Reflections on the great design of the gospel. 495 SFCT. cciii. of our time and opportunities, to prepare for his final appearance, when the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with more public splendour than he returned thither, and shall come in the glory of Ver. his Father, and his own glory, with a majestic pomp which every 11 eye shall see, and with the sound of a trumpet, which even all the nations of the dead shall hear. xxi. 25 In the mean time, let us thankfully own his gracious presence Mark with his disciples, whom he left behind him; and with admiring xvi. 20 gratitude reflect upon the happy consequences of that presence, in the establishment of the gospel in the world, and the transmission of it even unto us, in so remote an age and country. Let us especially praise him for these sacred records which John contain such an authentic and exact account of those important facts in which we are all so nearly concerned; records incomparably more valuable than the writings of our private estates, or the charters of our public liberties. Let us earnestly pray, that their great design may be answered in us; and make it our importunate request to Him who is the giver of all grace, that through the operations of that Holy Spirit, without the influence of which even scripture itself, with all our advantages for understanding and improving it, will be but a sealed book, or a dead letter, our faith may be nourished and confirmed by every portion. of it which we read; and that our hearts may be so delivered into the mould of his word, that believing on Christ, under all the John characters he bears, we may have life through his name; and xx. 51 may at length receive the end of our faith, in the complete salvation of our souls, through him, to whom with the Father, and the eternal Spirit, be undivided honours, and everlasting praises. Amen, and Amen! THE 496 St. Luke connects this history with his gospel. THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES, WRITTEN BY ST. LUKE. SECT. i. Acts I. 1. 4 SECT. I. St. Luke connects this history with his gospel, by a more particular account of the ascension of Christ than he had there given. Acts I. 1-12. ACTS I. 1. THE former treatise, which I lately com- a The former treatise I composed.] This former treatise is undoubtedly the Gospel, which was written by St. Luke, and dedicated by him to Theophilus: and, as this history of the Acts was written by the same person, it is allowed by all antiquity, the author of it was St. Luke, whom the apostle Paul styles the beloved physician, (Col. iv. 14) and speaks of as his fellowlabourer, (Philem. ver. 24.) who was with him at Rome, when he wrote his epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, and again afterwards when he wrote his Second Epistle to Timothy; (2 Tim. iv. 11) and so continued an associate and companion to the apostle Paul, as it is evident, from his manner of expression, the penman of the Acts had been, in several of his travels, and in his dangerous voyage when he went first to Rome. This book is generally thought to have been written about the year of our Lord 63, at which time the history ends, which it is reasonable to suppose would have proceeded further, if it had been written later: and probably, as Mr. L'Enfant and others have observed, it made as it were a second Part of St. Luke's Gospel, which in all copies has the author's name prefixed, while this is left without a title in the oldest manuscripts; though in the Syriac Version it is expressly ascribed to Luke, whom which the translator seems to call his master.Not to mention the supposed allusions to this book in Barnabas, Clemens Romanus, Hermas, Ignatius, and Polycarp, it is certain that Irenæus, Clemens Alexandrinus, Tertullian, Origen, and Eusebius, bear the most express testimonies to the genuineness of it, in a multitude of passages, which I need not here insert, as they are produced at large by Dr. Benson, in the first Part of the Appendix to his History of the Plantation of Christianity, Vol. II. p. 295-310; and, since the publication of that, by Mr. Biscoe, in his learned Discourses at Boyle's Lectures, chap. xiv. xv. where he has shewn in a most convincing manner, how capable these anci. ent writers were of judging in this matter, and how universally it was owned by the Christians of the first ages as a sacred book. How incontestably it demonstrates the truth of Christianity, is shewn at large in both these useful treatises, and every attentive reader must needs observe it for himself. b Began both to do and to teach.] To begin to do a thing, as Heinsius and many other critics have observed, is a common Greek idiom for doing or undertaking a thing. Compare Mat. xii. 1; with Luke vi. 1; and Mark vi. 2; with Mat. xiii. 54. See also Gen. ii. 3; Septuag. Numb. xxv. 1; Judg. Christ being now to take leave of his disciples, apostles whom he had chosen. 497 which Christ opened the gospel, and in which he SECT. confirmed it, from his first appearance on earth i. 2 Until the day in to the last period of his abode upon it; Even Acts which he was taken to the very day in which he was taken up into 1.2. up, after that he through the Holy heaven again, after he had by the influence and Ghost had given com- assistance of the Holy Spirit, with which he mandments unto the himself was so abundantly anointed, given a proper charge to the apostles, whom he had chosen to be the prime ministers of his kingdom, and the great instruments of extending it in the 3 To whom also he world: To whom also, in order to fit them 3 more completely for the discharge of their important office, he presented himself alive after his sufferings, with many most evident testimonials of the truth of his resurrection; while, though he declined appearing publicly among the Jews, he often shewed himself to his disciples, being seen by them at various times for no less than forty days, and speaking to them of the things concerning the kingdom of God, which was then shortly to be erected by their means. shewed himself alive after his passion, by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things per taining to the kingdom of God: 4 And, being assem And, on the fortieth day after his resurrecbled together with tion, having assembled them together with pecuthem that they should liar solemnity, he charged them not to depart not depart from Je- from Jerusalem directly, though he was now them, commanded rusalem, Judg. xiii. 5; xx. 31; Luke iii. 8; xxi. 28; and Acts ii. 4. Yet in most of these places it refers to