mh_parser/vol_split/44 - Acts/Chapter 17.xml

<div2 id="Acts.xviii" n="xviii" next="Acts.xix" prev="Acts.xvii" progress="18.63%" title="Chapter XVII">
<h2 id="Acts.xviii-p0.1">A C T S.</h2>
<h3 id="Acts.xviii-p0.2">CHAP. XVII.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Acts.xviii-p1">We have here a further account of the travels of
Paul, and his services and sufferings for Christ. He was not like a
candle upon a table, that gives light only to one room, but like
the sun that goes its circuit to give light to many. He was called
into Macedonia, a large kingdom, <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.16.9" parsed="|Acts|16|9|0|0" passage="Ac 16:9"><i>ch.</i> xvi. 9</scripRef>. He began with Philippi,
because it was the first city he came to; but he must not confine
himself to this. We have him here, I. Preaching and persecuted at
Thessalonica, another city of Macedonia, <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.1-Acts.17.9" parsed="|Acts|17|1|17|9" passage="Ac 17:1-9">ver. 1-9</scripRef>. II. Preaching at Berea, where he
met with an encouraging auditory, but was driven thence also by
persecution, <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.10-Acts.17.15" parsed="|Acts|17|10|17|15" passage="Ac 17:10-15">ver. 10-15</scripRef>.
III. Disputing at Athens, the famous university of Greece
(<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.16-Acts.17.21" parsed="|Acts|17|16|17|21" passage="Ac 17:16-21">ver. 16-21</scripRef>), and the
account he gave of natural religion, for the conviction of those
that were addicted to polytheism and idolatry, and to lead them to
the Christian religion (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.22-Acts.17.31" parsed="|Acts|17|22|17|31" passage="Ac 17:22-31">ver.
22-31</scripRef>), together with the success of this sermon,
<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p1.6" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.32-Acts.17.34" parsed="|Acts|17|32|17|34" passage="Ac 17:32-34">ver. 32-34</scripRef>.</p>
<scripCom id="Acts.xviii-p1.7" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17" parsed="|Acts|17|0|0|0" passage="Ac 17" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Acts.xviii-p1.8" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.1-Acts.17.9" parsed="|Acts|17|1|17|9" passage="Ac 17:1-9" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Acts.17.1-Acts.17.9">
<h4 id="Acts.xviii-p1.9">Paul and Silas at
Thessalonica.</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Acts.xviii-p2">1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis
and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of
the Jews:   2 And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them,
and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,
  3 Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have
suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom
I preach unto you, is Christ.   4 And some of them believed,
and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great
multitude, and of the chief women not a few.   5 But the Jews
which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd
fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the
city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to
bring them out to the people.   6 And when they found them
not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the
city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come
hither also;   7 Whom Jason hath received: and these all do
contrary to the decrees of Cæsar, saying that there is another
king, <i>one</i> Jesus.   8 And they troubled the people and
the rulers of the city, when they heard these things.   9 And
when they had taken security of Jason, and of the other, they let
them go.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p3">Paul's two epistles to the Thessalonians,
the first two he wrote by inspiration, give such a shining
character of that church, that we cannot but be glad here in the
history to meet with an account of the first founding of the church
there.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p4">I. Here is Paul's coming to Thessalonica,
which was the chief city of this country, called at this day
<i>Salonech,</i> in the Turkish dominions. Observe, 1. Paul went on
with his work, notwithstanding the ill usage he had met with at
Philippi; he did not fail, nor was discouraged. He takes notice of
