7' h-li Cibrarjo of t:Ke Cheolojicd ^eminar^ PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY PRESENTED BY Prof. Paul Van Dyke, D.D. .S85r THE WORDS OF THE RISEN SAVIOUR, AKD COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE OF ST JAMES. KUDOLF STIEE, DOCTOR OF THKOI,()(iY, CIIIKF PASTOR AND SUPKIUNTENDENT OF SCHKEUDITZ. TKAXSLATED FROM THE GERMAN, BY Till-; REV. WILLIAM B. POPE, MANCHESTER. PHILADELPHIA: SMITH, ENGLISH, AND CO. XEW YORK: SHELDON & CO. BOSTON: GOUI>D & LINCOLN. M D C C C L I X. CONTENTS. WORDS OP THE RISEN SAVIOUR. PAGE Introduction, ....... i I. To Saul the Persecutor, Acts ix. 4-6, xxii. 7-10, xxvi. 14-16, 9 II. xVnanias' Commission, Acts ix. 10-16, ... 27 III. To Saul in the Temple : the Mission to the Gentiles announced, Acts xxii. 17-21, ..... 39 IV. Fiu'ther Appearance to Saul : To whom I now send thee, Acts xxvi. 16-18, . . . . . . 46 V. To St Peter in the Trance upon the Housetop, Acts x. 13-16, xi. 7-10, ...... 61 VI. To St Paid in Corinth, Acts xviii. 9, 10, . . . 69 VII. To St Paid in Bonds at Jerusalem, Acts xxiii. 11, . . 75 VIII. To St Paul in- his Infirmity, 2 Cor. xii. 9, . . . S2 IX. To St John in Patmos, at the beginning of liis Visions, Kev. i. 11, 17-20, ...... 92 X. The Seven Epistles to the Seven Churches, Rev. ii., iii. . 113 XI. " I -will show thee!" Rev. iv. 1, . . . . 207 XII. Final Word from the Tlu-one, Rev. xxi. 5-8, . .211 COMMENTARY ON ST JAMES. I. Trials pure Joy, ch. i. 1-4, .... II. Asking for Wisdom, i. 5-8, III. The Rejoicing of the Lowly and the Exalted, i. 9-12, IV. The Origin and End of Evil, i. 13-15, V. All Good Gifts from Above, i. 16-18, VI. Swift to Hear, i. 19, VII. But Slow to Speak, i. 19, . VIII. Slow to Wrath, i. 19, 20, . 225 231 239 246 254 264 273 282 IV CONTENTS. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIY. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX. XXI. XXII. XXIII. XXIV. XXV. XXVI. XXVII. XXVIII. XXIX. XXX. XXXI. XXXII. The Perpetual Laying Aside and Receiving, i. 21, . 289 The Self-deception of the Hearers ; the Blessedness of the Doers, i. 22-25, . . . . .297 The Law of Liberty : Looking into and continuing in it : the Blessed in their Deed, i. 25, . . . . 304 God's Pure and Undefiled Service, i. 26, 27, . . 312 No Respect of Persons in the Love of the Neighbour, ii. 1-9, 320 328 335 342 351 360 369 How the Law is to be Understood and Kept, ii. 10-13, Mercy rejoiceth against Judgment, ii. 13, Faith without Works, ii. 14-19, The "Works of Abraham's and Rahab's Faith, ii. 20-26, Not every Man a Teacher, iii, 1, 2, The Sins of the Tongue, iii. 3-12, The Gentleness of True Wisdom, and the Wrath of False, iii. 13-16, ...... 380 TheWisdomfrom Above, iii. 17, 18, . . .388 Whence come Wars and Fightings among you? iv. 1-3, 398 Conviction and Admonition of the Unfaithfid, iv. 4-10, 407 Evil Speaking and Judging, iv. 11, 12, . . . 417 The Uncertainty of owe Short Life, iv. 13-17, . . 425 The Misery coming upon the Rich, v. 1-6, . . 433 Patient Waiting, v. 7-9, . . . .442 Examples of Suffering and Patience, v. 10, 11, . . 451 Swear Not ; Pmify your Speech, v. 12, . . 461 Praying and Singing, v. 13, .... 470 Ordinance for the Sick, v. 14-18, . . . 478 The Greatest Need, and the Greatest Work of Faith, v. 19, 20, 489 INTRODUCTION. When the Apostle Paul in 1 Cor. xv. 8 places tlie appearance of the risen and exalted Jesus to himself in direct continuation \vith the earher appearances of the Forty Days — without making express mention of the ascension — it might appear that he recognises no distinction between tiie time before, and the time after, that event ; and the meaning which he intended to convey is midoubtedly this, that the same Person who, from the moment of His resmTL-ection, had begun to enter into His glory, after His suffermg and death, had appeared and said to him — I am this Jesus. Still more striking, and equally important in its bearing, is the fact that Ananias, in Acts xxii. 14, 15, places the seeing and hearing to which St Paul was chosen, on a level with that seeing and heanng which (according to ch. i. 21, 22) was the quahfication of one who should be a " witness to all men of that w^hich he had seen and heard" — that is, of an Apostle. The Lord's Hfe of himiihation and His life of glory- are here really embraced in one comprehensive glance ; hence, Ananias used the same expression, "the Just One," which Stephen used in ch. vii. 52. All this emphatically teaches us that the transaction with the Apostle Paul must be classed among those manifestations of our Lord Avhich, notwithstanding the inten-ening glorification in heaven, were bodily manifesta- tions. Jesus appeared to him (Acts ix. 17, xxvi. 16) as to those who saw Him before the ascension ; although, on the other hand, A 2 rNTEODUCTION. St Paul forgets not, before Agrippa (cli. xxvi. 19), to lay stress upon the heavenly vision. This last passage teaches us fui*ther that the ascension, as the final consummating point of the exaltation of Jesus, must, notwithstanding all this, maintain its place. We denounce the blasphemy of those who, with Brennecke, of melancholy memory, fable that Christ lived upon earth twenty-seven years after His crucifixion, planning all kinds of appearances to His disciples ; as well as the theoiy of Kinkel, which has found too much favour with the learned, that there was no real ascension after the resurrection. The different manner in which the Lord appeared and spoke, after His visible ascension, of itself csta- bKshes the distinction most firmly; apart from the authentic narrative of that event, and the subsequent doctrine fomided upon it. For, although St Paid, according to his essentially correct system, ordinarily gives prominence only to the resur- rection (with its infolded results) as the definite point of transi- tion between the humiliation and exaltation of Christ — even as the Chxu'ch kept Easter first, and only afterwards added the festival of the Ascension — yet the same Apostle speaks abun- dantly of the Redeemer's session at the right hand of God in heaven (Eph. i. 20, etc., iv. 10; comp. Heb. iv. 14, viii. 1, ix. 24), in the same manner as St Peter does, 1 Pet. iii. 22. We have, therefore, scriptural ground for literally under- standing, as the Church has ever believed and confessed, both the " I am not yet ascended " and the " I ascend " of the risen Lord Himself (John xx. 17), and the "He is ascended" of His witnesses ; consequently, we are justified in saying that, as the discourses of the risen Jesus were still uttered upon earth, the words of the exalted Jesus are distinctively words from heaven. " The discourses of the Lord .Tesus," taken in their strict uni- versality, were not closed with the last sayings of the ascending Christ (Acts i. 8, 9) ; and the supplement which was promised at the close of om* larger exposition must now introduce tlie essentially last words. Were they absolutely the last? It may be said, in another sense, that the Lord has never ceased to speak to His people, and never will cease to speak to them ; that is, by the Holy Ghost. But, with the same propriety as the Lord Himself and the entu'e New Testament make the distinction, we may dis- INTRODUCTION. 3 tinguish between the recorded sayings of the personal Jesus, speaking from heaven, and His internal revelation by the Spirit. It is a different matter, and one -which falls not within the range of the task which we propose, that we find the Spirit speaking to Philip on the way to Gaza, Acts \\\i. 29, as the same Spirit caught Mm away in ver. 39 ; and that the Spirit speaks to Peter, ch. x. 19 (xi. 12), even as the angel to Cor- nelius. With these we must class also the forbidding of the Spirit (and, according to the more correct reading, of the Spirit of Jesus), ch. xvi. 6, 7,^ which may have been by an audible word heard internally ; but St Luke expressly distinguishes the speaking of the Spirit from the personal annoimcements of the Lord, whether speaking in broad day or in night visions. Li ch. xiii. 1, 2, where the prophets of the New Testament are spoken of, he passes over into the general expression, " the Holy Spirit," to indicate this indirect, mediated, and continuous inter- course with His people. Thus the "words of the Lord Jesus from heaven" — so far as the Scripture records them — retain and exhibit their distinc- tive peculiarity in this, that the glorified bodily personality of the God-man is manifested, or gives itself expression, vdth the voice of the individual /. This, on the one hand, is still just as in the Forty Days, inasfar as the personal fellowship, sus- pend,ed ' in the rule, is renewed in the exception ; on the other hand, there is a great difference, inasmuch as the familiarity which stiU existed during those days, as they were in some sense linked ^\\.\h His former life upon earth, has utterly ceased, and can never retm'n, even on the occasions of His deepest con- descension. But still the unbroken unity and identity of His person, of that person which had smik into the depths of shame and death, is preserved — I am Jesus of Nazareth! (Acts xxii. 8) I Avas dead! (Rev. i. 18) ; just as at an earlier period He who was going to His death could say — Glorify me with the gloiy which I had wath Thee before the world was ! These manifestations and self-announcements, these direct words and utterances of the enthroned Lord, could not indeed have been utterly wanting upon earth in this final term of transition : they were His superabundant confinnation of His promise and pledge concerning His disciples' not seeing and yet ^ In ch. xviii. 5, " Spirit " is a false reading for " Word." 4 INTRODUCTION. believing, their not seeing and yet possessing Him. They were the final assui-ances with which from heaven He greeted earth, and sealed His farewell word upon the Mount of Olives. " Be- hold, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." AVliat if nothing of this kind had tran spumed, and been recorded, since His departure ? It is true that the pentecostal believers in their first vigour needed no such testimony to corroborate their growing experience that the Lord was with them ; they assuredly neither sought nor expected any such evidence. But [srael, perishing in unbehef, and persecuting the Church, might be expected to receive such a supernumerary self -testimony of the Persecuted ; though, in the nature of the case, only in the person of a man who had been one of themselves, who testified to them what he had seen, and confirmed that testimony through the whole of life. Further, all the world, and even the enfeebled and secularised Christendom of the future, needed such a final fulfilment — given as the pledge of its last fulfil- ment— of the word which had been spoken before the tribunal of man, "Hereafter ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven ! " But this could take place only through the indirect mediation of others; thus, at the commencement of these personal an- nunciations of the exalted Lord, Stephen testified before them of his seeing the Son of Man in heaven ; and Saul soon after- wards of his having both seen and heard the Lord. Spinoza is said to have declared that if he could admit the fact of the resurrection of Lazarus, he would demolish his system and become a Christian. AVherefore could he not believe the Apostle Paul, and the testimony of his whole apostolical life, to the personal manifestations of the Son of God? It may be observed, generally, that the revelations and words of the Lord Jesus, after His ascension, have not received their fitting tribute of attention from the scientific theology even of the orthodox. For example, in Ilasc's excellent book, " The Life of the Glorified lledeemer in Heaven, according to His own Words," there is no place given to His own sayings after the ascension ; although such words as Acts xxvi. 16-18, xviii. 9, 10, and especially Rev. i. 17, etc., xxi. 5, are most mighty testimonies, and confirm, in their collective force, most emphatically the witness of the Forty Days, " It is I ni} self ." It might almost INTRODUCTION. 5 seem that in these times the immediate truth and reahty of the records which contain the announcements of Jesus from heaven were themselves regarded with some degree of suspicion. But the scriptvu'al testimonies concerning them, standing in their sublime simplicity in the midst of other plain historical narratives, demand the most absolute faith ; more especially as they exhibit to us that gradual transition to purely spiritual revelation which approves itself to our understanding as what might have been expected. For, although it is probable that not all the " signs " and " infallible proofs " have been placed on record (John xx. 30; Acts i. 3) — although the Lord may frequently, especially in the earlier time, have spoken to His disciples " in vision," and St Paul speaks expressly of other revelations (most plainly in 1 Cor. xi. 23; comp. 2 Cor. xii. 1, and already in Acts xxvi. 16) — yet that which the Scripture does record, appears to us to mark out the definite process by which the revelations of our Lord were gradually withdrawn into the internal domain of the Spirit. In the first actual utterance of His words from heaven, (after Stephen had beheld Him looking down). He is both seen and heard in His perfect bodily personality ; in broad day, with a manifestation which appealed to the sense, not of Paul alone, but of those also who accompanied him. And He seems to say — as it were, ignoring the ascension, but in reality giving it its right explanation — "I can appear whenever and wherever I will ; I have not in such a sense gone into heaven that heaven has received and shut me in ! " (According to a false rendering of Acts iii. 21.) Concurrently, there is the more mediate and less direct word to Ananias in vision (Acts ix. 10). The suc- ceeding "appearances" to St Paul, Acts xxvi. 16 — where we may more exactly translate, " which I will cause thee to see of Myself" ^ — have no longer the manner of His first appearance, in which Saul beholds Him plainly and awfully in the broad daylight of life. We read in Acts xxii. 17, that the Apostle was in a trance while pra}ang, and thus beheld the Lord who spake to him. So with St Peter (ch. x. 13), where the voice of Him whom he addresses as Lord, was most probably (indeed, ^ The coiistniction is an unusual one : au n o(p6'/iao/^ccl cto/, de qnihts tibi porro appareho, " that which (or in -which) I will appear to thee, will be seen of thee." 6 INTRODUCTION. we naturally presuppose it) tlie voice of God, that is, of the Son; comp. ver. 28. Soon after, we find that to St Paul also the Lord spake in a vision hy night, chs. xviii. 9, xxiii. 11, although in the second passage it is added, "The Lord &tood by him." All these expressions are carefvilly adjusted by the Spirit's inspiration, through the instrumentality of the careful investigation of the historian, St Luke. We see that in the period of the Acts of the Apostles there is always something jyersonal in the appearance and speaking of the Lord, though with a gradually increasing mediateness, and decreasing direct- ness. These words of our Lord Jesus from heaven — that is, in the apostolical nan*ative — we have abeady, for the most part, expounded in " The Discourses of the Apostles," ^ and must therefore take the liberty of repeating more or less literally what has been there said, though with such modifications as Our present scope and object requires. Passing over the Epistles, the glorified bodily exhibition of the Son of Man appears once more to return, and still more fully and majestically, at the end of the New Testament to St John, Rev. i. 11, etc. This is, in a certain sense, the case; yet it is also in contrast with the first manifestation to St Paul, inasmuch as St John was in the Spint when he heard the Lord's voice and saw his visions, but Saul was most assiu*edly not " in the Spirit" near Damascus. Yet that Avhich is heard in the Spirit is not, on that account, the less actual; only through such a medium was it possible to look into the depths of heaven, and hear the words of the Lord from the throne. Between the Acts of the Apostles and the Eevelation of St John, we find once the definite expression, " The Lord, after I had supplicated Him, said unto me" (2 Cor. xii. 9). We receive this literally as it stands ; and regard it as a sufficient example of many instances in which the Lord may have spoken to His people in Avords of comfort and exhortation, avidible in the Spirit ! We by no means deny that the same takes place in the present day ; on the contraiy, it is our confident assur- ance that it does. Finally, as it regards the Revelation of St John, after the first most personal and emphatically impressive appearance of ^ Or, Andeutuiifjen fur glduliyes Schri/tverstandniss, dritte und vierte Sammlung. INTRODUCTION. 7 the Living One, wlio was dead and now liveth for evermore, the style of the vision passes over into the language of figure and sjTiibol, corresponding, indeed, but not directly so, to realities. The voices of the angels, of the elders, of the living creatures, of the martp's and overcomers, of the saved, of all creatiu'es, are all assuredly a succession of revelations and sayings of the Lord Himself, mediated by the prophetic Spirit; but this belongs to a mysterious domain, on the borders of which our humble little work pauses in silence. But we must assert an exception for those revelations w^hich occm' on the shadowy tkreshold, and which directly continue the solemn character of personal manifestation stamped upon the first appearance of the Lord in this book. We shall, therefore, expoimd the Seven Epistles of chs. ii. and iii., in which the Lord, who comes upon the scene in ch. i., speaks on without interruption, uttering^ with His lofty /, to the churches throughout, what He commands His ser»^ant to xo^ite to them. Then we shall consider that brief word of the same original voice, ch. x. 1. And, finally, the most subhme conclusion of all the Lord's sayings, the word from the Throne, ch. xxi. 5-8 ; from which the passages of ch. xxii. are essentially distinguished, notwithstanding the "I Jesus," ver. 16. Here the Lord enters as the speaker, after the figm'ative manner of the ancient prophetical Scriptiires, to Avhich this last prophetical book, with its New Testament contents, returns. We remark that the only words recorded as spoken from heaven were addressed to the tliree great Apostles, Paul, Peter, and John ; the only exception being the words spoken to An- anias, and recorded for the sake of St Paul. St Peter retreats most into the background, with his single " voice " ; St Paid receives the most direct and impressive manifestations; but St John is favoured with the profoundest and most far-reaching utterances which the Lord, who is the Spirit, had to say to the churches, and is still ever saying to them by His servant, the bosom-disciple. I. TO SAUL THE PERSECUTOR. (Acts Ix. 4-6— xxii. 7-10— xxvi. 14-16.) Thrice in the com-se of the brief Acts of the Apostles is this most important revelation of our Lord described ; as if to warn our ignorance not too swdftly to dispatch it, and not too hastily to assume its right interpretation attained. But, instead of taking this hint, the fond ignorance of too many has occupied itself with detecting contradictions in the threefold narrative, and with drawing its own foolish conclusions from those contradic- tions. As if St Luke did not himself best know, with his "per- fect miderstanding of all things from the very first," that which he recorded in different parts of his book, with a designed varia- tion. In ch. ix. he himself relates the occiu'rence as a his- torian, but obviously with the same regard to brevity of dehnea- tion, seizing only and giving prominence to the critical points, which the necessity of his work imposed upon him throughout ; and, moreover, with the intention in reserve to add further par- ticulars in due coiu-se. For, he has further to give two leading examples, in chs. xxii. and xxvi., of the manner in which the Apostle himself, never weaiy of the repetition, was wont to relate this experience, as the ground, again and again to be made valid, of his whole annoimcement from his Master. That there exists some variety in the relation and expression is perfectly natural : — is it reasonable to require that the Apostle should have eveiyv\diere given the same stereotyped account? Of the external transaction we shall speak hereafter ; we confine ourselves now to a preliminary view of the words of our Lord, which, in their measured exactness, were thus word for word spoken, but the literal repetition of which St Luke appro- priately leaves to the relating Apostle. Before the exasperated 10 TO SAUL THE PERSECUTOK. Jewish people, he gives prominence, for instance, to the ex- pression by which the Lord described Himself, and which wa peculiarly appropriate to these scorners and persecutors — I am Jesus of Nazareth ! Further, He makes the command express, ' — "Go into J)amascus" instead of "into the city." But who needs to know which of these two was actually spoken ? He proceeds, " it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do," instead of " what thou shalt do." Again after- wards before the Roman Governor, and the last so-called King of the Jews, the Apostle makes it significantly emphatic that the Lord spake in the Hebrew tongue. On the former occasion, on the stau's of the castle, the Apostle himself had spoken in the Plebrew ; but now, speaking Greek, he naturally mentions this circumstance. The word concerning " kicking against the pricks " (which in the first narrative is a false reading, inter- polated from ch. xxvi.), had primary reference only to the Apostle's own person and conscience ; it might, therefore, be omitted, as mmecessary, when speaking to the mass of the people. But, addressed to Agrippa, pierced in conscience, perplexed, and wavering, as he was (comp. ch. xxvi. 28), it had a peculiarly appropriate force. Finally, we shall see that St Paul, in his rapid naiTative, ch. xxvi. 16, connects with the Lord's last word outside Damascus a compendious statement of a subsequent appearance and commission. After having thus, for the sake of those to whom it is necessary, paused so long at the threshold, let us now enter the sanctuaiy of the first word of Jesus from heaven ! The first word it assuredly is. Stephen, before he fell under the stones of the murderers of the Just One, had seen heaven opened and Jesus at the right hand of God (standing, too, as if rising to greet and receive him) ; but His ivords the Lord had reserved for Saul. This, well considered, leads to some important reflections. The appeal of Jesus to His persecutor is, as the first word from heaven, so characteristically significant, and so full of symbolical meaning, that we cannot bring ourselves to think of it as other than the first. It may, indeed, be suggested that our Lord's voice had probabl}'- been heard in the answers to His people's prayers. It has been even inferred from the " familiar manner in which Ananias, as , one not unaccustomed to receive communications from his Lord," makes objection to ACTS IX. 4-6; XXII. 7-10; XXVI. 14-16. 11 the evil reputation of Saul, that that disciple must have spoken with Jesus before this occasion. But tliis is only a specious argument ; the familiarity of prayer would have begotten this confidence, and we must remember the " vision," in which man approaches nearer and less reseiTedly to God. Suffice, that we may justly regard this as the Lord's first opening His mouth in audible words since His ascension. The narrative thrice begins with "light shining romid about fi'om heaven" ; in ch. xxii. it is a "great light" ;^ and in ch. xxvi., still more emphatically, " above the brightness of the sun". If the face of Jesus shone as the sun upon the Mount of Transfigm'ation, must not the first beaming forth of His heavenly glory be still more dazzling ? This in broad noon-day was something more than the glory which shone round the shepherds on the holy night of the Incarnation ; it was a shin- ing forth, though still bedimmed for mortal eye, of that light in Avhich God dwelleth, and in which the God-man now dwelleth also. But this light shines only that it may call light out of the darkness of a rebellious sinner's heart ; in order to the revelation of tlie knowledge of the glory of God in the face, that is, in the person of Jesus Christ. And who is it that first encounters this light, with its sudden and mai'vellous conviction? The man who had been marked out to that end by God's good pleasiu'e from his mother's Avomb, the chosen Paul ! This single name sets before us the whole man, the elect instrument, the great Apostle of the Gentiles (although Samaria and the Ethiopian eunuch had already heard the Word, and Peter in the house of Cornelius wU make the first evident beginning) — the mighty champion and labourer, who laboiured more than they all. We cannot agree with the \iew — pushed to its extreme by Baxungarten — wliich sets the Gentile Apostolate, thus introduced, over against the Israelite Twelve. For this we find no sm-e foundation in Scriptm'e ; but it was undoubtedly a great and new thing, that such a blasphemer and persecutor should be made a witness for the Lord. He w^as not, however, a thirteenth Apostle of a new and distinct order for the Church of the Gentiles ; the Twelve were themselves sent forth into all the world, and unto all the nations; and even the New Jerusalem, Rev. xxi. 14, knows ^ In the Greek, Uuvov^ an expression familiar to St Luke. 12 TO SAUL THE PERSECUTOR. only the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb (not of Israel). But he was that other, already projihesied of in Ps. cix. 8, whom the Lord Himself — in opposition to the premature, uncommanded, and therefore invalid human choice (Gal. i. 1) of Matthias — reserved to be appointed in place of the traitor Judas. The latter was a representative and forerunner of tlie Jewish people, which rejected Jesus ; the former was a iy^Q and first-fruit of the Jews who were to be converted, and many of whom were converted even in his missionary labom-s among the Gentiles. Wliat a man, and what a position in the kingdom of God assigned to him — condescended to, and won, and prepared in so wonderful a manner ! Fu'st, he receives this revelation as the representative of all the Jews of that time who, under all their disgviise of enmity, were yet susceptible of grace. Then, as the witness to all men (Acts xxii. 15 ; Col. i. 18), wdio should, with that same useful human learning which in itself he knew how to despise and reject, abase the lofty ones of this world before the Imowledge of God in Christ (2 Cor. x. 5) ; who should be a fomider of systematic doctrine in the Church, so far as the Church would need such system — thus standing between the practical Peter, and the mystical, consu^mmating John. Fin- ally, as one whose immediate call from above should vindicate, for all futurity, the Lord's supreme right to establish new beginnings of regimen ; to raise up a reforming Apostolate without succession, to be renewed at His o^vn good pleasure when circumstances may require. But the first point which here offers itself to our attention is this, that it is an enemy and a persecutor who receives the first condescending word from the merciful High Priest in heaven. Not only will He not cast out any that come to Him — but He Himself seeks and finds, in all ages. His lost and wandering sheep. Thus He transforms the enemy into a witness and followei*, whose personality, beyond that of any other, sets before us the idea and the reality of the discipleship of Christ (1 Cor. xi. 1). [Millions have felt and are feeling that, especially through the life of this Paul, so copiously un- folded in Scripture, life in Christ and Christ Himself are most blessedly and mightily brought home to them. The Lord pre- pared him for Himself and His purposes, out of a Saiil ' breath- ing out threatenings and slaughters against His saints ! ' Thus ACTS IX. 4-6; XXII. 7-10; XXVI. 14-16. 13 His first personal speaking manifestation gives us a pledge of that ruling in which the King's sharp arrows pierce the heai^ts of His enemies (as the original of Ps. xlv. runs), and in which He takes the strong for His own prey. And it is a warning against that premature judgment of unbelievers and the con- demned, into Avhich oiu' harshness or our despondency may mislead us. There were many Judases in Israel; but only upon one did Jesus pronomice the definitive sentence. So there were many Saids converted, although their conversion has not been revealed to us. The Lord reminds us here of Thomas, but a gi'eater than Thomas is here. It is thus that the great Apostle understands the significance of his own person and life, when he says at the end, " Therefore I obtained mercy, that in me first of all, Jesus Christ might shew forth all patience, for an example to those who should beheve on Him unto eternal life ;" 1 Tim. i. 16. But when we refer the words to our Lord Himself, some- thing much higher and deeper than anything we have yet said rises out of them. He has testified from heaven the identity of His glorified person with the " Jesus of Nazareth," just as the risen Lord had testified on earth, " It is I myself ! " But that is the lesser testmiony ; and before He utters the exalted " I am Jesus", He has said, " Why persecutest thou Me " ? that is, " Me in my folloicers, in my ChurcU\ Thus does He, even in His glory, identify Himself with His persecuted Church, with His scorned and outraged brethren ; sitting already upon the throne as King, He as it were repeats, confirms, enlarges, and consummates the word spoken in His final prophecy of the judgment, concerning what is done to His brethren, Matt. xxv. 40-45 ; seaHng, even for His saints in pei'secution, the close of His great prayer, which He uttered while yet in the flesh — "I in them " ! John xvii. 26. That is the first word from heaven ; and it is itself like a flash of liehtnine; into the midst of the world's sin and confusion, dividing asunder, in the most effectual manner, the persecutor and the persecuted. Suddenly — so we read in two accounts. Here falls the corner-stone from heaven into the persecutor's path, but crushes him not. Saul is struck and held back in the mad course of his zeal. Armed AA-itli the authority of the high council, he would push the persecution of the Christians, ah'eady begun, into 14 TO SAUL THE PERSECUTOR. strange cities. Not certain that he might find any of "the way " (of rigliteousness and of salvation, tlie way of the Lord ; see chs. xvi. 17, xviii. 2,5, xix. 9 — but which he thought the perishable way of eiTor), he, nevertheless, sets out to seek them, wherever they might be, and bind them. Assuredly, he was chosen in the eternal counsel ; to this end he was, on the ground of his personality, as created of God, framed and prepared; and in the process of his life led onward to meet the vocation which was now to be received. Assuredly, as the Lord Him- self says here to him and to us, he was already secretly in his conscience laid hold on ; he was generally no hypocrite, like the whited walls in opposition to whom he can speak of himself, in ch. xxiii., as haviiig a good conscience in his gi'eat delusion. But, therefore, now he is suddenly seized from above with more urgent might by grace ; for now there is certainly in him no conscious preparation or susceptibility, but the perfect opposite. There is no doubt of conscience moving him ; it is simply his purpose and burning desire to punish the heretics ; and what could, in this career, lay him low, and turn him round, but the seeing and hearing of the Just One, whom he was persecuting? His powerful natm'e needed a powerful assault ; and, behold, for such a natm'e, the Lord has such dealings in store. The risen Lord was ready to suffer Himself to be touched by Thomas ; and the exalted Lord is not too high to condescend to Saul — and make of him a Paul. That which the Apostle, in ch. xxii. 6, introduces with a simple and sublime, " And it came to pass," was not an internal process, perceptible only to his own spirit: this is proved by what his companions experienced. According to ch. ix. 7, they heard a voice, but saw no man ; according to ch. xxii. 9, they saw the light, but heard not the voice of Him that spake. Tliis variation of expression implies no contradiction ; any more than that, according to ch. ix. 7, they stood, and according to ch. xxvi. 14, fell to the earth also. For, to clear up the last first, ch. xxvi. relates that which befell all before the voice; but ch. ix. records that, after the voice, the attendants had naturally lifted themselves up and were stanchng before Saul did so. Similarly, they saw and heard something, but with only half perception ; they, received the indefinite impression of a light and a soimd : comp. John xii. 28, 29, and something similar, ACTS IX. 4-G; XXII. 7-10; XXVI. 14-16. 