as nations in their political capacity; he is their
|
|
founder, and disposed them into communities for their mutual
|
|
preservation and benefit. He made them all of one blood, of one and the
|
|
same nature; <I>he fashions their heart alike.</I> Descended from one
|
|
and the same common ancestor, in Adam they are all akin, so they are in
|
|
Noah, that hereby they might be engaged in mutual affection and
|
|
assistance, as fellow-creatures and brethren. <I>Have we not all one
|
|
Father? Hath not one God created us?</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mal+2:10">Mal. ii. 10</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>He hath made them to dwell on all the face of the earth,</I> which,
|
|
as a bountiful benefactor, <I>he has given,</I> with all its fulness,
|
|
<I>to the children of men.</I> He made them not to live in one place,
|
|
but to be dispersed over all the earth; one nation therefore ought not
|
|
to look with contempt upon another, as the Greeks did upon all other
|
|
nations; for those on all the face of the earth are of the same blood.
|
|
The Athenians boasted that they sprung out of their own earth, were
|
|
<I>aborigines,</I> and nothing akin by blood to any other nation, which
|
|
proud conceit of themselves the apostle here takes down.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
4. That he is the great benefactor of the whole creation
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:25"><I>v.</I> 25</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.</I> He not only
|
|
<I>breathed into the first man the breath of life,</I> but still
|
|
breathes it into every man. He gave us these souls he formed the spirit
|
|
of man within him. He not only gave us our life and breath, when he
|
|
brought us into being, but he is continually giving them to us; his
|
|
providence is a continued creation; he <I>holds our souls in life;</I>
|
|
every moment our breath goes forth, but he graciously gives it us again
|
|
the next moment; it is no only <I>his air that we breathe in, but it is
|
|
in his hand that our breath is,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Da+5:23">Dan. v. 23</A>.
|
|
|
|
He <I>gives to all the children of men their life and breath;</I> for
|
|
as the meanest of the children of men live upon him, and receive from
|
|
him, so the greatest, the wisest philosophers and mightiest potentates,
|
|
cannot live without him. <I>He gives to all,</I> not only to all the
|
|
children of men, but to the inferior creatures, to all animals,
|
|
<I>every thing wherein is the breath of life</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+6:17">Gen. vi. 17</A>);
|
|
|
|
they have their life and breath from him, and where he gives life and
|
|
breath he gives all things, all other things needful for the support of
|
|
life. <I>The earth is full of his goodness,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+104:24,27">Ps. civ. 24, 27</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
5. That he is the sovereign disposer of all the affairs of the children
|
|
of men, according to the counsel of his will
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:26"><I>v.</I> 26</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>He hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of
|
|
their habitation.</I> See here,
|
|
|
|
(1.) The sovereignty of God's disposal concerning us: he <I>hath
|
|
determined</I> every event, <B><I>horisas,</I></B> the matter is fixed;
|
|
the disposals of Providence are incontestable and must not be disputed,
|
|
unchangeable and cannot be altered.
|
|
|
|
(2.) The wisdom of his disposals; he hath <I>determined</I> what was
|
|
<I>before appointed.</I> The determinations of the Eternal Mind are not
|
|
sudden resolves, but the counterparts of an eternal counsel, the copies
|
|
of divine decrees. <I>He performeth the thing that is appointed for
|
|
me,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+23:14">Job xxiii. 14</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>Whatever comes forth from God was before all worlds hid in God.</I>
|
|
|
|
(3.) The things about which his providence is conversant; these are
|
|
time and place: the times and places of our living in this world are
|
|
determined and appointed by the God that made us.
|
|
|
|
[1.] <I>He has determined the times</I> that are concerning us. Times
|
|
to us seem changeable, but God has fixed them. <I>Our times are in his
|
|
hand,</I> to lengthen or shorten, embitter or sweeten, as he pleases.
|
|
He has appointed and determined the time of our coming into the world,
|
|
and the time of our continuance in the world; our time to be born, and
|
|
our time to die
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ec+3:1,2">Eccl. iii. 1, 2</A>),
|
|
|
|
and all that little that lies between them--the time of all our
|
|
concernments in this world. Whether they be prosperous times or
|
|
calamitous times, it is he that has determined them; and on him we must
|
|
depend, with reference to the times that are yet before us.