this in his first epistle to the church here (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p4.1" osisRef="Bible:1Thess.2.2" parsed="|1Thess|2|2|0|0" passage="1Th 2:2">1 Thess. ii. 2</scripRef>): <i>After we were shamefully
treated at Philippi, yet we were bold in our God to speak unto you
the gospel of God.</i> The opposition and persecution that he met
with made him the more resolute. Note of these things moved him; he
could never have held out, and held on, as he did, if he had not
been animated by a spirit of power from on high. 2. He did but
<i>pass through Amphipolis and Apollonia,</i> the former a city
near Philippi, the latter near Thessalonica; doubtless he was under
divine direction, and was told by the Spirit (who, as the wind,
bloweth where he listeth) what places he should pass through, and
what he should rest in. Apollonia was a city of Illyricum, which,
some think, illustrates that of Paul, that he had preached the
gospel <i>from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum</i>
(<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p4.2" osisRef="Bible:Rom.15.19" parsed="|Rom|15|19|0|0" passage="Ro 15:19">Rom. xv. 19</scripRef>), that is, to
the borders of Illyricum where he now was; and we may suppose
though he is said only to <i>pass through</i> these cities, yet
that he staid so long in them as to publish the gospel there, and
to prepare the way for the entrance of other ministers among them,
whom he would afterwards send.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p5">II. His preaching to the Jews first, in
their synagogue at Thessalonica. He found a synagogue of the Jews
there (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.1" parsed="|Acts|17|1|0|0" passage="Ac 17:1"><i>v.</i> 1</scripRef>), which
intimates that one reason why he passed through those other cities
mentioned, and did not continue long in them, was because there
were no synagogues in them. But, finding one in Thessalonica, by it
he made his entry. 1. It was always his manner to begin with the
Jews, to make them the first offer of the gospel, and not to turn
to the Gentiles till they had refused it, that their mouths might
be stopped from clamouring against him because he preached to the
Gentiles; for if they received the gospel they would cheerfully
embrace the new converts; if they refused it, they might thank
themselves if the apostles carried it to those that would bid it
welcome. That command of beginning at Jerusalem was justly
construed as a direction, wherever they came, to begin with the
Jews. 2. He met them in their synagogue on the sabbath day, in
their place and at their time of meeting, and thus he would pay
respect to both. Sabbaths and solemn assemblies are always very
precious to those to whom Christ is precious, <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p5.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.84.10" parsed="|Ps|84|10|0|0" passage="Ps 84:10">Ps. lxxxiv. 10</scripRef>. It is good being in the house
of the Lord on his day. This was Christ's manner, and Paul's
manner, and has been the manner of all the saints, the <i>good old
way</i> which they have walked in. 3. He <i>reasoned with them out
of the scriptures.</i> They agreed with him to receive the
scriptures of the Old Testament: so far they were of a mind. But
they received the scripture, and therefore thought they had reason
to reject Christ; Paul received the scripture, and therefore saw
great reason to embrace Christ. It was therefore requisite, in
order to their conviction, that he should, by reasoning with them,
the Spirit setting with him, convince them that his inferences from
the scripture were right and theirs were wrong. Note, The preaching
of the gospel should be both scriptural preaching and rational;
such Paul's was, for he <i>reasoned out of the scriptures:</i> we
must take the scriptures for our foundation, our oracle, and
touchstone, and then reason out of them and upon them, and against
those who, though they pretend zeal for the scriptures, as the Jews
did, yet wrest them to their own destruction. Reason must not be
set up in competition with the scripture, but it must be made use
of in explaining and applying the scripture. 4. He continued to do
this <i>three sabbath days</i> successively. If he could not
convince them the first sabbath, he would try the second and the
third; for <i>precept must be upon precept, and line upon line.</i>
God waits for sinners' conversion, and so must his ministers; all
the labourers come not into the vineyard at the first hour, nor at
the first call, nor are wrought upon so suddenly as the jailer. 5.