15 though in a different order, Dan. x. 7. The whole, if we combine it in one, means this : They saio, indeed, the dazzhng light, but no man, that is, no form and manifested person ; they heard, indeed, the sound as of a loud voice, but they heard not and miderstood not what was said. We read in ch. xxvi. of the flash, that it "shone round about," as in Luke ii. 9, concerning the shepherds of Bethlehem; but in chs. ix. and xxii. there is a stronger word — literally, lightened around — and to this belongs the " suddenly " which in Luke ii. 13 (it is the same Greek word) is afterwards added. Said fell dowm immediately, struck by the awe of the brilliance above the light of the sim at noonday, with the others to the earth.^ So he heard the words ; they were for him alone. That was the fitting place for the proud man ; there, cast down in his prostrate impotence and wretchedness, unable to bear the glance of heaven, the voice which he hears seizes him — that is, not as speaking by his side upon the earth, but as from heaven, like the hght, comino; in its direction from above. And even so he had seen the form of the Speaker in his first terror as above him ; not as one afterwards standing upon the earth. Or did he only hear, and not see the form and coimtenance of the Lord ? So many think ; and they seemingly have the superficially understood and isolated expression in their favour. But the contrast with the attendants, who saw no man, ch. ix. 7, itself gives us to miderstand that Said had seen some one. Ananias, however, speaks decisively — Jesus, who appeared unto thee (Gr. was seen of thee) ; so Barnabas, ver. 27, relates to the Apostles that Saul had seen the- Lord in the way, and spoken with Hun ; finally, ch. xxii. 14 speaks not of a futm'e seeing and hearing, but of what had already taken place. Consequently, St Luke relates partially, at the first, reser\-ing the rest for his future account ; he conceals the mystery of the seeing and hearing, as it were, in this place ; laying the emphasis upon the words of. the Lord, without which the seeing would have been only a stunning amazement. But it is obvious that suddenly/ — \\nth the first flash of light — Saul had also seen the form and the coimtenance of the Lord. Indeed, the ^ Scarcely from his horse, as the painters depict it : it would rather be from his ass, but even that is only probable. Such circumstances are not recorded, as having nothing to do with the matter. 16 TO SAUL THE PERSECUTOR. overpowered and down-stricken persecutor did not look up again at the Speaker ; but he, nevertheless (and this is another proof), recognised, in His subsequent manifestations, the Lord Avhom he had first seen. And Jesus speaks to him in the Hehreio tongue : but this does more than merely define the sensibly heard speech, in opposition to the inward spealdng of the spirit, which suggests thoughts without words. The Hebrew tongue belongs to the identity of the Person, who used this language upon earth — but neither is this enough. What the Hellenized and Romanised Je\Adsh King Agrippa — to wdiom St Paul expressly mentioned it — may have thought about that circumstance, puts us on the right track : — it involves the abiding recognition of the first-chosen people of Israel, and the prophetic word given to them first in the sacred tongue ; the prophecy of a retm-n of this people, and of a final full solution and comprehension of the ancient Scriptm-es; all this is testified to us in the Lord's speaking here in the Hebrew tongue. For, if it is objected that this " Hebrew " was only the common Jewish tongue then spoken, and not the language of the Old-Testament Scripture — it may be replied that the two are inseparable in their significance ; as we know that the Saviour upon the Cross uttered the language of the Psalm in the Syro-Chaldaic version of it. And now, at length, after all this introduction and preparation, let us hear the ivords themselves, which the voice of Him aaIio was seen in the first moment of his amazement spake to the persecutor prostrate upon the groimd. Saul ! Saul ! why persecutest thou "Mb ? The mention of his name indicates and seizes the whole inner man, as lie was. We often fail to understand, through all om- life, our OAAm name, especially when the Avorld has prefixed all kinds of titles to it; but when God calls a man by his name, the true form, character, and spint of the man is laid bare befoi'e the light of His countenance. And here the Lord, Avliom, as the glorified Son of God, the little company of Plis worshippers addressed already before the Pentecost as " knowing all hearts", utters into the heart and conscience of Saul a word of thunder, followang the glance of lightning, whicli rent all the vestments of his disguise. If in this thunder, which began his aAvakening by fear, there was a prelude of the final judgment, Avhen every ACTS IX. 4-6; XXII. 7-10; XXVI. U-IC. 17 man will be called by his name, there was also something more than that — a transition to mourning in the awful accusation, to that appeal and invitation of troubled love which is plainly heard in the following question. This calling by name from heaven is more mighty and impressive than when upon earth the Lord, who knew what was in man, uttered His "Zaccheus!" or " Simon, Simon ! " or " Martha, Martha ! " We do not read of any other enemy or mibeliever addi-essed by name, ex- cepting the Pharisee Simon, Luke vii. 40, whom His grace was by that very addi'ess really approaching, and Judas, still recog- nised as a former " friend " and companion, even in the hour of His betrayal. There may be a very little of this same judi- cial tone of holy love — which endures the wrong, but assigns the fearful guilt to him who offers it — in this appeal to Saul. But, at the same time, the double call — which not merely deepens its emphasis, but, as we prefer to think, already begins to descend from majesty to mildness, from accusation to lament — has something in it, though of a higher order, like the call which aroused the hostess in Bethany from her household dis- traction : " I have somewhat to say unto thee ! Awake up from the distracting tumult of thy persecution ! " And the majesty and might of condescending love gains its end. The Jirst open word of the riseii Lord (which was preceded by the gentle consolatory preparation of a disguised voice), was also a call by name — Mary ! Yet how different, vdth all its resem- blance, is the first call of the ascended Lord ! Let it not be wondered at that we speak here — upon the first words of His mouth — of the soul-affecting tone of the speech of the exalted Redeemer, speaking down to man upon earth. That He still has a mouth to speak, and may make His words heard, though no longer after the earthly manner of the organs which fonn the utterance here ; that He may thus com- mmiicate His will — at least as certainly as Almighty God could speak from heaven, " I am the Lord !" " Thou art My beloved Son!" — is self-understood. Or, rather, it ought to be rightly imderstood by all believers who think soundly about what they believe. Gess justly complains that theology speaks almost always only of corporeity, when treating of the permanent hmnanity of the glorified Christ ; and says that^ " the humanity 1 In the memorable book, " Die Lelire von dor Person Christi," s. 266. ' 18 TO SAUL THE PERSECUTOE. must exist as certainly in the inner nature of the exalted Saviour; even as upon earth His was not merely a hmnan hodily life, but also a human life of the soul" (Heb. iv. 15; John v. 27). This belongs, indeed, to the least understood and doubtless most difficult problems of knowledge ; but it is indubitably true, nevertheless. Consequently, how mysterious soever the con- nection mediated by Almightiness, between the audible speak- ing and the corporeity of Jesus, may be — there is a profounder connection with His abiding personality in this, that the voice proceeds from His soul, we would rather say, from His heart; and carries with it " in the manner of a man who in degree is the Lord God" (1 Chron. xvii. 17), the most li-\dng and im- pressive ex])ression. And now for the more plain and direct question, which un- folds the charge already involved in the invocation by name. The whole internal contradiction of this more sincere Pharisee ao;ainst the neglected voice of God's truth, is now condensed and condemned in one short word — Whi/ j^ersecutest thou Me? As it was the Lord's wont upon earth to pierce the hearts of the people by questions, humbling and judging them by asking them questions which woidd lay bare their conduct to them- selves, so it is here — though now in its heavenly effect the question is still more powerful. He utters only a few plain words (in the Hebrew only two) — such is the sublime heavenly majesty of His style from the throne. To every lower or higher questioner who might have asked — Wlierefore persecutest thou the Nazarenes ? Saul would have been ready with many reasons of conscience and duty to justify himself ; but here he can only reply by an humbled and amazed question, which seems already almost to know the Lord — AVho art thou ? Into the secret depth of his conscience, where man is found guilty even in his sins of ignorance, the fearful interrogatory penetrates and sticks fast — What, for what, or tcherefore persecutest thou Me? How wonderful, for inexhaustible contemplation of the de- tail in the whole, and of the whole in the detail, is everything which is recorded in Scripture concerning the great acts and words of God ! The individualities are so concrete and histo- rical, the words are so simple in their immediate place and con- nection, that a hundred expositors may fail to discern in them ACTS IX. 4-6 ; XXII. 7-10 ; XXVI. U-16. 19 anything specific to expound ; but, in the comprehensive view of the whole in Scripture, the genuine scrijjture-expositov finds ever something new, everywhere something great and significant even in the lesser matters. So is it with this Ji7'st word of the Lord from heaven — the first word since the farewell words before the ascension. He, the same who testified that to Him was given all power in heaven and on earth, testifies here in the first testimony that He bears from the throne of His omni- potence, that He will not use this power in judgment ; yea, that He will not use it for the mere external defence of His Chm'ch. He confesses to his persecuted members and brethren ; but He Himself endures pei'secution in them, and will win the persecutor, whom He has borne with in long-suffering, only by the violence of love ! His power will make him a disciple in no other way than that appointed in Matt, xxviii. 19 for all people. This is also the consolation for all the persecuted, in all the f utm'e of the kingdom of the cross ; imtil that day when He will come in another form from heaven, and speak and judge in another style. "Wliere the Lord cannot turn His enemies, and when He does not restrain, but suffers them to do their violence to Himself in His people — His people may confidently say, " He beareth it ; let us bear it too !" As the Lord in His humiliation, at the beginning of His bodily indignities, uttered but one word, as suitable for the whole passion — Wliy smitest thou Mel (John xviii. 23,) wliile He suffered himself to be beaten, and scom'ged, and put to death — so here the exalted Lord patiently, and with the chastisement of gracious truth alone, cries, with reference to all His future enemies to the end of the world — Why perse- cutest thou Me ? Pre-eminently, and first of all, this word was meant for blinded Israel, who afterwards received the same words from the Apostle in all their force. Acts xxii. With this all-embracing brevity did St Luke record it at first, and similarly the Apostle before all the people in Jerusa- lem. But, on the second defence before Agrippa, where he more confidentially and fvilly opens the mystery of his conver- sion, he communicates what the Lord proceeded to add — It is HARD FOR THEE TO KICK AGAINST THE PRICKS. This ex- pression is an agricultural proverb, used of the yoked oxen which, in then: stupidity, kick out against the goad furnished with a shai*p point, and injure themselves the more. Thus 20 TO SAUL THE PERSECUTOR. it simply means — vainly and foolishly to oppose a superior power, to one's o\\ti injury. The proverb occurs in Latin and Greek authors ; the tragic poets use it of impotent opposition to the gods ; the Syrians appear also to have had such a phrase, and thus it became known probably to the Hebrews ; at any rate it was known to Saul, who was versed in foreign literature ; but we would not go so far as to say that the Lord had this in mind, speaking to Saul as a learned man. For, the Hebrew words proceed simply onwards ; they only lay open more plainly, and more condescendingly, and in their progi'ession more piercingly, that which was already contained in the depths of the previous word, and its sublime antithesis — Why perse- cutest tliou — Me ? That which the question had pressed upon the conscience is now brought out into full prominence for the understanding — far too powerful for thee ! Moreover, the folly and the guilt is laid bare, which would proudly defend itself against this akeady felt inferiority of power. While we are dwelling upon the circumstance that our Lord not only spoke in the Hebrew tongue, but also condescended to speak to men in their own proverbial expressions, infusing Into them a new meaning, it is important that we shotdd penetrate into the specific and new meaning which the present proverb derives from His use of It. The scruple might be raised — Did Saul already kick against the pricks when he was persecuting Jesus, whom he did not as yet know as the Mighty One in heaven ? But it may be g-nswered that the sinner who had fought in his blindness against the poWer, righteousness, and truth of God, must have assuredly marked and discerned the high autlwrity against which he in his vain folly was struggling, although he did not as yet plainly see loho wielded the sceptre ; that, consequently, warning thrusts must have already reached the conscience of Saul, as generally from the justice of God, so specifically from the bright self-attestation of the angel-coun- tenance of Stephen, and the undeniable sanctity of the perse- cuted " saints'^ — warnings which, however half-imconsclously, miist yet have have been certainly felt. Few Nazarenes had blasphemed ; most of them confessed, even amid torments, the name which he fought against ; yea, this hated and persecuted name approved itself, in Its living wonderfiil power, as the staff of a superior against the prick of which he vainly kicked, only ACTS IX. 4-G ; XXII. 7-10 ; XXVI. 14-1 G. 21 the more wounding his own mind and conscience thereby. The Lord does not merely " testify to him the objective fruitlessness of his opposition to the Church" (as Schaff thinks) — that was akeady contained in the revelation of His heavenly power and glory ; but that which in Saul's person (subjectively) had made itself felt as his own hurt, felt actually as the rebuking point of a goad nevertheless m'ged against him — that the Lord now suddenly reveals to him, and throws light at once upon the past : " Why persecutest thou Me, and thereby essentially only thyself?" But, from that great moment when this rises dis- tinctly before his consciousness, it receives the stronger and fuller meaning for the futiure also : " Wouldst thou further oppose — think how hard, vain, and ruinous it will be to thee /" Luther has given rightly the sense of the indefinite word — It will be hard to thee. " Behold, this is My goad — dost thou feel it ? Wilt thou further deny thyself to JSIe ? or, wilt thou obediently draw in my yoke, yield thyself up submissively to be sent in ISIy service ? My sacred grace hath decreed to make thee obedient — Woe, woe, vmto thee, if thou shouldst not follow! Hard should it be to thee, incomparably harder than hitherto :" — this and this only the Lord says ; for impossible Saul's disobedience was not even now ; of an irresistible grace we can by no means think. (Comp. ch. xxvi. 19, and Gal. i. 16.) Satisfied with this exposition of the words, as it has always \n\\\ more or less clearness been perceived, we do not think it necessary to turn aside to any profound concomitant meaning ; such as that, for instance, of Baumgarten, who refers the whole saying only to the Pharisee's, afterw^ards the Apostle's, warfare with the law} Otherwise, he needlessly objects, the figure, when appKed to Saul's past and futm'e relation to Jesus, wovJd be inappropriate, as making Jesus the driver with a threatening goad, and Paul the ox performing his work from fear alone ! For, does not the Lord here manifestly show Himself — pre- viously to all else that would afterwards follow — as the INIighty One, with the staff of authority, pointed with the prick which should pierce the conscience ? And does not the figm*e approve its truth in this, that the question is one of the yoJce of obedi- ^ In harmony -svith his general view that " all the thoughts which agitated the mind of Saiil, in consequence of the Lord's address to him, must have centred in the Law " — against which Lechler rightly protests. 22 TO SAUL THE PERSECUTOR. ence ? Thus it is, quite simply, that the Lord testifies His own power, the opposition to which can result only in the hurt of him who opposes ; but, because this power, before as hereafter, is the power of patient love. He testifies further that the goad of the driver is the staff of the Good Shepherd, having no other design than to take away the sin, through grace which rigor- ously and zealously seeks to effect its pm*pose. The holy Theresa finely said (as Gossner quotes) : " Lord, I sooner became weary of injuring Thee, than Thou of forgiving my injury" — but it might have been substituted — " than Thou of withstanding, in order that Thou mightest be able to forgive." All this Paul shortly afterwards well understood. But in the first shock of sudden amazement, the whole saying, despite the final penetrating clause, was almost unintelligible. He feels and suspects, but does not at once clearly understand ; hence, in his deep presentiment, he utters the hasty question. Who art Thou, Lord ? For he had, hitherto, persecuted Jesus ignorantly in unbelief (1 Tim. i. 13) — it had not been his purpose to fight mlfully against God. If, on the instant after the manifestation (which it was impossible for him to continue gazing at), he could hardly think otherwise than that it was Jehovah Himself in the glory of His revelation (the Shelcinah, according to the Jewish expression), or at least an angel in human form, who, in the name and authority of Jehovah, called him, — ^yet the " Me " was, for the moment, incomprehensible ; and in that his relative innocence, in connection with his guilt, revealed itself. Had the Lord appeared to any of those who said, " This is the heir, come let us kill him ! " it would have fallen upon him as the thmider of judgment ; at most, he would have been able to cry with the devils, " What hast thou to do with me, Jesus, Thou Son of the Most High God ? Art Thou come to torment me before the time ?" But Saul, who had not wilfully or consciously persecuted the Messiah, or the Person who might be the IMessiah, can, lying upon the ground with covered face, find strength to utter his trembling question, " Lord, who sayest that I persecute thee. Who art thou ? Not the God of Israel, for whose honoui' I thought myself zealous. Who art thou, O heavenly One, who thus art one with the Nazarenes, as if thou suffcredst in their sufferings ? " But this veiy thought leads us to the other side of the question — that ACTS IX 4-G ; XXII. 7-10 ; XXVI. 14-lG. 23 the presentiment of his question needed only to be brought out and fully uttered, in order to find, if the Lord had kept silence, its own answer — "Thou art Jesus of Nazareth!" He knew so much, at least, of " this sect," that according to their belief Jesus was now enthroned in heaven. Therefore, while he might have thought and said. Who art thou. Lord, from heaven, whom I can have persecuted f he restrains this last, because that itself would instantly give him the answer, before the Lord, confirming his o^vn thoughts, expressly uttered it.^ I AM Jesus of Nazaeeth, whom thou peesecutest ! Who other than He whom thou hast persecuted? The Lord does not harshly break off — "Tarry thou on the ground, and reflect ; this first word is enough for thee ! " With more and more gracious condescension, He enters into the ordinary col- loquy of word and answer. First comes the specific repetition and emphasis of his own word, Wliom thou persecutest ! although this comes out only after, in the first part of the sen- tence, it had been hinted at. The Lord now calls Himself from heaven by the name which the Spirit since the day of Pentecost had glorified, and by which the angels at the empty sepulchre had called Him (Mark xvi. 6) : the name of hmnilia- tion, rmder which Saul had persecuted Him, is by Him in His glory retained and confirmed. Jesus of Nazai-eth ! That further testifies, in the most solemn manner, the identity of His present person with the person of the humbled One, even to the years of childhood at Nazareth, to which He looks back ^ The question is here raised, whether Saul had not previously known Jesus, whether he had not seen Him in Jerusalem or elsewhere. This is quite possible in itself ; but His present form would not at once recall any- such acquaintance with His person. That in 2 Cor. v. 16, this acquaintance is meant, appears to us a very doubtful, indeed, an absolutely wrong ex- position. For, first, the Apostle speaks there hypothetically — only putting a case ; and then, to know Christy i.e., the Messiah (^yivmy.av).^ is something very different from having seen, and personally known, the human person. St Paul had formerly a blind Jewish knowledge and expectation of the (promised) Messiah, after the flesh., that is, "as the letter reveals Him to the natural understanding ; " this he renounces as old and past, because he has found the true Christ in Jesus. Not, therefore, as G. MiiUer says, "the form of His humanity has vanished from my mind" — he would say something very different. Assuredly, in conclusion. He who appeared to him at Damascus connects His quite otherwise meant I am Jesus ! not with any former knowledge of His person which Saul might have had. 24 TO SAUL THE PEESECUTOE. from the throne of God in eternal glory. Not " Jesus the Chist" — which was self -understood from the glorious appear- ance ; as also that Saul had persecuted Jesus only as the Christ. But the Lord will not still further oppress the man lying in the dust, by the name of His might and dignity ; He mildly descends to him, giving him courage and awakening his confidence in the midst of his punishm^ent. For, the expression must have re- called to him that this " Jesus of Nazareth" was once upon earth the meek and lowly One, the Benefactor and Healer in Plis Divine power. Moreover, Jesus means, as all who afterwards heard the words would think with Saul, Helper and Savioiu'. Thus — "Why persecutest thou, poor sinner, the" only Helper, who hath holpen so many and would help thee, who pierces with the goad only so long as He is opposed? Why wult thou not let Me save thee and others ? " The charge changes into a tender and sorrowful lamentation and complaint, once more just as in John x. 32. Thus the sin of Saul is forgiven, in the utterance of this holy name of Jesus, even while that sin is a second time mentioned. And that name comes first — "/ am Jesus whom thou persecutest — only behold and hear Me now ! " Thus will the Lord reveal to every Saul, who has denied Plim in error that may be repaired. His Jesus-name^ which is still above the name of Christ, and in lohicli every knee shall bow. Such gracious condescension has made it possible that Saul, seized and rendered obedient by this second appeal, should put the question. Lord, what ivilt Thou that I should do ? (ch. xx., shorter. What must I do, Lord ?) He does not remain terrified and amazed by the thought of the twice-proclaimed persecution of this Lord now appearing to him, and cry in anguish — Alas, what have I done I For, only this manifestation M'as wanting to make him turn to his denied Lord, with as much decision as had been shown in his persecution, and ask what might be the will of the Lord whom he now knew. Although the bitter struggle was yet to come, there already flowed into his heart a first breath of consolation and forgiveness ; so that he looks forward, forgetting the things behind, and can offer himself and his whole life to Ilim whom he had persecuted, with the question, almost childlike in its confidence — What is Thy will from this time, O Lord, now even 7vy Lord ? From this time ACTS IX. 4-6 ; XXII. 7-10 ; XXVI. 14-10. 25 — this lias to liirn, now, the first and most pressing significance ; because he is at the gate of Damascus, as a persecutor sent by the comicil: "What shall I do now ? Shall I tiu'n back ? And whither ? Shall I go on ? And what to do then 1 " Entering graciously into this, and bringing the affecting conversation nearer to its end, the Lord answers him : — St Paul, in the narrative before the Jews, ch. xxii., first acknow- ledges Him by this 7iame. Aeise and go into the city, AND it shall be TOLD THEE WHAT THOU MUST DO (ch. Xxii., INTO DAMASCUS — OF ALL THINGS WHICH ARE APPOINTED FOR THEE TO DO. Ch. XXvi., RiSE AND STAND UPON THY feet). The first words. Arise! (lience quoted more emphatically in ch. xxvi. ; comp. Ezek. ii. 1) has here gTeat significance, much more than when it formerly came from the lips of Jesus. The voice of the Lord first threw him to the earth, it now lifts him up again — both, in this extraordinary revelation of His power, in quick succession. " Go — the same way which thou wast going, into the same Damascus, but as another man now, who hast fallen down before Me, and art risen up again! Thou shalt at once do something ; I take thee at thy word, it is My loill. Much is appointed to thee, yea, according to eternal counsel, to thee, the persecutor and blasphemer, which thou shalt do in thy new life, in thy new energy', in My service — all this will be told thee. The supreme order is given and sealed; but all the rest My ministers will care for." What an explanation this, leaving so much to be supposed, but concealing all in a simple word, which Saul could not at once understand. Damascus, the oldest city of which we have any knowledge — mentioned as early as the history of Abraham, afterwards the metropolis of the enemies of Israel, and, later, of the fanatical Mohammedan power — was foreappointed to be the scene of a mighty testimony of Jesus Christ (see Acts ix. 20, 21). But the Lord does not say, as afterwards to Ananias, and as the angel to Cornelius — Into this or that street, into this or that house. He mentions to him no name. He begins at once to exercise him by the test of obedience m faith. He who had asked, in harmony with his impetuous character, what new thing he should do, is required, in this new beginning, to xoait, to learn, to he told. He does not know that the fulfilment Avill 26 TO SAUL THE PERSECUTOR. take place as soon as it actually did ; he must first in silent waitinor turn to account that which had already occiuTcd. The origina. does not say, One will tell thee; but still more indefinitely, It shall be told thee. By whom ? ]\Iight it be by the Lord Him- self ? The dismissing reference to some one in the city gives him plainly to understand that that cannot be meant. Thus it was by men, and by whom but by some of those disciples of the Lord whom he had come to persecute 1 Even Christ Him- self points to His witnesses, as the angel referred Cornehus to Peter. Not merely, " He that persecuteth Mine persecuteth Me," but also, " He that heareth Mine heareth Me !" As the Lord had in the first word confessed His people, so He confesses them now in the closing word. This expression is better here, and less easily perverted, than the too favourite word church ; for where was at that time the church — as the term is now used distinctively from the congregation — with its confirmed, appointed, ruling constitution ? The convert is aftei'wards directed to the Scripture, but that does not come till after: first he must have living intercom"se with those Avho live in faith, in order to the opening of his eyes. He is sent to one or to some of the disciples in Damascus — thus much he imderstands — whom he must patiently wait for. Let it be observed, not to the Apostles ; for he is immediately called to be an Apostle himself. Nevertheless, he must subject himself to the heretics whom he had before scorned ; he must bow down before the j^ersecuted congi'egation, and receive from them the fiui;her communications of his Lord's will. Thus the extraordinary and miraculously-begun work of his conversion must have a regular and unmiraculous issue ; the miracle is re- duced back to ordinary limitations ; the common order is placed on a level with the miraculous, rather it is confinned and sanctified in its place above it. Thus, finally, the special honour done, as it were, to the proud Pharisee, is compensated or 2)arallel(xl by his taking his place below the despised Naza- renes, in order to strengthen and maintain his humility. For, alas ! not every one who lias bowed down before the Lord Himself, submits to bow down before men for the Lord's sake, and before the Lord in the person of men. The Lord often thus makes His own beginning, while He leaves the prosecution to His disciples. Thus He still greets ACTS IX. 10-16. 