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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
A C T S.
CHAP. XXVI.
We left Paul at the bar, and Festus, and Agrippa, and Bernice, and all
the great men of the city of Cæsarea, upon the bench, or about it,
waiting to hear what he had to say for himself. Now in this chapter we
have,
I. The account he gives of himself, in answer to the calumnies of the
Jews. And in this,
1. His humble address to king Agrippa, and the compliment he passed
upon him,
2. His account of his origin, and education, his profession as a
Pharisee, and his adherence still to that which was then the main
article of his creed, in distinction from the Sadducees, the
“resurrection of the dead,” however in rituals he had since departed
from it,
3. Of his zeal against the Christian religion, and the professors of
it, in the beginning of his time,
4. Of his miraculous conversion to the faith of Christ,
5. Of the commission he received from heaven to preach the gospel to
the Gentiles,
6. Of his proceedings pursuant to that commission, which had given this
mighty offence to the Jews,
7. Of the doctrine which he had made it his business to preach to the
Gentiles, which was so far from destroying the law and the prophets
that it showed the fulfilling of both,
II. The remarks that were made upon his apology.
1. Festus thought he never heard a man talk so madly, and slighted him
as crazed,
In answer to him, he denies the charge, and appeals to king Agrippa,
2. King Agrippa, being more closely and particularly dealt with, thinks
he never heard a man talk more rationally and convincingly, and owns
himself almost his convert
(ver. 28),
and Paul heartily wishes him so,
3. They all agreed that he was an innocent man, that he ought to be set
at liberty, and that it was a pity he was provoked to put a bar in his
own door by appealing to Cæsar,
| Paul’s Fifth Defence. |
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1 Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Thou art permitted to speak for
thyself. Then Paul stretched forth the hand, and answered for
himself:
2 I think myself happy, king Agrippa, because I shall answer
for myself this day before thee touching all the things whereof I
am accused of the Jews:
3 Especially because I know thee to be expert in all customs
and questions which are among the Jews: wherefore I beseech thee
to hear me patiently.
4 My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among
mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews;
5 Which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that
after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.
6 And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise
made of God unto our fathers:
7 Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving
God day and night, hope to come. For which hope’s sake, king
Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews.
8 Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that
God should raise the dead?
9 I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things
contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
10 Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints
did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief
priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against
them.
11 And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled
them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I
persecuted them even unto strange cities.
Agrippa was the most honourable person in the assembly, having the
title of king bestowed upon him, though otherwise having only the power
of other governors under the emperor, and, though not here superior,
yet senior, to Festus; and therefore, Festus having opened the cause,
Agrippa, as the mouth of the court, intimates to Paul a licence given
him to speak for himself,
v. 1.
Paul was silent till he had this liberty allowed him; for those are not
the most forward to speak that are best prepared to speak and speak
best. This was a favour which the Jews would not allow him, or not
without difficulty; but Agrippa freely gives it to him. And Paul’s
cause was so good that he desired no more than to have liberty to speak
for himself; he needed no advocate, no Tertullus, to speak for him.
Notice is taken of his gesture: He stretched forth his hand, as
one that was under no consternation at all, but had perfect freedom and
command of himself; it also intimates that he was in earnest, and
expected their attention while he answered for himself. Observe, He did
not insist upon his having appealed to Cæsar as an excuse for
being silent, did not say, “I will be examined no more till I come to
the emperor himself;” but cheerfully embraced the opportunity of doing
honour to the cause he suffered for. If we must be ready to give a
reason of the hope that is in us to every man that asketh us, much
more to every man in authority,
Now in this former part of the speech,
I. Paul addressed himself with a very particular respect to Agrippa,
He answered cheerfully before Felix, because he knew he had been
many years a judge to that nation,
ch. xxiv. 10.
But his opinion of Agrippa goes further. Observe,
1. Being accused of the Jews, and having many base things laid to his
charge, he is glad he has an opportunity of clearing himself; so far is
he from imagining that his being an apostle exempted him from the
jurisdiction of the civil powers. Magistracy is an ordinance of God,
which we have all benefit by, and therefore must all be subject to.
2. Since he is forced to answer for himself, he is glad it is before
king Agrippa, who, being himself a proselyte to the Jewish religion,
understood all matters relating to it better than the other Roman
governors did: I know thee to be expert in all customs and questions
which are among the Jews. It seems, Agrippa was a scholar, and had
been particularly conversant in the Jewish learning, was expert in the
customs of the Jewish religion, and knew the nature of them, and that
they were not designed to be either universal or perpetual. He was
expert also in the questions that arose upon those customs, in
determining which the Jews themselves were not all of a mind. Agrippa
was well versed in the scriptures of the Old-Testament, and therefore
could make a better judgment upon the controversy between him and the
Jews concerning Jesus being the Messiah than another could. It is an
encouragement to a preacher to have those to speak to that are
intelligent, and can discern things that differ. When Paul says,
Judge you what I say, yet he speaks as to wise men,
1 Cor. x. 15.
3. He therefore begs that he would hear him patiently,
makrothymos—with long suffering. Paul designs a
long discourse, and begs that Agrippa will hear him out, and not be
weary; he designs a plain discourse, and begs that he will hear him
with mildness, and not be angry. Paul had some reason to fear that as
Agrippa, being a Jew, was well versed in the Jewish customs, and
therefore the more competent judge of his cause, so he was soured in
some measure with the Jewish leaven, and therefore prejudiced against
Paul as the apostle of the Gentiles; he therefore says this to sweeten
him: I beseech thee, hear me patiently. Surely the least we can
expect, when we preach the faith of Christ, is to be heard
patiently.
II. He professes that though he was hated and branded as a apostate,
yet he still adhered to all that good which he was first educated and
trained up in; his religion was always built upon the promise of God
made unto the fathers; and this he still built upon.
1. See here what his religion was in his youth: His manner of
life was well known,
v. 4, 5.
He was not indeed born among his own nation, but he was bred among them
at Jerusalem. Though he had of late years been conversant with the
Gentiles (which had given great offence to the Jews), yet at his
setting out in the world he was intimately acquainted with the Jewish
nation, and entirely in their interests. His education was neither
foreign nor obscure; it was among his own nation at Jerusalem, where
religion and learning flourished. All the Jews knew it, all that could
remember so long, for Paul made himself remarkable betimes. Those that
knew him from the beginning could testify for him that he was a
Pharisee, that he was not only of the Jewish religion, and an observer
of all the ordinances of it, but that he was of the most strict sect
of that religion, most nice and exact in observing the institutions
of it himself, and most rigid and critical in imposing them upon
others. He was not only called a Pharisee, but he lived a
Pharisee. All that knew him knew very well that never any Pharisee
conformed more punctually to the rules of his order than he did. Nay,
and he was of the better sort of Pharisees; for he was brought up at
the feet of Gamaliel, who was an eminent rabbi of the school of house
of Hillel, which was in much greater reputation for religion than the
school or house of Samai. Now if Paul was a Pharisee, and lived a
Pharisee,
(1.) Then he was a scholar, a man of learning, and not an ignorant,
illiterate, mechanic; the Pharisees knew the law, and were well versed
in it, and in the traditional expositions of it. It was a reproach to
the other apostles that they had not had an academical education, but
were bred fishermen,
Therefore, that the unbelieving Jews might be left without excuse, here
is an apostle raised up that had sat at the feet of their most eminent
doctors.