|
|
|
|
[2.] He has also <I>determined and appointed the bounds of our
|
|
habitation.</I> He that <I>appointed the earth to be a habitation for
|
|
the children of men</I> has appointed to the children of men a
|
|
distinction of habitations upon the earth, has instituted such a thing
|
|
as property, to which he has set bounds to keep us from trespassing one
|
|
upon another. The particular habitations in which our lot is cast, the
|
|
place of our nativity and of our settlement, are of God's determining
|
|
and appointing, which is a reason why we should accommodate ourselves
|
|
to the habitations we are in, and make the best of that which is.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
6. That <I>he is not far from every one of us,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:27"><I>v.</I> 27</A>.
|
|
|
|
He is every where present, not only is <I>at our right hand, but has
|
|
possessed our reins</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+139:13">Ps. cxxxix. 13</A>),
|
|
|
|
has his eye upon us at all times, and knows us better than we know
|
|
ourselves. Idolaters made images of God, that they might have him with
|
|
them in those images, the absurdity of which the apostle here shows;
|
|
for he in an infinite Spirit, <I>that is not far from any of us,</I>
|
|
and never the nearer, but in one sense the further off from us, for our
|
|
pretending to realize or presentiate him to ourselves by any image. He
|
|
is nigh unto us, both to receive the homage we render him and to give
|
|
the mercies we ask of him, wherever we are, though near no altar,
|
|
image, or temple. The Lord of all, as <I>he is rich</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+10:12">Rom. x. 12</A>),
|
|
|
|
so <I>he is nigh</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+4:7">Deut. iv. 7</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>to all that call upon him.</I> He that wills us to <I>pray every
|
|
where,</I> assures us that he is no where far from us; whatever
|
|
country, nation, or profession we are of, whatever our rank and
|
|
condition in the world are, be we in a palace or in a cottage, in a
|
|
crowd or in a corner, in a city or in a desert, in the depths of the
|
|
sea or afar off upon the sea, this is certain, <I>God is not far from
|
|
every one of us.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
7. That <I>in him we live, and move, and have our being,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:28"><I>v.</I> 28</A>.
|
|
|
|
We have a necessary and constant dependence upon his providence, as the
|
|
streams have upon the spring, and the beams upon the sun.
|
|
|
|
(1.) <I>In him we live;</I> that is, the continuance of our lives is
|
|
owing to him and the constant influence of his providence; <I>he is our
|
|
life, and the length of our days.</I> It is not only owing to his
|
|
patience and pity that our forfeited lives are not cut off, but it is
|
|
owing to his power, and goodness, and fatherly care, that our frail
|
|
lives are prolonged. There needs not a positive act of his wrath to
|
|
destroy us; if he suspend the positive acts of his goodness, we die of
|
|
ourselves.
|
|
|
|
(2.) <I>In him we move;</I> it is by the uninterrupted concourse of his
|
|
providence that our souls move in their outgoings and operations, that
|
|
our thoughts run to and fro about a thousand subjects, and our
|
|
affections run out towards their proper objects. It is likewise by him
|
|
that our souls move our bodies; we cannot stir a hand, or foot, or a
|
|
tongue, but by him, who, as he is the first cause, so he is the first
|
|
mover.
|
|
|
|
(3.) <I>In him we have our being;</I> not only from him we had it at
|
|
first, but in him we have it still; to his continued care and goodness
|
|
we owe it, not only that we have a being and are not sunk into
|
|
nonentity, but that we have our being, have this being, were and still
|
|
are of such a noble rank of beings, capable of knowing and enjoying
|
|
God; and are not thrust into the meanness of brutes, nor the misery of
|
|
devils.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
8. That upon the whole matter we are <I>God's offspring;</I> he is
|
|
<I>our Father that begat us</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+32:6,18">Deut. xxxii. 6, 18</A>),
|
|
|
|
and he hath <I>nourished and brought us up as children,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+1:2">Isa. i. 2</A>.