27 His children upon earth with greeting which strengthens their faith, while He commits to them still sometimes a captive enemy — the strong and learned made blind and praying, for their further care and nom'ishmeut. Finally, there is in the expression, " what is appointed to thee" — as we find it in the exacter record, ch. xxii. — a refer- ence to the Father, precisely as in Matt. xx. 23. We must not miderstand merely " appointed by Me ;^' but the glorified Lord gives the glory to the Father ; and the word of Ananias, ch. xxii. 14, coincides with this. In the later appearance, ch. xxvi. 16, the Lord Himself gives His orders to His servant and wit- ness ; but in the first announcement of Himself as " Jesus of Nazareth," so condescendingly lowly with all its majesty, He refers all at the conclusion to His God and Father: — All shall be said to thee by men, that is appointed for thee by God. For this is the confirmed and everlasting rule : whosoever asks his Lord in earnest what he should do, shall have in His ways a sure answer given him even through men. O CD H. ANAJ^IAS' COMMISSION". (Acts ix. 10-16.) Among the multitudes of Jews in Damascus (St Luke, in vers. 2 and 20, speaks of synagogues in the plural) there were disciples of Jesus of Nazareth (vers. 19-25), — though probably an insignificant little company. The persecution which Saul had with a strong hand undertaken in Jerusalem had far dis- persed the persecuted, and sent them widely forth as preachers of the Word. But we must not think of any orderly ecclesi- astical relation among these few disciples at Damascus, nor of any separation from the Jewish people, further than then* con- fession of Jesus absolutely required. They remained, as we find it for a long time within Israel, Jews in all observance of the law. This is expressly stated, ch. xxii. 12, of Ananias; as also his good report, the consideration paid to his irreproach- able, respectable character among all the Jews of the city, and 28 ANANIAS* COMMISSION. which liis faith in Jesus had not yet interrupted. Conse- quently, although this " disciple" is not called an elder of the community, he is one in reality; and is chosen, as the worthiest representative of the discipleship in the place, to receive and admit Saul into the fellowship of Christians. But this transi- tion from the miraculous to regular order requires also on the part of Ananias — in order that his mistrust of the persecutor may be taken away, and still more that he might enter fully into the Lord's plan and commission, and venture to approach Saul — a fiirther extraordinary and miraculous intervention. It takes place, therefore, though in a lower degree ; that is, by an appearance and communication of the Lord in vision. This expression has here, as is obvious, not the general meaning which it has in Acts vii. 31, Matt. xvii. 9,^ where it refers to an appearance from the other world in opposition to ordinary perception — in which sense Saul's seeing and hearing before Damascus was a vision. But it connects itself, accord- ing to a more restricted use of the phrase, with the Old Testa- ment manner of speech, as found already in Acts ii. 17, in which the word of the Lord to Abraham (Gen. x^^ 1) was heard "in a vision" in the night, as ver. 7 shows. The pro- mise in the Prophet Joel (ch. iii. 1) mentions prophecy, dream, and vision as the three orders of Divine revelation ; as in Num. xii. 6 the Lord declares that He vdW make Himself known to other prophets in vision or dream, but expressly dis- tinguishes this from the immediate revelation reserved for Moses — the speaking face to face, the being seen in face or form. What the stricter relations of these may be is matter of higher experience, and cannot here be thoroughly opened up ; we merely remark, that the very distinct dream might pass over into the vision, with a certain removal of the distinction, but that this distinction must be maintained in the case of a vision seen, as here, during the day. As Cornelius and Peter beheld their visions in the day and waking — although, in order to their susceptibility for the event, raised out of ordinary wakefulness — so most probably did Ananias here. It is not said — In a vision of the tiicjld ; and, according to ver. 17, when he received the commission he went on the same day, without ^ And diifers in the Greek (oVTsea/a for opx/^ix, as in Acts xxvi. 19), yet with the same meaning in xxiv. 23. ACTS IX. 10- IG. 21) interval or hesitation, to execute it. But, finally, it must not be overlooked that we do not read of his being in the spirit; this is a further distinction between these " visions " of the history of the Acts, and the later more profomidly internal m- tercoui'se of the Lor^ with His Apostles. The Lord said in the vision, Ananias ! Here once calling by name is enough ; his name, uttered in so wonderful a man- ner, introduces the vision, excites and places him in a state in which there was certainly some kind of seeing the appearing Lord. For, on the one hand, the \dsion of Ananias would not be less plain than that of Saul, who saw this man coming in to him; and, on the other, St Lulce relates the proceeding with the suj^position, not expressed, that Ananias at the first call knew the Lord Jesus, and afterwards speaks to Him as such — ^^Thy saints, who call on Thy name." We cannot perfectly understand all; but this much is plain, that, without having any previous experience of any such vision, the faithful dis- ciple, accustomed to the communion of the heart with his Lord, is raised from the sudden shock of the appearance to the con- fident beholding of Him who appears, and can reply. Here am I, Lord ! It may be that Ananias was one of those who had seen the Lord in his visits to Jerusalem at the feasts — possible that he was one of His original disciples^ — and consequently tliat the voice and fonn of the Lord would recall Him to his remembrance. Be that as it may, this vision and colloquy rests upon the same foundation as the revelation to Saul, con- firmed and sealed as that is by an enth'e apostolical life. In the " Here am 1" — which occurs so often from Abraham in Gen. xx. downwards, as the reply to the Lord's summons by name, and the immediate vise of which sprang from Ananias' familiarity with Scripture — was contained the questions, "What is Thy will? Wliat am I to do?" And the Lord said to him, " Akise, and go into the stkeet which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one Saul of Tarsus." It is not that Ananias also had fallen do^\^l ; the arise simply belong, in the familiar speech, to the "•oino; and executino; his errand at once.^ The Lord assmnes ^ Compare the expression, probably to be understood in the same way, concerning Mnason, an old disciple, a,px»iu fictdyirfi, Acts xxi. 16. 2 In tLo Greek they axe closely unite*!, di-omrsU -royiv^^irt. 30 ANANIAS' COMMISSION. the tone of familiar speech, as if all was passing in common life, and condescends to exact sj)ecification of the street and house ; for this was now necessary, in order to give Ananias a distinct impression, and still more to obviate the premature comments which would have resulted from any particular inquiries in the city — " The Christian Ananias has sought out the persecutor Saul !" Wliat the two have to do together requires at first perfect secrecy; until, after certain days (ver. 19), Saul begins, to the astonishment bf all, to preach concerning Jesus in the synagogues. After Luther's inexact translation — die richtige Gasse — many have found a fanciful allusion to him who was now brought into the right way ; but this distvu'bs here the plain simplicity of the whole, in which nothing more is meant than the great street of the city, so called in distinction from others which did not run so directly through it. The host Judas was not also a Christian, though through his guest he may have be- come one ; the name here indicates only what we should now express by the number of the street. Because, finally, Saul, like Judas, was an ordinary name, the usual designation of Saul of Tarsus marks out one who in every land, and by Ananias, was known as the notorious enemy of the Christians. Hitherto the words had been simple and plain, as Avhen a man is introducing with accuracy an ordinary commission ; but now comes the great declaration, — "Foil, behold, he peayeth!" Here the for (which has been softened away by most expositors) retains its full meaning; the astonishment and affright of Ananias at the mention of the name Saul of Tarsus is antici- pated— "Thou shalt seek him without fear; thou shalt find him Avilling to 'be told ISIy will." In this Bengel is at fault, who refers the for (which ob^^ously gives a reason) to the whole clause, and particularly to the following sentence about his having seen the vision. Surely the first words — he prayeth ! were of themselves quite enough gi'ound to establish the confi- dence of Ananias. The behold ! places the praying man, visible to the Lord, also, as it were, before the eyes of Ananias.' In that one thing everything is embraced and said ! A praying man is never to be feared, has ceased to be an enemy and a persecutor — that is the first and most obvious meaning for Ananias ; but it is veiy far from being all that the words contained. Instead of the external matter which St Luke, ACTS IX. lO-lG. 31 ver. 9, faithfully recorded at first — "He was tliree days without sight, and neither ate nor cbank" — the Lord mentions that which He saw in the inner man, and which was only imaged and expressed in the blindness arid fasting. What lyrayer must this of Saul liave been, through these three days and nights ! We cannot agree with Bamngarten, who maintains (against Bengel) that the state of Saul dm'ing tlie whole of the three days is not described as being that of prayer ; but that " the praying put an end to the agony which had filled the three days !" This interpretation presses the for beyond its limits ; since, in that case, if the reason for the Lord's commission to Ananias had occiuTed before, Ananias would have been sent earlier! We confess that we cannot understand a three days' " wrestling" on Saul's part, Avliich was resolved at last into prayer — not being itself prayer all through. " Lord, what wouldst Thou have me to do?" That, in truth, was the beginning of a prayer to the Lord, which never could cease again until it had been fully answered. The other remark of Baumgarten is both obvious and true : " Tliis was of course not the first time that Saul had prayed ; as an irreproachable Pharisee he had never neglected the hom's of devotion ; but all his previous praying did not deserve the name." Ah, how often is it that, after much fruit- ful " prayer" which the Lord has not regarded. He Himself at length bears His testimony — Behold, he prayetli now ! " We cannot describe the whole way of conversion more concisely, and at the same time more comprehensively, than by these words — 'Behold, he prayeth.' For it brings the* two things together: that conversion is God's work; but that it must have oiu' co-operation. In prayer we lay hold on God's good will, which had before laid hold upon us ; and yield our- selves up to His mighty drawings" (Rieger). Saul, so mightily apprehended of Christ Jesus, had already a secret sense or hope of forgiveness ; nevertheless, the appropriation of this pardon in faith required of him, now that calm reflection followed the great manifestation, the most vehement -wTestling — the utmost labom' of prayer, that in repentance he might surely taste the full knowledge of his sin. For, notwithstanding all that was sudden and extraordinary in his case, there was no remission or relaxation to him of the universal method of grace : — and this is emphatically stated in the mention of his prayer. The means 32 ana:n:ias commission. of grace for liiin, as for all others, are the loord and sacrament — but dermng then* energy and effect from praying faith, which receives in order to further seeking and finding. " Behold, he prayeth" — that is the first and main point, as the verse divides itself ; then follows, " And hath seen in a VISION A MAN NAMED AnANIAS, COMING IN, AND PUTTING HIS HAND UPON HIM, THAT HE MIGHT RECEIVE HIS SIGHT." This corresponsive " vision" of a different order, similar to that of the man of Macedonia in Troas (ch. xvi. 9), the personification of the people crying for their only help, is, strictly speaking, no more in itself than that seeing from afar, or anticipatory seeing, what will afterwards take place, of which there are plentiful examples in all times. Only that the mention of the name (doubtless by a voice) is an unusual addition, for the pm'pose of directing both men certainly to each other, as in the case of Peter and Cornelius. One might say that the name would bear with it a consoling significance : — Ananias (like Hananiah, Johanan, Johannes) that is, "The Lord is gracious."^ Yet, in any case, the vision of itself was without any concomitant omen, a com- forting and gracious preparation of Saul for the peaceful con- sciousness of received gi'ace ; it promised him very much, as being a continuation of the Lord's intercom'se with him — for only from Him could such revelation come ; it was to him the beginning of the answer of his prayer, pointing him to the future appointed for him. For, if he should see again, it could be only that he might be restored to a new life and a new activity ; that the same man Ananias would furthermore tell him what he should do, was taken for granted, and indeed symbolically de- clared in the opening of his eyes.^ It is the manner of a vision to exhibit the external, from which the rest then follows ; as we find also that the Lord only hints to Atianias his specific com- mission for Saul — at first merely by this laying on of hands, in order to his recovering sight. That which follows in ver. 15, 16, as answer to his objection, was not spoken to be du-ectly com- ^ On the other hand, Job v. 19, is to be interpreted otherwise — " Cloud of God," as Azarias — Helj) of God. 2 " We may well suppose that, before he started for Damascus, Saul had informed himself of the feelings of the Jews in that city towards the Christians, and had already heard of this well-known and universally re- spected person." So Baumgarten ; but v.-e caunofc agree with him in this ; it is almost contradicted by ver. 2. ACTS IX. 10-16. 33 municated to Saul. A^Tiat Ananias understood of his commis- sion, and afterwards accomplished, was, as far as it was con- tained in the first connnunication of the Lord, simply this ; " Raise him out of the deep depression of his penitence, give him gi-acious and new light concerning his election, take him as a believer into the fellowship of those who belong to Me." Up to this time the Lord had said nothing to Ananias about the first great event — " He beheld Me in the way to Damascus, w^here I appeared tec him ! That was the cause of his hlindnessV We shall see how Ananias came to know that fact; at pre- sent we observe only this : Dazzled and blinded by the Divine glory, he must by hiunan hands, and human words, be restored to sight, which is itself symbolical of the ordei^ of grace, as it proceeds in every such case, and to which everything in the history now leads. But Ananias, with increasing confidence, the secret of which we have ah'eady pointed out, makes, in ver. 13, 14, a long ob- jection, as if the Lord who speaks to him, and whom he once again replies to, did not know and had not heard what he knew concerning this evil and dangerous man ! The Lord said — "Behold he prayeth!" but this appears to Ananias incredible ; and, instead of himself hearing, he adduces what he had heard of many touching this man to whom he was to go. Past all invention true, to every right feeling, is this whole account, however strange it may appear ; it is the genuine and sincere conversation of a disciple with his Lord. Ananias uses two peculiar designations of the Christians : not " disciples," nor " brethren," neither of which would have been in place here ; but — Thy saints (comp. ver. 32-41) ; and Who call on Thy name. The former is derived over from God to the Lord Jesus: " T/i?/," as formerly in Scriptui'e, "God's" saints (Ps.l. 5; 1 Sam. ii. 3). The latter is more strictly referred to Jesus : — "Who not merely call on the name of God, as the Jews in hypocrisy, and many ^ious Jews ignorantly to this day, but call with a true faith on Thy name ;" so, since Acts i. 24, Jesus had been prayed to, and thus the common designation arose (ver. 21; 1 Cor. i. 2). "And can such an one — this man well known to me as a blasphemer of Thy name — call now himself upon Thy name? How can that be possible?" Standing before the Lord in heaven and His supreme power, he says — This man hath authority ! Li the C 34 ANANIAS' COMMISSION. presence of the one true High Priest he makes mention of the high priests in Jerusalem ! The attendants had hardly men- tioned the letters of authority dui'ing the three days ; rather, we may suppose that warning had come from distant bretln'en. In any case Ananias received this evil report from many, as generally known. But surely he was ashamed of his open and incon- siderate counter-plea, as soon as he had finished it ; and said to himself, what therefore the Lord did not need to say — " But the authority of Jesus has struck down this fierce enemy, and made him blind and prayerful." Instead of any reproof , Dost thou know better than I? — for, the sincere appeals of His people to Him, however weak, incon- siderate, or perverted they may be, the Lord never condemns ; but rather takes pleasm*e in them, if they only come from pure hearts — instead of any rebuking word, which would have been out of harmony with the revelation of superabounding grace, the Lord said, " Go! let it be as I have told thee before" — in this one word expressing no more than a gentle reproving reference back to His oum first word, which ought to have had more weio-ht than all that Ananias miolit have heard from others. And then follows a second for, opening out His own secret pur- pose concerning this man, this Saul of Tarsus. " For he is a CHOSEN INSTRUMENT (or Vessel) TO Me, TO CARRY My NAME TO THE Gentiles, and before kings, and the children of Israel." How does Ananias hearken noic to the lofty words, which have taken so different a turn, no longer speaking of a man seeking grace who simply needed to be comforted and healed ! How does he take shame to himself, and think — Thou, Lord, in very deed knowest best ; and canst choose and prepare for Thyself Thine instruments ? But the Lord does not add — Tell Jdm this ! The Spirit afterwards taught Ananias how much of this preparatorily to announce to the elect Apostle, and how much it was necessary as yet to conceal. The Lord Himself, in a subsequent appearance (ch. xxvi. 16-18) first declared tlie ap-i, jiointment of the Apostle of tlic Gentiles, and gave him the fuller words of instruction in his office ; on the other hand, Ananias, ch. xxii. 5, speaks only in more indcfijnte expression — "a witness to all men," which might be undt'rstood as meaning, " with whom thou shall have to do, everywhere wherever thovi mayest go." A chosen instrument, literally, a vessel of election — these ACTS IX. 10-16. 35 are two fundamental words, which the Apostle learned after- wards in the school of the Spirit to understand and teach for himself and others — almost as if that Spirit had literally brought to his mind this word of Jesus concernino; his own vocation. We know how much he has to say concerning the free clwice or election of God, and similarly of the vessels or instruments of mercy or of wrath, of lionoiu' or of dishonour. (With the same Greek expression, Rom. ix. 21-23 ; 2 Cor. iv. 7 ; 2 Tim. i. 20, 21.) Even the man most richly endowed can receive in himself the power of Divine grace only as a vessel ; and only as an instrument serve Him who here says, in His royal authority over the kingdom and house of God, — a vessel uiito Me ! My name — that is the great matter ; in that all is comprehended, as in ch. xxvi. 18, everything has its similar sublime close — • Through the faith that is in Me ! This man shall not merely call upon my Jesus-name, as all My saints do, and he himself also now ; he shall hear it, that is, confess, announce and diffuse it far and wide, — whereby the expression still adheres to the figurative " vessel." Truly St Paul was full of the ointment pom'ed forth of the most holy name (Cant. i. 3) — a good savour of Christ wherever he came. The Gentiles now come first — to Ananias a new and great disclosure ! — the kings are in transition meant both of Jews and Gentiles, as St Paul testified in Jerusa- lem before the last Jewish king, and in Rome before the Cassar ; —finally, before the children of Israel is, notwithstanding the unbelief of the Jews predicted in ch. xxii. 18, the term and goal of all missions, the end to which the testimony of the Apostle, continued by the Spirit, will yet attain with glorious results. Compare these prophetic words of the Lord from heaven with the first rays of the prophetic light which shone around the Infant in the words of Simeon, Luke ii. 32. But the Lord has not said all ; a third " for" gives most conclusively the ground of the foreannoimced fitness of this chosen vessel : " For I will show him how much he must SUFFER FOR My na3Ie's SAKE." The Berlenb. Bible^ explains this incorrectly, losing the connection of the "for." After the 1 Against the unaltered republication of wliich, for oiir times, I thirty years ago protested — because not every man knows how to sift out the evil from the good. It is now, however, proposed to give it to the public, and I warn the laity against reading it carelessly. 36 ANANIAS' CONTESSION. correct tliouglit that even this last clause would perfectly take away all carnal boastmg, it goes on to explain : " Ask not — shall this be to him ? (for this struck Ananias to the heart). God forgives the sin, but punishes it even in His elect. It shall not be forgotten that he hath injured ^My Church. He shall have something to endm-e for it. As he hath injui'ed ]\iy saints, he shall himself be persecuted!" Truly, Ps. xcix. 8 is not thus to be interpreted. Such vindictive thoughts were certainly not in the mind of Ananias ; much less did the Lord confirm them. The futm'e Paul, when he is not ashamed of his tribulations, but glories in them (2 Cor. i. 3-6 ; 2 Tim. i. 11, 12 ; 2 Cor. xi. 23, xii. 10), never brings them into any such connection Avith his former guilt ; he has a very different meaning in his deep word — " I fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for His body's sake, which is the Chm^ch" (Col. i. 24). The prophecy which goes before from the Lord's own mouth on him, at his ordination, means rather the good warfare wliich he would thenceforth war, in faith and a good con- science (1 Tim. i. 18, 19). Thus it is not — " I will bear in mind, although he is forgiven, that he has been a persecutor!" but — "My grace will so convert and change him into an elect bearer of My name, tliat he shall be himself stedfastly and zealously faithful as a persecuted sufferer for ]\Iy name's sake !" The apparent threatening is itself the highest promise of grace : *' he shall, as an elect instrument, be counted worthy of endur- ing great shame for My sake" (INlatt. v. 10-12, xx. 22 ; Acts V. 41 ; 1 Pet. iv. 13). And in this is included — indeed the " for" gives it prominence — the deep principle, applicable not to St Paul alone, but to all, that to every vessel of grace, and especially every witness of the Gospel, suffering is inevitable, and that the measure of affliction is in proportion to the height and dignity of the vocation. That which was said in the Old Tes- tament, as the germ so to speak of the rule for all God's ways with the children of men, " He who will leam^ much must suffer much" (Eccles. i. 18 ; comp. Prov. xv. 33), — attains, now that the great Forerunner hath entered through sufferings into His glory, its highest confirmation for all who enter into the kingdom of God, Acts xiv. 22. Thus, the great Forerunner speaks here of this, of the grace of sanctifying, confirming, and preserving ^ Not teach, as \ve find in Luther, lehren. ACTS IX. 10-16. 37 affliction for His saints ; and applies a general truth especially to this specially elect servant. "/ will show him, that is, give him to experience" — so speaks He who has not only suffered Himself, but is ever suffering in His members. The first experience of its truth Saul had, according to ver. 23-25, in Damascus ; hence in 2 Cor. xi. he mentions this first suffering for the sake of Clmst. But the Lord's last word had to Ananias a tone of dis- missal— " Do thou thy part, execute thy commission ; / will provide for all the rest of his career ! " and Ananias went his way — so we read in ch. ix. ; in ch. xxii. more is added which was said to him. He not only laid his hands upon " brother Saul," that he might see again ; but, that he might be filled with the Holy Spuit, exliorted him to be baptized, and baptized him. Concerning sufferings appointed to him he says nothing ; concerning his call to be a witness of the Lord he utters a very general expression ; but nothing concerning his pre-eminent dignity and honour as an elect vessel. But when he goes on — Jesus, who appeared to thee in the way, hath sent me — and speaks of the ordained seeing of the Just One, and hearing the words of His mouth — we ask whence he came to know this. The Lord had not, according to St Luke's detailed accomit, declared it to him ; or, did the Lord actually say more than we have in that narrative ? In such matters every man is free to hold his own opinion. For our own part, we cannot consent to add anything unwritten to the measured and rounded words of our Lord from heaven, as w^e find them here recorded; cer- tainly not, which would be most strange, that Jesus Himself spoke at length concerning His appearance to Saul. Thus, if St Luke records nothing of the kind, and yet relates what we f m'ther read concerning Ananias, the thoughtful reader must find another answer to the question, which is not a vain and over-curious one. Whence did Ananias know of the Lord's appearance to Saul in the way? The attendants, certainly, could only give their indefinite impression of the whole event, and Saul had not, dm-ing the tlu'ee days given them any further information ; moreover, Ananias, who straightway obeyed, and went to the house of Saul, previously unknown to liim, had nothing to do with them. We simply explain the matter thus. After the words of the Lord, Ananias knew sufficiently well 38 AXANIAS' COMMISSION. this, that he should go to Saul, whom the Lord had in some wonderful way humbled and changed, that he should heal him and establish him. "VYliat he should say in connection with the imposition of hands, wliich could not be meant as a mere cere- monial gesture, is left to himself, that he may with wisdom gather it from what was disclosed to him — as he accordingly did. But not only so ; when the Holy Ghost taught him to under- stand and to say that Saul, restored to sight, should be filled with the Holy Ghost, he himself, whose hand and word and baptism imparted that great gift, was at the same time Jilled with the Holy Ghost, as St Luke often records of the Apostles and all believers. (Acts iv. 8 31, vi. 3 5, vii. 55, xi. 24, xiii. 9, 52.) Thus, the solution of the difficulty is this, that to Ananias — possibly on the way to Saul, more probably at the moment when he begins to speak — the Spirit imparts all that he now proceeds to say. (Just as Elizabeth greeted the mother of our Lord mtli a sudden revelation — only that Ananias was more fully prepared.) And here we have at the same time, in the complement of the Lord's first words from heaven, the significant and instructive lesson — that it is His will to leave to the Holy Spirit in His disciples the completing of His immediate word : both go together in harmony from the very beginning. In conclusion, it is to be observed that Ananias gave Saul no further instruction, or (as Olshausen expressed himself) " teaching as to the way of eternal life." Of this we read nothing in these two chapters ; on the contraiy, we are more than once given to understand that St Paul, as he was not called of men, so also was not instructed of men, but through the revelation of Jesus Christ, who reserved for His own teach- ing more than the mere shewing of His sufferings, \^^licll carries us on to those fm-ther manifestations and directions which are recorded subsequently in this book. ACTS XXII. 17-21. 39 m. TO SAUL IN THE TEMPLE : THE MISSION TO THE GENTILES ANNOUNCED. (Acts xxii. 17-21.) To avoid prolixity we shall refrain from any introductory dis- cussion of the scene and the hearers of this speech of St Paul ; but we entreat our readers to strive to reproduce the whole \dvidly in their imagination. He stands upon the steps of the Castle Antonia, in the presence of the Jewish people, inflamed against him, on accoimt of his supposed desecration of the temple ; and testifies now, for the first time, in great publicity, and at Jerusalem, concerning Christ. They were reduced to silence hj a movement of his hand. From ver. 1 to 16 he has nan-ated the manifestation at Damascus, and Ananias' declara- tion at his baptism ; he now goes on to give, in all simplicity, as it occurred, the narrative of afmlher appearance of the Lord, which belongs properly to this place. And it came to pass, that, as I made my persecuting jomiiey to Damascus — that was his sublime and simple word in ver. 6. With the same word he here makes a new beginnino;, havino- something most important to announce : Atid it came to pass, that, when I came again to Jerusalem. Consequently, this was the first return after his conversion, as it is recorded in ch. ix. 26-30. Further, this return took place, as we find in Gal. i. 17, 18, not till after a three years' abode in Arabia, the solitude of which, probably having for its object the calm preparation of the Apostle for his work, is concealed as a mystery.^ Thus much is certain from Scriptm'e ; St Luke, ch. ix., passes over these three years, as he often passes over long intervals, without a word. ^\niether this is to be interpolated after ver. 25 in his history, or before that, between ver. 22 and 23, as we think,^ is of ^ "We cannot (with Wieseler) consent to say, -witlaout qualification — " He preached three years in Arabia ! " 2 For this may the iifiipoit Ikui/ui be understood : the complete time (that is, a considerable period past). The narrative is thus distributed, from ver. 40 TO SAUL IN THE TEMPLE. comparatively little moment. Wieseler declares it to be indu- bitable that the " trance " mentioned by St Paul, 2 Cor. xii. 2-4, is the same which is recorded in Acts xxii. 17 ; but this we cannot by any means allow. The chronological reckonmg is not decisive in his favour ; for the vision and revelation of the Lord, 2 Cor. xii. 1, were certainly not so unfrcquent as to oblige us to investigate the time of each. If the Apostle here singles out one of them only, which occui'red to him fourteen years before, the reason lay in the high and heavenly matter of that revelation, as in ver. 7 he speaks of its abundance, its super- abundance. The unspeakable words heard in the third heaven and paradise scarcely harmonize with the simple matter and calm procedure of the conversation with the Lord in the temple, which he relates to the Jews. We cannot understand how both could have concurred in one revelation ; and should regard the trance of the Epistle to the Corinthians as rather suitable to the sojourn in Arabia (with which the chronology may be easily conformed). Nor, after all, should we assume that the manifestation recorded in Acts xxii. was actually the second communication of the Lord to the Apostle after His appearance at Damascus : the contrary is far more probable. Suffice, that to know the time and order is no more necessaiy here than it is in relation to the Lord's words generally, and to the appearances of the risen Lord in particular. Trance is certainly more indirect than bodily appearance. Near Damascus Saul was not entranced; although for such seeing and hearing as that, it was necessaiy that a susceptibility of hearing and seeing, different from his ordinary condition, should be excited. The stages and distinctions, however real they may be, nevertheless' shade off into each other. Thus, the trance may, under some circumstances, as we have just seen in the Corinthians, go far beyond other visions ; while, on the other hand, it may be only the medium (as with St Peter, Acts xi. 5) for the witnessing of a vision. So was it with St Paul, who while praying was entranced, literally, fell into a trance ; comp. Acts X. 9, the praying of St Peter. But that he was in the body, and not out of the body, he here knows full well ; for 23: at the beginning the Jews Avonld kill him in Damascus; at the end, even the Greeks (Hellenists), in Jerusalem ; in the interim, ver. 26, the disciples would not acknowledge him. ACTS XXII. 17-21. 