(2.) Then he was a moralist, a man of virtue, and not a rake or loose
debauched young man. If he lived like a Pharisee, he was no drunkard
nor fornicator; and, being a young Pharisee, we may hope he was no
extortioner, nor had yet learned the arts which the crafty covetous old
Pharisees had of devouring the houses of poor widows; but he was, as
touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. He was
not chargeable with any instance of open vice and profaneness; and
therefore, as he could not be thought to have deserted his religion
because he did not know it (for he was a learned man), so he could not
be thought to have deserted it because he did not love it, or was
disaffected to the obligations of it, for he was a virtuous man, and
not inclined to any immorality.
(3.) Then he was orthodox, sound in the faith, and not a deist or
sceptic, or a man of corrupt principles that led to infidelity. He was
a Pharisee, in opposition to a Sadducee; he received those books of the
Old Testament which the Sadducees rejected, believed a world of
spirits, the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, and
the rewards and punishments of the future state, all which the
Sadducees denied. They could not say, He quitted his religion for want
of a principle, or for want of a due regard to divine revelation; no,
he always had a veneration for the ancient promise made of God unto
the fathers, and built his hope upon it.
Now though Paul knew very well that all this would not justify him
before God, nor make a righteousness for him yet he knew it was for his
reputation among the Jews, and an argument ad hominem–such as Agrippa
would feel, that he was not such a man as they represented him to
be. Though he counted it but loss that he might win Christ, yet he
mentioned it when it might serve to honour Christ. He knew very well
that all this while he was a stranger to the spiritual nature of the
divine law, and to heart-religion, and that except his righteousness
exceeded this he should never go to heaven; yet he reflects upon it
with some satisfaction that he had not been before his conversion an
atheistical, profane, vicious man, but, according to the light he had,
had lived in all good conscience before God.
2. See here what his religion is. He has not indeed such a zeal for the
ceremonial law as he had in his youth. The sacrifices and offerings
appointed by that, he thinks, are superseded by the great sacrifice
which they typified; ceremonial pollutions and purifications from them
he makes no conscience of, and thinks the Levitical priesthood is
honourably swallowed up in the priesthood of Christ; but for the main
principles of his religion he is as zealous for them as ever, and more
so, and resolves to live and die by them.
(1.) His religion is built upon the promise made of God unto the
fathers. It is built upon divine revelation, which he receives and
believes, and ventures his soul upon; it is built upon divine grace,
and that grace manifested and conveyed by promise. The promise of God
is the guide and ground of his religion, the promise made to the
fathers, which was more ancient than the ceremonial law, that
covenant which was confirmed before of God in Christ, and which the
law, that was not till four hundred and thirty years after, could not
disannul,
Gal. iii. 17.
Christ and heaven are the two great doctrines of the gospel–that
God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
Now these two are the matter of the promise made unto the
fathers. It may look back as far as the promise made to father
Adam, concerning the seed of the woman, and those discoveries of a
future state which the first patriarchs acted faith upon, and were
saved by that faith; but it respects chiefly the promise made to father
Abraham, that in his seed all the families of the earth should be
blessed, and that God would be a God to him, and to his seed
after him: the former meaning Christ, the latter heaven; for, if
God had not prepared for them a city, he would have been ashamed
to have called himself their God.
Heb. xi. 16.
(2.) His religion consists in the hopes of this promise. He places it
not, as they did, in meats and drinks, and the observance of carnal
ordinances (God had often shown what little account he made of them),
but in a believing dependence upon God’s grace in the covenant, and
upon the promise, which was the great charter by which the church was
first incorporated.
[1.] He had hope in Christ as the promised seed; he hoped to be blessed
in him, to receive the blessing of God and to be truly blessed.
[2.] He had hopes of heaven; this is expressly meant, as appears by
comparing
That there shall be a resurrection of the dead. Paul had no
confidence in the flesh, but in Christ; no expectation at all of great
things in this world, but of greater things in the other world than any
this world can pretend to; he had his eye upon a future state.
(3.) Herein he concurred with all the pious Jews; his faith was not
only according to the scripture, but according to the testimony of the
church, which was a support to it. Though they set him up as a mark, he
was not singular: “Our twelve tribes, the body of the Jewish
church, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come to
this promise, that is, to the good promised.” The people of Israel
are called the twelve tribes, because so they were at first;
and, though we read not of the return of the ten tribes in a body, yet
we have reason to think many particular persons, more or less of every
tribe, returned to their own land; perhaps, by degrees, the greater
part of those that were carried away. Christ speaks of the twelve
tribes,
Matt. xix. 28.
Anna was of the tribe of Asher,
James directs his epistle to the twelve tribes scattered abroad,
Jam. i. 1.
“Our twelve tribes, which make up the body of our nation, to which I
and others belong. Now all the Israelites profess to believe in this
promise, both of Christ and heaven, and hope to come to the benefits of
them. They all hope for a Messiah to come, and we that are Christians
hope in a Messiah already come; so that we all agree to build upon the
same promise. They look for the resurrection of the dead and
the life of the world to come, and this is what I look for. Why
should I be looked upon as advancing something dangerous and heterodox,
or as an apostate from the faith and worship of the Jewish church, when
I agree with them in this fundamental article? I hope to come to the
same heaven at last that they hope to come to; and, if we expect to
meet so happily in our end, why should we fall out so unhappily by the
way?” Nay, the Jewish church not only hoped to come to this promise,
but, in the hope of it, they instantly served God day and night.
The temple-service, which consisted in a continual course of religious
duties, morning and evening, day and night, from the beginning of the
year to the end of it, and was kept up by the priests and Levites, and
the stationary men, as they called them, who continually
attended there to lay their hands upon the public sacrifices, as the
representatives of all the twelve tribes, this service was kept up in
the profession of faith in the promise of eternal life, and, in
expectation of it, Paul instantly serves God day and night in
the gospel of his Son; the twelve tribes by their representatives do so
in the law of Moses, but he and they do it in hope of the same promise:
“Therefore they ought not to look upon me as a deserter from their
church, so long as I hold by the same promise that they hold by.” Much
more should Christians, who hope in the same Jesus, for the same
heaven, though differing in the modes and ceremonies of worship, hope
the best one of another, and live together in holy love. Or it may be
meant of particular persons who continued in the communion of the
Jewish church, and were very devout in their way, serving God with
great intenseness, and a close application of mind, and constant in it,
night and day, as Anna, who departed not from the temple, but
served God (it is the same word here used) in fastings and
prayers night and day,
Luke ii. 37.
“In this way they hope to come to the promise, and I hope they will.”
Note, Those only can upon good grounds hope for eternal life that are
diligent and constant in the service of God; and the prospect of that
eternal life should engage us to diligence and constancy in all
religious exercises. We should go on with our work with heaven in our
eye. And of those that instantly serve God day and night, though
not in our way, we ought to judge charitably.
