570 SECT. xii. Stephen is charged with blasphemy before the Sanhedrim. Let us adore that efficacy of divine grace, whereby a multitude of the Jewish priests were made obedient to the faith; and let us Ver. heartily pray, that, if there are any who claim a sacred character, 7 and yet, out of regard to worldly honour or interest, oppose the power and purity of the gospel, they may be convinced by the influence of the blessed Spirit, that they can have no interest in contradiction to the truth, and that they are happy in purchasing, at the highest price, that gospel which may enrich them for ever. 9 In whatsoever station we are fixed, whether in the world or the church, let us always remember our obligation to plead the cause of the gospel, and to render a reason for the hope that is in us. If this engage us in disputation with men of corrupt minds, we must still hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, knowing that he is faithful that has promised. (Heb. x. 23.) 11 SECT. xiii. Acts The vilest charge may, as in this instance, be fixed upon the most worthy men; piety may be defamed as blasphemy, and that which is the true love of our country as treason against it: But there is one supreme Lawgiver and Judge, who will not fail, sooner or later, to plead the cause of injured innocence. And when we read of this vile attack that was made by perjury on the character and life of Stephen, we may take occasion to adore that wise and powerful providence which so remarkably exerts itself to defend our reputation and our lives from those false and venomous tongues which, were it not for that secret invisible restraint, might, like a two-edged sword, so quickly destroy both. SECT. XIII. Stephen, being accused before the Sanhedrim of blasphemy, begins his vindication of himself from that charge. Acts VI. 13, to the end. VII. 1—14. IT ACTS VI. 13. ACTS VI. 13. AND set up false witnesses, which T was observed in the last section, that those Jews who had been confounded by the force said, This man cease th and spirit of Stephen's argument and address, not to speak blasphe words against VI. 13. had brought him before the Sanhedrim; and mous this holy place, and while he stood before them as a prisoner, they the law." set up certain false witnesses, who said, This detestable man is incessantly speaking blasphemous words against this holy place in which we now are, that is, against Jerusalem and the temple, and likewise against the divinely inspired law, as one that has no reverence at all for its authority. 14 For we ourselves have heard him saying, that this same Jesus of Nazareth, whom he celebrates so heard him say, that much upon every occasion as the long expected and 14 For we have this Jesus of Nazareth shall The high-priest calls upon him to answer the charge. shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us. 15 And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. ACTS VII. 1. Then Are these things so? 571 xiii. Acts and desired Messiah, having been rejected and SECT. And, at the very instant that this heinous 15 Nevertheless the council proceeded against Acts said the high-priest, him, and the high-priest, without any particular VII. 1 notice of it, said with an affected calmness, as to a common criminal on his trial, Are these things indeed thus, as these witnesses have deposed? Thou art permitted to make thy defence, and this is thy time to speak; if therefore thou hast any thing to offer in thine own vindication from this charge of blasphemy, which the witnesses have so expressly advanced against thee, plead it; and the court will patiently attend to what thou hast to say, before it proceeds to sentence. a Shall change the customs which Moses delivered to us. I see no reason to believe that Stephen knew the mystery of the abolition of the Mosaic law, which the apostles do not seem immediately to have understood; and it is much less probable, that he openly taught what Paul himself many years after insinuated with so much caution. (Compare Gal. ii. 2.) This therefore seems to have been the inference they drew from what he taught, of the destruction he denounced on the Jews, if they continued in their unbelief. But it was a very precarious inference, as the city and temple had been destroyed before, without any repeal of the law, and therefore they were false witnesses. b Like the countenance of an angel.] Grotius, Brennius, L'Enfant, and some others interpret this as a proverbial expression of the majesty and beauty of his countenance, arising from a transport of inward joy, in VOL. VII. And the consciousness of innocence and ex- 4 C Stephen 572 SECT. xiii. Acts Stephen begins his vindication with the call of Abraham. · before he dwelt in And upon this Stephen began a large dis- 2 And he