41 he was bodily present in the temple : — probably at the customary hour of prayer, like Peter and John, eh. iii. 1. For, as long as the desolate temple, left over to destruction, stood yet under the. patience of the Lord, so long was it honoured even by the Jewish Christians. St Paul prays in the temple, not indeed ■with the prejudiced mind of those thousands of believers spoken of in ch. xxi. 20 as so zealous for the law, but yet with the true love of devotion to his people and their sanctuary: he prays, who had only in Damascus learned to pray aright ! He had certainly long ago come to understand St Stephen's doctrine, how much or how little the holy place was to be regarded — yet he can here, to the satisfaction of the people, relate with sin- cerity that he had prayed in the temple. "That 1 was in a trance, and saio Him! " Thus, still more, the Lord Himself counts the temple worthy to be the scene of a revelation to tlis servant — though, indeed, oaily to command hun, Get thee out ! " I saw Him " — thus does the Apostle express himself, only in ver. 8 throughout the narrative mentioning " Jesus of Nazareth " as the name spoken by the Lord Himself : in all the rest it is the Lord, the Just One, the gi'eat Pie, whose unacknowledged dignity and unrendered honour are here con- cerned. " And saw Him saying unto me " — in which aiTange- ment of the words is expressed the near and continuous seeing ; not as at Damascus, where there was a sudden momentary be- holding, before the hearing of the voice. Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem: for they avill not receive thy testimony concerning Me! This word, now reported, would vex and offend the unbelieving multitude ; but scarcely less strange, though for a different reason, did it sound to the Apostle and witness him- self, when he heard it first. He had returned to Jerusalem with the firm persuasion that of course the Jews in Jerusalem would be among the men to whom he should be a witness for the Lord : he burns with desire to bear his mighty loitncss in this place. The Lord takes it for granted that he felt it to be the strong impulse of his soul — provided there was no counter- command — at once to preach in Jerusalem, as he had done in Damascus, Jesus as the Son of God; Pie assumes no other remaining in Jerusalem than that which had a testimony con- cerning Himself for its object. Wherever this man may be, and 42 THE MISSION to THE GENTILES ANNOUNCED. before whomsoever he may stand, there he does bear his Mas- ter's name, as Jesus had said at the first. But He now utters a counter-command ! He enjoins upon him to cease, and restrain the preaching which had been ah'eady boldly commenced, Acts ix. 21, 27-29. He even commands him — and most ex- pressly with twofold injunction — to go quickly, not only from the temple, but from the city itself! Wherefore, then, so quickly? Is there danger in delay? There was danger, and this is the unexpressed undertone of this remarkable utterance : the Lord will save him from the people, as it runs afterwards, ch. xxvi. 17. The foreign, Greek-speaking Jews, had already laid plots for the life of the bold preacher of the name of Jesus (ch. ix. 29) — what, then, might be expected from the rigor- ously orthodox, fanatical Hebrews? The open insurrection which had been excited (now as afterwards in the council, ch. xxiii. 10) had, on this his almost disobedient return, showed that. But all this the Lord does not say to St Paul ; because he held not his life dear if he could only finish his course with joy, and testify the Gospel of the grace of God (ch. xx. 24). The reason of this interdict upon his earnest zeal, which the Lord's majesty condescends to assign, is most decidedly this only : be- cause they would not receive the testimony, that is, would not believe it, therefore the life of His valued servant, destined to the benefit of many, should not be uselessly sacrificed. Thus the Lord speaks, who knows all things beforehand, the faith or the unbelief of all men ; by this He f m'ther assui*es us that He reserves or takes away the testimony from no man who will yet receive it, but rather sends back again for their conviction, if it may be, the testimony to those who have not believed it — as now by Paul coming once more to Jerusalem. " Not receive " — spoken gently and mildly, instead of "cast it from them and blaspheme" (ch. xiii. 45, 4G). For, if it may be permitted thus to speak of Him who sitteth at the right hand of God, He here utters with sorrowful tenderness, and not in threatening wrath, the sad confirmation of what He had prophesied upon earth in the anger of His love, Matt, xxiii. 32, etc., concerning the un- belief of this people and generation. He anticipates the fore- seen objection in the heart of Paul : Even thy testimony (em- phatically first in the original) will not suffice, though it be irresistible for conviction ; because that testimony is concerning ACTS XXII. 17-21. 43 Me — yea, concerning Me, upon whom the decree once was, Away with Him ! We will not have this man to rule over us I In spite of this plain and express word, the Apostle cannot refrain from uttering his objection — "But my testimony, O Lord, will not that be received by them ? " He speaks confi- dently, like Ananias, with his Master; and indeed with still more confidence than Ananias, in harmony with the position which he had now by gTace assumed. He has also, in a certain sense, more reason and propriety in his counter-appeal; for certainly he might think and hope that, humanly speaking, his most strong and self-evidencing testimony — less in per- suasive words, than in the express fact of his so wonderfully changed personal character — must exert some influence, and win some good results. And this is reinforced by the impulse of his bm'ning love to blinded Israel, his brethren according to the flesh who were ruslimg to destruction, the people of God's election : — this is most affectingly attested by the narrative throughout, which seems to avow, against all accusation — "Not through enmity against my people, or apostasy from them, have I become what I now am in opposition to my former self ! " St Paul would have desu'ed nothing better than to remain, or to become, a missionary to the Jews. He cannot altogether reconcile himself to the Lord's word — Get thee out ! As many new converts who have been quickly and mai'vellously brought in — however otherwise not to be compared with Paul — think they will carry on a more vigorous and successful war upon the world than others, so Paul, whose soul might w^ell be filled with the conviction — "If I go forth preaching Jesus, it will be with more demonstrative power than all the words and acts of Peter or John, and all the other Apostles ! All know what I loas, what I did — should they not beheve when I, the same man, preach concerning Thee,' and declare Thy power in my conver- sion?" He refers to his o^^^l approbation when the blood of Stephen was shed, and even to his actual participation in that act,^ in order to declare that he w^as ready for the same destiny — even as in the second joui'ney, the present one, he had re- mained firm, notwithstanding all prophecy of bonds and im- ^ The keeping of the garments — not to preserve them from theft ! — was something official on the part of the young man ; who, however, according to ch. xxvi. 10, had given his voice against Stephen in the council. 44 THE AMISSION TO THE GENTILES ANNOUNCED. prisonment. (Ch. xix. 21 ; xx. 23, 24; xxi. 4, 11-13.) Thy ivitness — as if to say, "May I not then also lay down my testi- mony, even though it were in death ; may I not also be counted worthy of the martyr's crown ? ^ Would not my blood similarly, and still more, be followed by a new blessing and increase of faith in the word of Thy testimony?" — All this was good and pleasing to the Lord, who therefore let His servant give vent to his feeling ; but it showed that St Paul did not know, as his Master did, the depth of the apostasy of the world, the utter blindness of unbelieving Israel. And it is, further, proof of the lesser guilt of his OAvn earlier unbelief, since he has no experi- ence of the hardened perverseness of the rebellious will ; but, on the other hand, as was said before, there is something of evil self which opposes the Lord in these words. For, he has in some degree departed from that first question of unconditional obedience — '"Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" and seems to question his Lord touching his appointments ; he has his own thoughts as to the special importance of his own converted person in the kingdom of God. In this, again, he is right, only not as he thinks with re- spect to Israel, — the kingdom of God is greater, and shall extend much wider and farther. Depart : for I will send THEE FAR HENCE UNTO THE Gentiles ! As in the case of Ananias, the Lord refers him, too, back to His first command- ment, Depart! and, as then, gives another FOR, with a new reason and more conclusive explanation of what He does. Not merely. The Jews will not believe ! but, as it is hinted. Others will believe, and thou art reserved and appointed to testify to them. The Lord's / answers the (similarly prominent in the original) /which His servant had laid stress upon. "Wliither the Lord would send (literally more strong — would send out, send away), thither must His servant go, without demur ; and though it be far hence, to those among the Gentiles, who with their whole heart hung upon Israel. This is probably the first plain annomicemcnt, though preliminary and pointing to the future, of his vocation as the Apostle of the Gentiles : "I Avill to, or will, send thee." In this calm manifestation Paul was already, before he was separated by the prophets in Antioch, '^ Toti f*.xpriip6s aov — the expression begins already to pass over ioto the later meaning of martyr, witness unto blood, as in Rev. ii. 13. ACTS XXII. 17-21. 45 called to liis labours among the Gentiles : hence the Holy Ghost said, ch. xiii. 2, — " To which I have already called them " (Barnabas also). Yet not before St Peter had preached to Cornelius (of which more afterwards) — so that the transition of the Gospel to the Gentiles was not here indicated to St Paul as something in itself new and strange ; only his own specific vocation. The more full call by the appearing Lord, which is related in ch. xxW. 16, has no special note of time connected with it ; but we place it, on account of the connection, without determining the order of time, after the present announcement. The Lord may indeed have spoken more than this ; for at the word concerning the Gentiles, St Paul was interrupted. But it does not to us seem probable that the Lord's words com- municated in ch. xxvi. followed here immediately : there are reasons against it which ■\^^ll be considered in the proper place. Thus we may suppose that He by degrees prepared Paul for the full annomicement of his vocation. Rightly understood, we adopt v. Gerlach's note, that this was " his proper vocation as an Apostle'^ by the Lord Himself, after the preliminary declaration given by Ananias ; but not yet his actual and for- mal institution to the apostleship of the Gentiles. St Paul, in that first sojourn in Jerusalem, had consorted only with the Hellenists, or foreign Jew^s (ch. ix. 29). When they went about to slay him, he obediently declined the death of martyr- dom, and (after taiTjdng there fomleen days, Gal. i. 18) was brought by the brethren down to Csesarea to Tarsus, his pater- nal home (as we read in ch. ix.). But, after he had accom- plished much in the Gentile mission, he pui'poses in spu'it to go once more up to Jerusalem, from which indeed the Lord had sent him away ; and it pleased the Lord to accept this act of seeming disobedience (St Paul does not forget his special call ; he does not pm*pose to remain in Jerusalem) — for He acknow- ledges in ch. xxiii. 11, as it w^ere with approbation, even this testimony. But He orders the matter so, that he Avho stood as a witness before the council, and before the king, and the governor, should be carried to Rome as a prisoner — to proclaim, before the supreme power of tliis world, the kingdom of God wdiich is not of this world. 46 FURTHER APPEARANCE TO SAUL. IV. FURTHER APPEARANCE TO SAUL : TO WHOM I NOW SEND THEE. (Acts xxvi. 16-18.) "Rise and stand upon thy feet!" Thus, in these more em- phatic and hterally recorded words, did the Lord speak near Damascus. But it is certain and self-evident that He could not have spoken then what St Paul here adds before Agrippa ; for, that twice-related, definitive mandate, " It shall be told thee in the city," does not harmonise mth so early an explana- tion and mission. Consequently, we must assume that the Apostle here sums up compendiously what was said at a later time ; and connects it all very appropriately with the account of his destination — expressed in the simple Stand upon thy feet ! — to a new service of activity in the work of Jesus. Thus it appears as if one word — " For therefore have I ajDpeared unto thee, that thou mayest stand before Me, as IVIy servant and witness, through ]\Iy help and salvation" (comp. ver. 22). If, after three years, the Lord Himself in the temple at Jerusalem announced as something new — "I will send thee among the Gentiles !" — yet that which we read here in ch. xxvi. was not spoken till afterwards. Or, was it not spoken by the Lord at all ? Most expositors, even among the orthodox,^ have come to regard it as quite probable that St Paul set down as the Lord's word what had been said to him by Ananias, and afterwards had been revealed to his own spirit. Against this we protested in om- " Dis- com'ses of the Apostles." Alford replies that he does not see the necessity of regarding all these words as having been once spoken by the Lord ; but to us it is not merely matter of see- ing or insight, but of still more decisive feeling. It is lament- able that orthodox expositors do not more correctly feel, in cases where the feeling should decide. We cannot agree with Baumgarten that, " on every view, it is of no moment which way we decide;" we think that it may here be decided with confidence that, though the words " were not spoken by the ^ Baumgarten included, whose general fidelity to the miraculous reve- lations scarcely prepared us to expect this from him ! ACTS XXVI. lG-i8. 47 Lord in immediate sequence," yet that they were not " com- municated by Him to St Paul at a later period through Ana- nias." It is true that the weight of the matter does not rest upon the exact order of time or hterality of the words ; but, in the case of this narrative, and the very important words of the Lord to His servant, the difference between immediate and indnect speaking is of much moment ; even as St Paul else- where, and on other occasions, makes this distinction prominent. Would he forget that distinction here 1 Her^e, Avhen the Apostle makes the Lord speak of His having appeared, and having appeared again, has he only placed the words in the Lord's lips'? in order afterwards, in ver. 19, to include it in the " heavenly vision !" One appearance converted the Apostle to the faith, another appointed him to be a witness, and these are embraced in one — such a combination alone is permissible — only one heavenly appearance of the Li^dng One, to which he was now not disobedient. On the other hand, the iVpostle would never have permitted himself to unite together in one, as spoken by the Lord at His appearance, words which were indirectly communicated to him : he could not have done this, either in the first testimony which he bore before the Jewish people, or here where he stands before the Gentiles, and (as Baumgarten remarks) has " the exliibition of the wide signifi- cance of the Gentile Apostolate for his object." Let us, however, come nearer to the matter in hand. If these words were not spoken on His first appearance by the Lord, but at some later one, are they to be inserted after what is related in ch. xxii. 17-21, where the continuation was inter- rupted ? This, for evident reasons, cannot be assumed. First, the promised sending to the Gentiles is uttered there in an entirely different, but internally necessary and significant, con- nection : there is no harmony between " I Avill send thee" first, and then immediately, " I now send thee." Then it was indeed said, ch. xxii., to the Apostle — "In Jerusalem they will not receive thy testimony;" but it was only hinted, not directly spoken, that that testimony would be effectual among .the Gentiles. Here, on the contraiy, he receives a great promise for the power of the word with which he is sent forth, as he in ch. XX. 32, e. g., holds it fast and repeats it. Consequently, the distinction is evident between — "I will to, I will send thee!" 48 FURTHER APrEAR^ViSXE TO SAUL. in tlie former case, and — "I send tliee now !" in the latter.^ ' As to this assertion, that ch. xxvi. records an appearance sub- sequent to that of ch. xxii., we said, in a former work, " Not much depends upon it, and it may be left to others to decide." But now we think differently ; and to our more comprehensive view, after twenty-eight years, what we have now insisted upon places the gradual disclosure of the Apostle's great calling in its clearest and most impressive hght. The immediateness of these words — as spoken by our Lord Himself — is of the utmost importance as it respects the instruc- tion for St Paul's office, and the plan of salvation, which are contained in ver. 18. Even if the Apostle had learned this through the Holy Spirit in the school of Christ, it would have been still truth derived from the Lord. But it would not have been lawful for him to say — Thus spake the Lord to me ! No Apostle ever permitted himself to do that; least of all the Apostle who several times, with conscientious rigom", distin- guishes between what he said himself (having the Spirit of God), and what the Lord had said to him: — the Apostle who, at ^Miletus, appends to his own long discom'se, which had contained prophecy, the single saying of the words of the Lo7'd Jesusy which He had spoken in His humiliation upon earth, giving it reverent distinction from his own words as tlieir solemn close ! (Ch. XX. 35.) Let it be as it may with respect to that appear- ance, which he here before Agrippa combines with the first — • we liave from the lips of the Lord Himself, given from heaven, one of the most fundamental, profomid, and important sum- maries of instruction for the Apostolate and ministerial ofiice generally. For I HAVE APPEARED UNTO THEE FOR THIS PURPOSE, TO MAKE THEE A MINISTER AND A WITNESS BOTH OF THOSE THINGS AVHICH THOU HAST SEEN, AND OF THOSE THINGS IN THE WHICH I WILL (yet) APPEAR UNTO THEE. Here the Lord Himself combines in one His previous and future manifestations; with reference to their sole object, the appointment and destina- tion of St Paul to be a witness. As to this, all the various visions and revelations of tlie Lord, of Avhich St Paul was counted worthy, are condensed into the one revelation of the Son, whom he should ^ The reading vvv thus receives a new argument in its favour : the cri- ticism of MSS. often thus finds its support iu sound exposition. ACTS XXVI. lC-18. 49 preach. (Gal. i. 12, 16.) As the Apostle writing to the Galatians thus appeals to it as one, so here he only follows the Lord Himself when he speaks, in the spirit of Plis words, of one heavenly appear- ance. " To appoint thee " — here we have, so to speak, the proper ordination, mission, institution, and appointment of him who was called and prepared.^ Here it is definitely settled Avho was the Twelfth Apostle — as chosen by Him who alone had the right and authority — ISIatthias or Paul. But the apostolical ofice, as the highest rank — here exactly defined, as before by Ananias it was preparatorily prophesied of — embraces in itself all the degrees of the other offices ; hence this super-episcopal ordina- tion-formulary, with profound typical meaning, names the three essential degrees of the ruling office in the Church. Minister is the first and most general ; the Apostles so term themselves ; and yet the lowest office is a serv^ ant, a deaconship." j\Iinister and ivitness — a more definite and higher term, refer- ring to the ministry of the word, but passing here over into the more restricted idea of eye-Avitness-ship.^ Finally, the "witness of that which he had seen " points in this place definitely to the office of the Apostle, as such. This first having seen refers, in the case of St Paul, chiefly, though not exclusively, to the first great appearance ; but it is then declared that he will continue to see the Lord thus appearing, and by Plis appearance com- municating further revelations. The Lord will make Himself visible ; for it is said, in the same word which was used before — appear to 'thee, be seen of thee.* On the other hand, an un- usual construction follows: "the things which thou hast seen — the things which, or for which, in relation to which, I will appear to thee, revealing them to thee Myself. " ^ Thus, there is a fur- ther advancement after the three stages already remarked upon: St Paul is appointed not only to be an Apostle, but to be an ^ TLpo-^eipiTxadcci, as ch. xxii. 14; on the other hand, in ch. iii. 20 (where it is the right reading), it has still its original etymological meaning. ^ Here, however, in the original, v'^yiperyig, not oi»y,ouo;: this latter was originfi,lly the less of the two, equivalent to a "waiter." Comp. Acts xiii. 5, but also 1 Cor. iv. 1. ^ As in Luke i. 2 we have together avroTrrxt x.u.1 V7r-fipirui roi 'Ao-yov. * On account of tliis very repetition, we must reject the causative mean- ing of 6(f)6yii. (Col. i. 13). It is Satan who keeps closed the eyes which would otherwise open themselves even to the natm*al light which visits all. It is God, the fountain of light, to lead back sinners to Avhom, from their deep apostasy, is the great aim of the whole work of gi'ace. He who is exalted in heaven still speaks with all plainness — as He formerly did accordmg to the orthodox faith of the Jews — of Satan (comp. five times in the Epistles from heaven. Rev. ii. and iii.); this doctrine must be preached to the Gentiles also, and must by them also be acknowledged as a fundamental truth. It may be said that "from darkness to light" refers rather to the blinded Jews, and "from Satan's power to God " rather to the Gentiles, altogether sundered from God and in the power of evil.^ But this* has only a relative tnith; for both in their deepest principle refer to all sinners who are to be converted (sinners of tlie Jews, sinners of the Gentiles, Gal. ii. 15). All darbiess is a prison (Isa. xlii. 7), and its bonds and chains are the bondage of hell (2 Pet. ii. 4 ; Jude 6). There is a poicer of darkness which holds and enslaves men. However easy and sudden might seem the first conversion at the begin- ning, as the mere tm-ning from darkness towards light, the 1 As similarly in ver. 20 : tlie Jews must repent, and the Gentiles be converted to God. 58 FUilTHER APPEARANCE TO SAUL. process reveals an enchaining power which Avill not let man go. And in this God alone can help ; to Him therefore alone man must more fully tm'n. It is not said "to the power of God;" the name of God is enough, and its might is placed alone in opposi- tion to all other power. Nor is the light, again, an imprison- ment ; we do not become servants of God, as we had been servants of Satan and of sin. The kingdom of the Son of His love is opened, in blessed freeness and liberty (Col. i. 13) — the open access even to the heart of God, properly to God I But with the first step of convei'sion to God begins the receiving ; for he that draws nigh to God receives from Him. The first full gift for the rebellious, which itself was secretly included when He gave repentance and awakened to life and con- version, and which must then be consciously received with joy, is — fotyiveness of sins. " The recollection of one's own sins is the real centre of all self-consciousness" (Baumgarten) ; — by this consciousness, fully awakened in conversion, the merciful Lord now seizes the sinner, who in his first penitent coming to the rebuking light of grace has already performed a work in God ; and thus, in the consciousness of received forgiveness, the new man is fully born. This is now light instead of darkness, fellowship with God instead of servitude to Satan, the deceiver and accuser. This is ever the first pure grace ; received out of the fulness of God the Saviour, not yet as grace for grace, but as grace solely for our sin. Observe, that we were mider the power of Satan, not without oiu: oavii will and om' own guilt ; notwithstandino; there is full forgiveness for that and for all our sins. That in the economy of salvation the same forgiveness of sins, the great grace of the New Testament, must ever be laid throughout the whole process of sanctification as the foundation of a continual new beginning, even as thence alone power cometh to the faint (Isa. xxxiii. 24) — that access into the strengthening fellowship of the Lord, whose flesh and blood we eat and di'ink that He may live in us, is opened to us only through the con- tinual new appropriation of forgiveness — of all this we speak not now more at large ; since the exposition of the individual sayings would thus lead us into the whole doctrinal system, and ethical relations, of the plan of salvation. We go on to observe with what wonderful suddenness the and connects tlte inlientance ACTS XXVI. IG-IS. 59 with the forgiveness, the, end with the begmning.^ For God, who begins, finishes also His work in all those who cease not to receive from Him. It might be said here also that the forcnve- ness of sins is referred rather to Israel, and the portion in God's inheritance rather to the Gentiles ; comp. Eph. i. and Col. i. But, in the Apostle's doctrine in these chapters, and still more fully here, both are connected together in one. The pecvdiar expression used ^ might also be translated — a lot, a portion of the inheritance — and that would be perfectly true as it respects the individual appropriation ; but the comprehensive sajdng here pre-eminently refers to the Lord's new people as such, gathered from the People and the Gentiles alike. It is " the inheritance of the saints in light " — first as reserved for us in heaven (1 Pet. i. 4) ; and then, if we attain unto the end of faith, received as the salvation of the soul ; but finally as consummate glory on the new and heavenly earth, of which Canaan was the type. But what is, finally, the condition — wliich again assumes our freedom, our receiving, retaining, and using the gift of God — the only way from the forgiveness of sins to the inheritance ? The inheritance of the saiyits in light is only for them that are sanctified. This sanctification is possible only on the ground of grace received, and in the knowledge of the goal set before us ; but we reach that goal only as perfect, when sanctification is fully accomplished — and this is plainly spoken in the carefully chosen word "sanctified."^ The enterinir amono; the sanctified is reckoned with that which is received, as the last, highest, and perfect gift of God's grace (Rom. vi. 23) ; but it is also, on the other hand, regarded as the condition and limitation of the receiving — Only among those that are sanctified! Such ^ So Col. i. 12-14, and the tHrd section of the Apostles' Creed. 2 Kxjjflo?, derived from the Old Testament, and glorified in the New — on which a whole treatise might be -RTitten. * " For, whereas the deficiency of Israel's sanctification was proved by the fact, that in the possession of their inheritance they became proud, and in the gifts of the earth forgot their Maker and Eedeemer (Deut. xxxii. 15), the New Testament saints are not introduced into the possession of their in- heritance until they have proved by deeds that they prefer the pure and holy communion of the soul with God, without any external corporeal addition, to all and every possession upon earth, and thereby accomphsh the total dehverance of their souls from the entire kingdom of darkness and of Satan." — (Baumgarten, Acts of the Apostles, vol. iii., p. 167, Clark's edition.) GO FURTHER APPEARANCE TO SAUL- will there be at the last, and they shall receive the inheritance. Yet not with all that were called; — for many of them, alas, will forget to make their calling and election sure! (2 Pet. i. 9-11) — with all that are sanctified we shall enter the everlasting Idng- dora. But this fellowship with all saints (ch. xx. 32) is an essential elevation of final blessedness, although God Himself will for ever be the ground and spring of that blessedness. There only remains the inexpressibly important and sublime conclusion — through faith icJiich is in Me; in which the Son of God, the only Saviour of all the world, unites poor believing sinners upon earth with His own glory in heaven, and with His own exalted person. It has been needlessly disputed whether this "by faith" refers more narrowly to the "sanctified by faith," or points further back to the receiving} We have already given our decision that faith here comes last as the only means of the whole; it is not merely receiving, but also persevering faith, faith which is approved and confirmed through obedient fidelity even to the end. We are indeed finally sanctified only through faith ; but only through faith were we converted, and received the forgiveness of sins. And this faith which we hold fast from stage to stage through obedience and fidelity, in the warrino; of the sood warfare for the fulfilment of our course (2 Tim. iv. 7), is not only a faith in God, but in Him also through whom alone we can have faith and hope towards God (1 Pet. i. 21) — hi the Lord Jesus, who here saith out of heaven, Through faith that is in Me ! Faith in His name, His word generally, di'aws and turns us round from Satan to God ; faith in Him who was dead gives us the forgiveness of sins ; faith in the risen Lord gives us power unto renewal in holiness ; faith in the glorified Lord strengthens in us the hope of the inheritance ; through faith in the whole Christ we attain to our whole salva- tion. Thus majestically does this Saviour in heaven, without whom there is no salvation for all men under heaven (Acts iv. 12), place Himself in the stead of God, on Avhose throne He sitteth for us. Faith, Faith, nothing but Faith — this is and must ever be the simple, and nevertheless not easy, way to the end of ^ For certainly, as Baumgartcn beautifully thoiigli rather scliolastically says, " Faith is the ethical consummation of the receptive capacity, over which Satan has obtained no power." ACTS X. 13-10 ; XI. 7-10. 