some of the first actions or events of the kind. Accordingly I apprehend, with Chrysostom, that the phrase here refers to the account which Luke had given of Christ's ministry, from the beginning and first rise of it, (as he speaks, Luke i. 2, 3,) to the ascension, with which he concludes his Gospel. c By the Holy Spirit.] It is certainly much more agreeable to the order and construction of the words in the original, to connect and explain them as above, than to refer them, as the Syriac and Ethiopic Versions do, to his choosing the apostles by the Spirit, or with Elsner, (Observ. Vol. I. p. 353,) to his being taken up by it. It is no wonder, considering how short a history we have of what passed between Christ's resurrection and ascension, that this should be the only place which speaks of his acting by the Spirit after he rose from the dead: nor can I, with a late learned and ingenious writer, think that a sufficient reason for adhering to the versions mentioned above. (See Benson's Plantation of Christianity, Vol. I. p. 14, 15.) His breathing on the apostles, and saying, Receive ye the Holy Spirit; (John xx. 22;) seems also to to agree very well with this interpretation. & Having assembled them together.] Though van as expressive of Christ's eating with his apostles during the forty days spoken of above; the Notes of Elsner, (Observ. Vol. 1. p. 555,) and Raphelius, (ex Xen. p. 146, et Herod. p. 320, & seq.) seem abundantly sufficient to justify the version here given. e Not to depart from Jerusalem.] This seems a plain intimation, that, after our Lord had met his disciples in Galilee, he appointed the apostles to meet him at Je rusalem, 498 SECT. i. Acts Orders them to wait for the Spirit at Jerusalem. 5 For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be bap to stay no longer with them, and they knew of rusalem, but wait for no immediate business which they had there; the promise of the Father, which, saith he, but ordered them to wait there for the accom- ye have heard of me. 1. 4. plishment of that promise of the Father, to send the Spirit which [said he,] you have so often, and so lately heard from me. (See John xiv. 26. 5 xv. 26. xvi. 7. and Luke xxiv. 49.) For John indeed baptized with water only, when he was sent to call men to repentance; but, as he then tized with the Holy declared, (Mat. iii. 11,) there is a nobler bap- Ghost, not many days tism you may expect from me; and to prepare and furnish you for the great work to which I have commissioned you, of preaching repentance and remission of sins in my name, you shall be baptized with an abundant effusion of the Holy Spirit, far beyond what you have ever yet received: And this, I assure you, shall be done within these few days; which proved by 6 the event to be but ten. hence. fore were come toge But now, as the appointed time was come for 6 When they there. his returning to the Father, Jesus withdrew with ther, they asked of his apostles from the city, and led them out, as him, saying, Lord wilt was observed before, unto the mount of Olives, thou at this time restore as far as to the boundaries of Bethany. (See Israel? again the kingdom to Luke xxiv. 50.) They therefore being come together, full of expectation that he had brought them thither with a view to some remarkable transaction, asked him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time break the Roman yoke from our necks, and after all this confusion restore the kingdom to the ungrateful people of Israel, who have been thus shamefully abusing g Restore the kingdom to Israel.] They seem to have expected, that, when the Spirit was in so extraordinary a manner poured out, and the world, according to Christ's prediction, (John xvi. 8.) corvinced of sin, of righteousness, and of jud.ment, the whole nation of the Jews would own him for the Messiah, and so not only shake off its subjection to the Romans, but itself rise to very extensive, and perhaps universal dominion. The word axb.avuç intimates the shattered and weakened state, in which Israel now was. And I cannot but think, our Lord's answer may intimate, it should at length be restored, though not immediately, or with all the circumstances they imagined; which concession seems the most satisfactory answer to Rabbi Isaac's objection against Christianity, from his mistaken sense of these words. Chissuck Emunah, Part II. p. 59. He checks their curiosity about a temporal kingdom. And he said unto them, It is not for you the seasons, which the Father hath put in his to know the times or own power. 499 abusing and crucifying thee? Is the empire of SECT. But he, waving a direct answer to this curi-7 ous question, and leaving it to the Spirit, which was shortly to be given, to rectify the mistaken notions on which they proceeded in it, only said to them, Cease your inquiries at present on this head since it is not convenient for you now to know those times or seasons in which many remarkable prophecies concerning my kingdom shall be fulfilled: For the Father has reserved them in his own power, under his own direction and disposal, and hath not expressly determined them in those predictions which certify the events themselves. And he hath taken this precaution, on purpose that the minds of his people might be kept in an humble, dependent, resigned frame: It will therefore be your wisdom always to cultivate such a temper, applying yourselves diligently to the duties of your office, and leaving all events to be determined by his infinite wisdom and goodness. But for the 8 present let it suffice you to be told, that ere come upon you; and long, though I say not exactly when, you ye shall be witnesses shall receive an extraordinary power of the Holy unto me, both in Jeru- Spirit coming upon you; and in consequence of and in Samaria, and that, shall be abundantly qualified to be my unto the uttermost part witnesses both in the city of Jerusalem, and in 8 But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is salem, and in all Judea, of the earth. And when he had while they beheld, he of their sight. all the land of Judea; and not only so, but in And having said these things, he lifted up his 9 spoken these things, hands and blessed them; (Luke xxiv. 50.) and was taken up, and a while they beheld him with great earnestness, cloud received him out and high expectation of some extraordinary event consequent on this solemn preparation, he was lifted up from the ground in a miraculous. manner, and rose gradually higher and higher, till at length a bright cloud, conducted by the 3 R VOL. VII. ministry |