38 The cure of the lame man was wrought by faith in Christ. SECT. Vindicated, having raised him up from the dead; the dead; whereof vii. of which we his apostles are witnesses, upon we are witnesses. repeated testimony of our own senses, in cir Acts a 15 cumstances in which it was impossible that they 16 should be deceived. And God is still continu- 16 And his name, ing to heap new honours upon him, whom you through faith in his have treated with so much infamy; for be it name, hath made this man strong, known unto you, it is by faith in his name that whom ye see and he hath strengthened this poor man, whom you know: yea, the faith see here before you, and whom you know to which is by him, hath given him this have been unable from his birth to walk: [Yea,] perfect soundness in I repeat it again, as what highly concerns you the presence of you all to know and regard, It is his name, and the all. faith which is centered in him, and which derives its efficacy from his power, that has given him this perfect strength and soundness, which he now manifests before you all. 17 bre ye did it, as did also your rulers. And now, brethren, while I am urging this 17 And now, for your conviction, that I may lead you to thren, I wot that repent of your great wickedness in crucifying through ignorance so excellent and so divine a person, I would not aggravate the crime you have been guilty of beyond due bounds, so as to drive you to despair; as I know that it was through ignorance of his true character that you did [it,] did [it,] as [did] also your rulers, by whom you were led on and prompted to it: For surely, if the dignity and greatness of his person, and his divine authority and mission had been known, both you and they must have treated him in a very different mouth of all his 18 manner. (Compare 1 Cor. ii. 8.) But God 18 But those things permitted this that you have done, and overrul- which God before ed it for wise and gracious purposes; and hath had shewed by the thus fulfilled those things, which he so plainly prophets, that Christ had foretold by the mouth of all his prophets in should suffer, he the various ages of the world: even that Christ hath so fulfilled. should suffer, as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of his people. (Compare Acts xiii. 27.) appointed to conduct his followers to life and glory. The contrast between their killing such a person, and interceding for the pardon of a murderer, a destroyer of life, has a peculiar energy. referring that verb to in the preceding verse, and To ovoμa to ed axer in the latter clause of this. d Through ignorance you did it, &c.] Probably, if it had not been so, they would And by faith in his name he hath strength- have been immediately destroyed, or reservened, &c.] The construction of the orig- ed to vengeance without any offer of parinal, as it is commonly pointed, is so ex- don. Yet it is plain, their ignorance, being ceedingly perplexed, that Heinsius's man- in itself highly criminal amidst such means ner of pointing seems greatly to be prefer- of information, did not excuse them from red. He places a period after segere, great guilt. Times of refreshment would come, if they repented. 39 19 Repent ye there. See to it therefore, that it be your immediate SECT. fore, and be convert care to secure an interest in the benefits pur vii. Acts iii. 19 ed, that your sins chased by his death: And to this purpose let may be blotted out, when the times of re- us exhort you to repent of your iniquities, and freshing shall come with a sense of what you have done amiss to from the presence of turn to God in the way of sincere and univerthe Lord. sal obedience, that so your sins may be blotted out, and you may be delivered from the heavy burden of your guilt; that seasons of sacred refreshment and delight may come upon you And that in 20 which before was preached unto you : 20 And he shall from the presence of the Lord, send Jesus Christ, consequence of your complying with this important counsel, you may not only be received to all the joys of a state of pardon and divine acceptance, but he may at length send unto you this Jesus Christ, who was so long before appointed by God to this blessed purpose, and represented and proclaimed under such a va riety of symbols as the great Saviour of lost sinners; that having triumphed over all his enemies, and accomplished all the prophecies as to the prosperity and glory of his church on earth, he may finally receive you and all his faithful servants to complete an eternal hap 21 Whom the heav-piness above. Submit yourselves this day 21 en must receive, un- then to this glorious Redeemer, whom you must not indeed expect, as immediately to ap❤ pear in person among you; for heaven must continue to receive and retain him, till the long expected and happy times of the regulation of til the times of res That seasons of refreshment may come, &c.] So it is that Tertullian, Luther, Heinsius, Lightfoot, De Dieu, and Raphe lius (ex Herod. p. 329), I think very reasonably, render the words oras av snowow, &c. as the same phrase is used, Luke ii. 35, oxas av amonarubow, &c. that the thoughts may be revealed; and Mat. vi. 5, cwas ay qarwal, that they may be seen. (See also Acts xv. 17; and Rom. iii. 4.) Erasmus and Piscator render