61 glory. It is the vocation of all the Lord's ambassadors to pro- claim the obedience of faith in His name. Plere before Agrippa St Paul answers for himself — " Thns did He speak to me, and how shoidd I not believe in Him? Thus did He com- mand me — Preach the faith that is in Me ! How should I not testify of Him?" St Paul had seen Him; but only to the end that he might preach faith and the not-seeing. St Paul is in a certain sense pre-eminently the Apostle of faith, yet only as it regards his doctrinal system — for what Apostle either preaches or teaches anything but faith ? Here we must resist the strange theory of Baumgarten, and not allow that "He lays on the shoulders of St Paul alone, after St Peter and the rest of the original Apostles had accomplished their work, by Avhich the first foundation of the Church was laid, the work of His salvation for the nations of the earth — and that, for the immediately subsequent period, St Paul is introduced as being exclusively entrusted with the guidance and extension of the Clim'ch ! I " Where in all the Scripture is this wi'itten ? Where in this mission and instruction is there any token of this exclusiveness ? With all the others (1 Cor. ix. 5, xv. 9), he executed his office — as the least of them, who in His work became the greatest ; but it is the same office which, as having authority to call sinners through faith in Jesus to salvation, is continued even in every vocation to preach and bear witness. That which we have expounded upon ver. 18 in particular, holds good of every preacher, and of all hearers, without any deduction for the specific authority or power conferred on St Paul. V. TO ST PETER IN THE TRANCE UPON THE HOUSETOP. (Acts X. 13-16 ; xi. 7-10.) It is not consistent with the opinion which elevates St Paul high above the first Apostolate of the Twelve, that the first transition of the Gospel to the Gentiles, properly so called, was not reserved for the Apostle of the Gentiles, but that St Peter 62 TO ST PETER IN THE TRAJSTCE UPON THE HOUSETOP. was in this respect also chosen to be first (ch. xv. 7). Thus, as St Paul was not exclusively an Apostle to the heathen world, so those who were Apostles before him did not, as their very vocation for all the nations intimates, confine themselves to Israel. After Saul had preached to the .Jews in the syna- gogues of Damascus — probably during his protracted sojourn in Ai-abia, and still more probably before the Lord had an- nounced to him his mission to the Gentiles^ — St Peter receives the revelation which constrained him to preach to Cornelius. We have not arranged these expositions strictly in chronolo- gical order (there might have been some difficulty in deter- mining it, if we had so purposed) ; for it was our object to give the stages of St Paul's callino- in their connection. But we shall at the same time observe that, although St Peter was acknowledged as the first in preaching to the Gen- tiles (which, however, did not involve any other pre-eminence, and make him a " prince of the Ajjostles "), he comes behind St Paul in his o^vn personal endowanents, and in his capacity for special revelations and gifts of the Lord. On this subject — how this is to be understood, and how not; how St Paul, dignified by higher revelations, was not therefore before the Lord of higher account — we cannot now more particularly dwell : it may be enough for our purpose to establish the fact that St Peter did not see the Lord of glory, and receive imme- diate revelations from Him, in the same manner as St Paul did.^ An angel had led him, with all the Apostles, oiit of the prison some time before, and afterAvards yve find the Spirit speaking to him (ch. x. 19 ; just as to Philip, ch. viii. 29). It is remarkable that the Holy Ghost, who in the Acts of the Apostles specially guides the ISIissionary Church, here person- ally says — I have sent the men (comp. ch. xiii. 2) — yet this is not the I of the Lord Jesus Himself, which had spoken to St Paul. The voice, again, which St Peter receives in the vision ^ For St Peter was then again in Jerusalem ; having returned from the itinerary which St Luke supplementarily records. The particulars of all this are not easily arranged. ^ Had it been so, we should have found some record of it in Scripture, as of a matter highly momentous. On the other hand, St Peter in his (genuine !) Second Epistle appeals only to this, that he had been an " eye- witness of the Lord's glory" upon the mount ; and in ch. iii. 16 he with beautiful humility admits the superior wisdom given to his brother Paul, ACTS X. 13-16; XI. 7-10. 63 of a trance, could be no other than that of the Lord — this seems due at once to him and the object concerned. Angels speak in the New Testament (not now to speak particularly of the Old Testament), even when they do not become visible, as in the case of Cornelius, in dreams and visions ; but we never read of trance in connection wdth them. Nor can we conceive that it was merely an indefinite voice, merely an appendage of the vision which admitted no question as to ivJio it was that spoke ; for St Peter addi'esses the speaker immediately as Lord. But, finally, the voice " of God" speaks in the New Testament most expressly (as in the Old Testament latently) through the Son alone, and now throuo;h the exalted Jesus Christ. Althoush St Peter afterwards, ver. 28, says that God had showed him the truth, he speaks thus at the first in the hearing of Corne- lius, only in order that he might not inappropriately anticipate his preaching concerning Jesus Christ, the Lord of all (ver. 36). Tlu'ee times in the Acts of the Apostles the great manifes- tation to Saul is described ; and at least twice the manifestation to Peter, which of itself was of great importance in relation to this great crisis and turning-point in the coui'se of the kingdom of God. By the repeated narrative it is made abundantly plain that the Apostle did not see and hear what He saw and heard, for himself alone; but for all to whom, through him, it was spoken and delivered. ^Vliile St Peter was engaged in a successful mission at Joppa among the Jews (ch. ix. 42, 43), and on the same day that the messengers from Cornelius were on their way to him, he went up at noontide to the housetop to pray. For, his practised piety had added to the two customary hom-s of prayer (at the morn- ing and evening sacrifice) the third at mid-day, which had also become a custom (Ps. Iv. 18; Dan. vi. 10). The flat roofs of the houses had ordinarily an upper chamber,^ whither men were accustomed to retreat for thought or devotion ; but the tanner's house may be supposed to have had an open roof, since the vision supposes the mi obstructed heavens to be before him. It is m prayer that the revelation comes to St Peter, as also to Cornelius. But he, Avho had a work to do in Joppa and no special occasion then to fast, is not, hke Cornelius, adding 1 In St Liike vTrspaov, called in the Old Testament rr-'J ; see especially 2 Kings iv. 10. 64 TO ST PETER IN THE TRANCE UPON THE HOUSETOP. fasting to prayer. As was quite possible to the bodily infirmity even of an Apostle, lie became hungiy in his prayer, even verij hungry: — this probably was the result of an extraordinary in- fluence preparing him for the vision, the symbolical language of which connected itself with his hunger, according to the analogy of such revelations generally. St Peter would not be altogether interrupted in his intenser and deepening devotion by taking the mid-day meal, — he desired only a slight repast.^ While this was being prepared for him he fell into a trance ; liter- ally, a trance fell upon him, so that he beheld a vision and heard a voice. After a full meal this would not have taken place. From the heaven, which shines upon him as if opened, there descends to him a table wondi'ously spread for his hunger : a structure or vessel of a peculiar kind and amazing greatness; as it were a great sheet bound by cords at the fom" corners, and so let down to the earth, that is, above the roof, and immediately before him. In it he beheld not merely " all kinds of," but all beasts,^ that is, one of every species, clean and unclean miited. The entire animal world, not excluding the bh'ds of heaven,, great and small; even creeping things — the smaller animals, and not " edible insects ! " ^ The names of the three main genera, besides the bu'ds, correspond (though not literally) to the account in the creation. Gen. i. 24, where, if we rightly understand it, there can nothing be as yet said about insects or reptiles. Well may St Peter have contemplated all this with profound astonishment ! ^ But scarcely has the question arisen — AVliat is this? what does it mean to me? when a voice {^from heaven, as ch. xii. 9 adds, after ch. x. had made it obvious) gives him an answer yet more strange : Rise, Peter, slay and EAT ! After the manner of a dream, the killing and eating are combined in one; and there is no distinction expressed as to what was upon the immense livingly-spread table, on the border of which, as we may suppose from the Apostle's words, only unclean animals were to be seen. ^ This is a more befitting expression than Liither's anhchscn^ for y£i/o-«- odxi, comp. ch. XX. 11. 2 As the Article, standing alone in ch. xi., still more expressly shows. ^ As Ncauder expresses himself, according to the too prevalent misunder- standing, for eo7rsr«, Ileb. "iJ^;^ — which signifies only the smaller animals in contradistinction from "'=*? and "-^. * Ch. xi. 6, ccnviaas x,xTiv6ovv. ACTS X. 13-16 ; XI. 7-10. 65 We pause here in our contemplation, and ask, as St Peter when come to himself asked in doubt, ver. 17, with hope of a certain answer, what the meaning of the vision was. Indeed, we can- not miss its meaning if we thoughtfully consider it. We have the actual solution of it in the history which follows, as Avell as in the decisive word of St Peter — God hath showed me that no man is to be counted common or mi clean. But throuoh what process do we reach that conclusion, since we cannot at once say that animals signify men ? First of all, we must do justice to the obvious reference to the Mosaic laws of distinction in food. The connection is plain ; since it was the prohibition to eat unclean animals which practically constituted the most rigorous wall of partition between the Israelites and the Gentiles — especially at this time, when human ordinances had rendered those laws still more stringent. Because the ceremonially strict Jew might not eat with the Gentile, all confidential intercourse and all perfect communion generally was cut off by this pro- hibition of table-fellowship ; as in ch. xi. we read that in Jeru- salem the whole Jewish-Christian community made.it an objec- tion to the first Apostle " that he had eaten with them" — in comparison of which the preaching and baptizing comes not into further consideration ! .St Peter could not have paused in doubt as to Avhether the Divine declaration expressed the aboli- tion of this Levitical distinction between clean and unclean animals as to killing and eating ; this vv^as directly declared, and he would immediately think of the words of Jesus in ISIark vii. 15-23. But that from this very much would follow, and that the vision wovild signify much more than this, is a matter which he thoughtfully ponders. We hold to his own expression when all was made plain to him — No man is any longer unclean. As in visions, and the symbolical language of prophecy generally, more than one interpretation is commonly involved, the animals are here at the same time used figiu'atively for men, and the unclean are the Gentiles, whom the Jews had hitherto so regarded. We know that the Jewish phraseology already applied the names of unclean beasts to those who ate them (Matt. XV. 26 ; vii. 6). Thus the entire animal world, which was here sho^^^l to the Apostle in its manifold variety according to the original creation, and in which there was to be no longer a distinction of clean and unclean, is the race of mankind upon £ G6 TO ST PETER IN THE TRANCE UPON THE HOUSETOP. earth in all its peoples and lands. The sheet descends from heaven to earth; and this means, according to the place and occasion of the vision, in general — Here heaven and earth are concerned in common ; it is a matter upon earth, which has been decided in heaven. But this is scarcely the whole meaning, for it is not merely the voice which comes from heaven. Are not all men to be regarded as originally coming from heaven and having sprung frotn God, according to their first creation ? ^ Thus, this comes first — All men upon earth (the four corners are the four quarters of heaven) are still of Divine origin (ch. xvii. 28). But this of itself must not be pressed fm'ther, since they have become universally unclean through their sin. Consequently, we must advance to the full and perfect inter- pretation : — The vessel or sheet is the Church of the Lord, into which, through the decree and gi'ace of Heaven, are to be re- ceived for heaven men of all nations ; because grace renews and re-establishes the original creation. Both the heavenly origin and the heavenly renewal of mankind are embraced in one. And now for the hilling and eating which is required of the Apostle. It is scarcely the mere intercourse with Gentiles (eat- ing with them, the unclean) that is meant ; for that the symbolic figure would have been too strangely emphatic, apart from the consideration that an Apostle would not have to do ysA\\\ people hitherto avoided, except for the accomplishment of his vocation in the preaching of the Gospel. Rieger says, more correctly: " In this figm'e the futm'e success of his mission was set before St Peter ; it presented to his hopes the wished-f or satisfaction of all his spu'itual longings, but on the condition of his resigna- tion and denial of what had been customary and pleasing to his own natm'e. He must submit to God's judgment and the elec- tion of grace ; for He declares what is acceptable and pure in His sight, and to His judgment all the repulsions of om* own nature and fleshly mind must bow down." This sets us at least upon the right track. We need not think here of any sacrificial slaying and priestly sei'vice (as Rom. xv. 16);^ for it is very obvious that St Peter feels, besides his bochly hunger, anotlier hunger of the spirit, to which the s;yTnbolical vision responds. Wliat can we suppose him to have so earnestly prat/efl! for but ^ Are acceptable^ as oextoV, ver. 35, means. 2 The dlaou Tvith (poiyi stands simply for slaying. ACTS X. 13-lG; XI. 7-10. 67 the success of his office, and his soul's satisfaction in its success — the spread of the Gospel of grace? The many who had believed in Joppa had not satisfied that desire ; while he tarries with them, his thoughts are away in his missionary journeyings, and probably far beyond the Jewish land. But because he supposes that the Gentiles could be accepted only on the hard and seldom-accepted condition of circumcision and subjection to the whole law, he is oppressed and disquieted. Thus his secret conflict in prayer ha^l prepared him, more than he knew, for the heavenly revelation which now grants his desires: — Eise, Peter, and satisfy thine hunger for the salvation of all men under heaven ! (Ch. iv. 12.) But he does not on the instant know and understand this. Conscientious eVen in the trance, in the waking dream, he draws back with distaste and dread from the unclean food, even as Saul would earlier have done. No (Kterally, hy no meoMS, assuredly not), 0 Lord ! This is his first word to the imknoAvn Speaker — the " Lord " EQmself it may be, tempting him. The intenser assui*ance, I have never eaten anything either common or imclean ! he quotes probably by memory from the words of Ezekiel the prophet; see ch. iv. 14. But hereupon the voice grows more strong in its rebulce of that which was not right in his supposed vindication of perfect right. It proceeds to utter words which already pass over into the interpretation of the mystery — What God hath CLEANSED, THAT MAKE (call, esteem) THOU NOT COMMON ! It is not now sla}ang and eating that is spoken of ; for that only had an ulterior meaning. What God hath cleansed — and it Avas this " what " that St Peter afterwards so deeply pondered. First, as still keeping to the symbol : " That which God, by sending down for thee from heaven and commandino; thee to eat, has declared clean, that shouldst thou not (contradictory child of man) any longer term unclean, and desecrate again by treating it as such !" But this has literally another meaning, at the same time, for the interpretation. All is unclean until God cleanses it ; this is indeed true, but God can still maintain His right. The natural, animal men are not only likened to brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed (2 Pet. ii. 12), but they are originally unclean, like all animal food before the Flood. In His permission to Noah, God cleansed all animals 08 TO ST PETER IN THE TRA^fCE UPON THE HOUSETOP. for tlie food of man (by the side of the abiding distinction for the sacrifice to God, Gen. vii. 2)^in the prohibition by Moses certain animals were again made common by God — but now in the commandment to St Peter all is again called clean. In the covenant of Noah the whole human race was accepted, before the Gentiles were by the Jewish law (transitorily) cast out; and now in baptism the covenant of grace is established again with all flesh (1 Pet. iii. 21). Through Christ, tlu'ough its union with His heaven descending in Christ, God has actually cleansed entire humanity : here there is not merely a return to a former covenant of grace ; but, going still further back, there is the restoration of all creatm'es to their first and pure creation. Thus, "whom God hath accepted, and will go on to accept in grace, let no man despise, and cast him out as nevertheless unclean!" This most emphatic ivarning is here uttered for the whole Church of the Jews believing in Christ, to whom St Peter must dehver it ; just as St Paul received the word for the Jews who persecuted Christ — Wliy persecutest thou Me? In the most immediate application, Cornelius himself is seen to be cleansed by preparatory grace unto the fear of God and the working of righteousness ; and to this first application St Peter afterwards refers in ver. 35, though he had already, ver. 28, uttered its most full interpretation — No man is henceforth unclean either to God or to us, not even the most outcast heathen. He sub- sequently entered more deeply into the profoundest meaning of the fulfilment of the word, in ch. xv. 9 — God hath put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Wliile Peter at first keeps silence, in astonishment and thought, he hears once more, Rise, Peter, slay and eat ! Whether he actually renews his objection, and thus the whole happened thrice ; or, whether only the repeated command to eat is to be reckoned as the third voice — is open to discussion. According to the simple letter, we should suppose that, after the fashion of a dream, the lohole three times occurred, in order that it might be confirmed and rendered decisive to him : comp. Gen. xli. 32. Whether the triple number is to be referred to the three men, ver. 19 (as to many the connection, ch. xi. 10, 11, seems to intimate), we doubt ; nothing would be gamed by it, for there was no particular message to be given to each of the three. That, finally, the vessel is received up again into heaven, ACTS XVIII. 9, 10. 69 does not (as has been supposed) introduce the other side of the interpretation — "That which came from heaven is taken vipand acknowledged by heaven" (this acknowledgment was contained in the vision itself) ; but it is only the appropriate end by which the whole is stamped as a teaching and revealing vision — "Now return to thyself, and ponder what this may mean !" God's further guidance in facts, and our own subsequent reflection in consequence, opens up to us afterwards the meaning of His revelations. St Peter, who was too deeply entangled with the Jewish law, required the new and direct teaching of the Holy Ghost to deliver him ; but we see that the method taken with him was to make him first ponder and doid)t about his former prejudices, before the perfect will of God was disclosed to him. And thus, notwithstanding the striking difference in the Lord's dealings with St Paul and St Peter, we see the same funda- mental law in operation : the miracle leaves something still in the revelation for man's o^vn appropriation in the natural way ; be it more or less, there is ever the personal and voluntary ap- propriation. VI. TO -ST PAUL IN COEINTH. (Acts xviii. 9, 10.) If we would not, with alas ! most expositors, hurry over these simple and yet sublime words to St Paul, so specially signifi- cant as they are, we must assist oiu: living apprehension of the wdiole by observing the entire position and state of mind in which these words of the Lord found him. He had been sum- moned, by the visit of the man from IMacedonia, ch. xvi. 9, to Europe. He had baptized the first-fruits of European Clu'istendom, and laid the foundation of what we must regard as the most flom-ishing and interesting of the apostolical churches. Driven from Thessalonica and Beroea, after brief labours, through the fury of the Jcavs, He uttered a mighty and most public testimony in Athens — being for a considerable space without his companions — but with little success among its proud disputants and babblers. From Athens he proceeded to Corinth. Athens aimed rather to represent the past of 70 TO ST PAUL IN CORINTH. Greece, now degraded from its glory, and prostrate under the Koman power ; but Corinth was content to be the capital of Eoman Greece, the residence of the ruling Proconsul of Achaia. While in Athens what was left of Greek science and wisdom still sought to maintain its pre-eminence, Corinth had aban- doned itself to all the vanity and debauchery of sensual life. After its sack by Mimimius, it had been re-estabhshed in all its former glory, as the so-called " ornament of Greece." Nor Avas she wanting in art and science, especially in that of rhe- toric, as referred to in the Epistles to the church which after- wards arose in her ; but the predominant characteristics of the city, as she was situated on the isthmus with two harbom-s, were commerce, riches, magnificence, wantonness, debaucherj'. Not the goddess of Wisdom, as in Athens, but Aprodite, the goddess of carnal lust (at least, as she had now become), had the most celebrated temple ; statues were erected to emment prostitutes, as to Lais ; and the Greek phrase, " to live in Cormtliian fasldon,^ was expressive of all extravagance of de- bauchery and riot. This was the place to which St Paul came from Athens, and where at first he consorted, as a tentmaker, with a Christian Jew. Pie did not delay, indeed, to open his mouth on the Sab- baths to the Jews in the Jewish s}Tiagogues ; but this seems, as in the case of the discourse adapted to the Greeks in Athens, to have borne the character rather of a preparatory, calm ex- position of Scripture, which might lead the way to the true ]\Iessiah. It was not until his companions, Silas and Timothy, who had been left behind, had retimied to him by his own de- su'e (ch. xvii. 14,' 15) from Macedonia, that he was pressed in spirit — urged hy the word, as the right reading has it — to testify to the Jews concerning the person of Jesus, that He was the promised Christ. It is obvious, according to the account of St Luke, that this retiu'n of his companions, and the intelligence which they brought of the progress of the Gos- pel, stood in the connection of a cause with the stronger zeal of St Paul ; and this is directly stated also in the Epistle which was wiitten from here (1 Thess. iii. 6-8).^ But we are not on ^ Thus the exposition is incorrect, Avhich is accepted by AJford : When these came, tJiey found Mm (more than before) earnest and vehement in preaching. ACTS XYIII. 9, 10. 71 that account to understand the " word," as many do, of the narrative of these friends ; for such a meaning the expression " the word" would be quite imusual : it would have required, at least, "by their word."^ But we must understand the j^rgss- ing, just as in 2 Cor. v. 14 ; the Hvino;, indwelling word of God inwardly m'ges the Apostle to utter all its fulness of exhor- tation and promise. It is a very pregnant' form of speech, which may be interpreted by Jer. xx. 8, 9. This pressure and urgency of zeal is quite consistent (as in the Prophets, it is the overcome opposite) with a certain weakness, with a degTee of fearfulness and anxiety, such as the Apostle, dispirited by want of success in Athens, had brought to Corinth, 1 Cor. ii. 3. After he had in Athens, and at first also in Corinth, adopted a style of discourse which simply paved the way for conviction, by entering into the thoughts and subjects which he found around him, he now begins, simply and emphatically, to know and to preach only Jesus Christ the * Crucified, with no other demonstration than that of the Spirit, and of the power which was in his own weakness. This soon brings men to decision. The Jews contradict and blaspheme ; so that he shakes the dust from his feet and his garments, and turns, pm'e from the guilt of their blood, to the Gentiles. Hard by the s^iiagogue, for a strong standing testimony, and, as it were, still to attract the Jews,^ he set up his school of instruc- tion ; the chief ruler of the synagogue (whom, as an exception, the Apostle himself baptized, 1 Cor. i. 14), with many other Corintliians, believed and were baptized. This is the Apostle's position and tone of mind, when an- other direct word of his Lord comes to him. It is indeed through a vision of the night (as in ch. xvi. 9), yet inmiediately in His own person, that Jesus addresses the man who was elected to this pre-eminent distmction of nearer intercom'se. Afterwards in Jerusalem, ph. xxiii. 11, it was once more so ; and, finally, an angel was sent to Paul, as to others. That which in the beginning, when the Apostles were in prison, was the office of an angel — the comforting encoiu'agement to speak boldly the words of life (ch. v. 20) — the Lord here ^ Even Menken : " How m-sngorating -was the influence of his friends' words !" 2 Not so entirely separated as afterwards in Ephesus, ch. xis. 9. 72 TO ST PAUL IX COEINTH. assumes for Himself : Fear not, but speak and keep not SILENCE ! Still coming first the same word of encouraging grace — so needful to us poor children of men — which runs through the whole of Scripture from beginning to end, Fear not ! Simon Peter heard it from the lips of the Lord Jesus when his call to be a fisher of men was repeated, Luke v. 10. Abraham received it first in the Old Testament, Gen. xv. 1 — after a victory, too, like St Paul here ; for father Adam first of all confessed in behalf of us all — I was afraid ! The Lord and His angels often say it in the Old Testament ; the New begins "v\ath it to Zacharias, Mary, Joseph, the shepherds. The Lord often utters it during His eai'thly life, down to John xiv. 1 : the angels at the sepulchre of the risen Jesus give it new strength. The ascended and glorified Redeemer insjju'es vigoiu' into the soul of St John at Patmos by the same word. Fear not ! Rev. i. 17. How needful is this word to His disciples everywhere and in all ages ; and how ready He ever is to utter it to them ! It is the abiding word of the Divine majesty and mercy for human poverty, weakness, and guilt. St Paul in Corinth needed it pre-eminently, as the Lord well knew. Without were fightings, Avithin were fears — this was the ordinary condition of the Lord's ambassadors in the world : 2 Cor. vii. 5 ; John xvi. 33. But they must continually take fresh com-age for then* duty, that they may speak the word without fear (2 Tim. iv. 2). " But speah, teach and preach, testify and exhort with confidence, with more and more confidence, and keep not silence!" is the Lord's word to St Paul. This latter is not added merely as the emphatic close of the solemn saying, or as an expressive repetition ; but it has the meaning of the Old Testament phrase, as in Isa. Iviii. 1 ; Ixii. 1, 6. And it is to be observed, further, that the Lord here (as in ch. xxiii. 11) graciously acknowledges and confirms St Paul's former witness in Corinth; it is as if He said with commendation — " Wliat thou hast already spoken has been well spoken ; go on confident!}', and change not !" What, then, could cause the Apostle to err, and make him fear ? The glance at opposition and the host of persecutors ! Therefore follows, as the first jPor of reason for not fearing, an assurance of help ; and then a second Fo7' of reason for speak- ing boldly — a positive promise of great success. For I am ACTS XVIII. 9, 10. 73 WITH THEE, AND NO MJiN SHALL SET UPON THEE TO HURT THEE, or to indict evil upon thee. Sublime repetition of the farewell left in Matt. xx\T[ii. 20, which yet was no farewell ! Majestic words, in the manner of the Most High God, who has said from the beginning so many times, "/am with thee — / am with you!" Such promises did not insure the Apostles generally against the suffering of many evils, and death itself (John x\-i. 2) — in the case of Paul the keenest persecution, even unto stoning, was not excluded ; but the word has Jiei^e a more specific meaning for his testimony in Corinth, and gives a pledge : " jSTo harm shall befall thee, in life and person, heo^e ; no hand shall be laid upon thee" — as the original rmis. And we read the fidfilment. The mild Proconsul Gallio (brother of the philosopher Seneca) calmed the people, just as the towTi- clerk did afterguards in Ephesus ; but not as the magistracy in Philippi, who yielded to the clamoiu's of the mob of his ene- mies. Sosthenes is beaten (ver. 17) — but Paul goes free, and remains as long as he will ; preaching unhindered and unhm't for eighteen months in this city ! All this is under the control of the Lord ; He suffers to set upon, or restrains from setting upon. His followers as He will. This is the great consolation even in the midst of the evil which is permitted. Still more. Not only should no man hm*t him, which to the xipostle was tlie lesser thing, but the true and essential en- couragement is given to save him from all despondency — Thou shalt have much fruit with thy protected testimony. For I HAVE MUCH (countless) PEOPLE IN THIS CITY. Concerning Jerusalem the Lord said — Go hence, for they will not receive thy testimony concerning Mel But concerning this city He saith, I have much people in it — and that city is Corinth ! We must consider a while what kind of a city Corinth was, to discern all the significance of these words. This city — the Lord does not so speak as if He merely would not mention the name, but for the sake of emphasis — this city, not only heathenish, but sunk deeper than others into the deepest abominations of heathenism, this basest and most notorious city of all that proudly bear the name in this dark world. He who in His humble life on earth limited Himself, for Israel's sake, to one small corner of the earth, and who had never seen any fragment of the vTetched gloiy of Greece and Eome, — He, 74 TO PAUL IJJ COEINTH. the same Jesus, knows all things, and is e^^ery^vhere present in His energy. Of Him it is true, that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout tlie whole earth, and through all cities — not only to show Himself strong in tlie behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards Him (2 Chron. xvi. 9), but also that He may seek out and visit in His grace, for their salvation, all who in any degree turn their hearts towards Him, and, whether consciously or unconsciously, are prepared to receive Him. He who once on His way to the death of the Good Shepherd prophetically spoke, in His authority original and to be resumed, of the other sheep not of this fold — now terms from heaven " the children of God scattered abroad " (John xi. 52), in the blasphemous city of Corinth, a people which already be- longed to Himself ; because they were to be collected together and united with His one great people, which has now taken the place of the ancient revolted people of God. This meant for Paul, sent to the people and to the Gentiles — "Behold, if thou must go from the Jews — shaking the dust from thy feet, and leaving their blood upon their own head — the Gentiles, to whom thou hast tm-ned, will give both to Me and thee rich compensation. Many Corinthians have believed, many more will believe ; so that it shall become a gi'eat Church : I shall have much people in this city." This says to all His mes- sengers and disciples everyAvhere, and in all circumstances — " Be comforted : I have abeady those who shall be Mine owai ; I Jvnow and guard, I collect and feed, as the Great Shepherd, all who will believe on Me ! " But it also contains its consolatoiy warning against precipitate judgment upon the iniin of the w'orld. Many a believing Christian might have beheld repro- bate Corinth with eyes very different from the Lord's, and might have thought that all the Apostle's zeal, labour, and patience were expended in vain — but it was not as man's estimate might think: the Lord looketh at the hearts of men. The man of Macedonia had not called the Apostle over to Macedonia alone. In all Achaia, and in regions beyond, souls were waiting for help. Athens had for the present ,proudly i-ejected the Gospel — but the equally proud and still more trifling Corinth concealed within herself a gi'eat multitude of people of the Crucified, soon to be revealed ; for open and abandoned sinners are nearer to grace than the darkly Avise aiid prudent. A foolish sermon of ACTS 3:x:iii. 11. 