|
|
|
|
The confession of an adversary in such a case is always looked upon to
|
|
be of use as <I>argumentum ad hominem--an argument to the man,</I> and
|
|
therefore the apostle here quotes a saying of one of the Greek poets,
|
|
Aratus, a native of Cilicia, Paul's countryman, who, in his
|
|
<I>Phenomena,</I> in the beginning of his book, speaking of the heathen
|
|
<I>Jupiter,</I> that is, in the poetical dialect, the supreme
|
|
<I>God,</I> says this of him, <B><I>tou gar kai genos
|
|
esmen</I></B>--<I>for we are also his offspring.</I> And he might have
|
|
quoted other poets to the purpose of what he was speaking, that <I>in
|
|
God we live and move:</I>--</P>
|
|
|
|
<CENTER>
|
|
<TABLE BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1>Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus
|
|
<BR>Mens agitat molem.
|
|
<BR>
|
|
<BR>This active mind, infus'd through all the space,
|
|
<BR>Unites and mingles with the mighty mass.--<I>Virgil,</I> Æneid vi.
|
|
<BR>
|
|
<BR>Est Deus in nobis, agitante calescimus illo.
|
|
<BR>
|
|
<BR>'Tis the Divinity that warms our hearts.--<I>Ovid,</I> Fast. vi.
|
|
<BR>
|
|
<BR>Jupiter est quodeunque vides,
|
|
<BR>Quocunque moveris.
|
|
<BR>
|
|
<BR>Where'er you look, where'er you rove
|
|
<BR>'The spacious scene is full of Jove.--<I>Lucan,</I> lib. ii.</FONT></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
</CENTER>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
But he chooses this of Aratus, as having much in a little. By this it
|
|
appears not only that Paul was himself a scholar, but that human
|
|
learning is both ornamental and serviceable to a gospel minister,
|
|
especially for the convincing of those that are without; for it enables
|
|
him to beat them at their own weapons, and to cut off Goliath's head
|
|
with his own sword. How can the adversaries of truth be beaten out of
|
|
their strong-holds by those that do not know them? It may likewise
|
|
shame God's professing people, who forget their relation to God, and
|
|
walk contrary to it, that a heathen poet could say of God, <I>We are
|
|
his offspring,</I> formed by him, formed for him, more the care of his
|
|
providence than ever any children were the care of their parents; and
|
|
therefore are obliged to obey his commands, and acquiesce in his
|
|
disposals, and <I>to be unto him for a name and a praise.</I> Since in
|
|
him and upon him we live, we ought to live to him; since in him we
|
|
move, we ought to move towards him; and since in him we have our being,
|
|
and from him we receive all the supports and comforts of our being, we
|
|
ought to consecrate our being to him, and to apply to him for a new
|
|
being, a better being, an eternal well-being.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
III. From all these great truths concerning God, he infers the
|
|
absurdity of their idolatry, as the prophets of old had done. If this
|
|
be so,
|
|
|
|
1. Then God cannot be represented by an image. If we are <I>the
|
|
offspring of God,</I> as we are spirits in flesh, then certainly he who
|
|
is <I>the Father of our spirits</I> (and they are the principal part of
|
|
us, and that part of us by which we are denominated God's offspring) is
|
|
himself a Spirit, and we ought not to think that the Godhead is <I>like
|
|
unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:29"><I>v.</I> 29</A>.
|
|
|
|
We wrong God, and put an affront upon him, if we think so. God honoured
|
|
man in making his soul after his own likeness; but man dishonours God
|
|
if he makes him after the likeness of his body. The Godhead is
|
|
spiritual, infinite, immaterial, incomprehensible, and therefore it is
|
|
a very false and unjust conception which an image gives us of God, be
|
|
the matter ever so rich, <I>fold or silver;</I> be the shape ever so
|
|
curious, and be it ever so well <I>graven by art or man's device,</I>
|
|
its countenance, posture, or dress, ever so significant, it is a
|
|
teacher of lies.