it, Seeing times of refreshment are come; and Beza, After that, or when they shall come: But the authorities produced in favour of this version seem not sufficient to justify it; nor was the blotting out the sins of penitents deferred to any distant time. Divine refreshment would, nooubt, immediately mingle itself with a sense of pardon, and eternal happiness would certainly at length suc ceed: but the following clause seems to intimate, that Peter apprehended the con version of the Jews, as a people, would be attended with some extraordinary scene of prosperity and joy, and open a speedy way to Christ's descent from heaven, in order to the restitution of all things. I have the pleasure, since I wrote this, to find that the learned Vitringa agrees with me in this interpretation. Vitring. Observ. Sacr. lib. v. cap. 6, §14. * Before appointed.] Instead of #gonenguyevov, before preached, I here follow Beza in reading reoxxuguerov as Tertullian and several of the fathers quote it, and the Alexandrian and several other valuable manuscripts, and ancient versions likewise, have it; and then u must, (as in this version) be referred to asosan, shall send to you, &c. 40 iii. 21 These things had been foretold by Moses and the prophets. SECT. all things, that is, till the great appointed day, titution of all things, vii. when God will rectify all the seeming irregu- which God hath spoken by the mouth of larities of his present dispensations, and make all his holy prophets, Acts the cause of righteousness and truth for ever since the world betriumphant and glorious: Concerning which gan. [great events] (that is, that such a Saviour should be raised up, and should at length be fixed in universal dominion, and the like) God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets from the beginning of time.h 22 66 For Moses, the first of these prophets whose 22 For Moses truly writings are come down to us, has in the plain- said unto the Fathers, A prophet est terms, described him, when he said to the shall the Lord your fathers in his early daysi (Deut. xviii. 15, 18, God raise up unto 19), Surely a prophet shall the Lord your you, of your brethGod in after times raise up unto you, out of the ren, like unto me: him shall ye hear in families of your brethren, like unto me; him all things whatsoevshall ye hear and hearken to in all things what- er he shall say unto 23 soever he shall say unto you: And it shall you. come to pass, [that] every soul who will not come to pass, that hearken to that prophet, and be obedient to him, every soul which will shall be cut off from among the people without not hear that prophmercy, and be made an example of the se- ed from among the verest punishment due to such aggravated and people. 24 ungrateful rebellion." Yea, and those that 24 Yea, and all succeeded Moses, even all the prophets from Samuel, and those the prophets from Samuel, and those that follow after, as many that follow after, as The regulation of all things.] This avonalasais may so well be explained of regulating the present disorders, in the moral world, and the seeming inequalities of Providential dispensations, that it is surprising to find Dr. Thomas Burnet, Mr. Whiston, and other learned writers, urging it for such a restoration of the paradisaical state of the earth, as they on their different hypothesis have ventured to assert, without any clear warrant from Scripture, and amidst a thousand difficulties which clog our conceptions of it. (Compare note k on Mat. xvii. 11, Vol. II.) From the beginning of time.] See note on Luke i. 70, Vol. I. b Moses said to the fathers] This quotation from Deut. xviii. 15, & seq. does in its primary sense refer to the Messiah, as Dr. Bullock and Mr. Jeffery have excellently shewn; he being, like Moses, not only a Prophet, but a Saviour, and a Lawgiver too. On this Scripture does Limborch chiefly build in that noble controversy of his with Orobio, most justly called Amica Collatio 23 And it shall et, shall be destroy cum erudito Jude, which not only contains a variety of beautiful, and some of them very uncommon arguments, but is also on both sides so fine a model of a genteel and amicable manner of debating the most momentous question, as it would have been much for the credit of their religion and of themselves, if all other advocates for Christianity had followed. Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho is written with much of the same decent spirit, though by no means with equal compass and solidity of thought. *Shall be cut off from among the people.] One cannot imagine a more masterly address than this, to warn the Jews of the dreadful consequence of their infidelity, in the very words of Moses, their favourite prophet, out of a pretended zeal for whom they were ready to reject Christianity, and to attempt its destruction. See above, sect. 4, note k. All the prophets from Samuel.] As Samuel is the earliest prophet next to Moses, whose writings are come down to us, and as the books which go under his name, As children of the covenant, Jesus was first sent to them. 41. many as have spok- as spoke any thing largely concerning the fu- SECT. en, have likewise ture purposes and schemes of Divine Provi- vii. foretold of these dence, have also foretold these important days, which, by the singular favour of God to you, iii.24 ye are now so happy as to see. days. nant which God seed shall all the Acts 25 Ye are the Let us now, therefore, solemnly entreat you 25 children of the proph- to regard and improve these declarations in a ets, and of the cove- becoming manner: for you have peculiar oblimade with our fath- gations to do it, as you are the children of the ers, saying unto A- prophets, and of the covenant which God constibraham, And in thy tuted of old with our fathers, saying to Abraham kindreds of the earth again and again, (Gen. xii. 3; xviii. 