75 the tentmaker — a man of the despised Jewish people, and by, them cast out and persecuted — finds in this wicked city many behevers. And so the great Chui'ch still, having to wage in- cessant war with surromiding impmities and corruptions, which invade her and more or less cling to herself, is yet a Chm*ch of the Lord, concerning which and te which the Apostle may utter the words with which he begins his first Epistle, 1 Cor. i. 2-9. Because among them the poAver of the Sphit had superabun- dantly demonstrated itself, he can call this Chiu'ch pre-emi- nently the seal of his Apostleship (1 Cor. ix 2) — if not, like that of the Philippians, his joy and his crown. How many times did this Avord of his Lord concerning the much people in this city encom'age and animate him in his zeal for the betrothed of Christ, that it might be presented to Him as a chaste virgin ! (2 Cor. xi. 2.) For the great prophecy and assm*ance points onwards, beyond all conflict and pei-version, to the glorious con- smnmation — I have already much people. VII. TO ST PAUL IN BONDS AT JEEUSALEM. (Acts xxiii. 11.) Again a fruitful period of the Apostle's activity ; — according to the most probable reckoning, a space of about six years since the arrival in Corinth lies behind us. After a short abode in Ephesus, he w^ent up at Pentecost to greet the ISIother-Church in Jerusalem;^ he then tamed a while in Antioch (we observe that he retains his connection with the chief cities) ; he then went through Galatia and Phrygia ; and has now preached for two years in Ephesus, with great success, against all kinds of idolatry and necromancy. In the ancient metropohs of all the black arts he demonstrates the mioht of the name of Jesus, 1 As cb. xviii. 22 must be understood in its " going up " and " saluting the Church " — this last always referring pre-eminently to Jerusalem. This Ls a fourth journey to Jerusalem ; though only a short greeting in the calm circle of the brethren. Now it is Pentecost instead of Easter : comp. again ch. XX. 16. 76 TO ST PAUL IX BONDS AT JERUSALEM. with accompaniment of mighty miracles. Further, travelling through Macedonia and Achaia, the Apostle, urged in spirit, contemplated Jerusalem, and even already Rome, as the goal of his journey. In the way, hastening to Pentecost, he takes his farewell in IMiletus of the elders of Ephesus, for he Icnows that he Avill not come again to them. Now he is in Jerusalem ; holds friendly colloquy with St James and the elders; and, yielding to counsel, allays the mistrust of the bigoted Jewish Christians by a legal compliance in the temple. But this very circum- stance excites, through a probably wilful misunderstanding, the wrath of the Jews : he is seized in the insurrection ; and thus — according to his desire, though not in the way that he thought — an opportunity is given him for a final testimony to IsrJiel in the metropolis. It is the last most important condescension of the abounding grace of the Lord, which appeals yet once more to this hardened and rejected Jerusalem. How the Apostle narrated his history and bore his testimony before the people, we have already seen. When he came to the word concerning his being sent to the Gentiles, all hearing was over ; their rage burst forth ; and only the Roman power could rescue him from the Avi'ath of the Jews — bound still, hoAvever, because some kind of guilt seemed to fasten upon him. The next day he is brought before the supreme council in Jerusalem ; and for the first time, though he has been in Jerusalem fom' times before. And it proceeds as if the council must give an account of the insurrection against this man, rather than as if he had to make his defence. They had this notorious and most hateful leader of the sect of the Nazarenes, this man who was once their Saul, before them,_and under the protection of the Romans ! After the Apostle, in consequence of their embarrassment, had begun the discourse ; after he had reproved in the high j^riest the mirighteous blow, and had seemingly retracted in keen and severe irony his reproof ; after he had, with great prudence and in perfect consistency with truth, avowed himself to belong to the Pharisaic orthodox .Judaism, which held to the hope of a resurrection, — there was a disgraceful division and wild uproar in the council itself, so that the Roman captain had to rescue him from the hands of these most honourable men to-day, as yesterday from the rabble. This was the day, on the nicjht following which (as it runs ACTS XXIII. 11. 77 literally) tlie Lord came to liim once more with a personal address. Tins was certainly an important crisis in tlie progi'ess of the kingdom of God. The last fruitless testimony in Jeru- salem before the people and the comicil, had resulted only in public exasperation, in the secret increase of their hardening, and in the more grievous exhibition of the mirighteousness which restrained the truth ; but connected with this was the delivering up of the greatest witness of the Gospel to the authority of Rome, which for a while shows itself more just than Pilate formerly was, who surrendered all to the clamom-s of the people (ch. xxv. 16 ; xxvi. 31, 32). After the tumult, worse now on the part of the Jews, there is miserable disorder and chssolution in the council itself ; on the other hand, a Roman warrant interferes for the Apostle's full protection. We would not push the significance of these occm-rences so far as Baum- garten does, who regards them as marking a great historical change in the relations of Jews and Gentiles; to wit, that Israel was from this time dismissed (saving his future), and that a Gentile mission, a Gentile Apostolate, and a Gentile Christendom, was for a long period as it were exclusively to enter in.^ Yet they do indicate a tm^ning-point, at which it was most appropriate that the Lord's specific encoui*agement should be given to St Paul, so strangely placed as he now was between the two powers of the world. Thus, in the night after this great day, in which the Apostle had done what his Lord had commanded him to do before the supreme court of his people, still dear to him in their bhndness, had rebidved the "whited wall" with prophecy of judgment, and then in this last term of the Lord's forbearance conceded to the people then' " high priest," and made a final attempt to lay hold on what was still good among them by appealing to the " Pharisees " in this half-heretic council to defend his doctrine of the resurrection, — in this night, when all the mighty feelings and thoughts of the Apostle's human soul were in strong agita- tion, concmTently with and amid the inspirations of the Spirit, and he was doubtless severely tried by a certain anxiety as to the issue of his complicated position — the Lord stood once more ^ For, even at the end of the Acts of the Apostles, in Rome, St Paul be- gins again with the Jews, with his acknowledgment of the hope of Israel ; and it was to the Romans he wrote that Israel should never be given up I 78 TO ST TAUL IN BONDS AT JERUSALEM. by Mm, to strengthen him by His recognition and promise. The brief word is not expressly connected with any mention either of trance or vision ; only the night gives its hint of a dream or vision. But the Lord's " standing by him " ^ assures us of an actual manifestation, in some manner visible and audible, as in cli. xxii. 17, 18. Therefore we ought not and will not, like the bulk of expositors, rapidly pass over these words of the Lord Jesus spoken out of heaven, but give them their especial prominence in oiu' exposition. Be of good COURAGE, Paul ! For as thou hast testi- fied OF Me in Jerusalem, so must thou also bear witness IN Rome. The manner and substance of these sayings from heaven, after the first at Damascus which had its own pecu- liarity, are much the same throughout : The ground of the command or encouragement is given by For, the great subject is ever the testimony, the com'se appointed for it is the same, and always the majestic /, of Me ! There is something peculiar here in the mentioning by name, the first time since Damascus, and that tlie now prominent name of Paul. The unfavourable manuscript criticism will not persuade us to strike out the ajjpellation ; the naked " Be of good courage," so curt in the original Greek, does not seem to us enough.^ This appeal was always connected with something else in the Lord's lips, either . with direct address to the person, or with It is I! It is not, in the New Testament, altogether the same as Fear not ! ^ which once at least in the apocryphal book of Judith, ch. xi. 1, is con- nected with it. (Tobit xii. 17, only in Luther.) Thus the Apostle's com'age is rather strengthened, than his fear expressly taken away. His sovd was not, indeed, at this time filled with pure confidence unalloyed by anxiety; his nature might well feel its infirmity, while as the " man in Christ " he was uttering his testimony in the light and strength of the Spirit ; and, that being over, he must afterwards have felt it still more. His position was now — beyond anything that he had anticipated — ^ 'Ew/(7T«j, comp. Luke ii. 9 ; xxiv. 4 ; Acts xii. 7, of angels ; as in Luke XX. 1, Acts iv. 4, and xxiii. 27 (tliis cliaiiter) of approaching men. 2 All the critics, from Griesbach downwards, strike out the addition ; Knapp alone leaves it undecided. The testimonies in its favour are not in- significant, and to our feeling something is wanting to the Qxposi. '^ Although in the LXX. the s'^'^p-Vs; ten times (according to Kircher) is translated by dcipait. ACTS XXIII. 11. 79 so confused and perplexed between the Roman avithorities, the council, and the people, that the best prospect was a wearisome imprisonment, with moreover the danger of all kinds of malici- ous plots against him. How stood it now with his purpose, after Jerusalem to visit Eome also ? The prudent thought of appeal- ing to CiBsar, which was suggested by the development of the event, he had certainly not as yet pondered and determined on. As of his Roman citizenship, so also of the right of appeal bound up with it, he can make exceptional use only when the Lord's directing guidance suggested and required it. Thus St Paul was anxious, prayed probably this night for light and strength from his Lord, and he obtained his answer. But, on the other hand, we must not regard him as assailed by fear^ as in Corinth ; still less must we assume, what Schaff so strongly expresses, that " exhausted by many fatigues, overwhelmed Avith anxiety and despondency, he might lose sight of his plan to preach the Gospel in Rome." The " Be of good courage ! " does not seem to us to go on such a supposition ; but rather to carry with it a commending acknowledgment of tlie faithful sen^ant^ — So far all is we.ll, be still oi good courage ! And the rather, as the reason given for the encom*agement, before the promise, contains in itself a gracious acknowledgment. As thou liast home ivifness of Me in Jerusalem — that is, speaking after our common manner, a testimony of the satisfac- tion of his Lord and King with his conduct. So — strange that the force of this is almost universally overlooked — gives our Lord's own favourable judgment in confirmation of our exposition of St Paul's deportment recently before the council. St Paul did not commit himself in passion and precipitation when he rebuked the high priest, so that it was necessary for him to retract v»dth the unimaginable and almost false apology — I knew not, or reflected not, that he Was the high priest ! We cnnnot think that, at this first most important defence of the great wit- ness before the council, the grace which was at other times so abounding wdthin him failed his spirit, and that the Spirit pro- mised for such emergencies ceased altogether to guide him — so that he fell to the level of Ananias, whom lie rebuked, in his human wrath ! In truth, St Paul could not before this miser- able council have so unworthily exposed tJie cause of his Lord, 1 Matt. XV. 21, in the Greek eu precedes. 80 TO ST PAUL IN BONDS AT JERUSALEM. wliicli was in tlie estimation of liis enemies one ^^dtll his own 2:)erson, as to ask forgiveness for a judgment perfectly just! That would have been, at least in the eyes of his malignant foes, at once to impeach by his own conduct the bold avowal with which he had commenced, ver. 1. No, the Lord does not thus abandon His saints in the critical time, and suffer His repre- sentatives and messengers thus to fall. Tlie Lord had stood by St Paul in the day, even as He stood before him in the night. Thus the Apostle had rightly and worthily testified in Jerusalem, as the Lord says. The appeal to his good conscience from the beginning was, in opposition to these miscreants and knaves, quite right. The cry that he was a Pharisee, that he held with those in the council who held the resurrection, was not a human expedient of craft to extricate himself from difficulty (against which the Apostle himself had before protested, ch. xx. 24), but it was the last condescension of merciful love, which the Lord Himself directed him to exhibit. The apjDeal to this party feeling within the council itself was a most legitimate and solemn protest against the sitting of unbelieving heretics in the midst of it — a protest against the verdict upon the word of the Resurrection given by those who already in their theoiy had rejected it. But it was more than this, it was a demonstration of supreme compassion and grace ; the well-lmown Gospel of Christ, which was the real point of dispute throughout the pro- ceedings, condescended to appeal to the one only existing feeling in the council of which it could take advantage ; St Paul, in this last great testimony at Jerusalem, cries out all the more lu'gently the more vehemently they reject him — The true and genuine Judaism is nevertheless on my side! (comp. ch. xxviii. 20). Because they answered him only by blows, the Apostle's pro- phecy (not railing) proceeded — God loill smite thee ! and it not merely fell upon Ananias (who according to Josephus was soon afterwards smitten), but was a general denunciation upo^;! all who fall under the just judgment of God.^ " J[s thou hast borne witness concerning; Me in Jerusalem" means, certainly, " As praiseworthily and as rightly, not marring the influence of thy testimony by impropriety and defect. So ^ This whole scene before the council has been most fully, and, as far as I know, more distinctly than anywhere else, depicted in my "Redcn der Apostel." ACTS XXIII. 11. 81 must, shalt, and wilt thou also in Rome bear witness !" That which the Apostle in ch. xix. 21 had prosed to himself for the first time m the Spirit, not in his own spnit but through Divine impulse, is here confirmed by the Lord, as it is after- wards, ch. xxvii. 24, once more by the angel, when in the peril of shipwreck all prospect of its accomplishment might seem to be shut out. As thou hast borne witness, thou shall bear wit- ness: the former, which had taken place, is the pledge of the latter, which should take place. "Thou shalt still heai' witness according to thy vocation" — this is the powerful and essential encouragement which the Lord addresses to His servant, who in all his infirmity desired only to testify unto the death. Li the two great capitals of the then known world, the city of God and the city of Caesar (the latter the goal of the Acts !), he shordd bear and proclaim the name of Jesus. The city of Caesar, the city of the world, had also its high calling and destination for the kingdom of God — alas, she fulfilled it but a short time, and soon basely fell from it ! It is already hinted by the Lord that this imprisonment in the hands of the Eomans was to be the means to that end ; for the as and the so contain in this concise saying more than one meaning. As was the past, so surely will be the future — as thou hast rightly borne witness — and finally, as an undertone for the Apostle's reflection, as hound at Jerusalem, so also with these bonds in Rome ! Thus there is set before the Apostle new labour in continuing tribulation, and tliat itself was real encouragement to the apostolical spirit of testimony. " Bear witness of Me — to faith in Me!'' (ch. xx^'i. 18.) We have not yet remarked that this is not strictly according to the original, which means, "bear witness of the things concerning Me, ^ly cause." It is not merely the common Greek para- phrase for the person, but indicates, by a fine and strikuig expression, as well the narrated account before the people as the maintenance before the council of the decisive testimony concerning Jesus in the doctrine of the resurrection (compare ch. XXV. 19 with ch. i. 22, iv. 2, 33). From the fact that the saying contains precise delicacies of Greek expression,^ we ^ Not only this rcc -Trepl l^oD, but also the intenser word cu^a-p-riipu^ as also both times f/j ' lspcivau7^v!fi, iii'Vi)f<,r;v ; ■which scarcely stands for iy, but used in the latter case like iig fiocKpoiv, ch. ii. 39, and of Jerusalem also for the sake of similarity. P 82 TO ST PAUL IN IIIS INFIRMITY. might suppose (tliougli no more) that the Lord did not on this occasion speak to the Apostle in Hebrew, but in the now to him current missionary language, Greek; and this would have its own affectincT sio-nificance, besides confirmino- the oehuineness of the personal address by the name Paid, as this was the Greek form instead of Saul. Be that as it may, the final em- phasis of the whole saying rests upon the disclosed must or sliall (compare ch. ix. 6 and 16), by which the absolutely cer- tain pre-ordained future is indicated. This was not yet the last time that the Lord spoke to St Paul. Besides the words preserved in 2 Cor. xii. 9, we read elsewhere of visions, manifestations, and revelations, the par- ticulars of which are not recorded. These repeated revelations were a compensation for the lack of that intercourse with Jesus in the flesh which was the foundation upon which the other Apostles stood; and a continual strengthening of St Paul's confidence in the independent way which was marked out for him, and which to him was to be so peculiarly full of suffering. There was a considerable interval of test for his patience and faith between Jerusalem and Rome ; but this word of his Lord was the pole-star to him in all the darloiess of his way. It constantly assured him in every crisis of peril that there was an inviolable ordination concerninij him : — that his life could not be sacrificed to the wrath of the Jcavs ; ^ that his imprison- ment should issue in public testimony ; that the sea should not swallow him up, and the viper not do him harm. Therefore it was that, during this imprisonment, the Apostle wrote such letters of energy and consolation ! VIII. TO ST PAUL IN HIS INFIRMITY. (2 Cor. xii. 9,) In the Epistles to the Corinthians — although we should not, humanly speaking, have expected such special confidecne to this chiu'ch — the Apostle has most entirely exposed himself, ^ Whose murderous counsel, in ver. 12, follows in miserable opposition to llie Lord's appointment. 2 COR. XII. 9. 83 and his whole personahty, to intimate inspection. He so fully exhibits his official vocation and work, the way in which God's power "WTOught in his words, and the effectual demonstration of the Holy Ghost as it was proved in the influence which he was able to exert upon others, that these two Epistles would of themselves furnish ample material, if properly drawn out and arranged, for a treatise with the title, " The Apostle Paul, de- lineated by himself." And, still more, he lays bare to these Corinthians the inmost merits of his most personal intercoui'se with the Lord, in a manner of which we find no other example. He presents his entire personality so fully as to make these Corinthians see that this great Apostle was by nature a man like themselves (Jas. v. 17) ; and thus gives us in these Epistles an impressive and most important example of the proper apj^re- ci^tion of the personal character^ in opposition to the absolute authority of any office whatever, even the apostolical, which it is sought to isolate from that character, and make independ- ent of it. And all this is perfectly natirral ; for what is the Apostle's aim ? He would suppress and rectify the spiritual- carnal pride which was so conspicuous in the Corinthians ; he would defend the authority and dignity of his own despised office. But how could he more fitly accomplish this than by revealing to them the power of God in his o\n\ weakness, teaching them humihty by his own lowliness, rebuking and exhorting them, not by words only, but by setting before them the most direct and living example of his own life and ex- perience ? In this we find the key for the interpretation of the strain and peculiarity of the Epistles to the Corinthians genei-ally; and particularly a solution of the reason why we find in this place that word of the Lord which we now consider, and which is the only immediately spoken word of Christ recorded in Scripture between the Acts and the Revelation. St Paul must speak of the labours and successes which legitimated his office ; but he would rather speak, in addition, of his afflictions. It is necessaiy that he should glory against them as a fool ; but in his wisdom he glories after such a manner that God's glory- alone results, and his own is brought to nought. He is con- strained to tell them of high revelations ; but he places beside them his own deep infirmity; and distinguishes so affectingly 84 TO ST PAUL IN HIS INFIRMITY. the " man in Christ" from himself, that his absokite subjection and nothingness before his Master is the only result of all. It is in this connection, after the teaching Avliich so wonderfully blends together in his own example humiliation and encourage- ment, that he relates for all Christians in common what (among other things) the Lord had said to Jdm in the agony of his uttermost trials. But — I hear the reader ask — have we really any right to place this word also among the proper words of our Lord Jesus from heaven 1 Very many expositors look at it otherwise, and regard it as merely an expression of an answer of the Lord through His Spirit within Paul — such an answer as any peti- tioner might obtain. But is it this, and no more ? May we resolve the expression, " The Lord said unto me," into the mere suggestion of the Lord's Spirit, as if it meant, "The Loirl inspired me with the conviction, and it was to me as if He had spoken?" Assuredly not, dear readers! The "man like ourselves" was also peculiarly/ favoured above other men, and stood in a nearer relation of internal fellowship than that would imply. Wlien he simply relates this speaking of the Lord to himself, as something not unusual, he gives us plainly to understand that he had m.ore than once received express and audible communications of this Idnd. And immediately before he had been speaking of visions, and revelations, and trances. And when he now gives us a view of his tribulations, he shows that his Lord had not been less near to him in them. It is true that we here approach the boundary where the per- sonal dh'ect address of the Lord, this time certainly without any vision or appearance, passes over into the Spmt's ordi- nary method of communing with our spirits, in which be- lievers are continually receiving His words; and many child- like, simple souls may dare to say, similarly to the Apostle — Thus did the Lord Jesus speak to me. But still there is a difference : it was not simply thus that St Paul heard what is here recorded. Here, where he has just been speaking of revelations generally, he distinguishes plainly and expressly the Lord's,, to liim, well-known speaking ; so that we must take the word as it stands — it Avas an audible word of Jesiis to the Apostle. In the severe conflict of profound suffering — Avhich, at any 2 COR. XII. 9. 85 rate, the tliorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan,^ must in- dicate— he had prayed the Lord thrice for the removal of the distress ; that is, according to New Testament and apostohcal language, not to " the Lord God," but to the Lord Jesus, to Him who in the days of His flesh had thrice prayed to His Father — Take this cup from Me ! Kot, indeed, with the per- fect resignation of Him who in Gethsemane learned and confirmed His obedience in suffering, for there might be some admixtm-e of human impatience ; but, on the other hand, not Avithout the humility of importunate supplication, in which no- thing more is required of us weak men than this — I Avill not let thee go, unless Thou help me! Thrice; — this we cannot regard as a mere phi'ase for "several tunes, repeatedly ;" the Apostle would have been restrained from such a phrase by the thoucrht that it might be imderstood as an intentional com- parison with Gethsemane. That comparison does not occm* to him ; he simply relates what actually took place : thrice I prayed to the Lord — not to be understood of intervals of sup- plication, days or nights in succession, but of one continuous struggle in prayer. The Lord does not suffer him to cry a fourth or a seventh time ; but He, the same to whom St Paul addressed his supplication, gave him at the third tune the sublime answer. And that answer will be filled with a richer strength and emphasis to us all, for whose sake the Apostle has communicated it, if we regard it not merely as a DiAane conso- lation inspired into the Apostle's soul, but as an express and definite word of the Lord from heaven. Literally, according to the original : SumciEXT is My ,GIIACE TO THEE, FOR My STRENGTH IS PERFECT IN (tHE) AATSAEJfESS. This decisive expression, the saving ordinance and rule of conduct, as it were, for all who are severely tried in the follomng of Clirist, has first its special meaning for St Paul, but also a general s}-mbolical meaning and design. Indeed, this universal significance is stamped upon the form of it (for the second clause is not a personal address) more definitely than in the earlier sapngs of the glorified Lord ; so that here also we discern a transition to the more ordinaiy communications of the Saviour to His people. That even a Paul was still in danger of 1 The difficult interpretation of which, so fax as it belongs to the ques- tion here, we shall subsequently consider. S6 TO ST PAUL IN HIS INFIRMITY. being exalted by the superabmidance of tlie revelations, and of preaching to others through the still remaining gifts of grace, while himself a castaway through the loss of grace itself, is a most keen and earnest warning, which St Paul's own person — with all its high prerogative of election, still a perfectly typical and exemplari/ person — impresses upon us all! - The Lord secures him against this danger by sufferings, which must so bring home his infirmity to him that he can find no consolation but gi'ace, and must for ever give up all glorying in that he had received from God. And this is to us all the way of grace and the method of oui* salvation. Are there sufferings which we procui'e for ourselves, and which we may avoid by avoiding the sins which occasion them and which they punish?— so there are also sufferings which the wisdom and mercy of the Lord im- poses upon us without any specific guilt of our own, though for the sake of the luiiversal sin of our corrupted nature. Are there tribulations which we may pray against, remove by fervent and persevering appeals to the Redeemer and Plelper of our souls'? — so there are also appointed and salutary burdens which shall not and must not be taken from us ; although grace will esta- blish, strengthen, and console the spit^it under every tribulation of the fiesh. For even the most keenly penetrating trial of the human spirit is essentially only a thorn in the flesh, in the nature which is flesh born of flesh. It is even questionable whether that Avhich St Paul found so hard that he thought he could not longer bear it, did not consist in such so-called spiritual assaults of satanic temptation : he might, in harmony with his jihraseology elsewhere, name them a thoni in the flesh. We might, indeed, almost say, that to bear the most painful tribula- tion in the body had become a light thing to the Apostle, through the discipline of gi-ace ; and that the counterpoise to high revelations would be trials which fell upon the true and inner flesh. Be that as it may, and to decide this is not of moment, Christ's word retains its universal meaning for all those salutary afflictions which may seem to us intolerable, but which He has irrevocably ordained. ' He infuses His grace — so that we can bear them ; and, not only so, the bitterest medicine becomes at last sweet in the good and gracious will of oiir Lord. My GRACE — is the word of His majesty and power, as well as of 2 COR. XII. 9. 87 Ilis love and consolation. Lutlier thouglit to brine out the saying better when he translated — let it he sufficient ! and we are loath to correct trifles in sentences which the Holy Ghost has made precious to so many. Here, however, the meaning is considerably affected.^ The immediate assurance is more needed by the desponding than the exliortation and doctrine, and it is that which is first given. As the answer to the anxious ques- tion— "Am I then abandoned, cast out, rejected?" comes the fact, not expressed, but graciously taken for granted, that Christ's grace is already with the Apostle, that he has it, testified by Him who alone is perfectly assm'ed of it. ',' I am merciful to thee ! Thou hast My grace ! What wilt thou more | " Even if the tempted man might not in his weakness be satisfied with that, Avhich he was to learn and would learn. His merciful Lord declares to him the fact against all his doubt, as a truth beyond all his consciousness and feeling. It is so ! Thou hast sufficient in My grace ! The Lord places this word, as it were, in St Paul's lips, that He may utter it after Him in faith — " Yea, Lord, Thy gi-ace is sufficient for me." Zinzendorf brings out, in his translation, the true exliortation — "Be content, that I am merciful to thee ! " but the exhortation is all the stronger for not being expressed. Now, as in almost every previous instance, the Lord speaking from heaven gives in the second clause the ground and reason of the first, by a subhme demonstrative For. That which He thus goes on to say and testify is no longer directly spoken to the Apostle ; but it is given to him as a general saying ap- plicable to himself, and placing him under a universal ordinance. And what a saying — doctrine and fact at once for Christ's kingdom of grace, in inexhaustible depth and comprehensive- ness of meaning ! For My strength — we hold fast this reading against Tischendorf and Lachmann, and this time even against Bengel. The latter thinks that if St Paul had written " My strength," he must also have added "in thy weakness." But why ? The question is not so much what St Paul might have written, as what was fitting for the Lord to say, and what He actually could have said. " My strength" was alone appropriate; but " thy weakness " could not follow, for the reason already ^ For, that xiiKii must be translated sufficere debet, sufficiat — ^is arbitrary and vapid, after the style of Rosenmiiller. 