(4.) This was what he was now suffering for–for preaching that doctrine
which they themselves, if they did but understand themselves aright,
must own: I am judged for the hope of the promise made unto the
fathers. He stuck to the promise, against the ceremonial law, while
his persecutors stuck to the ceremonial law, against the promise: “It
is for this hope’s sake, king Agrippa, that I am accused of the
Jews–because I do that which I think myself obliged to do by the
hope of this promise.” It is common for men to hate and persecute the
power of that religion in others which yet they pride themselves in the
form of. Paul’s hope was what they themselves also allowed
(ch. xxiv. 15),
and yet they were thus enraged against him for practising according to
that hope. But it was his honour that when he suffered as a Christian
he suffered for the hope of Israel,
ch. xxviii. 20.
(5.) This was what he would persuade all that heard him cordially to
embrace
(v. 8):
Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should
raise the dead? This seems to come in somewhat abruptly; but it is
probable Paul said much more than is here recorded, and that he
explained the promise made to the fathers to be the promise of
the resurrection and eternal life, and proved that he was in the right
way of pursuing his hope of that happiness because he believed in
Christ who had risen from the dead, which was a pledge and
earnest of that resurrection which the fathers hoped for. Paul is
therefore earnest to know the power of Christ’s resurrection,
that by it he might attain to the resurrection of the dead; see
Now many of his hearers were Gentiles, most of them perhaps, Festus
particularly, and we may suppose, when they heard him speak so much of
Christ’s resurrection, and of the resurrection from the dead, which the
twelve tribes hoped for, that they mocked, as the Athenians did, began
to smile at it, and whispered to one another what an absurd thing it
was, which occasioned Paul thus to reason with them. What! is it
thought incredible with you that God should raise the dead? So it
may be read. If it be marvellous in your eyes, should it be
marvellous in mine eyes, saith the Lord of hosts?
Zech. viii. 6.
If it be above the power of nature, yet it is not above the power of
the God of nature. Note, There is no reason why we should think it at
all incredible that God should raise the dead. We are not required to
believe any thing that is incredible, any thing that implies a
contradiction. There are motives of credibility sufficient to carry us
through all the doctrines of the Christian religion, and this
particularly of the resurrection of the dead. Has not God an infinite
almighty power, to which nothing is impossible? Did not he make the
world at first out of nothing, with a word’s speaking? Did he not form
our bodies, form them out of the clay, and breathe into us the breath
of life at first? and cannot the same power form them again out of
their own clay, and put life into them again? Do we not see a kind of
resurrection in nature, at the return of every spring? Has the sun such
a force to raise dead plants, and should it seem incredible to us that
God should raise dead bodies?
III. He acknowledges that while he continued a Pharisee he was a bitter
enemy to Christians and Christianity, and thought he ought to be so,
and continued so to the moment that Christ wrought that wonderful
change in him. This he mentions,
1. To show that his becoming a Christian and a preacher was not the
product and result of any previous disposition or inclination that way,
or any gradual advance of thought in favour of the Christian doctrine;
he did not reason himself into Christianity by a chain of arguments,
but was brought into the highest degree of an assurance of it,
immediately from the highest degree of prejudice against it, by which
it appeared that he was made a Christian and a preacher by a
supernatural power; so that his conversion in such a miraculous way was
not only to himself, but to others also, a convincing proof of the
truth of Christianity.
2. Perhaps he designs it for such an excuse of his persecutors as
Christ made for his, when he said, They know not what they do.
Paul himself once thought he did what he ought to do when he persecuted
the disciples of Christ, and he charitably thinks they laboured under
the like mistake. Observe,
(1.) What a fool he was in his opinion
(v. 9):
He thought with himself that he ought to do many things, every
thing that lay in his power, contrary to the name of Jesus of
Nazareth, contrary to his doctrine, his honour, his interest. That
name did not harm, yet, because it agreed not with the notion he had of
the kingdom of the Messiah, he was for doing all he could against it.
He thought he did God good service in persecuting those who called on
the name of Jesus Christ. Note, It is possible for those to be
confident they are in the right who yet are evidently in the wrong; and
for those to think they are doing their duty who are wilfully
persisting in the greatest sin. Those that hated their brethren, and
cast them out, said, Let the Lord be glorified,
Isa. lxvi. 5.
Under colour and pretext of religion, the most barbarous and inhuman
villanies have been not only justified, but sanctified and magnified,
(2.) What a fury he was in his practice,
There is not a more violent principle in the world than conscience
misinformed. When Paul thought it his duty to do all he could against
the name of Christ, he spared no pains nor cost in it. He gives an
account of what he did of that kind, and aggravates it as one that was
truly penitent for it: I was a blasphemer, a persecutor,
1 Tim. i. 13.
[1.] He filled the jails with Christians, as if they had been the worst
of criminals, designing hereby not only to terrify them, but to make
them odious to the people. He was the devil that cast some of them
into prison
(Rev. ii. 10),
took them into custody, in order to their being prosecuted. Many of
the saints did I shut up in prison
(ch. xxvi. 10),
both men and women,
ch. viii. 3.
[2.] He made himself the tool of the chief priests. Herein from them he
received authority, as an inferior officer, to put their laws in
execution, and proud enough he was to be a man in authority for such a
purpose.
[3.] He was very officious to vote, unasked for, the putting of
Christians to death, particularly Stephen, to whose death Saul was
consenting
(ch. viii. 1),
and so made himself particeps criminis–partaker of the crime.
Perhaps he was, for his great zeal, though young, made a member of the
sanhedrim, and there voted for the condemning of Christians to die; or,
after they were condemned, he justified what was done, and commended
it, and so made himself guilty ex post facto–after the deed was
committed, as if he had been a judge or jury-man.
[4.] He brought them under punishments of an inferior nature, in the
synagogues, where they were scourged as transgressors of the
rules of the synagogue. He had a hand in the punishing of many; nay, it
should seem the same persons were by his means often punished,
as he himself was five times,
[5.] He not only punished them for their religion, but, taking a pride
in triumphing over men’s consciences, he forced them to abjure their
religion, by putting them to the torture: “I compelled them to
blaspheme Christ, and to say he was a deceiver and they were
deceived in him–compelled them to deny their Master, and renounce
their obligations to him.” Nothing will lie heavier upon persecutors
than forcing men’s consciences, how much soever they may now triumph in
the proselytes they have made by their violences.
[6.] His rage swelled so against Christians and Christianity that
Jerusalem itself was too narrow a stage for it to act upon, but, being
exceedingly mad against them, he persecuted them even to strange
cities. He was mad at them, to see how much they had to say for
themselves, notwithstanding all he did against them, mad to see them
multiply the more for their being afflicted. He was exceedingly
mad; the stream of his fury would admit no banks, no bounds, but he
was as much a terror to himself as he was to them, so great was his
vexation within himself that he could not prevail, as well as his
indignation against them. Persecutors are mad men, and some of them
exceedingly mad. Paul was mad to see that those in other cities
were not so outrageous against the Christians, and therefore made
himself busy where he had no business, and persecuted the Christians
even in strange cities. There is not a more restless principle than
malice, especially that which pretends conscience.
This was Paul’s character, and this his manner of life in the beginning
of his time; and therefore he could not be presumed to be a Christian
by education or custom, or to be drawn in by hope of preferment, for
all imaginable external objections lay against his being a
Christian.
| Paul’s Fifth Defence. |
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12 Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and
commission from the chief priests,
13 At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven,
above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them
which journeyed with me.
