Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

officers who attended him, to bring them without violence, lest it should excite a tumult among the people, who were still somewhat inclinable to favour the Christian cause . Being produced before the council, they were questioned by the high-priest, how they dared to disobey the commandments they had received from the rulers, and fill Jerusalem with their doctrine, so as to bring upon them the odium of crucifying an innocent person, and expose them to the danger of being stoned or torn in pieces by the populace. The apostles, in their answer, which appears to have been chiefly delivered by Peter, alleged what they had before declared, that they ought to obey God rather than men that God had himself cast upon them the odium of the death of Jesus, by having raised him from the sepulchre, and exalted him with the right hand of his power, that he may be a prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and the remission of sins. Of these truths, they declared themselves the witnesses; and appealed to the testimony of that eternal Spirit, who only could have enabled them to perform such wonderful works. This noble defence so much enraged the high-priest and his Sadduccan company, that, forgetting all bounds of decency, they guashed upon the apostles with their teeth, and determined, upon some pretext or other, immediately to take away their lives. Then arose Gamaliel, a celebrated doctor of the law, and commanded the apostles to be put forth for a little time. When, directing himself to his brethren and the other members of the court, he said, Ye men of Israel, whom God has raised up as the guardians of his people, I think it my duty, on this important occasion, seriously to advise you to take heed to yourselves as to what you are about to do to these men. If they are mere pretenders, you need be in no great anxiety; for they will soon bring upon themselves the sword of the Romans, as was the case with Theudas, and with Judas of Galilee. Refrain, therefore, from these men, and leave them to themselves; for if this undertaking be of men, it will come to nought; but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; and to attempt it is dangerous, lest, peradventure, you should be found fighters against the power and providence of the Almighty.

Here it is proper to make three historical observations. 1. This Gamaliel is much celebrated among the Jews, who assert that the honour of the law failed with him : and that Onkelos, the author of the Targum, burnt seventy pounds weight of perfumes at his funeral. He is said to have been the author of the prayers against the Christians which are used in the synagogues, but is better known as the preceptor of the apostle Paul. 2. The Theudas who is here mentioned is not the same as he whose history is recorded by Josephus, since that impostor did not make his appearance till, at least, ten years afterward. He was, probably, one of the rebellious leaders who arose about the time of the taxing, or, perhaps he might make his appearance a little earlier. That two impostors of the same name should arise, is not wonderful, since Theudas, or Judas, was a very common name among the Jews. 3. The history of Judas the Galilean is better known. It is recorded by Josephus, and will he noticed by us. in that chapter which contains a relation of the destruction of Jerusalem.

The speech of Gamaliel so far moderated the assembly, that when they had called in the apostles, and ordered them to be scourged in their presence, they charged them not to preach any more in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Thus dismissed, they departed, rejoicing in the persecution which they had been called to suffer. They immediately resumed their work of teaching in the temple, which they continued whenever it was opened for purposes of worship; and going at other times from house to house, ceased not to instruct their brethren in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Such are the imperfections which attend us in this state of existence, that it is not

in the power of the wisest and best of men long to preserve an uninterrupted tranquillity in societies over which they may preside, especially if the members be numerous, and educated in different habits. The number of the disciples being multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows hal been neglected in the daily ministration. That these Grecians, as Dr. Campbelt observes, were Jews, is evident from the history; for this happened before Peter was specially called to preach the gospel to Cornelius and his family, who were the first fruits of the Gentiles to Christ. Besides, though the word Grecian, made use of in our translation, is synonymous with Greek, yet the term employed in the original is never applied in the New Testament to Pagan Greeks, but solely to those Jews who had resided always or mostly in Grecian cities, and, consequently, whose tongue was Greek. Great numbers of these lived in Egypt, where they made that translation of the Old Testament which is commonly called the Septuagint, or that of the seventy. They are said to have read the Greek bible in their synagogues, and to have used the Greek language in sacred things; and thus they were opposed to the Hebrew Jews, who performed their public worship in the Hebrew tongue; and in this sense Paul speaks of himself as a Hebrew of the Hebrews. [Phil. iii. 5.] i. e. a Hebrew both by nation and language. The complaint of these Grecians appears to have been just, and was, as such, acknowledged by the apostles themselves. How then, it may be asked, could those holy men, on whom the Spirit of God so abundantly rested, be guilty of either fraud or neglect? To this, we reply, that there is no reason to suppose that either of these accusations could be fixed upon them; but as so few must be insufficient for the care of such a vast number of disciples, they were obliged to trust to the management of other men, and from their neglect the evil complained of originated. This might easily have been prevented, had they been enabled to discern the spirits of their brethren; but it was wisely permitted of God, that thus a temporary inconvenience might be the occasion of a lasting blessing to the churches of Christ.