|
|
|
|
2. Then <I>he dwells not in temples made with hands,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:24"><I>v.</I> 24</A>.
|
|
|
|
He is not invited to any temple men can build for him, nor confined to
|
|
any. A temple brings him never the nearer to us, nor keeps him ever the
|
|
longer among us. A temple is convenient for us to come together in to
|
|
worship God; but God needs not any place of rest or residence, nor the
|
|
magnificence and splendour of any structure, to add to the glory of his
|
|
appearance. A pious, upright heart, <I>a temple not made with
|
|
hands,</I> but by <I>the Spirit of God,</I> is that which <I>he dwells
|
|
in,</I> and <I>delights to dwell in.</I> See
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Ki+8:27,Isa+66:1,2">1 Kings viii. 27; Isa. lxvi. 1, 2</A>.
|
|
|
|
3. Then he is <I>not worshipped,</I> <B><I>therapeuetai</I></B>, he is
|
|
<I>not served,</I> or <I>ministered unto, with men's hands, as though
|
|
he needed any thing,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:25"><I>v.</I> 25</A>.
|
|
|
|
He that made all, and maintains all, cannot be benefited by any of our
|
|
services, nor needs them. If we receive and derive all from him, he is
|
|
all-sufficient, and therefore cannot but be self-sufficient, and
|
|
independent. What need can God have of our services, or what benefit
|
|
can he have by them, when he has all perfection in himself, and we have
|
|
nothing that is good but what we have from him? The philosophers,
|
|
indeed, were sensible of this truth, that God has no need of us or our
|
|
services; but the vulgar heathen built temples and offered sacrifices
|
|
to their gods, with an opinion that they needed houses and food. See
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+35:5-8,Ps+50:8">Job xxxv. 5-8; Ps. l. 8</A>,
|
|
|
|
&c.
|
|
|
|
4. Then it concerns us all to enquire after God
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:27"><I>v.</I> 27</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>That they should seek the Lord,</I> that is, fear and worship him in
|
|
a right manner. Therefore God has kept the children of men in a
|
|
constant dependence upon him for life and all the comforts of life,
|
|
that he might keep them under constant obligations to him. We have
|
|
plain indications of God's presence among us, his presidency over us,
|
|
the care of his providence concerning us, and his bounty to us, that we
|
|
might be put upon enquiring, <I>Where is God our Maker, who giveth
|
|
songs in the night, who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth,
|
|
and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+35:10,11">Job xxxv. 10, 11</A>.
|
|
|
|
Nothing, one would think, should be more powerful with us to convince
|
|
us that there is a God, and to engage us to seek his honour and glory
|
|
in our services, and to seek our happiness in his favour and love, than
|
|
the consideration of our own nature, especially the noble powers and
|
|
faculties of our own souls. If we reflect upon these, and contemplate
|
|
these, we may perceive both our relation and obligation to a God above
|
|
us. Yet so dark is this discovery, in comparison with that by divine
|
|
revelation, and so unapt are we to receive it, that those who have no
|
|
other could but <I>haply feel after God</I> and <I>find him.</I>
|
|
|
|
(1.) It was very uncertain whether they could by this searching <I>find
|
|
out God;</I> it is but a peradventure: <I>if haply</I> they might.
|
|
|
|
(2.) If they did find out something of God, yet it was but some
|
|
confused notions of him; they did but feel after him, as men in the
|
|
dark, or blind men, who lay hold on a thing that comes in their way,
|
|
but know not whether it be that which they are in quest of or no. It is
|
|
a very confused notion which this poet of theirs has of the relation
|
|
between God and man, and very general, that <I>we are his
|
|
offspring:</I> as was also that of their philosophers. Pythagoras said,
|
|
<B><I>Theion genos esti brotoios</I></B>--<I>Men have a sort of a
|
|
divine nature.</I> And Heraclitus (<I>apud Lucian</I>) being asked,
|
|
<I>What are men?</I> answered, <B><I>Theoi thnetoi</I></B>--<I>Mortal
|
|
gods;</I> and, <I>What are the gods?</I> answered, <B><I>athanatoi
|
|
anthropoi</I></B>--<I>Immortal men.</I> And Pindar saith (<I>Nemean,
|
|
Ode</I> 6), <B><I>En andron hen theon genos</I></B>--<I>God and man
|
|
are near a-kin.</I> It is true that by the knowledge of ourselves we
|
|
may be led to the knowledge of God, but it is a very confused
|
|
knowledge. This is but feeling after him. We have therefore reason to
|
|
be thankful that by the gospel of Christ we have notices given us of
|
|
God much clearer than we could have by the light of nature; we do not
|
|
now feel after him, but <I>with open face behold, as in a glass, the
|
|
glory of God.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
IV. He proceeds to call them all to repent of their idolatries, and to
|
|
turn from them,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:30,31"><I>v.</I> 30, 31</A>.