14 And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice
speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks.
15 And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom
thou persecutest.
16 But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto
thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both
of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the
which I will appear unto thee;
17 Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles,
unto whom now I send thee,
18 To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to
light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may
receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are
sanctified by faith that is in me.
19 Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the
heavenly vision:
20 But showed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem,
and throughout all the coasts of Judæa, and then to the
Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works
meet for repentance.
21 For these causes the Jews caught me in the temple, and went
about to kill me.
22 Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this
day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things
than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come:
23 That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first
that should rise from the dead, and should show light unto the
people, and to the Gentiles.
All who believe a God, and have a reverence for his sovereignty, must
acknowledge that those who speak and act by his direction, and by
warrant from him, are not to be opposed; for that is fighting
against God. Now Paul here, by a plain and faithful narrative of
matters of fact, makes it out to this august assembly that he had an
immediate call from heaven to preach the gospel of Christ to the
Gentile world, which was the thing that exasperated the Jews against
him. He here shows,
I. That he was made a Christian by a divine power, notwithstanding all
his prejudices against that way. He was brought into it on a sudden by
the hand of heaven; not compelled to confess Christ by outward force,
as he had compelled others to blaspheme him, but by a divine and
spiritual energy, by a revelation of Christ from above, both to him and
in him: and this when he was in the full career of his sin, going to
Damascus, to suppress Christianity by persecuting the Christians there,
as hot as ever in the cause, his persecuting fury not in the least
spent nor tired, nor was he tempted to give it up by the failing of his
friends, for he had at this time as ample an authority and
commission from the chief priests to persecute Christianity as ever
he had, when he was obliged by a superior power to give up that, and
accept another commission to preach up Christianity. Two things bring
about this surprising change, a vision from heaven and a voice from
heaven, which conveyed the knowledge of Christ to him by the two
learning senses of seeing and hearing.
1. He saw a heavenly vision, the circumstances of which were such that
it could not be a delusion–deciptio visus, but it was without
doubt a divine appearance.
(1.) He saw a great light, a light from heaven, such as could
not be produced by any art, for it was not in the night, but at mid
day; it was not in a house where tricks might have been played with
him, but it was in the way, in the open air; it was such a light
as was above the brightness of the sun, outshone and eclipsed
that
and this could not be the product of Paul’s own fancy, for it shone
round about those that journeyed with him: they were all sensible
of their being surrounded with this inundation of light, which made the
sun itself to be in their eyes a less light. The force and power of
this light appeared in the effects of it; they all fell to the earth
upon the sight of it, such a mighty consternation did it put them into;
this light was lightning for its force, yet did not pass away as
lightning, but continued to shine round about them. In Old-Testament
times God commonly manifested himself in the thick darkness, and made
that his pavilion,
He spoke to Abraham in a great darkness
(Gen. xv. 12),
for that was a dispensation of darkness; but now that life and
immortality were brought to light by the gospel Christ appeared in
a great light. In the creation of grace, as of the world, the first
thing created is light,
(2.) Christ himself appeared to him
(v. 16):
I have appeared to thee for this purpose. Christ was in this
light, though those that travelled with Paul saw the light only, and
not Christ in the light. It is not every knowledge that will serve to
make us Christians, but it must be the knowledge of Christ.
2. He heard a heavenly voice, an articulate one, speaking to
him; it is here said to be in the Hebrew tongue (which was
not taken notice of before), his native language, the language of his
religion, to intimate to him that though he must be sent among the
Gentiles, yet he must not forget that he was a Hebrew, nor make himself
a stranger to the Hebrew language. In what Christ said to him we may
observe,
(1.) That he called him by his name, and repeated it (Saul,
Saul), which would surprise and startle him; and the more because
he was now in a strange place, where he thought nobody knew him.
(2.) That he convinced him of sin, of that great sin which he was now
in the commission of, the sin of persecuting the Christians, and showed
him the absurdity of it.
(3.) That he interested himself in the sufferings of his followers:
Thou persecutest me
(v. 14),
and again, It is Jesus whom thou persecutest,
v. 15.
Little did Paul think, when he was trampling upon those that he looked
upon as the burdens and blemishes of this earth, that he was insulting
one that was so much the glory of heaven.
(4.) That he checked him for his wilful resistance of those
convictions: It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks, or
goads, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. Paul’s spirit at
first perhaps began to rise, but he is told it is at his peril, and
then he yields. Or, it was spoken by way of caution: “Take heed lest
thou resist these convictions, for they are designed to affect thee,
not to affront thee.”
(5.) That, upon his enquiry, Christ made himself known to him. Paul
asked
(v. 15),
“Who art thou, Lord? Let me know who it is that speaks to me
from heaven, that I may answer him accordingly?” And he said, “I am
Jesus; he whom thou hast despised, and hated, and vilified; I bear
that name which thou hast made so odious, and the naming of it
criminal.” Paul thought Jesus was buried in the earth, and, though
stolen out of his own sepulchre, yet laid in some other. All the Jews
were taught to say so, and therefore he is amazed to hear him speak
from heaven, to see him surrounded with all this glory whom he had
loaded with all possible ignominy. This convinced him that the doctrine
of Jesus was divine and heavenly, and not only not to be opposed, but
to be cordially embraced: That Jesus is the Messiah, for he has
not only risen from the dead, but he has received from God
the Father honour and glory; and this is enough to make him a
Christian immediately, to quit the society of the persecutors, whom the
Lord from heaven thus appears against, and to join himself with the
society of the persecuted, whom the Lord from heaven thus appears
for.
II. That he was made a minister by a divine authority: That the same
Jesus that appeared to him in that glorious light ordered him to
go and preach the gospel to the Gentiles; he did not run without
sending, nor was he sent by men like himself, but by him whom the
Father sent,
What is said of his being an apostle is here joined immediately to that
which was said to him by the way, but it appears by
&c., that it was spoken to him afterwards; but he puts the two together
for brevity-sake: Rise, and stand upon thy feet. Those whom
Christ, by the light of his gospel, casts down in humiliation for sin,
shall find that it is in order to their rising and standing upon their
feet, in spiritual grace, strength, and comfort. If Christ has torn, it
is that he may heal; if he has cast down, it is that he may raise up.
Rise then, and shake thyself from the dust
(Isa. lii. 2),
help thyself, and Christ shall help thee. He must stand up, for Christ
shall help thee. He must stand up, for Christ has work for him to
do–has an errand, and a very great errand, to send him upon: I have
appeared to thee to make thee a minister. Christ has the making of
his own ministers; they have both their qualifications and their
commissions from him. Paul thanks Christ Jesus who put him into the
ministry,
Christ appeared to him to make him a minister. One way or other,
Christ will manifest himself to all those whom he makes his ministers;
for how can those preach him who do not know him? And how can those
know him to whom he does not by his spirit make himself known?
Observe,
1. The office to which Paul is appointed: he is made a minister, to
attend on Christ, and act for him, as a witness–to give evidence in his
cause, and attest the truth of his doctrine. He must testify the
gospel of the grace of God; Christ appeared to him that he might
appear for Christ before men.