The twelve apostles, under the direction of God, called together, in one general assembly, the multitude of the disciples, and intimated to them, that it was by no means proper that they, who were appointed to the apostolic office, should forsake the ministry of the word, which required their utmost diligence, to attend to the tables of the poor, and see that they were duly supplied with provisions. They therefore requested that seven men of honest report, whose characters were well attested among them, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, might be put over this business, that so the apostles might, with less interruption, devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word. The multitude, therefore, chose seven men, who, by their names, appear to have belonged to the Grecians, and who could not, therefore, be justly suspected of neglecting their widows; and, having presented them before the a postles, they were by them set apart for their office, by prayer and the laying on of hands. The names of these seven deacons were these: Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch. The wisdom of this measure appeared; for the word of God grew, and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem was greatly multiplied; a great multitude of priests became obedient to the faith, notwithstanding all those prejudices which they had imbibed against this new doctrine, from the scorn with which the great and the noble generally treated it, and the loss of those temporal advantages which they might be called to resign out of a regard to it.

Stephen, one of the newly elected deacons, being full of the Holy Ghost and power, Wrought many miracles among the people. His increasing usefulness attracted the

[graphic][subsumed]
[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][merged small]

apposition of the persecuting Jews. There, therefore, arose some of the synagogue of the Libertines, (probably, the children of Roman freed-men,) and Cyrenians, und Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen. These, finding themselves unable to resist the force of his arguments, determined to call in the aid of the council. For this purpose, they suborned men, who should falsely accuse him of having spoken blasphemous words against Moses and against God, saying that Jesus of Nazareth should destroy the temple, and change the usages of the Jewish nation. Being called upon by the high-priest to reply to this charge, he, in a long and able speech, proved the perverseness of the Jewish nation; and, at length, shewed that the present generation inherited the same spirit as their fathers, and manifested it by the betraying and murdering the Messiah of God. They now became so extremely irritated, that they gnashed upon him with their teeth, as if they had been wild beasts ready to devour him. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, was comforted by a miraculous vision; for, looking up into heaven, he saw the glory of God, and Christ standing on his right hand. Announcing this discovery to his persecutors, their enmity was roused to its utmost pitch; so that, crying with a loud voice, that they might drown that of Stephen, and stopping their ears, lest they should hear what they deemed such abominable blasphemy, they ran upon him with one consent, dragged him out of the city, and, in a tumultuous manner, stoned him to death. During this furious assault, his mind was admirably supported, committing his soul into the hands of Jesus, and praying, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. Such was the death of Stephen, the first martyr, Christ only excepted, under the new dispensation.

However rapidly the cause of God had spread, no attempts, that we read of, had been hitherto made to convey the glad tidings of the gospel beyond the bounds of Jerusalem but God now saw it proper to make the enemies of his church the means of diffusing the influence of religion more extensively in the earth. The persecution continuing to rage after the death of Stephen, and a great number of the Christiaus being committed to prison, almost all the men of eminence among them, except the apostles, sought their safety agreeably to the command of our Saviour when they were persecuted in one city to flee to another. They were not, however, upon this account, idle in their Master's cause, but went every where preaching the word, and, in many instances, with considerable success.

Among the rest, Philip, who was newly elected deacon, and who appears, also, to have sustained the office of an evangelist, went down to a city of Samaria, probably, the same where Christ had the conversation with the woman; and, knowing that all the distinction between the people of that country and the Jews was now removed, freely preached Christ unto them, and proclaimed him as the promised Messiah. And the people who inhabited that city, notwithstanding their natural prejudices against the Jews, unanimously attended to the things which were spoken by Philip, rejoicing both at the doctrine which he preached, and the benevolent miracles which he wrought for its confirmation. There resided in this city a remarkable man, whose name has been delivered down in the annals of infamy, Simon, the sorcerer, a pretended philosopher or prophet, who, by means of certain juggling tricks, found means to persuade the ignorant that he was miraculously favoured with an extraordinary power. When, however, Philip came, the difference between his real miracles and the delusions of Simon was so great, that great numbers of the Samaritans were baptized, and Simon himself embraced the profession of the Christian faith. His insincerity or ignorance was, however, soon detected. When the apostles, who were preserved through the peculiar providence of God amidst the violent persecution which continued to rage

« AnteriorContinuar »