|
|
|
|
This is the practical part of Paul's sermon before the university;
|
|
having declared God to them
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:23"><I>v.</I> 23</A>),
|
|
|
|
he properly presses upon them <I>repentance towards God,</I> and would
|
|
also have taught them <I>faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ,</I> if
|
|
they had had the patience to hear him. Having shown them the absurdity
|
|
of their worshipping other gods, he persuades them to go on no longer
|
|
in that foolish way of worship, but to return from it to the living and
|
|
true God. Observe,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. The conduct of God towards the Gentile world before the gospel came
|
|
among them: <I>The times of this ignorance God winked at.</I>
|
|
|
|
(1.) They were times of great ignorance. Human learning flourished more
|
|
than ever in the Gentile world just before Christ's time; but in the
|
|
things of God they were grossly ignorant. Those are ignorant indeed who
|
|
either know not God or worship him ignorantly; idolatry was owing to
|
|
ignorance.
|
|
|
|
(2.) These times of ignorance God winked at. Understand it,
|
|
|
|
[1.] As an act of divine justice. God despised or neglected these times
|
|
of ignorance, and did not send them his gospel, as now he does. It was
|
|
very provoking to him to see his glory thus given to another; and he
|
|
detested and hated these times. So some take it. Or rather,
|
|
|
|
[2.] As an act of divine patience and forbearance. He winked at these
|
|
times; he did not restrain them from these idolatries by sending
|
|
prophets to them, as he did to Israel; he did not punish them in their
|
|
idolatries, as he did Israel; but gave them the gifts of his
|
|
providence,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+14:16,17"><I>ch.</I> xiv. 16, 17</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>These things thou hast done, and I kept silence,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+50:21">Ps. l. 21</A>.
|
|
|
|
He did not give them such calls and motives to repentance as he does
|
|
now. He <I>let them alone.</I> Because they did not improve the light
|
|
they had, but were willingly ignorant, he did not send them greater
|
|
lights. Or, he was not quick and severe with them, but was
|
|
long-suffering towards them, because they did it ignorantly,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Ti+1:13">1 Tim. i. 13</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. The charge God gave to the Gentile world by the gospel, which he now
|
|
sent among them: <I>He now commandeth all men every where to
|
|
repent</I>--to change their mind and their way, to be ashamed of their
|
|
folly and to act more wisely, to break off the worship of idols and
|
|
bind themselves to the worship of the true God. Nay, it is to turn with
|
|
sorrow and shame from every sin, and with cheerfulness and resolution
|
|
to every duty.
|
|
|
|
(1.) This is God's command. It had been a great favour if he had only
|
|
told us that there was room left for repentance, and we might be
|
|
admitted to it; but he goes further, he interposes his own authority
|
|
for our good, and has made that our duty which is our privilege.