2. The matter of Paul’s testimony: he must give an account to the
world,
(1.) Of the things which he had seen, now at this time, must
tell people of Christ’s manifesting himself to him by the way, and what
he said to him. He saw these things that he might publish them, and he
did take all occasions to publish them, as here, and before,
(2.) Of those things in which he would appear to him. Christ now
settled a correspondence with Paul, which he designed afterwards to
keep up, and only told him now that he should hear further from him.
Paul at first had but confused notions of the gospel, till Christ
appeared to him and gave him fuller instructions. The gospel he
preached he received from Christ immediately
(Gal. i. 12);
but he received it gradually, some at one time and some at another, as
there was occasion. Christ often appeared to Paul, oftener, it is
likely, than is recorded, and still taught him, that he might still
teach the people knowledge.
3. The spiritual protection he was taken under, while he was thus
employed as Christ’s witness: all the powers of darkness could not
prevail against him till he had finished his testimony
(v. 17),
delivering thee from the people of the Jews and from the
Gentiles. Note, Christ’s witnesses are under his special care, and,
though they may fall into the hands of the enemies, yet he will take
care to deliver them out of their hands, and he knows how to do it.
Christ had shown Paul at this time what great things he must
suffer
(ch. ix. 16),
and yet tells him here he will deliver him from the people.
Note, Great sufferings are reconcilable to the promise of the
deliverance of God’s people, for it is not promised that they shall be
kept from trouble, but kept through it; and sometimes God delivers them
into the hands of their persecutors that he may have the honour of
delivering them out of their hands.
4. The special commission given him to go among the Gentiles, and the
errand upon which he is sent to them; it was some years after Paul’s
conversion before he was sent to the Gentiles, or (for aught
that appears) knew any thing of his being designed for that purpose
(see
but at length he is ordered to steer his course that way.
(1.) There is great work to be done among the Gentiles, and Paul must
be instrumental in doing it. Two things must be done, which their case
calls for the doing of:–
[1.] A world that sits in darkness must be enlightened; those must be
brought to know the things that belong to their everlasting
peace who are yet ignorant of them, to know God as their end, and
Christ as their way, who as yet know nothing of either. He is sent
to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light. His
preaching shall not only make known to them those things which they had
not before heard of, but shall be the vehicle of that divine grace and
power by which their understandings shall be enlightened to receive
those things, and bid them welcome. Thus he shall open their eyes,
which before were shut against the light, and they shall be willing to
understand themselves, their own case and interest. Christ opens the
heart by opening the eyes, does not lead men blindfold, but gives them
to see their own way. He is sent not only to open their eyes for the
present, but to keep them open, to turn them from darkness to
light, that is, from following false and blind guides, their
oracles, divinations, and superstitious usages, received by tradition
from their fathers, and the corrupt notions and ideas they had of their
gods, to follow a divine revelation of unquestionable certainty and
truth. This was turning them from darkness to light, from the ways of
darkness to those on which the light shines. The great design of the
gospel is to instruct the ignorant, and to rectify the mistakes of
those who are in error, that things may be set and seen in a true
light.
[2.] A world that lies in wickedness, in the wicked one, must be
sanctified and reformed; it is not enough for them to have their eyes
opened, they must have their hearts renewed; not enough to be turned
from darkness to light, but they must be turned from the power of Satan
unto God, which will follow of course; for Satan rules by the power of
darkness, and God by the convincing evidence of light. Sinners are
under the power of Satan; idolaters were so in a special manner, they
paid their homage to devils. All sinners are under the influence of his
temptations, yield themselves captives to him, are at his beck;
converting grace turns them from under the dominion of Satan, and
brings them into subjection to God, to conform to the rules of his word
and comply with the dictates and directions of his Spirit,
translates them out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of
his dear Son. When gracious dispositions are strong in the soul (as
corrupt and sinful dispositions had been), it is then turned from the
power of Satan unto God.
(2.) There is a great happiness designed for the Gentiles by this
work–that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance
among those who are sanctified; they are turned from the darkness
of sin to the light of holiness, from the slavery of Satan to the
service of God; not that God may be a gainer by them, but that they may
be gainers by him.
[1.] That they may be restored to his favour, which by sin they have
forfeited and thrown themselves out of: That they may receive
forgiveness of sins. They are delivered from the dominion of sin,
that they may be saved from that death which is the wages of sin. Not
that they may merit forgiveness as a debt of reward, but that they may
receive it as a free gift, that they may be qualified to receive the
comfort of it. They are persuaded to lay down their arms, and return to
their allegiance, that they may have the benefit of the act of
indemnity, and may plead it in arrest of the judgment to be given
against them.
[2.] That they may be happy in the fruition of him; not only that they
may have their sins pardoned, but that they may have an inheritance
among those who are sanctified by faith that is in me. Note,
First, Heaven is an inheritance, it descends to all the children
of God; for, if children, then heirs. That they may have,
kleron—a lot (so it might be read), alluding to
the inheritances of Canaan, which were appointed by lot, and that also
is the act of God, the disposal thereof is of the Lord. That they
may have a right, so some read it; not by merit, but purely by
grace. Secondly, All that are effectually turned from sin to God
are not only pardoned, but preferred–have not only their attainder
reversed, but a patent of honour given to them, and a grant of a rich
inheritance. And the forgiveness of sins makes way for this
inheritance, by taking that out of the way which alone hindered.
Thirdly, All that shall be saved hereafter are sanctified now;
those that have the heavenly inheritance must have it in this way, they
must be prepared and made meet for it. None can be happy that are not
holy; nor shall any be saints in heaven that are not first saints on
earth. Fourthly, We need no more to make us happy than to have
our lot among those that are sanctified, to fare as they fare; this is
having our lot among the chosen, for they are chosen to salvation
through sanctification. Those who are sanctified shall be glorified.
Let us therefore now cast in our lot among them, by coming into the
communion of saints, and be willing to take our lot with them, and
share with them in their afflictions, which (how grievous soever) our
lot with them in the inheritance will abundantly make amends for.
Fifthly, We are sanctified and saved by faith in Christ. Some
refer it to the word next before, sanctified by faith, for faith
purifies the heart, and applies to the soul those precious promises,
and subjects the soul to the influence of that grace, by which we
partake of a divine nature. Others refer it to the receiving of both
pardon and the inheritance; it is by faith accepting the grant: it
comes all to one; for it is by faith that we are justified, sanctified,
and glorified. By faith, te eis eme—that faith
which is in me; it is emphatically expressed. That faith which not
only receives divine revelation in general, but which in a particular
manner fastens upon Jesus Christ and his mediation, by which we rely
upon Christ as the Lord our righteousness, and resign ourselves
to him as the Lord our ruler. This is that by which we receive the
remission of sins, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and eternal
life.
III. That he had discharged his ministry, pursuant to his commission,
by divine aid, and under divine direction and protection. God, who
called him to be an apostle, owned him in his apostolical work, and
carried him on in it with enlargement and success.
1. God gave him a heart to comply with the call
(v. 19):
I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, for any one would
say he ought to be obedient to it. Heavenly visions have a commanding
power over earthly counsels, and it is at our peril if we be
disobedient to them; yet if Paul had conferred with flesh and blood,
and been swayed by his secular interest, he would have done as Jonah
did, gone any where rather than upon this errand; but God opened his
ear, and he was not rebellious. He accepted the commission, and,
having with it received his instructions, he applied himself to act
accordingly.