said, Men, course, in which, in the softest and most in- brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of offensive manner, he solemnly declared his firm glory appeared unto our VII. 2. persuasion of the divine authority of that law, father Abraham, when which he was charged with blaspheming; and he was in Mesopotamia, proved to them from their own scriptures, that Charran, God's gracious regards to his people were not limited within the boundaries of that land, nor appropriated to those who were subjected to the Mosaic ritual; at the same time reminding them of some instances, in which they had ungratefully rejected those whom God had appointed for their deliverers, that they might be cautioned against repeating the fault in this instance to their final ruin. He therefore traced the matter to its original, and said, Men, brethren, and fathers, I beseech you all, whether old or young, whether of greater or lower rank, to hearken to me, while I offer these things, which may not only serve for my own vindication from this unjust charge, but may likewise remind you of some important particulars, which it is your highest interest in present circumstances seriously to consider. It is well known to all of you, that long before our law was given, or the place in which we stand had any peculiar sanctity, the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, by some resplendent and majestic symbol of his presence, while he was yet with his idolatrous ancestors in Mesopotamia, (Gen: xi. 31) before he dwelt in Charran, which for a while he did, after he had removed his abode from Ur of the Chaldeans, which was the land of his 3 nativity. In this idolatrous land it was, that God appeared and said to him, Depart from this him, Get thee out of thy native country, and from thy kindred, who thy kindred, and come are now alienated from my worship, and come away from this land, which for so long a time Stephen began a large discourse.] Le Clerk with a mixture of rashness and weakness, into which he frequently falls in his Reflections on Scripture, not understanding the true scope of this excellent discourse, presumes to censure it, as containing many things not to the purpose, as well as many slips of memory, though it is expressly said, (ver. 55) that Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit, when he delivered it. I am persuaded, that it will be admired by all that well understand it, and hope the hints I have given in the paraphrase will lead the reader into the true design of it, and shew has And said unto thy country, and from into the propriety of the circumstances introduced. Dr. Benson has illustrated it in a large and very judicious manner, in his History, Vol. I. p. 123–135, which I shall leave the curious reader to consult. I only add, that, had not Stephen been interrupted by their fury, it is probable, he would have added some other articles, and have summed up the discourse in such a manner, as to shew, that the main design of it was to humble that haughtiness of spirit, which occasioned their rejecting Jesus and his gospel. & After shall shew thee. xiii. Abraham was brought from an idolatrous country to Canaan. 573 into the land which I has been the seat of thy family, into a pleasant SECT. and excellent land which I will shew thee, and to which, by my extraordinary interposition, I Acts will guide thee; though thou at present dost VII. 3. not know either its situation or its product. 4 Then came he Then Abraham, strange as this command might 4 Chaldeans, and dwelt seem, with all submission readily obeyed it; and in Charran: and from departing from Ur in the land of the Chaldeans, thence, when his Fa- he dwelt for several years in Charran, having ther was dead, he re- been led by divine conduct thither, and not imland wherein ye now mediately receiving a signal to proceed any far out of the land of the moved him into this dwell. 5 And he gave him none inheritance in it, no not so much as to And 5 ther But, by another call from God, he was directed to depart from Charran, and accordingly from thence, after his father died, he, (that is, God,) by the singular interposition of his providence, caused him to remove his habitation into this land in which you now dwell. yet upon his coming into Canaan, he gave him set his foot on: yet he no present inheritance in it, not so much as the promised that he would dimensions of his foot, or a piece of land which give it to him for a pos- he might cover with the sole of it; for the litafter him, when as yet tle portion of it that he could call his own, he held by purchase, and not as by any claim of divine donation: Nevertheless he promised to give it for a lasting possession to him, even to his seed after him, when [as yet] by the way, he session, and to his