80 TO ST PAUL IN HIS USTFIRMITY. assigned, that the saying is a universal one. That great student of Scripture seems to have afterwards bethought himself ; for, in his translation of the New Testament, the " My " remains. Manuscripts and authorities are generally not decisive of them- selves ; here certainly not, where important witnesses are on both sides. The decision is finally matter of taste and feeling, of internal reasons. A recent English critic^ says, that, unless he errs, the word was added for distinctness' sake, and to make the sentence coincide with the Apostle's subsequent " the power of ChristP We tliink, on the contrary, that this subsequent word of the Apostle, which appropriates to himself the word of the Lord, and repeats its emphatic " My," is in favour of the ordinary reading. We maintain that the Lord would have spoken not merely with less dignity, but with an obscurity which might easily be misunderstood, if He had spoken of strength generally instead of His own strength. The repeated ^^ My grace, My strength," is altogether in harmony with the throne- style of His words from heaven, as we have heard it throughout. If He had said, almost descending from His dignity to an altogether general dogma, " For strength is made perfect in the weakness (or in weakness)" — it is true, we admit, that the Apostle would at once have been likely to understand it of Chns£s strength ; but to all others, in the long future of His king- dom of grace, for whom this word was to be preserved, this inter- pretation of it would not have been sufficiently obvious. Does not the saying thus run altogether in the form of a common proverb, especially with its striking apparent antithesis of op- posite words ? " Strength is fully approved, made perfect, in tceakness" — is this, then, commonly true? The Eomanist expositor AUioli, who clings to the Vulgate, " first of all " refers the grace and the strength to God, but then goes suspiciously further : " Moral strength, the higher life of man, is also meant, so that the words include the meaning that the higher life of the spirit, virtue in man, is brought to perfection by such tribulations; through the weakening of the old natiire we attain unto the perfect power of the new life." Eightly under- stood, this is true ; but still it may be misapprehended, and may be taken in that meaning for which Grotius has collected ^ Alford, who sometimes concedes too much to German science. 2 COE. XII. 9. 81) several passages from the Classics.^ This indefinite and gene- ral saying concerning strength in weakness may have, under the discipline of concealed preparatory grace, where there is no absolute distinction between what is man's and what is God's, a certain preliminary prophetic truth — but in the kingdom of Christ, where nature and gi'ace are distinctly separated, it is no longer applicable ; and as a rule in His Idngdom it covild not have been asserted by Christ. It would have been necessaiy that He should add, in order to obviate in His msdom all mis- understanding and error — "In Me, and only in Me, is the sapng true concerning strength in weakness." The opposite is true of His servants, in their conflicts under the light of His heart-searching countenance ; and the warning must have been given — " Your own strength is weak even in the strong; it comes to its end in weakness, passes away, and comes to nought." And this is what the Lord does say in warning, when He de- clares, as we must understand the expression — "My strength is made perfect in weakness ! " Now at length we have made full provision for a further exposition of this profound thought. The progress into the second clause thus testifies — My grace, the grace of God in Me and through Me for men, is power in them (Eph. i. 19, iii. 7 ; Col. i. 29). And what a truth is this ! Who is sufiicient to expound it fully ? We can now only give prominence to its protest against all the misimderstanding and pen^ersion which is too Hghtly satisfied with the profound word " grace," and denies it all its meaning. We mean all such idle resting in the consolation of " the forgiveness of sins," and the consciousness of justification, as forgets that this gTace is perfected in the power of sanctification. Berlenb. Bible : " Grace is here not alone forgiVeness of sins, but something that loorks in a man and overcomes his sins, though not without his sufferino;." This is according to the ever-needful word of St James — "And not by faith alone ! " Assuredly, not the beginning alone, but the abidino; rn'oimd of all strenath of m-ace, is the firm consolation 1 Of Pliny : Optimos nos esse, clum infinni sumus. Of Seneca : Cala- mitas virtutis occasio est. Of Quintilian : Temeritas omnis animorum cala- mitate coi'porum frangitur. That a "self-collected, humble, and thus con- fident, boldness of spirit is strengthened in- conflict " — can scarcely satisfy here. 90 TO ST PAUL IN HIS INFIRMITY. — I obtained mercy ! But it is most important to know and experience tliat this consolation is itself, and works, power in the soul ; that he who rejoices in the grace of Christ has received it to that end, and can only thus find it sufficient. Luther's translation — "Meine Kraft ist in den Schwachen mlichtig" (My strength is mights/ in the weak) — is very far from bringing out the weight and significance of this word of our Lord. It is not to no purpose tliat He orders the expressions with a threefold difference : not in the loeak, but in weakness ; not merely mighty (which is self-understood, as being funda- mentally the same with strength), but perfect; not merely is perfect, but is made so. It is not only that the phraseological contrast " strength and weakness " must be retained ; the ex- pression gives another meaning, since it speaks not so much of the loeah in common (which we all are, and always, of ourselves), but of jDarticular circumstances and trials in M^hich the weakness makes itself especially felt — precisely in the same sense as the Apostle presently, and frequently elsewhere, uses the word. In weakness (there is no article in the original), as in the element and domain of its worldng, the strength is perfected, approves and confirms itself perfectly. Zinzendorf : " It first becomes absolutely mighty." But this, once more, is not spoken (in the sense of ch. iv. 7) of the weak, earthen vessel of human nature generally, in which the superabounding grace of God works, but of the perfecting of its indwelling and penetrating influence, presujDposed even at the beginning ; and concerning this per- fecting it is said for consolation, that it only, but also certainly, is brought to its consummation in weakness, in the path of trials and suJJ'ering. The power is made perfect, becomes consum- mate— that is, obviously, not in itself, since as power it is already perfect ; but it absolutely approves itself, expresses its perfect energy and influence.^ As Christ Himself reached the It is finished in the strength of God, through uttermost weak- ness upon the cross (ch. xiii. 4) — and He remembers this, now speaking from heaven — so through the continual energy of His strength in His servants a victorious perfection is wrought out, in the same way of suffering and subjection in weakness. And if it be Satan, or his angel, who causes the weakness and ^ Bengcl : oiDnia sua peragit : the reading n'Kurxi or riMioirui makes scarcely any difference. 2 coil. XII. 9. 91 tribulation, Christ's power is victorious over liini in all who receive Christ's grace, and who retain it in faith ; that is, who count that grace sufficient, trust in it absolutely and humbly, and wait confidently for its full demonstration of its power. St Paul himself at once makes the application, setting himself before the Corinthians and us all as a pattern : " Because it is so as the Lord said unto me — and that is sufficient for me ! — therefore I will rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me." How humbling this to the Corin- thians, Avho gloried in the gifts which dwelt among them ! What a lesson is here taught by supreme authority, tlirough the person of St Paul — that to have grace is sufficient, and infinitely more than the possession of all gifts ! The greatest danger, even for " men in Christ" (ver. 2), is ever that of — thinldng too highly of themselves. The safest, rather the only safe, way for the most sanctified and favom-ed with special dispensation, is to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, whose salutary discipline will never cease ; to place them- selves among the chief of sinners, that they may receive the perfection of Christ's strength in their own weakness. The best ansAver for the natm'al mind, even of an elect Apostle, in- clined to pride, and therefore exposed to despondency in the time of oppressive trial — given to him for the sake of the puffed-up Corinthians, and of all the downcast every^vhere — and which, in the most gracious form of an almost enforced consolation, " Thou hast grace !" points to the victorious con- summation of their power, as found only in the sufferings which crush in them all that is their own. It is a most tender repulsion of the urgent prayer that the salutary rod of disci- pline might be removed.^ The supplication of his faith to the great Helper, in the time of his distress, was good and right — for what better can oui- weakness do through the grace of Godf — but the answer comes down from heaven with victo- rious power into the depth of trial and discomfiture : " Ask not so vehemently and unconditionally that thy will may be done, the will of thy flesh, which is unwilhng to suffer for holiness and salvation !" Albertini (sometime Bishop of the Moravian Brethren) very foolishly charges the Apostle, in one of his 1 As V. Gerlach says, after Bengel (Benignissima repulsa, indicative modo expressa). 92 TO ST JOHN IN PATMOS. sermons, with falling here, in Scripture, into foolish self-ex- altation ; but his own experience taught him to speak more correctly in what follows : " We have here a sample of the spiritual history and the spiritual discipline, not of St Paul only, but of all pardoned sinners. Everjnvhere glorious reve- lations, and rough suiferings to qualify them. Always allr-sujjl- ciency in the grace of the Saviour, and always insufficiency on our part !" St Paul knew avcU to teach the fruit and neces- sity of afflictions ; but when they come in all their secret force upon his own soul, in order to make him (according to what had been predicted for him. Acts ix. 16) perfect as an elect vessel for the name of Jesus, he needs once more direct instruc- tion and help from heaven. And this he received : the Lord nttered to him these Avords, from which he never afterwards ceased to derive strength. He repeats it here in the centre of his teaching to the Corinthians, who themselves specially needed it ; but he also says it to tis all, and leads us into the inmost mystery of the Lord's spiritual communion with our hearts — in which His gTace and strength graciously encourage our weakness, in order to perfect in it His work. IX. TO ST JOHN IN PATMOS, AT THE BEGINNING OF HIS VISIONS. (Rev. i. 11, 17-20.) St John — a personality gifted and called in another manner than St Paul ! All that may be established as to the difference between these two, both in their natural and supernatural birth ; as to their several historical relations in their apostolical office, with all the important consequences which resulted from these several relations, — may very appropriately be brought into view here, when we are called to see and hear how the Lord comes and speaks to His servant John in Patmos. Not that we can now enter at large upon this subject ; it is enough if we remind our readers — whom we suppose to be thoughtful students of Scripture — of its importance, as exhibited, for in- stance, in our observations upon the last chapter of St John's REV. I. 11, 17-20. 95 Gospel. St. Paul, altiiougli not without strong points of dis- similarity to St Peter, stands by las side in the energy of external influence : and both are tlius in opposition to St John, whose spirit was pre-eminently inward and contemplative. The Apostles who were mighty in action and teaching founded the Chiu'ch in the beginning from among the Jews and the Gen- tiles ; but St John, living himself in profound heart-mysti^ cism, who livingly combines together all that had been dialec- tically developed in detail, who sinks with his readers into the inmost centre of the fundamental principles of the truth (light ! life ! love !), speaking from the Lord's heart to om- hearts — he, and only he, among the elect could have been the Seer of the New Testament. His calm and tranquil soul was the purest mirror for the reflection of those great symbolic figures, in which the Lord w^ould close His words from heaven for all futurity, seal and subscribe the new Holy Scriptm'e at its close, and expound what was still in arrear of Old Testament prophecy for His Chm-cli down to the end of its career — most plainly, tliough under a sevenfold veil — so that, in the process of fulfil- ment, liistory makes all His meaning clear to His believing people. The disciple, who gave not his name in the Gospel, here, on the contrary, mentions it three times at the outset, and once again at the end (ch. x:di. 8).^ Not to discern the Apostle John in the writer of the Apocalypse, as w^ell as in the Gospel, is a pseudo-criticism, the worst characteristics of which condemn themselves to every simple eye, and the best, most plausible characteristics of wliicli are wanting in insight into the Divine plan both of Scripture and the kingdom of grace. For this plan, according to which the whole of Scriptm-e must 'cor- respond to the whole process of the kingdom, would not have been rounded and complete without the revelation given to St John. Once more the faiiliful Witness opens His mouth in a con- firming conclusion of all ; but words are not sufficient for this great close ; it must be shoivn in speaking figures, just as the mysteries of God had been declared from the beginning by His servants the prophets. The final matter of all these final visions is the coming of the Lord, the Conqueror in all the conflicts of His Church; that coming wdiich typical catastrophes precede * The correct reading omits the name in ch. xxi. 2. 94 TO ST JOHN IN PATMOS. (Matt. xvi. 28). Shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem, which was one of those comin hast (or ketainest) patience, and hast BOKNE FOR My NAME's SAKE, AND HAST NOT FAINTED. Pa- tience has the honour of being twice mentioned, for it is the decisive grace (ch. xiii. 10, xiv. 12) ; as St James says, she must have her work perfected, must fully prosecute and finish the good work of faith : Jas. i. 4. The words defend them- selves on both sides against misunderstanding : that the work, the work of love in patience, may not be interpreted in a sense contrary to holy truth and rigid purity, there comes first the not bearing with the evil, the testing and rejection of the false ; but then, on the other hand, that this may not be pressed in a spirit opposed to love, there is the hearing of the evil and in- justice which the wicked inflict, and that in its only genuine spirit — For My name's sake ! This embraces both at once and in one, as well the love of Christ which impels a man to suffer, as the truth of Christ for the maintenance and profession of which a man is ready to suffer. Let every Ckristian and every Christian Church look in the glass here presented to him by Christ, and ask whether the Lord has found the works of such patience accompHshed ? As the seeming antithesis — Thou hast borne, although thou canst not bear — most plainly exhi- bits how it is rightly to be understood, so also in the still more untranslateable words of the orisinal which follow — I know thy labour, but thou hast not laboured.^ The same word is ^ Toy KOTTOv aov — ko(,1 oi/ nSKOViXKets. 118 THE EPISTLE TO EPHESUS^ used in another correlative meaning, in the second clause : but it is not so mucli, as Zinzendorf says, " Tliy labour has not been hea\y and tedious, thou hast done it willingly," as, " Thou hast not become weaiy in thy toil, thou hast not sunk imder thy work."^ As nothing so much tends to produce dejection, and to destroy the perseverance of patience, as the conflict with false apostles and brethren, so it is certainly the highest praise of the first love of the beginning of the apostolical time, that it had preserved its fidelity in protesting truth and in suffering love. Nevertheless — alas, this nevertheless follows ! " Thou hast not been wear}*; thou hast labom'ed and had patience; thou liast for a while held out both in the not suffering and the suffering : but now thou beginnest to be weary and to relax !" Alas, if such a word as this must be spoken in the Lord's first address to His first church — and the history even of the apos- tolical age shows us the justification for it — who is there that can repel and decline the same heart-searching declaration ? Who am.ong us has remained uncontaminated and blameless in his first love ? " Let the righteous smite me in kindness ; it shall be balsam upon my head," spake David, the type, through the Holy Spirit (Ps. cxli. 5) ; and, verily, here the alone Eight- eous rebukes and smites His own with the excellent oil of everlasting love ! First comes the full and unsparing praise ; and not till then the equally just blame. And when that cen- sure comes, it begins in the gentlest, mildest expression — which, however, on that very account is keenly penetrating — and only- after that does the increasing severity of the inevitable threaten- ing follow. Nevertheless, I have against thee, that thou hast LEFT THY FIRST LOVE. As the Lord directed His disciples that the brother should speak to the brother, if he have ought against him, so does He condescend Himself, in all the greater majesty and conviction, to say — I have somewhat against thee ! He that hath an ear to hear, let him hearken when the Lord has anything against him — let him return and reconcile him- self with his Lord ! Do we not perceive that it is His love alone Avliich seeks and finds wanting the love in us ? Can any ^ Compare the same Greek word in John iv. 6 ; and similarly Gal. vi. 9, iX.X.UKUV. REV. II. 1-7. 119 one more toucliingly rebuke than by commencing -vvitli tlie com- plaint— Tliou no longer lovest me enough ? Indeed, from the lips of sinners this may be a selfish and unrighteous demand ; but when the love of Him who thus rebukes is firm and certain, and pi'oves itself even in the manner of the rebuke, He has verily in strict right this charge to bring. The inmost, deepest root, the faith presupposed in ver. 2, Avhich is the source and impulse of works, is not now mentioned or laid bare, because it is self-understood to be involved in the charge. The necessity of the doctrine and experience of faith had been pre-eminently set forth by St Paul ; the Lord Himself, after He had spoken in the same strain while upon earth, now that He speaks from heaven lays more stress in His phraseology — like St John, whose pen He put into his hand elsewhere for the same pur- pose— upon love, the power and fruit of faith ; in order that no man in His chiu'ch might fall into the false perversion of the doctrine of " faith alone.'" Twice only in the Seven Epistles (to Pergamos, ver. 13, and Thyatira, ver. 19) do we find the word faith ; and in the rest of the Apocalypse only in the two comprehensive and strictly connected fundamental passages, ch. xiii. 10, xiv. 12. Ebrard understands by the " sacred fire of first love," which had declined, " not their love to Christ, but then' love to one another" — but in our opinion incorrectly. As if such a separa- tion were conceivable; as if love to Christ could be maintained in work and patience, while love to the brethren was wanting ! As we have understood the whole, the praise of vers. 2, 3 was not deserved simultaneously with the condemnation of ver. 4; but the commendation speaks of a beginning which had not been sustained, of the same abandoned Jirst love. But thus much is true, that when that love which is the energy and living power of faith, and which in its profoundest depth unites in one the love of God and man, of the Lord and of the bretlu:en, begins to relax and decline, its coldness is first seen and made manifest in the external ofiices of charity (Matt, xxiv. 12). From the weakening of brotherly love, and con- currently of that love to all men, even enemies, which is kindled on that hearth, and is ever sustained from above, flows all apostasy and backsliding: therefore the Lord's con- vincing word seizes us by that lack, which we first become 120 THE EPISTLE TO EPHESUS. < aware of oxirselves — indeed only in order to disclose the damage and deficiency of faith which that very lack indicated. If we do not love the brethren, and all men, perfectly, whence is that but because we no longer love the Lord perfectly ? For, it is only the one love of Christ, poured into our hearts by the Holy Ghost in order to oiu' love in return, which can urge us to show love to our brethren and fellows in pardoning mercy, or at least in redeeming love. It is not in vain or without significance that " thy first love" is spoken of. It is not only to shame them by reference to the past, — that which thou for- merly hadst; but it is emphatically — My love hath not left thee; but thou hast forsaken, hast let go, this love of Mine which had become thine. The history of the Chiu'ch from the beginning is a thou- sandfold recun'ing commentary upon this unspeakably signifi- cant word — the first rebuke of the Church from her Lord in heaven, and penetrating the hearts of His people below ! The special individual church-history of all hearts, as spread be- fore the Lord's eye, testifies that something of this relaxation of the first love has befallen every man, even the Apostles in some degi'ee, and multitudes of others much more fully and miserably. Sanctification does riot in any soul reach its per- fection without the standine; still and sometimes the goincp back : this is, alas, a law in the kingdom of grace, in which human freedom is not abolished. But the ceasing of the first love does not, proj)erly speaking, consist in the abatement of the powerful and happy feelings of the commencing period, the purification and softening down of which, rather, belongs to the strengthening and deepening of grace ; but in the weak- ening and growing faint of the energy which sustains the work proceeding from faith — as ver. 3 preparatorily intimated. Genuine love is not a feeling, but a willing and a working. When that grows exhausted, there may indeed be — as was the case in the Apostolical period — a continuance of the working and conflict as against the world, of the witness and mainte- nance of the truth. This may actually seem to increase and become more zealous ; but it will be no longer of the genuine character ; it does not go affectionately into the world to \v\\\ its victories, because it no longer proceeds from the brotherly love which burns vigorously upon the enclosed hearth, and RET. II. 1-7. 121 which rests upon the common love of each to the Lord.^ The church in Ephesus is not jet wanting in pure doctrine; the false apostles are repelled, and will be so ; nor is it wanting in sharp discipline, the wicked are not borne with, but are handled Avith increasing severity.^ But all these manifestations are internally connected -svith a lack of tinith and spiritual vigour, of sacred and divine life. The external too-much conceals before human eyes an internal too-little ; but the Lord discloses it, and keenly pierces the heart of His Church — Thou hast left thy first love ! As if He would utter the words once spokento Israel : — / remind thee of the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when Israel was holi- ness to the Lord, and the first-fruits of His increase (Jer. ii. 2, 3). Remember thou through My reminding ! Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, AND REPENT, AND DO THE FIRST WORKS. Call tO mind the first days of thy good beginning, and deeply reflect. For Sardis, which represents a new commencement, the same exliortation is repeated, ch. iii. 3. How were ye then so blessed! writes St Paul to the Galatians (ch. iv. 15). Even with the increasing severity, which speaks of an actual fall and a new repentance, how gracious is the evangelical preaching and enforcement of this repentance — on the ground of grace once more offered, a grace which had been already received and experienced. It was thi/ first love, glowing then so strongly and blessedly from My love, which thou hast not held fast ! Herder writes too much in the modern sentimental tone, though not mthout truth : " The whole Epistle comes, as it were, from the paradise of innocence and love. The mother could not more tenderly remind the child, nor the bride her beloved, of happy times gone by which have not returned ! " He then goes on, with less justifiable exaggeration : " As if this voice of love would come stealthily, after abounding praise, to the subject of that which was yet wanting : and that is spoken of as what might ^ And Avorse in later times, Avith the zeal of the Confessions against brethren united even in faith, without the uniting principle of a living oneness with all members in the Lord's one body. 2 j\n(i this will show, in comparison with Pergamos presently, vers. 14, 15, and the following churches, that the First Epistle was not thoroughly and exdusiceJij meant of the Apostolical Church, as a one-sided prophetical interpretation assumes. 122 THE EPISTLE TO EPHESUS. soon be repaired — Remember how it was with thee ! And is it better now ? And then new praise follows for more abundant encom-agement." No, this is not the spirit of the rebuke! This is not the sweet relish which the bitter medicine of the intermingled Ee3IEMBER ! leaves iipon oui' thoughts. Its solemn and searching general tone has made it a piercing word of thunder, which the Holy Spirit has used among all fallen churches and souls, even those which have worse fallen* than Ephesus. What a history has this text of Scripture had in the secrets of men, where the Lord is now carrying on His judg- ment of grace! Thou art fallen — that means a real and actual fall, though only at first in the ground of the heart, and but little made evident in external things. And from whence ? From the full, rich grace of the new life in the love of God ; in a certain sense, therefore, it is a worse fall and more perilous than the first fall of man, of which the Lord's words remind the church of Ephesus. There is something true in the doctrine of the L'vingites concerning a great apostasy of the original church, the " catastrophe of a second Fall ; " but the fanatical error which has caricatured this historical truth, and perverted its meaning into sad extravagances, is plain in the words them- selves. Wliere does the Lord speak of the loss of spiritual gifts, of the disruption of ecclesiastical order, of the abandonment of obedience to official dignities, and all those other matters in which these strange people behold at once the guilt and the punishment of the first church ? The Lord rests His charge upon very different grounds; He rebtdves the angel with the church ; He does not merely refer the congregation back to the discipline and form of a forsaken constitution, but to their first love; He does not teach, in the Corinthian manner, the dis- tinguishing value of miraculous gifts, which are not even men- tioned here, any more than in the whole Epistle to the Ephesians (although there were such gi'eat miracles performed there, there is no mention, even in ch. iv. 11, of workers of miracles ! ) ; He preaches, simply, a renewed liEPENTANCE, as in the beginning. This preaching of repentance, indeed, with which Christianity began, as did the Reformation, and which is evermore preached on every relapse of churches or souls, is something veiy different from those means of grace which, in our days, even Lutherans, ^ Stundeu der Andacht, 8L EEV. II. 1-7. 123 like the Irvingites, appoint in the church as false physicians. Not from without inwardl}', and from above downwardly, but from within outwardly, through retm-n to first lorn, the hurt of souls is healed : this cannot be too diligently remembered, and earnestly enforced. As love is not merely a delectable feeling, but a labour of the dependent and devoted will; as faith is not merely a tliought, but an impulsive and abundant spring of good works ; so the Lord will recognise no repentance but that which is con- firmed in the doing of the first works. In this He requires, as Tholuck says, " the energy and strength of the works of first love." Ihey must be the proof of thy change of mind, and retm"n to God. These thou canst present, if thou dost repent. But that is ever left with human freedom ; Christ's wdiole- some, disciplinary, faithfully inviting and chastising grace, puts force on none. Or else I will come unto thee (quickly), AND will remove THY CANDLESTICK OUT OF HIS PLACE, EXCEPT THOU REPENT. The deepest emphasis falls upon the repetition at the close of this Except! It seems at first to strengthen the threatening; but when we lay it to heart, it rather softens the rigour of the simply conditional threatening. It goes on to say — Only if thou repentest not, will this judg- ment befall thee ! Wilt thou not turn it away ? I will come mito thee — thus, with evident difference, the preliminary judg- ment, first upon Ephesus alone, is indicated; thus the Lord cmnetJi, in all ages, to judgment upon men individually, as well as to His churches. These Epistles speak, each of them, of this ; and, as we have remarked, with progressive distinctness mito the last and perfect judgment. The "soon" which has been placed here, also may have been falsely inserted from later passages (ver. 16 and ch. iii. 11) — yet we would not positively strike it out, since it holds good of every such threatening, and is true even of the slowly coming judgments. We would fm'ther remark that, as om' Lord announces His coming as a first tj-pical judgment upon Jerusalem, so now, in these Epistles, He speaks in the same manner of His coming to His Church. Threatening of judgment, as actual threatening, is ever and absolutely necessary, and from the beginning could not be spared. The revelation and utterance of such, not merely threatened, but actually accomplished, judgments of the Lord 124 THE EPISTLE TO EPHESUS. — accomplished upon many chnrclies of the great Church — is the removal of the candlestick. Literally taken, it does not m.ean an overturnincp or extinction of the light ; but the expres- sion (which is moving away, as in ch. vi. 14) simply purports the displacing from where it stood — to this place a testimony of guilt and punishment — and thus the grace is renewed in another place.^ Ephesus did, indeed, once repent, even if not with all her might, and, therefore, the judgment was restrained. But then " the subsequent desolation of the city of Ephesus " has something to do mth the t}qDical-prophetical threatening ; ^ although the true fulfilment came long afterwards, in the de- struction of the whole of the first Oriental churches by I^Ioham- med. Indeed, this threatening of the removal of the candle- stick, intelligible without much exposition, has its universal meaning, and is, by the Spirit, applied in many ways to the churches. He who threateneth hath a gracious meaning, and turns His threatening almost immediately to consolation. For Ephesus the name is preceded and followed by, is wi'apped up in, praise. At the first glance it is similar to the words of the prophet Jehu to king Jehosaphat, " Nevertheless there are good things found in thee, in that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast prepared thine heart to seek God" (2 Chron. xix. 3) ; but here there is much more grace. But this thou hast, that THOU HATEST THE DEEDS OF THE NiCOLAITANlES, WHICH I ALSO HATE. Their fall from first love was not so deep and in- curable but that their concurrent zeal against those who had still more deeply fallen might be acknowledged. Thus, the Lord says here, The Nicolaitanes — them indeed thou shouldst not love, and in false love tolerate ! Thy hatred against their false works is good ; it is itself something that may help thee to improvement and conversion ; for it is something remaining of ^ The expositors -who regard the Epistles as directed only to the angels, are obliged here — because the hghts are the churches themselves — to resort to strange shifts. Bengel : There will be an angel without a church ! Eieger : The Church is the light of the teacher. 