The drift and scope of his preaching and arguing was to prove that
<i>Jesus is the Christ;</i> this was that which he opened and
alleged, <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p5.3" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.3" parsed="|Acts|17|3|0|0" passage="Ac 17:3"><i>v.</i> 3</scripRef>. He
first explained his thesis, and opened the terms, and then alleged
it, and laid it down, as that which he would abide by, and which he
summoned them in God's name to subscribe to. Paul had an admirable
method of discourse; and showed he was himself both well apprized
of the doctrine he preached and thoroughly understood it, and that
he was fully assured of the truth of it, and therefore he opened it
like one that believed it. He showed them, (1.) That it was
necessary the Messiah should <i>suffer, and die, and rise
again,</i> that the Old-Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah
made it necessary he should. The great objection which the Jews
made against Jesus being the Messiah was his ignominious death and
sufferings. The <i>cross of Christ was to the Jews a
stumbling-block,</i> because it did by no means agree with the idea
they had framed of the Messiah; but Paul here alleges and makes it
out undeniably, not only that it was possible he might be the
Messiah, though he suffered, but that, being the Messiah, it was
necessary he should suffer. He could not be made perfect but by
sufferings; for, if he had not died, he could not have risen again
from the dead. This was what Christ himself insisted upon
(<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p5.4" osisRef="Bible:Luke.24.26" parsed="|Luke|24|26|0|0" passage="Lu 24:26">Luke xxiv. 26</scripRef>): <i>Ought
not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his
glory?</i> And again (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p5.5" osisRef="Bible:Luke.24.26" parsed="|Luke|24|26|0|0" passage="Lu 24:26"><i>v.</i>
46</scripRef>): <i>Thus it is written, and</i> therefore <i>thus it
behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead.</i> He must
needs have suffered for us, because he could not otherwise purchase
redemption for us; and he must needs have risen again because he
could not otherwise apply the redemption to us. (2.) That Jesus is
the Messiah: "<i>This Jesus whom I preach unto you,</i> and call
upon you to believe in, <i>is Christ,</i> is the Christ, is the
anointed of the Lord, is he that should come, and you are to look
for no other; for God has both by his word and by his works (the
two ways of his speaking to the children of men), by the scriptures
and by miracles, and the gift of the Spirit to make both effectual,
borne witness to him." Note, [1.] Gospel ministers should preach
Jesus; he must be their principal subject; their business is to
bring people acquainted with him. [2.] That which we are to preach
concerning Jesus is that he is Christ; and therefore we may hope to
be saved by him and are bound to be ruled by him.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p6">III. The success of his preaching there,
<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p6.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.4" parsed="|Acts|17|4|0|0" passage="Ac 17:4"><i>v.</i> 4</scripRef>. 1. Some of the
Jews believed, notwithstanding their rooted prejudices against
Christ and his gospel, and they <i>consorted with Paul and
Silas:</i> they not only associated with them as friends and
companions, but they gave up themselves to their direction, as
their spiritual guides; they put themselves into their possession
as an inheritance into the possession of the right owner, so the
word signifies; they first <i>gave themselves to the Lord,</i> and
then to them <i>by the will of God,</i> <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p6.2" osisRef="Bible:2Cor.8.5" parsed="|2Cor|8|5|0|0" passage="2Co 8:5">2 Cor. viii. 5</scripRef>. They adhered to Paul and
Silas, and attended them wherever they went. Note, Those that
believe in Jesus Christ come into communion with his faithful
ministers, and associate with them. 2. Many more of the devout
Greeks, and of the chief women, embraced the gospel. These were
proselytes of the gate, the <i>godly among the Gentiles</i> (so the
Jews called them), such as, though they did not submit to the law
of Moses, yet renounced idolatry and immorality, worshipped the
true God only, and did not man any wrong. These were <b><i>hoi
sebomenoi Hellenes</i></b>—<i>the worshipping Gentiles;</i> as in
America they call those of the natives that are converted to the
faith of Christ the <i>praying Indians.</i> These were admitted to
join with the Jews in their synagogue-worship. Of these <i>a great
multitude believed,</i> more of them than of the thorough-paced
Jews, who were wedded to the ceremonial law. And not a few of the
chief women of the city, that were devout and had a sense of
religion, embraced Christianity. Particular notice is taken of
this, for an example to the ladies, the chief women, and an
encouragement to them to employ themselves in the exercises of
devotion and to submit themselves to the commanding power of
Christ's holy religion, in all the instances of it; for this
intimates how acceptable it will be to God, what an honour to
Christ, and what great influence it may have upon many, besides the
advantages of it to their own souls. No mention is here made of
their preaching the gospel to the Gentile idolaters at
Thessalonica, and yet it is certain that they did, and that great
numbers were converted; nay, it should seem that of the Gentile
converts that church was chiefly composed, though notice is not
taken of them here; for Paul writes to the Christians there as
having <i>turned to God from idols</i> (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p6.3" osisRef="Bible:1Thess.1.9" parsed="|1Thess|1|9|0|0" passage="1Th 1:9">1 Thess. i. 9</scripRef>), and that at the first entering
in of the apostles among them.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p7">IV. The trouble that was given to Paul and
Silas at Thessalonica. Wherever they preached, they were sure to be
persecuted; bonds and afflictions awaited them in every city.