2. God enabled him to go through a great deal of work, though in it he
grappled with a great deal of difficulty,
He applied himself to the preaching of the gospel with all vigour.
(1.) He began at Damascus, where he was converted, for he resolved to
lose no time,
(2.) When he came to Jerusalem, where he had his education, he there
witnessed for Christ, where he had most furiously set himself against
him,
(3.) He preached throughout all the coasts of Judea, in the
country towns and villages, as Christ had done; he made the first offer
of the gospel to the Jews, as Christ had appointed, and did not leave
them till they had wilfully thrust the gospel from them; and laid out
himself for the good of their souls, labouring more abundantly than any
of the apostles, nay perhaps then all put together.
3. His preaching was all practical. He did not go about to fill
people’s heads with airy notions, did not amuse them with nice
speculations, nor set them together by the ears with matters of
doubtful disputation, but he showed them, declared it, demonstrated it,
that they ought,
(1.) To repent of their sins, to be sorry for them and to
confess them, and enter into covenant against them; they ought to
bethink themselves, so the word metanoein properly
signifies; they ought to change their mind and change their way, and
undo what they had done amiss.
(2.) To turn to God. They must not only conceive an antipathy to
sin, but they must come into a conformity to God–must not only turn
from that which is evil, but turn to that which is good; they must turn
to God, in love and affection, and return to God in duty and obedience,
and turn and return from the world and the flesh; this is that which is
required from the whole revolted degenerate race of mankind, both Jews
and Gentiles; epistrephein epi ton Theon—to turn back
to God, even to him: to turn to him as our chief good and highest
end, as our ruler and portion, turn our eye to him, turn our heart to
him, and turn our feet unto his testimonies.
(3.) To do works meet for repentance. This was what John
preached, who was the first gospel preacher,
Those that profess repentance must practise it, must live a life of
repentance, must in every thing carry it as becomes penitents. It is
not enough to speak penitent words, but we must do works agreeable to
those words. As true faith, so true repentance, will work. Now what
fault could be found with such preaching as this? Had it not a direct
tendency to reform the world, and to redress its grievances, and to
revive natural religion?
4. The Jews had no quarrel with him but upon this account, that he did
all he could to persuade people to be religious, and to bring them to
God by bringing them to Christ
(v. 21):
It was for these causes, and no other, that the Jews caught me in
the temple, and went about to kill me; and let any one judge
whether these were crimes worthy of death or of bonds. He suffered ill,
not only for doing well himself, but for doing good to others. They
attempted to kill him; it was his precious life that they hunted for,
and hated, because it was a useful life; they caught him in the temple
worshipping God, and there they set upon him, as if the better place
the better deed.
5. He had no help but from heaven; supported and carried on by that, he
went on in this great work
(v. 22):
“Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this
day; hesteka—I have stood, my life has been
preserved, and my work continued; I have stood my ground, and have not
been beaten off; I have stood to what I said, and have not been afraid
nor ashamed to persist in it.” It was now above twenty years since Paul
was converted, and all that time he had been very busy preaching the
gospel in the midst of hazards; and what was it that bore him up? Not
any strength of his own resolutions, but having obtained help of
God; for therefore, because the work was so great and he had so
much opposition, he could not otherwise have gone on in it, but by help
obtained of God. Note, Those who are employed in work for God shall
obtain help from God; for he will not be wanting in necessary
assistances to his servants. And our continuance to this day must be
attributed to help obtained of God; we had sunk, if he had not borne us
up–had fallen off, if he had not carried us on; and it must be
acknowledged with thankfulness to his praise. Paul mentions it as an
evidence that he had his commission from God that from him he had
ability to execute it. The preachers of the gospel could never have
done, and suffered, and prospered, as they did, if they had not had
immediate help from heaven, which they would not have had if it had not
been the cause of God that they were now pleading.
6. He preached no doctrine but what agreed with the scriptures of the
Old Testament: He witnessed both to small and great, to young
and old, rich and poor, learned and unlearned, obscure and illustrious,
all being concerned in it. It was an evidence of the condescending
grace of the gospel that it was witnessed to the meanest, and the poor
were welcome to the knowledge of it; and of the incontestable truth and
power of it that it was neither afraid nor ashamed to show itself to
the greatest. The enemies of Paul objected against him that he
preached something more than that men should repent, and turn to
God, and do works meet for repentance. These indeed were but what
the prophets of the old Testament had preached; but, besides these, he
had preached Christ, and his death, and his resurrection, and this was
what they quarrelled with him for, as appears by
that he affirmed Jesus to be alive: “And so I did,” says Paul,
“and so I do, but therein also I say no other than that which Moses
and the prophets said should come; and what greater honour can be
done to them than to show that what they foretold is accomplished, and
in the appointed season too–that what they said should come is come,
and at the time they prefixed?” Three things they prophesied, and Paul
preached:–
(1.) That Christ should suffer, that the Messiah should be a
sufferer—pathetos; not only a man, and capable of
suffering, but that, as Messiah, he should be appointed to sufferings;
that his ignominious death should be not only consistent with, but
pursuant of, his undertaking. The cross of Christ was a stumbling-block
to the Jews, and Paul’s preaching it was the great thing that
exasperated them; but Paul stands to it that, in preaching that, he
preached the fulfilling of the Old-Testament predictions, and therefore
they ought not only not to be offended at what he preached, but to
embrace it, and subscribe to it.
(2.) That he should be the first that should rise from the dead;
not the first in time, but the first in influence–that he should be
the chief of the resurrection, the head, or principal one,
protos ex anastaseos, in the same sense that he is called
the first-begotten from the dead
(Rev. i. 5),
and the first-born from the dead,
Col. i. 18.
He opened the womb of the grave, as the first-born are said to do, and
made way for our resurrection; and he is said to be the first-fruits
of those that slept
for he sanctified the harvest. He was the first that rose from the
dead to die no more; and, to show that the resurrection of all
believers is in virtue of his, just when he arose many dead bodies
of saints arose, and went into the holy city,
Matt. xxvii. 52, 53.
(3.) That he should show light unto the people, and to the
Gentiles, to the people of the Jews in the first place, for he was
to be the glory of his people Israel. To them he showed light by
himself, and then to the Gentiles by the ministry of his apostles, for
he was to be a light to enlighten those who sat in darkness. In
this Paul refers to his commission
(v. 18),
To turn them from darkness to light. He rose from the dead on
purpose that he might show light to the people, that he might give a
convincing proof of the truth of his doctrine, and might send it with
so much the greater power, both among Jews and Gentiles. This also was
foretold by the Old-Testament prophets, that the Gentiles should be
brought to the knowledge of God by the Messiah; and what was there
in all this that the Jews could justly be displeased at?
| Paul’s Fifth Defence. |
|
|
24 And as he thus spake for himself, Festus said with a loud
voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make
thee mad.
25 But he said, I am not mad, most noble Festus; but speak
forth the words of truth and soberness.
26 For the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I
speak freely: for I am persuaded that none of these things are
hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner.
27 King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou
believest.
28 Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be
a Christian.
29 And Paul said, I would to God, that not only thou, but also
all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such
as I am, except these bonds.