2 This is not (as Ebrard says) a confusion of the historical and prophetic meanings, because God's government does further exhibit and stamp the types in history itself. The village into which Ephesus has sunk (Aja- Soluk, ciyiet kohoyo',^ or koKoyQ\j) stands as the type of fallen and desolated churches ! REV. II. 1-7. 125 thy first strength and pimty. The Epistle makes mention of this matter as a prop, leaning upon which the fallen may rise and re-estabhsh themselves. Again, it carefully speaks (more pre- cisely than the Old Testament, e.g., Ps. cxxxix. 21, 22) of merely hating the works, and not the persons. These Nicolai- taiies, whose evil works are plainly manifest, need no temptation to reveal them, as the false apostles previously. What concerns their historical relations, the learned may decide when they can; to us all such matters are subordinate. Certainly they were, as vers. 14, 15 show, a kind of undisciplined Gnostics or false Theosophists, who, under the proud pretext of higher knowledge, gave the reins to the flesh, and perverted the gi-ace of God into Hcentiousness. Whether the name, as the Fathers thought, was derived from their founder Nicolas (him men- tioned in Acts vi. 5 !) can neither be maintained nor denied with confidence ; but it appears to us, as compared with Jezebel, ver. 20, much more probable that Nicolaus is only a translation of Balaam (ver. 14), and therefore no other than a symbolical name. But this would not permit us to say, " that sect bore in prosaic reaUty the name of Nicolaitanes" — for had "Jezebel" a name corresponding in actual fact ? Yie think that, in the everywhere mysterious, symbolical style of the Apocalj^Dse, where besides the names of the churches no other historical names occur, actual " Nicolaitanes" can hardly be assumed to have existed. Nicolaus means " conqueror of the people;" Balaam " seducer of the people :" ' — this is plain enough as the signature of such people, of whom ver. 14 will speak more particularly. We only add, for practical use and application : Hate thou only with true earnestness all abominations of the fleshly, impm'e, proud — and be thou, through such opposition, warned back into pui*e and holy love of the Spirit. Deep repentance of those who for their internal backshdings are punished goes hand in hand with the abhoiTence of the sins which show themselves in others. Thou hatest what I also hate — the Lord acknowledges, probably ^ TVe cannot see why, according to Ewald and Geseuius, another etjono- logy (the latter gives ''? not, not of the people, a stranger !) must be sought. Fiirst rightly remarks that even for the name of a place, =^'??1, the connected form =^'3 occurs in 1 Chrou. vi. 55. The exposition in Hofmann, that the T : • -*■ ' angel's wife was Jezebel, and consequently her true name sufficiently well known to him, appears to us too historical and unapocalyptical. 126 THE EPISTLE TO EPHESUS. not without reference to tliat Old Testament passage, already quoted, in which Jehoshaphat was rebuked — Shouldst thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord ? But the Lord does not hate those who hate Him ; but, as He commands us, only their Avorks. The promise to the overcomer — so suggestively the same in form throughout, yet varjdng in each case the matter — is the conclusion of all the Epistles — to give assurance that it is the purpose of grace to inflict salutary chastisement, and by its severest threatenings to encourage and strengthen the soul to overcome in the great warfare. This evangelical character of the Epistles is to be all the more clearly apprehended and im- pressed upon the mind, because the predominant judicial rigour which reigns throughout the book of Kevelation must by it be interpreted and understood. In these promises the thou every- where ceases ; and its place is taken by the " whosoever,'" so speci- fically characteristic of our Lord's earthly prophetic office. We know well the attractive words — Whosoever cometh to INIe! whosoever believeth on Me ! whosoever believeth and is bap- tized! compare Rev. xxii. 17. ^'\'lioso heareth — whosoever wiR come ! this is the consoling little word of promise, which keeps open the door of grace to every man to the end of time. But with this we must connect another ichosoever, which establishes the condition, and makes room for the promise — Whosoever hath ears to hear, let him hear ! This word — also a usual ex- pression of the Lord — occurs in the first Epistles before the con- cluding promise ; in the last four before it. He THAT HATH AN EAR, LET HIM HEAR WHAT THE SpIRIT SAITH UNTO THE CHURCHES : To HIM THAT OVERCOMETH WILL I GIVE TO EAT OF THE TREE OF LIFE, WHICH IS IN THE PARADISE OP My God. As formerly Jesus demanded for His parables hearing cars in order to understand them, so here in His figurative prophe- tical addresses. The expression is now condensed and strength- ened thereby : the ear is more solemnly and spiritually spoken of ; and " to hear" is not now added. Whosoever hath the ear of the inner man opened and attentive to the words of God — whosoever has it still open, or o])ens it again — shall in every Epistle hear something for himself; for each of them, apart from its special significance for the churches, is addressed to all KEY. II. 1-7. 127 men generally and in common. Let us not deny or forget tlie specific prophetic meaning ; but let us not, wliile investigating that, neglect their general lessons, which woidd be the greater evil. We must not point the sentence as if the prefatory ad- di'ess referred only to the follo^Ying promise^ this is opposed by the change of the form in the last Epistles. All that precedes and all that follows must be heard by each, because the Spirit saitli it to the churches. This hearing is ever the way to the attainment of the promised reward of victoiy. The Spirit saitli — ^liereby this last personal utterance of our Lord Jesus from heaven passes over into speaking through the medium of the Sphit, as it continues throughout the book; it must be understood, that here particularly the Spirit is meant as the Spii'it of prophecy. Probably, He who appeared as in ch. i. did not continue to dictate the Epistles, standing visible still as He did at the first, but uttered their words more inwardly to the seer ; notwithstanding, there is a distinction in this book between the immediate speaking or dictating and the prophetic inspira- tion elsewhere. Assm'edly, even St John would not dare, other- wise than by express inspiration of the words, to send to the churches Epistles of such a form and of such contents, clothed in such a style of supreme majesty. Thus it was only tran- sitional and intermediate between the speaking of the Lord and the speaking of the Spirit; and at the same time immediately personal in its particular kind. The Lord speaks of overcoming absolutely, wdthout saying whom or what ; just as elsewhere — Ask and it shall be given ! without needing to specify whom the petitioner is to ask. The Lord's sayings from heaven do not begin an altogether ne'w language; but presuppose the style of thought and words which had been prevalent in His Church from the beginning. The overcoming which He refers to stretches beyond death; it is perfected in death, as the common language of the world in Christendom has learned to say of the departed — He has conquered all ! If w^c would begin here at the close of Scrip- ture to develop the meaning of this sublime expression — reach- ing from the height of heaven to the deepest abyss of hell — it would open up the whole of inspired Kevelation. St John speaks elsewhere (1 John v. 4) of a faith which overcometh the world; in his Revelation (ch. xii. 11) we read of an over- 128 THE EPISTLE TO EPHESU8. coming of Satan ; comp. 1 John xi. 14. But tlie world and Satan are also within us through sin ; we overcome them, how- ever, through the might of Him who hath loved us and over- come for us: — thus the final promise in the seventh Epistle holds out to the church which had sunk the lowest the same prize of the highest victory. This first promise does not extend so far as that last; it begins with that first thing which the Lord promised to the thief on the cross, the bHss of Paradise re-opened bj His death, that is, the blessedness of an uninter- rupted life in God's presence. The expression is figurative so far as it is derived from the primitive history ; but there is a mysterious reality corresponding to it in the heavenly regions, as 2 Cor. xii. 4 gives us to understand. Who will ventm'e to say more, when St Paul could not utter the unspeakable words '? " The Paradise^ of My God" (according to the right reading) is spoken by Christ as the Forerunner and First-born according to His humanity; compare ch. iii. 2, 12. This manner of speech is — excepting John xx. 17 — pecidiar to the ApocalyjDse, in which it is remarkable (as Bengel has observed) that, while sometimes the Father of Christ is mentioned, God is never called "Father" as addressed by men; and He Himself pro- mises to be their God, ch. xxi. 3, only as the fidfihnent of the Old Testament word. This has its reason in the profound reverence and the holy rigour of the spiritual combatants to whom this book is written ; and also in the return to Old Tes- tament phraseology, which thus is made to coincide with the New. The wood or the tree' of life in Paradise glances forward by anticipation to the close of the whole, ch. xxii. 2, 14-19; as almost all the objects of the promises at the end of the Epistles reappear later in the book : the second death, ch. XX. 6, 14, xxi. 8 ; the new name, ch. xiv. 1 ; power over the nations, ch. xx. 4 (xii. 5) ; the white garment, ch. vii. 9, 13 ; the book of life, ch. xiii. 8 ; the new Jerusalem, ch. xxi. ; the sitting upon the throne, ch. v. As the manna, ver. 17, is termed hidden, so the sure interpretation of all these glorious I'ealities is reserved for experience ; but when that ex- ^ There can be no reference here admitted to the lower Paradise in Hades (which alone the thief could understand at first, whatever other meaning was included). Compare my exposition of Luke xxiii. 43. 2 As the Sept. in Genesis has ^vT^ov. EEV. II. 8--11. * 129 perience comes, they will most abundantly reveal their meaning. We have only one more remark to make, that the promise in every Epistle is chosen with appropriate reference to the con- dition and conflict of the church addi'essed : so here the Para- disaical fruit of the tree of life is opposed to the forbidden fruits of fleshly lust with which the Nicolaitanes were swollen. That in these epistles the clearest, most penetrating words of ordinary preaching and teaching are bound up with the most mysterious enigmas, smking deep mto the treasm^es of Divine revelation from the beginning, is the necessary result of the royal style which is impressed upon them as coming from the Throne. The Sphit reveals their meaning, according to our capacity and om' need, m presentiments wdiich cannot be trans- lated into plain exposition, and ai'e not the prerogative of every man. And unto the angel of the chuech in Smyena white: These things saith the Fiest and the Last, which was dead, and is alive. ^ This is the briefest among the Epistles, as that to Thyatira is the longest. So, Smyrna receives no blame, Philadelphia alone standing with her in this. To the persecuted martjnr- chm-ch, suffering unto death, it is enough to say — Be thou faithful ! For, if for their pmification after falling from the first love tribulation and shame came upon them, this of itself was punishment enough, and the Lord has nothing but conso- lation to give. Snm-na is chosen as the type of such a condi- tion of the Chm'ch : her name (iiiyrrh) speaking of the bitterness of suffering, but also of balsam and costly incense, yea, of the anointing and adorning of the bride, according to the Song of Solomon (ch. iii. 6, v. 5). Smyrna was in St John's time ail important place, though not eqiial to Epliesus; she is the only one of the seven which remains to this day, more flourish- ing and larger than in the time of the Apocal}-pse : hence there is no removal of the candlestick prefigiu'ed in her. She has fom* Christian chm'ches; since 1759 has had the labom's of evaneelical missionaries, and is now a central mission-station; as if this new blooming in the midst of the prostrate East would speak of the impeiishable cro"\vn of victorious life. ^ The y.oc] loov ^au d/at appears to us quite the same as the kuI e^mtv — in both cases there is a contrast with the actual vtKpoc. I 130 THE EPISTLE TO SMYENA. To the cliurcli tlius pointed to suffering and death the Lord exhibits himself as the Conqueror who pressed through death into hfe. The words which first accompanied the " Fear not !" to the Seer are here most fitly reproduced ; the former part of the sublime title is unchanged — The First and the Last (finally recurring in this book, ch. xxi. 6, xxii. 13) ; the second part, which speaks of dying and living, is condensed with heightened majesty into fewer words. He who in His Divinity was the First before the foundation of the world, and who as also the Last will remain the same with and after the last, will maintain the victory through His hand and jiower for His people. He who in His liumanity, assmned for all eternity, was for one short space dead, and now liveth again as the God-man, the first who lived again from death for all — He may well require fidelity unto death in order to the promised crown of life. Some would here distinguish, and say that in ch. i. 17, 18 He calls Himself the Living tji sjnfe of death, while here He liveth again after death. But this is artificial ; it scarcely harmonises with the original ; and somewhat disturbs the strong emphasis of the pregnant reality — the having been dead of the Living One ! He was dead : this retains indeed its continuous truth, as we continually celebrate it in the Sacra- ment, and is the theme of the new song to the Lamb that was slain ; but, at the same time, we cannot too confidently and too thankfully mingle with our Passion-thoughts the great truth that the Living was dead and is alive again. An effeminate and sentimental Moravian dealing with the suffering and dying Lord would have been very distasteful to the Apostles and the early Church ; the New Testament Scriptures give it neither approbation nor nourishment. I KNOW THY WORKS, AND TRIBULATION, AND POVERTY (but THOU ART RICIl) ; AND I KNOW THE BLASPHEMY OF THEM WHICH SAY THEY ARE JeWS, AND ARE NOT, BUT ARE THE SYNAGOGUE OF SaTAN. This recurring testimony / hioxo ! is so beautifully ex- pounded by Bengel that we must here at least quote his words. "We go from one hour to another, from one day and year to another, and what is once fairly past in om' doing, and omitting, and suffering, is scarcely regarded by us any more : it is like water that has flowed away. But into the omniscience REV. II. 8-11. 131 of Christ all things are taken up!" Yes, indeed, the God-man related to us as the First and the Last preserves in His thought the works which are forgotten by us, works whether of first love or of unfaithfulness; He knows beforehand om' future sufferings as well as our past, and makes concerning all things His gracious appeal to our souls. In this second Epistle there is a strengthening of the expression (which, omitted in the third, continues through the rest) — thy works, " thy," that is, being piit first with specific emphasis. The criticism of Tis- chendorf, so rigidly tied to the manuscripts, maintains that " the words" are an interpolation here and at ver. 13, in order to make all the Epistles uniform. Were this so, there would be indeed a very significant connection with the preceding words : — T, who was dead, know well by My own experience thy tribulation ! Now, as it respects ver. 13, our internal criticism cannot dispense with the knowledge of the works coming first (for the mere "where thou dwellest" is not a sufficiently emphatic object of the knowledge; nor is it a sharp enough antithesis to the But of ver. 14) ; and when we find in the uncontested text of ver. 19, "I know thy works" standing before four other words ending with "works" again, we cannot but conclude that our Lord's purpose was to express this seven times con- secutively with unchanged emphasis. But the word must be understood after the analogy of Scriptural language, and not as we might speak in an isolated manner of " works." Smyrna presented her works to the Lord in sitfferings : — that is here the pregnant meaning. If her angel might say in tribulation and poverty — " Fain would I also perform good works, but, alas, cannot," the Lord testifies on the contrary — " Thou art rich in works of patience, which are indeed the severest and the best." Poverty must here be understood of external need ; and we have record elsewhere of the poor state of the Chris- tians generally in SmjTua. Moreover, the richer among them took joyfully the spoilmg of their goods in the persecution (Heb. X. 34) — and the Lord's assurance meets them in love. But thou art rich ! For the better and enduring substance in heaven, which the poor and the plundered abeady possessed, maketh the poor rich : so we read 2 Cor. v. 10, Jas. ii. 5 ; and the Lord Himself opposes to the heaping up of treasures the being rich towards God. But, if we ask further whether 132 THE EPISTLE TO SMYENA. Smyrna was joyfully consciovis of these riclies, the answer must, we think, be in the negative ; and this gives occasion to remark, that the poverty must be meant, at the same time, of spiritual tribulation, oppression, and abasement. Those perse- cuted unto death have not been hasty — with all their faith in the midst of the fires — with the triumphant note, " But we are the heirs of the Idngdom, the elect of God!" So far Smyrna exhibits to us the opposite counterpart of Laodicea. " Thou sayest, I am rich ! and knowest not how poor thou art !" — has an evil sound. But " I know thy poverty, in which thou art rich" — is precious in the Lord's lips for them and for us. Tribulation and poverty are followed by shame; but that shame is an honom-. For the adversaries blaspheme in a two- fold manner : they scorn the Lord Himself ■ in His j^eople ; and they wickedly assume to be His true people themselves. The presuming Jews are introduced again, ch. iii. 9, in Phila- delphia, and there, more evidently than here, in the far-reach- ing meaning of the symbolical word. In the first history they were actually Jews who generally appear as the main authors of persecution (1 Thess. ii. 15, 16) ; Eusebius, when he relates the martyrdom of Polycarp and other Christians, tells us that tliey were so in Smyrna itself. That these Jews were rather Satan's children and instruments, the Lord Himself once told them, John viii, 44; here they are called the congregation or church, the synagogue of Satan — instead of the lost, and now blasphemously self-asserted, title of " the congregation of the Lord," which they had in the Old Testament (comp. Ps. xxvi. 4, xxii. 17). Not without design is the word "synagogue" chosen, in order to meet the Judaizing, still so called, of all futurity.^ But the words point still further, and are not less on that account spoken in prophetic type. It is no more than a useless contention of the expositors, whether they Avere pro- perly or not properly Jews : the former holds good of the history itself, but as a figure the latter. Christianity alone was from that time the essential fulfilment, the consummate truth 1 In the 0. T. we have ix.K'Kr,aic6 for 5^'""'^ t^~'J or wn'^ '^^p. (iu Neh. xiii. 1 S)"'n"';sn Vrip, and Ex. xii. 3 'S'''^"; '"i^) csiiecially in Chron., Ezra, Nehcmiah (as earlier in Deut. xxiii. 1-3, xxx. 1-10 ; 1 Kings viii. 14, 22). On the other hand, in such most ancient passages as Ex. xii. 3, Numb. xvi. 3, XX. 4, xxvii. 17, the N. T. avvcfyuyv). REV. II. S-11. 133 of Judaism ; the abiding perversion of which blasphemonsly still terms the Way, to which the Law and the Prophets pointed, heresy and a sect (Acts xxiv. 14). The Jew in his inner reality, in which the prophetic significance of the name Judah (Gen. xlix. 8, xxix. 35) first finds its full propriety, whose praise is not of men, but of God — the same Apostle tells us in the Epistle to the Romans who he is (ch. ii. 28, 29). Thus, so far as Smyi'na fmniishes the type of a condition and a period of the Church in which the Lord's people, in poverty and lowliness, Avithout power and authority in this world, "SAithout the help of a fleshly arm, are given up to the suffering of shame and persecution even unto death — the persecuting false church must be intended by the false Judaism, as far as regards the later period of that position and character. For the Smj'rna-period, although it is clearly stamped as a time im- mediately after the Apostolical, yet both stretches backwards into this latter, and simultaneously goes onwards into later periods. This is the only exposition which will satisfy the whole case. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer : behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried ; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and i will GIVE THEE A CROAVN OF LIFE. Smyrna, the chm'cli of the martp's, receives enough in that one word: — Fear 7iot! be faithful ! because He who utters it had overcome death as the Forerunner, and brought eternal life to fight. Even the histo- rical SmjTna shines in history with the glory of her crowned mart}TS, among whom Polycarp is pre-eminent, the pupil of St John, who was executed a.d. 167. But to regard Polycarp as himself the " angel" is an error ; for he had scarcely at this early period any prominence in the chiu'ch, and certainly could not have lield that which was afterwards called the office of Bishop. Oiu' translation — thou sJialt suffer, the devil shall cast into prison — is still stronger in the original : It is appointed, it must be so. That wliich the Divine comisel, here announced before- hand, will -vrisely permit, is not to be feared, for it Avill issue not in destruction but in victory : therefore the first strong Avords — Fear none of those things ! It is indeed the devil, the wicked enemy and persecutor in his instruments, who opposes the 134 THE EPISTLE TO SMYRNA. people of God ; but there is akeady a consolation in this, that they have him for an enemy who assaulted their Lord and Forerunner, who was judged by Him on behalf of His people, and who can move no fm-ther than is permitted to him. Satan and Devil, the two names of the evil one, according to his spirit and his act: "Satan" signifies enemy and opposer in principle, according to the Jewish phrase, and hence it is used first with reference to the Jews ; " devil," in Greek phrase, in- dicates his hlasphemy, persecution, accusation, and stands here in connection with the work which he wrought by the Gentiles at the instigation of the Jews. He will not cast all together into J) risen, but many y?'om among you: — We have ah'eady ob- served how this shows that the angel of the church was not alone addressed by the epistle ; and further remark here, that, on the other hand, a continuous address to the church, as such, would not have been in harmony with the heart-penetrating style of these Epistles, and consequently that every church was with profound propriety viewed as exhibited in one person. Fui'ther, the suffering and the test affect the whole chm-ch, if some of her members are imprisoned and slain. That ye may be tried, tested, and approved : this is less the devil's design, that they may be ashamed in the test (Luke xxii. 31)— than the design of God's permission and appointment, who will crown those who are approved (1 Pet. iv. 12).^ To the previous tribu- lation, already mentioned in ver. 9, there is to be added a tribulation of imprisonment; but this will have its short and nieasiu-ed period, and its happy issue. Ten days — this we must not in the ordinaiy manner take as a round number for a brief space ; all these well-adjusted words have something below the surface. Whether any portion of the church in Smyrna suf- fered ten actual days of imprisonment, can neither be proved nor contradicted; but a ten days' tribulation seems to us too slight for the express prediction, accompanied by the earnest preface — Fear none of these things ! To endm'e ten days', and more than ten days', imprisonment, was at that time a veiy fre- quent calamity of the Christians. Thus we are constrained, in this strildngly significant term for Smyrna, as often afterwards in this book of prophecy, to observe a prophetic meaning under- lying the number. And it is obvious enough to think of the ^ Thus tlie 'ivcc Trtipuadiire gives the ground of the fiih^ns and /:<,i>.Xn. REV. II. 8-11. 135 ten great persecutions which have been reckoned, from the earliest time downwards, as taking place between Nero and Dioclesian, whose most severe persecution, again, lasted ten years; — and this would give us incidental evidence that the book was written under Nero. Yet, whatever may be the fact with regard to these uncertain historical circumstances, the gene- ral meaning of this word will assm*e us that all times of tribu- lation are measured before the Lord, and that they will be cut short for salvation (Matt. xxiv. 22). AYhether this deliverance from imprisonment, from the tri- bulation of the ten days, should issue in life or death, was not to be matter of anxiety to them ; then' duty was to fear nothing and be faithful ! " In the words, Be faithful unto death and I will give thee the cro.wn of life ! there is so gracious and sparing a fore-announcement of death, that death is not seen ; being in the one clause covered by the fidelity, and in the other by the cro^vn" (Eieger). It may indeed be said that death is included in this " unto ;" but in death itself fidelity is no more wanted, and such a death demonstrates itself to be death no more. Thus it is unto, altogether as in Matt. xxiv. 13, x. 22, unto the end. Sm\T:na receives the announcement of the coming of the Lord, wiiich is wanting in none of the Epistles, only in this gracious form with reference to every individual, to every one of whom in death the Lord comes with the crowoi of life (compare to Thyatu'a, ver 25, " until I come," connected with the threatening of ver. 23, " I will give to every one of you according to your works") ; Laodicea, on the contrary, receives it in the strongest and sharpest form of the expression — "I will spue thee out!" which is then again softened by the gentler in- vitation— "I stand at the door and knock !" Fm-ther, it is only for Sm}T:na, the church which is to be greatly comforted, that the promise to the overcomer begins at once "svith the universal anti- cipating crown} This is, indeed, in a specific sense the victor- cro\^^l of the witnesses unto blood, of which the very name of the first martyr of Christ (Stephanus means wreath or crown) was, as it were, a prophecy; but this expression, well-known among the Christian congregations (1 Cor. ix. 25, pointing to the figure before; 1 Pet. v. 4, the unfading crown of glory; ^ It is something different when the white garments are appropriated to oniy a lew, in the Epistle to Sardis, oh. iii. 4.. 136 THE EPISTLES TO SMYRNA. James i. 12, as here, the crown of life), embraces, at the same time, generally, the reward of all approved conquerors, as St Paid speaks in 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8 with due humility of this croA\Ti of rigJdcoiisness : the righteous Judge will give it not to me alone, but to all who love His appearing. A crown of life He gives immediately after death to those Avho die saved, to those who are confirmed in victory ; but only as the pledge of that crown of honour or glojy in consummate eternal life which He will give in the day of His appearing, according to both St Peter and St Paul. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches : he that overcometh shall NOT BE HURT OF THE SECOND DEATH. What "ear" instead of " ears " means we have already shown ; but take occasion now to oppose Bengel's erroneous notion : " What is said loudly is heard with both ears ; what is spoken into the ear is secret." This is to us unsatisfactory ; for, notwithstanding the mysteries which are intermixed, the Spirit cries aloud in these Epistles to the churches with the clearest, most awakening, and heart-searching words ; words which have been popularly applied, and universally preached about, in every age of the Church. To " have an ear^ for what the Spirit saith is rather an intensification than a weakening of the saving ; since it re- quires the same spiritual " hearing" for the understanding and acceptance of these exhortations, threatenings, and promises, Avhich those parables of our Lord required, for which the Lord demanded hearing ears. The concluding promise for SmjTna not only is, like the whole letter, of the shortest, but its lowered and negative form seems scarcely in harmony with the gracious, unmingled com- mendation. When, however, we look at it more carefully, the negation will be seen to be most positive and full, like the sublime words before the resurrection of Lazarus — He that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die ! Assuredly, for this martyr-church this was the undertone of the words — Though the Ji7'st death may have hurt him, yet he that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second. But must we not all die, must we not all press into life by overcoming death ? This, therefore, is no especial bitterness for Smyi'na ; the Lord rather means the same comfortino; and stimulatine; word which He once EEV. II. S-11. 137 spoke upon earth : Fear not them wlio can kill the body, and afterwards have no more that they can do ! Lulce xii. 4. That is, if in ver. 5 of that chapter the essential enemy who is be- hind men — that is, Satan himself — is meant, who hath power and authority to cast into his own hell, that worse imprison- ment, and therefore was to be feared ; so here for the strong encom'agement of those who are faithful and overcome it is intimated — This Satan shall have nothing more that he can do against you ! The second death is a name of eternal damna- tion which occurs among the Chaldee translators and the Rabbins;^ but throughout the Scripture only in the Apoca- lypse. But it so clearly shuts out any such, prospect of a future restoration, as has been found in this " hard mystery," that we are constrained to leave it in all its horror, and dare not seek for any light beyond it. This glance forward to the terrific end of the second death is the antithesis of the paradise of the promise to Ephesus ; but it is opened only for the gracious ex- citement and invigoration of those to whom it is said — To them that overcometh no harm shall happen from him; he shall have no more that he can do!^ Wliether here already for the martyrs the first resurrection is indicated, as it comes forward prominently in ch. xx. 6, we much doubt, since there, as here, pre-eminence cannot be intimated in that which will hold good of all the saved — The second death (vers. 14, 15 in ch. XX.) hath no power over them. But this has more signi- ficance, when we compare the other, final passage, ch. xxi. 8, where, in contrast with this fidelity and its reward, the fearful^ that is, those who hold not out in the conflict, are threatened with the second death. A:n^d to the angel of the Church in Pergajios WRITE : these things saith He which hath the sharp SWORD with two EDGES. Of this then-existing church we know nothing in particular, and are therefore commended to a consideration of the cha- racter assigned to it, and of its prophetic significance. Perga- 1 Deut. xxxiii. 6. Let not Reuben die ; Chald. ni'J^-s'^ sr:ri-»n'n'3i_ Rasclii : n:^- sV-vV ni":^ "'jsi. Similarly, Isa. xxii. 14, the Chaldee brings in the same i!:":r Nn-'^ — and RascH says upon it Nan -S-w. Kimchi cites stiU more plainly san aVrsa losj t