Observe,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p8">1. Who were the authors of their trouble:
the <i>Jews who believed not, who were moved with envy,</i>
<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p8.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.5" parsed="|Acts|17|5|0|0" passage="Ac 17:5"><i>v.</i> 5</scripRef>. The Jews were
in all places the most inveterate enemies to the Christians,
especially to those Jews that turned Christians, against whom they
had a particular spleen, as deserters. Now see what that division
was which Christ came to send upon earth; some of the Jews believed
the gospel and pitied and prayed for those that did not; while
those that did not envied and hated those that did. St. Paul in his
epistle to this church takes notice of the rage and enmity of the
Jews against the preachers of the gospel, as their measure-filling
sin. <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p8.2" osisRef="Bible:1Thess.2.15-1Thess.2.16" parsed="|1Thess|2|15|2|16" passage="1Th 2:15,16">1 Thess. ii. 15,
16</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p9">2. Who were the instruments of the trouble:
the Jews made use of <i>certain lewd persons of the baser sort,</i>
whom they picked up and got together, and who must undertake to
give the sense of the city against the apostles. All wise and sober
people looked upon them with respect, and valued them, and none
would appear against them but such as were the scum of the city, a
company of vile men, that were given to all manner of wickedness.
Tertullian pleads this with those that opposed Christianity, that
the enemies of it were generally the worst of men: <i>Tales semper
nobis insecutores, injusti, impii, turpes, quos, et ipsi damnare
consuestis—Our persecutors are invariably unjust, impious,
infamous, whom you yourselves have been accustomed to
condemn.</i>—Apologia, cap. 5. It is the honour of religion that
those who hate it are generally the <i>lewd fellows of the baser
sort,</i> that are lost to all sense of justice and virtue.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p10">3. In what method they proceeded against
them. (1.) They <i>set the city in an uproar,</i> made a noise to
put people in a fright, and then every body ran to see what the
matter was; they began a riot, and then the mob was up presently.
See who are the troublers of Israel—not the faithful preachers of
the gospel, but the enemies of it. See how the devil carries on his
designs; he sets cities in an uproar, sets souls in an uproar, and
then fishes in troubled waters. (2.) They <i>assaulted the house of
Jason,</i> where the apostles lodged, with a design <i>to bring
them out to the people,</i> whom they had incensed and enraged
against them, and by whom they hoped to see them pulled to pieces.
The proceedings here were altogether illegal; of Jason's house must
be searched, it ought to be done by the proper officers, and not
without a warrant: "A man's house," the law says, "is his castle,"
and for them in a tumultuous manner to assault a man's 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
servants on horseback, and leave princes to walk as servants on the
earth—to depose equity, and enthrone fury. (3.) When they could
not get the apostles into their hands (whom they would have
punished as vagabonds, and incensed the people against as strangers
that came to spy out the land, and devour its strength, and eat the
bread out of their mouths), then they fall upon an honest citizen
of their own, who entertained the apostles in his house, his name
<i>Jason,</i> a converted Jew, and drew him out with some others of
the brethren to the rulers of the city. The apostles were advised
to 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 (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p10.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.7" parsed="|Acts|17|7|0|0" passage="Ac 17:7"><i>v.</i> 7</scripRef>),
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 (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p10.2" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.7" parsed="|Acts|17|7|0|0" passage="Ac 17:7"><i>v.</i> 7</scripRef>): 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, <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p10.3" osisRef="Bible:Acts.10.36" parsed="|Acts|10|36|0|0" passage="Ac 10:36"><i>ch.</i> x. 36</scripRef>.