18; xxii. 18) "And in thy seed shall all the families of 26 Unto you first, the earth be blessed." And accordingly this 26 God having raised Messiah who was promised as so extensive up his son Jesus, and universal a blessing, has sprung from him; in turning away eve- and to you first, God having raised up his child ry one of you from Jesus from the loins of this pious patriarch, his iniquities. be blessed. sent him to bless you, has sent him with ample demonstrations of his and were probably begun by his pen, speak very expressly of the Messiah, (1 Sam. ii. 10; 2 Sam. xxiii. 3-5) nothing can be more unnecessary, and hardly any thing more unnatural, than to draw an argument from this passage to support the notion of Samuel's being the author of the Pentateuch, which many texts in the Old and New Tes. tament seem most directly to contradict. (See Lord Barrington's Essay on Var. Dispensat. Appendix, No. ii.) It would be trifling to argue from this expression of all the prophets, that every one of them, and particularly Jonah and Obadiah, must have said somewhat of the Messiah. It is abundantly sufficient, that it is true of the prophets in general. To you first.] Accordingly the gospel was (by the astonishing grace of our blessed Redeemer) every where offered first to the Jews. Had it been otherwise, humanly speaking, many who were converted in this method might have been exasperated and lost. n Every one of you turning from your iniquities.] That is, All those of you that turn from sin, shall be entitled to his blessing. This, which is just equivalent to Beza's, seems a natural version of the words añospe xasov, &c. And I choose it, because it is plain, (as Orobio with his usual sagacity objects to Limborch) that Christ did not in fact turn every one of them from their iniquities, though it must be allowed, that he took such steps as were very proper for that purpose: and the version seems farther preferable, as the apostle knew, that the Jews would in fact reject the gospel, and bring destruction on themselves as a nation by that means. 42 Reflections on Peter's discourse to the people. SECT. Acts IMPROVEMENT. HAPPY the minister whose heart is thus intent vii. tunities of doing good, as these holy apostles were! Happy that upon all opporfaithful servant, who, like them, arrogates nothing to himself, iii. but centres the praise of all in him who is the great source from verse whom every good and perfect gift proceeds! Happy the man who 12 is himself willing to be forgotten and overlooked, that God may be 13 remembered and owned! He, like this wise masterbuilder, will 15 lay the foundation deep in a sense of sin, and will charge it with all its aggravations on the sinner, that he may thereby render the tidings of a Saviour welcome; which they can never be till this burden has been felt. Yet will he, like Peter, conduct the 17 charge with tenderness and respect, and be cautious not to overload even the greatest offender. 19 We see the absolute necessity of repentance, which therefore is to be solemnly charged upon the consciences of all who desire that their sins may be blotted out of the book of God's remembrance, and that they may share in that refreshment which nothing but the sense of his pardoning love can afford. Blessed souls are they who have experienced it; for they may look upon all their present comforts as the dawning of eternal glory; and 20,21 having seen Christ with an eye of faith, and received that important cure, which nothing but his powerful and gracious name can effect, may be assured that God will send him again to complete the work he has so graciously begun, and to reduce the seeming irregularities of the present state into everlasting harmony, order, and beauty. 18 In the mean time, let us adore the wisdom of his providence, and the fidelity of his grace, which has overruled the folly and wickedness of men, to subserve his own holy purposes, and has 22 accomplished the promises so long since made of a prophet to be raised up to Israel like Moses, and indeed gloriously superior to him, both in the dignity of his character and office, and in the 26 great salvation he was sent to procure. This salvation was first offered to Israel, which had rendered itself so peculiarly 15 unworthy by killing the Prince of life. Let us rejoice that he is now published to us, and that God has condescended to send his Son to bless us sinners of the Gentiles, in turning us from our iniquities. Let us view this salvation in its true light, and remember that if we are not willing to turn from iniquity, from all iniquity, from those iniquities that have been peculiarly our own, it is impossible we should have any share in it. |