170 lines
11 KiB
XML
170 lines
11 KiB
XML
<div2 id="Acts.i" n="i" next="Acts.ii" prev="Acts" progress="0.35%" title="Introduction">
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<h2 id="Acts.i-p0.1">Acts</h2>
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<hr/>
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<pb id="Acts.i-Page_1" n="1"/>
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<div class="Center" id="Acts.i-p0.3">
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<p id="Acts.i-p1"><b>AN</b></p>
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<h3 id="Acts.i-p1.1">EXPOSITION,</h3>
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<h4 id="Acts.i-p1.2">W I T H P R A C T I C A L O B S E
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R V A T I O N S,</h4>
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<h5 id="Acts.i-p1.3">OF THE</h5>
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<h2 id="Acts.i-p1.4">A C T S O F T H E A P O
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S T L E S.</h2>
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<hr style="width:2in"/>
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</div>
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<p class="indent" id="Acts.i-p2"><span class="smallcaps" id="Acts.i-p2.1">We</span> have with
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an abundant satisfaction seen the foundation of our holy religion
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laid in the history of our blessed Saviour, its great author, which
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was related and left upon record by four several inspired writers,
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who all agree in this sacred truth, and the incontestable proofs of
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it, that <i>Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.</i>
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Upon this rock the Christian church is built. How it began to be
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built upon this rock comes next to be related in this book which we
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have now before us, and of this we have the testimony only of
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<i>one witness;</i> for the matters of fact concerning Christ were
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much more necessary to be fully related and attested than those
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concerning the apostles. Had Infinite Wisdom seen fit, we might
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have had as many books of the Acts of the Apostles as we have
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gospels, nay, as we might have had gospels: but, for fear of
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over-burdening the world (<scripRef id="Acts.i-p2.2" osisRef="Bible:John.21.25" parsed="|John|21|25|0|0" passage="Joh 21:25">John xxi.
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25</scripRef>), we have sufficient to answer the end, if we will
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but make use of it. The history of this book (which was always
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received as a part of the sacred canon) may be considered.</p>
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<p class="indent" id="Acts.i-p3">I. As looking back to the preceding
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gospels, giving light to them, and greatly assisting our faith in
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them. The promises there made we here find made good, particularly
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the great promises of the descent of the Holy Ghost, and his
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wonderful operations, both <i>on</i> the apostles (whom here in a
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few days we find quite other men than what the gospels left them;
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no longer weak-headed and weak-hearted, but able to say that which
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then they were not able to bear (<scripRef id="Acts.i-p3.1" osisRef="Bible:John.16.12" parsed="|John|16|12|0|0" passage="Joh 16:12">John
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xvi. 12</scripRef>) as bold as lions to face those hardships at the
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thought of which they then trembled as lambs), and also with the
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apostles, making the word mighty to the <i>pulling down of</i>
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Satan's <i>strong holds,</i> which had been before comparatively
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preached in vain. The commission there granted to the apostles we
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here find executed, and the powers there lodged in them we here
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find exerted in miracles wrought on the bodies of people—miracles
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of mercy, restoring sick bodies to health and dead bodies to
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life—miracles of judgment, striking rebels blind or dead; and much
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greater miracles wrought on the minds of people, in conferring
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spiritual gifts upon them, both of understanding and utterance; and
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this in pursuance of Christ's purposes, and in performance of his
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promises, which we had in the gospels. The proofs of Christ's
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resurrection with which the gospels closed are here abundantly
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corroborated, not only by the constant and undaunted testimony of
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those that conversed with him after he arose (who had all deserted
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him, and one of them denied him, and would not otherwise have been
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rallied again but by his resurrection, but must have been
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irretrievably dispersed, and yet by that were enabled to own him
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more resolutely than ever, in defiance of bonds and deaths), but by
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the working of the Spirit with that testimony for the conversion of
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multitudes to the faith of Christ, according to the word of Christ,
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that his resurrection, the sign of the prophet Jonas, which was
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reserved to the last, should be the most convincing proof of his
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divine mission. Christ had told his disciples that they should be
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his witnesses, and this book brings them in witnessing for
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him,—that they should be <i>fishers of men,</i> and here we have
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them enclosing multitudes in the gospel-net,—that they should be
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the <i>lights of the world,</i> and here we have the world
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enlightened by them; but that day—spring from on high the first
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appearing of which we there discerned we here find shining more and
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more. The <i>corn of wheat,</i> which there fell to the ground,
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here springs up and bears much fruit; the <i>grain of
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mustard-seed</i> there is here a <i>great tree;</i> and <i>the
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kingdom of heaven,</i> which was then <i>at hand,</i> is here set
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up. Christ's predictions of the virulent persecutions which the
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preachers of the gospel should be afflicted with (though one could
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not have imagined that a doctrine so well worthy of all acceptation
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should meet with so much opposition) we here find abundantly
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fulfilled, and also the assurances he gave them of extraordinary
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supports and comforts under their sufferings. Thus, as the latter
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part of the history of the Old Testament verifies the promises made
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to the fathers of the former part (as appears by that famous and
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solemn acknowledgment of Solomon's, which runs like a receipt in
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full, <scripRef id="Acts.i-p3.2" osisRef="Bible:1Kgs.8.56" parsed="|1Kgs|8|56|0|0" passage="1Ki 8:56">1 Kings viii. 56</scripRef>,
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<i>There has not failed one word of all his good promises which he
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promised by the hand of Moses his servant</i>), so this latter part
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of the history of the New Testament exactly answers to the world of
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Christ in the former part of it: and thus they mutually confirm and
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illustrate each other.</p>
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<p class="indent" id="Acts.i-p4">II. As looking forward to the following
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epistles, which are an explication of the gospels, which open the
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mysteries of Christ's death and resurrection, the history of which
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we had in the gospels. This book introduces them and is a key to
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them, as the history of David is to David's psalms. We are members
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of the Christian church, that <i>tabernacle of God among men,</i>
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and it is our honour and privilege that we are so. Now this book
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gives us an account of the framing and rearing of that tabernacle.