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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p11">4. The great uneasiness which this gave to
this city (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p11.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.8" parsed="|Acts|17|8|0|0" passage="Ac 17:8"><i>v.</i> 8</scripRef>):
<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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p12">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, <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p12.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.9" parsed="|Acts|17|9|0|0" passage="Ac 17:9"><i>v.</i> 9</scripRef>. 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>
</div><scripCom id="Acts.xviii-p12.2" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.10-Acts.17.15" parsed="|Acts|17|10|17|15" passage="Ac 17:10-15" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Acts.17.10-Acts.17.15">
<h4 id="Acts.xviii-p12.3">The Noble Bereans; Paul and Silas at
Berea.</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Acts.xviii-p13">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.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p14">In these verses we have,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p15">I. Paul and Silas removing to Berea, and
employed in preaching the gospel there, <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p15.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.10" parsed="|Acts|17|10|0|0" passage="Ac 17:10"><i>v.</i> 10</scripRef>. 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> <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p15.2" osisRef="Bible:Matt.10.23" parsed="|Matt|10|23|0|0" passage="Mt 10:23">Matt. x.
23</scripRef>. 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,
<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p15.3" osisRef="Bible:1Thess.3.4" parsed="|1Thess|3|4|0|0" passage="1Th 3:4">1 Thess. iii. 4</scripRef>), 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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p16">II. The good character of the Jews in Berea
(<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p16.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.11" parsed="|Acts|17|11|0|0" passage="Ac 17:11"><i>v.</i> 11</scripRef>): <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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p17">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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p18">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> <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p18.1" osisRef="Bible:1Thess.1.6-1Thess.1.9" parsed="|1Thess|1|6|1|9" passage="1Th 1:6-9">1 Thess. i.
6-9</scripRef>. 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> (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p18.2" osisRef="Bible:John.5.39" parsed="|John|5|39|0|0" passage="joh 5:39">John v. 39</scripRef>), 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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p19">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,
<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p19.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.12" parsed="|Acts|17|12|0|0" passage="Ac 17:12"><i>v.</i> 12</scripRef>. 1. Of the
Jews there were many that believed. At Thessalonica there were only
<i>some of them that believed</i> (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p19.2" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.4" parsed="|Acts|17|4|0|0" passage="Ac 17:4"><i>v.</i> 4</scripRef>), 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> <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p19.3" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.7.16" parsed="|1Cor|7|16|0|0" passage="1Co 7:16">1 Cor.
vii. 16</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p20">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, <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p20.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.14.19" parsed="|Acts|14|19|0|0" passage="Ac 14:19"><i>ch.</i> xiv. 19</scripRef>. 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, <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p20.2" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.14" parsed="|Acts|17|14|0|0" passage="Ac 17:14"><i>v.</i> 14</scripRef>. 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
(<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p20.3" osisRef="Bible:1Thess.3.1-1Thess.3.2" parsed="|1Thess|3|1|3|2" passage="1Th 3:1,2">1 Thess. iii. 1, 2</scripRef>),
<i>We thought it good to be left at Athens alone, and sent
Timotheus to establish you.</i></p>
</div><scripCom id="Acts.xviii-p20.4" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.16-Acts.17.21" parsed="|Acts|17|16|17|21" passage="Ac 17:16-21" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Acts.17.16-Acts.17.21">
<h4 id="Acts.xviii-p20.5">Paul at Athens.</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Acts.xviii-p21">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.)</p>
<p class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p22">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 (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p22.1" osisRef="Bible:Col.2.8" parsed="|Col|2|8|0|0" passage="Col 2:8">Col.
ii. 8</scripRef>); 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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p23">I. Here is the impression which the
abominable ignorance and superstition of the Athenians made upon
Paul's spirit, <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p23.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.16" parsed="|Acts|17|16|0|0" passage="Ac 17:16"><i>v.</i>
16</scripRef>. 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> (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p23.2" osisRef="Bible:Rom.1.22" parsed="|Rom|1|22|0|0" passage="Ro 1:22">Rom. i. 22</scripRef>), 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> <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p23.3" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.1.21" parsed="|1Cor|1|21|0|0" passage="1Co 1:21">1 Cor. i.
