Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 6.djvu/146

140 persecutors! Can they forget the tenderness and compassion of their sex? What! honourable women! Can they thus stain their honour, and disgrace themselves, and do so mean a thing? But, which is strangest of all, devout women! Will they kill Christ's servants, and think therein they do God service? Let those therefore that have zeal, see that it be according to knowledge. By these devout and honourable women they stirred up likewise the chief men of the city, the magistrates and the rulers, who had power in their hands, and set them against the apostles, and who had so little consideration as to suffer themselves to be made the tools of this ill-natured party, who neither would go into the kingdom of heaven themselves, nor suffer those that were entering, to go in.

(2.) How far they carried it; so far, that they expelled them out of their coasts; they banished them, ordered them to be carried, as we say, from constable to constable, till they were forced out of their jurisdiction; so that it was not by fear, but downright violence, that they were driven out. This was one method which the overruling providence of God took, to keep the first planters of the church from staying too long at a place; as, Matt. 10. 23. When they persecute you in one city, flee to another, that thus you may the sooner go over the cities of Israel. This was likewise a method God took, to make those that were well disposed the more warmly affected toward the apostles; for it is natural to us to pity those that are persecuted, and to think the better of those that suffer, when we know they suffer unjustly, and to be the more ready to help them. The expelling of the apostles out of their coasts made people inquisitive what evil they had done, and, perhaps, raised them more friends than conniving at them in their coasts would have done.

2. How the apostles abandoned and rejected the unbelieving Jews; (v. 51.) They shook off the dust of their feet against them. When they went out of the city, they used this ceremony in the sight of them that sat in the gate; or when they went out of the borders of their country, in the sight of them that were sent to see the country rid of them. Hereby, (1.) They declared that they would have no more to do with them, would take nothing that was their's; for they sought not their's, but them; dust they are, and let them keep their dust to themselves, it shall not cleave to them. (2. ) They expressed their detestation of their infidelity, and that, though they were Jews by birth, yet, having rejected the gospel of Christ, they were in their eyes no better than heathen and profane. As Jews and Gentiles, if they believe, are equally acceptable to God and good men; so, if they do not, they are equally abominable. (3.) Thus they set them at defiance, and expressed their contempt of them and their malice, which they looked upon as impotent. It was as much as to say, "Do your worst, we do not fear you; we know whom we serve, and whom we have trusted." (4.) Thus they left a testimony behind them, that they had had a fair offer made them of the grace of the gospel, which shall be proved against them in the day of judgment. This dust will prove that the preachers of the gospel had been among them, but were expelled by them. Thus Christ had ordered them to do, and for this reason, Matt. 10. 14. Luke 9. 5. When they left them, they came to Iconium, not so much for safety, as for work.

3. What frame they left the new converts in at Antioch; (v. 52.) The disciples, when they saw with what courage and cheerfulness Paul and Barnabas not only bore the indignities that were done them, but went on with their work notwithstanding, they were in like manner spirited. (1.) They were very cheerful; one would have expected that when Paid and Barnabas were expelled out of their coasts, and perhaps forbidden to return upon pain of death, the disciples should have been full of grief and full of fear, looking for no other than that, if the planters of Christianity go, the plantation would soon come to nothing; or that it would be their turn next to be banished the country, and to them it would be more grievous, for it was their own; no, they were filled with joy in Christ, had such a satisfactory assurance of Christ's carrying on and perfecting his own work in them, and among them, and that either he would screen them from trouble, or bear them up under it, that all their fears were swallowed up in their believing joys. (2.) They were very courageous; wonderfully animated with a holy resolution to cleave to Christ, whatever difficulties they met with; that seems especially to be meant by their being filled with the Holy Ghost; for that is used of Peter's boldness, (ch. 4. 8.) and Stephen's, (ch. 7. 55.) and Paul's, ch. 13. 9. The more we relish the comforts and encouragements we meet with in the power of godliness, and the fuller our hearts are of them, the better prepared we are to face the difficulties we meet with in the profession of godliness.

CHAP. XIV. We have, in this chapter, a further account of the progress of the gospel, by the ministry of Paul and Barnabas among the Gentiles; it goes on conquering and to conquer; yet meeting with opposition, as before, among the unbelieving Jews. Here is, I. Their successful preaching of the gospel for some time at Iconium, and their being driven thence by the violence of their persecutors, both Jews and Gentiles, and forced into the neighbouring countries, v. 1..7. II. Their healing of a lame man at Lystra, and the profound veneration which the people conceived of them thereupon, which they had much ado to keep from running into ah extreme, v. 8..18. III. The outrage of the people against Paul, at the instigation of the Jews, the effect of which was, that they stoned him, as they thought, to death; but he was wonderfully restored to life again, v. 19, 20. IV. The visit which Paul and Barnabas made to the churches which they had planted, to confirm them, and put them into order, v. 21..23. V. Their return to Antioch, whence they were sent forth; the good they did by the way, and the report they made to the church of Antioch of their expedition, and, if I may so say, of the campaign they had made, v. 24..28.

ND it came to pass in Iconium, that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed. 2. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil affected against the brethren. 3. Long time therefore abode they, speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and, wonders to be done by their hands. 4. But the multitude of the city was divided; and part held with the Jews, and part with the apostles. 5. And when there was an assault made both of the Gentiles, and also of the Jews, with their rulers, to use them despitefully, and to stone them, 6. They were ware of it, and fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto the region that lieth round about: 7. And there they preached the gospel.

In these verses, we have,

I. The preaching of the gospel in Iconium, whither the apostles were forced to retire from Antioch. As "the blood of the martyrs has been the seed of the