30 And when he had thus spoken, the king rose up, and the
governor, and Bernice, and they that sat with them:
31 And when they were gone aside, they talked between
themselves, saying, This man doeth nothing worthy of death or of
bonds.
32 Then said Agrippa unto Festus, This man might have been set
at liberty, if he had not appealed unto Cæsar.
We have reason to think that Paul had a great deal more to say in
defence of the gospel he preached, and for the honour of it, and to
recommend it to the good opinion of this noble audience; he had just
fallen upon that which was the life of the cause–the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ, and here he is in his element; now he
warms more than before, his mouth is opened towards them, his heart is
enlarged. Lead him but to this subject, and let him have leave to go
on, and he will never know when to conclude; for the power of Christ’s
death, and the fellowship of his sufferings, are with him inexhaustible
subjects. It was a thousand pities then that he should be interrupted,
as he is here, and that, being permitted to speak for himself
(v. 1),
he should not be permitted to say all he designed. But it was a
hardship often put upon him, and is a disappointment to us too, who
read his discourse with so much pleasure. But there is no remedy, the
court thinks it is time to proceed to give in their judgment upon his
case.
I. Festus, the Roman governor, is of opinion that the poor man is
crazed, and that Bedlam is the fittest place for him. He is convinced
that he is no criminal, no bad man, that should be punished, but he
takes him to be a lunatic, a distracted man, that should be pitied, but
at the same time should not be heeded, nor a word he says regarded; and
thus he thinks he has found out an expedient to excuse himself both
from condemning Paul as a prisoner and from believing him as a
preacher; for, if he be not compos mentis–in his senses, he is
not to be either condemned or credited. Now here observe,
1. What it was that Festus said of him
(v. 24):
He said with a loud voice, did not whisper it to those that sat
next him; if so, it had been the more excusable, but (without
consulting Agrippa, to whose judgment he had seemed to pay profound
deference,
said aloud, that he might oblige Paul to break off his
discourse, and might divert the auditors from attending to it “Paul,
thou art beside thyself, thou talkest like a madman, like one with
a heated brain, that knowest not what thou sayest;” yet he does not
suppose that a guilty conscience had disturbed his reason, nor that his
sufferings, and the rage of his enemies against him, had given any
shock to it; but he puts the most candid construction that could be
upon his delirium: Much learning hath made thee mad, thou hast
cracked thy brains with studying. This he speaks, not so much in anger,
as in scorn and contempt. He did not understand what Paul said; it was
above his capacity, it was all a riddle to him, and therefore he
imputes it all to a heated imagination. Si non vis intelligi, debes
negligi–If thou art not willing to be understood, thou oughtest to be
neglected.
(1.) He owns Paul to be a scholar, and a man of learning, because he
could so readily refer to what Moses and the prophets wrote, books that
he was a stranger to; and even this is turned to his reproach. The
apostles, who were fishermen, were despised because they had no
learning; Paul, who was a university-man, and bred a Pharisee, is
despised as having too much learning, more than did him good. Thus the
enemies of Christ’s ministers will always have something or other to
upbraid them with.
(2.) He reproaches him as a madman. The prophets of the Old Testament
were thus stigmatized, to prejudice people against them by putting them
into an ill-name: Wherefore came this mad fellow unto thee? said
the captains of the prophet,
John Baptist and Christ were represented as having a devil, as being
crazed. It is probable that Paul now spoke with more life and
earnestness than he did in the beginning of his discourse, and used
more gestures that were expressive of his zeal, and therefore Festus
put this invidious character upon him, which perhaps never a one in the
company but himself thought of. It is not so harmless a suggestion as
some make it to say concerning those that are zealous in religion above
others that they are crazed.
2. How Paul cleared himself from this invidious imputation, which
whether he had ever lain under before is not certain; it should seem,
it had been said of him by the false apostles, for he ways
(2 Cor. v. 13),
If we be beside ourselves, as they say we are, it is to
God; but he was never charged with this before the Roman
governor, and therefore he must say something to this.
(1.) He denies the charge, with due respect indeed to the governor, but
with justice to himself, protesting that there was neither ground nor
colour for it
(v. 25):
“I am not mad, most noble Festus, nor ever was, nor any thing
like it; the use of my reason, thanks be to God, has been all my days
continued to me, and at this time I do not ramble, but speak the
words of truth and soberness, and know what I say.” Observe, Though
Festus gave Paul this base and contemptuous usage, not becoming a
gentlemen, much less a judge, yet Paul is so far from resenting it, and
being provoked by it, that he gives him all possible respect,
compliments him with his title of honour, most noble Festus, to
teach us not to render railing for railing, nor one invidious character
for another, but to speak civilly to those who speak slightly of us. It
becomes us, upon all occasions, to speak the words of truth and
soberness, and then we may despise the unjust censures of men.
(2.) He appeals to Agrippa concerning what he spoke
(v. 26):
For the king knows of these things, concerning Christ, and his
death and resurrection, and the prophecies of the Old Testament, which
had their accomplishment therein. He therefore spoke freely before
him, who knew these were no fancies, but matters of fact, knew
something of them, and therefore would be willing to know more: For
I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; no,
not that which he had related concerning his own conversion, and the
commission he had received to preach the gospel. Agrippa could not but
have heard of it, having been so long conversant among the Jews.
This thing was not done in a corner; all the country rang of it;
and any of the Jews present might have witnessed for him that they had
heard it many a time from others, and therefore it was unreasonable to
censure him as a distracted man for relating it, much more for speaking
of the death and resurrection of Christ, which was so universally
spoken of. Peter tells Cornelius and his friends
(ch. x. 37),
That word you know which was published throughout all Judea
concerning Christ; and therefore Agrippa could not be ignorant of it,
and it was a shame for Festus that he was so.
II. Agrippa is so far from thinking him a madman that he thinks he
never heard a man argue more strongly, nor talk more to the
purpose.
1. Paul applies himself closely to Agrippa’s conscience. Some think
Festus was displeased at Paul because he kept his eye upon Agrippa, and
directed his discourse to him all along, and that therefore he gave him
that interruption,
But, if that was the thing that affronted him, Paul regards it not: he
will speak to those who understand him, and whom he is likely to fasten
something upon, and therefore still addresses Agrippa; and,
because he had mentioned Moses and the prophets as confirming the
gospel he preached, he refers Agrippa to them
(v. 27):
“King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? Dost thou receive
the scriptures of the Old Testament as a divine revelation, and admit
them as foretelling good things to come?” He does not stay for an
answer, but, in compliment to Agrippa, takes it for granted: I know
that thou believest; for every one knew that Agrippa professed the
Jews’ religion, as his fathers had done, and therefore both knew the
writings of the prophets and gave credit to them. Note, It is good
dealing with those who have acquaintance with the scriptures and
believe them; for such one has some hold of.