21</scripRef>. 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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p24">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, <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p24.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.17" parsed="|Acts|17|17|0|0" passage="Ac 17:17"><i>v.</i>
17</scripRef>. 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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p25">III. The enquiries which some of the
philosophers made concerning Paul's doctrine. Observe,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p26">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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p27">2. What their different sentiments were of
him; such there were as there were of Christ, <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p27.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.18" parsed="|Acts|17|18|0|0" passage="Ac 17:18"><i>v.</i> 18</scripRef>. (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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p28">3. The proposal they made to give him a
free, full, fair, and public hearing, <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p28.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.19-Acts.17.20" parsed="|Acts|17|19|17|20" passage="Ac 17:19,20"><i>v.</i> 19, 20</scripRef>. 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 (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p28.2" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.22" parsed="|Acts|17|22|0|0" passage="Ac 17:22"><i>v.</i> 22</scripRef>)
<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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p29">4. The general character of the people of
that city given upon this occasion (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p29.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.21" parsed="|Acts|17|21|0|0" passage="Ac 17:21"><i>v.</i> 21</scripRef>): <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> (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p29.2" osisRef="Bible:1Tim.4.13 Bible:1Tim.4.15" parsed="|1Tim|4|13|0|0;|1Tim|4|15|0|0" passage="1Ti 4:13,15">1 Tim. iv. 13,
15</scripRef>), 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
(<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p29.3" osisRef="Bible:Deut.32.17" parsed="|Deut|32|17|0|0" passage="De 32:17">Deut. xxxii. 17</scripRef>), new
demons, new-fashioned images and altars (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p29.4" osisRef="Bible:2Kgs.16.10" parsed="|2Kgs|16|10|0|0" passage="2Ki 16:10">2 Kings xvi. 10</scripRef>); 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> <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p29.5" osisRef="Bible:1Tim.5.13" parsed="|1Tim|5|13|0|0" passage="1Ti 5:13">1 Tim. v. 13</scripRef>.
(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>
</div><scripCom id="Acts.xviii-p29.6" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.22-Acts.17.31" parsed="|Acts|17|22|17|31" passage="Ac 17:22-31" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Acts.17.22-Acts.17.31">
<h4 id="Acts.xviii-p29.7">Paul at Athens.</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Acts.xviii-p30">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.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p31">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 (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p31.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.14.15" parsed="|Acts|14|15|0|0" passage="Ac 14:15"><i>ch.</i> xiv.
15</scripRef>); 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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p32">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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p33">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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p34">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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p35">(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> <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p35.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.45.15" parsed="|Isa|45|15|0|0" passage="Isa 45:15">Isa. xlv. 15</scripRef>. 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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p36">(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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p37">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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p38">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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p39">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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p40">3. He is, in a particular manner, the
Creator of men, of all men (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p40.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.26" parsed="|Acts|17|26|0|0" passage="Ac 17:26"><i>v.</i>
26</scripRef>): <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> <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p40.2" osisRef="Bible:Mal.2.10" parsed="|Mal|2|10|0|0" passage="Mal 2:10">Mal. ii.
10</scripRef>. <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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p41">4. That he is the great benefactor of the
whole creation (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p41.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.25" parsed="|Acts|17|25|0|0" passage="Ac 17:25"><i>v.</i>
25</scripRef>): <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> <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p41.2" osisRef="Bible:Dan.5.23" parsed="|Dan|5|23|0|0" passage="Da 5:23">Dan.