|
|
|
|
(2.) It is his command to <I>all men, every where,</I>--to men, and not
|
|
to angels, that need it not,--to men, and not to devils, that are
|
|
excluded the benefit of it,--to all men in all places; all men have
|
|
made work for repentance, and have cause enough to repent, and all men
|
|
are invited to repent, and shall have the benefit of it. The apostles
|
|
are commissioned to preach this every where. The prophets were sent to
|
|
command the Jews to repent; but the apostles were sent to preach
|
|
<I>repentance and remission of sins to all nations.</I>
|
|
|
|
(3.) Now in gospel times it is more earnestly commanded, because more
|
|
encouraged than it had been formerly. Now the way of remission is more
|
|
opened than it had been, and the promise more fully confirmed; and
|
|
therefore now he expects we should all repent. "Now repent; now at
|
|
length, now in time, repent; for you have too long gone on in sin. Now
|
|
in time repent, for it will be too late shortly."</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
3. The great reason to enforce this command, taken from the judgment to
|
|
come. God commands us to repent, <I>because he hath appointed a day in
|
|
which he will judge the world in righteousness</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:31"><I>v.</I> 31</A>),
|
|
|
|
and has now under the gospel made a clearer discovery of a state of
|
|
retribution in the other world than ever before. Observe,
|
|
|
|
(1.) The God that made the world will judge it; he that gave the
|
|
children of men their being and faculties will call them to an account
|
|
for the use they have made of them, and recompense them accordingly,
|
|
whether the body served the soul in serving God or the soul was a
|
|
drudge to the body in making provision for the flesh; and <I>every man
|
|
shall receive according to the things done in the body,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Co+5:10">2 Cor. v. 10</A>.
|
|
|
|
The God that now governs the world will judge it, will reward the
|
|
faithful friends of his government and punish the rebels.
|
|
|
|
(2.) There is a day appointed for this general review of all that men
|
|
have done in time, and a final determination of their state for
|
|
eternity. The day is fixed in the counsel of God, and cannot be
|
|
altered; but it is his there, and cannot be known. A day of decision, a
|
|
day of recompence, a day that will put a final period to all the days
|
|
of time.
|
|
|
|
(3.) The world will be judged in righteousness; for God is not
|
|
unrighteous, who taketh vengeance; far be it from him that he should do
|
|
iniquity. His knowledge of all men's characters and actions is
|
|
infallibly true, and therefore his sentence upon them incontestably
|
|
just. And, as there will be no appeal from it, so there will be no
|
|
exception against it.
|
|
|
|
(4.) God will judge the world <I>by that man whom he hath ordained,</I>
|
|
who can be no other than the Lord Jesus, to whom all judgment is
|
|
committed. By him God made the world, by him he redeemed it, by him he
|
|
governs it, and by him he will judge it.
|
|
|
|
(5.) God's raising Christ from the dead is the great proof of his being
|
|
appointed and ordained the Judge of quick and dead. His doing him that
|
|
honour evidenced his designing him this honour. His raising him from
|
|
the dead was the beginning of his exaltation, his judging the world
|
|
will be the perfection of it; and he that begins will make an end. God
|
|
hath <I>given assurance unto all men,</I> sufficient ground for their
|
|
faith to build upon, both that there is a judgment to come and that
|
|
Christ will be their judge; the matter is not left doubtful, but is of
|
|
unquestionable certainty. Let all his enemies be assured of it, and
|
|
tremble before him; let all his friends be assured of it, and triumph
|
|
in him.
|
|
|
|
(6.) The consideration of the judgment to come, and of the great hand
|
|
Christ will have in that judgment, should engage us all to repent of
|
|
our sins and turn from them to God. This is the only way to make the
|
|
Judge our friend in that day, which will be a terrible day to all who
|
|
live and die impenitent; but true penitents will then <I>lift up their
|
|
heads with joy, knowing that their redemption draws nigh.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Ac17_32"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac17_33"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ac17_34"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec5"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Paul at Athens.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some
|
|
mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this
|
|
<I>matter.</I>
|
|
33 So Paul departed from among them.
|
|
34 Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the
|
|
which <I>was</I> Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris,
|
|
and others with them.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
We have here a short account of the issue of Paul's preaching at
|
|
Athens.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. Few were the better: the gospel had as little success at Athens as
|
|
any where; for the pride of the philosophers there, as of the Pharisees
|
|
at Jerusalem, prejudiced them against the gospel of Christ.