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The four gospels showed us how the foundation of that house was
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laid; this shows us how the superstructure began to be raised, 1.
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Among the Jews and Samaritans, which we have an account of in the
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former part of this book. 2. Among the Gentiles, which we have an
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account of in the latter part: from thence, and downward to our own
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day, we find the Christian church subsisting in a visible
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profession of faith in Christ, as the Son of God and Saviour of the
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world, made by his baptized disciples, incorporated into religious
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societies, statedly meeting in religious assemblies, attending on
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the apostles' doctrine, and joining in prayers and the breaking of
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bread, under the guidance and presidency of men that gave
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themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word, and in a
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spiritual communion with all in every place that do likewise. Such
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a body as this thee is now in the world, which we belong to: and,
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to our great satisfaction and honour, in this book we find the rise
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and origin of it, vastly different from the Jewish church, and
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erected upon its ruins; but undeniably appearing to be of God, and
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not of man. With what confidence and comfort may we proceed in, and
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adhere to, our Christian profession, as far as we find it agrees
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with this <i>pattern in the mount,</i> to which we ought
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religiously to conform and confine ourselves!</p>
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<p class="indent" id="Acts.i-p5">Two things more are to be observed
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concerning this book:—(1.) The penman of it. It was written by
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Luke, who wrote the third of the four gospels, which bears his
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name; and who (as the learned Dr. Whitby shows) was, very probably,
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one of the seventy disciples, whose commission (<scripRef id="Acts.i-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Luke.10.1" parsed="|Luke|10|1|0|0" passage="Lu 10:1">Luke x. 1</scripRef>, &c.) was little inferior to
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that of the twelve apostles. This Luke was very much a companion of
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Paul in his services and sufferings. <i>Only Luke is with me,</i>
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<scripRef id="Acts.i-p5.2" osisRef="Bible:2Tim.4.11" parsed="|2Tim|4|11|0|0" passage="2Ti 4:11">2 Tim. iv. 11</scripRef>. We may know
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by his style in the latter part of this book when and where he was
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with him, for then he writes, We did so and so, as <scripRef id="Acts.i-p5.3" osisRef="Bible:Acts.16.10 Bible:Acts.20.6" parsed="|Acts|16|10|0|0;|Acts|20|6|0|0" passage="Ac 16:10,20:6"><i>ch.</i> xvi. 10; xx. 6</scripRef>; and
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thenceforward to the end of the book. He was with Paul in his
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dangerous voyage to Rome, when he was carried thither a prisoner,
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was with him when from his prison there he wrote his epistles to
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the Colossians and Philemon, in both which he is named. And it
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should seem that St. Luke wrote this history when he was with St.
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Paul at Rome, during his imprisonment there, and was assistant to
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him; for the history concludes with St. Paul's preaching there in
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his <i>own hired house.</i> (2.) The title of it: <i>The Acts of
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the Apostles; of the holy Apostles,</i> so the Greek copies
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generally read it, and so they are called, <scripRef id="Acts.i-p5.4" osisRef="Bible:Rev.18.20" parsed="|Rev|18|20|0|0" passage="Re 18:20">Rev. xviii. 20</scripRef>, <i>Rejoice over her you holy
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apostles.</i> One copy inscribes it, <i>The Acts of the Apostles by
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Luke the Evangelist.</i> [1.] It is the history of the apostles;
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yet there is in it the history of Stephen, Barnabas, and some other
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apostolical men, who, though not of the twelve, were endued with
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the same Spirit, and employed in the same work; and, of those that
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were apostles, it is the history of Peter and Paul only that is
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here recorded (and Paul was now of the twelve), Peter the apostle
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of the circumcision, and Paul the apostles of the Gentiles,
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<scripRef id="Acts.i-p5.5" osisRef="Bible:Gal.2.7" parsed="|Gal|2|7|0|0" passage="Ga 2:7">Gal. ii. 7</scripRef>. But this suffices
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as a specimen of what the rest did in other places, pursuant to
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their commission, for there were none of them idle; and as we are
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to think what is related in the gospels concerning Christ
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sufficient, because Infinite Wisdom thought so, the same we are to
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think here concerning what is related of the apostles and their
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labours; for what more is told us from tradition of the labours and
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sufferings of the apostles, and the churches they planted, is
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altogether doubtful and uncertain, and what I think we cannot build
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upon with any satisfaction at all. This is <i>gold, silver,</i> and
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<i>precious stones,</i> built upon the <i>foundation:</i> that is
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<i>wood, hay, and stubble.</i> [2.] It is called their <i>acts,</i>
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or <i>doings; Gesta apostolorum;</i> so some.
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<b><i>Praxeis</i></b>—their practices of the lessons their Master
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had taught them. The apostles where active men; and though the
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wonders they did were by the word, yet they are fitly called
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<i>their acts;</i> they spoke, or rather the Spirit by them
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<i>spoke, and it was done.</i> The history is filled with their
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sermons and their sufferings; yet so much did they labour in their
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preaching, and so voluntarily did they expose themselves to
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sufferings, and such were their achievements by both, that they may
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very well be called their <i>acts.</i></p>
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</div2> |