v. 23</scripRef>. 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> (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p41.3" osisRef="Bible:Gen.6.17" parsed="|Gen|6|17|0|0" passage="Ge 6:17">Gen. vi. 17</scripRef>); 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>
<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p41.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.104.24 Bible:Ps.104.27" parsed="|Ps|104|24|0|0;|Ps|104|27|0|0" passage="Ps 104:24,27">Ps. civ. 24, 27</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p42">5. That he is the sovereign disposer of all
the affairs of the children of men, according to the counsel of his
will (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p42.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.26" parsed="|Acts|17|26|0|0" passage="Ac 17:26"><i>v.</i> 26</scripRef>): <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> <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p42.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.23.14" parsed="|Job|23|14|0|0" passage="Job 23:14">Job xxiii. 14</scripRef>. <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 (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p42.3" osisRef="Bible:Eccl.3.1-Eccl.3.2" parsed="|Eccl|3|1|3|2" passage="Ec 3:1,2">Eccl. iii. 1, 2</scripRef>), 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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p43">6. That <i>he is not far from every one of
us,</i> <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p43.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.27" parsed="|Acts|17|27|0|0" passage="Ac 17:27"><i>v.</i> 27</scripRef>. He is
every where present, not only is <i>at our right hand, but has
possessed our reins</i> (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p43.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.139.13" parsed="|Ps|139|13|0|0" passage="Ps 139:13">Ps. cxxxix.
13</scripRef>), 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> (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p43.3" osisRef="Bible:Rom.10.12" parsed="|Rom|10|12|0|0" passage="Ro 10:12">Rom. x. 12</scripRef>), so <i>he is nigh</i> (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p43.4" osisRef="Bible:Deut.4.7" parsed="|Deut|4|7|0|0" passage="De 4:7">Deut. iv. 7</scripRef>), <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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p44">7. That <i>in him we live, and move, and
have our being,</i> <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p44.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.28" parsed="|Acts|17|28|0|0" passage="Ac 17:28"><i>v.</i>
28</scripRef>. 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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p45">8. That upon the whole matter we are
<i>God's offspring;</i> he is <i>our Father that begat us</i>
(<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p45.1" osisRef="Bible:Deut.32.6 Bible:Deut.32.18" parsed="|Deut|32|6|0|0;|Deut|32|18|0|0" passage="De 32:6,18">Deut. xxxii. 6, 18</scripRef>), and
he hath <i>nourished and brought us up as children,</i> <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p45.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.1.2" parsed="|Isa|1|2|0|0" passage="Isa 1:2">Isa. i. 2</scripRef>. 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>
<verse id="Acts.xviii-p45.3">
<l class="small" id="Acts.xviii-p45.4">Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus</l>
<l class="small" id="Acts.xviii-p45.5">Mens agitat molem.</l>
<l id="Acts.xviii-p45.6"/>
<l class="small" id="Acts.xviii-p45.7">This active mind, infus'd through all the
space,</l>
<l class="small" id="Acts.xviii-p45.8">Unites and mingles with the mighty
mass.—<i>Virgil,</i> Æneid vi.</l>
</verse>
<verse id="Acts.xviii-p45.9">
<l class="small" id="Acts.xviii-p45.10">Est Deus in nobis, agitante calescimus illo.</l>
<l id="Acts.xviii-p45.11"/>
<l class="small" id="Acts.xviii-p45.12">'Tis the Divinity that warms our
hearts.—<i>Ovid,</i> Fast. vi.</l>
</verse>
<verse id="Acts.xviii-p45.13">
<l class="small" id="Acts.xviii-p45.14">Jupiter est quodeunque vides,</l>
<l class="small" id="Acts.xviii-p45.15">Quocunque moveris.</l>
<l id="Acts.xviii-p45.16"/>
<l class="small" id="Acts.xviii-p45.17">Where'er you look, where'er you rove</l>
<l class="small" id="Acts.xviii-p45.18">The spacious scene is full of Jove.—<i>Lucan,</i>
lib. ii.</l>
</verse>
<p id="Acts.xviii-p46">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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p47">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> <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p47.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.29" parsed="|Acts|17|29|0|0" passage="Ac 17:29"><i>v.</i> 29</scripRef>. 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> <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p47.2" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.24" parsed="|Acts|17|24|0|0" passage="Ac 17:24"><i>v.</i> 24</scripRef>. 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 <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p47.3" osisRef="Bible:1Kgs.8.27 Bible:Isa.66.1-Isa.66.2" parsed="|1Kgs|8|27|0|0;|Isa|66|1|66|2" passage="1Ki 8:27,Isa 66:1,2">1 Kings viii. 27; Isa.
lxvi. 1, 2</scripRef>. 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> <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p47.4" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.25" parsed="|Acts|17|25|0|0" passage="Ac 17:25"><i>v.</i> 25</scripRef>. 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 <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p47.5" osisRef="Bible:Job.35.5-Job.35.8 Bible:Ps.50.8" parsed="|Job|35|5|35|8;|Ps|50|8|0|0" passage="Job 35:5-8,Ps 50:8">Job xxxv. 5-8; Ps. l. 8</scripRef>, &amp;c. 4.
