by having a constant intercourse with these sacred records that they can keep their faith alive and active, and render the invaluable principles of the gospel familiar to their minds.

26. BRETHREN, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word, "the doctrine," of this salvation sent.

Paul, continuing his discourse to the Jews in the synagogue at Antioch, tells them, that although they lived not in Judæa, yet, being descended from Abraham, the father of the Jewish race, or joined to that people by proselytism, this doctrine is addressed to them, and is interesting to them both; for it promises deliverance to all who embrace it; deliverance from the evils and judgments to which they are liable who no longer enjoy the divine favour.

27. For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath-day, have fulfilled them in condemning him.

28. And though they found no cause of death in him, i. e. "no just cause," yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain.

Their ignorance furnished the Jewish people and rulers with no excuse for their conduct, since it proceeded from evil passions, which blinded the understanding, and prevented them from discerning the truth.

29. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre :

30. But God raised him from the dead;

31. And he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people.

Nothing could be better and more unexceptionable testimony than that which is here mentioned, the evidence of men who had been long acquainted with him in Galilee, where he spent the greatest part of his ministry, and who saw him several times after his resurrection.

32. And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers,

33. God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again, as it

is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.

This second psalm the apostle uses as referring wholly to the Messiah, and this verse in particular, as foretelling his resurrection from the dead. The same passage is applied in the same manner by the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, i. 7, "For to which of the angels, says he," i. e. to which of the divine messengers said he, "at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." This coincidence of sentiment may be regarded as a presumption that that epistle was written by the apostle Paul. interpreters consider the words, "I have begotten thee," as referring, not to a resurrection to life, but to being raised to kingly power; it being not unusual to speak of the days of accession of kings to their thrones as their birth-days.*

Some

34. And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David.

This is a quotation from Isaiah lv. 3, where the prophet declares to the children of Israel, in the name of God, "I will make with you an everlasting covenant, even the sure mercies of David ;" in which words is a reference to a covenant made with David, and often renewed, that some of his seed should sit upon his throne for ever. The sure mercies of David, then, are the mercies promised to David, which are sure; and the apostle's argument to prove that Christ rose from the dead is this, that this covenant must have been broken, if he had remained in the grave.

35. Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not, "thou wilt not," suffer thy Holy One to see corruption;

66

36. For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, after he had performed the will of God during his own life," fell asleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption:

37. But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption.

The apostle reasons that David could not be the person referred to in the passage quoted, because he died and was turned into dust; and that there was no one in whom the words could be fulfilled, but Jesus, who lay only three days in the grave, and who could not, therefore, experience corruption. It is observable, that Paul, in this passage, speaks of death as a sleep not of the body, as distinct from the mind, but of the whole man, and that he repre

sents the whole person as experiencing corruption; his language, therefore, strongly favours the opinion of those who suppose that all consciousness is suspended at death.

38. Be it known unto you, therefore, brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:

In the language of the writers of the New Testament and particularly of Paul, all mankind, whatever the moral character of individuals might be, were at this time sinners, i. e. no longer enjoyed the benefits of that covenant of favour and privilege by which the Jews were once distinguished. This they call an impure and unholy state, or a state of sin; and it is the great object of this apostle, in his epistle to the Romans, to prove that the Jews were reduced to this state, but that by embracing the gospel which was preached to them in the name of Christ, they were brought out of this state, or, speaking agreeably to the same language, that their sins were forgiven them. This is that forgiveness of sins to which he here refers.

39. And by him all that believe are justified, "cleared," from all things from which ye could not be cleared by the law of Moses.

The law of Moses having been violated in its essential points by the Jewish nation, no longer secured to them the divine favour, but left them exposed to all the evils to which they are liable who are cast out of God's covenant: but by faith in Christ, to which he exhorts them, they would be received to the state of privilege which they had lost by their sins, and saved from the calamities which were hanging over the heads of the unbelieving Jews.

40.

Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets :

Beware, lest you merit the reproachful language of one of the prophets to your fathers, which, though used on a different occasion, may be addressed to you in this case.

41.

Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish, "hide yourselves," i. e. from shame and confusion; for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.

To refuse to believe a plain fact, supported by the clearest evidence, is an act of great folly, of which every reasonable man ought to be ashamed. Of this folly would they be guilty, who rejected the divine mission of Christ; of such unwise conduct, therefore, he warns them to beware.

REFLECTIONS.

FROM the apostle's address to these Jews at Antioch, we see what abundant evidence there is of the divine mission and prophetical character of Jesus. Such a character corresponds with the peculiar circumstances of the Jewish peeple, who had been selected by God from the rest of mankind, to enjoy peculiar religious privileges. If a great prophet, therefore, is to be sent into the world, among whom can he so properly appear as among the Jews; the only people, who, for many ages, had been favoured with miraculous communications? Such an event corresponds, also, with other remarkable facts in their history, from which it appears, that God often interposed in an extraordinary manner for their benefit, by delivering them from Egypt, by nourishing them in the wilderness, by settling them in Canaan, and giving them judges and kings. One additional favour, after so many already bestowed, appears by no means improbable. The appearance of such a person had been foretold by other prophets, both of earlier and later date; by John the Baptist, who announced his immediate approach, and by Isaiah, who mentioned the family of which he should be born, even the seed of David.

The extraordinary personage thus announced, although opposed by the great body of the Jewish rulers and people, and cruelly put to death, could not be convicted of any crime; nay, his pretensions are completely justified by God's raising him from the dead. Of this event, those were the witnesses who are best qualified to furnish satisfactory testimony, his intimate friends and companions. These were sufficient to establish the truth of the fact, independently of any other evidence; but their testimony is also corroborated by several predictions which foretold such an event.

To these united arguments, who can refuse to yield assent, that is not deaf to the voice of reason, and the language of truth? To every candid and unprejudiced mind, which will judge of the truth of Christianity as of any other historical fact, they must, I conceive, carry irresistible conviction.

42. AND as they, i. e. the apostles, went out of the synagogue, they besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath.

The words, "the Jews and the Gentiles," which occur in this verse in our version, are omitted in some of the best manuscripts and versions, and probably with good reason; for they seem rather to embarrass than to aid the sense. *

43. Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed

* See Griesbach, who omits them.

Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God, i. e. exhorted them to continue in the profession of the gospel.

44. And the next sabbath-day came almost the whole city together, to hear the word of God.

45. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.

They contradicted Paul in asserting the divine mission of his Master, and spoke of him in injurious and reproachful language, which is the proper signification of blaspheming; calling him a deceiver and impostor.

To this conduct, the Jews were instigated by envy. What awakened their jealousy, was to hear the same terms offered by the apostle to the Gentiles, as to themselves, and to see them treated with the same respect. To those who had been taught to regard themselves as the peculiar people of God, and to look upon the Gentiles with contempt, this could not fail to be highly grating. A system which thus counteracted their favourite prejudices could not be of divine origin, and was, therefore, rejected by them.

46. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, "using great freedom of speech, said," It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you; but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.

When the apostles were commissioned to preach the gospel to the world, they were directed to begin at Jerusalem, i. e. to offer it first to the Jews; for the language of Christ to them was, that repentance and remission of sins were to be preached in his name amongst all nations, beginning at Jerusalem, Luke xxiv. 47. This preference given to the Jews, they considered as a direction for their conduct in other instances; and accordingly, wherever they came addressed themselves first to that people, and only to the Gentiles when they found their first overtures rejected. When Paul and Barnabas declare in this passage, that they would turn from one to the other, they do not mean that they would never offer the gospel to the Jews again; but only that, in the present instance, they would endeavour to make no more proselytes among the Jews at Antioch, seeing they had shown themselves unteachable and obstinate, but preach, thenceforwards, to the Gentiles of that place, who had shown a better disposition to receive their message.

47. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that