2. Agrippa owns there was a great deal of reason in what Paul said
(v. 28):
Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. Some understand
this as spoken ironically, and read it thus, Wouldst thou in so
little a time persuade me to be a Christian? But, taking it so, it
is an acknowledgement that Paul spoke very much to the purpose, and
that, whatever others thought of it, to his mind there came a
convincing power along with what he said: “Paul, thou art too hasty,
thou canst not think to make a convert of me all of a sudden.” Others
take it as spoken seriously, and as a confession that he was in a
manner, or within a little, convinced that Christ was the Messiah; for
he could not but own, and had many a time thought so within himself,
that the prophecies of the Old Testament had had their accomplishment
in him; and now that it is urged thus solemnly upon him he is ready to
yield to the conviction, he begins to sound a parley, and to think of
rendering. He is as near being persuaded to believe in Christ as Felix,
when he trembled, was to leave his sins: he sees a great deal of reason
for Christianity; the proofs of it, he owns, are strong, and such as he
cannot answer; the objections against it trifling, and such as he
cannot for shame insist upon; so that if it were not for his
obligations to the ceremonial law, and his respect to the religion of
his fathers and of his country, or his regard to his dignity as a king
and to his secular interests, he would turn Christian immediately.
Note, Many are almost persuaded to be religious who are not quite
persuaded; they are under strong convictions of their duty, and of the
excellency of the ways of God, but yet are overruled by some external
inducements, and do not pursue their convictions.
3. Paul, not being allowed time to pursue his argument, concludes with
a compliment, or rather a pious wish that all his hearers were
Christians, and this wish turned into a prayer: euxaimen an to
Theo—I pray to God for it
(v. 29);
it was his heart’s desire and prayer to God for them all that they
might be saved,
Rom. x. 1.
That not only thou but all that hear me this day (for he has the
same kind design upon them all) were both almost, and altogether,
such as I am, except these bonds. Hereby,
(1.) He professes his resolution to cleave to his religion, as that
which he was entirely satisfied in, and determined to live and die by.
In wishing that they were all as he was, he does in effect declare
against ever being as they were, whether Jews or Gentiles, how much
soever it might be to his worldly advantage. He adheres to the
instruction God gave to the prophet
(Jer. xv. 19),
Let them return unto thee, but return not thou unto them.
(2.) He intimates his satisfaction not only in the truth, but in the
benefit and advantage of Christianity; he had so much comfort in it for
the present, and was so sure it would end in his eternal happiness,
that he could not wish better to the best friend he had in the world
than to wish him such a one as he was, a faithful zealous disciple of
Jesus Christ. Let my enemy be as the wicked, says Job,
Let my friend be as the Christian, says Paul.
(3.) He intimates his trouble and concern that Agrippa went no further
than being almost such a one as he was, almost a Christian, and not
altogether one; for he wishes that he and the rest of them might be not
only almost (what good would that do?) but altogether such as he was,
sincere thorough-paced Christians.
(4.) He intimates that it was the concern, and would be the unspeakable
happiness, of every one of them to become true Christians–that
there is grace enough in Christ for all, be they ever so many–enough
for each, be they ever so craving.
(5.) He intimates the hearty good-will he bore to them all; he wishes
them,
[1.] As well as he wished his own soul, that they might be as happy in
Christ as he was.
[2.] Better than he now was as to his outward condition, for he excepts
these bonds; he wishes they might all be comforted Christians as he
was, but not persecuted Christians as he was–that they might taste as
much as he did of the advantages that attended religion, but not so
much of its crosses. They had made light of his imprisonment, and were
in no concern for him. Felix detained him in bonds to gratify the Jews.
Now this would have tempted many a one to wish them all in his bonds,
that they might know what it was to be confined as he was, and then
they would know the better how to pity him; but he was so far from this
that, when he wished them in bonds to Christ, he desired they might
never be in bonds for Christ. Nothing could be said more tenderly nor
with a better grace.
III. They all agree that Paul is an innocent man, and is wronged in his
prosecution.
1. The court broke up with some precipitation
(v. 30):
When he had spoken that obliging word
(v. 29),
which moved them all, the king was afraid, if he were permitted to go
on, he would say something yet more moving, which might work upon some
of them to appear more in his favour than was convenient, and perhaps
might prevail with them to turn Christians. The king himself found his
own heart begin to yield, and durst not trust himself to hear more,
but, like Felix, dismissed Paul for this time. They ought in justice to
have asked the prisoner whether he had any more to say for himself; but
they thought he had said enough, and therefore the king rose up, and
the governor, and Bernice, and those that sat with them, concluding
the case was plain, and with this they contented themselves, when Paul
had more to say which would have made it plainer.
2. They all concurred in an opinion of Paul’s innocency,
The court withdrew to consult of the matter, to know one another’s
minds upon it, and they talked among themselves, all to the same
purport, that this man does nothing worthy of bonds–he is not a
dangerous man, whom it is prudent to confine. After this, Nero made a
law for the putting of those to death who professed the Christian
religion, but as yet there was no law of that kind among the Romans,
and therefore no transgression; and this judgment of theirs is a
testimony against that wicked law which Nero made not long after this,
that Paul, the most active zealous Christian that ever was, was
adjudged, even by those that were no friends to his way, to have
done nothing worthy of death, or of bonds. Thus was he made
manifest in the conscience of those who yet would not receive his
doctrine; and the clamours of the hot-headed Jews, who cried out,
Away with him, it is not fit he should live, were shamed by the
moderate counsels of this court.
3. Agrippa gave his judgment that he might have been set at
liberty, if he had not himself appealed to Cæsar
(v. 32),
but by that appeal he had put a bar in his own door. Some think that by
the Roman law this was true, that, when a prisoner had appealed to the
supreme court, the inferior courts could no more discharge him than
they could condemn him; and we suppose the law was so, if the
prosecutors joined issue upon the appeal, and consented to it. But it
does not appear that in Paul’s case the prosecutors did so; he was
forced to do it, to screen himself from their fury, when he saw the
governor did not take the care he ought to have done for his
protection. And therefore others think that Agrippa and Festus, being
unwilling to disoblige the Jews by setting him at liberty, made this
serve for an excuse of their continuing him in custody, when they
themselves knew they might have justified the discharging of him.
Agrippa, who was but almost persuaded to be a Christian, proves no
better than if he had not been at all persuaded. And now I cannot tell,
(1.) Whether Paul repented of his having appealed to Cæsar, and
wished he had not done it, blaming himself for it as a rash thing, now
he saw that was the only thing that hindered his discharge. He had
reason perhaps to reflect upon it with regret, and to charge himself
with imprudence and impatience in it, and some distrust of the divine
protection. He had better have appealed to God than to Cæsar. It
confirms what Solomon says
(Eccl. vi. 12),
Who knows what is good for man in this life? What we think is
for our welfare often proves to be a trap; such short-sighted creatures
are we, and so ill-advised in leaning, as we do, to our own
understanding. Or,
(2.) Whether, notwithstanding this, he was satisfied in what he had
done, and was easy in his reflections upon it. His appealing to
Cæsar was lawful, and what became a Roman citizen, and would help
to make his cause considerable; and forasmuch as when he did it it
appeared to him, as the case then stood, to be for the best, though
afterwards it appeared otherwise, he did not vex himself with any
self-reproach in the matter, but believed there was a providence in it,
and it would issue well at last. And besides, he was told in a vision
that he must bear witness to Christ at Rome,
ch. xxiii. 11.
And it is all one to him whether he goes thither a prisoner or at his
liberty; he knows the counsel of the Lord shall stand, and says,
Let it stand. The will of the Lord be done.
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