Then it concerns us all to enquire after God (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p47.6" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.27" parsed="|Acts|17|27|0|0" passage="Ac 17:27"><i>v.</i> 27</scripRef>): <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> <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p47.7" osisRef="Bible:Job.35.10-Job.35.11" parsed="|Job|35|10|35|11" passage="Job 35:10,11">Job xxxv. 10, 11</scripRef>. 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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p48">IV. He proceeds to call them all to repent
of their idolatries, and to turn from them, <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p48.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.30-Acts.17.31" parsed="|Acts|17|30|17|31" passage="Ac 17:30,31"><i>v.</i> 30, 31</scripRef>. This is the practical
part of Paul's sermon before the university; having declared God to
them (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p48.2" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.23" parsed="|Acts|17|23|0|0" passage="Ac 17:23"><i>v.</i> 23</scripRef>), 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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p49">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, <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p49.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.14.16-Acts.14.17" parsed="|Acts|14|16|14|17" passage="Ac 14:16,17"><i>ch.</i> xiv. 16,
17</scripRef>. <i>These things thou hast done, and I kept
silence,</i> <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p49.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.50.21" parsed="|Ps|50|21|0|0" passage="Ps 50:21">Ps. l. 21</scripRef>. 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,
<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p49.3" osisRef="Bible:1Tim.1.13" parsed="|1Tim|1|13|0|0" passage="1Ti 1:13">1 Tim. i. 13</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p50">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 class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p51">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> (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p51.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.31" parsed="|Acts|17|31|0|0" passage="Ac 17:31"><i>v.</i> 31</scripRef>), 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> <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p51.2" osisRef="Bible:2Cor.5.10" parsed="|2Cor|5|10|0|0" passage="2Co 5:10">2 Cor. v. 10</scripRef>. 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>
</div><scripCom id="Acts.xviii-p51.3" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.32-Acts.17.34" parsed="|Acts|17|32|17|34" passage="Ac 17:32-34" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Acts.17.32-Acts.17.34">
<h4 id="Acts.xviii-p51.4">Paul at Athens.</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Acts.xviii-p52">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.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p53">We have here a short account of the issue
of Paul's preaching at Athens.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p54">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 (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p54.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.32" parsed="|Acts|17|32|0|0" passage="Ac 17:32"><i>v.</i>
32</scripRef>), 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 against what was disputable, and
would admit a debate. Thus many lose the benefit of the practical
doctrine of Christianity, by wading beyond their depth into
controversy, or, rather, by objecting against that which has some
difficulty in it; whereas, if any man were disposed and determined
to <i>do the will of God,</i> as far as it is discovered to him, he
should <i>know of the doctrine of Christ,</i> that it is <i>of God,
and not of man,</i> <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p54.2" osisRef="Bible:John.7.17" parsed="|John|7|17|0|0" passage="Joh 7:17">John vii.
17</scripRef>. 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 they know not when; and thus the
devil cozens them of all their time, by cozening them of the
present time. 3. Paul thereupon left them for the present to
consider of it (<scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p54.3" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.33" parsed="|Acts|17|33|0|0" passage="Ac 17:33"><i>v.</i>
33</scripRef>): <i>He departed from amongst them,</i> as seeing
little likelihood of 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 them whenever they pleased.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Acts.xviii-p55">II. Yet there were some that were wrought
upon, <scripRef id="Acts.xviii-p55.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.34" parsed="|Acts|17|34|0|0" passage="Ac 17:34"><i>v.</i> 34</scripRef>. If some
would not, others would. 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. 2. Two are particularly named; one was an eminent man,
<i>Dionysius the 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, 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, yet, these few
being wrought upon there, Paul had no reason to say he had
<i>laboured in vain.</i></p>
</div></div2>