seed he had no child. d After his father died.] Many passages in Stephen's speech have been objected to, as contradictory to the account given of the same facts in the Old Testament. I can by no means acquiesce in the answer which some have given, that Luke's inspiration, only secured to us an exact account of what Stephen said: for it seems very unreasonable to suppose, that on so extraordinary an occasion the Spirit so expressly promised in such circumstances, (even to the seventy as well as to the apostles,) should leave him to frequent and palpable slips of memory, into which it is not probable any intelligent Christian minister would now fall in a like circumstance. It seems therefore much more honourable to Christianity to suppose, that, if there are any passages here which cannot be reconciled with the passages of the Old Testament to which they refer, (which most that have been objected to certainly may,) it is owing to some error of transcribers, from which, as it is plain from various readings, even the copies of the sacred books have not always been secure, as without a continued miracle it it impossible they should. But as for what is here urged, as if it were inconsistent with Gen. xi. 26, 32. xii. 4. from whence it is argued, that, had as Terah was but 70 years old when Abra- Even to his seed.] The particle xa so Four 574 xiii. He was accepted of God before his circumcision. SECT. had no child, and humanly speaking it was not likely he ever should have one: but the faith of our pious ancestor triumphed over all these VII. 5. seeming difficulties, and joyfully embraced the divine revelation and promise. Acts 6 into bondage, and en 7 And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage, will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place. 6 And God spake And when God had brought Abraham into this country, he did not keep him and his pos- seed should sojourn in on this wise, that his terity here till the time they were to enter upon a strange land, and that the possession of it, in consequence of this di- they should bring them vine grant, but, on the contrary, God spake [to treat them evil four him] thus in a vision, (Gen. xv. 13, 14.) " that hundred years. his seed should sojourn and be strangers in a foreign land, and they among whom they sojourn shall enslave and abuse them; and these events, with the circumstances preparatory to them, shall extend themselves to the full period of four 7 hundred years. And the nation to which they shall be enslaved, said God in the same oracle, I will assuredly judge, and punish with a righteous and tremendous severity: And afterwards they shall come out of that land, and serve me in this place; inhabiting this land in which thou now dwellest, and erecting a temple for the per8 formance of my worship here." This was God's promise to him while he was yet uncircumcised, the covenant of cirand in confirmation of it he gave him, as you Abraham bezat Isaac, well know, the covenant of circumcision, a sacred and circumcised him rite, which far from blaspheming, I revere as Isaac begat Jacob, and the eighth day: and the solenin seal of this contract between God Jacob begat the twelve and Abraham And so being circumcised him- patriarchs. self, as soon as God required it, (Gen. xvii. 23, 24.) he quickly after begat Isaac, and circumcised him also on the eighth day, according to the divine appointment; and Isaac [begat] Jacob, and Jacob [begat] the twelve patriarchs, who were the respective heads of our twelve tribes of Israel. Four hundred years.] Many good critics suppose, that this is mentioned here, as well as in the text from which it is quoted, (Gen. xv. 13.) as a round sum, without taking notice of the broken number, the exact time being four hundred and thirty years, as Moses determines it, Exod. xii. 40. with whom the apostle Paul agrees, Gal. iii. 17. For Abraham was 75 years old, when he came into Canaan, (Gen. xii. 4.) which being considered as the beginning of the period, from thence to the birth of Isaac was 25 years; and Isaac was sixty years old when he begat Jacob, who went to Egypt at 130; which And 8 And he gave him cumcision: and numbers added together make 215 years; and from thence to the time of Israel's departure from Egypt was 215 years more. (See Joseph. Antiq. lib. ii. cap. 15, [al. 6.] § 2.) But Moses, in the text quoted from Exodus, refers to the whole period of the sojourning of Abraham and his family in Canaan and Egypt, as strangers in those lands; whereas this promise being made but a little before Isaac's birth, and the prediction taking place from that event, must include only 405 years, which might in a round sum be yet more easily and properly called four hundred. See Bp. Patrick on Gen. xv. 13. and Dr. Whitby in loc. |