|
|
|
|
1. Some ridiculed Paul and his preaching. They heard him patiently till
|
|
he came to speak of the resurrection of the dead
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:32"><I>v.</I> 32</A>),
|
|
|
|
and then some of them began to hiss him: they <I>mocked.</I> What he
|
|
had said before was somewhat like what they had sometimes heard in
|
|
their own schools, and some notion they had of a resurrection, as it
|
|
signifies a future state; but, if he speak of a <I>resurrection of the
|
|
dead,</I> though it be of the resurrection of Christ himself, it is
|
|
altogether incredible to them, and they cannot bear so much as to hear
|
|
of it, as being contrary to a principle of their philosophy: <I>A
|
|
privatione ad habitum non datur regressus--Life when once lost is
|
|
irrecoverable.</I> They had deified their heroes after their death, but
|
|
never thought of their being raised from the dead, and therefore they
|
|
could by no means reconcile themselves to this doctrine of Christ's
|
|
being raised from the dead; how can this be? This great doctrine, which
|
|
is the saints' joy, is their jest; when it was but mentioned to them
|
|
they mocked, and made a laughing matter of it. We are not to think it
|
|
strange if sacred truths of the greatest certainty and importance are
|
|
made the scorn of profane wits.
|
|
|
|
2. Others were willing to take time to consider of it; they said, <I>We
|
|
will hear thee again of this matter.</I> They would not at present
|
|
comply with what Paul said, nor oppose it; but <I>we will hear thee
|
|
again of this matter,</I> of the resurrection of the dead. It should
|
|
seem, they overlooked what was plain and uncontroverted, and shifted
|
|
off the application and the improvement of that, by starting objections
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against what was disputable, and would admit a debate. Thus many lose
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the benefit of the practical doctrine of Christianity, by wading beyond
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their depth into controversy, or, rather, by objecting against that
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which has some difficulty in it; whereas, if any man were disposed and
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determined to <I>do the will of God,</I> as far as it is discovered to
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him, he should <I>know of the doctrine of Christ,</I> that it is <I>of
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God, and not of man,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+7:17">John vii. 17</A>.
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Those that would not yield to the present convictions of the word
|
|
thought to get clear of them, as Felix did, by putting them off to
|
|
another opportunity; they will hear of it again some time or other, but
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|
they know not when; and thus the devil cozens them of all their time,
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by cozening them of the present time.
|
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3. Paul thereupon left them for the present to consider of it
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:33"><I>v.</I> 33</A>):
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<I>He departed from amongst them,</I> as seeing little likelihood of
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|
doing any good with them at this time; but, it is likely, with a
|
|
promise to those that were willing to hear him again that he would meet
|
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them whenever they pleased.</P>
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<P>
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II. Yet there were some that were wrought upon,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+17:34"><I>v.</I> 34</A>.
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If some would not, others would.
|
|
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1. There were certain men that adhered to him, and believed. When he
|
|
departed from amongst them, they would not part with him so; wherever
|
|
he went, they would follow him, with a resolution to adhere to the
|
|
doctrine he preached, which they believed.
|
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2. Two are particularly named; one was an eminent man, <I>Dionysius the
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|
Areopagite,</I> one of that high court or great council that sat in
|
|
Areopagus, or Mars' Hill--a judge, a senator, one of those before whom
|
|
Paul was summoned to appear; his judge becomes his convert. The account
|
|
which the ancients give of this Dionysius is that he was bred at
|
|
Athens, had studied astrology in Egypt, where he took notice of the
|
|
miraculous eclipse at our Saviour's passion,--that, returning to
|
|
Athens, he became a senator, disputed with Paul, and was by him
|
|
converted from his error and idolatry; and, being by him thoroughly
|
|
instructed, was made the first bishop of Athens. So <I>Eusebius,
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|
lib.</I> 5, <I>cap.</I> 4; <I>lib.</I> 4, <I>cap.</I> 22. The <I>woman
|
|
named Damaris</I> was, as some think, the wife of Dionysius; but,
|
|
rather, some other person of quality; and, though there was not so
|
|
great a harvest gathered in at Athens as there was at other places,
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|
yet, these few being wrought upon there, Paul had no reason to say he
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had <I>laboured in vain.</I></P>
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